The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 335

OXENSTIERN, AXEL, COUNT, Swedish statesman, favourite minister of Gustavus Adolphus; supported him through the Thirty Years' War, though he disapproved of his engaging in it, and managed the affairs of the State with great ability after his death (1583-1654).

OXFORD (46), the county town of Oxfords.h.i.+re, seat of one of the great English universities and of a bishopric; is on the left bank of the Thames, 52 m. W. of London; it is a city of great beauty, its many collegiate buildings and chapels and other inst.i.tutions making it the richest of English cities in architectural interest; naturally historical a.s.sociations abound; here the Mad Parliament met and adopted the Provisions of Oxford in 1258; Latimer and Ridley in 1555, and Cranmer in 1556, were burned in Broad Street; Charles I. made it his head-quarters after the first year of the Civil War; it was the refuge of Parliament during the plague of 1665.

OXFORD SCHOOL, the name given to the leaders of the Tractarian Movement, which originated at Oxford in 1833.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY, Oxford is spoken of as a seat of learning as early as the 11th century. Cloistral schools existed before that. Schools of divinity, law, and topography were founded in the 12th century. In the 13th Dominican and Franciscan scholars raised it to a level only second to Paris, and by the end of the 14th century there were thousands of students in attendance. Oxford responded quickly to the Renaissance, and by the time of the Reformation 13 colleges were founded. Her Protestantism stood firm through Mary's reaction, sank into pa.s.sive obedience under the Stuarts, but woke up to resist James II.'s Catholic propaganda. Thereafter followed a serious lapse in efficiency, but this century has seen a complete revival. Oxford has now 21 colleges, among which are Balliol, Christ Church, Magdalen, Oriel, Trinity, and University College; 64 professors and teachers, and 3000 students. It is rich in museums and libraries; the Bodleian Library is of great value, the Taylor Library is devoted to modern literature. The Oxford or Tractarian Movement, one of the most remarkable religious impulses of modern times, had its centre in the University between 1834 and 1845.

Among distinguished Oxford alumni were Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Wesley, Newman; Hobbes, Locke, Adam Smith; Johnson, Gibbon, Freeman, Green; Chatham, Gladstone; Ruskin; Sh.e.l.ley, Keble, Arnold, and Clough. Of the colleges of which the University consists, the University was founded in 1249, Balliol in 1269, Merton in 1264, Exeter in 1314, Oriel in 1326, Queen's in 1340, New in 1379, Lincoln in 1427, All Souls' in 1437, Magdalen in 1468, Brasenose in 1509, Corpus in 1516, Christ Church in 1546, Trinity in 1554, St. John's in 1555, Jesus in 1571, Wadham in 1612, Pembroke in 1624, Worcester in 1714, Keble in 1870, and Hertford in 1874.

OXFORDs.h.i.+RE (186), a S. midland county of England, stretching on the N. bank of the Thames between Gloucester and Buckingham; is an agricultural district; bleak in the N. and W., it is hilly, well wooded and picturesque in the S., where are the Chiltern Hills; iron-stone is mined near Banbury, blankets made at Witney, and paper at s.h.i.+plake and Henley; natives of the county were Edward the Confessor, Leland, Warren Hastings, Maria Edgeworth, and J. R. Green.

OXUS or AMU-DARIA, a great river of Central Asia, rises in the Pamirs, and flows W. between Turkestan and Afghanistan, then N. through Turkestan to the Sea of Aral; it is believed at one time to have flowed into the Caspian, and there is record of two changes of course; half its waters are absorbed in irrigating the plains of Khiva.

OXYGEN, a colourless, inodorous gas which const.i.tutes one-fifth in volume of the atmosphere, and which, in combination with hydrogen, forms water. It is the most widely diffused of all the elementary bodies, and an essential support to everything possessed of life.

OYER AND TERMINER, an English Court Commission to hear and determine special causes.

OZONE, is an allotropic form of oxygen, from which it can be developed by electricity, and into which it can be resolved by heat, present in small quant.i.ties in the atmosphere, and possessing strong oxidising properties.

P

PACHE, JEAN, Swiss adventurer, who became Mayor of Paris, and even Minister of War during the French Revolution, "the sleek Tartuffe that he was," is credited with the authors.h.i.+p of the famous revolutionary motto, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, or Death (1746-1823).

PACHOMIUS, ST., an Egyptian hermit, the founder of conventual monachism, who established the first inst.i.tution of the kind at Tabenna, an island in the Nile; he also established the first nunnery under his sister (292-348). Festival, May 14.

PACHYDERMATA, hoofed animals with thick skins and non-ruminant, such as the elephant and the hog.

