WIGAN (55), a town in Lancashire, 18 m. NW. of Manchester, in the
centre of a large coal-field; cottons are the staple manufactures; is a
place of ancient date, and has some fine buildings.
WIGHT, ISLE OF, an island in the S. of England, included in
Hampshire, from which it is separated by the channel of the SOLENT
(q. v.); it is of triangular shape, is 23 m. of utmost length, and
about 14 m. of utmost breadth; it is traversed by a range of chalk downs
from E. to W.; the soil is fertile, especially in the E.; the scenery
rich and varied, and the climate charming; Newport is the capital in the
centre; near Cowes is Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen
Victoria.
WIGTOWNSHIRE (36), the most southerly county in Scotland, in the SW.
of which the largest town is Stranraer, and the county town Wigtown; it
is an agricultural county, and largely pastoral.
WILBERFORCE, SAMUEL, English prelate, born at Clapham, third son of
the succeeding; entered Oriel College, Oxford, at 18, where he
distinguished himself by his powers of debate; took holy orders, and rose
to eminence in the Church; was made Bishop of Oxford in 1845, and of
Winchester in 1869; was a High Churchman of the pure Anglican type, and
equally opposed to Romanism and Nonconformity; shone in society by his
wit and powers of conversation; Carlyle often "exchanged pleasant
dialogues with him, found him dexterous, stout and clever, far from being
a bad man"; "I do not hate him," he said to Froude one day, "near so much
as I fear I ought to do"; he found him "really of a religious nature,"
and secretly in sympathy with himself on religious matters; was killed by
a fall from his horse; he was popularly known by the sobriquet of "Soapy
Sam" (1805-1873).
WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM, eminent philanthropist, born at Hull, son of a
wealthy merchant; attended St. John's College, Cambridge, at 17;
represented his native town in Parliament as soon as he was of age; he
was early and deeply impressed with the inhumanity of the slave-trade,
and to achieve its abolition became the ruling passion of his life; with
that object he introduced a bill for its suppression in 1789, but it was
not till 1801 he carried the Commons with him, and he had to wait six
years longer before the House of Lords supported his measure and the
Emancipation Act was passed; he retired into private life in 1825, and
died three days after the vote of 20 millions to purchase the freedom of
the West Indian slaves; he was an eminently religious man of the
Evangelical school; wrote "Practical View of Christianity" (1759-1833).
WILD, JONATHAN, an English villain, who for housebreaking was
executed in 1725, and the hero of Fielding's novel of the name; he had
been a detective; was hanged amid execration on the part of the mob at
his execution.
WILDERNESS, a district covered with brushwood in Virginia, U.S.,
the scene of a two days' terrible conflict between the Federals and the
Confederates on the 5th and 6th May 1864.
WILDFIRE, MADGE, a character in the "Heart of Midlothian," who,
being seduced, had, in her misery under a sense of her crime, gone crazy.
WILFRID, ST., a Saxon bishop of York, born in Northumbria; brought
up at Lindisfarne; had a checkered life of it; is celebrated in legend
for his success in converting pagans, and is usually represented in the
act; _d_. 709.
WILHELMINA I., queen of the Netherlands, daughter of William III.,
and who ascended the throne on his decease in November 1890; her mother,
a sister of the Duchess of Albany, acted as regent during her minority,
and she became of age on the 11th August 1898, when she was installed as
sovereign amid the enthusiasm of her people; _b_. 1880.
WILHELMSHAVEN (13), the chief naval port of Germany, on Jahde Bay,
43 m. NW. of Bremen.
WILKES, CHARLES, American naval officer; made explorations in the
Southern Ocean in 1861; boarded on the high seas the British mail-steamer
_Trent_, and carried off two Confederate commissioners accredited to
France, who were afterwards released on the demand of the British
Government (1798-1877).
WILKES, JOHN, a notable figure in the English political world of the
18th century, born in Clerkenwell, son of a distiller; was elected M.P.
for Aylesbury in 1761; started a periodical called the _North Briton_, in
No. 45 of which he published an offensive libel, which led to his arrest
and imprisonment in the Tower, from which he was released--on the ground
that the general warrant on which he was apprehended was illegal--amid
general rejoicing among the people; he was afterwards prosecuted for an
obscene production, an "Essay on Women," and outlawed for non-appearance;
he sought an asylum in France, and on his return was elected for
Middlesex, but instead of being allowed to sit was committed to prison;
this treatment made him the object of popular favour; he was elected Lord
Mayor of London, re-elected for Middlesex, and at length allowed to take
his seat in the House; he was for years the cause of popular tumults, the
watchword of which was "Wilkes and Liberty"; the cause of civil liberty
certainly owes something to him and to the popular agitations which an
interest in him stirred up (1727-1797).
WILKIE, SIR DAVID, painter, born at Cults, Fife; executed a great
many pictures depicting homely subjects, which were very popular, and are
generally well known by the engravings of them, such as the "Rent Day,"
"The Penny Wedding," "Reading the Will," &c., which were followed by
others in a more ambitious style, and less appreciated, as well as
portraits (1785-1841).
WILKINS, JOHN, bishop of Chester, born in Northamptonshire; married
Oliver Cromwell's sister; wrote mathematical treatises, a curious one in
particular, "Discovery of a New World," and was one of the founders of
the Royal Society (1614-1672).
WILKINSON, SIR JOHN, Egyptologist, born In Westmorland; studied at
Oxford; explored the antiquities of Egypt, and wrote largely on the
subject (1797-1875).
WILL, FREEDOM OF THE, the doctrine that in and under the dominion of
pure reason the will is free, and not free otherwise; that in this
element the Will "reigns unquestioned and by Divine right"; only in minds
in which volition is treated as a synonym of Desire does this doctrine
admit of debate.
WILLEMS, JAN FRANS, Dutch poet and scholar, born near Antwerp;
translated "Reynard the Fox" into Flemish, and did much to encourage the
Flemings to preserve and cultivate their mother-tongue (1793-1846).
WILLIAM I., THE CONQUEROR, king of England, born at Falaise; became
Duke of Normandy by the death of his father; being an illegitimate son
had to establish his power with the sword; being the cousin of Edward the
Confessor was nominated by him his successor to the English throne, which
being usurped by Harold, he invaded England and defeated Harold at Senlac
in 1066 and assumed the royal power, which he established over the length
and breadth of the country in 1068; he rewarded his followers with grants
of land and lordships over them, subject to the crown; the DOOMSDAY
BOOK (q. v.) was compiled by his order, and the kingdom brought
into closer relation with the Church of Rome, his adviser in Church
matters being LANFRANC, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (q. v.); died
by a fall from his horse when suppressing rebellion in Normandy, and was
buried at Caen. He was, as characterised by Carlyle, "in rude outline a
true God-made king, of most flashing discernment, of most strong
lion-heart--in whom, as it were, within a frame of oak and iron the gods
had planted the soul of 'a man of genius' ... the essential element, as
of all such men, not scorching fire (merely), but shining illuminative
light ... the most sure-eyed perception of what is what on this God's
earth." His invasion of England is known as the Norman Conquest, and it
involved the introduction of the feudal system and Norman manners in the
habits and speech of the English people (1027-1087).
WILLIAM II., king of England, surnamed Rufus or Ruddy, born in
Normandy, third son of William I.; succeeded his father in 1087; had to
face a rebellion, headed by Bishop Odo, in favour of his eldest brother,
Robert, Duke of Normandy, which he suppressed by favour of the mass of
the people, to whom he made promises which he did not keep, for he proved
a stern and exacting ruler; his energy was great, but was frequently
spasmodic; he added Normandy to his dominion by compact with Robert, who
went on Crusade, compelled Malcolm of Scotland to do homage for his
kingdom, conducted several campaigns against the Welsh, and had a
long-continued wrangle with Archbishop Anselm, virtually in defence of
the royal prerogative against the claims of the Church, for a humorous
account of the meaning of which see Carlyle's "Past and Present," Book
iv. chap. i.; he was accidentally shot while hunting in the New Forest by
Walter Tirel, and buried in Winchester Cathedral, but without any
religious service; in his reign the Crusades began, and Westminster Hall
was built (1066-1100).
WILLIAM III., king of England, born at The Hague, son of William
II., Prince of Orange, by Mary, the daughter of Charles I.; during a
contest on the part of the United Provinces with Louis XIV. was, in 1672,
elected Stadtholder, and by his valour and wisdom brought the war to an
end in 1678; married his cousin Mary, daughter of James II.; being
invited to England, landed with a large army at Torbay, and on the flight
of James to France, he and Mary were proclaimed king and queen of Great
Britain and Ireland in 1689; the Scotch and the Irish offered resistance
in the interest of the exiled monarch, but the former were defeated at
Killiecrankie in 1689, and the latter at the battle of the Boyne in 1690;
he was an able man and ruler, but his reign was troubled by an
interminable feud with France, and by intrigues on behalf of James both
at home and abroad; he died by a fall from his horse at Kensington just
as a great war with France was impending; he was through life the
adversary of the covetous schemes of Louis, and before his death he had
prepared the materials of that coalition which, under Marlborough and
Prince Eugene, brought Louis to the brink of ruin; his reign forms one of
the great epochs in the history of England, and is known as the
Revolution (1650-1702).
WILLIAM IV., king of England, known as the "sailor king," born in
Buckingham Palace, the third son of George III.; entered the navy in
1779; saw service under Rodney and Nelson, but practically retired in
1789, as from insubordination he had to do, though he was afterwards
promoted to be Admiral of the Fleet, and even Lord High Admiral, and
continued to take great interest in naval affairs; after living, as Duke
of Clarence, from 1792 to 1816 with Mrs. Jordan, the actress, by whom he
had 10 children, he married in 1810 Adelaide, eldest daughter of the Duke
of Saxe-Meiningen; on the death of the Duke of York in 1827 became
heir-presumptive, and on the death of George IV. in 1830 succeeded to the
throne; his reign was distinguished by the passing of the first Reform
Bill in 1832, the abolition of slavery in the colonies in 1833, the
reform of the poor-laws in 1834, and the Municipal Reform Act in 1835;
died at Windsor, and was succeeded by his niece. Queen Victoria
(1765-1837).
WILLIAM I., emperor of Germany, born at Berlin, second son of
Frederick William III. of Prussia, and brother of Frederick William IV.,
his predecessor on the Prussian throne; was bred from boyhood to military
life, having received his first commission at the age of 10; took part in
the war of liberation that preceded the fall of Napoleon, and received
his baptism of fire on 14th February 1814; visited England in 1844, and
again in 1848, and returned prepossessed in favour of constitutional
government, which he found the king had already conceded in his absence;
in 1858 he was appointed regent owing to his brother's incapacity, and on
2nd February 1861 he succeeded to the throne, having previously made the
acquaintance of Moltke in 1818 and of Bismarck in 1834; on his accession,
while professing all due respect to the representatives of the people, he
announced his intention to maintain to the uttermost all his rights as
king, and this gave rise to a threat of insurrection, but a war with
Denmark, which issued in the recovery of the German duchies of
Sleswick-Holstein, led to an outburst of loyalty, and this was deepened
by the publication of the project of Bismarck to unite all Germany under
the crown of Prussia; this provoked a war with Austria, which lasted only
seven weeks, and ended with the consent of the latter to the projected
unification of the other States, and the establishment of a confederation
of these under the headship of the Prussian king, a unification which was
consolidated into an Imperial one at the close of the Franco-German War,
when, on the 18th January 1871, the Prussian king was proclaimed emperor
of Germany in the palace of Versailles; the reign which followed was a
peaceful one, and the pledge of peace to the rest of Europe; the emperor
was a man of robust frame, of imposing figure, of temperate habits, of
firm purpose, conspicuous courage, and devoted with his whole heart to
the welfare of his people (1797-1888).
WILLIAM II., emperor of Germany, born at Berlin, grandson of the
preceding, and son of Frederick III., whom he succeeded as emperor in
1888; was trained from early boyhood for kinghood, and on his accession
to the throne gave evidence of the excellent schooling he had received to
equip him for the high post he was called to fill; he showed that the old
Hohenzollern blood still flowed in his veins, and that he was minded to
be every inch a king; one of the first acts of his reign was to compel
the resignation of Bismarck, as it was his intention to reign alone; that
he has proved himself equal to his task events since have fully
justified, and it is hoped it will be seen that his influence on public
affairs will lead to the advantage of the German people and the peace of
the world; he is by his mother the grandson of Queen Victoria, and the
relationship is full of promise for the union throughout the world of the
Teutonic peoples, who have already achieved so much for the good of the
race; _b_. 1859.
WILLIAM THE LION, king of Scotland, grandson of David I., and
brother of Malcolm IV., whom he succeeded in 1165, and whose surname is
supposed to have been derived from his substitution of the lion for the
dragon on the arms of Scotland; was taken captive when invading England
at Alnwick Castle in 1174; sent prisoner to Falaise, in Normandy, but
liberated on acknowledgment of vassalage to the English king, a claim
which Richard I. surrendered on payment by the Scots of 10,000 marks to
aid him in the Crusade; was the first king of Scotland to form an
alliance with France; died at Stirling after a reign of 49 years
(1143-1214).
WILLIAM THE SILENT, Prince of Orange, a cadet of the noble house of
Nassau, the first Stadtholder of the Netherlands, a Protestant by birth;
he was brought up a Catholic, but being at heart more a patriot than a
Catholic, he took up arms in the cause of his country's freedom, and did
not rest till he had virtually freed it from the Spanish yoke, which was
then the dominant Catholic power; his enemies procured his assassination
in the end, and he was murdered by Belthazar Gerard, at Delft; he was
brought up at the court of Charles V., where "his circumspect demeanour
procured him the surname of Silent, but under the cold exterior he
concealed a busy, far-sighted intellect, and a generous, upright, daring
heart" (1533-1584).
