- Industry: Library & information science
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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
Or Molech, the chief god of the Ammonites, the worship of whom, which prevailed among all the Canaanites, was accompanied with cruelties, human sacrifices among others, revolting to the humane spirit of the Jewish religion; originally it appears to have been the worship of fire, through which the innocent as well as the guilty have often to pass for the achievement of the noblest enterprises, which degenerated at length into selfish sacrifices of others for interests of one's own, into the substitution of the innocent for the guilty by way of atonement to the Deity!
Industry:Language
Or Monasticism, is an institution in which individuals devote themselves, apart from others, to the cultivation of spiritual contemplation and religious duties, and which has constituted a marked feature in Pre-Christian Jewish asceticism, and in Buddhism as well as in Christianity; in the Church it developed from the practice of living in solitude in the 2nd century, and received its distinctive note when the vow of obedience to a superior was added to the hermit's personal vows of poverty and chastity; the movement of St. Benedict in the 6th century stamped its permanent form on Western Monasticism, and that of St. Francis in the 12th gave it a more comprehensive range, entrusting the care of the poor, the sick, the ignorant, etc., to the hitherto self-centred monks and nuns; during the Middle Ages the monasteries were centres of learning, and their work in copying and preserving both sacred and secular literature has been invaluable; English Monachism was swept away at the Reformation; in France at the Revolution; and later in Spain, Portugal, and Italy it has been suppressed; brotherhoods and sisterhoods have sprung up in the Protestant churches of Germany and England, but in all of them the vows taken are revocable.
Industry:Language
Or Mount Olivet, a ridge with three summits, stretching N. and S., E. of Jerusalem, in height 150 ft. above the city, 400 ft. above the intervening valley of Kedron, and 2682 ft. above the sea-level; so called as at one time studded with olive-trees; is celebrated as the scene of some of the most sacred events in the life of Christ.
Industry:Language
Or Nagpore, capital of the Central Provinces of British India, and of a district and division of the same name; an important railway terminus, 450 m. NE. of Bombay; is noted for the manufacture of fine cloth, and carries on a brisk trade in wheat, salt, spices, etc.
Industry:Language
Or Narbada, a sacred river of India; has its source in the Amarkantak plateau of the Deccan, and flows westward, a rapid body of greenish-blue water, through the great valley between the Vindhya and Satpura Mountains, reaching the Gulf of Cambay after a course of 800 m., the last 30 of which are navigable.
Industry:Language
Or Neu-Pommern, a large island in the German Bismarck Archipelago, West Pacific, lying off the NE. coast of New Guinea, from which it is separated by Dampier Strait; is 300 m. long, with an average breadth of 40 m.; is mountainous and volcanic in the interior, and thickly clad with forest trees; fruits of various kinds are the chief product; is inhabited by Melanesian savages.
Industry:Language
Or Nismes, capital of the department of Gard, S. of France, lies surrounded by the Cévennes in the fertile valley of the Vistre, 31 m. E. of Montpellier; has unique Roman remains, including an imposing amphitheatre, now used as a bull-arena, the noble Corinthian "Maison Carrée," a mausoleum, baths, etc.; textiles (silk, cotton, etc.), wines, and brandy are the chief articles of manufacture; it declared for the Reformation in 1559, and suffered cruelly on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
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Or Norsemen, the name given in the Middle Ages to the sea-roving, adventure-loving inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; in their sea-rovings they were little better than pirates, but they had this excuse, their home was narrow and their lands barren, and it was a necessity for them to sally forth and see what they could plunder and carry away in richer lands; they were men of great daring, their early religion definable as the consecration of valour, and they were the terror of the quieter nations whose lands they invaded; at first their invasions were mere raids for plunder, but at length they were satisfied with no less than conquest and the permanent occupancy of the lands they subdued, settling some of them on the shores of England and France, and even in the S. of Italy; these invasions were common and frequent during the whole of the 9th and the early part of the 10th centuries.
Industry:Language
Or Northants, a midland county of England, bordering upon nine others; has an undulating fertile surface, and is distinguished from the surrounding counties by extensive woods and plantations; is chiefly engaged in agriculture and stock-raising; the Nen and the Welland are the principal rivers; among its antiquities are Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Stuart was beheaded, and Burleigh House; the battles of Edgecote (1469) and Naseby (1645) were fought within its borders.
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Or Oakham, William of, an English Scholastic philosopher, born at Oakham, Surrey, surnamed Doctor Invincibilis; was a monk of the order of St. Francis; studied under Duns Scotus, and became his rival, and a reviver of Nominalism in opposition to him, by his insistence on which he undermined the whole structure of Scholastic dogmatism, that is, its objective validity, and plunged it in hopeless ruin, but cleared the way for modern speculation, and its grounding of the Objective on a surer basis (1280-1347).
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