Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/764

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
ABC—XYZ

718 X E N X E N at Firando, he went to Amanguchi (Yamaguclii), capital of Suwo, and there presented himself to the daimio in some state, bringing him valuable presents. He was allowed to preach, and had some success, which encouraged him to proceed to Fucheo, capital of the fief of Bungo (Bugo), where his mission prospered more than anywhere else in Japan ; and, feeling that he could now safely leave the work in other hands, he quitted that empire in 1551, in tending to attemp.t next the conversion of China. On board the "Santa Cruz," the vessel in which he sailed to Malacca, he discussed this project with Diego Pereira, the captain, and devised the plan of persuading the viceroy of Portuguese India to despatch an embassy to China, in whose train he might enter, in despite of the law which then excluded foreigners from that empire. He reached Goa in February 1552, and after settling some disputes which had arisen in his absence obtained from the viceroy consent to the plan of a Chinese embassy and to the nomination of Pereira as envoy. Large sums for the necessary expenses were contributed by the treasury, by Pereira himself, and by subscriptions from private persons interested in the missionary part of the scheme. Xavier left India on 25th April 1552 and betook himself to Malacca, there to meet Pereira and to re-embark on the "Santa Cruz." But Alvaro d Ataide, governor of Malacca, had a private grudge against Pereira, and besides desired the Chinese embassy for himself, and therefore threw diffi culties in the way of the expedition, though Xavier, anticipating something of the kind, had procured for him the high office of captaincy of the neighbouring seas, and had also provided himself with stringent orders from the viceroy for the furtherance of his object, with threats of punishment for disobedience. Ataide, however, paid no attention to them, and laid an embargo on the "Santa Cruz." Xavier, who with characteristic modesty had kept his dignity as papal nuncio private (save for exhibit ing the brief to the bishop at Goa on his first arrival in India), determined to avail himself of it now, and desired the vicar-general of Malacca to inform the governor, and to remind him that such as impeded a nuncio in the dis charge of his office were subject to excommunication by the pope himself. Ataide paid no more regard to the papal brief than he had done to the viceroy s letter, and even charged Xavier with having forged it, if not both docu ments, while the people of Malacca sided with him against Xavier and Pereira. At last, however, he agreed to a com promise. The embassy was stopped and Pereira detained, while some of the governor s people were substituted for as many of the crew of the " Santa Cruz," in which Xavier and two companions were allowed to proceed. The vicar- general asked him to take formal leave of the governor; but he refused, saying that they would meet no more till the day of judgment, when Ataide must give account for his resistance to the spread of the gospel, and, shaking the dust of Malacca from his shoes, he embarked 16th July After a short stay at Singapore, whence he de spatched several letters to India and Europe, the ship at the_end of August 1552 reached San-chan (Chang-chuang), an island at no great distance from Canton, which served as port and rendezvous for Europeans, not then admitted to trade directly with China. Xavier was seized with fever noon after his arrival, and Avas, in addition, delayed by the failure of the interpreter he had engaged, as well as by the reluctance of the Portuguese to attempt the voyage to Canton for the purpose of landing him. He arranged for s passage in a Chinese junk and had made all other reparations for starting, when he was again attacked by ever, and died on 2d December 1552. He was buried close to the cabin where he had died, but his body was later transferred to Malacca, and thence to Goa, where it still lies. He was beatified by Paul V. in 1G19 and canonized by Gregory XV. in 1G21. The chief : uthorities for the life of St Francis Xavier are DC Vita, Sancti Frcvticisci Xaverii Libri VI., by the Jesuit Torsellino (Tur- sellinus), Rome, 1596, of which there is a vigorous English version, Paris, 1632 ; another biography by