WILLIAMS, ISAAC, Tractarian, born in Wales; educated at Oxford; got
acquainted with Keble; wrote religious poetry and Tract LXXX. on "Reserve
in Religious Teaching" (1802-1865).
WILLIAMS, JOHN, missionary and martyr, born near London; brought up
an ironmonger; offered his services to the London Missionary Society; was
sent out in 1816 to the Society Islands; laboured with conspicuous
success among the natives; came home in 1834, and after four years
returned, but was murdered at Erromango in the New Hebrides, and his body
eaten by the cannibals (1796-1839).
WILLIAMS, SIR MONIER MONIER-, Sanskrit scholar, born at Bombay;
appointed Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, 1860; author of a
Sanskrit Grammar and Lexicon, and projected the founding of the Indian
Institute; _b_. 1819.
WILLIAMS, ROGER, founder of the State of Rhode Island, U.S., born
in Wales; being a Puritan, fled the country to escape persecution, and
settled in New England, where he hoped to enjoy the religious freedom he
was denied at home, but was received with disfavour by the earlier
settlers as, from his extreme views, a "troubler of Israel," and obliged
to separate himself and establish a colony of his own, which he did at
Providence by favour of an Indian tribe he had made friends of, and under
a charter from the Long Parliament of England, obtained through Sir Henry
Vane, where he extended to others the toleration he desired for himself;
he was characterised by Milton, who knew him, as "that noble champion of
religious liberty" (1600-1683).
WILLIAMS, ROWLAND, English clergyman, born in Flintshire; was a
prominent member of the Broad Church party; was condemned, though the
judgment was reversed, by the Court of Arches, for a paper contributed to
the famous "Essays and Reviews"; wrote "Rational Godliness,"
"Christianity and Hinduism," &c. (1817-1870).
WILLIBROD, ST., the "Apostle of the Frisians," born in Northumbria;
was the chief of a company of 12 monks who went as missionaries from
Ireland to Friesland, where they were welcomed by Pépin d'Héristal, and
afterwards favoured by his son, Charles Martel; he founded an abbey near
Trèves; when he was about to baptize the Duke of Friesland, it is said
the duke turned away when he was told his ancestors were in hell, saying
he would rather be with them there than in heaven without them (658-739).
WILLIS, PARKER, American writer and journalist; had travelled much
abroad, and published his experiences; among his writings "Pencillings by
the Way," "Inklings of Adventure," "People I have Met," &c. (1806-1867)
WILLOUGHBY, SIR HUGH, early Arctic voyager; was sent out in 1553
with three vessels by a company of London merchants on a voyage of
discovery, but the vessels were separated by a storm in the North Seas,
and not one of them returned, only Richard Challoner, the captain of one
of them, found his way to Moscow, and opened up a trade with Russia and
this country; the ships, with the dead bodies of their crews, and the
journal of their commander, were found by some fishermen the year after.
WILLS, WILLIAM JOHN, Australian explorer, born at Totnes;
accompanied O'Hara Burke from the extreme S. to the extreme N. of the
continent, but died from starvation on the return journey two days before
his leader (1834-1860).
WILMINGTON (61), a large and handsome city and port in Delaware, 25
m. SW. of Philadelphia, with extensive manufactures; also the name of the
largest city (20) in North Carolina, with considerable manufactures and
trade; was a chief Confederate port during the Civil War.
WILSON, ALEXANDER, ornithologist, born at Paisley; son of a weaver,
bred to the loom; began his literary career as a poet; imprisoned for a
lampoon on a Paisley notability, went on his release to America
unfriended, with only his fowling-piece in his hand, and a few shillings
in his pocket; led an unsettled life for a time; acquired the arts of
drawing, colouring, and etching, and, so accomplished, commenced his
studies on the ornithology of America, and prevailed upon a publisher in
Philadelphia to undertake an exhaustive work which he engaged to produce
on the subject; the first volume appeared in 1808, and the seventh in
1813, on the publication of which he met his death from a cold he caught
from swimming a river in pursuit of a certain rare bird (1766-1813).
WILSON, SIR DANIEL, archæologist, was born in Edinburgh, became in
1853 professor of English Literature at Toronto; wrote "Memorials of
Edinburgh," "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," "Prehistoric Man," &c.
(1816-1892).
WILSON, SIR ERASMUS, English surgeon, a great authority on skin
diseases, and devoted much time to the study of Egyptian antiquities; it
was at his instance that the famous Cleopatra's Needle was brought to
England; he was liberal in endowments for the advance of medical science
(1809-1884).
WILSON, GEORGE, chemist, born in Edinburgh, younger brother of Sir
Daniel; was appointed professor of Technology in Edinburgh University;
was eminent as a popular lecturer on science, and an enthusiast in
whatever subject he took up (1819-1859).
WILSON, HORACE HAYMAN, Orientalist, born in London; studied
medicine; went to India as a surgeon; mastered Sanskrit, and became Boden
professor at Oxford (1786-1860).
WILSON, JOHN, Indian missionary, born near Lauder, educated at
Edinburgh; missionary at Bombay from 1828 to his death--from 1843 in
connection with the Free Church of Scotland; from his knowledge of the
languages and religions of India, and his sagacity, was held in high
regard (1804-1875).
WILSON, JOHN, the well-known "Christopher North," born in Paisley,
son of a manufacturer, who left him a fortune of £50,000; studied at
Glasgow and Oxford; a man of powerful physique, and distinguished as an
athlete as well as a poet; took up his abode in the Lake District, and
enjoyed the society of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; wrote two
poems, the "Isle of Palms," and the "City of the Plague"; lost his
fortune, and came to settle in Edinburgh; was called to the Scottish bar,
but never practised; became editor of _Blackwood's Magazine_, and was in
1820 elected over Sir William Hamilton professor of moral philosophy in
Edinburgh University; his health began to fail in 1840; resigned his
professorship in 1851, and received a pension from the Crown of £300; he
is described by Carlyle as "a tall, ruddy, broad-shouldered figure, with
plenteous blonde hair, and bright blue flashing eyes, and as he walked
strode rapidly along; had much nobleness of heart, and many traits of
noble genius, but the central _tie-beam_ seemed always wanting; a good,
grand ruined soul, that never would be great, or indeed _be_ anything"
(1785-1854).
WILTON, market-town in Wiltshire, 3 m. NW. of Salisbury; was the
ancient capital of Wessex, and gave name to the county; its church,
erected by Lord Herbert of Lea in 1844, is a rich Lombardic structure,
with a campanile 108 ft. high.
WILTSHIRE or WILTS (264), an inland county in SW. of England,
with Gloucestershire on the N. and Dorset on the S., 54 m. from N. to S.
and 37 m. from E. to W.; is largely an agricultural and pastoral county;
is flat, rising into hills in the N., and is broken by downs and rich
valleys in the S., except on Salisbury Plain; sheep-breeding and
dairy-farming are the chief industries, and it is famous for cheese and
bacon.
WIMBLEDON (25), a suburb of London, 7½ m. to the SW., on a common
used by the volunteers from 1860 to 1889 for rifle practice.
WINCHESTER (19), an ancient city of Hampshire, and the county town,
60 m. SW. of London, on the right bank of the Itchen; is a cathedral
city, with a noted large public school; was at one time the capital of
England; the cathedral dates from the 11th century, but it has
subsequently undergone considerable extensions and alterations; the
school was founded by William of Wykeham in 1387.
WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM, great art critic, born at Stendal, in
Prussian Saxony, of poor parents; was a student from his boyhood, and
early devoted especially to archæology and the study of the antique;
became a Roman Catholic on the promise of an appointment in Rome, where
he would have full scope to indulge his predilections, and became
librarian to Cardinal Albani there; his great work was "Geschichte der
Kunst des Alterthums" (the "History of Ancient Art"), in particular that
of Greece, which proved epoch-making, and the beginning of a new era in
the study of art in general; he was assassinated in a hotel at Trieste on
his way to Vienna by a fellow-traveller to whom he had shown some of his
valuables, and the German world was shocked (1717-1768).
WINDERMERE, a lake on the borders of Westmorland and Lancashire, the
largest in England, 10½ m. long from N. to S., and 1 m. broad; is 240 ft.
deep and 134 ft. above sea-level; is amid beautiful scenery, and near it
is Rydal Mount, long the residence of Wordsworth.
WINDHAM, WILLIAM, English statesman, born of an ancient Norfolk
family; was opposed to the American War; took part in the impeachment of
Warren Hastings; was Secretary at War under Pitt; advocated the removal
of Catholic disabilities, but was opposed to Parliamentary reform; has
been described by his contemporaries as the model both physically and
mentally of an English gentleman, able and high minded (1780-1810).
WINDISCHGRÄTZ, PRINCE, Austrian field-marshal; took part in the
campaigns against Napoleon, and in 1848 suppressed the revolution at
Prague and Vienna; failed against the Hungarians, and was superseded
(1787-1862).
WINDSOR (12), a town in Berkshire, on the right bank of the Thames,
opposite Eton, and about 22 m. W. of London, with a castle which from
early Plantagenet times has been the principal residence of the kings of
England.
WINDWARD ISLANDS (150), a group of the West Indies, the Lesser
Antilles, belonging to Britain, extending from Martinique to Trinidad.
WINDWARD PASSAGE, a channel leading into the Caribbean Sea, between
the islands of Cuba and Hayti.
WINER, GEORGE BENEDICT, New Testament scholar, born at Leipzig, and
professor there; best known for his work on the New Testament Greek
idioms (1789-1858).
WINIFRED, ST., a British maiden who was decapitated by Prince
Caradoc in 650; where her head rolled off tradition says a spring
instantly gushed forth, the famous Holywell in Flintshire; is represented
in art carrying her head.
WINKELRIED, ARNOLD VON, a brave Swiss who, on the field of Sempach,
on 9th June 1386, rushed on the lances of the opposing Austrians, and so
opened a way for his compatriots to dash through and win the day.
WINKLE. See RIP VAN WINKLE.
WINNIPEG (25), formerly Fort Garry, the capital of Manitoba, at the
junction of the Assiniboine with the Red River, over 1400 m. NW. of
Montreal; is a well-built town, with several public buildings and all
modern appliances; stands on the Pacific Railway; is a busy trading
centre, and is growing rapidly.
WINNIPEG, LAKE, a lake in Manitoba, 40 m. N. of the city, 280 m.
long, 57 m. broad, and covering an area of over 8000 sq. m.; it drains an
area twice as large as France; the Saskatchewan flows into it, and the
Nelson flows out.
WINSTANLEY, HENRY, English engineer; erected a lighthouse on the
Eddystone Rock in 1696, and completed it in four years; it was built of
timber, and had not much strength; he perished in it in a storm in 1703.
WINT, PETER DE, water-colourist, born in Staffordshire, of Dutch
descent; famed for paintings of English scenery and rustic life
(1784-1849).
WINTER KING, name given by the Germans to Frederick V., husband of
Elizabeth, daughter of James I., his Winter Queen, who was elected king
of Bohemia by the Protestants in 1619, and compelled to resign in 1620.
WINTHROP, JOHN, "Father of Massachusetts," born in Suffolk; studied
at Trinity College; headed a Puritan colony from Yarmouth to Salem, and
was governor of the settlement at Boston till his death; was a pious and
tolerant man; left a "Journal" (1581-1649).
WISCONSIN (1,686), one of the Central States of North America,
nearly as large as England and Wales, and situated between Lake Superior
and Michigan; the surface is chiefly of rolling prairie, and the soil
fertile; yields cereals, sugar, hops, hemp, and large quantities of
lumber from the forests; lead, iron, copper, and silver are among its
mineral resources; it abounds in beautiful lakes; the Wisconsin and the
Chippewa are the chief rivers, tributaries of the Mississippi; and
Madison (the capital), Milwaukee, and La Crosse are the chief towns.
WISDOM OF JESUS. See ECCLESIASTICUS.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON, one of the most beautiful books in the Apocrypha,
written at the close of the 2nd century B.C. by one who knew both the
Greek language and Greek philosophy, to commend the superiority to this
philosophy of the divine wisdom revealed to the Jews. Its general aim, as
has been said, is "to show, alike from philosophy and history, as against
the materialists of the time, that the proper goal of life was not mere
existence, however long, or pleasure of any sort, but something nobly
intellectual and moral, and that the pious Israelite was on the surest
path to its attainment."
WISEMAN, NICHOLAS, cardinal and Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Westminster, born at Seville, of Irish parents; studied at a Roman
Catholic college near Durham and the English college at Rome, of which he
became rector; lectured in London in 1836 on the Doctrines of the
Catholic Church, and in 1840 became vicar-apostolic, first in the central
district of England, then of the London district in 1846, and was in 1850
named Archbishop of Westminster by the Pope; this was known in England as
the "papal aggression," which raised a storm of opposition in the
country, but this storm Wiseman, now cardinal, succeeded very
considerably in allaying by a native courtesy of manner which commended
him to the regard of the intelligent and educated classes of the
community; he was a scholarly man, and a vigorous writer and orator
(1802-1865).
