The Alexandrian liturgy is a liturgy of the ancient Egyptian Church, especially the eucharistic rite ascribed traditionally to St Mark. Research Alexandrian liturgy
Alphabet (from Alpha, and Beta, the two first letters of the Greek alphabet), is the series of characters used in writing a language, and intended to represent the sounds of which it consists.
The English alphabet, like most of those of modern Europe, is derived directly from the Latin, the Latin from the ancient Greek, and that from the Phoenician, which again is believed to have had its origin in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hebrew alphabet also having the same origin. The names of the letters in Phoenician and Hebrew must have been almost the same, for the Greek names, which, with the letters, were borrowed from the former, differ little from the Hebrew. By means of the names we may trace the process by which the Egyptian characters were transformed into letters by the Phoenicians. Some Egyptian character would, by its form, recall the idea of a house, for example, in Phoenician or Hebrew beth. This character would subsequently come to be used wherever the sound b occurred. Its form might be afterwards simplified, or even completely modified, but the name would still remain, as beth still continues the Hebrew name for b, and beta the Greek. Our letter m, which in Hebrew was called mim, water, has still a considerable resemblance to the zigzag wavy line which had been chosen to represent water, as in the zodiacal symbol for Aquarius.
The letter o, of which the Hebrew name means eye, no doubt originally intended to represent that organ. While the ancient Greek alphabet gave rise to the ordinary Greek alphabet and the Latin, the Greek alphabet of later times furnished elements for the Coptic, the Gothic, and the old Slavic alphabets. The Latin characters are now employed by a great many nations, such as the Italian, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, the German, the Hungarian, the Polish, etc, each nation having introduced such modifications or additions as are necessary to express the sound of the language peculiar to it. The Greek alphabet originally possessed only sixteen letters, though the Phoenician had twenty-two.
The original Latin alphabet, as it is found in the oldest inscriptions, consisted of twenty-one letters; namely, the vowels a, e, i, o, and u (v), and the consonants b, c, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, x, z. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet had two characters for the digraph th, which were unfortunately not retained in later English; it had also the character ae. It wanted j, v, y (consonant), and z. The German alphabet consists of the same letters as the English, but the sounds of some of them are different.
Anciently certain characters called Runic were made use of by the Teutonic nations, to which some would attribute an origin independent of the Greek and Latin alphabets. While the alphabets of the west of Europe are derived from the Latin, the Russian, which is very complete, is based on the Greek, with some characters borrowed from the Armenian, etc. Among Asiatic alphabets, the Arabian (ultimately of Phoenician origin) has played a part analogous to that of the Latin in Europe, the conquests of Mohammedanism having imposed it on the Persian, the Turkish, the Hindustani, etc. The Sanskrit or Devanagari alphabet is one of the most remarkable alphabets of the world. As now used it has fourteen characters for the vowels and diphthongs, and thirty-three for the consonants, besides two other symbols. Our alphabet is a very imperfect instrument for what it has to perform, being both defective and redundant. An alphabet is not essential to the writing of a language, since ideograms or symbols may be used instead, as in Chinese.
In the English language there are twenty-six letters, A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y and Z, these twenty-six letters occur in use most disproportionately. At the start of the 20th century the proportion of use was as follows, but this will vary as new words, particularly scientific names are added to the English language:
E - 1000 , T - 770, A - 728, I - 704, S - 680, O - 672, N - 670, H - 540, R - 528, D - 392, L - 360, U - 296, C - 280, M - 272, F - 236, W - 190, Y - 184, P - 168, G - 168, B - 158, V - 120, K - 88, J - 55, Q - 50, X - 46, Z - 22
However, as an initial letter, the proportionate use was very different, with the most popular initial letters being:
S - 1194, C - 937, P - 804, A - 574, T - 571, D - 505, B - 463, M - 439, F - 388, I - 377, E- 340, H - 308, L - 298 and R - 291.
The most commonly occurring end letters are R, S, T, and D. Research Alphabet
Artificial flowers are imitations of real flowers, made of various materials. These are not a modern invention. The Romans excelled in the art of imitating flowers in wax, and in this branch of the art attained a high degree of perfection. The Egyptian artificial flowers were made of thin plates of horn stained in different colours, sometimes also of leaves of copper gilt or silvered over. In modern times the Italians were the first to acquire celebrity for the skill and taste they displayed in this manufacture, but they are now far surpassed by English and French manufacturers, but more especially by the latter. During the Victorian period cambric, muslin, satin, velvet, and other woven fabrics, feathers, india-rubber, blown glass, mother of pearl, brass, etc were all employed in making artificial flowers, later silk and plastic were more commonly used, and good results may be had from dyed wood. Research Artificial Flowers
The book of Mormon is an alleged translation (done in 1830) by Joseph Smith, of a volume found buried in a stone box on Cumorah, a hill near Manchester, New York state. Composed of gold plates eight inches by seven inches, fastened by three gold rings, written in 'reformed Egyptian', interpreted by the aid of two crystals (Urim and Thummim) set like spectacles in a silver bow, it summarised American history from Babel to 420 AD. Its authors were the prophet Mormon and his son Moroni. A travesty of the Old Testament, and of similar size, intended as the bible of the West, it has been identified by unbelievers with an unprinted romance, 'The Found Manuscript' by Solomon Spaulding who died in 1816, copied and communicated to Joseph Smith by Sidney Rigdon. Research Book of Mormon
The Book of the Dead was an ancient Egyptian collection of religious texts for guiding the departed soul safely through the dangers of the Amenti, the lower world. A copy of the work was placed with the mummy in his tomb. Research Book of the Dead
A caricature is a representation of the qualities and peculiarities of an object, but in such a way that beauties are concealed and peculiarities or defects exaggerated, so as to make the person or thing ridiculous, while a general likeness is retained. Though a degenerate, it is one of the oldest forms of art. Egyptian art has numerous specimens of caricature, and it has an important place in Greek and Roman art. It nourished in every European nation during the middle ages, and in the 19th century day was the chief feature in the so-called comic journals. The chief masters of caricature in Britain were Hogarth, Gilray, Rowlandson, Bunbury, John Doyle, Leech, Richard Doyle, Cruickshank, Tenniel, etc. Punch and Vanity Fair traditionally contained the best examples of caricature in British art. Research Caricature
Celibacy is the state of being celibate or unmarried, the term being especially applied to the voluntary life of abstinence from marriage followed by many religious devotees and by some orders of clergy, as those of the Roman Catholic Church.
