153 



TERMINALIA. 



TERRESTRIAL LIGHT. 



U4 



coincide with the circle within any degree of nearness we please to 

 assign: or the following proposition "the area of the inscribed 

 polygon may be made to differ from that of the circle by less than 

 the nth part of the latter" may be made true for every value of n 

 that can be named, however great. Terminal language, properly 

 employed, may be made the means of abbreviation of all those truths 

 whose announcement contains interminable approximation : the 

 development of this sentence is the object of the article INFINITE. 



TERMINALIA, the festival of Terminus [TERMINUS], celebrated 

 at Rome annually on the 23rd of February, the last day of the old 

 Roman year. The festival was either public or private, according as 

 it was held at the boundaries between the fields of private persons, or 

 at the boundary of the Ager Romanus. In the former case persons 

 possessing adjoining lands met with their families and servants at the 

 stone which divided the properties, adorned it with garlands and 

 offered sacrifices, and a feast in which the neighbours partook was 

 intended to renew the friendly relations existing between them. 

 (Ovid., 'Fast.' ii., 643, &c.) Dionysius states that down to his time 

 the Romans did not offer any bloody sacrifices on this occasion, but 

 only cakea and fruit. But we have authentic statements which show 

 that the assertion of Dionysius can only apply to the early period of 

 the republic, and that subsequently a lamb or a sucking pig was sacri- 

 ficed. (Dionysius ii., 74; Plutarch, ' Numa' 16; ' Quaest. Rom.' 15; 

 Horatius, ' Epod.' ii. 59.) The public Terminalia were solemnised in 

 a similar manner by the whole people on the boundary of the Ager 

 Romanus. (Ovid., ' Fast' ii. 679, &c.) 



TERMINUS, a Roman deity whose worship was said to have been 

 introduced by Numa PompiUus, when he ordered the fields of the 

 citizens to be separated from one another, and the boundaries to be 

 marked by stones which were to be considered as sacred to Terminus, 

 or as Dionysius calls him Ztvs ipior. (Festus, s. v. ' Terminus,' Diony- 

 sius, ii. 74). A careful examination of the worship of this god shows 

 that Terminus was only a surname of Jupiter, who wag worshipped 

 under this name as the guardian of boundaries. The stone pillars were 

 regarded as symbolical representations of the god himself, and henco 

 perhaps the severe law mentioned by Festus, that whoever displaced 

 such a pillar should, together with his oxen, be devoted to the god. 

 In the same manner in which the boundaries between the lands of 

 private individuals were marked, the original territory of Rome (Ager 

 Romanus) was separated by pillars from the territory of neighbouring 

 tribes. In the direction of Laurentum there was such a pillar (ter- 

 minus) between the fifth and sixth milestones from Rome on the 

 Laureutine road. This was the public Terminus. The god had a 



temple on the Capitol, and the part of the roof just above the symbo- 

 lical pillar was left open. (Festus ; Servius, ' Ad Aen.' ix. 448.) 



TERMINUS, or TERM, signifies, in sculpture and architecture, a 

 pillar statue, that is, either a half statue or bust, not placed upon, but 

 incorporated with, and as it were immediately springing out of the 

 square pillar which serves as its pedestal. If they be mere busts, 

 figures of this kind are usually distinguished by the name of HERM^B 

 ('Ep^ior) ; and busts which, instead of having a circular moulded base, 

 resemble the upper part of a terminus, are called terminal busts. 

 There are many such busts and also some termini in the Grreco- 

 Roman Saloons of the British Museum ; among others a terminal bust 

 of Dionysus, and a double terminal bust of Bacchus and Libera, both 

 of which are engraved under DIONYSUS ; also a terminal statue of 

 PAN. The terminus, or pillar part, is frequently made to taper down- 

 wards, or made narrower at its base than above, which mode of 

 diminution, the reverse of that employed for columns, was no doubt 

 intended by way of similarity to the general outline of the human 

 figure, whose greatest breadth is at the shoulders. By modern artists 

 the pedestal part is usually made tapering downwards or narrowest 

 just above its base ; when it is called the game, from its resemblance 

 to the scabbard of a sword. 



In architectural design Terms are employed in lieu of Caryatides, not 

 however as insulated pillars, but as pilasters forming a small order or 

 attic, or a decoration to gateways, doors, &c. They frequently occur 

 in the Renaissance and our own Elizabethan style. 



TERMS, ATTENDANT AND SATISFIED. The assignment of 

 satisfied terms on the purchase of property being frequently accom- 

 panied by great difficulty and expense, the Act 8 & 9 Viet, was passed 

 to render the assignment of Satisfied Terms unnecessary. 



TEROPIAMMON. [OPIUM, ALKALOIDS OP.] 



TERPIN. [TURPENTINE.] 



TEKPINOL. [TURPENTINE.] 



TERPSICHORE. [MUSES.) 



TERRA SIENNA. [CoLOURMO MATTERS.] 



TERRESTRIAL LIGHT. Aurora borealis, or northern lights, as 

 they have hitherto been called, is now generally admitted to be a 

 magnetic phenomenon. [TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.] As lightning 

 shows a restoration to equilibrium from a disturbance in the electrical 

 condition of the atmosphere, so these northern and southern lights 

 denote the conclusion of a magnetic storm which has foretold its 

 approach by its universal influence on a freely-suspended magnet, even 

 at places far distant from the place where the phenomenon itself is 

 visible. 



1. Aurora Borealin. 



The appearances which ordinarily present themselves during a dis- with his accustomed accuracy : " Deep in the horizon, nearly in the 

 play of terrestrial light are thus graphically described by Humboldt situation where it is intersected by the magnetic meridian, the heaven, 



