Chapter LIX: Part 59

NOLLEKENS, JOSEPH, sculptor, born in London, son of an Antwerp painter; studied in Rome; his _forte_ lay in busts, of which he modelled a great many, including busts of Garrick, Sterne, Dr. Johnson, Pitt, and Fox, and realised thereby a large fortune; he was a man of no education; his principal work is "Venus with the Sandal" (1737-1813).

NOMINALISM, the name given to the theory of those among the Scholastics who maintained that general notions, which we denote by general terms, are only names, empty conceptions without reality, that there was no such thing as pure thought, only conception and sensuous perception, whereas realists, after Plato, held by the objective reality of universals. And, indeed, it is not as modern philosophy affirms, in the particular or the individual, in which alone, according to the Nominalists, reality resides, but in the universal, in regard to which the particular is nothing if it does not refer.

NONCONFORMISTS, a name originally applied to the clergy of the Established Church of England, some two thousand, who in 1662 resigned their livings rather than submit to the terms of the Act of Uniformity passed on the 24th of August that year, and now applied to the whole Dissenting body in England.

NONES, in the Roman calendar the ninth day before the IDES (q. v.), being the 7th of March, May, July, and October, and the 5th of the rest.

NONJURORS, a name given to that section of the Episcopal party in England who, having sworn fealty to James II., refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III., six of whom among the bishops for their obstinacy were deprived of their sees.

NO-POPERY RIOTS, name given principally to riots in London in June 1780, due to the zeal of LORD GEORGE GORDON (q. v.), ending in the death of near 300 persons.

NORDENSKIÖLD, ERIK, a Swedish naturalist, born in Helsingfors; after several successive voyages and explorations in the Arctic Sea, in which he paid frequent visits to Spitzbergen, where he measured an arc of the meridian, in 1878-79 discovered the North-East Passage by traversing, along the N. shores of Europe and Asia, the whole Arctic Sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific; has written accounts of his expeditions; _b_. 1832.

NORDKYN (i. e. north chin), the most northerly point in Norway, and of the continent of Europe generally.

NORE, MUTINY AT THE, a mutiny in the fleet stationed at the Nore, an anchorage off Sheerness, in the Thames, which broke out on May 20, 1797, and was not suppressed till June 15, for which the ringleaders were tried and hanged.

NORFOLK (455), an eastern maritime county of England, lies N. of Suffolk, and presents a long eastern and northern foreshore (90 m.) to the German Ocean; the Wash lies on the NW. border; light fertile soils, and an undulating, well-watered surface favour an extensive and highly developed agriculture, of which fruit-growing and market-gardening are special features; rabbits and game abound in the great woods and sand-dunes; the chief rivers are the Ouse, Bure, and Yare, and these and other streams form in their courses a remarkable series of inland lakes known as the BROADS (q. v.); its antiquities of Roman and Saxon times are many and peculiarly interesting.

NORFOLK ISLAND, a small precipitous island in the Western Pacific, midway between New Caledonia and New Zealand, 400 m. NW. of the latter; its inhabitants, many of whom came from Pitcairn Island, and now less than 1000, govern themselves under the superintendence of New South Wales.

NORMAN, HENRY, journalist and traveller, born at Leicester; travelled extensively in the East; has written on "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," and "Round the Near East"; has since 1892 been on the staff of the _Daily Chronicle_.

NORMAN ARCHITECTURE, a massive architecture introduced into England, particularly in the construction of churches, abbeys, &c., by the Normans even before the Conquest, which was in vogue in the country till the end of Henry II.'s reign, and which is characterised by the prevalence of the rounded arch.

NORMANDY, an ancient province of France, fronting the English Channel, NE. of Brittany; received its name from the Northmen who, under Rollo, established themselves there in the 10th century; was for a long time an appanage of the English crown after the Norman Conquest; after being taken and retaken, was finally lost to England in 1450; it became practically a part of France when it was taken by Philip Augustus in 1204; it is now represented by the five departments Seine-Inférieure, Eure, Orne, Calvados, and Manche.

NORNAS, in the Norse mythology the three Fates--the Past, the Present, and the Future; maidens or dames who water the roots of IGGDRASIL (q. v.), the ash-tree of existence, and determine the destinies of both gods and men.

NORRKÖPING (36) (north market), a town in Sweden, called the "Scandinavian Manchester," 113 m. SW. of Stockholm, with cotton and woollen factories worked by the water-power of the river Motala, that in falls and rapids rushes through the town.

NORROY KING OF ARMS, a name given to the third king-of-arms, whose province is on the N. side of the Trent, the one on the S. side being called Clarencieux.

NORTH, CHRISTOPHER, a pseudonym of Prof. John Wilson in the "Noctes Ambrosianæ" in _Blackwood's Magazine_.

NORTH, FREDERICK, LORD, English statesman; entered Parliament in 1754, became Tory leader in the House of Commons in 1767, and Prime Minister in 1770; was entirely subservient to the will of the king, George III., and was responsible in that relation for the loss of the American colonies; a coalition was effected in 1783 between him and Fox, to the disgrace of the latter, but it terminated in a few months; he died, Earl of Guildford, blind (1732-1792).

NORTH BERWICK. See BERWICK, NORTH.

NORTH CAPE, the most northerly point in Europe, in the island of Magerö, in 71° N. latitude.

NORTH CAROLINA. See CAROLINA, NORTH.

NORTH SEA or GERMAN OCEAN, between the E. coast of Britain and the Continent, spreads out into the Arctic Ocean, is shallow, is crossed by many sandbanks, and is subject to frequent violent storms; the Dogger Bank, between England and Denmark, 8 to 16 fathoms deep, is rich in fish, especially cod.

NORTH-EAST and NORTH-WEST PASSAGES, the name given to the sea-routes through the Arctic Ocean, the former by the N. of Europe and Asia and the latter by the N. of North America, which the northern nations were ambitious to open up into the Pacific, the access to which by the Capes in the S. was in possession of the fleets of Spain and Portugal; the attempts to achieve it cost much money and much life, and realised no permanent material advantage.

