[1] It is now accepted generally that "to press" is a corruption of
"prest," as "impress" is of "imprest," but the word was quite early
connected with "press," to squeeze, crush, hence to compel or force.
The "prest" was a sum of money advanced (O. Fr. _prester_, modern
_prêter_, to lend, Lat. _praestare_, to stand before, provide, become
surety for, &c.) to a person to enable him to perform some
undertaking, hence used of earnest money given to soldiers on
enlistment, or as the "coat and conduct" money alluded to in this
article. The methods of compulsion used to get men for military
service naturally connected the word with "to press" (Lat.
_pressare_, frequentative of _premere_) to force, and all reference
to the money advanced was lost (see _Skeat, Etym. Dict._, 1898, and
the quotation from H. Wedgwood, _Dict. of Eng. Etym._).
IMPROMPTU (from _in promptu_, on the spur of the moment), a short
literary composition which has not been, or is not supposed to have
been, prepared beforehand, but owes its merit to the ready skill which
produces it without premeditation. The word seems to have been
introduced from the French language in the middle of the 17th century.
Without question, the poets have, from earliest ages, made impromptus,
and the very art of poetry, in its lyric form, is of the nature of a
modified improvisation. It is supposed that many of the epigrams of the
Greeks, and still more probably those of the Roman satirists,
particularly Martial, were delivered on the moment, and gained a great
part, at least, of their success from the evidence which they gave of
rapidity of invention. But it must have been difficult then, as it has
been since, to be convinced of the value of that evidence. Who is to be
sure that, like Mascarille in _Les Précieuses ridicules_, the
impromptu-writer has not employed his leisure in sharpening his arrows?
James Smith received the highest praise for his compliment to Miss Tree,
the cantatrice:--
On this tree when a nightingale settles and sings,
The Tree will return him as good as he brings.
This was extremely neat, but who is to say that James Smith had not
polished it as he dressed for dinner? One writer owed all his fame, and
a seat among the Forty Immortals of the French Academy, to the
reputation of his impromptus. This was the Marquis François Joseph de St
Aulaire (1643-1742). The piece which threw open the doors of the Academy
to him in 1706 was composed at Sceaux, where he was staying with the
duchess of Maine, who was guessing secrets, and who called him Apollo.
St Aulaire instantly responded:--
La divinité qui s'amuse
A me demander mon secret,
Si j'étais Apollon, ne serait pas ma muse,
Elle serait Thétis--et le jour finirait.
This is undoubtedly as neat as it is impertinent, and if the duchess had
given him no ground for preparation, this is typical of the impromptu at
its best. Voltaire was celebrated for the savage wit of his impromptus,
and was himself the subject of a famous one by Young. Less well known
but more certainly extemporaneous is the couplet by the last-mentioned
poet, who being asked to put something amusing in an album, and being
obliged to borrow from Lord Chesterfield a pencil for the purpose,
wrote:--
Accept a miracle instead of wit,--
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
The word "impromptu" is sometimes used to designate a short dramatic
sketch, the type of which is Molière's famous _Impromptu du Versailles_
(1663), a miniature comedy in prose.
IMPROVISATORE, a word used to describe a poet who recites verses which
he composes on the spur of the moment, without previous preparation. The
term is purely Italian, although in that language it would be more
correctly spelt _improvvisatore_. It became recognized as an English
word in the middle of the eighteenth century, and is so used by Smollett
in his _Travels_ (1766); he defines an improvisatore as "an individual
who has the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any
subject you propose." In speaking of a woman, the female form
_improvisatrice_ is sometimes used in English.
Improvisation is a gift which properly belongs to those languages in
which a great variety of grammatical inflections, wedded to simplicity
of rhythm and abundance of rhyme, enable a poet to slur over
difficulties in such a way as to satisfy the ear of his audience. In
ancient times the greater part of the popular poetry with which the
leisure of listeners was beguiled was of this rhapsodical nature. But in
modern Europe it was the troubadours, owing to the extreme flexibility
of the languages of Provence, who distinguished themselves above all
others as improvisatores. It is difficult to believe, however, that the
elaborate compositions of these poets, which have come down to us, in
which every exquisite artifice of versification is taken advantage of,
can have been poured forth without premeditation. These poets, we must
rather suppose, took a pride in the ostentation of a prodigious memory,
most carefully trained, and poured forth in public what they had
laboriously learned by heart in private. The Italians, however, in the
16th century, cultivated what seems to have been a genuine
improvisation, in which the bards rhapsodized, not as they themselves
pleased, but on subjects which were unexpected by them, and which were
chosen on the spot by their patrons. Of these, the most extraordinary is
said to have been Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603), who from the age of ten
was able to pour out melodious verse on any subject which was suggested
to him. He was brought to Rome, where successive popes so delighted in
his talent that in 1598 he was made a cardinal. In the 17th century the
celebrated Metastasio first attracted attention by his skill as an
improvisatore. But he was excelled by Bernardino Perfetti (1681-1747),
who was perhaps the most extraordinary genius of this class who has ever
lived. He was seized, in his moments of composition, with a transport
which transfigured his whole person, and under this excitement he poured
forth verses in a miraculous flow. It was his custom to be attended by a
guitarist, who played a recitative accompaniment. In this way Perfetti
made a triumphal procession through the cities of Italy, ending up with
the Capitol of Rome, where Pope Benedict XIII. crowned him with laurel,
and created him a Roman citizen. One of the most remarkable
improvisatores of modern times appeared in Sweden, in the person of Karl
Mikael Bellman (1740-1795), who used to take up a position in the public
gardens and parks of Stockholm, accompanying himself on a guitar, and
treating metre and rhythm with a virtuosity and originality which place
him among the leading poets of Swedish literature. In England, somewhat
later, Theodore Hook (1788-1841) developed a surprising talent for this
kind, but his verses were rarely of the serious or sentimental character
of which we have hitherto spoken. Hook's animal spirits were
unfortunately mingled with vulgarity, and his clever _jeux d'esprit_ had
little but their smartness to recommend them. A similar talent,
exercised in a somewhat more literary direction, made Joseph Méry
(1798-1865) a delightful companion in the Parisian society of his day.