WISHART, GEORGE, a Scottish martyr, born in Forfarshire; began life
as a schoolmaster; was charged with heresy for teaching the Greek New
Testament; left the country and spent some time on the Continent; on his
return boldly professed and preached the Reformation doctrines, and had
the celebrated John Knox, who was tutor in the district, for a disciple
among others; he was arrested in Haddingtonshire in January and burned at
St. Andrews in March 1546; Knox would fain have accompanied him on his
arrest, but was paternally dissuaded by the gentle martyr; "Go home to
your bairns" (pupils), said he; "ane is sufficient for a sacrifice."
WISMAR (15), a seaport of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the Baltic; has a
number of quaint old buildings, various manufactures, and an active
trade.
WITCH OF ENDOR, a divining woman consulted by King Saul, who
affected to call up the spirit of Samuel, who foretold his defeat and
doom.
WITENAGEMOT (assembly of the wise), name given to the national
council or Parliament of England in Anglo-Saxon times, agreeably to whose
decisions the affairs of the kingdom were managed; it consisted of the
bishops, royal vassals, and thanes.
WITHER, GEORGE, poet, born at Arlesford, in Hampshire, and educated
at Magdalen College, Oxford; was imprisoned for his first poem, a satire,
"Abuses Stript and Whipt," in 1613; his subsequent productions betray
true poetic inspiration, and special passages in them are much admired;
he was a religious poet, and is much belauded by Charles Lamb; in the
Civil War he espoused the Puritan side, and in his zeal in its behalf
raised a troop of horse (1588-1667).
WITHERSPOON, JOHN, Scottish theologian, born at Tester; was minister
at Paisley; became president of the college at New Jersey, U.S.; died at
Princeton; wrote "Ecclesiastic Characteristics" against the Moderates,
also on justification and regeneration (1722-1794).
WITSIUS, HERMANN, Dutch theologian; became professor at Leyden;
wrote on what are in old orthodox theology called the "Covenants," of
which there were reckoned two, one of works, under the Mosaic system,
and the other of grace, under the Christian (1636-1708).
WITTEKIND, leader of the Saxon struggle against Charlemagne;
annihilated the Frankish army in 783, in retaliation for which
Charlemagne executed 4500 Saxons he had taken prisoners, which roused the
entire Saxon people to arms, and led to a drawn battle at Detmold, upon
which Wittekind accepted baptism, and was promoted to a dukedom by the
Frankish king; he fell in battle with Gerold, a Swabian duke, in 807.
WITTENBERG (13), a town in Prussian Saxony, on the right bank of the
Elbe, 50 m. SW. of Berlin; was the capital of the electorate of Saxony,
and a stronghold of the Reformers; is famous in the history of Luther,
and contains his tomb; it was on the door of the Schlosskirche of which
he nailed his famous 95 theses, and at the Elster Gate of which he burned
the Pope's bull, "the people looking on and shouting, all Europe looking
on."
WIZARD OF THE NORTH, name given to Sir Walter Scott, from the magic
power displayed in his writings.
WODEN, the German and Anglo-Saxon name for ODIN (q. v.).
WODROW, ROBERT, Scottish Church historian, born at Glasgow; studied
at the University, became librarian, and settled as minister at Eastwood,
Renfrewshire; was diligent with his pen; left 50 volumes of MSS., only
one of which was published in his lifetime, "History of the Sufferings of
the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution," the rest
having been in part published by several antiquarian societies since
(1679-1734).
WOFFINGTON, PEG, actress, born in Dublin, where she made her first
appearance in 1737, and in London at Covent Garden in 1740, in a style
which carried all hearts by storm; she was equally charming in certain
male characters as in female; her character was not without reproach, but
she had not a little of that charity which covereth a multitude of sins,
in the practice of which, after her retirement in 1757, she ended her
days (1720-1768).
WOIWODE, name at one time of an elective prince among the Slavs,
originally one chosen in some emergency; superseded by Hospodar in 1716.
WOKING (9), a small town in Surrey, 24 m. SW. of London; contains a
large cemetery with crematorium near it, and not far off is Bisley
Common, with shooting-butts for practice by the Volunteers.
WOLCOT, JOHN, better known by his pseudonym Peter Pindar, born in
Devonshire; bred to and practised medicine; took orders, and held office
in the Church; took eventually to writing satires and lampoons, which
spared no one, and could not be bribed into silence; was blind for some
years before he died (1738-1819).
WOLF, FRIEDRICH AUGUST, great classical scholar, born near
Nordhausen; studied at Göttingen; was professor of Philology at Halle;
became world-famous for his theory of the Homeric poems; he maintains, in
his "Prolegomena ad Homerum," that the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" were
originally a body of independent ballads handed down by oral tradition,
and gradually collected into two groups, which finally appeared each as
one, bearing the name of Homer, who, he allows, was _probably_ the first
to attempt to weave them severally into one; the "Prolegomena" was
published in 1735, and its appearance caused a wide-spread sensation, and
gave rise to a controversy which maintains itself to the present time
(1759-1824).
WOLFE, CHARLES, author of the "Burial of Sir John Moore," born in
Dublin; became an Irish clergyman; died of consumption (1791-1823).
WOLFE, JAMES, major-general, born in Kent, son of a
lieutenant-general, who served under Marlborough; was present at the
battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, Falkirk, and Culloden, and served in the
expedition against Rochefort, which it was believed proved disastrous
because his counsel was not followed; this circumstance attracted the
attention of Pitt, who appointed him a command in Canada; here he
distinguished himself first at the siege of Louisburg, and then by the
capture of Quebec, where he fell at the moment of victory; he lived to
hear the cry "They run," and eagerly asked "Who run?" and being told the
French, exclaimed, "I thank God, and die contented" (1727-1759).
WOLFENBÜTTEL (13), an old town in Brunswick, 7 m. S. of Brunswick;
contains an old building, now rebuilt, being a library of vast extent and
rich in MSS.; has various manufactures.
WOLFF, JOHANN CHRISTIAN VON, German philosopher and mathematician,
born at Breslau; was appointed professor at Halle in 1707, but was in
1723 not only removed from his chair, but banished from Prussia by
Frederick William on account of his opinions, which, as fatalistic, were
deemed socially demoralising, but was recalled by Frederick the Great on
his accession, and afterwards promoted to the rank of baron of the
empire; he was a disciple of Leibnitz, and the father of the philosophy
that prevailed in Germany before the time of Kant; his merits as a
philosopher were threefold: he claimed for philosophy the entire field of
knowledge, he paid special attention to method in philosophical
speculation, and he first taught philosophy to express itself in German,
or made German the philosophical language (1679-1754).
WOLLASTON, WILLIAM, ethical and theological writer, born near
Stafford; wrote "Religion of Nature," a rationalistic work written in an
optimistic spirit (1659-1724).
WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE, physicist and chemist, born in Norfolk,
grandson of preceding; made extensive discoveries in chemistry and
optics; invented the camera lucida and the goniometer.
WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. See GODWIN.
WOLSELEY, GARNET JOSEPH, LORD, field-marshal, born in co. Dublin, of
a Staffordshire family; entered the army in 1852; served in the Burmese
War of 1852-1853, in the Crimean War, where he was severely wounded, in
the Chinese War of 1860, and afterwards in Canada; commanded in the
Ashantee War in 1878, and received the thanks of Parliament, with a grant
of £25,000, for "courage, energy, and perseverance" in the conduct of it,
and after services in Natal, Egypt, and Ireland was made field-marshal in
1894, and commander-in-chief in 1895; _b_. 1833.
WOLSEY, THOMAS, cardinal, born at Ipswich, son of a well-to-do
grazier and wool-merchant; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford; entered
the Church early; gained the favour of Henry VII., and was promoted by
him for his services to the deanery of Lincoln; this was the first of a
series of preferments at the hands of royalty, which secured him one
bishopric after another until his revenue accruing therefrom equalled
that of the crown itself, which he spent partly in display of his rank
and partly in acts of munificence; of his acts of munificence the
founding of Christ Church College in the interest of learning was one,
and the presentation of Hampton Court Palace, which he had built, to the
king, was another; it was in the reign of Henry VIII. that he rose to
power, and to him especially he owed his honours; it was for his
services to him he obtained the chancellorship of the kingdom, and at his
suit that he obtained the cardinal's hat and other favours from the Pope;
this, though not the height of his ambition, was the limit of it, for he
soon learned how frail a reed is a prince's favour; he refused to
sanction his master's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and was driven from
power and bereft of all his possessions; finally, though restored to the
see of York, he was arrested on a charge of treason, took ill on the way
to London, and died at Leicester, with the words on his lips, "Had I but
served God as I have served the king, He would not have forsaken me in my
grey hairs" (1471-1530).
WOLVERHAMPTON (82), a town in Staffordshire, 12½ m. NW. of
Birmingham, in the midst of coal and iron fields; the centre of a group
of towns engaged in different kinds of iron manufacture, locks and keys
the staple, and the metropolis of the Black Country.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS, claims on the part and in the behalf of women to a
status in society which will entitle them to the legal and social
privileges of men.
WOOD, SIR ANDREW, Scottish admiral, born in Largo, Fife; was
distinguished and successful in several naval engagements, chiefly in the
Forth, against the English in the reigns of James III. and James IV.;
received for his services the honour of knighthood and the village and
lands of Largo in fee; was an eccentric old admiral; is said to have had
a canal cut from his house to the church, and to have sailed thither in
his barge every Sunday; _d_. 1540.
WOOD, ANTHONY, antiquary, born at Oxford, and educated at Merton
College, Oxford; was a gentleman of independent means; wrote "History and
Antiquities of Oxford University," which appeared in 1674, and "Athenæ
Oxonienses," which appeared in 1691, being an exact history of all the
writers and bishops educated at Oxford from 1500 to 1690 (1632-1695).
WOOD, SIR EVELYN, soldier, born in Essex; served in the Indian
Mutiny War, and received the V.C., also in the Ashanti, in the Zulu, in
the Transvaal (1880-1881) Wars, and in Egypt in 1882; _b_. 1838.
WOOD, MRS. HENRY (_née_ Price), novelist, born in Worcestershire;
her best novels "The Channings" and "Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles," though
her most popular "East Lynne"; she wrote some thirty, all popular, and
deservedly so (1820-1887).
WOODEN HORSE, a gigantic horse of wood, within which Greek warriors
were concealed, and which the Trojans were persuaded to admit into their
city, to its ruin, on the pretext that it was an offering by the Greeks
to Pallas, to atone for their abstraction of her image from the citadel.
WOODSTOCK, a small market-town on the Glyme, 8 m. NW. of Oxford,
once a royal manor, near which is BLENHEIM PARK (q. v.).
WOOLNER, THOMAS, English sculptor, born at Hadleigh, in Suffolk;
sympathised with the Pre-Raphaelite movement; did a number of statues
(one of Bacon for Oxford), busts of famous contemporaries--Carlyle,
Darwin, Tennyson, &c.--and ideal works, such as Elaine, Ophelia,
Guinevere, &c.; was a poet as well as a sculptor (1826-1892).
WOOLSACK, the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, as
Speaker of the House, being a large square cushion of wool covered with
red cloth, without either back or arms.
WOOLSTON, THOMAS, an eccentric semi-deistical writer, born at
Northampton, who maintained a lifelong polemic against the literal truth
of the Bible, and insisted that the miraculous element in it must be
allegorically interpreted, with such obstinacy that he was in the end
subjected to imprisonment as a blasphemer, from which he was never
released, because he refused to recant (1669-1731).
WOOLWICH (40), a town in Kent, on the S. bank of the Thames, 9 m.
below London; is the chief military arsenal in the country; contains a
gun factory, ammunition factory, laboratory, &c., which employ 12,000
men, besides barracks for artillery, engineers, &c., covering an area 4
m. in circumference.
WORCESTER (42), the county town of Worcestershire, on the left bank
of the Severn, 26 m. SE. of Birmingham; a very ancient place, and a
handsome city, with a noble old Gothic cathedral; is famous for its blue
porcelain ware and other industries, particularly glove-making; was the
scene in 1651 of Cromwell's victory over the Royalists, which he called
his "crowning mercy."
WORCESTER (118), the second city of Massachusetts, U.S., a place of
busy industry, and with a flourishing trade.
WORCESTER, MARQUIS OF, inventor of the steam-engine, born probably
in the Strand; early gave himself to mechanical studies; was an ardent
Royalist; negotiated with the Irish Catholics on behalf of the king; was
discovered and imprisoned on a charge of treason, but his release being
procured by the king, he spent some time in exile; on his return he was
again imprisoned and then released; wrote an account of inventions
amounting to a hundred, "A Century of Inventions" as he called it, one of
which he described as "an admirable and most forcible way of driving up
water by fire" (1601-1667).
WORCESTERSHIRE, an agricultural and pastoral county in the valley of
the Severn, the N. part of which is the Black Country, rich in coal and
iron mines, with Dudley for capital, and the SW. occupied by the Malvern
Hills, while the S. is famous for its orchards and hop-gardens; it has
also extensive manufactures at Worcester, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, and
Redditch.
WORD, THE, or LOGOS, the name given by St. John to God as
existing from the beginning as in the fulness of time He manifested
Himself in Christ, or as at first what He revealed Himself at last.
WORDSWORTH, CHARLES, bishop of St. Andrews, born in Lambeth, studied
at Christ Church, Oxford; was private tutor to Gladstone and Manning,
Warden of Glenalmond College, Perthshire, and made bishop in 1852; was a
student of Shakespeare, and distinguished as a prelate for his zeal for
Church union in Scotland; he was a nephew of the poet (1805-1892).
WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, poet, born at Cockermouth, of a Yorkshire
stock; educated at Hawkshead Grammar School and at St. John's College,
Cambridge; travelled in France at the Revolution period, and was smitten
with the Republican fever, which however soon spent itself; established
himself in the S. of England, and fell in with Coleridge, and visited
Germany in company with him, and on his return settled in the Lake
Country; married Mary Hutchinson, who had been a school-fellow of his,
and to whom he was attached when a boy, and received a lucrative sinecure
appointment as distributor of stamps in the district, took up his
residence first at Grasmere and finally at Rydal Mount, devoting his life
in best of the Muses, as he deemed, to the composition of poetry, with
all faith in himself, and slowly but surely bringing round his admirers
to the same conclusion; he began his career in literature by publishing
along with Coleridge "Lyrical Ballads"; finished his "Prelude" in 1806,
and produced his "Excursion" in 1814, after which, from his home at Rydal
Mount, there issued a long succession of miscellaneous pieces; he
succeeded Southey as poet-laureate in 1843; he is emphatically the poet
of external nature and of its all-inspiring power, and it is as such his
admirers regard him; Carlyle compares his muse to "an honest rustic
fiddle, good and well handled, but wanting two or more of the strings,
and not capable of much"; to judge of Wordsworth's merits as a poet the
student is referred to Matthew Arnold's "Selections" (1770-1850).
WORLD, THE, the name applied in the New Testament to the collective
body of those who reject and oppose the spirit of Christ, who practically
affirm what He denies, and practically deny what He affirms, or turn His
Yea into Nay, and His Nay into Yea.
WORMS (25), an old German town in Hesse-Darmstadt, in a fertile
plain on the left bank of the Rhine, 40 m. SE. of Mainz, with a massive
Romanesque cathedral having two domes and four towers; it was here the
Diet of the empire was held under Charles V., and before which Martin
Luther appeared on 17th April 1521, standing alone in his defence on the
rock of Scripture, and deferentially declining to recant: "Here stand I;
I can do no other; so help me God."
WORSAAE, JANS JACOB, eminent Danish archæologist, born in Jutland;
has written on the antiquities of the North, specially in a Scandinavian
reference (1821-1885).
WORTHING (16), a fashionable watering-place on the Sussex coast, 10½
m. SW. of Brighton; has a mild climate, fine sands, and a long wide
parade.
WOTTON, SIR HENRY, diplomatist and scholar, born in Kent; was
ambassador of James I. for 20 years, chiefly at Venice; visited Kepler
(q. v.) on one occasion, and found him a very "ingenious person," and
came under temporary eclipse for his definition of an ambassador, "An
honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country"; was
ultimately provost of Eton, and was a friend of many good men, among
others Isaac Walton, who wrote his Life; he wished to be remembered as
the author of the saying, "The itch of controversy is the scab
(_scabies_) of the Churches," and caused it to be insculpt in his epitaph
(1568-1630).
WOUVERMANS, PHILIP, Dutch painter, born at Haarlem, where he lived
and died; painted small landscapes, hunting pieces, and battle pieces,
from which the picture-dealers profited, while he lived and died poor;
had two brothers, whose pictures are, though inferior, often mistaken for
his (1619-1668).
WRANGEL, FREDERICK, Prussian field-marshal, born at Stettin; served
with distinction in various campaigns, and commanded in the Danish War of
1864, and was present in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, though without
command; was known as Papa Wrangel among the Berliners, who loved him for
his disregard of grammar (1784-1877).
WRANGLER, name given in Cambridge University to those who have
attained the first rank in mathematics, pure and applied, the one who
heads the list being known as the Senior Wrangler.
WREDE, PHILIP, field-marshal and prince, born in Heidelberg; served
as a Bavarian general against Austria as the ally of Napoleon at Wagram,
and also in the expedition against Russia in 1812, on which occasion he
covered the retreat of the French army to the loss of nearly all the
cavalry; fought against the French at Hanau; was defeated, but was
afterwards successful on French soil, and eventually became
commander-in-chief of the Bavarian army (1767-1838).
WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER, architect, born at East Knoyle, in Wiltshire;
educated at Westminster School and Wadham College, Oxford, and became
Fellow of All Souls; was early distinguished in mathematics and for
mechanical ingenuity, and soon became notable for his skill in
architecture, and received a commission to restore St. Paul's, London,
but on its destruction in 1666 he was appointed to design and erect an
entirely new structure; for this he had prepared himself by study abroad,
and he proceeded to construct a new St. Paul's after the model of St.
Peter's at Rome, a work which, as it occupied him from 1675 to 1710, took
him 35 years to finish; he died at the age of 90, sitting in his chair
after dinner, and was buried in the cathedral which he had erected, with
this inscription, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (If you inquire
after his monument, look around); Wren was a man of science as well as an
artist; he was at one time Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and
one of the founders of the Royal Society (1631-1723).
WREN, MATTHEW, bishop of Ely; was one of the judges of the Star
Chamber; assisted in preparing the liturgy for Scotland, which, when read
in St. Giles', Edinburgh, roused the ire of JENNY GEDDES (q. v.);
was impeached, and confined in the Tower for 18 years, and released
at the Restoration (1585-1667).
WREXHAM (12), an important town in Denbighshire, North Wales, 12 m.
SW. from Chester, in the centre of a mining district, and famed for its
breweries.
WRIGHT, JOSEPH, painter, usually called "Wright of Derby," from his
birthplace and place of residence nearly all his life; he excelled in
portraits, and in the representation of the effects especially of
firelight (1734-1797).
WRIGHT, THOMAS, antiquary, born in Shropshire, but settled in
London; wrote or edited a vast number of works bearing on the
antiquities, literary and other, of England, and was connected with the
founding of sundry antiquarian societies (1810-1877).
WRITERS TO THE SIGNET, a body of solicitors in Scotland who had at
one time the exclusive privilege of practising in and drawing up cases
for the supreme courts of the country, and whose privileges are now
limited to the preparation of crown writs.
WULSTAN, ST., Saxon bishop of Worcester in the days of Edward the
Confessor; being falsely accused by his adversaries, after the king's
death, he was required to resign, but refused, and laying his crozier on
the Confessor's shrine called upon him to decide who should wear it; none
of his accusers could lift it, only himself, to his exculpation from
their accusations.
WUNDT, WILHELM MAX, distinguished German physiologist, born in
Baden, and professor at Leipzig; distinguished for his studies on the
connection of the physical with the psychical in the human organisation,
and has written on psychology as well as physiology; _b_. 1832.
WUPPERTHAL, a densely-peopled valley in Germany traversed by the
river Wupper, which after a course of 40 m. enters the right bank of the
Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, and which embraces the towns of
Barmen and Elberfeld.
WURMSER, COUNT VON, Austrian general, born in Alsace; took an active
part in the war with France; commanded the respect of Napoleon from his
defence of Mantua, on the capitulation of which he refused to take him
prisoner (1721-1797).
WÜRTEMBERG (2,035), a kingdom of South Germany, about one-fourth the
size of Scotland, between Baden on the W. and Bavaria on the E.; the
Black Forest extends along the W. of it, and it is traversed nearly E.
and W. by the Swabian Alp, which slopes down on the N. side into the
valley of the Neckar, and on the S. into that of the Danube; the soil is
fertile, and is in great part under cultivation, yielding corn, vines,
and fruits, agriculture being the chief industry of the population; there
are only four towns whose inhabitants exceed 20,000, of which Stuttgart
is one, and Ulm, the capital, is the other; the towns are the centres of
varied manufactures; education is of a high standard; and associated with
the country is a number of famous names-enough to mention the names of
Kepler, Schiller, Hegel, Schelling, and Strauss; the government is
constitutional, under a hereditary sovereign.
WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE, celebrated French chemist, born at Strasburg
(1817-1884).
WÜRZBURG (51), a Bavarian town in a valley of the Main, 70 m. SB. of
Frankfort; its principal buildings are the Royal or Episcopal Palace, the
cathedral, and the university, with the Julius Hospital, called after its
founder, Bishop Julius, who was also founder of the university, which is
attended by 1500 students, mostly medical, and has a library of 100,000
volumes; the fortress of Marienberg, overlooking the town, was till 1720
the episcopal palace.
WUTTKE, KARL, theologian, born at Breslau, professor at Halle; wrote
on Christian ethics, stoutly maintained the incompatibility of
Christianity with democracy, that a Christian could not be a democrat or
a democrat a Christian (1819-1870).
WYANDOTS, a tribe of North American Indians of the Iroquois stock;
were nearly exterminated in 1636, but a feeble remnant of them now occupy
a small district in the Indian Territory.
WYATT, RICHARD, sculptor, born in London; studied in Home under
Canova, and had Gibson for fellow-student; a man of classical tastes, and
produced a number of exquisitely-modelled, especially female, figures
(1795-1850).
WYATT, SIR THOMAS, English poet, courtier, and statesman, born at
Allington Castle, in Kent, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge;
was a welcome presence at court, a friend of Anne Boleyn, in high favour
with the king, and knighted in 1537; did a good deal of diplomatic work
in Spain and the Netherlands, and died on his way to meet the Spanish
ambassador and convoy him to London; he had travelled in Italy, had
studied the lyric poets of Italy, especially Petrarch, and, along with
Surrey, imported their sentiment into English verse, "amourist poetry,"
as it has been called, "a poetry extremely personal, and personal as
English poetry had scarcely ever been before" (1503-1542).
WYATT, SIR THOMAS, the younger, only son of the preceding; was
leader of the rebellion that broke out in 1554 in consequence of the
settlement of the marriage between Queen Mary and Philip of Spain, in
which, being repulsed at Temple Bar, he surrendered, was committed to the
Tower, and for which he was executed, Lady Jane Grey and her husband
following to the same doom shortly after (1520-1554).
WYCHERLEY, WILLIAM, dramatist, born in Shropshire, of good birth,
and resided for a time in Paris, being admitted to the circle of the
Précieuses, but returned to England at the Restoration, and became a
figure at the court; his plays were marked with the coarseness of the
time, and his best were "The Country Wife" (1675) and the "Plain Dealer"
(1677); married the Countess of Drogheda for her fortune, a legacy which
cost him only lawsuits and imprisonment for debt; succeeded to his
paternal estate when he was an old man; married again, and died
immediately after (1640-1715).
WYCLIFFE, JOHN. See Wicliffe.
WYCOMBE, HIGH (13), a market-town in Buckinghamshire, on the Wye, 25
m. SE. of Oxford; has a parish church built in the Norman style in 1273
and restored in 1887, and several public buildings; the manufacture of
chairs, lace, and straw-plait among the leading industries.
WYE, a lovely winding river in South Wales, which rises near the
source of the Severn on Plinlimmon, and falls into its estuary at
Chepstow, 125 m. from its head; rapid in its course at first, it becomes
gentler as it gathers volume; barges ascend it as far as Hereford, but a
high tidal wave makes navigation dangerous at its mouth.
WYKEHAM, WILLIAM OF, bishop of Winchester, born in Hampshire of
humble parentage; was patronised by the governor of Winchester Castle and
introduced by him to Edward III., who employed him to superintend the
rebuilding of Windsor Castle, and by-and-by made him Privy Seal and Lord
Chancellor, though he fell into disgrace towards the close of Edward's
reign; was restored to favour in Richard II.'s reign and once more made
Chancellor; in his later years he founded the New College, Oxford, built
and endowed St. Mary's College, Winchester, and rebuilt the cathedral
there. He was less of a theologian than an architect; was disparagingly
spoken of by John Wickliffe as a "builder of castles," and his favourite
motto was, "Manners make the man"; (1324-1404).
WYNNAD, a highland district in the Western Ghâts, Madras Presidency,
with extensive coffee plantations, and a wide distribution of auriferous
quartz rock, the working of which has been on an extravagant scale, and
has involved the loss of much capital.
WYNTOUN, ANDREW OF, Scottish chronicler; lived at the end of the
14th and beginning of the 15th centuries; was canon regular of St.
Andrews and prior of St. Serf, Lochleven; the subject of his "Original
Chronicle," as he calls it, was Scottish history, introduced by foreign
from the creation downwards, and it was written in verse that can hardly
be called poetry; it is of value historically and interesting
philologically, and consists of nine books or cantos; it is to him we owe
"When Alexander our King was dead."
WYOMING (60), a North-West State of the American Union, chiefly on
the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, an elevated region about three
times the area of Ireland and a comparatively sparse population, settled
principally along the line of the Union Pacific Railway; it has a very
rugged surface, and abounds in deep cañons and frowning precipices, the
lakes also are deep, and there are immense geysers, one, the Great
Geyser, throwing up a volume of water 300 ft. high; it is rich in
minerals, yields good crops of various grains, rears large herds of
horses and cattle, as well as game on its moors, and trout and salmon in
its rivers. See YELLOWSTONE PARK.
WYOMING VALLEY, a fertile valley in Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna
River, 20 m. long by 5 broad; it was the scene of a series of contests
between rival settlers, when the last of them were set upon by an
invading force, forced to surrender, and either massacred or driven forth
from the valley; Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming" relates to this last
disaster.
WYSS, JOHANN RUDOLF, Swiss littérateur, born at Bern, professor of
Philosophy there; the author of the "Swiss Family Robinson," on which
alone his title to fame rests (1781-1830).
WYVERN, a heraldic device in shape of a dragon with expanded wings,
with only two legs and the pointed tail of a scorpion.
