or AIRY, among sportsmen. See AIRY.

ÆS UXORIUM, in Antiquity, a sum paid by bachelors, as a penalty for living single to old age. This tax for not marrying seems to have been first imposed in the year of Rome 359, under the censorship of M. Furius Camillus and M. Posthumus. At the census, or review of the people, each person was asked, Et tu ex anima jententia uxorem habes liberum querendorum caufa? He who had no wife was hereupon fined after a certain rate, called æs uxoriun.

ÆS per et libram was a formula in the Roman law, whereby purchases and sales were ratified. Originally the phrase seems to have been only used in speaking of things sold by weight, or by the scales; but afterwards was used on other occasions. Hence even in adoptions, as there was a kind of imaginary purchase, the formula thereof expressed, that the person adopted was bought per æs et libram.

ÆS Flavum, yellow copper, among the Romans, an appellation given to the coarser kinds of brass.

The ancients had different kinds of brass, as æs candidum, æs Corinthium, denoting probably different metallic alloys or mixtures.

ÆS Caldarium, a term used by the German miners, for a substance which sometimes occurs to those who work upon cobalt, and is used for making the fine blue colour called smalt.

ÆS Ufatum, a chemical preparation, made of thin leaves of copper, sulphur, and nitre, placed æratum super fiamum in a crucible, and set in a charcoal fire till all the sulphur is consumed; after which, the copper is taken out of the crucible, and reduced to powder. Some quench the leaves of copper in vinegar, and repeat the calcination.—Its principal use is in colouring glass, to which it gives a beautiful tincture. The surgeons use it as a detergent, and some have given it internally; but it is certainly a very dangerous medicine, and should be avoided.

ÆSCHINES, an Athenian, a Socratic philosopher, the son of Charinus a sausage-maker. He was continually with Socrates; which occasioned this philosopher to say, that the sausage-maker's son was the only person who knew how to pay a due regard to him. It is said that poverty obliged him to go to Sicily to Dionysius the tyrant; and that he met with great contempt from Plato, but was extremely well received by Ariftippus; to whom he showed some of his dialogues, and received from him a handsome reward. He would not venture to profess philosophy at Athens, Plato and Ariftippus being in such high esteem; but he opened a school in which he taught philosophy to maintain himself. He afterwards wrote orations for the forum. Phrynicus, in Photius, ranks him amongst the best orators, and mentions his orations as the standard of the pure Attic style. Hermogenes has also spoken very highly of him. He wrote besides several Dialogues, of which there are only three extant:

1. Concerning virtue, whether it can be taught. 2. Eryxias, or Erasistratus; concerning riches, whether they are good. 3. Axiochus; concerning death, whether it is to be feared.

Mr Le Clerc has given a Latin translation of them, with notes and several dissertations, entitled Sylvae Philologicae.

Æschines, a celebrated Grecian orator, was born at Athens 327 years before the Christian era. According to his own account, he was of distinguished birth; according to that of Demosthenes, he was the son of a courtezan, and a humble performer in a company of comedians. But whatever was the true history of his birth and early life, his talents, which were considerable, procured him great applause, and enabled him to be a formidable rival to Demosthenes himself. The two orators, inspired probably with mutual jealousy and animosity, became at last the strenuous leaders of opposing parties. Æschines was accused by Demosthenes of having received money as a bribe, when he was employed on an embassy to Philip of Macedon. He indirectly retaliated the charge, by bringing an accusation against Ctesiphon the friend of Demosthenes for having moved a decree, contrary to the laws, to confer on Demosthenes a golden crown, as a mark of public approbation. A numerous assembly of judges and citizens met to hear and decide the question: each orator employed all his powers of eloquence; but Demosthenes, with superior talents, and with justice on his side, was victorious; and Æschines was sent into exile. The resentment of Demosthenes was now softened into generous kindness; for when Æschines was going into banishment, he requested him to accept of a sum of money; which made him exclaim, "How do I regret leaving a country where I have found an enemy so generous, that I must despair of ever meeting with a friend who shall be like him!"

Æschines opened a school of eloquence at Rhodes, which was the place of his exile, and he commenced his lectures by reading to his audience the two orations which had been the cause of his banishment. His own oration received great praise; but that of Demosthenes was heard with boundless applause. In so trying a moment, when vanity must be supposed to have been deeply wounded, with a noble generosity of sentiment, he said, "What would you have thought if you had heard him thunder out the words himself."

Æschines afterwards removed to Samos, where he died, in the 75th year of his age. Three of his orations only are extant. His eloquence is not without energy,