ORA 
cpa It was vot till a fhort time preceding the age of 
icero, that the Roman orators rofe into any note. Craffus 
charaGter of their eloquence. 
worthy of our attention ; and his 
The reign of eloquence, among the 
very fhort. After ne be of 
guifhed but expired : need we wonder that this fhould 
be the cafe. For not cay was liberty paca) extinguifhed, 
but arbitrary power was felt in its and moft op- 
preflive weight : Providence having in “ite wrath delivered 
oman empire to a fucceflion of fome of the moft 
execrable tyrants that ever difgraced and fcourged the 
human race. The chan 
omans, was 
icero, it not only long lan- 
uence was iad eted, us, with the 
an) fenfible eloquence of 
n modern times 
queftionably inferior, in a ae 
ans. e d 
and Roma Th ir more fublime {pecies of 
eloquence than the s. Theirs was of th e- 
ment and paffionate kind; that of the moderns is 
mo tem in ~ oo efpecially, it 
has confined itfelf almoft _ to the argumentative an 
rational. reafons of t ane are detailed by Dr. 
Blair in his Le&tures, 
We fhall clofe this article with obferving, in the words 
of a very good judge, that the method of forming the belt 
fy{tem of oratory is to colle& it from the fineft precepts of 
a Cicero, Quinétilian, Longinus, and other cele- 
brated authors; with proper examples taken from the 
cage parts of the pureft antiquity. On this plan, the 
learned Dr. Ward has formed his fyftem, to which we refer 
the reader, and on the fubje&t of this article to his firft 
JeGture, vol. i. Concerning the diftribution of the fubje& 
of oratory, and different kinds of orations, fee ORATION. 
Orarory is alfo ufed, among the Romans, for a clofet, 
or little private apartment, in a large houfe, near a bed- 
chamber, ‘furnifhed with a little altar, and a book-ftand for 
private devotio 
he ancient oratories were little chapels, adjoining to 
monafteries, wherein the monks faid prayers, before they 
had any churches. Several councils and fynods have con- 
demned the ufe of private oratories. 
ORB 
In the fixth and feventh centuries, oratories were little 
churches, frequently built in pele ds, without either 
baptiftery, cardinal pref, or ete ¢ office ; ; the bifhop 
fending a prieft to officiate occafion 
OraTory isalfo ufed for a foccty or oe olla ae of os 
vout perfons, who form a kind of monaftery, and live 
community ; but without being obliged - make any vows. 
Hence, 
Oratory, Pricfs of the, a community of acted priefts, 
who live together in a monaltic manner, but w t vows. 
They were firft eftablifhed at Rome, about ie year 1540, 
by St. Philip Neri, a Florentine, under the title of « Ora- 
tory of Sancta Maria in the Valicella.’ 
The name of this religious penne was derived from an 
apartment, accommodated in the form of an oratory, or 
cabinet for devotion, which S. Philip Neri built at Florence 
for himfelf, and in which for many years he held {piritual 
a with his more intimate companion 
O mode} of this the cardinal Berulle eftablithed a 
eee aren of the Oratory of Jefue, in 1613, in France, 
which has fince increafed: fo that there arofe fixty houfes 
of Priefts of the Oratory, in be kingdom. 
he fathers, or Priefts the Oratory are not, pro- 
perly {peaking, religious or eons being bound by no vows, 
and their in oe being purely pee ee or facerdotal. 
ere 13 fome difference, however, between the Italian 
and French jatieudods, S. 
confufion which 
other 
For this — - houfes of the Oratory, in Italy and 
Flanders, are al 
s the quality of de la al and, with 
three aitants, governs all the congregations 
O S, in ge He ak a town of Sweden, i in Eaft 
Bothnia; 3 22 miles Wafa. 
OR Ay a river a Hungary, which runs into 
the Waag ; 9 miles Arv 
ORAYOI], a town ‘of New Mexico; 150 miles W. of 
Santa Fé. 
RB, Orsis, in 4fronomy, a {pherical body or fpace, con- 
ae under two fuperficies; the ‘one concave the other 
vr) 
° 
ae cient aftronomers conceived the heavens as confift- 
a of eal vaft azure tranfparent orbs or {pheres, inclofed 
ne another; or vaft circles, which in their areas in- 
Hated the bodies ‘of the planets 3 the radii of which were 
comprifed between the centre of the earth, and the e higheft 
point to which the planets ‘fe, fuppofing the earth to be in 
the centre. 
are cin concentric, i.e. having the fame centre ; 
and orbs eccen 
The magnus “bis, or great orb, is that in which the fun 
is fuppofed to revolve; or, rather, it is that in which the 
ae its annual ieee 
Aftrology. tb of light is a certain {phere, or 
a of ae which . aftrologers allow a planet beyond 
its centre. 
They fay, that, provided the afpeéts do but fall withia 
this orb, they have almoft the fame effe& as if they pointed 
dire@tly againft the centre of the planet. See Asprcr 
The orb of Saturn’s light they make * 10 degrees ; ; 
that of Jupiter 12 degrees; that of 8 7 degrees 30 
minutes ; that of the Sun 17 degrees ; that of Venus 8 de- 
reese § 
