OPTIMISM, the doctrine or belief that in the system of things all that happens, the undesirable no less than the desirable, is for the best.

OPUS OPERATUM (i. e. the work wrought), a Latin phrase used to denote the spiritual effect in the performance of a religious rite which accrues from the virtue inherent in it, or by grace imparted to it, irrespectively of the administrator.

ORAN (74), the busiest port in Algeria, is 260 m. W. of Algiers; it has a Roman Catholic cathedral, a mosque, a school, a college, and two castles, and exports esparto gra.s.s, iron ore, and cereals.

ORANGE RIVER or GARIEP, chief river of South Africa, rises in the eastern highlands of Basutoland, and flows 100 m. westward to the Atlantic, receiving the Vaal and the Caledon as tributaries, and having Cape Colony on the S. bank and the Orange Free State, Griqualand West, Bechua.n.a.land, and German Namaqualand on the N.; a bar at the mouth and the aridity of its lower course make it unfit for navigation.

ORANGE RIVER COLONY, formerly Orange Free State (380), lying between the Vaal and the Orange Rivers, Griqualand West, and the Drakenberg Mountains; has an area nearly the size of England, with a healthy, temperate climate; undulating plains slope northward and southward, from which rise isolated hills called kopjes. The chief industries are the rearing of sheep, cattle, horses, and ostriches; coal-mining in the N.

and diamond-seeking in the SW.; the exports comprise wool, hides, and diamonds. Founded by Dutch Boers from Natal, it was annexed by Britain in 1848, but granted independence in 1854. The capital, Bloemfontein (3), is connected by a railway with Johannesberg and with the Cape. Having made common cause with the South African Republic in the Boer War, it was annexed by Great Britain in 1900. At present (1905) it is under the supreme authority of the Governor of Orange River and the Transvaal Colonies, a.s.sisted by a Lieutenant-Governor and an Executive Council.

ORANGEMEN, a name given to an a.s.sociation of Protestants in Ireland inst.i.tuted to uphold the Protestant succession to the crown, and the Protestant religion as settled at the Revolution of 1688, and which derives this name from William, the Prince of Orange, on whose accession to the throne Protestantism was established; it became dormant for a time after its inst.i.tution, but it has shown very decided signs of life at political crises when Protestantism seemed in danger, such as often to call for some firm handling.

ORATORIO, a musical composition on a sacred theme, dramatic in form and a.s.sociated with orchestral accompaniments, but without scenic accessories; it derives its name from the oratory of St. Philip Neri at Rome, in which a composition of the kind was first performed, and was a musical development of the MIRACLE PLAYS (q. v.).

ORATORY, CONGREGATION OF THE, community of secular priests formed by St. Philip of Neri (q. v.), and bound by no religious vow, each one of which is independent of the others; it consists of novices, triennial fathers, decennial fathers, and a superior, their functions being to preach and hear confession.

ORCAGNA, a Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect, did several frescoes; was architect of the cathedral of Orvieto; his masterpiece an absolutely unique marble tabernacle in the church of Or San Michele, Florence (1329-1389).

ORCHARDSON, WILLIAM QUILLER, English genre-painter, born in Edinburgh; his pictures are numerous, and among the best and most popular, "The Challenge," "The Queen of the Woods," "On Board the Bellerophon," "The Mariage de Convenance"; _b_. 1835.

ORCUS (i. e. place of confinement), another name for Hades, or the "World of the Dead"; also of the G.o.d of the nether world.

ORDEAL, a test by fire, water, poison, wager of battle, or the like, of the innocence or guilt of persons in appeal thereby to the judgment of G.o.d in default of other evidence, on the superst.i.tious belief that by means of it G.o.d would interfere to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty, a test very often had recourse to among savage or half-civilised nations.

ORDERICUS VITALIS, a mediaeval chronicler, born near Shrewsbury; was a monk of the Abbey of St. Evreul, in Normandy; wrote an ecclesiastical history of Normandy and England--a veracious doc.u.ment, though an incondite; _d_. 1143.

ORDERS IN COUNCIL are issued by the British Sovereign, with the advice of the Privy Council, and within limits defined by Parliament. In cases of emergency these limits have been disregarded, and Parliament subsequently asked to h.o.m.ologate the action by granting an indemnity to those concerned.

OREADES in the Greek mythology nymphs of the mountains, with special names appropriate to the district they severally inhabit.

OREGON (314), one of the United States, on the Pacific seaboard, with Washington, Idaho, Nevada, and California on its inland borders, nearly twice the size of England, has the Coast Mountains along the W., the Cascade range parallel 60 m. E., and 70 farther E. the Blue Mountains. The centre and E. is hilly, and affords excellent grazing and dairy-farming ground; the western or Willamette Valley is arable, producing cereals, potatoes, tobacco, hops, and fruit. Between the Coast Mountains and the sea excessive rains fall. The State is rich in timber, coal, iron, gold, and silver; and the rivers (of which the Columbia on the N. border is the chief) abound in salmon. Owing to the mountain shelter and the j.a.panese ocean currents the climate is mild. The capital is Salem (4), the largest city Portland (46), both on the Willamette River. The State offers excellent educational facilities; it has 17 libraries, many schools and colleges, and the Blue Mountain University.

The State (const.i.tuted in 1859) forms part of the territory long in dispute between Great Britain and the United States. It was occupied jointly from 1818 to 1846, when a compromise fixed the present boundary of British Columbia.

ORELLI, CONRAD VON, theologian, born at Zurich; professor at Basel; has written commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets; _b_. 1846.

