"Paradise Regained," and notes, and wrote "Dissertations on the
Prophecies" (1704-1782).
NEY, MICHEL, peer and marshal of France, born at Sarrelouis, son of
a cooper; entered the army as a private hussar in 1797; distinguished
himself by his bravery in the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and
earned for himself from the army under Napoleon, and from Napoleon
himself, the title of the "Brave of the braves"; on Napoleon's abdication
in 1814 he attached himself to Louis XVIII., but on his return from Elba
he joined Ins old master, and stood by him during the hundred days; on
the second Restoration he was arrested, tried by his peers, and shot
(1769-1815).
NGAMI, LAKE, a shallow sheet of water 50 m. long in S. Africa, on
the borders of the Kalahari Desert, which is always changing its margin,
is at one time, from the rains, sweet and drinkable, and at another time,
from drought, saline; it is infested with crocodiles, and swarms with
fish.
NIAGARA, a section of the St. Lawrence River, in N. America,
extending between Lakes Erie and Ontario, having a descent throughout its
course of 36 m. of 326 ft., the Falls, preceded and succeeded by rapids,
being the largest in the world, the Canadian or Horse Shoe Fall being
2640 ft. wide, with a descent of 158 ft., and the American Fall being
one-third of the width of the Canadian, and with a descent of over 162
ft.
NIAM-NIAM, a people of the E. Soudan, SE. of Darfur, occupying
territory between the basins of the Nile and the Congo.
NIBELUNG, king of the Nibelungen, a mythical Burgundian tribe, the
fabulous possessor of a hoard of wealth so inexhaustible that "twelve
waggons in twelve days, at the rate of three journeys a day, could not
carry it off," and which he bequeathed to his two sons on his deathbed,
by the vanquishing of whom the hoard fell into the hands of the
redoubtable hero Siegfried.
NIBELUNGEN LIED (i. e. Lay of the Nibelungen), an old German epic,
of date, it is presumed, earlier than the 12th century; it consists of
two parts, the first ending with the murder of Siegfried by Hagen, his
wresting of the hoard (see _SUPRA_) from his widow, Kriemhild, and
burying it at the bottom of the Rhine, and the second relating the
vengeance of Kriemhild and the annihilation of the whole Burgundian race,
Kriemhild included, to whom the treasure had originally belonged; to the
latter part the name of the Nibelungen Not (or Distress) has been given.
NICARAGUA (313, mostly mulattoes and negroes), the largest and
richest of five republics occupying Central America, stretches across the
isthmus from the Pacific to the Caribbean Sea, between Honduras (N.) and
Costa Rica (S.); the Cordilleras traverse the heart of the country, and
the immense valleys of the W. are remarkable for the two great southern
lakes, Nicaragua and Managua, which are studded with volcanic islands;
rich in gold, silver, copper, and coal, with vast forests of mahogany,
rosewood, &c., splendid pastures and a fertile soil; the country has
through misgovernment and a bad climate remained in a backward state; in
recent times more has been done; hides, bananas, coffee, and india-rubber
are the chief exports, and a considerable deal of mining goes on; the
great ship-canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean, begun in 1889 by a
U.S. company, is not yet completed; Managua (18) is the capital; asserted
its independence from Spain in 1821, and has since been rent by countless
revolutions; a president and a congress of 48 administer its affairs.
NICE or NICÆA, an ancient city of Bithynia, in Asia Minor,
celebrated as the seat of two oecumenical councils of the Church, the
first, presided over by Constantine in 325, which condemned Arianism, and
the second, under the Empress Irene in 787, which deliberated on
image-worship.
NICE (74), capital of the department Alpes-Maritimes, France,
charmingly situated on the Mediterranean coast near the Italian border,
terraced hills shelter it on the N., and its genial and equable climate
make it a favourite winter resort for invalids; the Paglione, a small
stream, divides the old and modern portion; Castle Hill, with ruins and
pleasure gardens, the cathedral, art-gallery, &c., are features of
interest; olive-oil is the chief export, and artistic pottery, perfumery,
&c., are manufactured.
NICENE CREED, a creed established as orthodox at NICE (q. v.),
which affirmed as against Arianism that Christ as Son of God was
not merely of _like_ substance, but of the _same_ substance with the
Father.
