Metcalfe, ``The Gypsum Deposits of Nottingham and Derbyshire,''
Transactions of the Federated Institution, vol. xii. (1896),
p. i107; J . G. Goodchild, ``The Natural Uistory of Gypsum'''
Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol. x. (1888),
p. 425; George P. Merrill, ``The Onyx Marbles,'' Report
of the U. S. National Museum for 1893, p. 539. (F. W. R.*)
ALACOQUE, or AL COQ, MARGUERITE MARIE (1647--1690),
French nun and mystic, was born at Lauthecourt, a village in
the diocese of Autun, on the 22nd of July 1647. She would
seem to have been from the first of a morbid and unhealthy
temperament, and before the age of thirteen was the subject
of a paralytic seizure. Having been cured of this, as she
believed, by the intercession of the Holy Virgin, she
changed her name to Marie and vowed to devote her life to her
service. In May 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at
Paray-le-Monial, in the diocese of Autun, and took the final
vows in November 1672. Though her reading was confined to
the lives of the saints, she taught in the school kept by the
nuns for the girls of the neighbourhood, to whom she endeared
herself by her kindly disposition. The appalling austerities,
however, to which she was allowed to subject herself quickly
affected her mental and bodily health. Hallucinations,
to which she had been always subject, became more and more
frequent. She conceived herself to be specially favoured by
Christ, who appeared to her in the most extravagant forms. At
last, by dint of fasting and lacerating her flesh, she succeeded
in reducing herself to such a state of ecstatic suffering
that she belies'ed herself to be undergoing in her own person
the Passion of the Lord. Her reward was the supreme vision
in which Christ revealed to her His heart burning with divine
love, and even, so she afflrmed, exchanged it with hers, at
the same time bidding her establish, on the Friday following,
the feast of Corpus Christi, a festival in honour of His Sacred
Heart. It was not till ten years later, in 1685, that the
festival was first celebrated at Paray, and not till after
the death of Marguerite, on the 17th of October 1690, that
the cult of the Sacredheart, fostered by the Jesuits and the
subject of violent controversies within the church, spread
throughout France and Christendom. (See SACRED HEART.) .
Marguerite Alacoque was beatified by Pius IX. in
1864. Her short devotional writing, La Devotion au
Sacre-Coeur de Jesus, was published by J. Croiset in
1698, and is now very popular among Roman Catholics.
See Bishop Languet, Vie de la venerable Marguerite-Marie
(Paris, 1724), translated and edited by F. W. Faber (1847):
Mgr. Bougaud, Histoire de la bienheureuse Marguerite-Marie
(Paris, 1874); G. Tckell, S.J., The Life ofblessed
Margaret Mary Alacoque, with some account of the
devotion to the Sacred Heart (London, 18O9); b. B. H.
R. . Capefigue, Marie Marguerite Al-Coq (Paris, 1866).
ALAGOAS, a maritime state of Brazil, bounded N. and W. by the
state of Pernambuco, S. and W. by the state of Sergipe, and E. by
the Atlantic. It hasan area of 22,584 sq. m. A dry, semibarren
plateau, fit for grazing only, extends across the W. part of
the state, breaking down into long fertile valleys and wooded
ridges towards the coast, giving the country a mountainous
character. The coastal plain is filled with lakes (logoas),
in some cases formed by the blocking up of river outlets by beach
sands. The valleys and slopes are highly fertile and produce
sugar, cotton, tobacco, Indian corn, rice, mandioca and
Iruits. Hides and skins, mangabeira rubber, cabinet woods,
castor beans and rum are also exported. Cattle-raising was
formerly a prominent industry, but it has greatly declined.
Manufactures have been developed to a limited extent only,
though protective tariff laws have been adopted for their
encouragement. The climate is hot and humid, and fevers are
prevalent in the hot season. The capital, Maceio, is the
chief commercial city of the state, and its port (Jaragua)
has a large foreign and coastwise trade. The principal towns
are Alagoas, formerly the capital, picturesquely situated
on Lake Manguaba, 15 m. S.W. of Maceio, and Penedo, a small
port on the lower Sao Francisco, 26 m. above the river's
mouth. Before 1817 Alagoas formed part of the capitania of
Pernambuco, but in that year the district was rewarded with
a separate government for refusing to join a revolution,
and in 1823 became a province of the empire. The advent
of the republic in 1889 changed the province into a state.
ALAIN DE LILLE [Alanus de Insulis] (c. 1128-1202),
French theologian and poet, was born, probably at
Lille, some years before 1128. Little is known of his
life. He seems to have taught in the schools of Paris,
and he attended the Lateran Council in 1179. He afterwards
inhabited Montpellier (he is sometimes called Alanus de
Montepessulano), lived for a time outside the walls of any
cloister, and finally retired to Citeaux, where he died in
1202. He had a very widespread reputation during his lifetime
and his knowledge, more varied than profound, caused him to
be called Doctor universalis. Among his very numerous works
two poems entitle him to a distinguished place in the Latin
literature of the middle ages; one of these, the De planctu
naturae, is an ingenious satire on the vices of humanity; the
other, the Anticlaudianus, a treatise on morals, the form
of which recalls the pamphlet of Claudian against Rufinus,
is agreeably versified and relatively pure in its latinity.