It is rare indeed that the productions of the improvisatore, taken down
in shorthand, and read in the cold light of criticism, are found to
justify the impression which the author produced on his original
audience. Imperfections of every kind become patent when we read these
transcripts, and the reader cannot avoid perceiving weaknesses of style
and grammar. The eye and voice of the improvisatore so hypnotize his
auditors as to make them incapable of forming a sober judgment on
matters of mere literature.
IN-ANTIS, the architectural term given to those temples the entrance
part of which consisted of two columns placed between the antae or
pilasters (see TEMPLE).
INAUDI, JACQUES (1867- ), Italian calculating prodigy, was born at
Onorato, Piedmont, on the 15th of October 1867. When between seven and
eight years old, at which time he was employed in herding sheep, he
already exhibited an extraordinary aptitude for mental calculation. His
powers attracted the notice of various showmen, and he commenced to give
exhibitions. He was carefully examined by leading French scientists,
including Charcot, from the physiological, psychological and
mathematical point of view. The secret of his arithmetical powers
appeared to reside in his extraordinary memory, improved by continuous
practice. It appeared to depend upon hearing rather than sight, more
remarkable results being achieved when figures were read out than when
they were written.
INCANTATION, the use of words, spoken, sung or chanted, usually as a set
formula, for the purpose of obtaining a result by their supposed magical
power. The word is derived from the Latin _incantare_, to chant a
magical formula; cf. the use of _carmen_, for such a formula of words.
The Latin use is very early; thus it appears in a fragment of the XII.
Tables quoted in Pliny (_N.H._ xxviii. 2, 4, 17), "Qui malum carmen
incantasset." From the O. Fr. derivative of _incantare_, _enchanter_,
comes "enchant," "enchantment," &c., properly of the exercise of magical
powers, hence to charm, to fascinate, words which also by origin are of
magical significance. The early magi of Assyria and Babylonia were
adepts at this art, as is evident from the examples of Akkadian spells
that have been discovered. Daniel (v. 11) is spoken of as "master of the
enchanters" of Babylon. In Egypt and in India many formulas of religious
magic were in use, witness especially the Vedic _mantras_, which are
closely akin to the Maori _karakias_ and the North American _matamanik_.
Among the holy men presented by the king of Korea to the mikado of Japan
in A.D. 577 was a reciter of _mantras_, who would find himself at home
with the _majinahi_ or incantation practised by the ancient Japanese for
dissipating evil influences. One of the most common, widespread and
persistent uses of incantation was in healing wounds, instances of which
are found in the _Odyssey_ and the _Kalevala_, and in the traditional
folk-lore of almost every European country. Similar songs were sung to
win back a faithless lover (cf. the second _Idyll_ of Theocritus).
See further MAGIC.
INCE, WILLIAM, English 18th century furniture designer and cabinetmaker.
He was one of the most successful imitators of Chippendale, although his
work was in many respects lighter. He helped, indeed, to build the
bridge between the massive and often florid style of Chippendale and
the more boudoir-like forms of Hepplewhite. Although many of his designs
were poor and extravagant, his best work was very good indeed. His
chairs are sometimes mistaken for those of Chippendale, to which,
however, they are much inferior. He greatly affected the Chinese and
Gothic tastes of the second half of the 18th century. He was for many
years in partnership in Broad Street, Golden Square, London, with Thomas
Mayhew (q.v.), in collaboration with whom he published a folio volume of
ninety-five plates, with letterpress in English and French under the
title of _The Universal System of Household Furniture_ (undated, but
probably about 1762).
INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Ince parliamentary division
of Lancashire, England, adjoining the borough of Wigan. Pop. (1901)
21,262. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal intersects the township. There are
large collieries, ironworks, forges, railway wagon works, and cotton
mills. There is preserved here the Old Hall, a beautiful example of
half-timbered architecture.
INCENDIARISM (Lat. _incendere_, to set on fire, burn), in law, the
wilful or malicious burning of the house or property of another, and
punishable as arson (q.v.). It may be noted that in North Carolina it is
provided in case of fires that there is to be a preliminary
investigation by local authorities: all towns and cities have to make an
annual inspection of buildings and a quarterly inspection within fire
limits and report to the state insurance commissioner; all expenses so
incurred are met by a tax of 1/5% on the gross receipts of the insurance
companies (L. 1903, ch. 719).
INCENSE,[1] the perfume (fumigation) arising from certain resins and
gum-resins, barks, woods, dried flowers, fruits and seeds, when burnt,
and also the substances so burnt. In its literal meaning the word
"incense" is one with the word "perfume," the aroma given off with the
smoke (_per fumum_[2]) of any odoriferous substance when burnt. But, in
use, while the meaning of the word "perfume" has been extended so as to
include everything sweet in smell, from smoking incense to the invisible
fresh fragrance of fruits and exquisite scent of flowers, that of the
word "incense," in all the languages of modern Europe in which it
occurs, has, by an opposite process of limitation, been gradually
restricted almost exclusively to frankincense (see FRANKINCENSE).
Frankincense has always been obtainable in Europe in greater quantity
than any other of the aromatics imported from the East; it has therefore
gradually come to be the only incense used in the religious rites and
domestic fumigations of many countries of the West, and at last to be
properly regarded as the only "true" or "genuine" (i.e. "franc") incense
(see Littré's _Fr. Dict._ and Skeat's _Etym. Dict. of Engl. Lang._).[3]
The following is probably an exhaustive list of the substances
available for incense or perfume mentioned in the Hebrew
Scriptures:--Algum or almug wood (almug in 1 Kings x. 11, 12; algum
in 2 Chron. ii. 8, and ix. 10, 11), generally identified with
sandalwood (_Santalum album_), a native of Malabar and Malaya; aloes,
or lign aloes (Heb. _ahalim_, _ahaloth_), produced by the _Aloexylon
Agallochum_ (Loureiro), a native of Cochin-China, and _Aquilaria
Agallocha_ (Roxburgh), a native of India beyond the Ganges; balm (Heb.