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. See NORTH-EAST.

NORTH-WEST PROVINCES (46,905), a province and lieutenant-governorship of British India, embraces the upper portion of the Ganges Valley and Doab, and reaches from Bengal to the Punjab, enclosing Oudh on all sides but the N.; area twice that of England, is the chief wheat province, and also raises opium, cotton, tea, and sugar; was separated from Bengal in 1835, and with it in 1877 was conjoined Oudh; Allahabad is the capital.

NORTHALLERTON (4), a market-town and capital of the North Riding of Yorkshire, 30 m. NW. of York; in the vicinity was fought the famous Battle of the Standard, in which David I. of Scotland was routed by the English, August 22, 1138.

NORTHAMPTON (70), capital of Northamptonshire, on the Nen, 66 m. NW. of London; has two fine old Norman churches, is the centre of the boot and shoe manufacture, and is actively engaged in brewing, lace-making, &c.; in the outskirts is a popular racecourse; was the scene of Henry VI.'s defeat by the Yorkists on July 10, 1460.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE or NORTHANTS (302), a midland county of England, bordering upon nine others; has an undulating fertile surface, and is distinguished from the surrounding counties by extensive woods and plantations; is chiefly engaged in agriculture and stock-raising; the Nen and the Welland are the principal rivers; among its antiquities are Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Stuart was beheaded, and Burleigh House; the battles of Edgecote (1469) and Naseby (1645) were fought within its borders.

NORTHCOTE, JAMES, English portrait-painter; studied under Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose Life he wrote as well as Titian's; wrote also "Fables" and "Conversations."

NORTHCOTE, SIR STAFFORD HENRY. See IDDESLEIGH, LORD.

NORTHMEN or NORSEMEN, the name given in the Middle Ages to the sea-roving, adventure-loving inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; in their sea-rovings they were little better than pirates, but they had this excuse, their home was narrow and their lands barren, and it was a necessity for them to sally forth and see what they could plunder and carry away in richer lands; they were men of great daring, their early religion definable as the consecration of valour, and they were the terror of the quieter nations whose lands they invaded; at first their invasions were mere raids for plunder, but at length they were satisfied with no less than conquest and the permanent occupancy of the lands they subdued, settling some of them on the shores of England and France, and even in the S. of Italy; these invasions were common and frequent during the whole of the 9th and the early part of the 10th centuries.

NORTHUMBERLAND (506), the most northerly county of England, lies on the border of Scotland, from which it is separated by the Cheviots and the Tweed; its eastern shore, off which lie the Farne Islands, Lindisfarne, and Coquet Isle, N. of Durham, fronts the North Sea; is fifth in size of the English counties; in the N. the Cheviot slopes form excellent pasturage, but the Pennine Range towards the W. presents dreary and less valuable moorland; on the W. are arable lowlands; Tweed, Tyne, Till, Alne, Wansbeck, are the chief rivers. Its great coal-field in the S.E. is the most celebrated in the world, and is the county's greatest source of wealth, and includes upwards of 100 collieries; Newcastle, Alnwick (county town), Hexham, and North Shields are the principal towns. Within its borders were fought the battles of Otterburn, Homildon Hill, and Flodden.

NORTHUMBRIA, one of the ancient English kingdoms; comprised the eastern half of the island from the Humber to the Firth of Forth, and was divided into the Northern Bernicia and the southern Deira; was founded in 547 by Ida the Angle.

NORTHWICH (14), a town in Cheshire, with springs in and around of brine, from which salt has been procured for centuries.

NORTON, CHARLES EDWARD, American littérateur, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts; has travelled a good deal in Europe; edited, with Lowell, the _North American Review_ and the early Letters of Carlyle, as well as the "Reminiscences," which had been too carelessly edited by Froude; _b_. 1827.

NORTON, MRS., English novelist and poet, _née_ Sheridan, granddaughter of Sheridan, authoress of "Stuart of Dunleath," "Lost and Saved," &c., described by Lockhart as "the Byron of poetesses," figures in Meredith's "Diana of the Crossways" (1808-1877).

NORWAY (2,000), a kingdom of North Europe, comprising the western side of the Scandinavian peninsula, and separated from Sweden on the E. by the Kjölen Mountains; the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans beat upon its long and serrated western seaboard, forcing a way up the many narrow and sinuous fiords; Sogne Fiord, the longest, runs into the heart of the country 100 m.; off the northern coast lie the Loffodens, while the Skerries skirt the E. The country forms a strip of irregular and mountainous coast-land 1160 m. long, which narrows down at its least breadth to 25 m.; 70 per cent, of the surface is uncultivable, and 24 per cent, is forest; the lakes number 30,000, of which Lake Wenner (2136 sq. m.) is the largest; immense glaciers are found in the great mountain barrier, and innumerable rivers run short and rapid courses to the Atlantic and to the Skager-Rak in the S.; the Glommen, flowing into Christiania Fiord, is the largest (400 m.). The climate of the W. coast districts is tempered by the Gulf Stream; inland there is a great decrease in the rainfall, but much intenser cold is experienced. The wealth of the country lies in its forests and fisheries, mines and shipping; only 2 per cent, of the land-surface is under cultivation, and 2.8 per cent is utilised for grazing; the copper, iron, and silver mines are declining. Christiania (the capital) is the centre of the industrial area; the shipping almost equals that of the United States, and ranks third in the world. The Norwegians are intensely democratic (titles and nobility were abolished in 1821), and although under a king, who also includes Sweden in his dominions, they enjoy democratic home rule, no members of the Storthing (Parliament) being paid. Education is free and compulsory, and the bulk of the people are Lutherans. The monetary unit is the _Krone_ (= 1/1½). Norway, originally inhabited by Lapps and Gothic tribes, was first unified by Harold Haarfager (A.D. 863-930), and subsequently welded into a Christian kingdom by his descendant St. Olaf (1015). From 1536 it was held as a conquered province by Denmark up to 1814; in that year it was ceded to Sweden, and received national rights and a free constitution.