NICHOLAS, the name of five popes: N. I., ST., surnamed the
Great, Pope from 858 to 867, asserted the supremacy of the papal see,
Festival, Nov. 13; N. II., pope from 1058 to 1061; N. III.,
Pope from 1277 to 1280; N. IV., pope from 1288 to 1292; N. V.,
Pope from 1447 to 1456, after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks,
took the exiled Greek scholars under his protection, fostered the
learning of the East, and laid the foundation of the Vatican Library by
the collection of over 5000 Greek and Latin MSS.
NICHOLAS, ST., the patron saint of boys, of sailors, of Russia and
Aberdeen, as well as other towns; was bishop of Myra, persecuted under
Diocletian; is generally represented in bishop's robes, and has either
three purses or three children as his attributes; the three children and
the three purses refer to one and the same story: St. Nicholas, on
learning that a father who had three daughters was tempted by extreme
poverty to expose them to a life of dishonour, went by night and threw
into the window of the house three bags of money which served as a
marriage portion for each, and thus rescued them from a life of shame.
NICHOLAS I., czar of Russia, born at St. Petersburg, third son of
Paul I., ascended the throne in 1825 in succession to Alexander I., his
eldest brother; suppressed with rigour and not a little severity a
formidable conspiracy which took form on his accession; took up arms
against Persia and wrested Erivan from its sway, struggled against both
the Poles and the Turks till his overbearing policy against the latter
provoked a coalition of France, England, and Sardinia to their defence in
the Crimean War, which was still going on when he died; in 1848 he aided
Austria in the suppression of the Hungarian insurrection (1796-1855).
NICHOLAS II., czar of Russia, born in St. Petersburg, son of
Alexander III., and his successor in Nov. 1894; was married on the month
of his accession to Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt and granddaughter
of Queen Victoria through the Princess Alice, while his mother is a
sister of the Princess of Wales; his education under his father was
conducted expressly with a view to what might be required of him on his
accession to the throne; his ministers are in sympathy with himself, and
he has already (1899) distinguished himself by putting his finger on the
sore which is festering at the heart and is sucking up as a vampire the
life's blood of Europe; _b_. May 18, 1868.
NICHOLSON, JOHN, an Indian officer, born in Dublin, son of a
physician; served in the Sikh Wars, and at the outbreak of the Mutiny in
1857 in the Punjab crushed it in the bud; led the attack at the siege of
Delhi, Sept. 14, but fell mortally wounded as the storming party were
entering the Cabul Gate (1821-1857).
NICOBAR ISLANDS (7), a group of picturesque islands in the Indian
Ocean, S. of the Andaman Islands and midway between Ceylon and the Malay
Peninsula; 14 of the 20 islands are inhabited, chiefly by indigenous
Indians and Malays; after being in the hands of Denmark for upwards of
100 years, they were annexed by Britain in 1869; trade is carried on with
India in cocoa-nuts, ambergris, tortoise-shell, &c.
NICOLAITANS, a sect of heretics that arose in the Apostolic Church,
presumed to have been a party of professing Christians of Gentile
descent, who, after their profession, continued to take part in the
heathen festivals, and to have contributed to break down the distinction
between the Church and the world, so essential to the very existence of
the faith they professed, founded, as it is, no less absolutely on No to
the world than on Yea to God. See EVERLASTING NO and
EVERLASTING YEA.
NICOLE, PIERRE, French divine and moralist, born at Chartres, a
PORT-ROYALIST (q. v.), friend of Arnauld and Pascal; was along
with the former author of the famous "Port Royal Logic" (1625-1695).
NICOTINE, a poisonous alkaloid extracted from the leaves of the
tobacco plant, is a colourless, oily liquid, readily soluble in water,
and has a pungent odour.
NIEBUHR, BARTHOLD GEORG, distinguished historian, born at
Copenhagen, son of the succeeding; studied at Kiel, and for a time at
London and Edinburgh; after various civil appointments in Denmark,
entered the civil service of Prussia in 1806; on the establishment of the
university of Berlin in 1810 gave in connection with it a course of
lectures on Roman history, by which he established his reputation as a
historian, several of the conclusions of which he afterwards confirmed
during his residence as ambassador at the Papal Court at Rome from 1816
to 1823; the revolution of the three days of July 1830 in Paris
threatening, as he thought, a recurrence of the horrors of the first,
gave him such a shock that he sickened of it and died; by his treatment
of the history of Rome he introduced a new era in the treatment of
history generally, which consisted in expiscating all the fabulous from
the story and working on the residuum of authenticated fact, without,
however, as would appear, taking due account of the influence of the
faith of the people on the fable, and the effect of the latter on the
life and destiny of the nation whose history it was his purpose to relate
(1776-1830).
