40 



IDEALISM IDOLATRY. 



stand by nature not only the actual appearances of 

 the sensible world, but also the laws and proto- 

 types which lie at their limniiatioii, ami at which 

 bnaciaatioa arrives in Uie way indicated. As 

 te flwwuids of crystals we do not find one which 

 forma a perfect maUieuiatical figure, while the effort 

 of nature to produce such a figure is obvious in all, 

 so is it with Uie beautiful. All the individual in- 

 stances may be regarded as Uie imperfect attempts 

 of nature to produce a faultless model. In creating 

 i!.. :ilr.U !: liiauty, inuu oV<-s not follow, as some 

 suppose, the arbitrary suggestions of fancy, but 

 strives to discover and present the prototypes of 

 nature. I magi nation finds the materials of the ideal 

 in reality, but she unites the separate traits of Uie 

 grand and Uie beautiful, dispersed through nature in 

 oue perfect ideal. So, too, there may be ideals of 

 the hatetul, the horrid, Uie malignant; for Uie ideal 

 aims merely at completeness, whether in the good or 

 the bad, the grand or the mean, Uie graceful or the 

 ugly, Uie heroic or the ridiculous. Dante often gives 

 us the ideal of physical suffering, whilst Uie Koran 

 aims to present the ideal of sensual enjoyment. The 

 caricature is, under a certain point of view, an ideal. 

 The characteristic, which is founded on the deviation 

 of the individual form from Uie generic, is therefore 

 opposed to the ideal, which loses by any deviation 

 from the generic form ; but, on the other hand, the 

 representation gains in character, and thus satisfies 

 the claims of Uie fine arts, which require not only 

 the beautiful but the true. Truth must in no case 

 be sacrificed to beauty. A medium must therefore 

 be employed, by which the truth may be represented 

 as beautiful. This medium is the true ideal of the 

 imitative arts. Genius only can decide how far the 

 characteristic and the generic are to be mingled. 

 See the article Copy. 



IDEALISM is Uie name usually given to that 

 system of philosophy, according to which, what we 

 call external objects are mere phenomena of our own 

 minds. It originated with Descartes. Malebranche 

 went a step farther; but bishop Berkeley was the 

 first who sought to prove the non-existence of matter, 

 and is Uierefore regarded as the founder of modem 

 idealism. See Berkeley. 



IDENTITY, SYSTEM OF. See ScAelling. 



IDEOGRAPHIC ; that way of writing which 

 expresses the ideas and not the sound. Part of the 

 Chinese characters are ideographic; as, for instance, 

 when the sign which signifies hand, and some other 

 sign, expressing a material, designate the trade in 

 which this material is made or used : this is ideogra- 

 phic writing. See Chinese Language, and Hiero- 

 glyphics. 



IDES, or IDUS ; with Uie Romans, the fifteenth 

 day of March, May, July, and October. In the 

 other months, it was the thirteenth, owing to the 

 variation of the nones, (q. v.) These days were 

 sacred to Jupiter, to whom the flamen dialis sacri- 

 ficed a sheep. The ides were also sacred to different 

 deities. The idet of March, on account of Caesar's 

 death, was an ater dies, and was called paricidium. 

 The senate was not allowed to sit on that day. See 

 Calendar. 



IDIOSYNCRASY (Greek) means the peculiar 

 effect produced by certain agents upon the bodily 

 frame; or the peculiar, ami, frequently, morbid feeling 

 of liking or dislike which a person lias, with regard 

 to certain objects, whether physical or intellectual. 



IDIOT (from the Greek Hturr.t, which signified a 

 private citizen); one who took no interest in the 

 general welfare. The modem meaning therefore 

 iU-viates much from the old one. 



1DIOTICOS; a dictionary confined to a particular 

 dialect, or containing words and phrases peculiar to 



a part of a country. There exist in Germany 

 M-V rral very valuable Jdiotica. 



IDOCRASE is found most usually in distinct 

 crystals, with the general form of short, square 

 prisms. Their primary form is a right prism, with 

 square bases ; and the crystals yield to cleavage 

 parallel to all its planes, with sufficient brilliancy to 

 obtain incidences of 90 by the reflective goniometer 

 in every direction. Lustre, vitreous, inclining to 

 resinous, sometimes very distinctly the latter; colour, 

 various shades of brown, passing into leek-green, 

 pistachio-green, olive-green, and oil-green ; streak, 

 white, semi-transparent, or only translucent on the 

 edges. If viewed in the direction of the axis, the 

 colours incline more to yellow ; perpendicular to it, 

 more to green; hardness between that of feldspu 

 and quartz; specific gravity, 3.399. It also occurs 

 massive and granular. Idocrase was first found 

 among the lavas of mount Vesuvius, and hence its 

 old name, Vesuvian. It was afterwards discovered 

 at Eger, in Bohemia, and, being taken for a new 

 mineral, was called Egeran. A variety, resembling 

 egeran, has been called lobo'ite and frugardite. 

 Another, from Tellemarken, in Norway, of a blue 

 colour, and containing copper, has been called cy- 

 prine. Idocrase has yielded by analysis the following 

 results (the two first were obtained by KlaproUi, the 

 third by count Dunin Borkousky) : 



Silica, 

 Alumine, 

 Lime, 

 Magnesia, 



Vesuvian 



from 

 Siberia. 



42.00 



16.25 



34.00 



0.00 



5.50 



Egvran 



a trace 

 0.00 



Bohemia. 



41.00 



22.00 



22.00 



3.00 



6.00 



2.00 

 1.00 



Vesuvian 



from 

 Vesuvius. 



35.50 

 33.00 

 2225 

 0.00 



Oxide of iron, 7.50 

 Oxide of man- 

 ganese, 0.25 

 Potash, 0.00 

 The varieties from Vesuvius and from Fassa in the 

 Tyrol, easily melt into a dark-coloured globule. The 

 localities of idocrase in Europe are numerous. In 

 the United States, it has been met with, handsomely 

 crystaline, at Worcester, in Massachusetts, of a red- 

 dish brown colour, like the egeran of Bohemia ; in 

 Newton, New Jersey, also in white limestone, with 

 blue corundum, in large yellowish-brown crystals ; 

 and at Amity, Orange county, New York, in white 

 limestone, with augite, spinelle, and brucite. 



IDOLATRY. Reason commands us to adore a 

 supreme, infinite, perfect being, whom we call God. 

 Idolatry, however, reveres a false god, an idol, 

 being which is not God a finite being instead of the 

 infinite. We learn from history, that the pure idea 

 of the inexpressible Godhead spreads but slowly ; 

 for man always seizes the form instead of the sub- 

 stance, and is long in acquiring a purely spiritual 

 conception. This is the case with individuals as well 

 as with whole nations. History teaches us also, 

 that the fear of misfortunes and the desire of happi- 

 ness have been the chief sources of idolatry. At first, 

 natural causes were unknown to men. They could 

 not explain the growth of fruit, the origin of heat, of 

 light, of the winds, &c. Without the labour oi 

 profound investigation, their imaginations created 

 rulers of either sex, to whom they ascribed the direc- 

 tion of all outward events. Thus, some revered 

 stars, trees, stones, springs, &c. Others gave their 

 gods human shapes, and, at the same time, human 

 passions, desires, and wants. Thus anthropomor- 

 phism (the representation of the Deity with human 

 i qualities, either actual or symbolical) took its origin. 

 I Men endeavoured to gain the favour of God, as they 

 i did that of their fellow men, by offerings and prayers. 

 i Each nation had its particular god, who was not the 