Lucena, Lisbon, 1000 ; his Letters, published in seven books by the Jesuit Poussincs (Pos- sinus), Rome, 1667 ; a fuller collection of the Letters by another Jesuit, Menchacha, Bologna, 1795, translated into French by Leon Pages, Paris, 1854 ; Faria y Souza, Asia, Portuyucsa, Lisbon, 1655 ; Bouhours, Vie de St Francois Xavier, Paris, 1684 ; Bartoli, Asia, part i., Rome, 1653 ; H. J. Coleridge, Life and Letters of St Francis Xavier, London, 1872 ; while a graphic sketch of the more striking episodes is to be found in Sir James Stephen s article on the "Founders of Jesuitism," reprinted in his Assays in Ecclesi astical Biography, London, 1849. (R. F. L.) XENIA, a city of the United States, the county seat cf Greene county, Ohio, is situated in the midst of a rich agricultural region, and on the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St Louis and the Dayton, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Bail- ways. It is one of the oldest cities of Ohio, having been laid out in 1803. It is the seat of the Methodist Episco pal Xenia college (1850), a Presbyterian theological semi nary (1794), and Wilberforce university (1863), this last designed for the education of coloured youth of both sexes. The population in 1880 was 7026. XENOCRATES of Chalcedon, scliolarch or rector of the Academy from 339 to 314 B.C., was born in 396. Removing to Athens in early youth, he became the pupil of the Socratic ^Eschines, but presently joined himself to Plato, whom he attended to Sicily in 361. Upon his master s death (347 B.C.), in company with Aristotle he paid a visit to Hermias at Atarneus. In 339. Aristotle being then in Macedonia, Xenocrates succeeded Speusippus in the presidency of the school, defeating his competitors Menedemus and Heracleides by a few votes. On three occasions he was member of an Athenian legation, once to Philip, twice to Antipater. Soon after the death of Demosthenes in 322, resenting the Macedonian influence then dominant at Athens, Xenocrates declined the citizen ship offered to him at the instance of Phocion, and, being unable to pay the tax levied upon resident aliens, Avas, it is said, sold, or on the point of being sold, into slavery. He died in 314, and was succeeded as scliolarch by Polemon, whom he had reclaimed from a life of profligacy. Besides Polemon, the statesman Phocion, Chseron tyrant of Pellene, the Academic Grantor, the Stoic Zeno, and Epicurus are alleged to have frequented his lectures. Xenocrates s earnestness and strength of character won for him universal respect, and stories were remembered in proof of his purity, integrity, and benevolence. Wanting in quickness of apprehension and in native grace, he made up for these deficiencies by a conscientious love of truth and an untiring industry. Less original than Speusippus, lie adhered more closely to the letter of Platonic doctrine, and is accounted the typical representative of the Old Academy. In his writings, which were numerous, he seems to have covered nearly the whole of the Academic programme ; but metaphysics and ethics were the subjects which principally engaged his thoughts. He is said to have invented, or at least to have emphasized, the tripartitioii of philosophy under the heads of physic, dialectic, and ethic. In his ontology Xenocrates built upon Plato s foundations : that is to say, with Plato he postulated ideas or numbers to be the causes of nature s organic products, and derived these ideas or numbers from unity (which is active) and plurality (which is pass ive). But he put upon this fundamental dogma a new interpreta tion. According to Plato, existence is mind pluralizcd : mind as a unity, i.e., universal mind, apprehends its own plurality as eternal, immutable, intelligible ideas ; and mind as a plurality, i.e., particular mind, perceives its own plurality as transitory, mutable, sensible things. The idea, inasmuch as it is a law of universal mind, which in particular minds produces aggregates of sensations called things, is a "determinant" (Tracts ^x oi/ )> an( l as sucn ^ s styled "quantity" (iroffiv) and perhaps "number" (dpi6fj.6t) ; but the ideal numbers are distinct from arithmetical numbers, and the elements of ideal numbers from the elements of arithmetical num bers. _ Xenocrates, however, failing, as it would seem, to grasp the

idealism which was the metaphysical foundation of Plato s theory