41 



OBSEQUENS, JULIUS. 



OCELLUS LUCANUS. 



5-42 



Ban-de-la-Roche waa not only secured from molestation by the well- 

 known character of the people and their pastor, but Oberlin was even 

 able to afford an asylum to several proscribed persons. Once indeed 

 he was cited before the supreme tribunal of Alsace on a political 

 charge, when he was not only acquitted, but received an assurance 

 from the court of their deep regret that he should have been called 

 from the scene of his labours. In 1795 Le renounced his stipend on 

 account of the poverty of hU people, leaving each of them to contri- 

 bute what they could to his support. His economy was as strict as 

 his benevolence was extensive. He was never known to owe a single 

 sous ; and he made it a point of conscience to set apart for religious 

 and charitable purposes the three tithes required of the Jews by the 

 Mosaic law. He was a warm supporter of the Missionary Society, and the 

 first foreign correspondent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 

 When the assignats were issued by the French revolutionary govern- 

 ment, he soon foresaw their depreciation, and began to buy them up 

 from his people to prevent them losing by them : in the space of 

 twenty-five years he succeeded in redeeming all that had been brought 

 into the Ban-do-la-Roche. 



Among the employments which Oberlin found for his people were 

 straw-plaiting, knitting, dyeing with the plants of the country, and 

 weaving. About 1813 the industry of the district received a fortunate 

 stimulus through the introduction of the ribbon manufactory by 

 M. Legrand, formerly a director of the Helvetic Republic, who was 

 induced by his esteem for Obeilin'a character to remove with his two 

 ions from Basel to the Ban-de-hvRocbe. In this family Oberlin found 

 faithful friends and able assistants in his plans of usefulness. 



Among the old evils under which the Ban-de-la-Roche had suffered, 

 one of the greatest was the remains of the feudal system, out of which 

 bad arisen a ruinous lawsuit between the peasantry and the seigneurs 

 respecting the right to the extensive forests of the district. Oberlin 

 persuaded the parties to come to au agreement, and the pen with 

 which that agreement was signed was solemnly presented to him by 

 the maires of the district on the 6th of June 1813. Nor was this the 

 only civic honour be received, for Louis XVIII. presented him with 

 the decoration of the Legion of Honour as an acknowledgment of the 

 services which he bad rendered to a numerous population; and in 

 1818 he received a gold medal from the Royal and Central Agricultural 

 Society of Paris. His Memoirs contain accounts written by several 

 penona, of very different characters and pursuits, of visits to the Ban- 

 iln-lvltoche during Oberliu's life, and all of them bear witness to 

 the astonishing results of bis labours, as shown by the intelligence 

 and piety, the politeness and hospitality, the industry, benevolence, 

 and happiness of the people whom be had found wretched, ignorant, 

 and half-savage. Those readers who wish further information as to 

 his character, habits, and personal appearance, are referred to the 

 work mentioned below. 



Oberlin died on the 1st of June 1826, in the eighty-sixth year of 

 his age and the fifty-ninth of bis residence in the Ban-de-la-Roche. 

 He was buried at Foudai on the 5th of June. Nearly all his flock 

 followed their ' Cher Papa,' as they always called him, to the grave, 

 and several Homan Catholic priests, with all the Protestant clergy in 

 the neighbourhood, joined in the funeral rites. An affectionate 

 parting address to bis people, which he had left behind him, was 

 read from the pulpit on the occasion. 



Oberlin was married on the 6th of July 1768 to Madeleine Salome! 

 Witter, who died on the 18th January 1784. He had nine children, 

 two of whom died very young. The otlur seven were brought up 

 under his own care, and lived to help him in his labours. Their 

 names were Frederic, who died iu 1703 ; Fidelite Caroline, who was 

 married in 1795 to the Rev. James Wolff, of Mittelbergheim, and 

 "ln'il in 1809; Charles Conserve", who became in 1806 pastor of 

 Kothau, in the Ban-de-la-Roche, where he still resided in 1838 ; 

 Louisa Charite" ; Henrietta, married to the Rev. M. Oraff; and 

 Frederic* Bienvenue, married to the Rev. M. Rauscher. 



(Mcmoiri of John Frederick Oberlin, 8th edit., with a Short Notice 

 of Louita Scheplcr, London, 1838.) 



Any account of Oberlin's life would be incomplete without some 

 notice of LOUISA SCHEPLER, who waa originally his servant and a con- 

 ductress in one of his schools. Upon the death of Oberlin's wife she 

 became his housekeeper, and soon after she begged him to pay her 

 no wore wages, but to treat her as one of his children. Her request 

 waa complied with, and she lived iu Oberlin's family till and after his 

 death, employing all her energies and the whole of a little property 

 which she posaessed in work* of benevolence. In August 1829 she 

 received one of the ' Prix de Vertu ' distributed annually by the 

 Acade'mie Fran9aise, amounting to 6000 francs, the whole of which 

 she laid out in assisting the poor and in other benevolent objects. 

 She died on the 25th of July 1837, at the age of seventy-six, having 

 been a conductress fifty-tight years. 



O'BSEQUENS, JULIUS, the author of a small work in Latin which 

 is entitled ' De Prodigiis.' Nothing is known about the author. 

 Scaliger concludes that Obsequens lived before llieronymus, because 

 Hieronvmus in a particular passage appears to have copied a fact from 

 Obsequens. Thin passage of Hicronymus was written in the time of 

 Val< ns, who died A.D. 879. The work of Obaeqtiens is a record of 

 wonderful things that happened during the period from the foundation 

 of Home to the time of Augustus. The first part of the work is lost, 



but it has been supplied by Lycosthenes (Conrad Woolf hart), whose 

 supplement commences with the time of Romulus and extends to the 

 year of the City 563, when the extant work of Obsequens begins. 

