ORGANIZED 

 KNOWLEDGE 



./../STORY 

 AND' PICTURE 



Xx 



t 



X is the twenty-fourth letter of the English alpha- 

 bet. The Phoenician alphabet, from which, through 

 the Latin, most of the English has come, had no sound 

 which corresponded to the English X; but it had a 

 consonant with a somewhat sibilant, s-like sound, which 

 bore the form shown in the illustration. This form, 



according to investigators, was a rough sketch of a post pr pillar, and the Phoenician name 

 for the letter was samech, which meant support. The Greeks took over the letter, in 

 modified form, and the Romans adopted it in its ks sound, which is its common sound in 

 the English. In any of its values x is unnecessary in English, for it can be represented 

 either by ks, as in fix, or by gs, as in existence. As an initial letter it has the sound of z, 

 as in Xerxes. 



As a numeral, X stands for ten. In algebra, x is the most common symbol for an 

 unknown quantity. 



XANTHIPPE, zantkip'e, or XANTIPPE, 

 zantip'c, the wife of Socrates. Tradition de- 

 clares her to have been shrewish in temper, and 

 some accounts state that Socrates married her 

 simply to discipline himself and acquire self- 

 control. To many of these stories, however, 

 there is no foundation, and attempts have been 

 made to prove that the entire conception of her 

 character is a mistake. It is certain that she 

 suffered greatly at her husband's imprisonment 

 and death. See SOCRATES. 



XAVIER, zav'itr (in Spanish, hahvyair'), 

 FRANCISCO DE (1506-1552), a Jesuit missionary 

 best known as SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER, and also 

 called the "Apostle of the Indies," He was 

 born near Sanguesa, of noble family, studied in 

 Paris, and there made the acquaintance of 

 Ignatius of Loyola, whom he helped to found 

 the Order of Jesuits, or Society of Jesus. Ac- 

 companying Ignatius to Italy, he did hospital 

 and missionary work, and in 1537 was ordained 

 a priest, remaining in Rome until 1540 as secre- 

 tary of the Jesuit society. 



In the next year he was sent by John III of 

 Portugal to ipread Christianity in the Portu- 

 guese possessions in India, and he landed in 

 Goa in 1542. In Goa, in Travancore, at Ma- 

 lacca and even in Japan he preached the doc- 



trines of the ChTirch, and everywhere made 

 many converts, baptizing thousands in Japan. 

 He then planned a mission to China, but died 

 before he could set out upon it. In his own 

 day miracles of all sorts were ascribed to him, 

 and he was credited with possessing the gift 

 of tongues, which he himself expressly denied, 

 however. That he was one of the greatest 

 Christian missionaries of all times cannot be 

 doubted, for the number of his converts 

 mounted to scores and even hundreds of thou- 

 sands, and he was, moreover, an efficient or- 

 ganizer. He was canonized in 1622. 



Consult BartoH's Life of Saint Francis; Joly's 

 History of the Society of Jeans. 



Itelntrd SubJrctH. The reader may consult In 

 this connection articles on the following topics In 

 these volumes : 



Jesuits Missions and 



Loyola, Saint Ignatius Missionaries 



o< 



XENIA, zc'nia, OHIO, a city and the county 

 seat of Greene County, situated in the south- 

 western part of the state, fifty-fivo miles fouth- 

 west of Columbus, the state capital, and sixty- 

 five miles northeast of ( ' It is on the 

 Little Miami River, and is served by the Cin- 

 cinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and the Pitts- 