NORWICH, 1, an ancient cathedral city and capital of Norfolk (101), situated on the Wensum, immediately above its junction with the Yare, 114 m. NE. of London; its beautiful woodland surroundings have won it the name of "the city in an orchard"; chief of its many fine buildings is the cathedral, a handsome Norman structure, founded in 1096; of the old Norman castle only the keep now stands, crowning a central hill; its celebrated triennial musical festivals began in 1824; textile fabrics are still an important manufacture, but have been superseded in importance by mustard, starch, and iron-ware factories; has been a bishopric since 1094. 2, Capital of New London County (16), Connecticut, on the Thames River, 36 m. SE. of Hartford.

NORWOOD (24), a healthy southern suburban district of London, at one time the locality of a gypsy encampment.

NOSTRADAMUS, a celebrated astrologer, the assumed name of Michel de Notredame, born at St. Remi, Provence; was a medical man by profession, but gave himself to divination, uttered in rhymes in a series of published predictions called "Centuries" (1503-1566).

NOTABLES, THE, name given to certain actual or virtual rulers of the different districts of France, consisting of men of different ranks, summoned together in a time of civic perplexity and trouble to advise the king, and especially the convocation of them summoned at the instance of Controller Colonne, and that assembled at the Château of Versailles on 22nd February 1787 to the number of a "round gross," including seven princes of the blood, and who were "organed out" nine weeks after, their debates proving ineffectual, to be recalled on the 6th November the year following, to "vanish ineffectual again on 12th December, and return no more."

NOTARY PUBLIC, a professional person appointed to certify to a formality required by law as observed in his presence.

NOTRE DAME, celebrated metropolitan church of Paris, situated on the "Ile de la Cité"; it was begun to be erected in 1163 on the site of a prior Merovingian cathedral, which itself had superseded a pagan temple on the spot, and completed, at least the general ensemble of it, in 1230.

NOTTINGHAM (214), capital of Nottinghamshire, on the Trent, 126 m. NW. of London; is a spacious and well-built town, with an arboretum, castle (now an art gallery), two theatres, university college, free library, old grammar-school, racecourse, &c.; is the centre of lace-making and hosiery in England, and manufactures cottons, silks, bicycles, cigars, needles, beer, &c.; a fine granite and iron bridge spans the river.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE (446), a north-midland county of England, lies wedged in between Lincoln (E.) and Derby (N.), and touches York on the N.; embraces the broad, level, and fruitful valley of the Trent, Sherwood Forest, and Wolds in the S.; excepting the Vale of Belvoir in the E., part of the Wolds and the Valley of the Trent, the land is not specially productive; coal and iron ore are found. The principal towns, Nottingham, Newark, Mansfield, &c., are busily engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of lace, hosiery, and various woollen goods; iron-founding and cotton mills are also numerous.

NOUMENA, the philosophical name for realities as distinct from phenomena, which are regarded as but the appearances of reality.

NOVA SCOTIA (450), a province of Canada, lies E. of New Brunswick, facing the Atlantic, which, with its extensions, Bay of Fundy and Gulf of St. Lawrence, all but surrounds it; consists of a peninsula (joined to New Brunswick by Chignecto Isthmus) and the island of Cape Breton, separated by the Gut of Canso; area equals two-thirds of Scotland, short rivers and lakes abound; all kinds of cereals (except wheat and root-crops) are grown in abundance, and much attention is given to the valuable crops of apples, pears, plums, and other fruits; gold, coal, iron, &c., are wrought extensively, manufactures are increasing; the fisheries (mackerel, cod, herring, salmon, &c.), and timber forests are the chief sources of wealth; the province is well opened up by railways, education is free, government is in the hands of a lieutenant-governor, an executive council (9), and a legislative assembly (38); HALIFAX (q. v.) is the capital; climate varies in temperature from 20° below zero to 98° in the shade, fogs prevail in the coast-land; was discovered in 1497 by Cabot, formed a portion of French ACADIE, and finally became British in 1713.

NOVA ZEMBLA, a long and narrow island (sometimes classified as two islands) in the Arctic Ocean, between the Kara Sea and Barentz Sea, 600 m. by 60 m.; the Matochkin Shar, a narrow winding strait, cuts the island into two halves; belongs to Russia, but is not permanently inhabited; is visited by seamen and hunters.

NOVALIS, the _nom de plume_ of Friedrich von Hardenberg, a German author, born at Wiederstädt, near Mansfeld, one of the most prominent representatives of the Romantic school of poets, author of two unfinished romances entitled "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" and "Lehrlinge zu Sais," together with "Geistliche Lieder" and "Hymnen an die Nacht"; was an ardent student of JACOB BOEHME (q. v.), and wrote in a mystical vein, and was at heart a mystic of deep true feeling; pronounced by Carlyle "an anti-mechanist--a deep man, the most perfect of modern spirit seers"; regarded, he says, "religion as a social thing, and as impossible without a church" (1772-1801). See Carlyle's "Miscellanies."

NOVATIAN, a priest of the Church in Rome, a convert from paganism, who in the third century took a severe view of the conduct of those who had lapsed under persecution, particularly the Decian, and insisted that the Church, having no power to absolve them, could not, even on penitence, readmit them, in which protest he was joined by a considerable party named after him Novatians, and who continued to trouble the Church for centuries after his death, assuming the name of Cathari or purists.

NOVEMBER, the eleventh month of the year, so called by the Romans, in whose calendar it was the ninth.

NOVGOROD (21), a noted Russian city, and capital of a government of the same name, is situated on the Volkhof, 110 m. SE. of St. Petersburg; is divided into two parts by the bridged river, contains the cathedral of St. Sophia (11th century); with its foundation in 864 by Rurik, a Scandinavian prince, Russian history begins; was by the 12th century a free State, but in 1471 was put down by the Muscovite Czar Ivan III.; the government of Novgorod (1,290) lies E. of St. Petersburg, embraces the Valdai plateau and hills, is chiefly forest land, and includes some 3000 lakes.

NOX, the Latin for "night," and the name of the "goddess of night." See NYX.

