ADOLPHUS, John, historian and barrister, was born in London on the 7th August 1768. He was educated under the care of a grand-uncle, and after making a voyage to the West Indies was enrolled as an attorney about the year 1790. Called to the bar in 1807, he devoted himself to practice in criminal causes, and in a few years attained a leading position among Old Bailey counsel. His masterly defence of Thistlewood and the Cato Street conspirators, for which he had been retained only a few hours before the trial, did much to extend his reputation. He was very skilful in the management of his cases, but his hastiness of temper frequently led to unseemly altercations with other counsel. He held a good position in society, and was on terms of intimacy with the leading literary men of the day. The History of England from the Accession of George III. to 1783, which he published in 1802, was favourably noticed in the Edinburgh Review for its impartiality and accuracy. A new and enlarged edition of this work, in eight volumes, was in preparation, but only seven volumes were completed when the author died, 16th July 1845. His other literary works were— Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution (1799); The British Cabinet (1799); History of France from 1790 to 1802 (1803); Memoirs of John Bannister.

ADOLPHUS, John Leycester, son of the above, also a distinguished barrister (died 1862), was the first to pierce the mask of the author of Waverley, in a series of critical letters addressed to Richard Heber, which he published in 1821.

one of the names of God. This word in the plural number signifies _my Lords_. The Jews, who either out of respect or superstition, do not pronounce the name of Jehovah, read Adonai in the room of it, as often as they meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. But the ancient Jews were not so scrupulous. Neither is there any law which forbids them to pronounce any name of God.

ADONIS, according to some authors, the son of Theias, king of Assyria, and his daughter Smyrna [Myrrha], was the favourite of Venus. He was fond of hunting; and Venus often warned him not to attack the larger wild beasts; but neglecting the advice, he was killed by a wild boar he had rashly wounded. Venus was inconsolable, and turned him into a flower of a blood colour, supposed by some to be an anemone. Adonis had to spend half the year in the lower regions, but during the other half he was permitted to revisit the upper world, and pass the time with Venus. No grief was ever more celebrated than that of Venus for Adonis, most nations round the Mediterranean having perpetuated the memory of it by anniversary ceremonies. “The tale of Adonis (Keightley’s Mythology) is evidently an eastern myth. His own name and those of his parents refer to that part of the world. He appears to be the same with the Thammuz mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel (viii. 14), and to be a Phoenician personification of the sun, who during part of the year is absent, or, as the legend expresses it, with the goddess of the under world; during the remainder with Astarte, the regent of heaven." Among the Egyptians, Adonis is supposed to have been adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis; but he was sometimes called by the name of Ammuz or Thammuz, the concealed, to denote probably his death or burial. It has been thought it is he the Hebrews call the dead (Ps. cvi. 28, and Lev. xix. 28), because his worshippers wept for him, and represented him as one dead; and at other times they call him the image of jealousy (Ezek. viii. 3, 5), because he was an object of jealousy to other gods. The Syrians, Phoenicians, and Cyprians worshipped Adonis; and Calmet was of opinion that this worship may ...

The text of the Vulgate in Ezek. viii, 14, says, that the Prophet saw women sitting in the temple, and weeping for Adonis; but according to the reading of the Hebrew text, they are said to weep for Thamuz, or Tammuz, the _hidden one_. Among the Egyptians Adonis was adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis. But he was sometimes called by the name of Ammuz, or Tammuz, _the concealed_, probably to denote his death or burial. The Hebrews, in derision, sometimes call him the _dead_, Psalm cvi, 28; Lev. xix, 28; because they wept for him, and represented him as dead in his coffin; and at other times they denominate him the image of jealousy, Ezek. viii, 3, 5, because he was the object of the jealousy of Mars. The Syrians, Phœnicians, and Cyprians, called him Adonis; and Calmet is of opinion that the Ammonites and Moabites designated him by the name of Baal-peor. The manner in which they celebrated the festival of this false deity was as follows: They represented him as lying dead in his coffin, wept for him, bemoaned themselves, and sought for him with great eagerness and inquietude. After this, they pretended that they had found him again, and that he was still living. At this good news they exhibited marks of the most extravagant joy, and were guilty of a thousand lewd practices, to convince Venus how much they congratulated her on the return and revival of her favourite, as they had before condoled with her on his death. The Hebrew women, of whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, celebrated the feasts of Tammuz, or Adonis, in Jerusalem; and God showed the Prophet these women weeping for this infamous god, even in his temple. Fabulous history gives the following account of Adonis: He was a beautiful young shepherd, the son of Cyniras, king of Cyprus, by his own ...