_tsori_), the oleo-resin of _Balsamodendron opobalsamum_ and _B.
gileadense_; bdellium (Heb. _bdolah_), the resin produced by
_Balsamodendron roxburghii_, _B. Mukul_ and _B. pubescens_, all
natives of Upper India (Lassen, however, identifies _bdolah_ with
musk); calamus (Heb. _kaneh_; sweet calamus, _keneh bosem_, Ex. xxx.
23; Ezek. xxvii. 19; sweet cane, _kaneh hattob_, Jer. vi. 20; Isa.
xliii. 24), identified by Royle with the _Andropogon Calamus
aromaticus_ or roosa grass of India; cassia (Heb. _kiddah_) the
_Cinnamomum Cassia_ of China; cinnamon (Heb. _kinnamon_), the
_Cinnamomum zeylanicum_ of the Somali country, but cultivated largely
in Ceylon, where also it runs wild, and in Java; costus (Heb.
_ketzioth_), the root of the _Aucklandia Costus_ (Falconer), native of
Kashmir; frankincense (Heb. _lebonah_), the gum-resin of _Bosiwellia
Frereana_ and _B. Bhau-Dajiana_ of the Somali country, and of _B.
Carterii_ of the Somali country and the opposite coast of Arabia (see
"The Genus Boswellia" by Sir George Birdwood, _Transactions of the
Linnean Society_, xxi. 1871); galbanum (Heb. _helbenah_), yielded by
_Opoidia galbanifera_ (Royle) of Khorassan, and _Galbanum officinale_
(Don) of Syria and other _Ferulas_; ladanum (Heb. _lot_, translated
"myrrh" in Gen. xxxvii. 25, xliii. 11), the resinous exudation of
_Cistus creticus_, _C. ladaniferus_ and other species of "rock rose"
or "rose of Sharon"; myrrh (Heb. _mor_), the gum-resin of the
_Balsamodendron Myrrha_ of the Somali country and opposite shore of
Arabia; onycha (Heb. _sheheleth_), the celebrated odoriferous shell of
the ancients, the operculum or "nail" of a species of _Strombus_ or
"wing shell," formerly well known in Europe under the name of _Blatta
byzantina_; it is still imported into Bombay to burn with frankincense
and other incense to bring out their odours more strongly; saffron
(Heb. _karkom_), the stigmata of _Crocus sativus_, a native originally
of Kashmir; spikenard (Heb. _nerd_), the root of the _Nardostachys
Jatamansi_ of Nepal and Bhutan; stacte (Heb. _nataf_), generally
referred to the _Styrax officinalis_ of the Levant, but Hanbury has
shown that no stacte or storax is now derived from _S. officinalis_,
and that all that is found in modern commerce is the product of the
_Liquidambar orientalis_ of Cyprus and Anatolia.
Besides these aromatic substances named in the Bible, the following
must also be enumerated on account of their common use as incense in
the East; benzoin or gum benjamin, first mentioned among Western
writers by Ibn Batuta (1325-1349) under the name of _lubân d' Javi_
(i.e. olibanum of Java), corrupted in the parlance of Europe into
benjamin and benzoin; camphor, produced by _Cinnamomum Camphora_, the
"camphor laurel" of China and Japan, and by _Dryobalanops aromatica_,
a native of the Indian Archipelago, and widely used as incense
throughout the East, particularly in China; elemi, the resin of an
unknown tree of the Philippine Islands, the elemi of old writers being
the resin of _Boswellia Frereana_; gum-dragon or dragon's blood,
obtained from _Calamus Draco_, one of the ratan palms of the Indian
Archipelago, _Dracaena Draco_, a liliaceous plant of the Canary
Island, and _Pterocarpus Draco_, a leguminous tree of the island of
Socotra; rose-malloes, a corruption of the Javanese _rasamala_, or
liquid storax, the resinous exudation of _Liquidambar Altingia_, a
native of the Indian Archipelago (an American _Liquidambar_ also
produces a rose-malloes-like exudation); star anise, the starlike
fruit of the _Illicum anisatum_ of Yunan and south-western China,
burnt as incense in the temples of Japan; sweet flag, the root of
_Acorus Calamus_, the bach of the Hindus, much used for incense in
India. An aromatic earth, found on the coast of Cutch, is used as
incense in the temples of western India. The animal excreta, musk and
civet, also enter into the composition of modern European pastils and
_clous fumants_. Balsam of Tolu, produced by _Myroxylon toluiferum_, a
native of Venezuela and New Granada; balsam of Peru, derived from
_Myroxylon Pereirae_, a native of San Salvador in Central America;
Mexican and Brazilian elemi, produced by various species of _Icica_ or
"incense trees," and the liquid exudation of an American species of
_Liquidambar_, are all used as incense in America. Hanbury quotes a
faculty granted by Pope Pius V. (August 2, 1571) to the bishops of the
West Indies permitting the substitution of balsam of Peru for the
balsam of the East in the preparation of the chrism to be used by the
Catholic Church in America. The _Sangre del drago_ of the Mexicans is
a resin resembling dragon's blood obtained from a euphorbiaceous tree,
_Croton Draco_.
Probably nowhere can the actual historical progress from the primitive
use of animal sacrifices to the later refinement of burning incense be
more clearly traced than in the pages of the Old Testament, where no
mention of the latter rite occurs before the period of the Mosaic
legislation; but in the monuments of ancient Egypt the authentic traces
of the use of incense that still exist carry us back to a much earlier
date. From Meroe to Memphis the commonest subject carved or painted in
the interiors of the temples is that of some contemporary Phrah or
Pharaoh worshipping the presiding deity with oblations of gold and
silver vessels, rich vestments, gems, the firstlings of the flock and
herd, cakes, fruits, flowers, wine, anointing oil and incense. Generally
he holds in one hand the censer, and with the other casts the pastils or
osselets of incense into it: sometimes he offers incense in one hand and
makes the libation of wine with the other. One of the best known of
these representations is that carved on the memorial stone placed by
Tethmosis (Thothmes) IV. (1533 B.C.) on the breast of the Sphinx at
Gizeh.[4] The tablet represents Tethmosis before his guardian deity, the
sun-god Rê, pouring a libation of wine on one side and offering incense
on the other. The ancient Egyptians used various substances as incense.