NOYADES, drownages superintended during the Reign of Terror at Nantes by the attorney Carrier, and effected by cramming some 90 priests in a flat-bottomed craft under hatches, and drowning them in mid-stream after scuttling the boat at a signal given, followed by another in which some 138 persons suffered like "sentence of deportation"; of these drownages there are said to have been no fewer first and last than 25.

NUBIA, a large and ill-defined region of North-East Africa, lies between Egypt (N.) and Abyssinia (S.), and stretches from the Red Sea (E.) to the desert (W.); is divided into Lower and Upper Nubia, Dongola being the dividing point; Nubia has in recent times rather fallen under the wider designation of Egyptian Soudan; except by the banks of the Nile the country is bare and arid desert; climate is hot and dry, but quite healthy.

NUMA POMPILIUS, the second king of Rome and the successor of Romulus, its founder, born at Cures, in the Sabine country, and devoted himself to the establishment of religion and laws among his subjects and the training of them in the arts of peace, in which, according to the legend, he was assisted by a nymph EGERIA (q. v.), who lived close by in a grotto, and to whom he had ever and anon recourse for consultation; he was long revered in the Roman memory as the organiser of the State and its civil and sacred institutions, and his reign was long and peaceful.

NUMANTIA, an ancient Spanish town on a steep height on the Douro, celebrated for the heroic defence maintained by its inhabitants against the Romans, till from the thinning of its defenders by starvation and the sword it was taken and destroyed by Scipio Africanus in 134 B.C.

NUMBERS, BOOK OF, the fourth book of the Pentateuch, and so called from the two numberings of the people, one at the beginning and the other at the close of the period it embraces; it embraces a period of 38 years, and continues the narrative from the departure of the camp of Israel out of the wilderness of Sinai to its arrival on the borders of Canaan, and relates an account of the preparations for the march, of the march itself, and of the preparations for the conquest.

NUMIDIA (i. e. land of Nomads), ancient country in North Africa, nearly co-extensive with Algiers, the inhabitants of which were of the Berber race, were brave but treacherous, and excelled in horsemanship; sided at first with the Carthaginians in the PUNIC WARS (q. v.), and finally with Rome, till the country itself was reduced by Cæsar to a Roman province.

NUMISMATICS, the name given to the study and science of coins and medals.

NUMITOR, a legendary king of Alba Longa, in Italy, and the grandfather of Romulus and Remus.

NUNEATON (12), a thriving market-town of Warwickshire, on the river Anker and the Coventry Canal, 22 m. E. of Birmingham; has a Gothic church; cotton, woollen, and worsted spinning is the chief industry; was the scene of George Eliot's education.

NUR ED-DIN, MAHMOUD, sultan of Syria, born at Damascus; the extension of his empire over Syria led to the Second Crusade, preached by St. Bernard; compelled the Crusaders to raise the siege of Damascus, which he made his capital; called to interfere in the affairs of Egypt, he conquered it, and made it his own, a sovereignty which SALADIN (q. v.) disputed, and which Nur ed-Din was preparing to reassert when he died (1117-1178).

NÜREMBERG (143), an interesting old Bavarian town on the Pegnitz, 95 m. N. of Münich, is full of quaint and picturesque mediæval architecture in fine preservation; has valuable art collections, a fine library, and a museum; is noted for the production of watches, toys, wood, metal, bone carvings, beer, and chemicals, and exports large quantities of hops; was made a free imperial city in 1219, and retained independence up to 1806.

NUTATION, name given to a slight oscillatory movement noticeable in the celestial pole of the earth, due to the latter not being a perfect sphere.

NYANZA, ALBERT. See ALBERT NYANZA.

NYANZA, VICTORIA, a large lake of Central Africa, in the Nile basin, at the sources of the river, and S. of the preceding, equal in extent to the area of Scotland, at an elevation of 3890 ft.; discovered by Captain Speke in 1858, and sailed round by Stanley in 1875.

NYASSA, LAKE, lake in East Africa, feeds the Zambesi; is 350 m. long by 40 broad, at an elevation of 1570 ft., and was discovered by Livingstone in 1859; the waters are sweet, and abound with fish; the regions bordering it on the S. and W. are called Nyassaland.

NYASSALAND, a region in Central Africa under British protection, lying round the shores of Lake Nyassa, the chief town of which is Blantyre; it is known also as the British Central Africa Protectorate, the administration being in the hands of a commissioner acting under the Foreign Office; the Europeans number some 300, and the natives 850,000, while the forces defending it consist of 200 Sikhs and 300 negroes; there are plantations of sugar, coffee, tobacco, &c., and almost the entire trade is with Britain.

NYÂYA, the name of one of the six principal systems of Hindu philosophy, and devoted to the dialectics or metaphysics of philosophy.

NYMPHS, in the Greek mythology maiden divinities of inferior rank, inhabiting mountains, groves, seas, fountains, rivers, valleys, grottoes, &c., under the several names of OCEANIDES (q. v.), NEREIDS (q. v.), NAIADS (q. v.), OREADS (q. v.), DRYADS (q. v.), &c.; they are distinguished by their grace and fascinating charms.

NYNEE TAL, a place of resort in the summer season and a sanatorium in the North-West Provinces of India, 22 m. S. of Almora, 6521 ft. above sea-level.

NYX (i. e. Night), in the Greek mythology the goddess of night, the daughter of CHAOS (q. v.), and the sister of EREBOS (q. v.), one of the very first of created beings, the terror of gods, and by Erebos became the mother of Æther, pure light, and Hemera, daylight, as well as other entities of note.

O

OAKHAM (4), county town of Rutland, 17 m. E. of Leicester, in the centre of a fine wheat country; has an old church, a grammar-school founded in 1581, and a castle mostly in ruins; manufactures of boots and hosiery, and carries on malting.

OAKLAND (67), on the E. coast of the Bay of San Francisco, 4½ m. across from San Francisco city, is the capital of Alameda County, California, a beautiful city with tree-lined streets, surrounded by vineyards and orchards; it has a home of the adult blind of the State, manufactures of textile and iron goods, and fruit-canning industries, and is the terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

OAKS, THE, one of the three great classic races in England, run at Epsom; established by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1779 for fillies of 3 years old.

