ATHEIST

(Gr.a, tvithout, and ^io;, God; without God.) One who denies the existence of a God, or a Providence. ATHENiEUM. (Greek.) In Antiquity, a public place where the profe ors of the liberal arts held their a emblies, the rhetoricians declaimed, and the poets rehearsed their performances. There were various places of this kind at Athens. The emperor Adrian established a famous Athenaeum on the Capitoline hill at Rome, and at a later period there was another of nearly equal celebrity at Lyons. In modern times the name has been frequently bestowed upon establishments connected with learning, and upon public clubs or libraries frequented for convivial or literary purposes. [s. 115]