PACIFIC OCEAN, the largest sheet of water on the globe, occupies a third of its whole surface, as much as all the land put together. It is a wide oval in shape, lying between Australia and Asia on the W., and North and South America on the E. Except from Asia it receives no large rivers. On its American sh.o.r.es the Gulf of California is the only considerable indentation; the Okhotsk, j.a.panese, Yellow, and Chinese Seas, on the Asiatic coast, are rather wide bays shut in by islands than inland seas. Its innumerable islands are the chief feature of the Pacific Ocean. The continental islands include the Aleutian, Kurile, j.a.pan, and Philippine Islands, and the archipelago between the Malay Peninsula and Australia; the Oceanic Islands include countless groups, volcanic and coral, chiefly in the southern hemisphere, between the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand. Commerce on the Pacific Ocean is only beginning, but will increase vastly with the extension of the United States westward, the colonisation of Australia, and the opening of Chinese and j.a.panese ports. San Francisco and Valparaiso on the E., Hong-Kong and Sydney on the W., are just now the chief centres of trade.

PACKHARD, distinguished American entymologist and naturalist, born in Maine; his cla.s.sification of insects is accepted; _b_. 1839.

PACTOLUS, a small river of Lydia, famous for the gold contained in its sand, due, it was alleged, to Midas was.h.i.+ng the gold off him in its waters, and the alleged source of the wealth of Croesus; its modern name is Sarabat. See MIDAS.

PACUVIUS, an old Latin dramatist, nephew of ENNIUS (q. v.); wrote dramas after the Greek models (220-130 B.C.).

PADANG (15), a town and free port on the W. coast of Sumatra, the largest town on the island, and the Dutch official capital.

PADEREWSKI, IGNACE JAN, a celebrated pianist, born at Podolia, in Russian Poland; master of his art by incessant practice from early childhood, made his _debut_ in 1887 with instant success; his first appearance created quite a _furore_ in Paris and London; has twice visited the United States; is a brilliant composer as well as performer, and has composed numerous pieces both for the voice and the piano; _b_.

1860.

PADILLA, JUAN LOPEZ DE, a celebrated Castilian n.o.ble, who headed a rebellion against Charles V., which he heroically maintained till his defeat at Villalos in 1521, and which his wife, Donna Maria, no less heroically maintained against a strong besieging force after his capture and execution.

PADISHAH, from two Persian words meaning "protector prince," is a t.i.tle given to the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of Turkey, and at one time applied, among others, to the Emperors of Austria and Russia.

PADUA (79), a walled city of Venetia, 23 m. by rail W. of Venice, has some manufactures of leather and musical-instrument strings, but is chiefly interesting for its artistic treasures; these include the munic.i.p.al buildings, cathedral, and nearly fifty churches, innumerable pictures and frescoes, and Donatello's famous equestrian statue of Gattamelata; there is also a renowned university, library, museum, and the oldest botanical garden in Europe; after very varied fortunes it was held by Venice 1405-1797, then by Austria till its incorporation in Italy 1866. Livy was a native, as also Andrea Mantegna.

PaeSTUM, an ancient Greek city of Lucania, in South Italy, with remains of Greek architecture second only to those of Athens.

PAGAN, ISABEL, Scotch poetess, auth.o.r.ess of the plaintive song "Ca'

the Yowes to the Knowes" (1740-1821).

PAGANINI, NICOLO, a celebrated Italian violinist, born at Genoa of humble origin; widely famous for his astonis.h.i.+ng feats on a single-stringed instrument; was a composer of musical pieces for both violin and guitar; died rich (1784-1840).

PAGANISM, HEATHENISM (q. v.), so called as lingering among the "pagani" or country people, after Christianity had taken root in the large towns.

PAG.o.dA, an Indian or Chinese temple, a.s.sociated chiefly with Buddhism, of a more or less pyramidal form and of several storeys, the most imposing being the Greek PaG.o.da of Tanjore; the name is applied also to a gold coin worth 7s. 6d. stamped with a paG.o.da.

PAHLEVI, name given to a translation of the ZENDAVESTA (q. v.) in the Zend dialect for the use of the priesthood.

PAINE, THOMAS, a notorious free-thinker and democrat, born in Thetford; emigrated to America, contributed, as he boasted, by his pamphlet "Common Sense," to "free America," by rousing it to emanc.i.p.ate itself from the mother-country; wrote the "Rights of Man" against Burke's "Reflections"; had to emigrate to France; took part in the Revolution to aid in its emanc.i.p.ation also, offended Robespierre, and was put in prison, where he wrote the first part of his "Age of Reason," a book which offended the Christian world and procured him ignominy and even execration in many quarters; died in New York, but his bones were conveyed to England by Cobbett in 1819 (1737-1809).

PAINTER, WILLIAM, author of "Palace of Pleasure," a collection of tales chiefly from Italian sources, which proved suggestive in furnis.h.i.+ng the dramatists with interesting subjects for representation (1540-1594).

PAISIELLO, GIOVANNI, an Italian composer, born at Taranto; his great work, the opera "Il Barbiere di Seviglia"; composed besides other operas, cantatas, requiems, &c.

PAISLEY (66), a Renfrews.h.i.+re town, 7 m. W. of Glasgow, on the White Cart. It is the chief centre of manufacture of cotton thread in the world, and its other industries include dyeing, bleaching, woollen goods, and engineering. There are several fine buildings, a Baptist Church is said to be the finest modern ecclesiastical building in Scotland. The ornithologist Wilson, Professor Wilson ( Christopher North), and Tannahill were born here.