OPTIMATKS ORACLES. 



tries, and at ditVerent seasons of the year, from a pale 

 blue to a violet black ; and when there are yellow 

 vapours in the horizon, or yellow light reflected from 

 the lower part of the sky, either at sunrise or at sun- 

 set, the shadows have a tinge of green, arising from 

 the union of these accidental rays with the blue tint 

 of the shadow. If the light of the sun or of the 

 candle be feint, then the shadow of the body, formed 

 by the light of the sky, will be visible also, and the 

 two shades will be the one blue and the other a pale 

 yellow. This fact has been ascribed to the circum- 

 stance of the light of the candle and that of the ris- 

 ing and setting sun being of a yellowish tinge ; but 

 though this will increase the effect, it is not the main 

 cause of it, as one of the shadows would be yellow, 

 even if the light of the sun and the candle had been 

 perfectly white. The phenomena of coloured sha- 

 dows are sometimes finely seen in the interior of a 

 room, the source of one of the colours being some- 

 times the blue sky, and the other the green window 

 blinds, the painted walls, or the coloured furniture. 



Converging and diverging Beams. When the sun 

 is descending in the west, through masses of open 

 clouds, the diverging of his beams, rendered visible 

 by their passage through numerous openings, forms 

 frequently a very beautiful phenomenon. It is some- 

 times accompanied with one of an opposite kind, viz. 

 the convergency of beams to a point in the eastern 

 horizon opposite to the sun, and as far beneath the 

 horizon as the sun is above it, as if another sun, 

 throwing out divergent beams, were about to rise in 

 the east. This phenomenon is rarely seen in perfec- 

 tion, and has never been observed until within a few 

 years. In order to explain it, let us suppose a line 

 lo join the eye of the observer and the sun. Let 

 beams issue from the sun in all possible directions, 

 and let us suppose that planes pass through these 

 beams, and through the line joining the eye of the 

 observer and the sun, which will be their common in- 

 tersection, like the axis of an orange, or the axis of 

 the earth, through which there pass all the septa of 

 the former, and all the planes passing through the 

 meridians of the latter. An eye, therefore, situated 

 in this line, or common intersection of all the planes, 

 will, when looking at a concave sky, apparently sphe- 

 rical, see them diverging from the sun on one side, 

 and converging towards the opposite point. Two 

 deeply interesting branches of optics remain yet to 

 be considered ; namely, the laws of the double re- 

 fraction and Polarization of light, q. v. 



OPTIMATES, with the Romans; the party of 

 the nobility (lories), in contradistinction to the popu- 

 lares (men of the people liberals). 



OPTIMISM ; that philosophical and religious 

 opinion which maintains that this world, in spite of 

 its apparent imperfections, is the best, and could not 

 be otherwise than it is. Even the Stoics and Plo- 

 tinus were of this opinion. This name, however, is 

 chiefly given to the doctrine of Leibnitz that God 

 has, among the possible worlds which presented 

 themselves to his understanding, chosen and created 

 the best. Leibnitz developed this doctrine in his 

 Theodicea, particularly with reference to the doubts 

 and objections of Bayle, on account of the evil in the 

 world, and showed that what appears imperfect con- 

 sidered by itself, is by no means imperfect considered 

 with regard to the whole, and that the single parts 

 are the best when considered in their connexion with 

 the whole. This philosophical doctrine was gener- 

 ally reduced to the dilemma If this world were not 

 the best, God either did not know a better one, or 

 was unable or unwilling to create it suppositions 

 which impugn his omniscience, omnipotence or per- 

 fect benevolence. Hence the inference was, that 

 this world must be considered the best. See Leonh. 



Creuzer, Leibttitii Doctrina dc Mundu optimo ; see 

 also, the article Cuitdide. 



ORACLES ; responses given by persons who pre- 

 tended to divine inspiration ; also the places where 

 the responses were uttered with certain prescribed 

 ceremonies. There is not a sufficient stock of trust- 

 worthy information from antiquity to determine their 

 origin or nature. The origin of the Egyptian ora- 

 cles is dated at a period to which not even traditions, 

 and much less historical monuments, extend. The 

 oldest was that at Meroe ; next, those at Thebes and 

 Ammonium. In each of these places, Jupiter Am- 

 mon was the presiding deity. The oracle at Dodo- 

 na, the oldest in Greece, was formed on the model 

 of the last mentioned, but united the Egyptian and 

 Pelasgian character. The account given by Hero- 

 dotus of the origin of the Pelasgian oracle, shows 

 that a colony from Africa attempted, by such an 

 institution, to establish themselves in Greece. But 

 a sacred tree in this place was, at an earlier period, 

 oracular, and the rustling of its branches had been 

 received as responses : consecrated women from 

 Africa (prophetesses, the black doves of Herodotus) 

 only dedicated this Pelasgian oracle to Jupiter Am- 

 mon. According to Ritter, the oracle of Dodona 

 (formerly Bodona) points to the service of Buddha. 

 Of equal antiquity, perhaps, was the oracle in Boeotia, 

 which first belonged to the Earth, then to Themis, 

 and afterwards was transferred to Apollo. Still 

 later was instituted the oracle at Delphi, which 

 became the most important of all, partly from its fa- 

 vourable situation, and partly from its connexion with 

 the council of the Amphictyons, at Pyke. Besides, 

 Jupiter had an oracle at Elis, at Pisa, and in a subter- 

 ranean cave in Crete ; and Apollo at Delos, where 

 the whispering of the trees gave responses, at Mile- 

 tus, where a sacred fountain, at Claros, not far from 

 Colophon, where a consecrated river, inspired the 

 priests, and many others. In addition to these, the 

 oracle of Trophonius, at Lebadia, in Bceotia, and 

 that of Amphiaraus, at Oropus, on the borders of 

 Attica and Boeotia, were in high reputation in Greece. 

 Juno had an oracle in the Corinthian territory ; Her- 

 cules, at Bura, in Achaia, where answers were given 

 by throwing dice ; Bacchus, at Amphiclea, in. Pho- 

 cis, which returned answers in dreams, &c. Tzetzes 

 mentions an oracle of Ulysses ; and other heroes and 

 prophets had theirs. The Romans had no domestic 

 oracles, if we except the Albunea, the Cuma?an Sibyl, 

 the Sibylline books, the oracle of Faunus and of 

 Fortuna at Praeneste (which belonged to the earliest 

 times, and afterwards lost their reputation), but had 

 recourse to those of Greece and Egypt. In the 

 founding of cities and colonies, the introduction of 

 new governments, the undertaking of important en- 

 terprises, both in war and peace, and particularly in 

 all cases of great necessity, the oracles were coi 

 suited, and rich gifts presented to them ; their prie 

 needed great watchfulness and prudence not to ex- 

 pose themselves. Darkness and ambiguity in the 

 responses was the common resource. Sometimes, 

 however, there were obvious failures. But, notwith- 

 standing these, and notwithstanding well-known 

 instances of corruption, they long maintained their 

 standing, and sunk only with the freedom and inde- 

 pendence of Greece. Under the reign of Theotlosius, 

 the temples of the prophetic deities were shut up or 

 demolished. Van Dale and Fontenelle thought to 

 explain the whole system of. oracular responses by 

 priestly management, founded on the popular delu- 

 sion. Others have thought this insufficient to ac- 

 count for the fact that the wisest men in a refined 

 nation received them as sacred for centuries, as in 

 Greece. See Clavier's Mfrnoire sur les Oracles det 

 dnciens (1819). 



