Sr, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I. He was born in the year 1033, at Aosta, a town in Piedmont, at the foot of the Alps. He became a monk in the abbey of Bec in Normandy, of which he was afterwards chosen prior, and then abbot. In the year 1092 he was invited over to England by Hugh earl of Chester; and in the year following was prevailed on to accept the archbishopric of Canterbury. He enjoined celibacy on the clergy, for which he was banished by King Rufus; but recalled by Henry on his coming to the crown. In conformity to Pope Urban's decree, he refused to consecrate such bishops as were invested by the king, denying it to be the royal prerogative: for this he was banished again, till the pope and king agreeing, he was recalled in 1107. In short, from the day of his consecration to that of his death, he was continually employed in extending the encroachments of the church against the prerogative of the crown; and for that purpose spent much of his time in travelling between England and Rome, for the advice and direction of his Holiness. He may be regarded as having been, besides A'Becket, the only English prelate who strenuously pursued in his ecclesiastical relations that policy distinguished as ultramontane. At the council of Bari, in the kingdom of Naples, the pope being puzzled by the arguments of the Greeks against the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Father, called upon Anselm to answer their objections, which he did with great success. He wrought many miracles, if we may believe the author of his life, both before and after his death, which happened at Canterbury in the 76th year of his age, A.D. 1109, and was canonized in the reign of Henry VII. "His death was that of a saint and a philosopher; his ardour for science glowed upon his death-bed. His disciples were around him weeping and praying; the last holy rites had already enveloped him in the atmosphere of eternity; infi..." Anselm deserves to be remembered as one of the principal revivers of literature, after three centuries of profound ignorance. In a philosophical relation, he may be regarded as the founder of the scholastic metaphysics, and his ontological argument for the existence of Deity entitles him to be considered as one of the acutest of natural theologians. His speculations on that subject are contained in his two treatises entitled *Monologium* and *Proslogium*, composed while he was prior of the Abbey of Bec. The arguments used in the first of these are to be found in the writings of previous philosophers, though not so fully and rigorously developed as is done by Anselm. But the argument contained in the *Proslogium*, originally suggested by St. Augustine, and afterwards known as the *Cartesian argument*, is that on which the peculiar fame of Anselm as a metaphysician is founded. It may be briefly expressed thus.—The human mind possesses the idea of a Being than whom it can conceive none other higher. This perfect Being is in virtue of that very perfection conceived as really existent. Therefore he does so exist. Anselm sought a general principle for the foundation of all science, a principle such as should unite logical and real universality, i.e., at once comprehend all other ideas and express a reality conceived as the source of all other realities. This principle he found in the idea of God—of infinite perfection. To deny to this idea a corresponding reality involves a contradiction, for then there must be a higher perfection conceivable, viz., this absolute perfection not merely as possible but as existing, since it is more perfect to exist than to be merely possible. Here Anselm found the principle he was in search of, this idea of God involving both logical and real universality, since on the one hand all other ideas are contained under this, as the lesser is contained in the greater; and on the other, it constitutes the necessary source of all finite existences.

This argument of Anselm seems not to have been generally admitted during the middle ages, and was decisively rejected by such men as Aquinas. It was replied to in his own time by a monk named Gaunilon, in a treatise entitled *Liber pro insipientia adversus Anselmi in Proslogio rationeationem*, which contains implicitly all the objections subsequently raised against it as developed by Descartes; the principal and fatal objection being the logical incompetency of deducing the reality of existence from the necessity of thought, of passing from the finite ideas of the human mind to the infinite reality of a Divine existence.

The works of Anselm have been often reprinted. The best edition is that of Father Gerberon, printed at Paris in 1675, in two vols. folio.

**Anselm of Laon**, a famous theologian, who taught at Paris with great success about the year 1076. With the assistance of his brother Ralph de Laon, he established in his native place a school of philosophy, which became famous throughout Europe. Anselm died in 1117. His interlinear gloss on the Scriptures has frequently been printed.