X
XANTHUS, principal city in ancient Lycia, on a river of the same
name, celebrated for its temples and works of art; sustained two sieges,
the last of which terminated in the self-destruction of its inhabitants;
ruins of it exist, and are Cyclopean; also the name of a river in the
Troad, called also the Scamander.
XANTIPPE, the name of the wife of Socrates, a woman of a peevish and
shrewish disposition, the subject of exaggerated gossip in Athens, to the
exaltation of the temper of her husband, which it never ruffled. She is
quaintly described by an old English writer as "a passing shrewde,
curste, and wayward woman, wife to the pacient and wise philosopher
Socrates."
XAVIER, ST. FRANCIS, a Jesuit missionary, styled usually the
"Apostle of the Indies," born, of a noble family, in the north of Spain;
a student of Sainte Barbe in Paris, he took to philosophy, became
acquainted with Ignatius Loyola, and was associated with him in the
formation of the Jesuit Society; was sent in 1541, under sanction of the
Pope, by John III. of Portugal to Christianise India, and arrived at Goa
in 1542, from whence he extended his missionary labours to the Eastern
Archipelago, Ceylon, and Japan, in which enterprises they were attended
with signal success; on his return to Goa in 1552 he proceeded to
organise a mission to China, in which he experienced such opposition and
so many difficulties that on his way to carry on his work there he
sickened and died; he was buried at Goa; beatified by Paul V. in 1619,
and canonised by Gregory XV. in 1622 (1506-1552).
XEBEC, a small three-masted vessel with lateen and square sails,
used formerly in the Mediterranean by the Algerine pirates, and mounted
with guns.
XENIEN, the name, derived from Martial, of a series of stinging
epigrams issued at one time by Goethe and Schiller, which created a great
sensation and gave offence to many, causing "the solemn empire of dulness
to quake from end to end."
XENOCRATES, an ancient philosopher and a disciple of Plato, born in
Chalcedon, and a successor of Plato's in the Academy as head of it; _d_.
314 B.C.
XENOPHANES, the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, born in
Asia Minor; was the first to enunciate the doctrine "all is one," but
"without specifying," says SCHWEGLER, "whether this unity was
intellectual or moral.... Aristotle says he called God the one." See
ELEATICS.
XENOPHON, historian, philosopher, and military commander, born at
Athens, son of an Athenian of good position; was a pupil and friend of
Socrates; joined the expedition of Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes,
and on the failure of it conducted the ten thousand Greeks--"the Retreat
of the Ten Thousand"--who went up with him back to the Bosphorus, served
afterwards in several military adventures, brought himself under the ban
of his fellow-citizens in Athens, and retired to Elis, where he spent 20
years of his life in the pursuits of country life and in the prosecution
of literature; the principal of his literary works, which it appears have
all come down to us, are the "Anabasis," being an account in seven books
of the expedition of Cyrus and his own conduct of the retreat; the
"Memorabilia," in four books, being an account of the life and teaching
and in defence of his master Socrates; the "Helenica," in seven books,
being an account of 49 years of Grecian history in continuation of
Thucydides to the battle of Mantinea; and "Cyropædeia," in eight books,
being an ideal account of the education of Cyrus the Elder. Xenophon
wrote pure Greek in a plain, perspicuous, and unaffected style, had an
eye to the practical in his estimate of things, and professed a sincere
belief in a divine government of the world (435-354 B.C.).
XERES (61), a town in Spain, 14 m. NE. of Cadiz, a well-built, busy
town, and the centre of the trade in sherry wine, which takes its name
from it, and of which there are large stores.
XERXES, a king of Persia, son of Darius I., whom he succeeded on the
throne in 485 B.C.; in his ambition to subdue Greece, which, after
suppressing a revolt in Egypt, he in 481 essayed to do with an immense
horde of men both by sea and land, he with his army crossed the
Hellespont by means of a bridge of boats, was checked for a time at
Thermopylæ by Leonidas and his five hundred, advanced to Athens to see
his fleet destroyed at Salamis by Themistocles, fled at the sight by the
way he came, and left Mardonius with 300,000 men to carry out his
purpose, but, as it happened, to suffer defeat on the fatal field of
Platæa in 479, and the utter annihilation of all his hopes; the rest of
his life he spent in obscurity, and he was assassinated in 465 by
Artabanus, the captain of his bodyguard, after a reign of 20 years.
XESIBELAND, a region in South Africa lying between Griqualand East
and Pondoland; was annexed to Cape Colony in 1886.
XIMENES DE CISNEROS, FRANCISCO, cardinal and statesman, born in
Castile, of a poor but noble family; studied at Salamanca and went to
Rome, where he gained favour with the Pope, who appointed him to the
first vacant ecclesiastical preferment in Spain, as the result of which
he in 1495 became archbishop of Toledo, but not till he was 60 years of
age; in 10 years after this he became regent of Spain, and conducted the
affairs of the kingdom with consummate ability. He was a severe man, and
he was careful to promote what he considered the best and highest
interests of the nation; but he was narrow-minded, and did often more
harm than good; he was intolerant of heresy such as the Church deemed it
to be, and contrived by his policy to confer more than sovereign rights
upon the crown. He was to Spain pretty much what Richelieu was to France.
XINGU, a river in Brazil, which rises in the heart of the country,
and after a course of 1300 m. falls into the Amazon 210 m. W. of Pará.
XUCAR or JUCAR, a river of Valencia, in Spain, which rises near
the source of the Tagus, and after a course of 317 m. falls diminished
into the Mediterranean, most of its water having been drained off for
purposes of irrigation in connection with orange-gardens on its way,
gardens which yield, it is said, 20 millions of oranges a year.
Y
YABLONOI MOUNTAINS, a range of mountains which extend NE. from the
Altai chain, and run S. of Lake Baikal, near the frontier of China,
dividing the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena.
YACU-MAMA, a fabulous marine monster, said to haunt the lagoons of
the Amazon, and to suck into its mouth and swallow whatever comes within
a hundred yards of it; before bathing in a lagoon, where he apprehends
its presence, the Indian sounds a horn, the effect of which is to make it
reveal itself if it is there.
YAHOO, name of a race of brutes, subject to the Houyhuhnms (q. v.),
in "Gulliver's Travels," with the form and all the vices of men.
YAJUR-VEDA, one of the books of the VEDAS (q. v.),
containing the prescribed formulæ in connection with sacrifices.
YAKSHA, a species of gnome in the Hindoo mythology.
YAKUTSK (5), a capital town in East Siberia, on a branch of the
Lena; occupied chiefly by traders in furs, hides, &c.; is said to be the
coldest town in the world.
YALE UNIVERSITY, a well-equipped university at New Haven,
Connecticut, U.S., founded in 1701, which derives its name from Elihu
Yale, a Boston man, and which was given to it in recognition of his
benefactions; it occupies a square in the heart of the city, has a staff
of 70 professors, besides tutors and lecturers, also 1200 students, and a
library of 200,000 volumes; the faculties include arts, medicine, law,
theology, fine arts, and music, while the course of study extends over
four years.
YAMA, in the Hindu mythology "a solar hero who rules over the dead;
might have lived as an immortal, but chose to die; was the first to
traverse the road from which there is no return, tracing it for future
generations; in the remotest extremity of the heavens, the abode of light
and the eternal waters, he reigns in peace and in union with
VARUNA (q. v.); there by the sound of his flute, under the
branches of the mythic tree, he assembles around him the dead who have
lived nobly, they reach him in a crowd, convoyed by AGNI (q. v.),
grimly scanned as they pass by two monstrous dogs that are the
guardians of the road."
YAMBO or YAMBU, the port of Medina, in Arabia, on the Red Sea.
YANAON (5), a small patch of territory belonging to France, on the
Godavery, enclosed in the British province of Madras, India.
YANG-TSZE-KIANG, or the Blue, or Great, River, the largest river in
China and in the East; rises in the plateau of Tibet, and after a course
of 3200 m., draining and irrigating great part of China by the way, falls
by a wide estuary into the Yellow Sea, terminating near Shanghai; it has
numerous tributaries, some of great length, and is of great value to the
country as a waterway; it is navigable 1000 m. from its mouth, and at
Hankow, 700 m. up, is a mile in width.
YANKEE, slang name for a New Englander; applied in England to the
citizens of the United States generally; it is of uncertain derivation.
YAPURA, an affluent of the Amazon, which rises in Columbia; has a
course of 1750 m., and is navigable to steamers for 970 m.
YARKAND (60), the capital or chief city of Eastern Turkestan, 100 m.
SE. of Kashgar; is in the centre of a very fertile district of the vast
continental basin of Central Asia, abounding also in large stores of
mineral wealth; it is a great emporium of trade, and the inhabitants are
mostly Mohammedans.
YARMOUTH (49), a seaport, fishing town, and watering-place of
Norfolk, 20½ m. E. of Norwich and some 2 m. above the mouth of the Yare;
is the principal seat of the English herring fishery, and is famous for
its herrings, known as bloaters; it has a fine roadstead called Yarmouth
Roads, a safe anchorage for ships, being protected by sandbanks; has a
number of public buildings, in particular a parish church, one of the
largest in England, and a fine marine parade.
YARRELL, WILLIAM, naturalist, born at Westminster; wrote "History of
British Fishes" and "History of British Birds" (1784-1856).
YARROW, a famous Scottish stream which rises on the confines of the
shires of Peebles, Dumfries, and Selkirk, passes NE. through the Loch of
the Lowes and St. Mary's Loch, and joins the Ettrick 2 m. above Selkirk
after a course of 25 m.
YATES, EDMUND, journalist, founded _The World_ newspaper; wrote a
supremely interesting "Autobiography" (1831-1894).
YEDDO. See TOKYO.
YELLOW SEA, or WHANG-HAI, an inlet of the Pacific, on the NE.
coast of China, bounded on the E. by the Corea, including in the NW. the
Gulf of Pechili, some 600 m. long, and its average breadth 300 m.; is
very shallow, and gradually silting up owing to the quantity of alluvium
brought down by the rivers which fall into it.
YELLOWSTONE, THE, a river which rises in the NW. of WYOMING
(q. v.), and falls into the Missouri as one of its chief tributaries
after a course of 1300 m.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, a high-lying tract of land in the State
of WYOMING (q. v.) traversed by the Yellowstone, about the size
of Kent, being a square about 75 m. in diameter; is set apart by Congress
as a great pleasure ground in perpetuity for the enjoyment of the people;
it abounds in springs and geysers, and care is taken that it be preserved
for the public benefit, to the exclusion of all private right or liberty.
YEMEN (3,000), a province in the SW. of Arabia, bounded on the N. by
Hedjaz, bordering on the Red Sea, and forming the Arabia Felix of the
ancients; about 400 m. in length and 150 m. in breadth; it is a highly
fertile region, and yields tropical and sub-tropical fruits, in
particular coffee, dates, gums, spices, and wheat.
YENIKALE or KERTCH, a strait 20 m. long, connecting the Sea of
Azov with the Black Sea.
YENISEI, a river which rises in the mountainous region that borders
the plateau of Gobi, its head-waters collecting in Lake Baikal, and after
a course of 3200 m. through the centre of Siberia, falls by a long
estuary or gulf into the Arctic Ocean; it is the highway of a region rich
in both mineral and vegetable products, the traffic on which is
encouraged by privileges and bounties to the trader at the hands of the
Russian government.
YENISEISK (8), a town of East Siberia, on the Yenisei, in a province
of the name, and a centre of trade in it.
YEOMANRY, name given to a cavalry volunteer force the members of
which provide their own horses and uniforms, with a small allowance from
the Government, which is increased when called out.
YEOMEN, a name given in England to a class of freeholders next in
rank to the gentry, and to certain functionaries in royal households.
YEOMEN OF THE GUARD, a body of old soldiers of soldierly presence,
employed on ceremonial occasions in conjunction with the
gentlemen-at-arms, as the bodyguard of the British sovereign; they were
constituted in 1485, and number besides officers 100 men; the Beef-eaters,
as they are called, are the wardens of the Tower, and are a different
corps.
YEOVIL (9), a town in Somerset, 4 m. S. of Bristol, is in the centre
of an agricultural district, and the staple industry is glove-making.
YETHOLM, a village of Roxburghshire, 7 m. SE. of Kelso; consists of
two parts, Town Yetholm and Kirk Yetholm, the latter of which has for two
centuries been the head-quarters of the gypsies in Scotland.
YEZD (40), a town in an oasis, surrounded by a desert, in the centre
of Persia, 230 m. SE. of Ispahân; a place of commercial importance;
carries on miscellaneous manufactures.
YEZIDEES, a small nation bordering on the Euphrates, whose religion
is a mixture of devil worship and Ideas derived from the Magi, the
Mohammedans, and the Christians.
YEZO or YESSO, the northernmost of the four large islands of
Japan, is about as large as Ireland; is traversed from N. to S. by rugged
mountains, several of them active volcanoes; is rich in minerals, and
particularly coal; its rivers swarm with salmon, but the climate is
severe, and it is only partially settled.
YGGDRASIL. See IGGDRASIL.
YIDDISH, a kind of mongrel language spoken by foreign Jews in
England.
YMIR, a giant in the Norse mythology, slain by the gods, and out of
whose carcass they constructed the world, his blood making the sea, his
flesh the land, his bones the rocks, his eyebrows Asgard, the
dwelling-place of the gods, his skull the vault of the firmament, and his
brains the clouds.
YNIOL, an earl of Arthurian legend, the father of Enid, who was
ousted from his earldom by his nephew the "Sparrow-Hawk," but who, when
overthrown, was compelled to restore it to him.
