O N. 
alter’d on tlie fudden. Slwkefpeare.—¥onx[ex\y common 
for in: as, on live, i. e. in life. Chancer. See Upon. 
ON, adv. Forward; in filcceffion.—If the tenant fail 
the landlord, he mull fail his creditor, and he his, and fo 
on. Locke. —Forward in progreffion.—My hading days fly 
on with full career. Milton's Sonnet. 
What kindled in the dark the vital flame, 
And, ere the heart was form’d, pufti’d on the reddening 
flream. JJlackmore on Creation. 
Go to, I did not mean to chide you; 
On with your tale. Rowe's Jane Shore. 
In continuance : without ceafing.—Sing on, fing on, for 
I cam ne’er be cloy’d. Dri/den. —The peafants defy the 
fun ; they work on in the hotted part of the day without 
intermiflion. Locke. 
You roam about, and never are at red, 
By new defires, new torments, ftill pofleft ; 
As in a feveriffi dream you ftill drink on, 
And wonder why your third; is never gone. Dryden. 
Not off: as, He is neither on nor off; that is, he is irre- 
folute.—Upon the body, as part of drefs'. His clothes 
were neither on nor off; they were difordered. See Off. 
—A long cloak he had on. Sidney. 
A painted veft prince Voltager had on, 
Which from a naked Pitt his grandftre won. Blackmore. 
It notes refolution to advance forward; not backward : 
Since ’tis decreed, and to this period lead 
A thoufand ways, the nobleft path we’ll tread ; 
And bravely on, till they or we, or all, 
A common facriftce to honour fall. Denham. 
It is through almoft all its fignifications oppofed to off 
and means approach, junttion, addition, or prefence. 
ON, interj. A word of incitement or encouragement to 
attack; elliptically, for go on. —Therefore on, or drip your 
fword dark-naked ; for meddle you mud. Shakejpeare's 
Twelfth Night. 
On then, my mufe ! and fools and knaves expofe; 
And, flnce thou can’d not make a friend, make foes. 
Young. 
ON, in ancient geography, the name of two cities or 
towns in Egypt. See Heliopolis, vol. ix. 
i. On, called alfo Heliopolis, or the City of the Sun, is 
placed by geographers not far from Helle, at fome diftance 
from the eaftern point of the Delta. It was built, ac¬ 
cording to Strabo, on a long artificial mount of earth, fo 
as to be out of the reach of the inundation. This caufe- 
way, covered with rubbifli, is ltill vifibletwo leagues to 
the north-eaft of Grand Cairo, and three from the repa¬ 
ration of the Nile. This city had a temple to the fun, 
where a particular place was fet apart for the feeding of 
the facred ox, which was there adored under the name of 
Mnevis, as he was at Memphis under that of Apis. 
There was alfo in this city another magnificent temple in 
the ancient Egyptian tafte, with avenues of fphiuxes and 
fuperb obelifks before the principal entry. Thel’e temples 
were fallen into decay under the reign of Auguftus ; as 
the city had been laid wade with fire and fword by the 
fury of Cambyfes. Of the four obelilks built by Sochis 
in that town, tw r o were removed to Rome; another has 
been deftroyed by the Arabs; and the lad of them is ftill 
ftanding on its pedeftal. It is compoled of a block of 
Thebaic done, perfettly poliflied, and is, without includ¬ 
ing its bafe, 68 feet high, and about feet wide on each 
afpeft. They are CQvered with hieroglyphics. This beau¬ 
tiful monument, andn fphinx of yellowidi marble, overfet 
in the mud, are the only remains of Heliopolis. This 
city had alfo an oracle of Apollo, and a college of priefls, 
facrificed by the barbarity of Cambyfes. Here they ob- 
ferved, for more than a thoufand years, the date of the hea¬ 
vens, and fucceeded in compofing the folar year of 365 
days and a few minutes. It was chiefly at Heliopolis that 
483 
Herodotus became acquainted with the fciences and the 
Egyptian myfleries. This city alfo had the honour of 
teaching philofophy to Plato, and of accommodating 
Eudoxus for thirteen years at its college of priefls, whilit 
he was preparing to appear as one of the mod celebrated 1 
aftronomers of his time. 