They worshipped Rê at sunrise with resin, at mid-day with myrrh and at
sunset with an elaborate confection called _kuphi_, compounded of no
fewer than sixteen ingredients, among which were honey, wine, raisins,
resin, myrrh and sweet calamus. While it was being mixed, holy writings
were read to those engaged in the operation. According to Plutarch,
apart from its mystic virtues arising from the magical combination of 4
× 4, its sweet odour had a benign physiological effect on those who
offered it.[5] The censer used was a hemispherical cup or bowl of
bronze, supported by a long handle, fashioned at one end like an open
hand, in which the bowl was, as it were, held, while the other end
within which the pastils of incense were kept was shaped into the hawk's
head crowned with a disk, as the symbol of Rê.[6] In embalming their
dead the Egyptians filled the cavity of the belly with every sort of
spicery except frankincense (Herod, ii. 86), for it was regarded as
specially consecrated to the worship of the gods. In the burnt-offerings
of male kine to Isis, the carcase of the steer, after evisceration, was
filled with fine bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh and
other aromatics, and thus stuffed was roasted, being basted all the
while by pouring over it large quantities of sweet oil, and then eaten
with great festivity.
How important the consumption of frankincense in the worship of the gods
became in Egypt is shown by two of its monuments, both of the greatest
interest and value for the light they throw on the early history of the
commerce of the Indian Ocean. One is an inscription in the rocky valley
of Hammamat, through which the desert road from the Red Sea to the
valley of Egypt opens on the green fields and palm groves of the river
Nile near Coptos. It was cut on the rocks by an Egyptian nobleman named
Hannu, who states that he was sent by Pharaoh Sankhkere, Menthotp IV.,
with a force gathered out of the Thebaid, from Coptos to the Red Sea,
there to take command of a naval expedition to the Holy Land of Punt
(Puoni), "to bring back odoriferous gums." Punt is identified with the
Somali country, now known to be the native country of the trees that
yield the bulk of the frankincense of commerce. The other bears the
record of a second expedition to the same land of Punt, undertaken by
command of Queen Hatshepsut, 1600 B.C. It is preserved in the vividly
chiselled and richly coloured decorations portraying the history of the
reign of this famous Pharaoh on the walls of the "Stage Temple" at
Thebes. The temple is now in ruins, but the entire series of gorgeous
pictures recording the expedition to "the balsam land of Punt," from its
leaving to its returning to Thebes, still remains intact and
undefaced.[7] These are the only authenticated instances of the export
of incense trees from the Somali country until Colonel Playfair, then
political agent at Aden, in 1862-1864, collected and sent to Bombay the
specimens from which Sir George Birdwood prepared his descriptions of
them for the Linnean Society in 1868. King Antigonus is said to have had
a branch of the true frankincense tree sent to him.
Homer tells us that the Egyptians of his time were emphatically a nation
of druggists (_Od._ iv. 229, 230). This characteristic, in which, as in
many others, they so remarkably resemble the Hindus, the Egyptians have
maintained to the present day; and, although they have changed their
religion, the use of incense among them continues to be as familiar and
formal as ever. The _kohl_ or black powder with which the modern, like
the ancient, Egyptian ladies paint their languishing eyelids, is nothing
but the smeeth of charred frankincense, or other odoriferous resin
brought with frankincense, and phials of water, from the well of
Zem-zem, by the pilgrims returning from Mecca. They also melt
frankincense as a depilatory, and smear their hands with a paste into
the composition of which frankincense enters, for the purpose of
communicating to them an attractive perfume. Herodotus (iv. 75)
describes a similar artifice as practised by the women of Scythia
(compare also Judith x. 3, 4). In cold weather the Egyptians warm their
rooms by placing in them a brazier, "chafing-dish," or "standing-dish,"
filled with charcoal, whereon incense is burnt; and in hot weather they
refresh them by occasionally swinging a hand censer by a chain through
them--frankincense, benzoin and aloe wood being chiefly used for the
purpose.[8]
In the authorized version of the Bible, the word "incense" translates
two wholly distinct Hebrew words. In various passages in the latter
portion of Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.), in Jeremiah and in Chronicles, it
represents the Hebrew _lebonah_, more usually rendered "frankincense";
elsewhere the original word is _ketoreth_ (Ex. xxx. 8, 9; Lev. x. 1;
Num. vii. 14, &c.), a derivative of the verb _kitter_ (Pi.) or _hiktir_
(Hiph.), which verb is used, not only in Ex. xxx. 7, but also in Lev. i.
9, iii. 11, ix. 13, and many other passages, to denote the process by
which the "savour of satisfaction" in any burnt-offering, whether of
flesh or of incense, is produced. Sometimes in the authorized version
(as in 1 Kings iii. 3; 1 Sam. ii. 28) it is made to mean explicitly the
burning of incense with only doubtful propriety. The expression "incense
(_ketoreth_) of rains" in Ps. lxvi. 15 and the allusion in Ps. cxli. 2
ought both to be understood, most probably, of ordinary
burnt-offerings.[9] The "incense" (_ketoreth_), or "incense of sweet
scents" (_ketoreth sammim_), called, in Ex. xxx. 35, "a confection after
the art of the apothecary," or rather "a perfume after the art of the
perfumer," which was to be regarded as most holy, and the imitation of
which was prohibited under the severest penalties, was compounded of
four "sweet scents" (_sammim_),[10] namely stacte (_nataph_), onycha
(_sheheleth_), galbanum (_helbenah_) and "pure" or "fine" frankincense
(_lebonah zaccah_), pounded together in equal proportions, with
(perhaps) an admixture of salt (_memullah_).[11] It was then to be "put
before the testimony" in the "tent of meeting." It was burnt on the
altar of incense by the priest every morning when the lamps were trimmed
in the Holy Place, and every evening when they were lighted or "set up"
(Ex. xxx. 7, 8). A handful of it was also burnt once a year in the Holy
of Holies by the high priest on a pan of burning coals taken from the
altar of burnt-offering (Lev. xvi. 12, 13). Pure frankincense
(_lebonah_) formed part of the meat-offering (Lev. ii. 16, vi. 15), and
was also presented along with the shew bread (Lev. xxiv. 7) every
Sabbath day (probably on two golden saucers; see Jos. _Ant._ iii. 10,
7). The religious significance of the use of incense, or at least of its
use in the Holy of Holies, is distinctly set forth in Lev. xvi. 12, 13.
