onnection in the mind between two ideas,
such that the consciousness of one tends to recall the other, a fact
employed to explain certain recondite psychological phenomena.

ASSOUAN`, the ancient Syene, the southernmost city of Egypt, on the
right bank of the Nile, near the last cataract.

ASSOUCY, D', a French burlesque poet ridiculed by Boileau
(1604-1679).

ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF THE, festival in honour of the translation of
the Virgin Mary to heaven, celebrated on the 15th of August, the alleged
day of the event.

ASSUR, mythical name of the founder of Assyria.

ASSYR`IA, an ancient kingdom, the origin and early history of which
is uncertain, between the Niphates Mountains of Armenia on the N. and
Babylonia on the S., 280 m. long and 150 broad, with a fertile soil and a
population at a high stage of civilisation; became a province of Media,
which lay to the E., in 606 B.C., and afterwards a satrapy of the
Persian empire, and has been under the Turks since 1638, in whose hands
it is now a desert.

ASSYRIOLOGY, the study of the monuments of Assyria, chiefly in a
Biblical interest.

ASTAR`TE, or ASHTORETH, or IST`AR, the female divinity of
the Phoenicians, as Baal was the male, these two being representative
respectively of the conceptive and generative powers of nature, and
symbolised, the latter, like Apollo, by the sun, and the former, like
Artemis or Diana, by the moon; sometimes identified with Urania and
sometimes with Venus; the rites connected with her worship were of a
lascivious nature.

ASTER, of Amphipolis, an archer who offered his services to Philip
of Macedon, boasting of his skill in bringing down birds on the wing, and
to whom Philip had replied he would accept them when he made war on the
birds. Aster, to be revenged, sped an arrow from the wall of a town
Philip was besieging, inscribed, "To the right eye of Philip," which took
effect; whereupon Philip sped back another with the words, "When Philip
takes the town, Aster will hang for it," and he was true to his word.

AS`TEROIDS, or Planetoids, small planets in orbits between those of
Mars and Jupiter, surmised in 1596, all discovered in the present
century, the first on Jan. 1, 1801, and named Ceres; gradually found to
number more than 200.

AS`TI (33), an ancient city in Piedmont, on the Tanaro, 26 m. SE.
from Turin, with a Gothic cathedral; is noted for its wine; birthplace of
Alfieri.

ASTLEY, PHILIP, a famous eq