68 A C A A C A ACACIA, a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the natural family Leguminosae and the section Mimoseas. The flowers are small, arranged in rounded or elongated clusters. The leaves are compound pinnate in general In some instances, how ever, more especially in the Australian species, the leaf-stalks become flattened, and serve the purpose of leaves; the plants are hence call ed leafless Acacias, and as the leaf-stalks are often placed with their edges towards the sky and earth, they do not intercept light so fully as ordinary trees. There are about 420 species of Acacias widely scattered over the warmer regions of the globa They abound in Australia and Africa. Various species, such as Acacia vera, arabica, Ehrenbergii, and tortilis, yield gum arabic ; while Acacia Verek, Seyal, and Adansonii furnish a similar gum, called gum Senegal. These species are for the most part natives of Arabia, the north eastern part of Africa, and the East Indies. The wattles Leaf of Acacia hetcrophylla. of Aiistralia are species of Acacia with astringent barks. Acacia dealbata is used for tanning. An astringent medicine, called catechu or cutch, is procured from several species, but more especially from Acacia Catechu, by boiling down the wood and evaporating the solution so as to get an extract. The bark of Acacia arabica, under the name of Babul or Babool, is used in Scincle for tanning. Acacia formosa supplies the valuable Cuba timber called sabicu. Acacia Seyal is the plant which is siippused to be the shittah tree of the Bible, which supplied shittim-wood. The pods of Acacia nilotica, under the name of neb-neb, are used by tanners. The seeds of Acacia Niopo are roasted and used as snuff in South America. The seeds of all the varieties of Acacia in South Australia to the west, called Nundo, are used as food after being roasted. Acacia melanoxylon, black wood of Australia, sometimes called light wood, attains a great size ; its wood is used for furniture, and receives a high polish. Acacia liomaloplnjlla, jnyall wood, yields a fragrant timber, used for ornamental purposes. A kind of Acacia is called in Australia Bricklow. In common language the term Acacia is often applied to species of the genus Robinia, which belongs also to the Leguminous family, but is placed in a different section. Robinia Pseudo-acacia, or false Acacia, is cultivated in the milder parts of Britain, and forms a large tree, with beautifu] pink pea-like blossoms. The tree is sometimes called the Locust tree. A CADEMY, uKa8?;/xta, 1 a suburb of Athens to the north, XJL forming part of the Ceramicus, about a mile beyond the gate named Dypilum. It was said to have belonged to the hero Academus, but the derivation of the word is unknown. It was surrounded with a Avail by Hipparchus, and adorned with walks, groves, and fountains by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, who at his death bequeathed it as a public pleasure-ground to his fellow-citizens. The Academy was the resort of Plato, who possessed a small estate in the neighbourhood. Here he taught for nearly fifty years, till his death in 348 B.C.; and from these "groves of the Academy where Plato taught the truth," 2 his school, as distinguished from the Peripatetics, received the name of the Academics. The same name (Academia) was in after times given by Cicero to his villa or country-house near Puteoli. There was composed his famous dialogue, The Academic Ques tions. Of the academic school of philosophy, in so far as it diverged from the doctrines of its great master (see PLATO), we must treat veiy briefly, referring the reader for parti culars to the founders of the various schools, whose names we shall have occasion to mention. The Academy lasted from the days of Plato to those of Cicero. As to the number of successive schools, the critics are not agreed. Cicero himself and Varro recognised only two, the old and the new; Sextus Empiricus adds a third, the middle; others a fourth, that of Philo and Charmidas; and some even a fifth, the Academy of Antiochus. Of the old Academy, the principal leaders were Speusip pus, Plato s sister s son, and his immediate successor; Xenocrates of Chalcedon,who with Speusippus accompanied Plato in his journey to Sicily; Polemo, a dissolute young 1 The bye-form iS l u,/a, which occurs in Diogenes Laertius, is pro bably a rationalistic attempt to interpret the word, such as we com monly meet with in the writings of Plato.
- Horace, Ep. ii. 2, 45.
Athenian, who came to laugh at Xenocrates, and remained to listen (Horace, Sat., ii. 3, 253); Crates, and Grantor, the latter of whom wrote a treatise, Trept irtvOovs, praised by Cicero. Speusippus, like the Pythagoreans, with whom Aristotle compares him, denied that the Platonic Good could be the first principle of things, for (he said) the Good is not like the germ which gives birth to plants and animals, but is only to be found in already existing things. He therefore derived the universe from a primeval indeter minate unit, distinct from the Good; from this unit he deduced three principles one for numbers, one for magni tude, and one for the soul. The Deity he conceived as that living force which rules all and resides everywhere. Xenocrates, though like Speusippus infected with Pytha- goreanism, was the most faithful of Plato s successors. He distinguished three essences : the sensible, the intelligible, and a third, compounded of the other two. The sphere of the first is all below the heavens, of the second all beyond the heavens, of the third heaven itself. To each of these three spheres one of our faculties corresponds. To the sen sible, sense; to the intelligible, intellect or reason; to the mixed sphere, opinion (Sofa). So far he closely follows the psychology and cosmogeny of his master; but Cicero notes as the characteristic of both Speusippus and Xeno crates, the abandonment of the Socratic principle of hesitancy. Of the remaining three, the same writer (who is our prin cipal authority for the history of the Academic school) tells us that they preserved the Platonic doctrine, but emphasised the moral part. On the old Academy he pronounces the following eulogium (De Fin. v. 3) ; " Their writings and method contain all liberal learning, all history, all polite discourse ; and besides, they embrace such a variety of arts, that no one can undertake any noble career without their aid In a word, the Academy is, as it were, the workshop of every artist." Modern criticism has not en
dorsed this high estimate. They preserved, it is true, and