YOGA, in the Hindu philosophy a state of soul, emancipation from
this life and of union with the divine, achieved by a life of asceticism
and devout meditation; or the system of instruction or discipline by
which it is achieved.
YOGIN, among the Hindus one who has achieved his _yoga_, over whom
nothing perishable has any longer power, for whom the laws of nature no
longer exist, who is emancipated from this life, so that death even will
add nothing to his bliss, it being his final deliverance or _Nirvâna_, as
the Buddhists would say.
YOKOHAMA (130), principal port of entry of Japan, 18 m. SW. of Tokyo
(q. v.), situated in a spacious bay, the centre of trade with the West
and the head-quarters of foreign trade generally; foreigners are
numerous, and the exports include silk, tea, cotton, flax, tobacco, &c.
YOKUBA (150), the largest town in Sokoto, in the Lower Soudan, with
a large trade in cotton, tobacco, and indigo.
YONGE, CHARLOTTE MARY, popular novelist, born at Otterbourne, Hants;
has written "Cameos of History of England," "Landmarks of History," &c.;
has edited the _Monthly Packet_ for 30 years; _b_. 1823.
YONI, a Hindu symbol of the female principle in nature, and as such
an object of worship. See LINGA.
YONKERS (48), a city of New York, U.S., on the Hudson River. 15 m.
N. of New York; has factories of various kinds, and some beautiful villas
occupied by New York merchants.
YONNE (344), a department of the NE. of France, watered by the
Yonne, a tributary of the Seine, with forests and vineyards which yield
large quantities of wine.
YORICK, a jester at the court of Denmark, whose skull Hamlet
apostrophises in the churchyard; also a sinister jester in "Tristram
Shandy."
YORK (67), the county town of Yorkshire, situated at the confluence
of the Foss with the Ouse, 188 m. N. of London and 22 m. NE. of Leeds; is
an interesting historic town, the seat of an archbishop, and a great
railway centre; known among the Romans as Eboracum, it was the centre of
the Roman power in the North, relics of which as such still remain; its
cathedral, known as the Minster, is one of the grandest in England; it is
built on the site of a church erected as early as the 7th century, and
was finished as it now exists in 1470; it is 524 ft. in length, and the
transepts 250 ft., the breadth of the nave 140 ft., the height of the
central tower 216 ft., and of the western one 201 ft. There are other
buildings of great antiquity, and the Guildhall dates from the 15th
century. It is the military head-quarters of the northern district of
England.
YORK, CARDINAL, the last of the line of the Stuart royal family, who
died in 1807, 19 years after his brother Charles Edward.
YORK, DUKE OF, title often given to the second son of the English
sovereign, and conferred in 1892 upon Prince George, second son of the
Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII.), and held by him till 1901.
In that year the Duke and Duchess visited Australia, in order to
inaugurate the new Commonwealth. Henry VIII. and Charles I. were Dukes of
York, while their elder brothers were alive, and James II., till he
became King.
YORKE, OLIVER, the name assumed by the editor of _Fraser's Magazine_
when it first started.
YORKSHIRE (3,208), the largest county in England, is divided into
three Ridings (i. e. thirdings or thirds) for administrative purposes,
North, East, and West, with a fourth called the Ainsty, under the
jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor and aldermen of York; of these the West is
the wealthiest and the most populous; contains a large coal-field, and is
the centre of the woollen manufacture of the county; the East being
mainly agricultural, with iron-works and shipbuilding-works; and the
North mainly pastoral, with industries connected with mining and
shipping. LEEDS (q. v.) is the largest town.
YORKTOWN, a small town in Virginia, U.S., on the York River, where
Lord Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in 1781.
YOSEMITE VALLEY, the most remarkable gorge in the world, in the
centre of California, 140 m. E. of San Francisco, 6 m. long and from ½ to
24 m. broad, girt by perpendicular walls thousands of feet deep and
traversed by the river Merced in a succession of falls of great height,
the whole presenting a scene of mingled grandeur and beauty; it was
discovered in 1851, and steps are being taken by Congress to preserve it
as a place of public resort and recreation.
YOUGHAL, a seaport in co. Cork, on the estuary of Blackwater, 27 m.
E. of Cork; has some structures of interest, and exports chiefly
agricultural produce.
YOUNG, ARTHUR, writer on agriculture, born at Whitehall; was trained
to mercantile life, which he abandoned in disgust, and took to farming,
which he studied at home and abroad and practised on scientific lines,
and became Secretary of the Board of Agriculture on its establishment in
1793; he elevated agriculture to the rank of a science and imparted
dignity to the pursuit of it (1741-1820).
YOUNG, BRIGHAM, Mormon polygamist chief, born at Whittingham,
Vermont, U.S., son of a small farmer; had no schooling, wrought as
carpenter, fell in with Joe Smith's brother, and embraced Mormonism in
1832; became one of the apostles of the Church and a preacher, and
finally the head in 1851 after the settlement of the body at Utah; with
all his fanaticism he was a worldly-wise man and a wise manager of
secular affairs; died rich, leaving his fortune to 17 wives and 56
children (1810-1877).
YOUNG, CHARLES MAYNE, tragedian, born in London, made his _début_ in
1798; married in 1805 a gifted young actress, Julia Anne Grimani, with
whom he had often played in lover's parts, and whom, after a brilliant
partnership of 16 months on the stage together, he the year after lost in
giving birth to a son; he survived her 50 years, but the love with which
he loved her never faded from his heart; appeared in the Haymarket,
London, in 1807 in the character of Hamlet; played afterwards other
Shakespearian characters, such as Iago, Macbeth, and Falstaff in Covent
Garden and Drury Lane, and took leave of the stage in 1832 in the same
character in which he first appeared on it in London, and died at
Brighton (1777-1856).
YOUNG, EDWARD, poet, born in Hampshire, educated at Westminster
School; studied at Corpus Christi, Oxford, and obtained a Fellowship at
All-Souls' College; wrote plays and satires, but is best known to fame as
the author of "Night Thoughts," which has been pronounced "his best work
and his last good work," a poem which was once in high repute, and is
less, if at all, in favour to-day, being written in a mood which is a
strain upon the reader; it is "a little too declamatory," says Professor
Saintsbury, "a little too suggestive of soliloquies in an inky cloak,
with footlights in front"; his "Revenge," acted in 1721, is pronounced by
the professor to be "perhaps the very last example of an acting tragedy
of real literary merit"; his satires in the "Love of Fame; or, The
Universal Passion," almost equalled those of Pope, and brought him both
fame and fortune; he took holy orders in 1727, and became in 1730 rector
of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire; his flattery of his patrons was fulsome, and
too suggestive of the toady (1681-1765).
YOUNG, JAMES, practical chemist, born in Glasgow; discovered cheap
methods of producing certain substances of value in the chemical arts,
and made experiments which led to the manufacture of paraffin
(1811-1889).
YOUNG, ROBERT, a notorious impostor; forged certificates, and
obtained deacons' orders and curacies, and could by no penalty be
persuaded to an honest life, and was hanged in the end for coining in
1700.
YOUNG, THOMAS, physicist, born in Somersetshire, of Quaker parents;
studied medicine at home and abroad; renounced Quakerism, and began
practice in London in 1800; was next year appointed professor of Natural
Philosophy in the Royal Institution, 1802; made Secretary of the Royal
Society, and was afterwards nominated for other important appointments;
his principal work is a "Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the
Mechanical Arts," published in 1807, in which he propounded the
undulatory theory of light, and the principle of the interference of
rays; the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egypt occupied much of his
attention, and he is credited with having anticipated Champollion in
discovering the key to them (1773-1829).
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, an association founded in London
in 1844, for the benefit of young men connected with various dry-goods
houses in the city, and which extended itself over the other particularly
large cities throughout the country, so that now it is located in 1249
centres, and numbers in London alone some 14,000 members; its object is
the welfare of young men at once spiritually, morally, socially, and
physically.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR, a society established
in 1881 by Dr. F. E. Clark, Portland, Maine, U.S., in 1898; has a
membership of three and a quarter million; it is undenominational, but
evangelical apparently, and its professed object is "to promote an
earnest Christian life among its members, to increase their mutual
acquaintanceship, and to make them more useful in the service of God."
YOUNGSTOWN (45), a town in Ohio, U.S., with large iron factories;
is in the heart of a district rich in iron and coal.
YPRES (16), an old Belgian town in West Flanders, 30 m. SW. of
Bruges; was at one time a great weaving centre, and famous for its diaper
linen; has much fallen off, though it retains a town-hall and a
cathedral, both of Gothic architecture in evidence of what it once was;
it was strongly fortified once, and has been subjected to many sieges;
the manufacture of thread and lace is now the most important industry.
YRIARTE, CHARLES, French littérateur, born in Paris, of Spanish
ancestry; has written works dealing with Spain, Paris, the Franco-German
War, Venice, &c.; _b_. 1832.
YRIARTE, THOMAS DE, Spanish poet; studied at Madrid; was editor of
the _Madrid Mercury_; his principal works "Musica," a poem, and "Literary
Fables" (1750-1790).
YSTAD, a seaport in the extreme S. of Sweden, with a commodious
harbour, and a trade chiefly in corn.
YSTRADYFODWG (88), a township in Glamorgan, in a rich mining
district.
YTTRIUM, a rare metal always found in combination with others, and
is a blackish-gray powder; the oxide of it, yttria, is a soft whitish
powder, and when ignited glows with a pure white light.
YUCATAN, a peninsula in Central America dividing the Gulf of Mexico
from the Caribbean Sea, and one of the few peninsulas of the world that
extend northwards; is a flat expanse; has a good climate and a fertile
soil, yielding maize, rice, tobacco, indigo, &c.; abounds in forests of
valuable wood; forms one of the States of the Mexican Republic; it bears
traces of early civilisation in the ruins of temples and other edifices.
YUGA, a name given by the Hindus to the four ages of the world, and,
according to M. Barth, of the gradual triumph of evil, as well as of the
successive creations and destructions of the universe, following each
other in the lapse of immense periods of time.
YUKON, a great river of Alaska, rises in British territory, and
after a course of 2000 m. falls, by a number of mouths forming a delta,
into the Behring Sea; it is navigable nearly throughout, and its waters
swarm with salmon three months in the year, some of them from 80 to 120
lbs. weight, and from 5 to 6 ft. long.
YULE, the old name for the festival of Christmas, originally a
heathen one, observed at the winter solstice in joyous recognition of
the return northward of the sun at that period, being a relic in the N.
of the old sun worship.
YULE, SIR HENRY, Orientalist, born at Inveresk, Mid-Lothian; was an
officer in Bengal Engineers, and engaged in surveys in the East; was
president of the Royal Asiatic Society; wrote numerous articles for
Asiatic societies; his two great works, "The Book of Marco Polo the
Venetian" and the "Anglo-Indian Glossary," known by its other title as
"Hobson Jobson" (1820-1889).
YUMBOES, fairies in African mythology, represented as about two feet
in height, and of a white colour.
YUNG-LING, a mountain range running N. and S., which forms the
eastern buttress of the tableland of Central Asia.
YUNNAN (4,000), the extreme south-western province of the Chinese
Empire; is fertile particularly in the S.; yields large quantities of
maize, rice, tobacco, sugar, and especially opium, and abounds in mineral
wealth, including gold, silver, mercury, as well as iron, copper, and
lead; the country was long a prey to revolt against the Chinese rule, but
it is now, after a war of extermination against the rebels, the Panthays,
the Burmese, reduced to order.
YUSTE, ST., called also St. Just, a village in Estremadura, Spain,
the seat of a monastery where Charles V., Emperor of Germany, spent the
last 18 years of his life, and where he died.
YVES, the patron-saint of lawyers; was a lawyer himself, and used
his knowledge of the law to defend the oppressed; is called in Brittany
"the poor man's advocate."
YVETOT (7), an old town in the dep. of Seine-Inférieure, 24 m. NW.
of Rouen, with manufactures of textile fabrics, and a trade in
agricultural produce, the seigneurs of which long bore the title of king,
"Roi d'Yvetot," a title satirically applied by Béranger to Napoleon, and
often employed to denote an insignificant potentate with large
pretensions.
Z
ZAANDAM or SAARDAM (15), a town in North Holland, 5 m. NW. of
Amsterdam; intersected with a network of canals, with various
manufactures, including shipbuilding, and a considerable trade; it was
here Peter the Great wrought as a ship carpenter in 1699, and the house
is still preserved in which he lived, with a stone tablet inscribed
"Petro Magno Alexievitch."
ZABISM. See SABIANISM.
ZACATE`CAS (40), a town of Mexico, capital of an inland province of
the same name (452), 440 m. NW. of Mexico City; a great silver-mining
centre, an industry which employs over 10,000 of the inhabitants; it is
in a valley over 6000 ft. above the sea-level, and has several fine
churches, a college, a mint, &c.
ZACHARIAS, Pope from 741 to 752; succeeded Gregory III.; set aside
the Merovingian dynasty and sanctioned the elevation of Pepin the Short
to the throne of France, in return for which Pepin twice over saved Rome
from the Lombards.
ZACOCCIA, a king of Mozambique who, according to the LUSIAD
(q. v.), received Vasco da Gama with welcome, believing him to be a
Mohammedan, but conceived feelings of bitterest hatred to him when he
discovered he was a Christian, and tried, but all in vain, to allure him
to his ruin; the agent he employed to compass it failing, in his despair
he took away his own life.
ZADIG, name of a famous novel by Voltaire, of a philosophical cast,
bearing upon life as in the hands of a destiny beyond our control.