NIEBUHR, KARSTEN, a celebrated traveller, born in Hanover; joined a
Danish expedition in exploration of Arabia, and alone of the members of
it returned home, which he did by way of Persia, Palestine, and Cyprus,
and wrote an account of the results of his researches (1733-1815).
NIEL, ADOLPHE, French marshal, born at Muret; entered the Engineers
1825, served in the Algerine War in 1835, before Rome in 1849, at
Bomarsund in 1854, at Sebastopol in 1856, as well as at Magenta and
Solferino, and finally became Minister of War (1802-1869).
NIEPEE, JOSEPH NICÉPHORE, French chemist, born at Châlons-sur-Saône;
inventor of photography, the method of effecting which he achieved after
long brooding in 1824, and afterwards communicated to Daguerre, with whom
he entered into partnership, and who made it known after his death
(1765-1833).
NIFLHEIM or MISTHOME, in the Norse mythology the primeval
northern region of cold and darkness, in contrast with Muspelheim, or
Brighthome, the primeval southern region of warmth and light, the two
poles, as it were, of the Norse world.
NIGER, a great river of Western Africa, whose head-waters rise amid
the Kong Mountains behind Sierra Leone; flowing NE. as far as Timbuctoo
(2 m. from the river), it there bends gradually southward, receives from
the E. its great affluent the Benuë, and about 100 m. from the coast
begins to form a wide forest and jungle-covered delta (larger than that
of the Nile), and finally flows into the Gulf of Guinea by 22 mouths
after a course of some 2600 m. Forms, with the Benuë, an invaluable
highway into the heart of the country; its upper and middle parts, under
the names Joliba, &c., are within the French sphere, and the lower
portion below Say is under English authority.
NIGHTINGALE, FLORENCE, a famous philanthropic nurse, born at
Florence, of wealthy English parentage; at the age of 22 entered the
institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth to be trained as a
nurse, and afterwards studied the methods of nursing and hospital
management with the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, Paris; after
thoroughly reorganising Harley Street Hospital, London, she in 1854
volunteered to organise a staff of nurses to tend the wounded soldiers in
the Crimea; arriving at Scutari on the eve of Inkermann she, during the
terrible winter of 1854-55, ministered with unwearied devotion to the
suffering soldiers; on her return in 1856 she, with public support,
established a training college for nurses at St. Thomas's and at King's
College Hospital; she is author of "Notes on Nursing," "Notes on
Hospitals," &c.; _b_. in 1820.
NIHILISM, the principles of a movement on the part of the educated
classes in Russia which repudiates the existing creed and organisation of
society, and insists on a root and branch wholesale abolition of them and
a reconstruction of them on communistic principles, and for the purely
secular and everyday ends of common life, subordinating everything in the
first place to the feeding, clothing, and lodging of human beings in a
manner worthy of their rank in the scale of being. The term Nihilism is
also applied to those philosophical systems which sweep the course clear
of all incredibilities and irrationalities, but leave us bare of all our
inherited spiritual possessions.
NIJNI-NOVGOROD (73), capital of a Russian government of the same
name, situated at the confluence of the Oka with the Volga, 274 m. E. of
Moscow, is the seat of Peter-Paul's Fair, the greatest in the world,
which lasts from July to September, attracting merchants from Asia and
Europe, and during which the population of the town swells to six or
seven times its normal dimensions; as much as £20,000,000 worth of goods
are said to be sold during the fair.
