ADAMNAN, ST. (625?-704).--Historian, _b._ in Donegal, became Abbot of
Iona in 679. Like other Irish churchmen he was a statesman as well as an
ecclesiastic, and appears to have been sent on various political
missions. In the great controversy on the subject of the holding of
Easter, he sided with Rome against the Irish Church. He left the earliest
account we have of the state of Palestine in the early ages of the
Church; but of even more value is his _Vita Sancti Columbæ_, giving a
minute account of the condition and discipline of the church of Iona. He
_d._ 704.


ADAMS, FRANCIS, W.L. (1862-1893).--Novelist, was _b._ at Malta, and _ed._
at schools at Shrewsbury and in Paris. In 1882 he went to Australia, and
was on the staff of _The Sydney Bulletin_. In 1884 he _publ._ his
autobiographical novel, _Leicester_, and in 1888 _Songs of the Army of
the Night_, which created a sensation in Sydney. His remaining important
work is _Tiberius_ (1894), a striking drama in which a new view of the
character of the Emperor is presented. He _d._ by his own hand at
Alexandria in a fit of depression caused by hopeless illness.


ADDISON, JOSEPH (1672-1719).--Poet, essayist and statesman, was the _s._
of Lancelot Addison, Dean of Lichfield. _B._ near Amesbury, Wilts., A.
went to the Charterhouse where he made the acquaintance of Steele
(_q.v._), and then at the age of fifteen to Oxford where he had a
distinguished career, being specially noted for his Latin verse. Intended
at first for the Church, various circumstances combined to lead him
towards literature and politics. His first attempts in English verse took
the form of complimentary addresses, and were so successful as to obtain