OAKUM, name given to fibres of old tarry ropes sundered by teasing, and employed in caulking the seams between planks in ships; the teasing of oakum is an occupation for prisoners in jails.

OASES, fertile spots in a desert due to the presence of springs or water near at hand underground; met with in the deserts of North Africa, Arabia, and Gobi.

OATES, TITUS, fabricator of a Popish plot for the overthrow of the Protestant faith in England, the allegation of which brought to the block several innocent men; rewarded at first with a pension and safe lodgment in Westminster Hall, was afterwards convicted of perjury, flogged, and imprisoned for Life, but at the revolution was set at liberty and granted a pension of £300 (1650-1705).

OBADIAH, a Hebrew prophet who appears to have lived about 588 B.C., shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, at which the Edomites had assisted, and whose prophecy was written to assure the exiles in Babylon that the judgment of God had gone forth against Edom, and that with the execution of it Israel would be restored.

OBAN (5), a modern town situated in the W. of Argyllshire, on a land-locked bay opening off the Firth of Lorne, is the capital, sometimes called the "Queen," of the Western Highlands, and a fashionable tourist resort; it has excellent railway and steamboat communications, 30 hotels, and has near it two ruined castles, an ancient cave dwelling, and much beautiful scenery; Dunstaffnage Castle is 4 m. to the N. of it, where the early Scottish kings used to be crowned.

OBEID (35), in the Eastern Soudan, 220 m. SW. of Khartoum, is the capital of Kordofan; was the scene in November 1883 of the annihilation by the forces of the Mahdi, after three days' fighting, of an Egyptian army under Hicks Pasha and other English officers; its trade consists of ivory, gold, feathers, and gum.

OBELISK, a tall four-sided pillar, generally monolithic, tapering to a pyramidal pointed top, erected in connection with temples in Egypt, and inscribed all over with hieroglyphs, and in memorial, as is likely, of some historical personage or event; they are of ancient date.

OBER-AMMERGAU, a small village in Bavaria, 45 m. SW. of Münich; famed for the Passion Play performed there by the peasants, some 500 in number, every ten years, which attracts a great many spectators to the spot; the play was instituted in 1634 in token of gratitude for the abatement of a plague.

OBERLIN, JEAN FRIEDRICH, a benevolent Protestant pastor, born at Strasburg; laboured all his life at Ban de la Roche, a wild mountain district of Alsace, and devoted himself with untiring zeal to the spiritual and material welfare of the people, which they rewarded with their pious gratitude and warmest affection.

OBERON, the king of the fairies, and the husband of Titania.

OBI, a river and, with its tributaries, great water highway of West Siberia, which rises in the Altai Mountains, and after a course of 2120 m. falls into the Arctic Ocean.

OBJECTIVE, a philosophical term used to denote that which is true universally apart from all merely private sense or judgment, and finds response in the universal reason, the reason that is common to all rational beings; it is opposed to subjective, or agreeable to one's mere feelings or fancy.

OBLATES, the name given to an organisation of secular priests living in community, founded by St. Charles Borromeo at the end of the 16th century, and who are ready to render any services the bishop may require of them.

OBOE, a treble-sounding musical instrument of the reed class, to which the bassoon is reckoned the bass.

OBELUS, a small coin worth about a penny, according to a custom among the Greeks placed in the mouth of a corpse at burial to pay to Charon to ferry the ghost of it over the Styx.

O'BRIEN, WILLIAM, journalist, and a Nationalist ex-M.P. for Cork; was twice over imprisoned for political offences; had to retire in 1895; _b_. 1852.

O'BRIEN, WILLIAM SMITH, Irish patriot; entered Parliament in 1826; sat for Limerick from 1835 to 1843, when he joined the Repeal Association under O'Connell, but separated from it; joined the physical force Young Ireland party, and became the head; attempted an insurrection, which failed, and involved him in prosecution for treason and banishment for life; a free pardon was afterwards granted on promise of abstaining from all further disloyalty; he died at Bangor, in North Wales (1803-1864).

OBSCURANTIST, name given to an opponent to modern enlightenment as professed by the devotees of modern science and philosophy.

OBSIDIAN, a hard, dark-coloured rock of a glassy structure found in lava, which breaks with conchoidal fracture.

OCCAM or OAKHAM, WILLIAM OF, an English Scholastic philosopher, born at Oakham, Surrey, surnamed _Doctor Invincibilis_; was a monk of the order of St. Francis; studied under DUNS SCOTUS (q. v.), and became his rival, and a reviver of NOMINALISM (q. v.) in opposition to him, by his insistence on which he undermined the whole structure of Scholastic dogmatism, that is, its objective validity, and plunged it in hopeless ruin, but cleared the way for modern speculation, and its grounding of the OBJECTIVE (q. v.) on a surer basis (1280-1347).

OCCASIONALISM, the doctrine that the action of the spiritual organisation on the material, and of the material on the spiritual, or of the inner on the outer, and the outer on the inner, is due to the divine interposition taking occasion of the effort of mind, or of the inner, on the one hand, and the effort of matter, or the outer, on the other, to work the effect or result; or that the link connecting cause and effect in both cases, that is, the acion of the outer world on the inner, and _vice versa_, is God.

OCEANIA, an imaginary commonwealth described by James Harrington (1611-1697) in which the project of a doctrinaire republic is worked out; also a book of Froude's on the English colonies.

OCEANIA, the name given to the clusters of islands, consisting of Australasia in the S., Malaysia in the E. Indian Archipelago, and Polynesia in the N. and E. of the Pacific.

OCEANIDES, the nymphs of the Ocean, all daughters of Oceanus, some 3000 in number.

OCEANUS or OKEANOS, in the Greek mythology the great world-stream which surrounds the whole earth, and is the parent source of all seas and streams, presided over by a Titan, the husband of Tethys, and the father of all river-gods and water-nymphs. He is the all-father of the world, as his wife is the all-mother, and the pair occupy a palace apart on the extreme verge of the world.

