William O'Brien, 



Irish journalist 



unit 



O'BRIEN 



O'Brien, WILLIAM (b. 1852). 



lush journalist and |i..liti. i.m 



Bon Oct. 2, 1852, he became a 

 reporter for 

 Tin- Cork Daily 

 Herald, and a 

 contributor t> 

 The Freeman's 

 Journal. In 

 1880 he found- 

 ed United Ire- 

 land, a paper 

 o f advanced 

 National ist 

 views. In- 

 defatigable i n 

 working for the Irish cause, he was 

 nine times pn>M c utcd for political 

 offences and spent over two years 

 in gaol. Nationalist M.P., 1883-95, 

 ana member of the land conference 

 of 1903, he advocated strongly a 

 policy of conciliation and tol- -r.-i- 

 tion, founding for the purpose the 

 All-for-Ireland league. M.P. for 

 Cork city, 1910-18, he and other 

 members of the All-for-Ireland 

 league withdrew from Parliament 

 at the general election in 1918. 



O'Brien, WILLIAM SMITH (1803 

 -64). Irish leader. Born Oct. 17, 

 1803, son of Sir Edward O'Brien, a 

 landowner o f 

 co. Clare, and 

 educated at 

 Harrow and 

 ('am bridge, he 

 became M.P. for 

 Ennis in 1828. 

 and represented 

 the county of 

 Limerick 1835- 

 48. In 1843 

 he joined 

 O'Connell's 

 association for the repeal of the 

 Union, but seceded in 1846 and 

 founded the Irish Confederation, 

 with a more violent policy. When 

 the Habeas Corpus Act was sus- 

 pended in Ireland in 1848, O'Brien 

 attempted an armed rising which 

 failed. He was tried and sentenced 

 to death, but the penalty was com- 

 muted to transportation to Tas- 

 mania. His health giving way, he 

 was released in 1854, and allowed 

 to return home in 1856. He died 

 June 18, 1864. See Young Ireland, 

 C. G. Duffy, new ed. 1896. 



Obscenity. In English law, con- 

 duct or publications tending to cor- 

 rupt or deprave public morals. 

 Such conduct or publication is an 

 offence. A borough council may 

 make by-laws against the use of 

 obscene language or gestures to t he 

 annoyance of any person in any 

 public place. By the Indecent Ad- 

 vertisement Act, 1889, it is an of- 

 fence, punishable by a fine of 40s. 

 or a month's imprisonment, to ex- 

 hibit, or affix, or offer to any mem 

 ber of the public in a public place 



PS 18 



any obscene picture or printed or 

 An obscene libel 



i- indictable at common law. To 

 end through the post a package 

 bearing on the outakle obscene 

 words, designs, etc., in an offence 

 un.lt r the Port Office Act, 1008. 

 ami i-< pnnmhable by a Hne not 

 exceeding 10, or imprisonment 

 with or without hard labour not 

 exceeding 12 months. 



Obscurantist. Term applied 

 cly at the Revival of Learn- 

 ing to the clerical opponents of 

 learning and education. It appears 

 to have gained currency through 

 the publication in 1515 by Uri<-h 

 von Mutton's circle of the kpistolaf 

 obtcurorum rirorum, a satire 

 tain monks of Cologne who wished 

 to destroy all Rabbinical literature. 

 ( Hisrurantism is now* applied to 

 their opponents by the supporters 

 of traditional beliefs in theology 

 and politics, especially to those 

 who desire the suppression of what 

 they consider subversive teaching, 

 such as modernism, republicanism, 

 free thought, etc, 



Observation. The discriminate, 

 retentive, and intelligent registra- 

 tion of things and happenings in t he 

 outer world. The faculty of ac- 

 curate observation is a preliminary 

 condition of science, and is of in- 

 calculable value in life. 



When the faculty of observation 

 is highly developed, there are three 

 elements or components which may 

 be distinguished, though they are 

 in reality inextricably intertwined. 



(o) There is sensory acuteness 

 an eye to see. Many children have 

 ' an almost photographically precise 

 observational power, which is partly 

 an inborn gift, like a musical ear, 

 but is also an expression of wide 

 interests and inquisitiveness, and 

 of a mind whose receptivity has not 

 been dulled by the trivial, or over- 

 loaded with a plethora of pictures. 

 Even when there is no special gift 

 of observing, the average capacity 

 is usually there, and both educa- 

 tional experiment and everyday 

 experience show that this can be 

 greatly developed. Early practice 

 in recognizing dowers and birds, in 

 analysing the jetsam of the shore 

 and the stones by the wayside, and 

 so forth, educates the power of pre- 

 cise seeing. 4. 



(b) Inseparable from sensory 

 acuteness is the power of clear-cut 

 perception, i.e. of building- uj. lucid 

 mental pictures of what is seen. 

 This implies discrimination, a 

 knowing what one is looking at. the 

 introduction of a more definite in- 

 tellectual element into the sensory 

 photograph. As a mutter of fact, 

 perceptions continually blend with 

 our sensations. In perception we 

 see the different parts of a thing 



OBSERVATORY 



making up a related whole, and we 

 see this whole in relation to other 

 parts of the picture. The very be- 

 u'lmmii; of a knowledge of the outer 

 *'<il<l w a process of selecting from 

 our thought-stream certain groups 

 of vivid sense-impressions, and if 

 we are to go on to know, the pro- 

 cess of selecting must continue. 



(e) There is a third element in 

 observation of a still higher order, 

 namely, conceptual. The mind 

 sees what it brings with it, the 

 power of seeing. Those who have 

 thought over things, who have, as 

 we say, ideas about them, who have 

 what wo may call preconception*, 

 are likely to see more than the 

 t houuhtleas and the ignorant pro- 

 vided always that they keep an 

 open mind as well as an open eye, 

 and do not allow prejudice or de- 

 Hire to influence their vision. The 

 botanist who knows the flora of a 

 countryside is likely to see much 

 more than the casual observer ; his 

 store of concepts exerts an influence 

 on his perceptual facility. 



In the mind of the scientific ob- 

 server, even when precision be- 

 comes habitual, there is always 

 caution ; he is more aware than 

 others of the possibilities of error ; 

 he has learned how easy it is to see 

 what one wishes to see. He has 

 ever before him the test of scientific 

 knowledge, that it must be verifi- 

 able by competent observers in 

 similar circumstances. 



J. Arthur Thomson 



Observation Post. Military 

 term denoting a position from 

 which it is possible accurately to 

 observe the effect of artillery fire. 

 In modern warfare the guns fre- 

 quently fire from positions from 

 which the target is invisible. Under 

 these conditions intimate contact 

 is necessary for absolute accuracy 

 of artillery fire, and an artillery 

 officer is stationed in a forward 

 observation post, often in the in- 

 fantry trcndns. whence he is in 

 communication with the battery. 

 See Carso, Battles of the. 



Observatory. Building con- 

 structed and used for the purpose 

 of making astronomical, meteor 

 ological, Or other kindred scientific 

 ohsi-r vat inns. Astronomical ob- 

 servatories were founded in China 

 in very early times, and one was 

 built at Alexandria about 200 B.C. 



The most important part* of an 

 astronomical observatory are the 

 cupolas or domes which contain 

 the telescopes. Sliding shutters 

 are so arranged that the telescopes 

 can be pointed from the horizon 

 to the zenith, while by means of 

 the rotation of the whole dome on 

 rollers it is possible to carry out an 

 observation of any point in the 

 '*. In observations when- 



