Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/686

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ARN—ARN

The flowers have also been used in the form of tincture. They have an unpleasant odour. The plant is not much

used at the present day.
(j. h. b.)

ARNIM, Bettina von, famous for her acquaintance and correspondence with Goethe, was a member of the Brentano family, and born at Frankfort, April 4, 1785. Her acquaintance with Goethe continued from 1807 until 1811, -when it was brought to a close by her offensive behaviour to his wife. Shortly after his death she published an extensive correspondence alleged to have passed between the parties. Its genuineness was immediately contested by Goethe s old friend Iliemer, and the discussion leaves no doubt that it is everywhere interpolated, and to a great extent wholly fictitious. Bettina never could produce the originals of the letters ; and it has been demonstrated that the sonnets which she claimed as addressed to herself, and as partly versifications of her own ideas, were in fact addressed to Minna Herzlieb before Goethe had even seen Bettina. This discovery effectually relieves the poet s me mory from some very unpleasant imputations. The literary merits of the work are in some respects very considerable. Nothing can surpass Bettina s liveliness, freshness, origi nality, and graphic power when dealing with actual persons and things: she is, unfortunately, addicted to abstract speculation, and then becomes unintelligible. Though probably equally supposititious, her correspondence with the friend of her youth, the interesting and unfortunate Caroline von Giinderode, is superior to her more cele brated work from its greater truth to nature ; and her almost unknown volume of professed letters to and from her brother, Clemens Brentano, is the best of all. These later productions failed to attract a public sated with her peculiar mannerism, and Bettina had sunk into compara tive obscurity before her death in 1859. Bettina was a true member of a- family whose folly was in her time proverbially said to begin where the folly of others ceases. Her vanity, caprice, mendacity, and utter want of principle can only be excused on the supposition of her virtual irre sponsibility for her actions. She possessed a brilliant fancy, and her remarks occasionally display great penetration; her conversational powers are described as marvellous. One of her freaks was to translate her correspondence with Goethe into English; the result is an unparalleled literary curiosity. The evidence respecting this correspondence is ably summed up in Mr Lewes s Life of Goethe.

(r. o.)

ARNIM, or Arnheim, Johan Georg, Baron von, one of the most distinguished men during the period of the Thirty Years War, both as a general and as a diploma tist, was born in 1586, at Boitzenburg, in the province of Brandenburg. He entered the Swedish army, and served under Gustavus Adolphus. In 1G2G he, though a Protes tant, was induced by Wallenstein to join the imperial army. He gained great distinction by his military and diplomatic talents, and became the close friend and faithful ally of Wallenstein. After the dismissal of the latter from his command in 1630, Arnim went over to the elector of Saxony, and, at the battle of Leipsic, led the left wing of the united Saxon and Swedish armies. But he disliked the Swedes, who distrusted him ; and it was mainly by his influence that the elector detached his forces from Gustavus Adolphus, and that at the peace of Prague the Saxons seceded from their alliance with Sweden. In 1632 Wallenstein, who had been restored to his command, took the field against his old comrade, but little was done by either, and more than a suspicion was roused that they were playing into each other s hands. In February 1C 34 Wallenstein was assassinated, and Arnim at once began more active operations. In May he gained a great victory over the imperialists at Liegnitz ; but after the conclusion of peace, not thinking himself sufficiently honoured by the elector, he withdrew to his castle of Boit/enburg. Here he was seized by the Swedes, and imprisoned at Stockholm. He escaped, and was engaged in raising an army to revenga himself when he died suddenly in 1641.

ARNIM, Karl Otto Ludwig von, a German writer of travels, was born a-t Berlin in 1779, travelled from 1835 to 1844 through Turkey and Greece, France, Spain, and Italy, and died in 1861. He was attached for some time to the German embassy at London, and wrote in English Napoleon s Conduct towards Prussia (1814), and German National Melodies (1816). He also translated some Eng- li.-h plays and poems. His reputation rests mainly on his Fliic/itiffeI!emerkungeneinesfluchtigIieiscnde?i(lS38-l85Q), which are highly praised for their lively and graceful style.

ARNIM, Ludqig Achim von, a distinguished German poet and novelist, was born at Berlin in 1781. He studied at Vienna and Gb ttingen, and took the degree of M.D., though he never practised as a physician. His attention, however, in his early years seems to have been specially directed towards the natural sciences, and his first literary performance (Theorie dcr Elektrischen Ersclteinwngeii) was in that department. But even in this essay he showed the fondness for the supernatural and the predilection for romance that appeared so strongly in his next work, Ariel s 0/enlarungen, 1804. In the same year he published Hallin s Lieleslcben, with an appendix containing a bio graphy of Rousseau. He spent some years in travelling through parts of Germany and collecting old popular legends and songs. A selection of these he published at Heidelberg in conjunction with the poet Clemens Bren tano, whose sister Bettina (noticed above) he afterwards married. The volumes, entitled DCS Knaben WunderJwrn, were received with great favour. In 1809 he published the Winter garten, a collection of tales; in 1810 an admir able novel, Die Grdfin Dolores; in 1811 a humorous dramatic romance, Halle und Jerusalem, and a novel, Isabelle von uEgypten ; and two years later his ScJiaubuhnt or dramatic pieces. His literary activity was for some time interrupted by the war in Germany, but in 1817 he published his last great romance, Die Kronenwcichtcr, the scene of which is laid in the time of the Emperor Maxi milian. Arnim died in 1831. His works have been published in a collected form at Berlin, 1839-1846. They manifest great originality of invention, but are for the most part marred by the utter absence of literary form, being vague, incoherent, and whimsical to the last degree. Arnim is the subject of a brilliant but much too favour able criticism in Heine s De V Allemagne.

ARNISÆUS, Henningus, a German physician, was born at Halberstadt, probably about 15 SO. After com pleting his studies at the university of Helmstiidt and taking his degree as doctor of medicine, he seems to have lectured for some time on moral philosophy at Frankfurt- on-the-Oder. In 1613 he was appointed one of the pro fessors of medicine at Helmstiidt, and he is said to have constructed there a chemical laboratory and a botanical garden. His anatomical plates were very celebrated, and some of them were extant in the time of Haller. In 1620 he was made court physician to Christian IV. of Denmark, and removed to Copenhagen, where he died in 1638. The greater number of his extant works are on the theory of politics, such as Dodrina Politica, published after his death, De Republica, De jure Majestatis, &c. ; the following medical tracts are ascribed to him, Disquisitiones de parlus humani legitimis terminis and Disputatio de lue venerea.

ARNO (the ancient Arnus), a celebrated river of Italy. It rises in Monte Falterona, in the Apennines,

descends into the valley of Casentino, in Upper Tuscany, passes the town of Bibbiena into the plain of Arezzo,

where it receives the Chiana as a tributary, and enters the