IIYP 
i 
044 
But, oh! whatever be thy godhead great. 
Fix not in regions too remote thy feat; 
Nor deign thou near the frozen Bear to (bine. 
Nor where the fultry fouthern dars decline. 
Prefs not too much on any part the fphere, 
Hard were the talk thy weight divine to bear; 
Soon would the axis feel the unufual load, 
And, groaning, bend beneath th’ incumbent god ; 
O’er the mid orb more equal fhalt thou rife. 
And with ajufter balance fix the Ikies: Rowe. 
Such thoughts as thefe are what the French call outre, 
and always proceed from a falfe fire of genius. The Spa- 
nilh and African writers, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Augul- 
tin, &c. are remarked for being fond of them. As in that 
epitapii on Charles' V. by a Spapifh writer: 
Pro tumulo ponas orbem, pro tegmine ccelum, 
■ Sidcra pro facibus, pro lacrymis maria. 
Sometimes they dazzle and impofe by their boldnefs ; but 
wherever reafon and good fenle are fo much violated, there 
can be no true beauty 1 . Epigrammatic writers are fre¬ 
quently guilty in this refpeft; reding the whole merit of 
their epigrams on home extravagant hyperbolical turn; 
fuch as the following of Dr. Pitcairn’s, upon Holland’s 
being gained from the ocean : 
Tellurem feccre Dii ; fua littora Be'/ga ; 
Immenfeeque molts opus utrumque fuit ; 
Dii vacuo Jparfas glomerarunt athere terras, 
Nil ibi quod operi pojjit abejje fuit. 
At Belgis, maria & cadi naturaque rerum 
Obfitit ; objlantes hi domuere Deos. 
We lhall conclude with a curious fpecimen of modern 
Oriental hyperbole. It is a tranflation of the infeription 
on a marble flab, in the maufoleum of Hyder Ali, in the 
Lall-Bagh, or Ruby Garden, on the ifland of Seringapa- 
tam : “ In tlie name of God, the bounteous and merciful 
God. Mahomed Abu Beker Omni Othman Ali. Won- 
derous cupola! to whofe awful drufture the firmament 
finks inferior in the high expanfe. Whether thou com¬ 
pared: it with the diik of the moon, or with the fun, they 
are but blemifhes in the firmament, which is jealous of its 
fuperior ludre. Its gilded orb is the light of the eyes of 
the firmament, from whence the moon receives reflected 
light. The fea of mercy diftils through the earth to his 
remains, which are encompafled by a hod of cherubims!” 
HYPERBOL'IC, or Hvperbol'ical, adj. \_hyperbolique, 
Fr. from hyperbola, Lat.] Belonging to the hyperbola; 
having the nature of an hyperbola.—The horny or pellu¬ 
cid coat of the eye rifeth up, as a hillock, above the con¬ 
vexity of the white of the eye, and is of an hyperbolical or 
parabolical figure. Ray. —[From hyperbole .] Exaggerating 
or extenuating beyond faff.—It is parabolical, and proba¬ 
bly hyperbolical , and therefore not to be taken in a drift 
fenfe. Boyle. 
HYPERBOL'ICALLY, adv. In form of an hyperbola. 
With exaggeration or extenuation.-—Scylla is feated upon 
a narrow mountain, which thruifs into the fea a deep high 
rock, and hyperbolically deferibed by Homer as inacceflible. 
Broome. 
HYPER BOL'IFORM, adv. Having the form, or nearly 
the form, of the hyperbola. 
HYPERBO'LIUM, f. With civilians, that which is 
given by the hufband to the wife over and above the 
dowry. 
HYPERBOLIZE, v. n. To ufe hyperboles. 
HYPERBOLIZING, f. The aft of uling hyperboles. 
HYPERBOLOFDES, f in geometry, hyperbolas of the 
higher kinds. 
HYPER BO'RE AN, adj. \hyptrboreen , Fr. hyperboreus, 
Lat.] Northern. 