The ancient Egyptian priests preserved a rigid chastity; the priestesses of ancient Greece and Rome were pledged to perpetual virginity; and celibacy was for long the rule with the Buddhist priests of the East. Among Christians the earliest aspirants to the spiritual perfection supposed to be attainable through celibacy were not ecclesiastics as such, but hermits and anchorites who aimed at superior sanctity. During the first three centuries the marriage of the clergy was freely permitted, but by the Council of Elvira in 305 continence was enjoined on all who served at the altar. For centuries this subject led to many struggles in the church, but was finally settled by Gregory VII positively forbidding the marriage of the clergy. The Council of Trent in 1593 confirmed this rule. In the Greek Church celibacy is not compulsory on the ordinary clergy. Protestants hold that there is no moral superiority in celibacy over marriage, and that the church has no right to impose such an obligation on any class of her ministers. Research Celibacy
Chariot is a term applied to horse-drawn vehicles used both for pleasure and in war. Ancient chariots, such as those used among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans, were of various forms. A common form was open behind and closed in front, and had only two wheels.
The chariot was strongly and even elegantly built, but not well adapted for speed. In ancient warfare chariots were of great importance; thus we read of the 900 iron chariots of Sisera, as giving him a great advantage against the Israelites. The Philistines in their war against Saul had 30,000 chariots.
The sculptures of ancient Egypt show that the chariots formed the strength of the Egyptian army, these vehicles being two - horsed and carrying the driver and the warrior, sometimes a third man, the shield-bearer. There is no representation of Egyptian soldiers on horseback, and consequently when Moses in his song of triumph over Pharaoh speaks of the horse and his rider, rider must be understood to mean chariot-rider. In the Egyptian chariots the framework, wheels, pole, and yoke were of wood, and the fittings of the inside, the bindings of the framework, as well as the harness were chiefly of raw hide or of tanned leather.
We have also numbers of sculptures which give a clear idea of the Assyrian chariots. These resembled the Egyptian in all essential features, containing almost invariably three men - the warrior, the shield-bearer, and the charioteer. A peculiarity of both is the quiver or quivers full of arrows attached to the side. The Assyrian war-chariot was drawn by three horses abreast, and all the appointments were rich and elaborate. It had two quivers crossing each other on the side, filled with arrows, and each also containing a small axe. A socket for holding the spear was also attached. From the front of the chariot a singular ornamental appendage stretched forward.
War-chariots had sometimes scythe-like weapons attached to each extremity of the axle, as among the ancient Persians and Britons. Among the Greeks and Romans chariot-races were common.
In Britain the name chariot was formerly given to a kind of light travelling carriage. Research Chariot
In sculpture, a colossus is a statue of enormous magnitude. The Asiatics, the Egyptians, and in particular the Greeks, have excelled in these works. The most celebrated Egyptian colossus was the vocal statue of Memnon in the plain of Thebes, supposed to be identical with the most northerly of two existing colossi (60 feet high) on the west bank of the Nile.
Among the colossi of Greece the most celebrated was the Colossus of Rhodes, a brass statue of Apollo 70 cubits high, esteemed one of the wonders of the world, erected at the port of Rhodes by Chares, 290 or 288 BC. It was knocked down by an earthquake about 224 BC. The statue was in ruins for nearly nine centuries, when the Saracens, taking Rhodes, sold the metal, weighing 720,900 lbs, to a Jew, about 653. There is no authority for the popularly-received statement that it bestrode the harbour mouth, and that the Rhodian vessels could pass under its legs.
Among the colossi of Phidias were the Olympian Zeus and the Athena of the Parthenon; the former 60 feet high and the latter 40 feet.
The most famous of the Roman colossi were the Jupiter of the Capitol, the Apollo of the Palatine Library, and the statue of Nero, 110 or 120 feet high, and from which the contiguous amphitheatre derived its name of Colosseum.
Among modern works of this nature is the colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, at Arona, in the Milanese territory, 60 feet in height; the 'Bavaria' at Munich, 65 feet high; the statue of Hermann or Arminius near Detmold, erected in 1875, 90 feet in height to the point of the upraised sword, which itself is 24 feet in length; the height of the figure to the point of the helmet being 55 feet;
the statue of Germania, erected in 1883 near Rudesheim, a figure 34 feet high, placed on an elaborately-sculptured pedestal over 81 feet high; and Bartholdi's statue of Liberty presented to the United States by the French nation, and which measures 104 feet or to the extremity of the torch in the hand of the figure 138 feet. It is erected at New York harbour on a pedestal 114 feet, is constructed for a lighthouse with what was at one time was one of the most powerful fixed lights in the world, and stands 317 feet above mean tide. Research Colossus
Abbreviations
Research Alexandrian liturgy
