in antiquity, a heathen ceremony, whereby their emperors and great men were placed among the gods. The word is derived from ἀπό, and θεός, God.

After the apotheosis which they also called *deification* and *conservation*, temples, altars, and images were erected to the new deity; sacrifices, &c. were offered, and colleges of priests instituted.

It was one of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which he had borrowed from the Chaldees, that virtuous persons after their death were raised into the order of the gods. And hence the ancients deified all the inventors of things useful to mankind; and those who had done any important services to the commonwealth. Tiberius proposed to the Roman senate the apotheosis of Jesus Christ, as is related by Eusebius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom.

Juvenal rallying the frequent apotheoses, introduces poor Atlas, complaining that he was ready to sink under the burden of so many new gods as were every day added to the heavens. Seneca ridicules the apotheosis of Claudius with admirable humour.

The ceremony, according to Herodian's description, APP

APPARENT, in a general sense, something that is Apparent, visible to the eyes, or obvious to the understanding.

APPARENT, among mathematicians and astronomers, denotes things as they appear to us, in contradistinction from real or true; thus we say, the apparent diameter, distance, magnitude, place, figure, &c. of bodies.

APPARENT Heir, in Law. No inheritance can vest, nor can any person be the actual complete heir of another, till the ancestor is previously dead. Nemo est heres viventis. Before that time the person who is next in the line of succession is called an heir apparent, or heir presumptive. Heirs apparent are such, whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided they outlive the ancestor; as the eldest son or his issue, who must by the course of the common law be heirs to the father whenever he happens to die. Heirs presumptive are such, who, if the ancestor should die immediately, would in the present circumstances of things be his heirs: but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the contingency of some nearer heir being born; as a brother, or nephew, whose presumptive succession may be destroyed by the birth of a child; or daughter, whose present hopes may be hereafter cut off by the birth of a son. Nay, even if the estate hath descended, by the death of the owner, to such brother, or nephew, or daughter, in the former cases, the estate shall be divested, and taken away by the birth of a posthumous child; and, in the latter, it shall also be totally divested by the birth of a posthumous son.

APPARITION, in a general sense, denotes simply the appearance of a thing. In a more limited sense, it is used for a spectre or ghost. Several instances of apparitions occur in the Bible; that of Samuel, raised by the witch of Endor, has occasioned great disputes. We find great controversies among authors, in relation to the reality, the existence or non-existence, the possibility or impossibility, of apparitions. The Chaldeans, the Jews, and other nations, have been the steady assertors of the belief of apparitions. The denial of spirits and apparitions is by some made one of the marks of infidelity, if not of atheism. Many of the apparitions we are told of in writers, are doubtless mere delusions of the sense; many others are fictitious, contrived merely to amuse, or answer some purpose. Apparitions, it is certain, are machines that on occasion have been of good service both to generals, to ministers of state, to priests, and others.

Partial darkness, or obscurity, are the most powerful means by which the sight is deceived: night is therefore the proper season for apparitions. Indeed the state of the mind, at that time, prepares it for the admission of these delusions of the imagination. The fear and caution which must be observed in the night; the opportunity it affords for ambuscades and assassinations; depriving us of society, and cutting off many pleasing trains of ideas, which objects in the light never fail to introduce, are all circumstances of terror: and perhaps, on the whole, so much of our happiness depends upon our senses, that the deprivation of any one may be attended with proportionable horror and uneasiness. The notions entertained by the ancients respecting the soul, may receive some illustration from these principles. In dark or twilight, the imagination frequently transforms

APPARATUS was as follows: After the body of the deceased had been burnt with the usual solemnities, an image of wax, exactly resembling him, was placed on an ivory couch, where it lay for seven days, attended by the senate and ladies of the highest quality in mourning; and then the young senators and knights bore the bed of state through the Via Sacra to the old forum, and from thence to the Campus Martius, where it was deposited upon an edifice built in form of a pyramid. The bed being thus placed amidst a quantity of spices and other combustibles, and the knights having made a solemn procession round the pile, the new emperor, with a torch in his hand, set fire to it, whilst an eagle, let fly from the top of the building, and mounting in the air with a firebrand, was supposed to convey the soul of the deceased to heaven; and thenceforward he was ranked among the gods.

We often meet with the consecration or apotheosis of emperors represented on medals: where we see the pyramids of several stories, each growing less and less; we see also the eagles flying away with the souls of the deceased emperors. A gem in the museum of Brandenburg represents the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, mounted upon the celestial globe, and holding a helm in his hand, as if he were now the governor of heaven, as before of the earth. See Deification.