HYPERBO'REANS, a name by which the ancients 
didinguithed the Cuthites. They are placed, as many of 
£he Cimmerians and Amazonians were, upon the Palus 
HYP 
Maeotis and Tanais; and in thole regions which lay neat' 
the Boridhenes and Idei\ But, from a notion that their 
name had a relation to the north, they have been extended 
upwards almod to the Cronian Sea. They were of the 
Titanic race, and called Sin'di ; a name common among 
the Cuthites. Strabo fpeaks of them as called among 
other names Sauromatse, and Arimafpians. By Herodo¬ 
tus they are reckoned among the Amazonians; (I.4..C. 10.) 
They wordlipped the fun, whom they held in high honour ; 
and they were great traders and navigators,' The people 
of Cyprus were of the fame race, equally Cutheans. The 
Hyperboreans upon the Euxine at one time feem to have 
kept up a correfpondence with thofe of the Titanian race 
in mod countries. But of all others, they feem to have 
refpefled mod the people of Delos. To this ifland they 
ufed to fend continually myflic prefents, which were great¬ 
ly reverenced. They are fometimes reprefented as Arimaf- 
pians; and their chief priefiefles were named Oupis, Loxo, 
and Hecaerge; by whom the hyperborean rites are faid 
to have been brought to Delos. They never returned, 
but took up their refidence, and officiated in the ifland, 
Ol en the Hyperborean is faid to have been the fird pro¬ 
phet of Delphi. By other writers he is laid to have come 
from Lycia. Olen was properly an Egyptian facred term ; 
and expreffed Olen, Olenus, Aiiinus, and Linus ; but is 
of unknown meaning. If then this Olen, dyled an Hy¬ 
perborean, came from Lycia and Egypt, it would feem 
that the term Hyperborean is not of that purport which 
the Greeks have afligned to it. There were people of this 
family in the north; arid the name has been diflorted and 
adapted folely to the purpofe of thofe parts. But as there 
were Hyperboreans from the ead; as they fird indituted 
the rites in Delos; as they fird founded the temple at 
Delphi; as people of this name and family not only camfe 
into Greece, but alfo into Italy, and extended themfelves 
even to the Alps; as the ancient Latins were defeended 
from them; as thofe who occupied Mens Palatiuus are 
fuppofed to have been Atlantians, and alfo Arcadians, i. e. 
Arkites; it would be unnatural to fuppole, that thefe 
rites, and thefe colonies, came all from the north; which 
is contrary to the progrefs of nations, and repugnant to 
the hifioiy of the fird ages. 
There mud have been fomething myflerious in the 
term Hyperborean; it mud have had a latent meaning, 
which related to the fcience-and religion of the people lb 
called. Pythagoras, who had been in Egypt and Chaldea, 
and who afterwards fettled at Croton, was by the natives, 
dyled the Hyperborean Apollo. And, though fome of 
this name were of the north, yet there were others in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the world, who had no relation to that 
clime. Pindar manifedly makes them the fame as the 
Atlantians and Amazonians of Afric ; for he places them 
near the iflands of the Bled, which were fuppofed to have 
been oppofite to Mauritania. He fpeaks of them as a di¬ 
vine race. The northern Hyperboreans, wdto were the 
fame as the Cimmerians, were once held in great repute 
for their knowledge. A large body came into Italy; fome 
of whom occupied the fine region of Campania, and went 
under the name of Cimmerians. It has been the opinion 
of learned men, that they were fo called from ma, dark- 
nefs. This may be fo; though mod nations feem to 
have been denominated from their worfhip and gods. 
Thus much however is certain, that this people had in 
many places fubterranean apartments, w'here their prieds 
and reclufes dwelt; and were fuppofed to be configned to 
darknefs ; all which favours the opinion above-mentioned. 
Several apartments of this kind were about Cuma, and 
Parthenope, and near the lake Acherufia in Campania. 
Strabo fpeaks of this part of Italy, and fays, that it was 
inclofed with vad woods, held of old in great veneration; 
becaufe in thofe they facrificed to the Manes. According 
to Euphorus, the Cimmerians refided in fubterranean 
apartments called Argilli, (referring to the great objeft of 
veneration, the Argo,) which had a communication with 
1 one 
