168 



XKI/1T.K '/A'.SO. 



the Aller, which is here navigable, and, behind the 

 New Town, is joined by the Fuhsee, and has some 

 trade and manufactures. It contains the courts of 

 appeal for the Hanoverian territory at large. It 

 was formerly the capital of a duchy belonging to 

 the house of Brunswick. 



ZELTER, CHABLES FREDERIC, professor and 

 director of the singing academy in Berlin, a man of 

 much musical talent, was born in 1758, in Berlin. 

 In his seventeenth year, he began to learn the trade 

 of his father, a mason. All his leisure, however, 

 was given to music. Bach's and Hasse's works 

 first made him acquainted with the rules of scien- 

 tific composition. At last his father forbade him 

 the study of music altogether, because he neglected 

 his trade. In 1783, he became a master mason. 

 Being now independent, be became an active mem- 

 ber of the singing academy above mentioned, of 

 which he was made director in 1800. In 1809, he 

 was made professor of music in the Berlin academy 

 of arts mid sciences, and founded the first Liederta- 

 fel (glee club) in Berlin. From this glee club 

 numerous others proceeded in Germany, to which 

 the amateurs of music are indebted for many beauti- 

 ful tunes and songs. He composed many glees for 

 this club. He also composed other music ; but bis 

 glees and motetts are his best productions. He did 

 much towards improving vocal music in Berlin, a 

 city perhaps superior to any in respect to the 

 general diffusion of fine singing. His death took 

 place in 1832. 



ZEMLIN. See Semlia. 

 ZEMZEM. See Mecca. 



ZEND-AVESTA (Living Word) is the name of 

 the sacred books which the descendants of the 

 ancient Persians, the Guebers in Persia, and the 

 Parsees in India, assert that they received, more than 

 four thousand years ago, from their lawgiver, and 

 the founder of their religion, Zoroaster, or Zerdusht. 

 English and French travellers, at an early period, 

 gave some information respecting the religion of 

 the Guebers and their sacred books. Anquetil du 

 Perron learned, during his residence in India, the 

 sacred language in which those books are written, 

 brought copies of them to Europe in 1762, and 

 published, in 1771, a French translation of the 

 Zend-Avesta. English and German scholars soon 

 raised doubts respecting the genuineness and anti- 

 quity of these writings, which occasioned disputes. 

 Even the fire-worshippers themselves are said to 

 have admitted that the real Zend-Avesta has long 

 been lost. Their present books are said to be 

 legends of the middle ages, and the religion of the 

 present Guebers a mixture of ancient Greek, Chris- 

 tian, and perhaps even Mohammedan notions. 

 Rask, however, in his treatise On the Age and 

 Genuineness of the Zend Language and of the 

 Zend-Avesta (translated into German by Hagen ; 

 Berlin, 1826), maintains the genuineness of the 

 Zend-Avesta, at least of some parts ; but who is 

 the author he does not decide. The Zend-Avesta 

 consists of five books, written in the Zend language. 

 A part of it was revealed to Zoroaster by Ormuzd, 

 the highest among good beings. They treat of Or- 

 muzd, and of the antagonist principle of evil, Abri- 

 man ; also of the genii of heaven (the angels), the 

 rewards and punishments of a future state, &c.,and 

 are read aloud during religious service. Another 

 part consists of a collection of prayers, glorifications 

 of the most important genii, moral sentiments, &c. 

 These are by various authors, and written in vari- 

 ous dialects. There are also historical and geogra- 



phical notices contained in these books, which, how- 

 ever, seem to be capable of various interpretations. 

 Respecting the contents of the Zend writings, see 

 Rhodes's work, The Sacred Traditions and the com- 

 plete Religious System of the ancient Bactrians, Me- 

 dians and Persians, or of the Zend* People (Frank- 

 fort on the Maine, 1820). The great work of .M. 

 Burnouf, secretary of the Asiatic society in Paris, 

 throws much light on this subject. 



ZENITH; an Arabic word, used in astronomy 

 to denote the vertical point of the heavens, or that 

 point of the heavens directly over the head of the 

 observer. Each point on the surface of the earth 

 has therefore its corresponding zenith. The zenith 

 is called the " pole of the horizon," as it is 90 dis- 

 tant from every point of that circle. See Nadir. 



The zenith distance of a heavenly body is the arc 

 intercepted between the body and the zenith, being 

 the same as the co-altitude of the body. 



ZENO ; a name which often appears in ancient 

 history. Two philosophers of this name are parti- 

 cularly celebrated: 



1. Zeno, the Eleatic, of Elea, or Velia, a Greek 

 colony in Magna Graecia, lived about the eightieth 

 Olympiad (about 450 B. C.), at which time he went 

 with Parmenides to Athens. He was a disciple of 

 the Eleatic school, founded by Xenophanes. To 

 him is ascribed the invention, or at least the deve- 

 lopement, of dialectics, of which he made use with 

 much acuteness for the defence of the Eleatic sys- 

 tem. Of his writings, nothing has come down to 

 us. According to Aristotle, he taught that there is 

 only one being, which is God ; that in nature there 

 is no vacuum, and that motion is impossible. 

 Seneca even asserts that he carried his scepticism 

 so far as to deny the existence of external objects 

 He is represented as a man of noble spirit, full of 

 vigour and patriotism. Failing in his attempt to 

 deliver Elea from the tyrant Nearchus, he calmly 

 endured the torture, and at length bit off his own 

 tongue, in order to prevent himself from betraying his 

 companions. It is said that he was at last pounded 

 in a mortar ; and that, in the midst of his torments, 

 he called Nearchus to him, as if he wished to reveal 

 something of importance. The tyrant approached, 

 and Zeno, pretending to whisper, caught his ear 

 with his teeth and bit it off. 



2. Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, was born 

 at Cittium, a maritime town of Cyprus, about 366 

 B. C. His father was a merchant, who occasion- 

 ally visited Athens, where he purchased many of 

 the writings of the Socratic philosophers for his 

 son, who early displayed a great propensity for 

 learning. When he became a man, he visited 

 Athens himself, where he became the disciple of 

 the Cynic philosopher Crates ; but, wishing to ex- 

 tend the sphere of his knowledge beyond the nar- 

 row limits of a sect which prided itself in a con- 

 tempt for all science, he forsook Crates for Stilpo, 

 and various other masters, finishing his course of 

 study in the school of Polemon, who detected 

 his purpose of selecting materials for the formation 

 of a sect of his own. The design he ultimately 

 carried into execution, in a place called the painted 

 porch, from its being adorned with the pictures of 

 Polygnotus, and other eminent painters, and more 

 generally the Stoa, or porch, whence all his fol- 

 lowers acquired the name of Stoics. Zeno obtained 

 great fame by the acuteness of his reasonings ; and, 

 his private character being also highly respectable, 

 he was much beloved and esteemed by his nume- 

 rous disciples, and even by the great. The Atheni- 