**Anson, George, Lord**, the famous circumnavigator, was the second son of William Anson, Esq., of Shuckburgh Manor, Staffordshire, where he was born on the 23rd April 1697. Showing an early inclination for the sea, he received a suitable education. The first command he enjoyed was that of the Weasel sloop in 1722; but the most memorable action of his life, and the foundation of his future good fortune, took place on his receiving the command of five ships, a sloop, and two victuallers, equipped to annoy the Spaniards in the South Seas, and to co-operate with Admiral Vernon across the Isthmus of Darien; an expedition the principal object of which failed by the unaccountable delay in the fitting out. He sailed, however, in September 1740; doubled Cape Horn in a dangerous season; lost most of his men by the scurvy; and with only one remaining ship, the Centurion, crossed the Great Pacific Ocean. If no considerable national advantage resulted from this voyage, Commodore Anson made his own fortune, and enriched his surviving companions, by the capture of a rich galleon on her passage from Acapulco to Manilla, with which he returned home round the Cape of Good Hope. If he was lucky in meeting this galleon, he was no less fortunate in escaping a French fleet then cruising in the Channel, by sailing through it during a fog. He arrived at Spithead in June 1744. In a short time after his return he was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, and one of the lords of the admiralty. In April 1745 he was made rear-admiral of the white, and the following year vice-admiral of the blue, at which time he was chosen to represent the borough of Heydon in parliament. In 1747, being on board the Prince George of 90 guns, in company with Admiral Warren and 12 other ships, he intercepted, off Cape Finisterre, a powerful fleet, bound from France to the East and West Indies; when, by his valour and conduct, he again enriched himself and his officers, and at the same time strengthened the British navy, by taking six men of war and four East Indiamen, not one of them escaping. The French admiral, M. Jonquiere, on presenting his sword to the conqueror, said, "Monsieur, vous avez vaincu l'Invincible, et la Gloire vous suit—" Sir, you have conquered the Invincible, and Glory follows you;" pointing to the ships named the Invincible and the Glory, which he had taken. For his signal services he was created baron of Soberton in Hants. The same year he was appointed vice-admiral of the red; and, on the death of Sir John Norris, was made vice-admiral of England. In 1748 he was made admiral of the blue; he was afterwards appointed first lord of the admiralty, and was at length made admiral and commander-in-chief of His Majesty's fleet, in which rank he continued, with a very short interval, until his death; and the last service he performed was to convey Queen Charlotte to England. He died in June 1762. No performance ever met with a more favourable reception than the account of Anson's voyage round the world. Though it is printed under the name of his chaplain, it was composed under his lordship's own inspection, and from the materials he himself furnished, by Mr Benjamin Robins.

**Anstey, Censorinus**, a comic writer, who published in 1766 *The New Bath Guide*, a satirical poem, abounding in coarse humour, and which obtained a degree of popularity almost unparalleled at that period; so much so, indeed, that Dodseley the bookseller, with a liberality scarcely less remarkable, presented the copyright again to the author, in consideration of the profit he had realized by its sale. Anstey was the son of the Rev. C. Anstey, D.D., of Brinkley, and was educated at King's College, Cambridge, where, as a fellow, he continued to reside till the year 1754. Succeeding to some family estates at Trumpington, he made that place his home, and soon afterwards married. He died in 1805, aged eighty-one. His several poems were collected and published in 1808, in vol. 8vo. He was honoured with a cenotaph in "Poet's Corner," in Westminster Abbey, a distinction which has been conferred in more instances than this with too little discrimination.

**Anstruther, Easter**, a royal burgh and parish of Scotland, in the county of Fife, on the north shore of the It possesses an excellent harbour. Population of burgh in 1851, 1161. Ten miles south of St Andrews. Dr Chalmers was a native of this place.

Anstruther, Wester, a parish and small seaport of Scotland, situated close to Easter Anstruther, with which, and the towns of St Andrews, Cupar, Crail, Pittenweem, and Kilrenny, it unites in returning a member to parliament. The parish includes the Isle of May. Population of burgh in 1851, 365. Long. 2. 44. W. Lat. 56. 14. N.