It is certain that from the point of view of invention Halary’s
labours had only secondary importance; but, if the principle of
keyed chromatic instruments with cupped mouthpiece[1] goes back
to Halliday, it was Halary’s merit to know how to take advantage
of the principle in extending it to instruments of diverse tonalities,
in grouping them in one single family, that of the bugles, in so complete
a manner that the improvements of modern manufacture have
not widened its limits either in the grave or the acute direction.
Keyed chromatic wind instruments made their way rapidly; to their
introduction into military full or brass bands we can date the
regeneration of military music. After pistons had been invented
some forty years, instruments with keys could still reckon their
partisans. Now these have utterly disappeared, and pistons or
rotary cylinders remain absolute masters of the situation.
(V. M.; K. S.)
OPHIR, a region celebrated in antiquity for its gold, which
was proverbially fine (Job xxii. 24, xxviii. 16; Psalms xlv. 9;
Isa. xiii. 12). Thence Solomon’s Phoenician sailors brought gold
for their master (1 Kings ix. 28, x. 11; 2 Chron. viii. 18, ix. 10);
Ophir gold was stored up among the materials for the Temple (1 Chron.
xxix. 4). Jehoshaphat , attempting to follow his ancestors'
example, was foiled by the shipwreck of his navy (1 Kings xxii.
48). The situation of the place has been the subject of much
controversy.
The only indications whereby it can be identified are its connexion, in the geographical table (Gen. x. 29), with Sheba and Havilah, the latter also an auriferous country (Gen. ii. 11), and the fact that ships sailing thither started from Ezion-Geber at the head of the Red Sea. It must, therefore, have been somewhere south or east of Suez; and must be known to be a gold-bearing region. The suggested identification with the Egyptian Punt is in itself disputable, and it would be more helpful if we knew exactly where Punt was (see Egypt).
(1) East Africa.—This has, perhaps, been the favourite theory in recent years, and it has been widely popularized by the sensational works of Theodore Bent and others, to say nothing of one of Rider Haggard’s novels. The centre of speculation is a group of extensive ruins at Zimbabwe, in Mashonaland, about 200 m. inland from Sofala. Many and wild words have been written on these imposing remains. But the results of the saner researches of Randall MacIver, announced first at the South Africa meeting of the British Association (1905) and later communicated to the Royal Geographical Society, have robbed these structures of much of their glamour; from being the centres of Phoenician and Hebrew industry they have sunk to be mere magnified kraals, not more than three or four hundred years old.
(2) The Far East.—Various writers, following Josephus and the Greek version, have placed Ophir in different parts of the Far East. A chief argument in favour of this view is the length of the voyages of Solomon’s vessels (three years were occupied in the double voyage, going and returning, 1 Kings x. 22) and the nature of the other imports that they brought—“almug-trees” (i.e. probably sandal-wood), ivory, apes and peacocks. This, however, proves nothing. It is nowhere said that these various imports all came from one place; and the voyages must have been somewhat analogous to those of modern “coasting tramps,” which would necessarily consume a considerable time over comparatively short journeys. It has been sought at Abhira, at the mouth of the Indus (where, however, there is no gold); at Supara, in Goa; and at a certain Mount Ophir in Johore.
(3) Arabia.—On the whole the most satisfactory theory is that Ophir was in some part of Arabia—whether south or east is disputed, and (with the indications at our disposal) probably cannot be settled. Arabia was known as a gold-producing country to the Phoenicians (Ezek. xxvii. 22); Sheba certainly, and Havilah probably, are regions of Arabia, and these are coupled with Ophir in Genesis x.; and the account of the arrival of the navy in 1 Kings x. 11, is strangely interpolated into the story of the visit of the queen of Sheba, perhaps because there is a closer connexion between the two events than appears at first sight.
Historians have been at a loss to know what Solomon could give in exchange for the gold of Ophir and the costly gifts of the queen of Sheba. Mr K. T. Frost (Expos. Times, Jan. 1905) shows that by his command of the trade routes Solomon was able to balance Phoenicians and Sabaeans against each other, and that his Ophir gold would be paid for by trade facilities and protection of caravans. (R. A. S. M.)
OPHITES, or Ophians (Gr. ὄφις, Heb. נָהָשׁ, “snake”), known
also as Naasenes, an early sect of Gnostics described by
Hippolytus (Philosoph. v.), Irenaeus (adv. Haer. i. 11), Origen
(Contra Celsum, vi. 25 seq.) and Epiphanius (Haer. xxvi.). The
account given by Irenaeus may be taken as representative
of these descriptions which vary partly as referring to different
groups, partly to different dates. The honour paid by them
to the serpent is connected with the old mythologies of Babylon
and Egypt as well as with the popular cults of Greece and the
Orient. It was particularly offensive to Christians as tending
to dishonour the Creator who is set over against the serpent
as bad against good. The Ophite system had its Trinity: (1) the
Universal God, the First Man, (2) his conception (ἔννοια), the
Second Man, (3) a female Holy Spirit. From her the Third Man
(Christ) was begotten by the First and Second. Christ flew
upward with his mother, and in their ascent a spark of light
fell on the waters as Sophia. From this contact came Ialdabaoth
the Demiurges, who in turn produced six powers and with them
created the seven heavens and from the dregs of matter the
Nous of serpent form, from whom are spirit and soul, evil and
death. Ialdabaoth then announced himself as the Supreme,
and when man (created by the six powers) gave thanks for
life not to Ialdabaoth but to the First Man, Ialdabaoth created
a woman (Eve) to destroy him. Then Sophia or Prunikos sent
the serpent (as a benefactor) to persuade Adam and Eve to eat
the tree of knowledge and so break the commandment of Ialdabaoth,
who banished them from paradise to earth. After a long
war between mankind aided by Prunikos against Ialdabaoth
(this is the inner story of the Old Testament), the Holy Spirit
sends Christ to the earth to enter (united with his sister Prunikos)
the pure vessel, the virgin-born Jesus. Jesus Christ worked
miracles and declared himself the Son of the First Man. Ialdabaoth
instigated the Jews to kill him, but only Jesus died on
the cross, for Christ and Prunikos had departed from him.
Christ then raised the spiritual body of Jesus which remained
on earth for eighteen months, initiating a small circle of elect
disciples. Christ, received into heaven, sits at the right hand
of Ialdabaoth, whom he deprives of glory and receives the souls
that are his own. In some circles the serpent was identified
with Prunikos. There are some resemblances to the Valentinian
system, but whereas the great Archon sins in ignorance,
Ialdabaoth sins against knowledge; there is also less of Greek
philosophy in the Ophite system.
See King, The Gnostics and their Remains (London, 1887); G. Salmon, art. “Ophites” in Dict. Chr. Biog.
OPHTHALMOLOGY (Gr. ὀφθαλμός, eye), the science of the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the eye (see Eye and Vision). From the same Greek word come numerous other
derivatives: e.g. ophthalmia, the general name for conjunctival inflammations (see Eye diseases, under Eye); and the instruments ophthalmometer and ophthalmoscope (see Vision).
- ↑ We designedly omit the use of the word “brass” to qualify these instruments. The substance which determines the form of a column of air is demonstrably indifferent for the timbre or quality of tone so long as the sides of the tubes are equally elastic and rigid.
