instance, A. rigida var. sisalana, sisal hemp (q.v.),
A. decipiens, false sisal hemp; A. americana is the
source of pita fibre, and is used as a fibre plant in
Mexico, the West Indies and southern Europe. The flowering
stem of the last named, dried and cut in slices, forms
Agave americana, Century plant or American aloe. About
1/40 nat. size. 1, Flower; 2, same flower split open above the
ovary; 3, ovary cut across; 1, 2, and 3, about 1/2 nat. size.
From the Botanical Magazine, by permission of Lovell Reeve and Co.
natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves
will lather in water like soap. In the Madras Presidency
the plant is extensively used for hedges along railroads.
Agave americana, century plant, was introduced into Europe
about the middle of the 16th century and is now widely
cultivated for its handsome appearance; in the variegated
forms the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central
stripe from base to apex. As the leaves unfold from the
centre of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines
is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The
plants are usually grown in tubs and put out in the summer
months, but in the winter require to be protected from
frost. They mature very slowly and die after flowering, but
are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem.
AGDE, a town of southern France, in the department of Herault,
on the left bank of the river of that name, 2 1/2 m. from the
Mediterranean Sea and 32 m. S.W. of Montpellier on the Southern
railway. Pop. (1906) 7146. The town lies at the foot of
an extinct volcano, the Montagne St Loup, and is built of
black volcanic basalt, which gives it a gloomy appearance.
Overlooking the river is the church of St Andre, which dates
partly from the 12th century, and, till the Revolution, was a
cathedral. It is a plain and massive structure with crenelated
walls, and has the aspect of a fortress rather than of a
church. The exterior is diversified by arched recesses forming
machicolations, and the same architectural feature is reproduced
in the square tower which rises like a donjon above the
building. The Canal du Midi, or Languedoc canal, uniting the
Garonne with the Mediterranean, passes under the walls of the
town, and the mouth of the Herault forms a harbour which is
protected by a fort. The maritime commerce of the town has
declined, owing partly to the neighbourhood of Cette, partly
to the shallowness of the Herault. The fishing industry
is, however, still active. The chief public institutions
are the tribunal of commerce and the communal college.
Agde is a place of great antiquity and is said to have
been founded under the name of agathe polis (Good
City) by the Phocaeans. The bishopric was established
about the year 400 and was suppressed in 1790.
SYNOD OF AGDE (Concilium Agathense.)--With the permission
of the West Goth Alaric II. thirty-five bishops of southern
Gaul assembled in person or sent deputies to Agde on the 11th
of September 506. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, presided. The
forty seven genuine canons of the synod deal with discipline,
church life, the alienation of ecclesiastical property and
the treatment of Jews. While favouring sacerdotal celibacy
the council laid rather rigid restrictions on monasticism. It
commanded that the laity communicate at Christmas, Easter and
Whitsuntide. The canons of Agde are based in part on earlier
Gallic, African and Spanish legislation; and some of them
were re-enacted by later councils, and found their way into
collections such as the Hispana, Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.
See Mansi viii. 319 ff.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte,
2nd edition, ii. 649 ff. (English translation, iv.
76 ff.); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, i. 242.
AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from
aetas), a term used (1) of the divisions into which it
is suggested that human history may be divided, whether
regarded from the geological, cultural or moral aspects,
e.g. the palaeolithic age, the bronze age, the dark ages;
(2) of an historic epoch or generation; (3) of any period
or stage in the physical life of a person, animal or thing;
(4) of that time of life at which the law attributes full
responsibility for his or her acts to the individual.
(1) From the earliest times there would appear to have been
the belief that the history of the earth and of mankind
falls naturally into periods or ages. Classical mythology
popularized the idea. Hesiod, for example, in his poem Works
and Days, describes minutely five successive ages, during
each of which the earth was peopled by an entirely distinct
race. The first or golden race lived in perfect happiness
on the fruits of the untilled earth, suffered from no bodily
infirmity, passed away in a gentle sleep, and became after
death guardian daemons of this world. The second or silver
race was degenerate, and refusing to worship the immortal
gods, was buried by Jove in the earth. The third or brazen
race, still more degraded, was warlike and cruel, and perished
at last by internal violence. The fourth or heroic race
was a marked advance upon the preceding, its members being
the heroes or demi-gods who fought at Troy and Thebes, and who
were rewarded after death by being permitted to reap thrice
a year the free produce of the earth. The fifth or iron
race, to which the poet supposes himself to belong, is the
most degenerate of all, sunk so low in every vice that any new
change must be for the better. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses,
follows Hesiod exactly as to nomenclature and very closely as to
substance. He makes the degeneracy continuous, however,
by omitting the heroic race or age, which, as Grote points
out, was probably introduced by Hesiod, not as part of his
didactic plan, but from a desire to conciliate popular feeling
by including in his poem the chief myths that were already
current among the Greeks. Varro recognized three ages: (1)
from the beginning of mankind to the Deluge, a quite indefinite
period; (2) from the Deluge to the First Olympiad, called the
Mythical Period; (3) from the First Olympiad to his own time,
called the Historic Period. Lucretius divided man's history
into three cultural periods: (1) the Age of Stone; (2) the
Age of Bronze; (3) the Age of Iron. He thus anticipated the
conclusions of some of the greatest of modern archaeologists.