ORELLI, JOHANN KASPAR VON, a Swiss scholar, born at Zurich, where he was professor of Cla.s.sical Philology; edited editions of the cla.s.sics, particularly Horace, Tacitus, and Cicero, highly esteemed for the scholarship they show and the critical judgment (1787-1849).

ORESTES, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and brother of Electra and Iphigenia, who killed his mother to avenge the murder by her of his father and went mad afterwards, but was acquitted by the Areopagus and became king of Argos and Lacedaemon; his friendship for Pylades, who married his sister Electra, has pa.s.sed into a proverb; the tragic story is a favourite theme of the Greek tragedians.

ORFILA, M. J. BONAVENTURE, French chemist and physician, born in Minorca; mainly distinguished for his works on toxicology (1787-1853).

ORGANISM, a structure instinct with life, and possessed of organs that discharge functions subordinate and ministrative to the life of the whole.

ORGANON, a term adopted by Bacon to denote a system of rules for the regulation of scientific inquiry.

ORGIES, festivals among the Greeks and Orientals generally connected with the worship of nature divinities, in particular DEMETER (q. v.), DIONYSOS (q. v.), and the Cabiri, celebrated with mystic rites and much licentious behaviour.

ORIFLAMME (i. e. flame of gold), the ancient banner of the kings of France, borne before them as they marched to war; it was a red flag mounted on a gilded staff, was originally the banner of the abbey of St.

Denis, and first a.s.sumed as the royal standard by Louis VI. as he marched at the head of his army against the Emperor Henry V. in 1124, but one hears no more of it after the battle of Agincourt in 1415, much as it was at one time regarded as the banner of the very Lord of Hosts.

ORIGEN, one of the most eminent of the Fathers of the Church, born at Alexandria it is presumed, the son of a Christian who suffered martyrdom under Severus, whom he honoured and ever reverenced for his faith in Christ; studied the Greek philosophers that he might familiarise himself with their standpoint in contrast with that of the Christian; taught in Alexandria and elsewhere the religion he had inherited from his father, but was not sufficiently regardful of episcopal authority, and after being ordained by another bishop than that of his own diocese was deposed and banished; after this he settled in Caesarea, set up a celebrated school, and had Gregory Thaumaturgus for a pupil, whence he made journeys to other parts but under much persecution, and died at Tyre; he wrote numerous works, apologetical and exegetical as well as doctrinal, besides a "Hexapla," a great source of textual criticism, being a work in which the Hebrew Scriptures and five Greek versions of them are arranged side by side; in his exegesis he had a fancy for allegorical interpretation, in which he frequently indulged, but in doing so he was ent.i.tled to some license, seeing he was a man who constantly lived in close communion with the Unseen Author of all truth (185-253).

ORIGINAL SIN, the name given by the theologians to the inherent tendency to sin on the part of all mankind, due, as alleged, to their descent from Adam and the imputation of Adam's guilt to them as sinning in him.

ORINOCO RIVER, a great river in the NE. of South America, rises in the Parime Mountains, and flowing westward bifurcates, the Ca.s.siquiare channel going southward and joining the Rio Negro, the Orinoco proper continuing westward, north and east through Venezuela, and reaching the Atlantic after a course of 1500 m. by an enormous delta; it receives thousands of tributaries, but cascades half-way up stop navigation.

ORION, in the Greek mythology a handsome giant and hunter, was struck blind by Dionysos for attempting an outrage on Merope, but recovered his eyesight on exposing his eyeb.a.l.l.s to the arrowy rays of Aurora, and became afterwards the companion of Artemis on the hunting-field, but he fell a victim to the jealousy of Apollo, the brother of Artemis, and was transformed by the latter into a constellation in the sky, where he figures as a giant wearing a lion's skin and a girdle or belt and wielding a club.

ORISSA (4,047), the name of an ancient Indian kingdom, independent till 1568, and falling into British possession in 1803, is now restricted to the most south-easterly province of Bengal. It is larger than Wales, and comprises a hilly inland tract and an alluvial plain formed by the deltas of the Mahanadi, Brahmani, and Baitarani Rivers, well irrigated, and producing great crops of rice, wheat, pulse, and cotton. It has no railways, and poor roads; transport is by ca.n.a.l and river. Chief towns Cuttack, Balasor, and Puri.

ORKNEY ISLANDS (30), an archipelago of 90 islands, Pomona the largest, lying north of the Scottish mainland, from which they are separated by the Pentland Firth, 7 m. broad. The scenery is tame, the climate is mild and moist; there are no trees, crops are poor; the chief industries are fishing and stock-raising; Kirkwall, with a cathedral, and Stromness are the chief towns. Seized from the Picts by Norse vikings, they pa.s.sed to James III. as security for the dowry of Margaret of Denmark and were never redeemed. The natives show their Scandinavian ancestry in their features, and the nomenclature is largely Scandinavian.

ORLANDO, a hero who figures in the romantic tales connected with the adventures of Charlemagne and his paladins, a knight of pure and true blood; had a magical horn called Olivant, with which he wrought wonders.

ORLEANS (61), on the Loire, 75 m. by rail SW. of Paris, is the capital of the province of Loiret, a trading rather than an industrial town, commerce being fostered by excellent railway, ca.n.a.l, and river communications; the town is of ancient date, and its streets are full of quaint wooden houses; there is an old cathedral and museum; many historic a.s.sociations include the raising of the siege in 1429 by Joan of Arc, whose house is still shown, and two captures by the Germans, 1870

ORLEANS, DUKES OF, the name of four distinct branches of the royal family of France, the first commencing with PHILIPPE, fifth son of Philippe of Valois, in 1344; the second with LOUIS, brother of Charles VI.