IVORY, JAMESl 



large booty. The Imelians of Syria have never recovered from that 

 blow, bat have remained poor in importance and number*, and are 

 under the nominal dominion of the Turk*. Their teneta are not well 

 known, bat they seem to hat* deviated from the original doctrines of 

 the great Iimaehte sect, and to have mixed them up with grou super- 

 stition*. They can hardly be called Mussulmans; they have no 

 moaquea, but are eiroumeiatd, and they itill visit the tomb of All at 

 Meshed. They are aaid to be aimple and hospitable, and have a better 

 reputation than their neighbour* the Nuaairu. 



OKATES, one of the Ortek orator* commonly oalled the Ten, 

 was born at Athena D.C. 43d. lie Ktudied rhetoric under Prodicus, 

 Oorgiaa, Tiaiaa, and Theramenes, and became a master of his art. A 

 oerUin timidity and feebleness: in hi* delivery prevented him from 

 apeaking in public ('Pauathenaioua,' c. 4), and he was therefore debarred 

 from occupying the high itationa which were open to the ambition of 

 hie contemporaries, lie taught rhetoric both at Chios and at Athena, 

 and hi* school waa attended by numerous disciple*, among whom were 

 Xenophon, Epborus, Theopompua, and other distinguished men of his 

 time. Although no orator himself, he formed many orators ; and 

 Isteus, Demosthenes, and other*, are said to have studied under him. 

 He is said to have charged one thousand drachma) for a complete course 

 of oratorical instruction, and to have said to some one who observed 

 on the largeneas of the amount, that he would willingly give ten 

 thousand drachma) to any one who should impart to him the self- 

 confidence and the command of voice requisite in a public orator. 

 The orations of Isocratea were either sent to the persons to whom 

 they were addressed for their private perusal, or they were entrusted 

 to others to deliver in public. He is said to have delivered only one 



Isoorates treated of great moral and political questions : his views 

 are distinguished by a regard for virtue, and an aversion to all mean- 

 ness aud injustice. His politics were conciliatory; he was a friend of 

 ]ace ; he repeatedly exhorted the Greeks to concord among them- 

 selves, and to turu their arms against their common enemy Persia. 

 In his ' Panegyrical Oration ' (published about B.C. 379), which lie wrote 

 in the time of the Lacedaemonian ascendency, he exhorted the Lacedso- 

 moiiians and Athenians to vie with each other in a noble emulation, 

 and to unite their forces in an expedition against Asia ; and he des- 

 canted eloquently on the merits and glories of the Athenian Common- 

 wraith, on the services it had rendered to Greece, and on its high 

 intellectual cultivation ; while he defended it from the charges, urged 

 by its enemies, of tyranny by sea, and of oppression towards ita colonies. 

 He addressed Philip of Macedon in a similar strain after his peace with 

 Athens (ao. 346), exhorting him to reconcile the states of Greece, and 

 to unite their forces against Persia. He kept up a correspondence 

 with Philip, and two of his epistles to that prince are still extant, as 

 well as one which he wrote to the then youthful Alexander, congra- 

 tulating him on his proficiency in his studies. But although lacerates 

 was of a mild and conciliatory disposition, he displayed considerable 

 courage on several occasions, as when he showed his sympathy for 

 Theramenea, who had been condemned by the thirty tyrants; and 

 lastly, he proved that though no violent partisan, he was a warm- 

 hearted patriot, when, at the news of the battle of Chteronea, he 

 refused to take food for several days, and thus closed his long and 

 honourable career at ninety-eight years of age, n.c. 388. 



There are extant eight orations of Isoorates of the class called 

 judicial, or forensic (\6yoi SutartKoi), which are valuable for the subject 

 matter. In his oration in favour of the Platseaua he took the part 

 of that people, who were expelled from their homes by the Thebans. 

 The oration against Kuthynous, which appears to be incomplete, and 

 may possibly never have been spoken, is a most ingenious attempt to 

 determine a dispute as to the restoration of a deposit of money where 

 there was an absence of all direct testimony as to the main fact. The 

 orator puts the probabilities on each aide in two opposite scales, and 

 weighs them with consummate skill Three of the orations of lacerates 

 to Demonicua, to Nicocles, and the oration entitled Nicoclcs, belong 

 to the Panenetic or hortatory class, aud the first two partake in some 

 degree of the epistolary style. Isocratea' ' Panathenaicus ' is a panegyric 

 of Athens, which he wrote when he waa ninety-four years of age. 

 ('Panath.,'c.l.) 



The style of Isocrates is singularly perspicuous, but highly laboured 

 and somewhat diffuse. In Cicero's opinion it was be who first gave to 

 proe writing its due rhythm. The art of Isocratea is always apparent, 

 a circumstance which of itself diminishes in some degree the effect of 

 his writings, and is almost inconsistent with vigour and force. The 

 oration to Demouicus is an almost uninterrupted aeries of antitheses. 

 Isocrates though ho falls far below the great orator of Athens, is still 

 a perfect master in the style which he has adopted, and hat well 

 merited the high encomium of Dionysius for the noble spirit and the 

 rectitude of purpose which |>ervade his writings. This judicious critic 

 has thus briefly summed up his comparison between Lysiss and Iso- 

 crates. " As to the charm of composition, Lysias is superior to Iso- 

 crates in the same kind that a naturally handsome person is to one 

 made so by art : the composition of Lysias pleases naturally ; that of 

 l-orrate aims at pleasing." Plutarch says that sixty orations went 

 under the name of Isocrates, of which only twenty-five or twenty- 

 eight at moot were his ; twenty-one of these have come down to us, 

 together with a few epistles, probably not genuine. ' Isoorntis Opera,' 



Greek and Latin, were edited by the Abbe" Auger, 3 vols. 4to, Pari,, 

 1782, with several biographies of Isoorates: this edition is of amall 

 value. The best edition of the Greek text is by Bekkor ; the editiou 

 of Koray, I'arii, 1807, 8 vols. 8vo, is useful. Isocratea was translated 

 into English by Richard Sadleir, London, folio (no date) ; by Dinsdalo, 

 London, 1763, 8vo ; and by Gillie*, together with, the Orations of 

 Lysias, London, 1778, 4 to. 



