ARI'ON. William Falconer, author of _The Shipwreck_, speaks of himself under this _nom de plume_ (canto iii). He was sent to sea when a lad, and says he was eager to investigate the "antiquities of foreign states." He was junior officer in the _Britannia_, which was wrecked against the projecting verge of cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica, and was the only officer who survived. Thy woes, Arion, and thy simple tale O'er all the hearts shall triumph and prevail. Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, ii. (1799). _Ari'on_, a Greek musician, who, to avoid being murdered for his wealth, threw himself into the sea, and was carried to Tæ'naros on the back of a dolphin. _Ari'on_, the wonderful horse which Herculês gave to Adrastos. It had the gift of human speech, and the feet on the right side were the feet of a man. (One of the masques in Sir W. Scott's _Kenilworth_ is called "Arion.") ARIO'STO OF THE NORTH, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). And, like the Ariosto of the North, Sang ladye-love and war, romance and knightly worth. Byron, _Childe Harold_, iv. 40. ARISTÆ'US, protector of vines and olives, huntsmen and herdsmen. He instructed man also in the management of bees, taught him by his mother Cyrenê. In such a palace Aristæus found Cyrenê, when he bore the plaintive tale Of his lost bees to her maternal ear. Cowper, _The Ice Palace of Anne of Russia_. ARISTAR'CHUS, any critic. Aristarchus of Samothrace was the greatest critic of antiquity. His labors were chiefly directed to the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ of Homer. He divided them into twenty-four books each, marked every doubtful line with an obelos, and every one he considered especially beautiful with an asterisk. (Fl. B.C. 156; died aged 72.) The whole region of belle lettres fell under my inspection.... There, sirs, like another Aristarch, I dealt out fame and damnation at pleasure.--Samuel Foote, _The Liar_, i. 1. "How, friend," replied the archbishop, "has it [_the homily_] met with any Aristarchus [_severe critic_]?"--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, vii. 4 (1715). ARISTE (2 _syl_.), brother of Chrysale (2 _syl_.), not a _savant_, but a practical tradesman. He sympathizes with Henriette, his womanly niece, against his sister-in-law Philaminte (3 _syl_.) and her daughter Armande (2 _syl_.), who _femmes savantes_.--Molière, _Les Femmes Savantes_ (1672). ARISTE'AS, a poet who continued to appear and disappear alternately for above 400 years, and who visited all the mythical nations of the earth. When not in the human form, he took the form of a stag.--_Greek Legend_. ARISTI'DES (_The British_), Andrew Marvell, an influential member of the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II. He refused every offer of promotion, and a direct bribe tendered to him by the lord treasurer. Dying in great poverty, he was buried, like Aristidês, at the public expense (1620-1678).