Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/229

A P S A P U 215 claims to be the mere deduction from a conception, is secretly and perhaps unconsciously supplemented by more efficient elements of proof. It is this circumstance, that imperfect knowledge is taken as the ground for further conclusions, which has brought a priori reasoning into dis credit. Apart from these defects, however, this style of argumentation merely expresses the natural and blameless tendency of the mind to make every acquired truth a sort of lever and fulcrum from which to move the yet undis covered and untried ; and error is introduced only where there is a failure to correct this tendency by constant recurrence to the processes of verification. The a priori argument is based upon what was originally given through experience ; but before this experiential truth becomes a priori, it must lose its first and empirical character, and be invested with the attributes of universality and necessity. In this sense, which since the time of Kant has been com monly given to the word, the a priori is the opposite of the empirical and contingent. Any truth which is rela tively universal and necessary may in its own sphere form the basis of an a priori argument ; and if there be anything which is absolutely universal and necessary throughout the whole range of knowledge, it will be in a supreme sense a, priori. Such, according to Kant, is the self-contained and original faculty of mind, the forms and powers of the intellect and senses, as contradistinguished from the mate rials presented by the senses and elaborated by the under standing. To ascertain the special constitution of this a priori region, thus marked out by the criteria of universality and necessity, to determine the features of thought when it is independent of and prior to all experience, was the theme of the Critique of the Pure Reason. The general or universal form and faculty of knowledge, thought in its native purity, constitutes the a priori element : whilst the particularising data of experience, drifting in from the unknowable thing-in-itself, make up the region of the a posteriori. An example of an a priori science, according to Kant, in this sense of the term, as not dependent upon experience, is seen in pure mathematics ; and there may also, according to him, be a pure or a priori philosophy of nature ; but there can be no pure or a priori doctrine of the ultimate ideas which regulate experience, that is, metaphysics in the older sense is impossible. (w. w.) APSE (Gr. dt/ i s ; Lat. absis, tribuna, concha ; Fr. abside, chevet, rond-point; Ital. apside, tribuna; Ger. Ablauf), the semicircular or polygonal termination to a church. These forms were no doubt derived from the concha or bema, in the classic and early Christian basilica. In both cases it was the place appropriated to those who administered justice, the praetor s chair in the one being represented by the bishop s throne in the other. The altar stood not within the apse, but on the chord of its arc. Sometimes the apse is a simple semicircle ; sometimes in large churches out of this a smaller semicircle springs, as Becket s Crown at Canterbury, and at Sens, Langres, and in many other churches abroad. Sometimes the choir finishes with three apses one to the central aisle, and one to each side aisle, as at Autun. Sometimes the plan is a semicircle, each bay of which has a projecting semicircular apse, forming a sort of cluster of apses, as at Beauvais, Troyes, Tours, &c. The later choir at Mans is encircled by no less than thirteen apses, the centre one being twice the depth of the others, and forming the Lady-chapel. In some small churches of the Norman period, there is a sort of double chancel, one square, and the other an apse projecting eastward, each of which has its own arch, as at Sutton, East Ham, Darent, <kc. Large circular and polygonal apses generally have radiating chapels within, as at Westminster Abbey. The earliest cathedral at Canterbury had an apse at each end, if we may trust the old plan ; and there are several instances of the same kind in France and Germany. Apses project from the north and south ends of the transepts, and from their east sides in a few cases abroad, the only example of this in England being at Norwich. APSHERON, a peninsula of Asia, in Georgia, extending from the eastern extremity of the Caucasus range for about 40 miles into the Caspian Sea, and terminating in Cape Apsheron. It produces naphtha, salt, and saffron in great abundance ; and has long been celebrated among the fire- worshippers of Asia for the sacred fires that issue from its soil. On its southern coast is the port of Baku. APT, the Eoman Apia Julia, a town of France, in the department of Vaucluse, situated on the left bank of the Calavon, a tributary of the Durance, 30 miles east of Avignon. It is surrounded by ancient and massive walls, and is well built, although several of its streets are narrow and irregular. The chief object of interest is the cathedral, a building combining different styles of architecture, founded about the year 1050 on the site of a much older edifice, but not completed until the latter half of the 17th century. There are many Eoman remains in and near the town, including a fine bridge, which is said to have been con structed by Julius Caesar. The chief manufactures of Apt are those of woollen and cotton goods, silk, confectionery, earthenware, candles, leather, and brandy ; and there is besides a considerable trade in fruit, grain, and cattle. Apt was at one time the chief town of the Yulgientes, a Gallic tribe; it was destroyed by Julius Csesar, who sub sequently restored it, conferring upon it the title Julia ; it was much injured by the Lombards and the Saracens, but its fortifications were rebuilt by the counts of Provence. Population (1872), 5892. APULEIUS, Lucius, celebrated as a philosopher and a writer of romance, was born at Madaura in Numidia, about 125 A.D. As the son of one of the principal inhabi tants, he received an excellent education, first at Carthage and subsequently at Athens. After leaving Athens he undertook a long course of travel, principally with the view of obtaining initiation into religious mysteries. On a journey to Alexandria he fell sick at CEa (Tripoli), and was received into the house of Sicinius Pontianus, a former fellow-student. The widowed mother of Pontianus, Puden- tilla, became enamoured of the handsome young philo sopher, who, at her son s request, as he affirms, consented to marry her. The lady s wealth rendered this step distasteful to the other members of her family, by whom, after the premature death of Pontianus, Apuleius was indicted on a charge of having gained her affections by magical arts. He easily established his innocence, and his spirited, highly entertaining, but inordinately long defence (Apologia, sive de Magia], is our principal authority for his biography. From allusions in his subsequent writings, and the mention of him by St Augustine, we gather that the remainder of his prosperous life was devoted to literature and philosophy ; that he exercised the priestly office, and frequently declaimed in piiblic; and that statues were erected in his honour by Carthage and other cities. Many errors have found their way into his biography, from the supposition of his identity to a certain extent with Lucius, the hero of his romance. The contrary appears from the introduction of Lucius as a Greek, who professes to have only with great difficulty acquired Latin, Apuleius s own mother tongue. Lucius also takes a vow of poverty and chastity, which must have been but ill observed by the spouse of the opulent and amorous Pudentilla. There is little of Apuleius s own invention in the work on which his fame principally rests. The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass (which latter title seems not to be the author s own, but to have been bestowed in compliment),

was founded on a narrative in the Metamorphose of