OCHILS (i. e. the heights), a range of hills lying NE. and SW. between the valleys of the Forth and Tay; reach their highest point in Ben Cleugh (2363 ft.), near Stirling; the range is 24 m. long by 12 broad, and affords pasture for black-faced sheep; of the peaks of the range Dunmyat is the most striking, as Ben Cleuch is the highest.

OCHILTREE, EDIE, a talkative, kind-hearted gaberlunzie who figures a good deal in Scott's "Antiquary."

OCHINO, BERNARDINO, an Italian monk, born in Sienna; after 40 years' zeal in the service of the Church embraced the Reformed doctrine; fled from the power of the Inquisition to Geneva; took refuge in England; ministered here and there to Italian refugees, but was hunted from place to place; died at last of the plague in Moravia (1487-1564).

OCHTERLONY, SIR DAVID, British general, born at Boston, U.S., of Scottish descent; entered the Indian army; distinguished himself in the war against the Goorkhas; was made a baronet, and received a pension of £1000 for his services; a monument to his memory stands in the Maidan Park, Calcutta (1758-1825).

OCKLEY, SIMON, Orientalist, became professor of Arabic; wrote a "History of the Saracens," part of it in a debtors' prison; died in indigence (1678-1720).

O'CONNELL, DANIEL, Irish patriot, known as the "Liberator," born near Cahirciveen, co. Kerry; educated at St. Omer, Douay, and Lincoln's Inn; was called to the Irish bar in 1798, and was for twenty-two years a famous and prosperous practitioner on the Munster circuit; turning to politics he became leader of the Catholics in 1811, his object being the removal of the Catholic disabilities; the Catholic Association of 1823 was organised by him, which he induced the priesthood to join, and awakened irresistible enthusiasm throughout the country; the electors now began to vote independently, and O'Connell was returned for Clare in 1828; the House refused to admit him; but so strong, and at the same time so orderly, was the agitation in Ireland, that in 1829 the Catholic disabilities were removed, and O'Connell, returned again for Clare, took his seat in the House of Commons; next year he represented Waterford in the new Parliament, and subsequently Kerry, Dublin, Kilkenny, and Cork; he now formed a society for promoting the repeal of the Union, which survived several suppressions, and reappeared under different names; but in spite of his exertions in the House and in the country the cause languished, till, in 1843, as Lord Mayor of Dublin, he carried a resolution in its favour in the City Council; but now under the pressure of less experienced agitators, his monster meetings and other proceedings began to overstep legal limits, and in 1844 he, with six of his supporters, was indicted for raising sedition; he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of £2000, but the sentence was set aside in 14 weeks; by this time the Young Ireland party had broken away from him, the potato famine came, he was conscious of failure, and his health was broken; he died on his way to Rome, at Genoa; a man of great physical strength and energy, and a master of oratory, he gave himself unselfishly to serve his country, sacrificing a legal practice worth £7000 a year, honestly administering the immense sums contributed, and spending his private means for his cause; with an undeniable taint of coarseness, violence, and scurrility in his nature, he was yet a man of independent and liberal mind, an opponent of rebellion, loyal to his sovereign, a great and sincere patriot (1775-1847).

OCTAVIA, the sister of Augustus, a woman distinguished for her beauty and her virtue; was married first to Marcellus, and on his death to Mark Antony, who forsook her for Cleopatra, but to whom she remained true, even, on his miserable end, nursing his children by Cleopatra along with her own; one other grief she had to endure in the death of her son MARCELLUS (q. v.) by her former husband, and the destined successor of Augustus on the throne.

OCTOBER, the tenth month of the year so called (i. e. the eighth) by the Romans, whose year began on March.

OD, name given to a physical force recently surmised and believed to pervade all nature, and as manifesting itself chiefly in connection with mesmeric phenomena.

ODDFELLOWS, the name of several friendly societies. The Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity, is the largest and most important of the number, its membership is over 665,000, and its funds amount to £8,000,000. It has been the pioneer in many important movements of the kind, several of the provisions now compulsory on all societies it observed of its own accord, prior to their enactment; the actuarial tables compiled from its statistics in 1845 by its secretary, Henry Radcliffe, are still a standard work. The Grand United Order of Oddfellows has a membership of 241,000, and funds amounting to £882,000; the National Independent Order of Oddfellows embraces 58,000 members, and has £242,000.

ODER, an important German river, rises in Moravia, and crossing the frontier flows NW. through Silesia, and N. through Brandenburg and Pomerania 550 m. into the Stettiner Haff and so to the Baltic. On its banks stand Ratibor, where navigation ends, Breslau, Frankfort, and Stettin; it receives its chief tributary, the navigable Warthe, on the right, and has canal communication with the Spree and the Elbe.

ODESSA (298), on the Black Sea, 25 m. NE. of the mouth of the Dniester, is the fourth largest city of Russia, and the chief southern port and emporium of commerce. It exports large shipments of wheat, sugar, and wool; imports cotton, groceries, iron, and coal, and manufactures flour, tobacco, machinery, and leather. It is well fortified, and though many of the poor live in subterraneous caverns, is a fine city, with a university, a cathedral, and a public library. It was a free port from 1817 till 1857. The population includes many Greeks and Jews.

ODIN or WODIN, the chief god of the ancient Scandinavians, combined in one the powers of Zeus and Ares among the Greeks, and was attended by two black ravens--Hugin, mind, and Munin, memory, the bearers of tidings between him and the people of his subject-world. His council chamber is in ASGARD (q. v.), and he holds court with his warriors in VALHALLA (q. v.). He is the source of all wisdom as well as all power, and is supposed by Carlyle to have been the deification of some one who incarnated in himself all the characteristic wisdom and valour of the Scandinavian race; Frigga was his wife, and Balder and Thor his sons. See CARLYLE'S "HEROES."