(2) A definite period in history, distinguished by some
special characteristic, such as great literary activity, is
generally styled, with some appropriate epithet, an age. It
is usual, for example, to speak of the Age of Pericles, the
Augustan, the Elizabethan or the Victorian Ages; of the Age
of the Crusades, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Age of
Steam. Such isolated periods, with no continuity or necessary
connexion of any kind, are obviously quite distinct from the
ages or organically related periods into which philosophers have
divided the whole course of human history. Auguste Comte, for
instance, distinguishes three ages according to the state of
knowledge in each, and he supposes that we are now entering
upon the third of these. In the first age of his scheme
knowledge is supernatural or fictitious; in the second it is
metaphysical or abstract; in the third it is positive or
scientific. Schemes somewhat similar have been proposed by other
philosophers, chiefly of France and Germany, and seem to be
regarded by them as essential to any complete science of history.
(3) The subject of the duration of human and animal life
does not fall within the scope of this article, and the
reader is referred to LONGEVITY. But the word ``age''
has been used by physiologists to express certain natural
divisions in human development and decay. These are usually
regarded as numbering five, viz. infancy, lasting to the
seventh year; childhood to the fourteenth; youth to
the twenty-first; adult life till fifty; and old age.
(4) The division of human life into periods for legal purposes
is naturally more sharp and definite than in physiology. It
would be unscientific in the physiologist to name any precise
year for the transition from one of his stages to another,
inasmuch as that differs very considerably among different
nations, and even to some extent among different individuals
of the same nation. But the law must necessarily be fixed and
uniform, and even where it professes to proceed according to
nature, must be more precise than nature. The Roman law divided
human life for its purposes into four chief periods, which
had their subdivisions--(1) infantia, lasting till the close
of the seventh year; (2) the period between infantia and
pubertas, males becoming puberes at fourteen and females
at twelve; (3) adolescentia, the period between puberty
and majority; and (4) the period after the twenty-fifth year,
when males became majores. The first period was one of total
legal incapacity; in the second period a person could lawfully
do certain specified acts, but only with the sanction of his
tutor or guardian; in the third the restrictions were fewer,
males being permitted to manage their own property, contract
marriage and make a will; but majority was not reached until
the age of twenty-five. By English law there are two great
periods into which life is divided--infancy, which lasts
in both sexes until the twenty-first year, and manhood or
womanhood. The period of infancy, again, is divided into several
stages, marked by the growing development both of rights and
obligations. Thus at twelve years of age a male may take
the oath of allegiance; at fourteen both sexes are held
to have arrived at years of discretion, and may therefore
choose guardians, give evidence and consent or disagree to a
marriage. A female has the last privilege from the twelfth
year, but the marriage cannot be celebrated until the majority
of the parties without the consent of parents or guardians. At
fourteen, too, both sexes are fully responsible to the criminal
law. Between seven and fourteen there is responsibility only
if the accused be proved doli capax, capable of discerning
between right and wrong, the principle in that case being that
malitia supplet aetatem. At twenty-one both males and females
obtain their full legal rights, and become liable to all legal
obligations. A seat in the British parliament may be taken at
twenty-one. Certain professions, however, demand as a
qualification in entrants a more advanced age than that of
legal man. hood. In the Church of England a candidate for
deacon's orders must be twenty-three (in the Roman Catholic
Church, twenty-two) and for priest's orders twenty-four years
of age; and no clergyman is eligible for a bishopric under
thirty. In Scotland infancy is not a legal term. The time
previous to majority, which, as in England, is reached by both
sexes at twenty-one, is divided into two stages: pupilage
lasts until the attainment of puberty, which the law fixes
at fourteen in males and twelve in females; minority lasts
from these ages respectively until twenty-one. Minority
obviously corresponds in some degree to the English years of
discretion, but a Scottish minor has more personal rights
than an English infant in the last stage of his infancy, e.g
he may dispose by will of movable property, make contracts,
carry on trade, and, as a necessary consequence, is liable
to be declared a bankrupt. In France the year of majority
is twenty-one, and the nubile age eighteen for males and
fifteen for females, with a restriction as to the consent of
guardians. Age qualification for the chamber of deputies