As a theologian Alain de Lille shared in the mystic reaction
of the second half of the 12th century against the scholastic
philosophy. His mysticism, however, is far from being as
absolute as that of the Victorines. In the Anticlaudianus
he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can
unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order;
for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to
faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae
fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by
reason. Alain even ventures an immediate application of this
principle, and tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined
in the Creed. This bold attempt is entirely factitious and
verbal, and it is only his employment of various terms
not generally used in such a connexion (axiom, theorem,
corollary, etc.) that gives his treatise its apparent
originality. Alain de Lille has often been confounded with
other persons named Alain, in particular with Alain, archbishop
of Auxerre, Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury, Alain de Podio,
etc. Certain facts of their lives have been attributed to
him, as well as some of their works: thus the Life of St
Bernard should be ascribed to Alain of Auxerre and the
Commentary upon Merlin to Alan of Tewkesbury. Neither
is the philosopher of Lille the author of a Memoriale rerum
difficilium, published under his name; and it is exceedingly
doubtful whether the Dicta Alani de lapide philocophico
really issued from his pen. On the other hand, it now seems
practically demonstrated that Alain de Lille was the author of
the Ars catholicae fidei and the treatise Contra haereticos.
The works of Alain de Lille have been published by Migne,
Patrologia latina, vol. ccx. A critical edition of the
Anticlaudianus and of the De planctu naturae is given
by Th. Wright in vol. ii. of the Anglo-Latin Satirical
Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century (London,
1872). See Haureau, Memoire sur la vie et quelques
oeuvres d'Alain de Lille (Paris, 1885); M. Baumgartner, Die
Philosophie des Alanus de Insulis (Munster, 1896). (P. A.)
ALAIS, a town of southern France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Gard, 25 m. N.N.W. of
Nimes on the Paris-Lyon railway, on which it is an important
junction. Pop. (1906) 18,987. The town is situated at
the foot of the Cevenues, on the left bank of the Gardon,
which half surrounds it. The streets are wide and its
promenades and fine plane-trees make the town attractive;
but the public buildings, the chief of which are the church
of St Jean, a heavy building of the 18th century, and the
citadel, which serves as barracks and prison, are of small
interest. Pasteur prosecuted his investigations into the
silkworm disease at Alais, and the town has dedicated a bust
to his memory. There is also a statue of the chemist J. B.
Dumas. Alais has tribunals of first instance and of commerce,
a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycee and a school of
mines. The town is one of the most important markets for
raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon
supplies power to numerous silkmills. It is also the centre
of a mineral field. which yields large quantities of coal,
iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works
and engineering works afford employment to many workmen.
In the 16th century Alais was an important Huguenot centre.
In 1629 the town was taken by Louis XIII., and by the peace
of Alais the Huguenots gave up their right to places de
surete (garrison towns) and other privileges. A bishopric
was established there in 1694 but suppressed in 1790.
ALAJUELA, the capital of the province of Alajuela, in Costa
Rica, Central America, on the`transcontinental railway, 15
m. W. of San Jose. Pop. (1904) 4860. Alajuela is built
at the southern base of the volcano of Poas (8895 ft.) and
Overlooks the fertile plateau of San Jose. Its central
square, adorned with a handsome bronze fountain, contains the
municipal buildings, and a large but unattractive cathedral.
The town covers a considerable area; the detached white
houses of its suburbs are surrounded by trees and flowering
shrubs. Alajuela is the centre of the Costa Rican sugar trade,
and an important market for coffee. Its products are exported
from Puntarenas, on the Pacific Ocean, 32 m. W. The province
of Alajuela includes the territory of the Guatusos Indians,
along the northern frontier; the towns of Atenas, Grecia,
Naranjo and San Ramon (all with less than 5000 inhabitants),
and the gold-mines of Aguacate, a little north of Atenas.
ALAMANNI, or ALLEMANNI, a German tribe, first mentioned
by Dio Cassius, under the year 213. They apparently dwelt in
the basin of the Maine, to the south of the Chatti. According
to Asinius Quadratus their name indicates that they were a
conglomeration of various tribes. There can be little doubt,
however, that the ancient Hermunduri formed the preponderating
element in the nation. Among the other elements may be
mentioned the Juthungi, Bucinobantes, Lentienses, and perhaps the
Armalausi. From the 4th century onwards we hear also of the
Suebi or Suabi. The Hermunduri had apparendy belonged to the
Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new
Suebic tribes had now moved westward. In later times the
names Alamanni and Suebi seem to be synonymous. The tribe
was continually engaged in conflicts with the Romans, the
most famous encounter being that at Strassburg, in which
they were defeated by Julian, afterwards emperor, in the year
357, when their king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. Early
in the 5th century the Alamanni appear to have crossed the
Rhine and conquered and settled Alsace and a large part of
Switzerlafid. Their kingdom lasted until the year 405, when
they were conquered by Clovis, from which time they formed part
of the Frankish dominions. The Alamannic and Swabian dialects
are now spoken in German Switzerland, the southern parts of
Baden and Alsace, Wurttemberg and a small portion of Bavaria.