NILE, the longest river of Africa, and one of the most noted in the
world's history; the Shimiyu, Isanga, and other streams which flow into
Victoria Nyanza from the S. are regarded as its ultimate head-waters;
from Victoria Nyanza, the Victoria Nile or Somerset River holds a
north-westerly course to Albert Nyanza, whence it issues under the name
of the Bahr-el-Jebel, swelled by the waters of the Semliki from Albert
Edward Nyanza; about 650 m. N. it is joined by the Bahr-el-Ghazal from
the W., and bending to the E., now under the name White Nile, receives on
that side the Sobat, and as a sluggish navigable stream flows past
Fashoda on to Khartoum, where it is met by the Bahr-al-Azrak or Blue
Nile; 200 m. lower it receives the Atbara or Black Nile. Through Egypt
the river's course is confined to a valley some 10 m. broad, which owes
its great fertility to the alluvial deposits left by the river during it
annual overflow (July to October, caused by seasonal rains in Abyssinia,
&c.). From Khartoum to Assouan occur the cataracts; below this the stream
is navigable. A few miles N. of Cairo begins the delta which lies within
the Rosetta and Damietta--two main branches of the divided river--and is
some 150 m. broad at its base. From Victoria Nyanza to the coast the
river measures about 3400 m.
NILSSON, CHRISTINE, an operatic singer, born in Sweden, daughter of
a peasant, and one of the foremost sopranos of her day; distinguished for
her dramatic talent no less than by her powers as a vocalist (1843-1882).
NIMEGUEN (34), an interesting old Dutch town in Guelderland, on the
Waal, 73 m. E. of Rotterdam; has a fine 13th-century Gothic church and
other notable buildings; its prosperous manufactures include tobacco,
perfume, beer, &c.; here, in 1678-79, France effected famous peace
treaties with Holland, Spain, and Austria.
NÎMES or NISMES (68), capital of the department of Gard, S. of
France, lies surrounded by the Cévennes in the fertile valley of the
Vistre, 31 m. E. of Montpellier; has unique Roman remains, including an
imposing amphitheatre, now used as a bull-arena, the noble Corinthian
"Maison Carrée," a mausoleum, baths, &c.; textiles (silk, cotton, &c.),
wines, and brandy are the chief articles of manufacture; it declared for
the Reformation in 1559, and suffered cruelly on the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes.
NIMROD, an early king of Assyria or Babylonia, characterised in
Scripture (Gen. x. 9) as "a mighty hunter before the Lord"; a name now
applied to a distinguished hunter.
NINEVEH, an exceeding great city, capital of ancient Assyria, which
stood on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite the modern town of Mosul,
said to have been included within a wall 60 m. long, 100 ft. high, the
breadth of three chariots in width, and defended by 1500 towers each 200
ft. in height.
NINIAN ST., early apostle of Christianity to the southern Picts of
Scotland, born on the shores of the Solway, of noble descent; went to
Rome, was consecrated by the Pope, visited St. Martin at Tours on his way
back; had founded a church at Whithorn, Wigtownshire, which he dedicated
to the latter on his return, where he died, "perfect in life and full of
years," in 432.
NINUS, a legendary king of Assyria, a celebrated conqueror, to whom
tradition assigns the founding of Nineveh.
NIOBE, in the Greek mythology the daughter of Tantalus, and wife of
Amphion, king of Thebes, to whom she bore six sons and six daughters, in
her pride of whom she rated herself above Leto, who had given birth to
only two children, Apollo and Artemis, whereupon they, indignant at this
insult to their mother, gave themselves for nine days to the slaughter of
Niobe's offspring, and on the tenth the gods buried them; Niobe, in her
grief, retired to Mount Sipylos, in Lydia, where her body became cold and
rigid as stone, but not her tears, which, ever as the summer months
returned, burst forth anew.
NIRVÂNA, the name given to the consummation of bliss in the Hindu,
but especially the Buddhist, religions, synonymous with extinction, which
in the Hindu creed means the extinction of individuality by absorption in
the Divine Being, and in Buddhism, not, as some presume, the extinction
of existence, but the extinction of agitation of mind through the
crucifixion of all passion and desire, the attainment of self-centred,
self-sufficient quiescence of being, or rest and peace of soul.
NISUS, a Trojan youth who accompanied Æneas into Italy, and whose
friendship for Euryulus is so pathetically immortalised by Virgil in the
ninth book of the "Æneid."
NITHSDALE, WILLIAM MAXWELL, EARL OF, a noted Catholic, who took part
in the Jacobite rising of 1715, was captured at Preston, found guilty of
treason, and sentenced to death; the night before the day appointed for
his execution (24th February 1786) he effected an escape from the Tower
by exchanging clothes with his daring and devoted countess, who had been
admitted to his room; he fled to Rome, where he lived in happiness with
his wife until her death (1676-1744).
