Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/67

S R O S T 57 long swim through chilly water, or the summit of a very tall tree, their fierceness in defence of their eggs and young is not to be despised. Men and boys have had their head gashed by the sharp claw of the angry parent, and this happening when the robber is already in a pre carious predicament, and unable to use any defensive weapon, renders the enterprise formidable. But the prize is worthy of the danger. Few birds lay eggs so beautiful or so rich in colouring: their white or pale ground is spotted, blotched, or marbled with almost every shade of purple, orange, and red passing from the most delicate lilac, buff, and peach-blossom, through violet, chestnut, and crimson, to a nearly absolute black. A few years ago some of the best informed ornithologists were led to think that perse cution had exterminated the Osprey from Great Britain, except as a chance visitant. This opinion proved to be incorrect, and at the present time the bird is believed still to breed in at least two counties of Scotland, but the secret of its resorts is carefully guarded by those who wish to retain it as a member of the country s fauna, for publica tion would doubtless speedily put an end to its occu pancy. (A. N.) OSRHOENE, or ORRHOENE, the district of western Mesopotamia of which Edessa was the capital (see MESOPOTAMIA, vol. xvi. p. 47). It may be here added that the older form of the name appears to be Chosroene (Chosdroene). Edessa or Orrhoi thus appears to have been "the city of Chosrau," implying an early Parthian influence. See G. Hoffmann in Z. D. M. G., xxxii. 743. OSSETT-CUM-GAWTHORPE, a township and urban sanitary district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, includ ing the contiguous hamlets of Ossett, South Ossett, and Gawthorpe, is situated about 3 miles west-north-west of Wakefield, and 1| north-west from the Horbury station on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The Great Northern Railway has two stations in the township. The church of the Holy Trinity, a fine cruciform structure in the Early Decorated style, was erected in 1865 at a cost of 20,000. There are woollen cloth and mungo mills, and in the neighbourhood extensive collieries. The population of the township (3105 acres) in 1871 was 9190, and in 1881 it was 10,957. OSSIAN, or OISIN. See CELTIC LITERATURE, vol. v. pp. 311, 313, and GAELIC LITERATURE, vol. x. p. 13. OSSOLT, SARAH MARGARET FULLER, MARCHIONESS, (1810-1850), an American authoress, was the eldest child of Timothy Fuller, a lawyer and politician of some eminence, and was born at Cambridge Port, Massachusetts, 23d May 1810. Her education was conducted by her father, who, she states, made the mistake of thinking to "gain time by bringing forward the intellect as early as possible," the consequence being "a premature develop ment of brain that made her a youthful prodigy by day, and by night a victim of spectral illusions, nightmare, and somnambulism." At six years she began to read Latin, and at a very early age she had selected as her favourite authors Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Moliere. Soon the great amount of study exacted of her ceased to be a burden, and reading became a habit and a passion. Having made herself familiar with the masterpieces of French, Italian, and Spanish literature, she in 1833 began the study of German, and within the year had read some of the masterpieces of Goethe, Korner, Novalis, and Schiller. Her father dying in 1835, she went in 1836 to Boston to teach languages, and in 1837 she was chosen principal teacher in the Green Street school, Providence, Rhode Island, where she remained till 1839. From this year until 1844 she stayed at different places in the immediate neighbourhood of Boston, forming an intimate acquaintance with the colonists of Brook Farm, and number ing among her closest friends R. W. Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and W. E. Channing. In 1839 she pub lished a translation of Eckermann s Conversations with Goethe, which Avas followed in 1841 by a translation of the Letters of G under ode and Bettina. Aided by R. W. Emerson and George Ripley, she in 1840 started The Dial, a poetical and philosophical magazine representing the opinions and aims of the New England Transcendentalists. This journal she continued to edit for two years, and while in Boston she also conducted conversation classes for ladies in which philosophical and social subjects were discussed with a somewhat over- accentuated earnestness, and which may be regarded as perhaps the beginning of the modern movement in behalf of women s rights. R. W. Emerson, who had met her as early as 1836, thus describes her appearance: " She was then twenty-six years old. She had a face and frame that would indicate fulness and tenacity of life. She was rather under the middle height ; her complexion was fair, with strong fair hair. She was then, as always, carefully and becomingly dressed, and of ladylike self-possession. For the rest her appearance had nothing prepossessing. Her extreme plainness, a trick of incessantly opening and shutting her eyelids, the nasal tone of her voice, all repelled ; and I said to myself we shall never get far." On fuller acquaintance this unprepossess ing exterior seemed, however, to melt away, and her inordinate self-esteem to be lost in the depth and univer sality of her sympathy. She possessed an almost irresist ible power of winning the intellectual and moral confidence of those with whom she came in contact, and " applied herself to her companion as the sponge applied itself to water." She obtained from each the best they had to give. It was indeed more as a conversationalist than as a writer that she earned the title of the Priestess of Transcendentalism. It was her intimate friends who admired her most. Smart and pungent though she is as a writer, any originality that seems to characterize her views partakes more of wayward eccentricity than either intel lectual depth or imaginative vigour. In 1844 she removed to New York to become contributor to The Tribune, and in 1846 she published a selection from her criticisms on con temporary authors in Europe and America, under the title Papers on Art and Literature. The same year she paid a visit to Europe, passing some time in England and France, and finally taking up her residence in Italy. There she was married in December 1847 to the Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, a friend of Mazzini. During 1848-49 she was present with her husband in Rome, and when the city was besieged she, at the request of Mazzini, took charge of one of the two hospitals while her husband fought on the walls. In May 1850, along with her husband and infant son, she embarked at Leghorn for America, but when they had all but reached their destination the vessel was wrecked on Fire Island beach, and the Ossolis were among the passengers who perished. The Autobiography of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, with additional Memoirs by J. F. Clarke, R. W. Emerson, and W. E. Channiug, was published in 1852, the last edition being that of 1874. See also Margaret Fuller (Marchcsa Ossoli}, by Julia Ward Howe, 1883, in the Eminent Women Series. Her collected works were also published in 1874. OSTADE. The Ostades are Dutch painters of note, whose ancestors were settled at Eyndhoven, near the small village of Ostaden, from which they took their name. Early in the 17th century Jan Hendricx, a weaver, moved with his family from Eyndhoven to Haarlem, where he married arid founded a large family. The eldest and youngest of his sons became celebrated artists. I. ADRIAN OSTADE (1610-1685), the first of Jan Hen- dricx s boys, was born at Haarlem shortly before the 10th December 1610, when he was christened in presence XVIII. 8