The Jews were also in the habit of using odoriferous substances in
connexion with the funeral obsequies of distinguished persons (see 2
Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5). In Amos vi. 10 "he that burneth
him" probably means "he that burns perfumes in his honour." References
to the domestic use of incense occur in Cant. iii. 6; Prov. xxvii. 9;
cf. vii. 17.
The "marbles" of Nineveh furnish frequent examples of the offering of
incense to the sun-god and his consort (2 Kings xxiii. 5). The kings of
Assyria united in themselves the royal and priestly offices, and on the
monuments they erected they are generally represented as offering
incense and pouring out wine to the Tree of Life. They probably carried
the incense in the sacred bag so frequently seen in their hands and in
those also of the common priests. According to Herodotus (i. 183),
frankincense to the amount of 1000 talents' weight was offered every
year, during the feast of Bel, on the great altar of his temple in
Babylon.
The monuments of Persepolis and the coins of the Sassanians show that
the religious use of incense was as common in ancient Persia as in
Babylonia and Assyria. Five times a day the priests of the Persians
(Zoroastrians) burnt incense on their sacred fire altars. In the Avesta
(_Vendidad_, Fargard xix. 24, 40), the incense they used is named _vohu
gaono_. It has been identified with benzoin, but was probably
frankincense. Herodotus (iii. 97) states that the Arabs brought every
year to Darius as tribute 1000 talents of frankincense. The Parsees
still preserve in western India the pure tradition of the ritual of
incense as followed by their race from probably the most ancient times.
The _Ramayana_ and _Mahabharata_ afford evidence of the employment of
incense by the Hindus, in the worship of the gods and the burning of the
dead, from the remotest antiquity. Its use was obviously continued by
the Buddhists during the prevalence of their religion in India, for it
is still used by them in Nepal, Tibet, Ceylon, Burma, China and Japan.
These countries all received Buddhism from India, and a large proportion
of the porcelain and earthenware articles imported from China and Japan
into Europe consists of innumerable forms of censers. The Jains all over
India burn sticks of incense before their Jina. The commonest incense in
ancient India was probably frankincense. The Indian frankincense tree,
_Boswellia thurifera_, Colebrooke (which certainly includes _B. glabra_,
Roxburgh), is a doubtful native of India. It is found chiefly where the
Buddhist religion prevailed in ancient times, in Bihar and along the
foot of the Himalayas and in western India, where it particularly
flourishes in the neighbourhood of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta. It is
quite possible therefore that, in the course of their widely extended
commerce during the one thousand years of their ascendancy, the
Buddhists imported the true frankincense trees from Africa and Arabia
into India, and that the accepted Indian species are merely varieties of
them. Now, however, the incense in commonest use in India is benzoin.
But the consumption of all manner of odoriferous resins, gum resins,
roots, woods, dried leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds in India, in
social as well as religious observances, is enormous. The grateful
perfumed powder _abir_ or _randa_ is composed either of rice, flour,
mango bark or deodar wood, camphor and aniseed, or of sandalwood or wood
aloes, and zerumbet, zedoary, rose flowers, camphor and civet. The
incense sticks and pastils known all over India under the names of
_ud-buti_ ("benzoin-light") or _aggar-ki-buti_ ("wood aloes light") are
composed of benzoin, wood aloes, sandalwood, rock lichen, patchouli,
rose-malloes, _talispat_ (the leaf of _Flacourtia Cataphracta_ of
Roxburgh), mastic and sugar-candy or gum. The _abir_ and _aggir butis_
made at the Mahommedan city of Bijapur in the Mahratta country are
celebrated all over western India. The Indian Mussulmans indeed were
rapidly degenerating into a mere sect of Hindus before the Wahabi
revival, and the more recent political propaganda in support of the
false caliphate of the sultans of Turkey; and we therefore find the
religious use of incense among them more general than among the
Mahommedans of any other country. They use it at the ceremonies of
circumcision, _bismillah_ (teaching the child "the name of God"),
virginity and marriage. At marriage they burn benzoin with _nim_ seeds
(_Melia Azadirachta_, Roxburgh) to keep off evil spirits, and prepare
the bride-cakes by putting a quantity of benzoin between layers of
wheaten dough, closed all round, and frying them in clarified butter.
For days the bride is fed on little else. In their funeral ceremonies,
the moment the spirit has fled incense is burnt before the corpse until
it is carried out to be buried. The begging fakirs also go about with a
lighted stick of incense in one hand, and holding out with the other an
incense-holder (literally, "incense chariot"), into which the coins of
the pious are thrown. Large "incense trees" resembling our Christmas
trees, formed of incense-sticks and pastils and osselets, and alight all
over, are borne by the Shiah Mussulmans in the solennial procession of
the Mohurrum, in commemoration of the martyrdom of the sons of Ali. The
worship of the _tulsi_ plant, or holy basil (_Ocymum sanctum_, Don), by
the Hindus is popularly explained by its consecration to Vishnu and
Krishna. It grows on the four-horned altar before the house, or in a pot
placed in one of the front windows, and is worshipped every morning by
all the female members of every Hindu household. It is possible that its
adoration has survived from the times when the Hindus buried their dead
in their houses, beneath the family hearth. When they came into a hot
climate the fire of the sacrifices and domestic cookery was removed out
of the house; but the dead were probably still for a while buried in or
near it, and the _tulsi_ was planted over their graves, at once for the
salubrious fragrance it diffuses and to represent the burning of incense
on the altar of the family Lar. The rich land round about the holy city
of Pandharpur, sacred to Vithoba the national Mahratta form of
(Krishna)-Vishnu, is wholly restricted to the cultivation of the tulsi
plant.