ZADKIEL, according to the Rabbins, the name of the angel of the
planet Jupiter; also pseudonym assumed by Richard James Morrison, a naval
officer, believer in astrology, and the compiler of an astrological
almanac.
ZAGAZIG (35), a town in the Delta of Egypt, 50 m. NE. of Cairo; a
railway centre, and entrepôt for the cotton and grain grown in the
section of the delta round it, and once a centre of worship, and the site
of two temples; Tel-el-Kebir (q. v.) lies E. of it.
ZAHN, THEODOR, biblical scholar, born in Rhenish Prussia, professor
of Theology at Erlangen; distinguished for his eminent scholarship in
connection with the matter especially of the New Testament canon; _b_.
1838.
ZÄHRINGEN, a village 2 m. N. of Freiburg, in Baden, with a castle
now in ruins which gives name to the reigning grand-ducal family of
Baden, the founders of which were counts of Breisgau.
ZAIRE, name for the CONGO (q. v.) in part of its lower
course.
ZAKKUM, a tree, according to Moslem belief, growing in hell, and of
the bitter fruit of which the damned are compelled to eat so as to
intensify their torment.
ZALEUCUS, law-giver of the ancient Locrians, a Greek people settled
in Lower Italy, and who flourished in 700th century B.C.; had a supreme
respect for law, and was severe in the enforcement of it; punished
adultery with the forfeiture of sight; refused to exonerate his own son
who had been guilty of the offence, but submitted to the loss of one of
his own eyes instead of exacting the full penalty of the culprit; had
established a law forbidding any one to enter the Senate-house armed; did
so himself on one occasion in a sudden emergency, was reminded of the
law, and straightway fell upon his sword as a sacrifice to the
sovereignty of the claims of social order.
ZAMA, a fortified city of ancient Numidea, 100 m. SW. of Carthage,
where HANNIBAL (q. v.) was defeated by Scipio Africanus, and the
SECOND PUNIC WAR (q. v.) brought to an end, and the fate of
Carthage virtually sealed.
ZAMBESI, one of the four great African rivers, and the fourth
largest as regards both the volume of its waters and the area it drains,
the other three being the Nile, the Congo, and the Niger; its
head-streams being the Lungebungo, the Leeba, and Leeambye; it waters a
rich pastoral region, and it falls into the Indian Ocean after a course
of nearly 1600 m., in which it drains 600,000 sq. m. of territory, or an
area three times larger than that of France; owing to cataracts and
rapids it is only navigable in different stretches; at 900 m. from its
mouth it plunges in a cataract known as the Victoria Falls, and which
rivals in grandeur those even of Niagara.
ZAMBESIA, a territory on the Zambesi, under British protection, and
in the hands of the British South Africa Company, embracing Mashonaland,
Matabeleland, and the country of Khama.
ZAMORA (15), ancient town of Spain, on the right bank of the Douro,
150 m. NW. of Madrid; now in a decayed state; was a flourishing place in
Moorish times; contains interesting ruins; manufactures linens and
woollens, and trades in wine and fruits.
ZANGWILL, ISRAEL, littérateur, born in London, of Jewish parents in
poor circumstances; practically self-taught; studied at London
University, where he took his degree with triple honours; became a
teacher, then a journalist; has written novels, essays, and poems; among
his works the "Bachelor's Club," "Old Maid's Club," "Children of the
Ghetto," "Dreams of the Ghetto," "The Master," "Without Prejudice," &c.;
_b_. 1854.
ZANGWILL, LOUIS, man of letters, brother of preceding; self-taught;
has written several works under the pseudonym of ZZ; distinguished
himself at one time as a chess-player; _b_. 1869.
ZANTE (15), one of the Ionian Islands, 9 m. off the NW. coast of the
Morea, is 24 m. long and 12 broad; raises currants, the produce of a
dwarf vine, and exports large quantities annually. Zante (14), the
capital, on a bay on the E. coast, is a clean and prosperous town, most
so of any in the group of islands.
ZANZIBAR, a kingdom of East Africa, under British protection,
consisting of the islands of Zanzibar (150), with a capital (30) of the
same name, and the island of Pemba (50), and a strip of the coast
extending 10 m. inland from Cape Delgado to Kipini; has a hot unhealthy
climate, and a rich tropical vegetation; its products are cloves chiefly,
coco-nuts, betel-nuts, and grain, and the exports ivory, india-rubber,
gum, &c.; the natives are mostly Arab Mohammedans under a sultan.
ZAPOROGIANS, Cossacks of the Ukraine, who revolted under Mazeppa as
chief, and were transported by Catherine II to the shores of the Sea of
Azov.
ZARA (11), the capital of Dalmatia, and a seaport of Austria, on a
promontory on the coast, 129 m. SE. of Trieste; it was founded by the
Venetians, has a spacious harbour, was strongly fortified, and the chief
manufactures are glass and a liqueur called maraschino.
ZARAGOZA. See SARAGOSSA.
ZEA, the ancient Ceos, an island of the Grecian Archipelago; of
great fertility; produces wine, honey, silk, and maize.
ZEALAND, the largest island in the Danish Archipelago, situated
between the Cattegat and the Baltic, being 81 m. long and 67 m. broad,
with COPENHAGEN (q. v.) on the E. coast; the surface is nearly
everywhere fiat, and agriculture and cattle-rearing the chief industries.
ZEALAND (213), a province of the Netherlands, formed chiefly of
islands, of which WALCHEREN (q. v.) is one, constituting a delta
as if formed by the Maas and Scheldt; great part of it is reclaimed from
the sea.
ZEALAND, NEW. See NEW ZEALAND.
ZEALOTS, THE, a fanatical party among the Jews in Judea, who rose in
revolt against the Roman domination on the appointment over them of a
Roman governor instead of a native prince, which they regarded as an
insult to their religion and religious belief.
ZEBU, one of the Visaya group of the Philippine Islands, E. of
Negros.
ZECHARIAH, a Hebrew prophet who appears to have been born in Babylon
during the captivity, and to have prophesied in Jerusalem at the time of
the restoration, and to have contributed by his prophecies to encourage
the people in rebuilding the temple and reorganising its worship; his
prophecies are divided into two great sections, but the authenticity of
the latter has been much debated; he is reckoned one of the Minor
Prophets.
ZEDLITZ, JOSEPH CHRISTIAN VON, poet, born in Austrian Silesia;
entered and served in the army, and did service as a diplomatist; wrote
dramas and lyrics, and translated Byron's "Childe Harold" into German
(1790-1862).
ZEEHAN, a township of recent growth on the W. coast of Tasmania,
with large silver-lead mines wrought by several companies, and a source
of great wealth.
ZEIT-GEIST (i. e. Time-spirit), German name for the spirit of the
time, or the dominant trend of life and thought at any particular period.
ZEITUN (20), a town in the province of Aleppo, with iron mines,
inhabited chiefly by Armenian Christians; distinguished as having for
centuries maintained their independence under Turkish oppression.
ZELLER, EDUARD, German professor of Philosophy, born in Würtemberg;
studied at Tübingen; was first a disciple of Baur, and then of Hegel;
became professor at Berlin, and devoted himself chiefly to the history of
Greek philosophy, and distinguished himself most in that regard; _b_.
1814.
ZEMINDAR, in India a holder or farmer of land from the government,
and responsible for the land-tax.
ZEM-ZEM, a sacred well in Mecca, and all built round along with the
CAABA (q. v.); has its name from the bubbling sound of the
waters; the Moslems think it the Well which Hagar found with her little
Ishmael in the wilderness when he was dying of thirst.
ZENANA, in India the part of a house reserved for the women among
Hindu families of good caste, and to which only since 1860 Christian
women missionaries have been admitted, and a freer intercourse
established.
ZEND, name applied, mistakenly it would seem, by the Europeans to
the ancient Iranian language of Persia, or the language in which the
Zend-Avesta is written, closely related to the Sanskrit of the Vedas it
appears.
ZEND-AVESTA, the name given to the sacred writings of the Guebres or
Parsees, ascribed to Zoroaster, of which he was more the compiler than
the author, and of which many are now lost; they represent several stages
of religious development, and as a whole yield no consistent system.
ZENITH, name of Arab origin given to the point of the heaven
directly overhead, being as it were the pole of the horizon, the opposite
point directly under foot being called the Nadir, a word of similar
origin; the imaginary line connecting the two passes through the centre
of the earth.
ZENO, Greek philosopher of the ELEATIC SCHOOL (q. v.), and
who flourished in 500 B.C.; was the founder of the dialectic so
successfully adopted by Socrates, which argues for a particular truth by
demonstration of the absurdity that would follow from its denial, a
process of argument known as the _reductio ad absurdum_.
ZENO, Greek philosopher, the founder of Stoic philosophy, born at
Citium, in Cyprus, son of a merchant and bred to merchandise, but losing
all in a shipwreck gave himself up to the study of philosophy; went to
Athens, and after posing as a cynic at length opened a school of his own
in the Stoa, where he taught to extreme old age a gospel called Stoicism,
which, at the decline of the heathen world, proved the stay of many a
noble soul that but for it would have died without sign, although it is
thus "Sartor," in the way of apostrophe, underrates it: "Small is it that
thou canst trample the Earth with its injuries under thy feet, as old
Greek Zeno trained thee; thou canst love the Earth while it injures thee,
and even because it injures thee; for this a Greater than Zeno was
needed, and he too was sent" (342-270 B.C.). See STOICS, THE.
ZENOBIA, queen of Palmyra and ultimately of the East, whose ambition
provoked the jealousy of the Emperor Aurelian, who marched an army
against her, and after a succession of defeats subdued her and brought
her to Rome to adorn his triumph as conqueror, though afterwards he
presented her with a domain at Tivoli, where she spent the rest of her
days in queen-like dignity, with her two sons by her side; she was a
woman of great courage and surpassing beauty. See LONGINUS.
ZEPHANIAH, a Hebrew prophet who prophesied in the interval between
the decline and fall of Nineveh and the hostile advance of Babylon;
forewarned the nation of the judgment of God impending over them for
their ungodliness, and exhorted them to repentance as the only way of
averting the inevitable doom, while he at the same time encouraged the
faithful to persevere in their godly course with the assurance that the
day of judgment would be succeeded by a day of glorious deliverance, that
they would yet become "a name and a praise among the people of the
earth."
ZEPHON (searcher of secrets), name of a cherub sent, along with
ITHURIEL (q. v.), by the archangel Gabriel to find out the
whereabouts of Satan after his flight from hell.
ZEPHYRUS, a personification in the Greek mythology of the West Wind,
and in love with Flora.
ZERMATT, a small village of the canton Valais, in Switzerland, 23
in. SW. of Brieg, a great centre of tourists and the starting-point in
particular for the ascent of the Matterhorn.
ZERO, a word of Arab origin signifying a cipher, and employed to
denote a neutral point in scale between an ascending and descending
series, or between positive and negative.
ZEUS, the chief deity of the Greeks, the sovereign ruler of the
world, the father of gods and men, the mightiest of the gods, and to
whose will as central all must bow; he was the son of Kronos and Rhea; by
the help of his brothers and sisters dethroned his father, seized the
sovereign power, and appointed them certain provinces of the universe to
administer in his name--Hera to rule with him as queen above, Poseidon
over the sea, Pluto over the nether world, Demeter over the fruits of the
earth, Hestia over social life of mankind; to his dynasty all the powers
in heaven and earth were more or less related, descended from it and
dependent on it; and he himself was to the Greeks the symbol of the
intelligence which was henceforth to be the life and light of men, an
idea which is reflected in the name Jupiter given him by the Romans,
which means "father of the day"; he is represented as having his throne
in heaven, and as wielding a thunderbolt in his right hand, in symbol of
the jealousy with which he guards the order of the world established
under him as chief.
ZEUSS, JOHANN KASPAR, great Celtic scholar, and the founder of
Celtic philology, born at Voghtendorf, in Upper Franconia, professor at
Bamberg; his great work, "Grammatica Celtica" (1806-1856).
ZEUXIS, famous Greek painter, born at Heraclea, and who flourished
from 420 B.C. to the close of the century; was unrivalled in rendering
types of sensuous, specially female, beauty, and his principal works are
his pictures of "Helen," "Zeus Enthroned," "The Infant Hercules
Strangling the Serpent"; he is said to have given away several of his
works rather than sell them, as no price could pay him for them.
ZIDON, an ancient town of Phoenicia, 20 m. N. of Tyre, and the
original capital.
ZIETHEN, JOHANN JOACHIM VON, Prussian general, born in Russia;
entered the army at the age of 15, served as a cavalry officer under
Frederick the Great, was one of the greatest of his generals, became his
personal friend, and contributed to a great many of his victories, all of
which he lived through, spending his days thereafter in quiet retirement
at Berlin in favour with the people and in honour to the last with the
king; is described by Carlyle at 45 as "beautiful" to him, though with
"face one of the coarsest," but "face thrice-honest, intricately ploughed
with thoughts which are well kept silent (the thoughts indeed being
themselves mostly inarticulate, thoughts of a simple-hearted,
much-enduring, hot-tempered son of iron and oatmeal); decidedly rather
likeable" (1699-1786). See Carlyle's "Frederick."
ZIG, a giant cock in the Talmud (q. v.), which stands with its
foot on the earth, touches heaven with its head, and when it spreads its
wings causes a total eclipse of the sun.
