disease of the liver on the 1st February, 1793, in the sixty-third year of his age. A genus of plants was called by Thunberg "Aitonia," in compliment to him.—J. H. B.
AITON, William Townsend, was the eldest son of William Aiton, gardener to the Princess Dowager of Wales, and superintendent of the garden at Kew. He was born on 2nd February, 1766, and after going through his school education at Chiswick and Camberwell, was, in 1783, placed under his father in the royal gardens. He became eminent as a landscape gardener, and on the death of his father in 1793 he was appointed by George IV. superintendent of the royal gardens at Richmond and Kew. During the reign of George IV. he was employed to lay out the gardens of the pavilion at Brighton and of Buckingham palace, and to superintend the plantations at Windsor. In 1841, after a service of fifty years, he resigned his appointment at Kew. In 1810-13, he published a second edition of his father's "Hortus Kewensis," in 5 vols. 8vo., being assisted in the work by Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Dryander, and Mr. Brown. He calmly breathed his last on the 9th October, 1849, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.—J. H. B.
AITZEMA, Leon van, a learned historian, and accomplished and upright statesman, long Resident at the Hague for the Hanseatic towns, was born at Dockum in Friesland in 1600, and died at the Hague in 1661.
AITZEMA, Foppe van, a Dutch diplomatist and jurist, known as special envoy on several occasions during the Thirty Years' War, and as author of "Dissertations on the Civil Law," republished in the sixth volume of Meerman's "Thesaurus Novus Juris Civilis et Ecclesiastici," died at Vienna about 1640.
AJAX, son of Oileus, king of the Locrians, was one of the Grecian princes engaged in the siege of Troy; distinguished himself on various occasions by his bravery and military skill; was shipwrecked through the hostility of Minerva, after the sack of Troy; escaped to a rock through the favour of Neptune, but perished shortly after in the sea, having, by setting all the gods at defiance, provoked that deity to dash to pieces with his trident the rock on which Ajax was standing. Later poets have added to the story of Ajax many circumstances not contained in the Homeric poems.—E. M.
AJAX, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, was in stature superior to all the Grecian heroes at the siege of Troy, and in valour and manly beauty, inferior only to Achilles. When, after the decease of Achilles, the armour of that hero had to be adjudged to the most valiant of the Greeks, Ajax claimed it as his right. The decision of the chiefs, which awarded it to Ulysses, caused the death of the son of Telamon, though the manner in which he died is not specified by Homer.—E. M.
AJELLO, Sebastian, a distinguished physician of Naples, who flourished in the seventeenth century. He published in 1675 a narrative of the pestilence which had recently desolated the Neapolitan territory, a treatise on catarrhal affections, and some verses in honour of Albert of Aragon.
AKAKIA, Martin, or Sans-Malice, a French physician, was born at Chalons towards the end of the fifteenth century, and died in 1551. He wrote several commentaries upon the works of Galen, and a treatise on the diseases of females.
AKAKIA, Martin, the son of the foregoing, was born at Chalons in 1539, and died in 1588. He was professor of surgery at the Royal college of France.