As to the [Greek: thyea] mentioned in Homer (_Il._ ix. 499, and
elsewhere) and in Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 338), there is some
uncertainty whether they were incense offerings at all, and if so,
whether they were ever offered alone, and not always in conjunction with
animal sacrifices. That the domestic use, however, of the fragrant wood
[Greek: thyon] (the _Arbor vitae_ or _Cailitris quadrivalvis_ of
botanists, the source of the resin sandarach) was known in the Homeric
age, is shown by the case of Calypso (_Od._ v. 60), and the very
similarity of the word [Greek: thyon] to [Greek: thyos] may be taken as
almost conclusively proving that by that time the same wood was also
employed for religious purposes. It is not probable that the
sweet-smelling gums and resins of the countries of the Indian Ocean
began to be introduced into Greece before the 8th or 7th century B.C.,
and doubtless [Greek: libanos] or [Greek: libanôtos] first became an
article of extensive commerce only after the Mediterranean trade with
the East had been opened up by the Egyptian king Psammetichus (c.
664-610 B.C.). The new Oriental word is frequently employed by
Herodotus; and there are abundant references to the use of the thing
among the writers of the golden age of Attic literature (see, for
example, Aristophanes, _Plut._ 1114; _Frogs_, 871, 888; _Clouds_, 426;
_Wasps_, 96, 861). Frankincense, however, though the most common, never
became the only kind of incense offered to the gods among the Greeks.
Thus the Orphic hymns are careful to specify, in connexion with the
several deities celebrated, a great variety of substances appropriate to
the service of each; in the case of many of these the selection seems to
have been determined not at all by their fragrance but by some occult
considerations which it is now difficult to divine.
Among the Romans the use of religious fumigations long preceded the
introduction of foreign substances for the purpose (see, for example,
Ovid, _Fast._ i. 337 seq., "Et non exiguo laurus adusta sono"). Latterly
the use of frankincense ("mascula thura," Virg. _Ecl._ viii. 65) became
very prevalent, not only in religious ceremonials, but also on various
state occasions, such as in triumphs (Ovid, _Trist_, iv. 2, 4), and also
in connexion with certain occurrences of domestic life. In private it
was daily offered by the devout to the _Lar familiaris_ (Plaut. _Aulul._
prol. 23); and in public sacrifices it was not only sprinkled on the
head of the victim by the pontifex before its slaughter, and afterwards
mingled with its blood, but was also thrown upon the flames over which
it was roasted.
No perfectly satisfactory traces can be found of the use of incense in
the ritual of the Christian Church during the first four centuries.[12]
It obviously was not contemplated by the author of the epistle to the
Hebrews; its use was foreign to the synagogue services on which, and not
on those of the temple, the worship of the primitive Christians is well
known to have been originally modelled; and its associations with
heathen solemnities, and with the evil repute of those who were known as
"thurificati," would still further militate against its employment.
Various authors of the ante-Nicene period have expressed themselves as
distinctly unfavourable to its religious, though not of course to its
domestic, use. Thus Tertullian, while (_De Cor. Mil._ 10) ready to
acknowledge its utility in counteracting unpleasant smells ("si me odor
alicujus loci offenderit, Arabiae aliquid incendo"), is careful to say
that he scorns to offer it as an accompaniment to his heartfelt prayers
(_Apol._ 30; cf. 42). Athenagoras also (_Legat._ 13) gives distinct
expression to his sense of the needlessness of any such ritual ("the
Creator and Father of the universe does not require blood, nor smoke,
nor even the sweet smell of flowers and incense"); and Arnobius (_Adv.
Gent._ vii. 26) seeks to justify the Christian neglect of it by the
fact, for which he vouches, that among the Romans themselves incense was
unknown in the time of Numa, while the Etruscans had always continued to
be strangers to it. Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine and the Apostolic
Constitutions make no reference to any such feature either in the public
or private worship of the Christians of that time. The earliest mention,
it would seem, occurs in the Apostolic Canons (can. 3), where the
[Greek: thymiama] is spoken of as one of the requisites of the
eucharistic service. It is easy to perceive how it should inevitably
have come in along with the whole circle of ideas involved in such words
as "temple," "altar," "priest," which about this time came to be so
generally applied in ecclesiastical connexions. Evagrius (vi. 21)
mentions the gift of a [Greek: thymiatêrion] by the contemporary
Chosroes of Persia to the church of Jerusalem; and all the Oriental
liturgies of this period provide special prayers for the thurification
of the eucharistic elements. The oldest _Ordo Romanus_, which perhaps
takes us back to within a century of Gregory the Great, enjoins that in
pontifical masses a sub-deacon, with a golden censer, shall go before
the bishop as he leaves the secretarium for the choir, and two, with
censers, before the deacon gospeller as he proceeds with the gospel to
the ambo. And less than two centuries afterwards we read an order in one
of the capitularies of Hincmar of Reims, to the effect that every priest
ought to be provided with a censer and incense. That in this portion of
their ritual, however, the Christians of that period were not
universally conscious of its direct descent from Mosaic institutions may
be inferred perhaps from the "benediction of the incense" used in the
days of Charlemagne, which runs as follows: "May the Lord bless this
incense to the extinction of every noxious smell, and kindle it to the
odour of its sweetness." Even Thomas Aquinas (p. iii. qu. 83, art. 5)
gives prominence to this idea.
The character and order of these historical notices of incense would
certainly, were there nothing else to be considered, justify the
conclusion hitherto generally adopted, that its use was wholly unknown
in the worship of the Christian Church before the 5th century. On the
other hand, we know that in the first Christian services held in the
catacombs under the city of Rome, incense was burnt as a sanitary
fumigation at least. Tertullian also distinctly alludes to the use of
aromatics in Christian burial: "the Sabaeans will testify that more of
their merchandise, and that more costly, is lavished on the burial of
Christians, than in burning incense to the gods." And the whole argument
from analogy is in favour of the presumption of the ceremonial use of
incense by the Christians from the first. It is natural that little
should be said of so obvious a practice until the fuller development of
ritual in a later age. The slighting references to it by the Christian
fathers are no more an argument against its existence in the primitive
church than the similar denunciations by the Jewish prophets of
burnt-offerings and sacrifices are any proof that there were no such
rites as the offering of incense, and of the blood of bulls and fat of
rams, in the worship of the temple at Jerusalem. There could be no real
offence to Christians in the burning of incense. Malachi (i. 11) had
already foretold the time when among the Gentiles, in every place,
incense should be offered to God. Gold, with myrrh and frankincense were
offered by the Persian Magi to the infant Jesus at his birth; and in
Revelation viii. 3, 4, the image of the offering of incense with the
prayers of the saints, before the throne of God, is not without its
significance. If also the passage in Ambrose of Milan (on Luke i. 11),
where he speaks of "us" as "adolentes altaria" is to be translated
"incensing the altars," and taken literally, it is a testimony to the
use of incense by the Christian Church in, at least, the 4th century.