The priefls of On were efteemed more noble than all 
the other priefls of Egypt. They were always privy- 
counfellors and minifters of date; and therefore, when 
Pharaoh refolved to make Jofeph prime-minifter, he very 
wifely gave him in marriage a daughter of the prieft of 
On, thereby incorporating him into the molt venerable 
caft in Egypt. Biffiop VVarburton thinks that the fupe- 
rior nobility of the priefls of On was chiefly owing to their 
high antiquity and great learning. That they were much 
given to the ftudy of aftronomy, we know from the tefli- 
mony of Strabo ; and, indeed, nothing is more probable 
than that they fhould be attached to the ftudy of that 
fyftein over wdiicli their god, the Sun, prefided. The 
learned prelate affirms, that te whether they received the 
doftrine from original tradition, or invented it at hazard, 
(which lad;’fuppolition he thinks more probable,) it is 
certain, they taught that the fun is in the centre of its 
fyftem, and that all the other bodies move round it in 
perpetual revolutions. This noble theory (hecontinues) 
came with the reft of the Egyptian learning into Greece, 
(being brought thither by Pythagoras, who received it 
from Oenuphis, a pried: of On;) and, after having given 
the moll diltinguiflied luftre to his fchool, it funk into 
obfcurity, and fullered a total eclipfe throughout a long 
fuccelfion of learned and unlearned ages ; till thefe times 
reftored its ancient fplendour, and immovably fixed it on 
the unerring principles of fcience.” 
If it be true, as fome philofophers allege, that Mofes 
was acquainted with the true folar fyftem, this account of 
the origin of that fyftem is extremely probable. As it is 
of no importance to thd civil or religious conftitution of 
a date, whether the fyftem of Ptolemy or that of Coper¬ 
nicus be admitted by the people, we cannot reafonably 
fuppofe that the Jewifti lawgiver was taught aftronomy by 
a revelation from heaven. But there can be no doubt of 
his knowing as much of that fcience as the priefls of On ; 
for we know that he was inftrufted in all the wifdom of 
the Egyptians ; and therefore, if he held the fun to be in 
the centre of the fyftem, it is morally certain that the fame 
thing was held by that priefthood. 
2. On, or Onium, a city, modern in comparifon with the 
former, lay to the eaft of the Nile, and to the fouth of the 
Arabian Canal, at the diftance of twelve miles from Ba¬ 
bylon, and twenty-four from Memphis. It is mentioned, 
fays the learned Bryant, by feveral writers, under the 
name of Heliopolis ; but its true name was Onium, which 
it received from Onias, the fon of Onias, a Jew, who 
built it. Onias, as it has been faid, having fled from his 
own country, had a great inclination to build a temple in 
Egypt refembling that at Jerufalem, or rather in oppofi- 
tion to it. In eftetting his purpol’e, he found great diffi¬ 
culty; and, in order to gain the aflent and alliltance of 
his brethren in that part of the world, he had recourfe to 
a prophecy, (Ifaiah xix. 18, 19.) which he interpreted as 
favourable to his fcheme. According to Scaliger, Onias 
was led to the choice of the prefefture of Heliopolis for' 
eretting his temple by this prophecy; altering the ex- 
preflion fo as to render it more favourable to his defign. 
His temple, however, was not founded in the name of 
Heliopolis ; and this name was given to it by a miftake 
refulting from a fimilitude that fubfifted between the true 
name Onium, and the ancient On, or Heliopolis. Of this 
he availed himfelf for rendering the pafl’age in Ifaiah pro¬ 
phetic of the eftablifliment of his temple. The name in¬ 
deed was given to it after it was built, and the prophecy 
was ufed to fupport what was done rather than to pro¬ 
mote it; fo that there feems to have been a coilufion be¬ 
tween Onias and thofe of his party, to impole this name 
upon the place, in order that it might be entitled to the 
, benefit 