AKBAR, Jellalladin Mohammed, one of the Mogul emperors, the seventh in descent from Timour, and son of Houmayoon, was born at Amarcot in the valley of the Indus in 1542, and died in 1605. During childhood he was exposed to great danger from the treachery of his uncles and the misfortunes of his father, who had been driven into exile, but recovered his kingdom by the victory of Sirhind. Akbar succeeded to the throne at the early age of thirteen. His claims were, however, opposed by Shah-Sikander-Soor and Mohammed Adil-Shah (Adili). Himmon or Hemon, the vizier of the latter, after a brilliant career, was defeated and slain by Behram-Khan, the tutor of Akbar, on the plains of Panipat, a.d. 1556. Adili himself perished shortly afterwards in Bengal. Akbar next turned his arms against Sikander-Shah, who had seized a part of the Punjab, and speedily reduced him to submission. He then employed himself in establishing a regular administration, and in checking the insubordination of his generals and governors. Being completely successful in these internal reforms, he next carried his arms into central India, and after an obstinate resistance, he effected the subjugation of all the Rajpoot states. In accordance with his ruling idea of amalgamating his Mohammedan and Hindoo subjects into one compact nation, he married two Rajpoot princesses, and caused his son, Jehaughire, to contract similar alliances. By his wise toleration he gained the confidence of the Hindoos, who were freely admitted to the highest civil and military employments. Man-Sing, his most skilful general, and Todarmâl, his minister of finance, were of this nation. His next enterprise, after the conquest of Gujerat in 1573, was the invasion of Bengal, which was then in the hands of the Afghans, and which was not completely subjugated until 1592. Meantime Akbar quelled two dangerous rebellions raised by his brother, Mirza-Hakin, in Cabul and Cashmere, and conquered the Zoussoufzeis, or Eastern Afghans, after an obstinate struggle. Finally, he turned his arms against the kings of the Deccan, and brought them to obedience. Thus the whole of India, from Cashmere to the Nerbudda, and from Assam to the Soleimaun mountains, obeyed his sceptre.
The latter part of his reign was troubled by the misconduct and the dissensions of his sons. He died in the sixty-fourth year of his age, beloved and regretted throughout his vast dominions. His private and his public character were equally worthy of esteem, and he shines at once as a warrior, a legislator, and a patron of arts and learning. His favourite capital, Akbarabad or Agra, is now in decay, but the tomb of Houmayoon at Delhi, the forts of Agra, of Allahabad at the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna, and of Attock on the Indus, still call forth the admiration of the traveller. His wise laws are, however, the noblest monument of his name. One of his most valuable performances was the compilation of the "Ayeen Akberry," a complete statistical account of the empire, its extent, productions, and revenue. In his reign the first European mission of a religious nature arrived at the Mogul court.—J. W. S.
AKEMOFF, a Russian painter of modern times, who studied under Loszinszko, and executed several pictures for the churches of St. Petersburg with such success, that he was named director of the Imperial Academy of that metropolis. Died 1814.
AKEN, Johann van, a Flemish painter and engraver of the 17th century, celebrated for his landscapes and pictures of horses.
AKEN, Joseph van, a Flemish painter of figures and ornaments. He established himself in England, where, besides painting figures in many of the works of the best landscape painters of the time, he executed several exquisite pictures on satin or velvet on his own account.—R. M.
AKENSIDE, Mark, the author of the "Pleasures of Imagination" and other poems, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 9th of November, 1721. His father, who was by trade a butcher, was a dissenter, and Akenside, according to Dr. Johnson, inherited from him, and retained through life, "an unnecessary and outrageous zeal for what he called and thought liberty." He received his education first at Edinburgh, and afterwards at Leyden, where he graduated as a doctor of medicine in 1744. He then returned to England, and established himself as a physician in London. The "Pleasures of Imagination," the work by which he is chiefly known, was composed in Holland, and published soon after his return to England. It obtained at the time a large share of popularity, but few persons at the present day would have the patience to read it through. The analysis of the feelings and powers of the human mind was a favourite subject with the philosophers of that age, and Akenside seems to have composed this poem, not so much under the influence of poetical inspiration, as with a view to illustrate certain philosophical theories. Johnson says that he had adopted "Shaftesbury's foolish assertion of the efficacy of ridicule for the discovery of truth;" and the greater part of the third book of the poem is the expansion of this notion. He does not seem to have met with much success in his profession, but, fortunately for him, he had formed at Leyden a close intimacy, which afterwards ripened into an ardent friendship, with Mr. Dyson, who became a lord of the Treasury, and generously made his friend an allowance of £300 a year while he lived. Akenside's character was upright, sincere, and disinterested, though tinged with pedantry. He was a great lover of classical antiquity, and is said to have furnished the prototype of the physician in Smollet's "Peregrine Pickle," who treats his friends to a "symposium after the manner of the ancients." He published a collection of odes in 1745, but they excited little attention. "When," says Dr. Johnson, "he lays his ill-fated hand upon his harp, his former powers seem to