But the earliest express mention of the censing of the altar by
Christian priests is in "the works," first quoted in the 6th century,
attributed to "Dionysius the Areopagite," the contemporary of St Paul
(Acts xvii. 34).
The Missal of the Roman Church now enjoins incensation before the
introit, at the gospel and again at the offertory, and at the elevation,
in every high mass; the use of incense also occurs at the exposition of
the sacrament, at consecrations of churches and the like, in
processions, in the office for the burial of the dead and at the
exhibition of relics. On high festivals the altar is censed at vespers
and lauds.
In the Church of England the use of incense was gradually abandoned
after the reign of Edward VI., until the ritualistic revival of the
present day. Its use, however, has never been abolished by law. A "Form
for the Consecration of a Censer" occurs in Sancroft's _Form of
Dedication and Consecration of a Church or Chapel_ (1685). In various
works of reference (as, for example, in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd ser.
vol. viii. p. 11) numerous sporadic cases are mentioned in which incense
appears to have been burnt in churches; the evidence, however, does not
go so far as to show that it was used during divine service, least of
all that it was used during the communion office. At the coronation of
George III., one of the king's grooms appeared "in a scarlet dress,
holding a perfuming pan, burning perfumes, as at previous coronations."
In 1899, on the appeal of the Rev. H. Westall, St Cuthbert's, London,
and the Rev. E. Ram, St John's, Norwich, against the use of incense in
the Church of England, the archbishops of Canterbury (Dr Temple) and
York (Dr Maclagan) supported the appeal. Their decision was reviewed by
Chancellor L. T. Dibdin in the 10th edition of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, and the exposition given by Sir Lewis Dibdin of the whole
question of the use of incense in the Church of England may here be
interpolated. (G. B.)
_Incense in the Church of England._--Mr Scudamore (_Notitia
Eucharistica_, 2nd ed. pp. 141-142) thus describes the method and extent
of the employment of incense at the mass prior to the Reformation:--
"According to the use of Sarum (and Bangor) the priest, after being
himself censed by the deacon, censed the altar before the Introit
began. The York rubric directed him to do it immediately alter the
first saying of the Introit, which in England was thrice said. The
Hereford missal gives no direction for censing the altar at that time.
The middle of the altar was censed, according to Sarum, Bangor and
Hereford, before the reading of the Gospel. According to Sarum and
Bangor, the thurible, as well as the lights, attended the Gospel to
the lectern. Perhaps the York rubric implies that this was done when
it orders (which the others do not) the thurible to be carried round
the choir with the Gospel while the Creed was being sung. In the Sarum
and Bangor, the priest censed the oblations after offering them; then
the space between himself and the altar. He was then, at Sarum, censed
by the deacon, and an acolyte censed the choir; at Bangor the
_Sinistrum Cornu_ of the altar and the relics were censed instead.
York and Hereford ordered no censing at the offertory. There is reason
to think that, notwithstanding the order for the use of incense at
every celebration, it was in practice burnt only on high festivals,
and then only in rich churches, down to the period of the Reformation.
In most parishes its costliness alone would preclude its daily use,
while the want of an assistant minister would be a very common reason
for omitting the rite almost everywhere. Incense was not burnt in
private masses, so that the clergy were accustomed to celebrations
without it, and would naturally forego it on any plausible ground."
The ritual of the mass remained unchanged until the death of Henry VIII.
(Jan. 28, 1547). In March 1548 the _Order of the Communion_ was
published and commanded to be used by royal proclamation in the name of
Edward VI. It was the precursor of the Prayer Book, and supplemented the
accustomed Latin service by additions in English to provide for the
communion of the people in both kinds. But it was expressly stated in a
rubric that the old service of the mass was to proceed without variation
of any rite or ceremony until after the priest had received the
sacrament, that is, until long after the last of the three occasions for
the use of incense explained above. But on Whitsunday 1549 the first
Prayer Book of Edward VI. came into use under an Act of Parliament (2
and 3 Ed. VI. ch. 1, the first Act of Uniformity) which required its
exclusive use in public worship so as to supersede all other forms of
service. Another Act, 3 and 4 Ed. VI. ch. 10, required the old service
books to be delivered up to be destroyed. The first Prayer Book does not
contain any direction to use or any mention of incense. It has been and
still is a keenly controverted question whether incense did or did not
continue to be in ceremonial use under the first Prayer Book or during
the rest of Edward VI.'s reign. No evidence has hitherto been discovered
which justifies us in answering this question in the affirmative. The
second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1552), published under the authority
of the second Act of Uniformity (5 and 6 Ed. VI. ch. 1), contains no
reference to incense. Edward VI. died on the 6th July 1553. Queen Mary
by statute (1 Mary, sess. 2, ch. 2) abolished the Prayer Book, repealed
the Acts of Uniformity and restored "divine service and administration
of sacraments as were most commonly used in England in the last year of
Henry VIII." The ceremonial use of incense thus became again an
undoubted part of the communion service in the Church of England. A
proclamation issued (December 6, 1553) directed the churchwardens to
obtain the proper ornaments for the churches; and the bishops (at any
rate Bishop Bonner, see _Visitation Articles 1554_, Cardwell's _Doc.