(Dinnyaius of Halioamaasus ; Lift of Itocratts, attributed to Plu- 

 tarch; Cicero, Dt Claris Oraturtbta, c. 8; QuiutiUan, liutil., iii. x., 

 Ac. ; Photius, C. 260.) 



1VOHY, JAMES, a distinguished British mathematician, was born 

 at Dundee, in 1165, and received the rudiments of education in the 

 public schools of that town. At fourteen years of age he waa sent to 

 the University of St. Andrews ; his father, who was a watchmaker, 

 intending that he ahould become a clergyman of the ouureh of Scotland. 

 In that university the young man remained six yean, during four of 

 which he waa occupied with the atudy of mathematics, languages, and 

 philosophy ; but the first of thesu subject*, from a natural inclination 

 to that branch of science, particularly engaged his attention : he was 

 encouraged and ably assisted in hii favourite pursuit by thu Uev. 

 John West, one of the instructors at the university ; and his great 

 progress, which is said to have excited considerable notice, gave already 

 indications of the eminence which, us a mathematician, he was after- 

 wards to attain. The two following years were passed in the study of 

 theology; and Mr. Ivory then removed, in company with Mr. (after- 

 wards Sir John) Leslie, who had been his fellow-student at .St. Andrews, 

 to the University of Edinburgh, where he spent onu year iu completing 

 the course of study required as his qualification for admission to thu 

 office of minister in the Scottish Church. 



It is not stated what circumstances prevented Mr. Ivory from 

 carrying out the intentions of his father in this respect ; but, on 

 quitting the university, in 1786, he accepted an appointment, as an 

 assistant teacher in an academy then recently established iu Dundee, 

 and he continued to fulfil the duties of that post during three yean. 

 At the end of that time he engaged with some other persons in the. 

 establishment, at Douglastowu iu Forfarshire, of a factory for spinning 

 flax ; and of this association he appears to have been the principal person. 

 During fifteen years (from 1789 to 1801) Mr. Ivory was employed 

 daily in operations apparently very uncongenial with the taste of a 

 man of science; but it may be presumed that all his leisure hours 

 were devoted to the prosecution of scientific researches. The under- 

 taking proved unsuccessful, and iu 1804 the company ceased to exist. 

 Mr. Ivory then obtained the appointment to a professorship of mathe- 

 matics in the Koyal Military College, and went to reside at Marlow, iu 

 Buckinghamshire, whore that institution had, a few yean previously, 

 been formed. On the removal of the college to Sandhurst, in I lurk- 

 shire, Mr. Ivory accompanied it to the latter place, where he remained 

 till his retirement from public service, lie fulfilled the duties of his 

 professorship to the great satisfaction of the governor and benefit of 

 the students, his attention to whom was unremitting. An edition of 

 Euclid's ' Elements,' which is known to have been bis work, though 

 his name does not appear on the title-page, was prepared by him for 

 the use of the students in the college. 



In the beginning of 1819 Mr. Ivory, feeling his health decline under 

 the great exertions which he made iu carrying on his scientific 

 researches and performing his duties as a professor, those duties 

 leaving him but short intervals of leisure, was induced to resign his 

 professorship and retire into private life. In consequence of his great 

 merit there was granted to him the pension due to the full period 

 which, by the regulations, the civil officers of the institution are 

 required to serve previously to obtaining such pension ; and which 

 period he had not completed. After his retirement from Sandhurst, 

 Mr. Ivory devoted himself wholly to scientific researches, and the 

 results of his labours have been printed chiefly in the volumes of thu 

 ' Philosophical Transactions.' In 1831, in consideration of thu groat 

 talent displayed in his investigations, he was by Lord Brougham, to 

 whom he had been known iu early life, recommended to the king 

 (William IV.), who, with the Hanoverian Guelphic Order of Knight- 

 hood, gave him an annual pension of Soul, which he enjoyed 

 during the rest of his life; and, in 1889, the University 

 Andrews conferred on him the degree of Doctor in Laws. He lived 

 in groat privacy in or near London till his death, September 21st, 

 1842. 



Mr. Ivory's earliest writings were three Memoirs which he commu- 

 nicated in the yean 1796, 1799, and 1802 to the Koyal Society of 

 Edinburgh : the first of these was entitled ' A New Series for the 

 Rectification of the Ellipse ;' the second, ' A new Method of resolving 

 Cubic Equations;' and the third, ' A New and Universal Solution of 

 Kepler's Problem;' all of them evincing great analytical skill, as well 

 as originality of thought. He contributed fifteen papers to the 

 'Transactions of the Koyal Society of London,' nearly all of them 

 relating to physical astronomy, and every one containing mathematical 

 investigations of the most refined nature. The first, which is entitled 

 'On the Attractions of Homogeneous Ellipsoids,' is in the volume for 

 1809, and contains investigations of the attractions of such ellipsoids 

 on points situated within them and on their exterior : the former case 

 presents few difficulties; but the process used by Laplace for the 

 solution of the other was very complex, and Mr. Ivory had the merit 



