autograph some conclusions might be drawn as to the mental characteristics of the writer. It is doubtless true that temperament will in some degree affect handwriting, but the conditions to be taken into account are so numerous and variable that the attempt to infer the one from the other seems practically hopeless. Poe, in his ingenious "Chapter on Autography" (Works, Ed. Ingram, vol. iv.), speaks very strongly on this subject. He thinks that none but the unreflecting can deny "that a strong analogy does generally and naturally exist between every man's chirography and character," and to support his statement compares the signatures and mental characteristics of a large number of contemporary American writers. In many cases, however, he is obliged to confess that no inference whatever can be drawn, in some others the analogy is extremely forced, and in others, again, the knowledge of the writer's character has evidently furnished the key for the interpretation of the handwriting. The value placed by an amateur on any autograph will, of course, vary with the celebrity of its author and the scarcity of genuine specimens. The taste for collecting autographs is not confined to modern times; many large collections, e.g., those of Loménie de Brienne, of Lacroix du Maine, and others, were formed in the 16th century, and during the same period we know that albums used to be carried about for the purpose of obtaining the signatures of famous personages. One of these albums preserved in the British Museum is of date 1578. There are at present many valuable public and private collections, while state papers and archives, of course, contain a rich harvest of royal and noble signatures. Fac-similes of original manuscripts appear first to have been printed in Forbes's Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1740-41; and soon after, several were given in Fenn's Original Letters from the Archives of the Paston Family, 1787.
The following are, perhaps, the most useful works on the subject:—J. G. Nichol's Autographs of Royal, Noble, Learned, and Remarkable Personages conspicuous in English History, from the Reign of Richard II. to that of Charles II., Lond. 1829; Autographic Mirror, 1864, sqq.; Netherclift, Handbook of Autographs; Phillips and Netherclift, Autographic Album; Simms, Autographic Souvenir; Netherclift and Simms, Autographic Miscellany; Isographie des Hommes Célebrès, 4 vols. 1829-43; Iconographie des Contemporains, 2 vols. 1823-32; Feuillet de Conches, Causeries d'un Curieux, 3 vols. 1862-64; Lescure, Les Autographes, 1865; Günther und Schulz, Handbuch für Autographensammler, 1856; Sammlumg historisch berühmter Autographen, 1846; Autographen Album zur 200 jähr. Gedächtnissfeier des Westphälischen Friedens-schlusses, 1848.
AUTOLYCUS of Pitane, in Æolis, was one of the earliest Greek writers on mathematics and astronomy. As he is said to have given instruction to Arcesilaus, he probably flourished about the middle of the 4th century B.C. His extant works consist of two treatises ; the one, epl /avou,u,V?7s ox^cupas, contains some simple propositions on the motion of the sphere, the other, Trepl eVtroAwv /cat Suo-ewv, in two books, discusses the rising and setting of the fixed stars. Neither treatise is of much scientific value. There are several Latin versions of Autolycus, and a French translation by Forcadel, 1572.
AUTOMATON (from auro s, self, and /xaw, to seize), a
self-moving machine, or one in which the principle of
motion is contained within the mechanism itself. Accord
ing to this description, clocks, watches, and all machines
of a similar kind, are automata, but the word is generally
applied to contrivances which simulate for a time the
motions of animal life. If the human figure and actions
be represented, the automaton has sometimes been called
specially an androides. Ye have very early notices of the
construction of automata, e.g., the tripods of Vulcan, and
the moving figures of Daedalus. 400 years B. c. , Archytas of
Tarentumis said to have made a wooden pigeon that could
fiy ; and during the Middle Ages numerour instances of
the construction of automata are recorded. Regiomontanus
is said to have made an iron fly, which would nutter round
the room and return to his hand, and also an eagle, which
flew before the Emperor Maximilian when he was entering
Nuremberg. Roger Bacon is said to have forged a brazen
head which spoke, and Albertus Magnus to have had an an
droides, which acted as doorkeeper, and was broken to pieces
by Aquinas. Of these, as of some later instances, e.g., the
figure constructed by Descartes and the automata exhibited
by Dr Camus, not much is accurately known. But in the
18th century, Vaucanson, the celebrated mechanician,
exhibited three admirable figures, the flute-player, the
tambourine-player, and the duck, which was capable of
eating, drinking, and imitating exactly the natural voice of
that fowl. The means by which these results had been
produced were clearly seen, and a great impulse was given
to the construction of similar figures. Knauss exhibited
at Vienna an automaton which wrote ; a father and son
named Droz constructed several ingenious mechanical
figures which wrote and played music ; Kaufmann and
Maelzel made automatic trumpeters who could play several
marches. The Swiss have always been celebrated for their
mechanical ingenuity, and they construct most of the
curious toys, such as flying and singing birds, which are
frequently met with in industrial exhibitions. The
greatest difnculty has generally been experienced in devis
ing any mechanism which shall successfully simulate the
human voice. No attempt has been thoroughly suc
cessful, though many have been made. The figure ex
hibited by Fabermann of Vienna is, perhaps, as yet the
best. No notice of automata can be complete without at
least a reference to Kempelen s famous chess player, which
for many years astonished and puzzled Europe. This figure,
however, was no true automaton, although the mechanical
contrivances for concealing the real performer and giving
effect to his desired movements were exceedingly ingenious.
AUTUN, the capital of an arrondissement of the same
name in the department of Saone and Loire, in France, is
picturesquely situated on the declivity of a hill, at the
foot of which flows the Arroux. It is one of the most
ancient towns of France ; and when Caesar invaded Gaul
it was the most important of the yEdui. Its name was
then Bibracte, but being afterwards much improved and
embellished by Augustus it took that of Augustodunum.
In the later days of the Roman empire it was a flourishing
city, and consequently attracted the barbarian bands.
It was successively plundered and burned by the Vandals
in 406, the Burgundians in 414, the Huns in 451, the
Franks in 534, the Saracens in 739, and the Normans in
895. It was burned by the English in 1379, and besieged
in 1591 by D Aumont. Yet in spite of all these disastrous
events, its former greatness is attested by many Roman and
other remains, among which are large masses of its ancient
walls, two gates in admirable preservation, called the Porte
d Arroux and the Porte Saint-Andre, the walls of the so-
called temple of Janus, and a pyramid in the neighbour-
bouring village of Couard, in which some recognise a monu
ment to Divitiacus. The cathedral is a structure of the
llth and 12th centuries, and is surmounted by a remark
able spire of the 15th. Autun is the seat of a bishopric,
and has a college, a diocesan seminary, a museum, which is
very rich in medals and other minor antiquities, a library,
a theatre, &c., with tribunals of primary jurisdiction and
commerce. It has manufactures of cotton goods, hosiery,
carpets, leather, and paper, with a considerable trade in
timber, hemp, and cattle. Population in 1872, 11,684.
AUVERGNE, a district, and formerly a province, of
France, corresponding to the departments of Cantal and
Fuy-de-D6me, with the arrondissement of Brioude in Haute-
Loirs. It is divided into Lower and Upper by the River