Ann._ i. 149-153) in their visitations inquired whether censers had been
furnished for use. Mary died on the 17th of November 1558. On the 24th
of June 1559 the second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (with a few
alterations having no reference to incense) was again established, under
the authority of the third Act of Uniformity (1 Eliz. ch. 2), as the
exclusive service book for public service. There is no evidence of the
ceremonial use of incense under Elizabeth's Prayer Book, or under the
present Prayer Book of 1662 (established by the fourth Act of
Uniformity, 13 and 14 Charles II. ch. 4) until the middle of the 19th
century; and there is no doubt that as a ceremony of divine worship,
whether at the Holy Communion or at other services, it was entirely
disused. There are, however, a good many instances recorded of what has
been called a fumigatory use of frankincense in churches, by which it
was sought to purify the air, in times of public sickness, or to dispel
the foulness caused by large congregations, or poisonous gases arising
from ill-constructed vaults under the church floor. It seems also to
have been used for the purpose of creating an agreeable perfume on great
occasions, e.g. the great ecclesiastical feasts. But this use of incense
must be carefully distinguished from its ceremonial use. It was
utilitarian and not symbolical, and from the nature of the purpose in
view must have taken place before, rather than during, service. Of the
same character is the use of incense carried in a perfuming pan before
the sovereign at his coronation in the procession from Westminster Hall
to the Abbey. This observance was maintained from James II.'s coronation
to that of George III. In the general revival of church ceremonial which
accompanied and followed the Oxford Movement incense was not forgotten,
and its ceremonial use in the pre-Reformation method has been adopted in
a few extreme churches since 1850. Its use has been condemned as an
illegal ceremony by the ecclesiastical courts. In 1868 Sir Robert
Phillimore (Dean of the Arches) pronounced the ceremonial use of incense
to be illegal in the suit of _Martin_ v. _Mackonochie_ (2 A. and E.L.R.
116). The case was carried to the Privy Council on appeal, but there was
no appeal on the question of incense. Again, in 1870, the ceremonial use
of incense was condemned by Sir Robert Phillimore in the suit of
_Sumner_ v. _Wix_ (3 A. and E.L.R. 58).
Notwithstanding these decisions, it was insisted by those who defended
the revival of the ceremonial use of incense that it was a legal custom
of the Church of England. The question was once more elaborately argued
in May 1899 before an informal tribunal consisting of the archbishop of
Canterbury (Dr. Temple) and the archbishop of York (Dr. Maclagan), at
Lambeth Palace. On the 31st of July 1899 the archbishops decided that
the liturgical use of incense was illegal. The Lambeth "opinion," as it
was called, failed to convince the clergy against whom it was directed
any better than the judgments of the ecclesiastical courts, but at first
a considerable degree of obedience to the archbishops' view was shown.
Various expedients were adopted, as, e.g., the use of incense just
before the beginning of service, by which it was sought to retain
incense without infringing the law as laid down by the archbishops.
There remained, nevertheless, a tendency on the part of the clergy who
used incense, or desired to do so, to revert to the position they
occupied before the Lambeth hearing--that is, to insist on the
ceremonial use of incense as a part of the Catholic practice of the
Church of England which it is the duty of the clergy to maintain,
notwithstanding the decisions of ecclesiastical judges or the opinions
or archbishops to the contrary. (L. T. D.)
_Manufacture._--For the manufacture of the incense now used in the
Christian churches of Europe there is no fixed rule. The books of ritual
are agreed that Ex. xxx. 34 should be taken as a guide as much as
possible. It is recommended that frankincense should enter as largely as
possible into its composition, and that if inferior materials be
employed at all they should not be allowed to preponderate. In Rome
olibanum alone is employed; in other places benzoin, storax, lign,
aloes, cascarilla bark, cinnamon, cloves and musk are all said to be
occasionally used. In the Russian Church, benzoin is chiefly employed.
The Armenian liturgy, in its benediction of the incense, speaks of "this
perfume prepared from myrrh and cinnamon."
The preparation of pastils of incense has probably come down in a
continuous tradition from ancient Egypt, Babylonia and Phoenicia. Cyprus
was for centuries famous for their manufacture, and they were still
known in the middle ages by the names of pastils or osselets of Cyprus.
Maimonides, in his _More Nevochim_, states that the use of incense in
the worship of the Jews originated as a corrective of the disagreeable
odours arising from the slaughter and burning of the animals offered in
sacrifice. There can be no doubt that its use throughout the East is
based on sanitary considerations; and in Europe even, in the time when
the dead were buried in the churches, it was recognized that the burning
of incense served essentially to preserve their salubrity. But evidently
the idea that the odour of a burnt-offering (cf. the [Greek: knisês
hêdys autmê] of _Odyss._ xii. 369) is grateful to the deity, being
indeed the most essential part of the sacrifice, or at least the vehicle
by which alone it can successfully be conveyed to its destination, is
also a very early one, if not absolutely primitive; and survivals of it
are possibly to be met with even among the most highly cultured peoples
where the purely symbolical nature of all religious ritual is most
clearly understood and maintained. Some such idea plainly underlies the
familiar phrase "a sweet savour," more literally "a savour of
satisfaction," whereby an acceptable offering by fire is so often
denoted in the Bible (Gen. viii. 21; Lev. i. 9, _et passim_; cf. Eph. v.
2). It is easy to imagine how, as men grew in sensuous appreciation of
pleasant perfumes, and in empirical knowledge of the sources from which
these could be derived, this advance would naturally express itself, not
only in their domestic habits, but also in the details of their
religious ceremonial, so that the custom of adding some kind of incense
to their animal sacrifices, and at length that of offering it pure and
simple, would inevitably arise. Ultimately, with the development of the
spiritual discernment of men, the "offering of incense" became a mere
symbolical phrase for prayer (see Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4). Clement of
Alexandria expresses this in his well-known words: "The true altar of
incense is the just soul, and the perfume from it is holy prayer." (So
also Origen, _Cont. Cels._ viii. 17, 20.) The ancients were familiar
with the sanitary efficacy of fumigations. The energy with which
Ulysses, after the slaughter of the suitors, calls to Euryclea for "fire
and sulphur" to purge (literally "fumigate") the dining-hall from the
pollution of their blood (_Od._ xxii. 481, 482) would startle those who
imagine that sanitation is a peculiarly modern science. There is not the
slightest doubt that the censing of things and persons was first
practised as an act of purification, and thus became symbolical of
consecration, and finally of the sanctification of the soul. The
Egyptians understood the use of incense as symbolical of the
purification of the soul by prayer. Catholic writers generally treat it
as typifying contrition, the preaching of the Gospel, the prayers of the
faithful and the virtues of the saints. (G. B.)