176 



ZINZENDORFZIRCONIA. 



preach publicly in that city, he held for n time pri- 

 vate meetings in his house, which wen- very much 

 frequented. In 1739, he wrote a kind of cate- 

 chism, the Good Word of the Lord, and made a 

 voyage to St Thomas and St Croix, in the NVr-t 

 Indies, where the Brethren had already established 

 mis-ions, (q. v.) His object was to put these on 

 a firmer footing. With the same view, he went, 

 in 1741, to North America, whither a daughter, 

 sixteen years old, accompanied him. He assisted 

 here in establishing missions among some of the 

 Indian tribes. On all these expeditions, he was in- 

 cessantly occupied, not only with preaching, cor- 

 responding, and attending to the general concerns 

 of the society, but in writing books. He wrote, 

 during this time, more than n hundred books, some 

 for the edification and instruction of his society, 

 others in answer to attacks on himself and his fol- 

 lowers, and others giving accounts of the origin and 

 organization of the society, and of his own labours. 

 Many excellent and elevated passages are to be 

 found in them, which J. G. Miiller, in his sketch 

 of Zinzendorf (in the Confessions of Remarkable 

 Men, 3d vol., p. 1G6 et seq., 222 et seq.), has col- 

 lected ; but many parts of them are such as most 

 readers would consider extravagant, and many ex- 

 pressions appear indecorous and objectionable. 

 These are to be attributed to the warmth of his 

 imagination, and his habits of rapid composition, 

 connected, perhaps, with a desire of appearing 

 original, and a want of taste. His hymns, in par- 

 ticular, which stand unaltered in the old hymn- 

 book of the Herrnhuters, are full of quaint, am- 

 biguous and indecent expressions and images, and 

 nre often far from bearing the stamp of poetic 

 inspiration, especially those hymns in which he re- 

 presents the mysterious union of Jesus, the Bride- 

 groom, with his bride, the church'; and not less 

 objectionable was his doctrine of the office of 

 mother (Mutteramte*), which he ascribed to the 

 Holy Ghost. Sometimes a whole hymn consists of 

 but one image variously presented. These absur- 

 dities had even extended to the religious service. 

 Zinzendorf himself, in the latter part of his life, 

 would gladly have blotted out many of these pas- 

 sages from his writings, and strove to give a better 

 direction to his community, in which he was 

 not without success. Certainly part of the praise 

 which must be given to the Moravians for their 

 activity, their industry, their peaceable manners,* 

 and good behaviour, wherever they have settled, 

 is due to their founder. When he returned, in 

 1743, to Europe, he made a journey to Livonia, 

 where he had adherents ; but the Russian govern- 

 ment prohibited him from proceeding farther ; and 

 he was sent back to the frontier under a military 

 escort. He then made several visits to Holland 

 and England, where he spent above four years, and, 

 countenanced by archbishop Porter, general Ogle- 

 thorp, and others, obtained an act of parliament for 

 the protection of his followers throughout the 

 British dominions. Though the number of his 

 opponents constantly increased, he had the satis- 

 laction of seeing new societies of his followers 

 arising, which sent missions to other parts of the 

 world ; e. g. the East Indies, Tranquebar, &c. 



" A r f mar ]< aW< '.pr<>of of *" peaceable and sober character 

 of the Moravians. i< to be found in the fact that, during- a revolt 

 some years ajro, ot the slaves in the island of Jamaica^in which 

 the fei'liii-rs ot the whites n-i-n- rxrited to the highest decree 

 acainst the missionariw, so that they were in general ordered 

 to leave* the island, and a few were executed, the Moravians 

 nlone were allowed to remain undisturbed. 



lie al>o succeeded in establishing a Moravian aca- 

 demy, and in obtaining a commission of investiga- 

 tion into their principles, which commission declared 

 the Moravian community true adherents of the Con- 

 fession of Augsburg. (See the article United 

 Brethren.") His second wife was Anna Nitschmann, 

 who, in 1725, had come with her parents from 

 Moravia, and had been, for many years, superinten- 

 dent of the " single sisters" at Herrnhut. Zin/i n- 

 dorf died May 9, 17GO, at Herrnhut. See David 

 Cranz's Alte vnd neue Bruder historic, and Spangen- 

 berg's Leben des Grafen N. L. von Zinzendorf 

 (Barby, 17721775, 8 vols. \ of which Reichel and 

 Duvernois have published abridgements. Herder, 

 in his Adrustea (4th vol., number i.), has made some 

 excellent observations on Zinzendorf and his works. 



ZION. See Sion. 



ZIRCON. This rare mineral, which is some- 

 times a gem, occurs in crystals, whose forms are 

 octahedrons and right square prisms surmounted 

 by four-sided pyramids. The primary form is an 

 obtuse octahedron, whose planes over the summit 

 incline under the angle of 84 20'. Cleavage 

 takes place parallel to the faces of the primary 

 figure, but with great difficulty ; lustre adamantine ; 

 colour red, brown, yellow, gray, and white ; streak 

 white ; specific gravity 4'5 to 4'7 ; hardness rather 

 superior to quartz. It varies from transparent to 

 opaque. Before the blow-pipe, alone, it is infusi- 

 ble, but with borax, melts into a transparent glass. 

 It consists of 



Zirconia, 



Silex, 



Oxide of iron, 



Oxide of titanium, 



6400 

 34-00 



100 



Zircon occurs imbedded in sienite and granite. It 

 is also found imbedded in several simple minerals, 

 and occurs in the sands of rivers. Its localities are 

 Frederic-Schwerin in Norway, Kitiksul in Green- 

 land, at which places it is found in sienite. It 

 occurs at several places in the mountains of gneiss, 

 in New York and New Jersey ; also in magnetic 

 iron ore, at Monroe in New York. Very distinct 

 detached crystals are brought from Buncombe 

 county, in North Carolina. Loose crystals of fine 

 colours are found in the sands of rivers in Ceylon, 

 with spinelle ruby, sapphire, and iron sand; like- 

 wise in the district of Ellore, in India, and in the 

 brook Expailly, in France. All the varieties of 

 zircon which possess transparency, are cut and 

 polished by the lapidary, but, in general, are not 

 greatly esteemed. The exposure of some colours 

 to heat deprives them of their hues, in which con- 

 dition they are said to have been sold for diamonds. 

 ZIRCONIA. This earth was discovered by 

 Klaproth, in 1789, in the zircon. To obtain it, 

 powder the zircon very fine, mix it with two parts 

 of pure potash, and heat them red hot in a silver 

 crucible for one hour. Treat the substance ob- 

 tained with distilled water, pour it on a filter, and 

 wash the insoluble part well. It will be a com- 

 pound of zirconia, silex, potash, and oxide of iron. 

 Dissolve it in muriatic acid, and evaporate to dry- 

 ness, to separate the silex. Redissolve the muri- 

 ates of zirconia and iron in water ; and, to separate 

 the zirconia which adheres to the silex, wash it 

 with weak muriatic acid, and add this to the solu- 

 tion. Filter the fluid, and precipitate the zirconia 

 and iron by pure ammonia; wash the precipitates 

 well, and then treat the hydrates with oxalic acid, 

 boiling them well together, that the acid may a<;t 

 on the iron, retaining it in solution, whilst an j i- 