NITROGEN, a gaseous element which constitutes one-fourth in volume
of the atmosphere, is the basis of nitric acid, and is an essential
constituent of proteids, alkaloids, and albuminoids.
NITZSCH, KARL LUDWIG, German theologian, born at Borna; became
professor at Bonn, Saxony, in 1822, whence in 1847 he was removed to
succeed Marheineke at Berlin; was of the Schleiermacher school of
theologians, and author, among other works, of a "System der Christlichen
Lehre" and "Practische Theologie," the former an able work, but most
vilely translated into English, and the latter in evidence of the
importance the author attached to the ethical element in the Christian
religion (1787-1860).
NIXIE, in German folk-lore a water-sprite of a mischievous
disposition, believed to have been suggested to the imagination by the
reflection of the stars in the water.
NIZAM, the name given to a viceroy or administrator of justice in
the Mogul Empire of India.
NIZAM'S DOMINIONS, THE, or HYDERABAD (11,537), in the heart of
the Deccan, situated between the Central Provinces and the Presidency of
Madras; it is highly fertile, and the largest of the native States in
India. See HYDERABAD.
NOAH, the patriarch of Scripture antiquity who, by the command of
God, constructed an ark for the preservation of the human race and the
dry-land animals during the prevalence of the deluge that would otherwise
have swept all these forms of life away.
NOAILLES, the name of an old French family, several members of which
distinguished themselves in the service of both Church and State: ANNE
JULES N., marshal of France, celebrated for his cruelties against the
Huguenots (1650-1708); LOUIS ANTOINE DE, his brother, archbishop of
Paris, who was made cardinal (1651-1729); LOUIS MARIE, VICOMTE DE,
deputy to the States-General, who took part for a time in the Revolution
(1756-1804).
NOAKES, JOHN O', a fictitious name for a litigious person, used by
lawyers in actions of ejectment.
NOBLE, a gold coin first minted by Edward III., formerly current in
the country; worth 6s. 8d., and ultimately 10s., when the value of the
gold increased.
NOCTURNE, picture of a night scene; also a musical piece appropriate
to the night.
NODES, name given to the two points in the orbit of a planet where
it crosses or intersects the ecliptic, called ascending when it goes N.,
and descending when it goes S.
NODIER, CHARLES, able French littérateur, born at Besançon; a man of
great literary activity and some considerable literary influence; author
of charming stories and fairy tales; "did everything well," says
Professor Saintsbury, "but perhaps nothing supremely well" (1780-1844).
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.
OLDENBURG (355), a German grand-duchy, embracing these three
territories: 1, Oldenburg proper, the largest, is let into Hanover with
its northern limit on the North Sea; it is a tract of moorland,
sand-down, and fen, watered by the Weser, Hunte and tributaries of the
Ems; here is the capital, Oldenburg (22), on the Hunte, 30 m. NW. of
Bremen, in the midst of meadows, where a famous breed of horses is
raised. 2, Lübeck, lying in Holstein, N. of but not including the city of
Lübeck. 3, Birkenfeldt, lying among the Hundsrück Mountains, in the S. of
Rhenish Prussia; independent since 1180, Danish 1667-1773, Oldenburg
acquired Lübeck in 1803, and Birkenfeldt in 1815, when it was raised to
the rank of grand-duchy.
OLDHAM (184), on the Medlock, 7 m. NE. of Manchester, is the largest
of the cotton manufacturing towns round that centre; it has 300 cotton
mills, and manufactures besides silks, velvets, hats, and machinery;
there is a lyceum, and a school of science and art.
OLDYS, WILLIAM, bibliographer, was a man of dissolute life, the
illegitimate son of a chancellor of Lincoln; he was librarian to the Earl
of Oxford for 10 years, and afterwards received the appointment of
Norroy king-of-arms; besides many bibliographical and literary articles,
he wrote a "Life of Raleigh" and "The Harleian Miscellany" (1696-1761).
OLÉRON (17), an island of France, in the Bay of Biscay, at the mouth
of the Charente, 11½ m. long and from 3 to 7 broad, is separated from the
mainland by a shallow, narrow channel.
OLGA, ST., a Scandinavian pagan prince, converted to Christianity
and baptized as Helena; laboured for the propagation of the Christian
faith among his subjects, was canonised after in 905, and is one of the
saints of the Russian Church. Festival, July 21.