ZILLERTHAL, a valley in the Tyrol, watered by the Ziller, an
affluent of the Inn, some 400 of the inhabitants of which were in 1837
obliged to seek a home elsewhere because of their opposition to the
practice of auricular confession, and which they found near Liegnitz, in
Prussian Silesia.
ZIMBABYE, a remarkable ruin in Mashonaland, the remains apparently
of some enterprising colony of nature-worshippers that settled there in
ancient times, in the interest of trade presumably.
ZIMMERMANN, JOHAN GEORG VON, Swiss physician, born at Brugg, in the
canton of Bern; studied at Göttingen, became the friend of HALLER
(q. v.), and settled down to practice in his native town, where he
continued 16 years, very successful both in medicine and literature, but
"tormented with hypochondria," and wrote his book on "Solitude," which
was translated into every European language; wrote also on "Medical
Experiences," a famed book in its day too, also on "National Pride," and
became "famed throughout the universe"; attended Frederick the Great on
his deathbed, and wrote an unwise book about him, "a poor puddle of
calumnies and credulities" (1728-1795). For insight into the man and his
ways see CARLYLE'S "FREDERICK," a curious record.
ZINDIKITES, a Mohammedan heretical sect, who disbelieve in Allah,
and deny the resurrection and a future life.
ZINZENDORF, a German count, born in Dresden; studied at Wittenberg,
came under the influence of the Pietist Spener, gave himself up to
evangelical labours, and established a religious community on his estate
at Herrnhut, in Saxony, consisting chiefly of a body of Moravian
Brethren, who had been driven out of Bohemia and Moravia on account of
their religious opinions, and were called Herrnhuters, of which he became
one of the leaders and chief apostles, labouring far and wide in the
propagation of their doctrines and suffering no small persecution by the
way; he was an earnest man, the author of religious writings,
controversial and devotional; wrote a number of hymns, and died at
Herrnhut, from which he was driven forth, but to which he was allowed to
return before the end (1700-1760).
ZION, that one of the four hills on which Jerusalem is built, on the
SW. of the city, and the site of the palace of King David and his
successors.
ZIONISM, the name given a movement on the part of the Jews to
re-establish themselves in Palestine as a nation.
ZIRCONIA LIGHT, an intensely brilliant light, similar to the
Drummond light, but differing from it chiefly in the employment of cones
of zirconium instead of cylinders of lime; it has been superseded by the
electric light.
ZIRCONIUM, a metallic element often found in connection with silica,
commonly in the form of a black powder.
ZIRKNITZ, LAKE, a high-lying lake in Carniola, 20 m. SW. of Laybach,
the waters of which in the dry season will sometimes disappear altogether
through the fissures, and in rainy will sometimes expand into a lake 5 m.
long and 3 m. broad.
ZISKA, JOHANN, Hussite leader, born in Bohemia of a noble family;
began life as a page at the court of King Wenceslas, but threw up a
courtier's life in disgust for a career in arms; fought and distinguished
himself by his valour against the Teutonic knights at Tannenberg in 1410,
to their utter defeat; signalised himself afterwards against the Turks,
and in 1413 fought on the English side at Agincourt; failing to rouse
Wenceslas to avenge the death of HUSS (q. v.) and of JEROME
OF PRAGUE (q. v.), he joined the Hussites, organised their forces,
assumed the chief command, and in 1420 gained, with a force of 4000 men,
a victory over the Emperor Sigismund with an army of 40,000 mustered to
crush him; captured next year the castle of Prague, erected fortresses
over the country, one in particular called Tabor, whence the name
Taborites given to his party; blind of one eye from his childhood, lost
the other at the siege of Ratz, fought on blind notwithstanding, gaining
victory after victory, but was seized with the plague and carried off by
it at Czaslav, where his remains were buried and his big mace or
battle-club, mostly iron, hung honourably on the wall close by; that his
skin was tanned and made into the cover of a drum is a fable; he was a
tough soldier, and is called once and again in Carlyle's "Frederick"
"Rhinoceros Ziska" (1360-1424).
ZITTAU (25), a town of Saxony, 71 m. SE. of Dresden, with a
magnificent Rathhaus; stands on a vast lignite deposit; manufactures
cotton, linen, machinery, &c.
ZLATOUST (21), a Russian town near the Urals, 130 m. NE. of Ufa,
with iron and gold mines near; manufactures sword-blades and other steel
ware.
ZOAR, a small village of Ohio, U.S., 91 m. S. of Cleveland, and the
seat of a German Socialistic community.
ZÖCKLER, OTTO, German theologian, professor at Greifswald; edited a
"Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaft," and other works; _b_. 1833.
ZODIAC, the name given to a belt of the heavens extending 8° on each
side of the ecliptic, composed of twelve constellations called signs of
the zodiac, which the sun traverses in the course of a year. These signs,
of which six are on the N. of the ecliptic and six on the S., are,
commencing with the former, named successively: Aries, the Ram; Taurus,
the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the
Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the
Archer; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water-bearer; and Pisces,
the Fishes. The sun enters Aries at the spring equinox and Libra at the
autumnal equinox, while the first point of Cancer marks the summer
solstice, and that of Capricorn the winter. The name Zodiac is derived
from the Greek _zoon_, an animal, and has been given to the belt because
the majority of the signs are named after animals.
ZODIACAL LIGHT, a track of light of triangular figure with its base
on the horizon, which in low latitudes is seen within the sun's
equatorial plane before sunrise in the E. or after sunset in the W., and
which is presumed to be due to a glow proceeding from some illuminated
matter surrounding the sun.
ZOHAR, a Jewish book of cabalistic commentaries on the Old
Testament.
ZOILUS, a Greek rhetorician who flourished in the 3rd century B.C.;
was distinguished for the bitterness with which he criticised Homer, and
whose name has in consequence become a synonym for a malignant critic,
hence the saying, "Every great poet has his Zoilus."
ZOLA, ÉMILE, a noted French novelist of the realistic school, or of
what he prefers to call the naturalist school, born in Paris, of Italian
descent; began literature as a journalist, specially in the critical
department, but soon gave himself up to novel-writing, ultimately on
realistic lines, and an undue catering, as some think, to a morbid
interest on the seamy side of life, to which he addressed himself with
great vigour and not a little graphic power, but in an entire
misconception of his proper functions as an artist and a man of letters,
though, it may be pleaded, he has done so from a strong conviction on his
part that his duty lay the other way, and that it was high time
literature should, regardless of merely dilettante æstheticism, address
itself to exposing, by depicting it, the extent to which the evil genius
is gnawing at and corroding the vitals of society; and it is not for a
moment to be supposed he has done so from any pleasure he takes in
gloating over the doings of the ghoul, or that he is in sympathy with
those who do; of his works suffice it to mention here some recent ones,
as the story of "Lourdes," published in 1894, "Rome" in 1896, and "Paris"
in 1897; he has recently distinguished himself by his courage in
connection with the Dreyfus affair and his bold condemnation of the
sentence under which Dreyfus was condemned; _b_. 1840.
ZOLAISM, name given to an excessive realism in depicting the worst
side of human life and society. See ZOLA.
ZOLLVEREIN (Customs Union), a union of the German States under
Prussia in 1827, and extended in 1867, to establish among them a uniform
system of customs rates.
ZONES, the name given to belts of climate on the surface of the
earth marked off by the tropical and polar circles, of which the former
are 23½° from the equator and the latter 23½° from the poles, the zone
between the tropical circles, subject to extremes of heat, being called
the Torrid Zone, the zones between the polar circles and the poles,
subject to extremes of cold, being called respectively the North Frigid
Zone and the South Frigid Zone, and the zones north and south of the
Torrid, subject to moderate temperature, being called respectively the
North Temperate, and the South Temperate Zone.
ZOROASTER, ZARATHUSTHRA, or ZERDUSHT, the founder or reformer
of the Parsee religion, of whom, though certainly a historical personage,
nothing whatever is for certain known except that his family name was
Spitama, that he was born in Bactria, and that he could not have
flourished later than 800 B.C.; he appears to have been a pure
monotheist, and not to be responsible for the Manichean doctrine of
dualism associated with his name, as Zoroastrianism, or the institution
of fire-worship.
ZOSIMUS, Greek historian; wrote a history of the Roman emperors from
the time of Augustus to the year 410, and ascribed the decline of the
empire to the decay of paganism (408-450).
ZOUAVES, the name given to a body of light infantry in the French
army wearing the Arab dress, a costume copied from that of Kabyles, in
North Africa, and adopted since the French conquest of Algiers; some
regiments of them consist of French soldiers, some of Algerines, though
originally the two were incorporated into one body.
ZOUTSPANSBERG, a ridge of mountains on the NE. of the Transvaal,
being a continuation of the Drakensberg.
ZSCHOKKE, JOHANN HEINRICH, a German writer, born in Magdeburg, lived
chiefly at Aarau, in Aargau, Switzerland, where he spent forty years of
his life, part of them in the service of his adopted country, and where
he died; wrote histories, and a series of tales, but is best known by his
"Stunden der Andacht" (i. e. hours of devotion), on ethico-rationalistic
lines (1771-1845).
ZUG (23), the smallest canton of Switzerland, and sends only one
representative to the National Council; is 12 m. long by 9 m. broad; is
hilly and pastoral in the SE., and has cultivated fields and orchards in
the NW.; all but includes Lake Zug, at the NE. of which is Zug (5), the
capital, which carries on sundry industries on a small scale.
ZUIDER ZEE (i. e. south sea), a deep inlet of the North Sea, in
the Netherlands, which includes the islands of Texel, Vlieland,
Terschelling, and Ameland, and was formed by irruptions of the North Sea
into a lake called Flevo, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, when
thousands of people were drowned; is 85 m. long and 45 m. broad, and is
embraced in a circuit of 210 m.; it was for some time in contemplation to
reclaim this area, and after much weighing of the matter the Dutch
Government in 1897 adopted a scheme to give effect to this project;
according to the scheme adopted it is reckoned it will take 31 years to
complete the reclamation at the rate of several thousand acres every
year.
ZULEIKA, the bride of Abydos, celebrated by Byron, a pure-souled
woman of great beauty, who, in love with Selim, promises to flee with him
and become his bride, but her father shoots him, and she dies of a broken
heart.
ZULULAND (181), a territory to the NE. of Natal, from which it is
separated by the Tugela, and of which it was independent till 1898, but
it is now an integral part; it is a little larger than Belgium, is well
watered, is capable of cultivation, and has 140 m. of seaboard; it is
understood to possess some mineral wealth, though it has not yet been
wrought.
ZULUS, a section of the Bantu family which originally occupied the
SE. seaboard of Africa from Delagoa Bay to the Great Fish River; they are
a race of superior physique and intellectual endowment, as well as moral
temperament, and incline to a quiet pastoral life; they were attacked
under Cetywayo by the English in 1879, but after falling upon an English
force at Isandula, and cutting it in pieces, were overpowered at Ulundi,
and put to rout.
ZUMPT, KARL, philologist, born in Berlin, and professor at the
University; edited a number of the Latin classics, and is best known by
his Latin Grammar (1792-1849).
ZURBARAN, FRANCISCO, Spanish painter, born in Estremadura; did
mostly religious subjects; his _chef-d'oeuvre_ an altar-piece in Seville,
where he lived and worked (1598-1662).
ZURICH (392), a northern canton in Switzerland, and the second
largest; is in the basin of the Rhine, with a well-cultivated fertile
soil, and manufactures of cottons and silks, and with a capital (151) of
the same name at the foot of the Lake of Zurich; a large manufacturing
and trading centre; has a Romanesque cathedral and a university, with
silk mills and cotton mills, as well as foundries and machine shops; here
Lavater was born and Zwingli was pastor.
ZUTPHEN (17), manufacturing town in the Dutch province of
Guelderland, in the neighbourhood of which Sir Philip Sidney fell wounded
in a skirmish.
ZWICKAU (50), a town in Saxony, in a division (1,389) of the same
name, 82 m. SW. of Dresden; it is in the midst of rich beds of coal, and
has a number of manufactures.
ZWINGLI, ULRICH, the Swiss Reformer, born at Wildhaus, in the canton
of St. Gall, and founder of the Reformed Church; studied at Bern and
Vienna, afterwards theology at Basel, and was appointed pastor at Glarus;
he got acquainted with Erasmus at Basel, and gave himself to the study of
Greek, and in particular the epistles of St. Paul; attached to the
monastery of Einsiedeln he, in 1516, attacked the sale of indulgences,
and was in 1518 elected to be preacher in the cathedral of Zurich; his
preaching was attended with an awakening, and the bishop of Constance
tried to silence him, but he was silenced himself in a public debate with
the Reformer, the result of which was the abolition of the Mass and the
dispensation instead of the Lord's Supper; the movement thus begun went
on and spread, and Zwingli met in conference with Luther, but they failed
to agree on the matter of the Eucharist, and on that point the Lutheran
and the Reformed Churches separated; in 1531 the Catholic cantons
declared war against the reformers of Zurich and Bern, but the latter
were defeated at Cappel, and among the dead on the battlefield was the
Reformer; his last words were, "They may kill the body, but not the soul"
(1484-1531). See LUTHERANS.
ZWOLLE (25), a manufacturing town in the Dutch province of
Oberyssel, 50 m. NE. of Amsterdam; close to it is Agnetenberg, famous as
the seat of the monastery where Thomas à Kempis lived and died.
ZYME, name of a germ presumed to be the cause of zymotic diseases.
ZYMOTIC DISEASES, diseases of a contagious nature, presumed to be
due to some virus or organism which acts in the system like a ferment.