ODO, bishop of Bayeux, brother of William the Conqueror, fought by his side at Hastings; after blessing the troops, was made Earl of Kent, and appointed governor of kingdom during William's absence in Normandy; had great influence in State affairs all along, and set out for the Holy Land, but died at Palermo (1032-1096).

ODOACER, a Hun, son of one of Attila's officers, who entered the Imperial Guards, dethroned Augustulus, and became emperor himself; Zeno, the emperor of the East, enlisted Theodoric of the Ostrogoths against him, who made a treaty with him to be joint ruler of the kingdom of Italy, and assassinated him in 493.

O'DONNELL, LEOPOLD, Spanish soldier and politician, born, of Irish descent, at Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe; entered the army, and attached himself to the cause of Queen Isabella, on whose emergence from her minority in 1843 he was made Governor of Cuba; there he enriched himself by trading in slaves, and returning to Spain threw himself into politics; he joined Espartero's cabinet in 1854, and two years later supplanted him as chief minister; he commanded in the Moorish war of 1858, and was created Duke of Tetuan after the capture of that city; he was again Prime Minister till 1866, and died in exile at Bayonne (1809-1867).

ODYSSEY, an epic poem by Homer relating the ten years' wanderings of Ulysses (Odysseus) after the fall of Troy, and his return at the end of them to his native kingdom of Ithaca. See ULYSSES.

OECOLAMPADIUS, JOANNES, one of the leaders of the Reformation, born at Weinsberg, in Würtemberg; became preacher at Basel, assisted Erasmus in his edition of the New Testament, entered a convent at Augsburg, came under Luther's influence and adopted the reformed doctrine, of which he became a preacher and professor, embraced in particular the views of Zwingli (1482-1531).

OEDIPUS, a mythological king of Thebes, son of Laius and Jocasta, and fated to kill his father and marry his mother; unwittingly slew his father in a quarrel; for answering the riddle of the SPHINX (q. v.) was made king in his stead, and wedded his widow, by whom he became the father of four children; on discovery of the incest Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedipus went mad and put out his eyes.

OEHLENSCHLÄGER, ADAM GOTTLOB, great Danish poet, born at Copenhagen; his poems first brought him into notice and secured him a travelling pension, which he made use of to form acquaintanceship with such men as Goethe and his literary confrères in Germany, during which time he commenced that series of tragedies on northern subjects on which his fame chiefly rests, which include "Hakon Jarl," "Correggio," "Palnatoke," &c.; his fame, which is greatest in the North, has spread, for he ranks among the Danes as Goethe among the Germans, and his death was felt by the whole nation (1779-1850).

OEHLER, GUSTAV, learned German theologian, professor at Tübingen, eminent for his studies and writings on the Old Testament (1812-1872).

OEIL-DE-BOEUF, a large reception-room in the palace of Versailles, lighted by a window so called (ox-eye it means), and is the name given in French history to the French Court, particularly during the Revolution period.

OELAND (37), an island off the SE. coast of Sweden, 55 m. long and about 10 m. broad; has good pasture ground, and yields alum; the fisheries good.

OENONË, a nymph of Mount Ida, near Troy, beloved by and married to Paris, but whom he forsook for Helen; is the subject of one of Tennyson's poems.

OERSTED, HANS CHRISTIAN, a Danish physicist; was professor of Physics in Copenhagen, the discoverer of electro-magnetism, of the compressibility of water, and the metal aluminium; did much to popularise science in a volume entitled "The Soul in Nature" (1777-1851).

OESEL (51), a marshy, well-wooded island at the mouth of the Gulf of Riga, in the Baltic, 45 m. long and 25 m. of average breadth; has some low hills and precipitous coasts; Arensburg (4), on the SE. shore, is the only town; Danish from 1559, the island passed to Sweden in 1645 and to Russia in 1721; the wealthier classes are of German descent.

OFFA'S DYKE, an entrenchment and rampart between England and Wales, 100 m. long, extending from Flintshire as far as the mouth of the Wye; said to have been thrown up by Offa, king of Mercia, about the year 780, to confine the marauding Welsh within their own territory.

OFFENBACH, JACQUES, a musical composer, born at Cologne, of Jewish parents, creator of the _opera bouffe_; was the author of "La Belle Hélène," "Orphée aux Enfers," "La Grande Duchesse," "Madame Favart," &c. (1810-1880)

OFFERTORY, in the Roman Catholic Church a portion of the liturgy chanted at the commencement of the eucharistic service, also in the English the part of the service read during the collection of the alms at communion.

OFTERDINGEN, HEINRICH VON, a famous MINNESINGER (q. v.) of the 15th century.

OGHAM or OGAM, an alphabet of 20 letters in use among the ancient Irish and Celts, found carved on monumental stones in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and the North of Scotland.

OGLETHORPE, JAMES EDWARD, English general, born in London; served in the Marlborough wars, sat in Parliament for several years, conceived the founding of a colony for debtors in prison, and founded Georgia; returning to England, fought against the Pretender, and died in Essex (1696-1785).

OGOWE`, a West African river, 500 m. long, rises in the Akukuja plateau, and following a semicircular course northward and westward enters the Atlantic by a delta at Cape Lopez, its course lying wholly within French Congo territory; in the dry season its volume is much diminished, and its many sandbanks prevent its navigation except by small boats.

O'GROAT'S HOUSE, JOHN. See JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE.

OGYGES, a Boeotian autochthon, the legendary first king of Thebes, which is called at times Ogygia, in whose reign a flood, called the Ogygian after him, inundated the land, though some accounts make it occur in Attica.

OGYGIA, a mythological island of Homeric legend, situated far off in the sea, and the home of the sorceress CALYPSO (q. v.).

OHIO (3,672), a State of the American Union, a third larger than Scotland, stretches northward from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, between Pennsylvania and Indiana. It consists of level and undulating plains, on which are raised enormous crops of wheat and maize. Sheep-grazing and cattle-rearing are very extensive; its wool-clip is the largest in America. There are valuable deposits of limestone and freestone, and in output of coal Ohio ranks third of the States. The manufactures are very important; it ranks first in farm implements, and produces also wagons, textile fabrics, and liquors. In the N. excellent fruit is grown. The capital is Columbus (88), the largest city is Cincinnati (297). Admitted to the Union in 1803, it boasts among its sons four Presidents--Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison.