 There are various gaps after 563, which Lycosthenes has also supplied. 

 The method of the author is to enumerate the wonderful occurrences 

 under any given year, and then to state what happened thereon. The 

 following is an example (No. XCL): " It rained milk oil the Grseco- 

 stasis. At Croton a flock of sheep with a dog and three shepherds 

 were killed by lightning. At Satura a calf with two heads was born. 

 There was an uproar in the city owing to Gracchus proposing his 

 laws." Obsequens chiefly followed Livy, for he uses pretty nearly 

 Livy's words, as appears from a comparison of Obsequens with those 

 parts of Livy which are extant. His work also terminates with an 

 event relating to Drusus, the son of Livia, and the history of Livy 

 terminates with the death of Drusus. 



Lycostheues in his preface argues that the attention which the 

 Romans paid to wonderful occurrences and signs proved their religious 

 feeling, while their blindness is shown by their worship of false 

 deities; and he adds that if they had been acquainted with the true 

 religion, they would have surpassed in religious zeal their posterity, 

 who are Christians rather in name than in fact, and disregard the 

 signs of the times foretold by Jesus Christ (Luke xxi.) as to happen 

 when tlie end of the world was approaching. Among the signs then 

 recently witnessed the author mentions three or four eclipses happening 

 in a year, stars with hair (comets), burning meteors, and earthquakes 

 and convulsions of the earth in Italy, all which made no impression 

 on the people of that day, to such a height of impiety and wickedness 

 were men come. The consequences of all this were pernicious errors, 

 horrible blindness, and persevering blasphemy; and the divine 

 vt ngeauce showed itself in civil wars, strange diseases, and famine. 

 The author thought that an edition of Obsequens at such a time would 

 be suitable, and would show men that dreadful signs always portended 

 evil to men, and that by this example they might take warning. The 

 author supplied what U wanting in the manuscript of Obsequens from 

 Livy, Dionysius of Halicaruasaus, Orosius, and Eutropius, and other 

 most esteemed authors, so that nothing should be omitted. If his 

 labours should find favour with his readers, he promises to complete 

 his chronicle which he had written of wonderful events from the 

 creation of the world to his own time. The author's preface is dated 

 Basel, 1552. 



The edition of Obsequens by F. Oudendorp, Leiden, 1720, contains 

 the notes of Scheffer and the Supplements and Preface of Lycostheues. 



OCCAM, or OCKHAM, WILLIAM, an English scholastic philo- 

 sopher, was born in the county of Surrey about the end of the 13th 

 century. He was a pupil of Duns Scotus, ' the most subtle Doctor,' 

 and, like his master, a member of the order of Franciscans. He him- 

 self attained to the title of the ' Invincible Doctor.' He opposed the 

 Realism of Scotus and his followers, and formed a new speculative 

 sect, bearing the name of Occamists, who revived the tenets of Nomi- 

 nalism. In the early part of the 14th century, he taught at Paris. 

 He was distinguished by his powerful opposition to the papal power. 

 A book which he published, entitled ' JJe Potestate Ecclesiastica et 

 Secular!,' drew down upon him the censure of the pope. He was 

 protected by the king of France, whose cause he had supported against 

 papal encroachments-. When afterwards excommunicated by the pope, 

 he found another friend in the emperor of Germany, He died at 

 Munich, in 1347. 



Very little is known of Occam's life. A list of his works, which 

 includes a commentary upon the Predicables of Porphyry and the 

 Categories of Aristotle, and many treatises of scholastic theology and 

 ecclesiastical law, will be found in Fabricius's 'Bibliotheca Latina,' 

 torn, iii., p. 466. Occam's 'Surnma totius Logical' was published at 

 ParU in 1488, and at Oxford iti 1675, 8vo. 



Tennemann gives the following account of the Nominalist specula- 

 tions of Occam : " He maintained that general idea 1 ) had no objective 

 reality out of the mind, because neither the possibility of judgments 

 nor the possibility of a real science requires this hypothesis, and it 

 only leads to absurd consequences. These general ideas have no ob- 

 jective existence but in the mind ; they are a product of abstraction ; 

 and are either images (figments) which the mind creates for itself, or 

 subjective qualities belonging to the mind, and which, according to 

 their nature, are the signs of exterior objects. From this doctrine, 

 roughly sketched only, the problem of the principle of individuali- 

 sation came to lose all interest, and the question of consciousness, 

 to occupy men exclusively. In the theory of consciousness, Occam 

 diverged still more from the Realiat opinion; and in maintaining tho 

 subjectivity of thought, he has perhaps given more encouragement 

 than he meant to give to scepticism and empiricism." (Tennemann, 

 Manuel de flliitoire de la Philosophic ; Cousin; Hallam, Introduction 

 to the Literature of Europe, vol. L) 



OCELLUS LUCA'NUS, a. Pythagorean philosopher, was a native of 

 Lucania in Italy, and is supposed to have bi en a disciple of Pythago- 

 ra a , but the time in which he lived is uncertain. He wrote mauy 

 works on philosophical subjects, the titles of which are given in a letter 

 written by Archytas to Plato, which has been preserved by Diogenes 

 Laertius (viii. 80) ; but the only work of his which has come down to 

 us is ' On the Nature of the Universe.' This work, as we learn from 

 the extracts in Stobseus, was originally written in Doric Greek, and 



