OBERL1N OBLIGATO. 



Franco. Louis XVI. conferred on Oberkampf letters 

 of nobility ; and, in 1790, the council-general of the 

 department decreed him a statue, which mark of gra- 

 titude, however, he declined. In 1793 his life was 

 in danger, but he escaped proscription. Some years 

 after, he was offered a place in the senate, which he 

 refused ; but he accepted the cross of the legion of 

 honour, bestowed on him by Bonaparte. Oberkampf, 

 in the latter part of his life, established a cotton ma- 

 nufactory at Essonne, and thus naturalized that im- 

 portant branch of industry in France. The commo- 

 tions which accompanied the overthrow of Bonaparte 

 had a disastrous influence on the manufactories of 

 Jouy, and deeply afflicted the mind of the proprietor, 

 whose death took place, October 4, 1815. 



OBERLIN, JEREMIAH JACOB, professor and libra- 

 rian in the university at Strasburg, born in 1735, was, 

 in 1750, among the number of the students of this 

 university, and defended, in 1754, his Dissertation 

 Concerning the Burials of the Ancients, by which he 

 obtained the degree of doctor. After he had finished 

 his philological and philosophical course, he studied, 

 for three years, the philological and antiquarian de- 

 partment of theology, and then turned his attention 

 to languages, literature, archaeology, history, and di- 

 plomatics. He began his career as teacher in the 

 gymnasium and adjunct in the library of his native 

 place, and was transferred to the university, after he 

 had extended his knowledge and reputation by his 

 travels. The revolution drew Oberlin from his 

 literary activity into the bustle of political life. 

 He suffered an imprisonment at Metz ; but, after 

 tranquillity was restored, he returned to his former 

 course. He died at Strasburg, in 1806. His edi- 

 tions of some works of Ovid, Horace, Tacitus, and 

 Cjesar, are valuable. We will mention his Miscella. 

 literaria Argentoratensia ; Museum Schoepflini (1st 

 vol.; the 2nd vol. of which has never appeared); 

 Orbis antiqui Monumentis suis illustrati Prodromus ; 

 ttituion Romanorum Tabulae ; Artis diplomatics 

 prima Lineae (the last mentioned elementary works 

 served him as a guide in his academical instruc- 

 tions) ; Literarum omnis jEvi Fata, Tabulis synop- 

 ticis exposita (these tables give the names of the 

 most eminent writers, the subjects on which they 

 wrote, the nation to which they belonged, and the 

 age in which they lived); Essai d'Annales de la Vie 

 de Jean Guttenberg, Inventeur de la Typographic. 

 The study of the German language of the middle 

 ages occupied his attention also, and induced him to 

 give an edition of J. G. Scherzii, Glossarium Ger- 

 manicum Medii j*Evi, potissimum Dialecti Suevica;, 

 (2 vols., folio). He also produced the first sketch 

 of the statistics of the former Alsace, having pub- 

 lished, from 1782, for the space of ten years, the 

 Alsatian Almanac and the Alsatia Literata, for 

 which Schoepflin furnished him with materials. The 

 two first volumes appeared in 1782 and 1786. 



OBESITY. See Corpulence. 



OBJECT, in grammar and philosophy, is opposed 

 to subject, which, in philosophy, designates the being 

 who conceives, thinks, or knows the object. The 

 subject is the conceiving, thinking, knowing ; the 

 object, the conceived, thought, known. Every sub- 

 ject may become an object. If A thinks or con- 

 ceives the thing O, A is the subject, O is the object ; 

 but if I conceive A thinking of O, both are the 

 object, and I the subject. Objective, therefore, is 

 used in modern philosophy, particularly by the 

 G ermans , for that which truly belongs to an object ; 

 subjective, for the manner in which an object is con- 

 ceived of by an individual subject. In the same way, 

 objectivity is used to denote the existence of things 

 without us, independently of our ideas of them. It 

 is well known that some philosophers deny this 



objectivity. There is a great difference between an 

 objective and a subjective knowledge or representa- 

 tion of a tiling: the former is the knowledge or 

 representation of the thing as it really is, indepen- 

 dently of the impression which it makes upon the 

 individual character of the subject ; the latter is 

 limited to this. He who describes objectively, 

 shows us the things as they are, free frum the bias 

 of his own partialities and prejudices, springing from 

 his education and habitual associations. Such a spirit 

 should be the great aim of an historian. Some works, 

 particularly in belles-lettres, however, derive theii 

 great charm from their subjectivity ; i. e. from 

 giving us only the impression made upon the nar- 

 rator, if he be an individual of a peculiar character, 

 describing things with which we are already ac- 

 quainted. But the great question arises, Wh;it is 

 objective truth ? All knowledge has been attained 

 by individuals, and takes its character from the 

 impressions made by the object upon the subject ; 

 hence all truth is subjective. Still we may say, tiiat 

 what appears to all reasoning subjects, almost without 

 exception, as right and true, has the value of objec- 

 tivity. But, as we find on no subject, not even the 

 fact of man's existence, a perfect concurrence of 

 opinion, it is obvious that objective truth cannot be 

 fully obtained. " Here we see through a glass 

 darkly, but there face to face;" i. e. we shall attain 

 to objective truth, and know things as they are. In 

 the fine arts, it is of the first importance that the 

 artist should be objective, i. e. represent tilings and 

 ideas free from partial, contracted conceptions. On 

 the other hand, his subjectivity is not to be lost in 

 the objectivity of his work ; on the contrary, the 

 work should bear the impression of his individual 

 character, but its individuality must be beautiful. 

 We know not a more opposite example of such a 

 character than Shakspeare. Who represents things, 

 men, virtues, and vices, more objectively, impartially 

 depicting even vices and crimes with perfect calm- 

 ness? and whose works, on the other hand, bear 

 more the impress of unequalled genius and indivi- 

 duality than his ? The other extreme is the works 

 of young poets, who torment their readers by the 

 constant protrusion of their own partial views. 



OBJECT-GLASS, in optical instruments, is that 

 which is placed towards the object : the other 

 extreme lens is the eye-glass, being that to which 

 the eye is directed. 



OBJECTIVE. See Object. 



OBLATE (flattened or shortened) ; having its 

 axis shorter than its middle diameter, being formed 

 by the rotation of an ellipse about the shorter axis. 

 The earth is an oblate spheroid, the polar diameter 

 being shorter than the equatorial diameter in the 

 proportion of 331 to 332 ; i. e. the polar diameter 

 is 7900 miles, and the equatorial diameter 7924 

 miles. 



OBLATI ; lay-brothers. See Orders, Spiritual. 



OBLIGATION. The name of obligations is 

 sometimes given to public stocks, because the 

 government promises to pay under such and such 

 circumstances. . 



OBLIGATO (Italian, required), in music, is used 

 of those voices or instruments which are indispensa- 

 ble to the just performance of a piece. An ins 

 ment may be obligato throughout a piece, when it i 

 called a concerto for such an instrument ; or an 

 instrument may become now and then obligato, when 

 these passages are called obligato or solo passages. 

 All instruments can be used obligato, except, per- 

 haps, the double bass : this is excepted partly because 

 solo players are very rare on this instrument, partly 

 because the solo voice would be too deep for being 

 duly supported by other instruments; it is, there 