OHIO RIVER, formed by the confluence of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, pursues a westward course of 1000 m., separating Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from West Virginia and Kentucky, and after receiving sundry tributaries joins the Mississippi, being the largest and, next to the Missouri, the longest of its affluents; it is navigable for the whole of its course; on its banks stand Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Madison.

OHM, GEORG SIMON, a German physicist, born at Erlangen; discovered the mathematical theory of the electric current, known as Ohm's Law, a law based on experiment, that the strength of the electric current is equal to the electro-motive force divided by the resistance of the wire (1787-1854).

OHNET, GEORGES, French novelist, born in Paris; author of a series of novels in a social interest, entitled "Les Batailles de la Vie;" _b_. 1848.

OIL CITY (11), on the Alleghany River, Pennsylvania, by rail 130 m. N. of Pittsburg, is the centre of a great oil-trade and oil-refining industry; there are also engineer and boiler works; it suffered severely from floods in 1892.

OKA, a river of Central Russia, which rises in Orel and flows N., then E., then N. again, joining the Volga at Nijni-Novgorod after a course of over 700 m., navigable nearly all the way; on its banks are Orel, Kaluga, and Riazan, while Moscow stands on an affluent.

OKEN, LORENZ, German naturalist; was professor first at Jena, then at Münich, and finally at Zurich, his settlement in the latter being due to the disfavour with which his political opinions, published in a journal of his called the _Iris_, were received in Germany; much of his scientific doctrine was deduced from a transcendental standpoint or by _a priori_ reasonings; is mentioned in "Sartor" as one with whom Teufelsdröck in his early speculations had some affinity (1779-1851).

OKHOTSK, SEA OF, an immense sheet of water in Eastern Siberia, lying between the peninsula of Kamchatka and the mainland, with the Kurile Islands stretched across its mouth; is scarcely navigable, being infested by fogs.

OKLAHOMA (62), a United States territory, stretching southward from Kansas to the Red River, with Texas on the W. and Indian Territory on the E., is a third larger than Scotland, and presents a prairie surface crossed by the Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian Rivers, and rising to the Wichita Mountains in the S. There are many brackish streams; the rainfall is light, hence the soil can be cultivated only in parts. Ceded to the United States under restrictions by the tribes of the Indian Territory in 1866, there were various attempts by immigrants from neighbouring States to effect settlements in Oklahoma, which the Government frustrated by military interference, maintaining the treaty with the Indians till 1889, when it finally purchased from them their claim. At noon on April 22, 1889, the area was opened for settlement, and by twilight 50,000 had entered and taken possession of claims. The territory was organised in 1890; embedded in it lies the Cherokee Outlet, still held by the Indians, but on the extinction of their interests to revert to Oklahoma. The chief town is Oklahoma (5).

OKUMA, COUNT, a Japanese, rose into office from the part he took in the Japanese Revolution of 1868, held in succession but resigned the offices of Minister of Finance and of Foreign Affairs, organised the Progressive Party in 1881, and entered office again in 1896; organised in 1898 the first government for a time in Japan on a party basis agreeably to his idea.

OLAF, ST., a Norwegian king; wrested the throne from Eric, and set himself to propagate Christianity by fire and sword, excited disaffection among his people, who rebelled and overpowered him with the assistance of Cnut of Denmark, so that he fled to his brother-in-law, Jaroslav of Russia; by his help he tried to recover the throne, put was defeated and slain, his body being buried in Trondhjem; he was canonised in 1164, and is patron saint of Norway.

OLAÜS, the name of three early kings of Sweden and of five of Norway, who figured more or less in the history of their respective countries.

OLBERS, HEINRICH, German astronomer, born near Bremen; discovered five of the comets and the two planetoids Pallas and Vesta (1758-1840).

OLD BAILEY, a Court or Sessions house adjoining NEWGATE (q. v.), in London, for the trial of offences committed within a certain radius round the city, and practically presided over by the Recorder and the Common Serjeant of London, though theoretically by the Lord Mayor, Lord Chancellor, and others.

OLD CATHOLICS, a section of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and Switzerland that first announced itself in Münich on the declaration in 1870 of the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope, the prime movers in the formation of the protestation against which were Dr. Döllinger and Professor Friedrich, backed by 44 professors of the university; the movement thus begun has not extended itself to any considerable extent.

OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN, a name given to Hassan ben Sabbah, the founder in the 11th century and his successors of a formidable Mohammedan dynasty in Syria, whose residence was in the mountain fastnesses of the country, and whose following was known by the name of ASSASSINS (q. v.).

OLD MAN OF THE SEA, a monster Sindbad the Sailor encountered on his fifth voyage, who fastened on his back and so clung to him that he could not shake him off till he made him drunk.

OLD MORTALITY, a character in Scott's novel of the name, the original of which was one Robert Paterson, who, as related of him, went about the country visiting the churchyards, and renewing the moss-covered tombs of the COVENANTERS (q. v.).

OLD NOLL, an epithet applied by his Royalist contemporaries to Oliver Cromwell.

OLDBUCK, JONATHAN, the antiquary in Scott's novel of the name, devoted to the study and collection of old coins, a man with an irritable temper, due to disappointment in a love affair.

OLDBURY (20), a busy manufacturing town in Worcestershire, 3 m. E. of Dudley, has chemical, iron, and steel works, and factories of various kinds.

OLDCASTLE, SIR JOHN, Lord Cobham, distinguished himself in arms under Henry IV. in 1411, embraced Lollardism, which he could not be prevailed on to renounce, though remonstrated with by Henry V.; was tried for heresies and committed to the Tower, but escaped to Wales; charged with abetting insurrection on religious grounds, and convicted, his body was hung in chains as a traitor, and in this attitude, as a heretic, burned to death in 1417; he was a zealous disciple of Wiclif, and did much to disseminate his principles.