The Nuttall Encyclopædia/U
U
Ucayali, a tributary of the Amazon, which rises in the S. Peruvian
Andes, and which it joins after a northward course of over 1000 m.
Udall, Nicholas, author of “Ralph Roister-Doister,” the earliest of English comedies, and “the earliest picture of London manners,” born in Hants; was a graduate of Oxford, and head-master first of Eton and subsequently of Westminister School (1505-1556).
Ueberweg, Friedrich, German philosopher, professor at Königsberg; author of a “History of Philosophy,” an excellent text-book (1826-1871).
Uganda, a territory in East Africa along the N. and NW. shore of Victoria Nyanza, with a population of from 300,000 to 500,000, and the seat of an active mission propaganda on the part of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches; has since 1890 been under British protection. The capital is Mengo.
Ugolino, Count, tyrant of Pisa; was of the Guelph party; celebrated for his tragic fate; having fallen into the hands of his enemies, he was in 1288 thrown into a dungeon along with his two sons and two grandsons, and starved to death, a fate which suggested to Dante one of the most terrible episodes in his “Inferno”; the dungeon referred to has since borne the name of the “Tower of Hunger.”
Uhland, Johann Ludwig, German poet, born at Tübingen; studied law, and wrote essays as well as poems, but it is on the latter his fame rests, and that is as wide as the German world; he was a warm-hearted patriot, and in keen sympathy with the cause of German liberation (1787-1862).
Uhlans, a body of light cavalry in the German army, introduced first into the Polish service, and of Tartar origin it is said.
Uist, two islands of the Outer Hebrides, called respectively North and South, forming part of Inverness-shire; separated by the island of Benbecula, with a population of over 3000 each; engaged chiefly in fishing.
Ukase, an edict issued by the Czar, having the force of a law.
Ukraine (frontier), a fertile Russian province of undefined limits in the basin of Dnieper, originally a frontier territory of Poland against the Tartars.
Uleaborg (11), a seaport town in Russian Finland, near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia; trades in wood and tar.
Ulema, a body in Turkey, or any Mohammedan country, of the learned in the Mohammedan religion and law, such as the Imams, or religious teachers, the Muftis, or expounders of the law and the Cadis, or judges; its decrees are called “fetvas.”
Ullmann, Karl, German theologian; was professor at Heidelberg: wrote “Reformers before the Reformation,” but is best known as author of “The Sinlessness of Jesus” (1796-1865).
Ullswater, second largest of the English lakes, lies between Cumberland and Westmorland, 8 m. long, and its average breadth 1 m.; is looked down upon by Helvellyn, on the SW.
Ulm (36), city of Würtemberg, on the Danube, 46 m. SE. of Stuttgart; was an imperial free city, and is a place of great importance; is famed for its cathedral, which for size ranks next to Cologne, as well as for its town hall; has textile manufactories and breweries, and is famed for its confectionery; here General Mack, with 28,000 Austrians, surrendered to Marshal Key in 1805.
Ulotrichi, name given to the races that have crisp or woolly hair.
Ulphilas, Gothic bishop; famous for his translation of the Scriptures into Gothic, the part which remains being of great philological value; was an Arian in theology (311-381).
Ulrici, Hermann, German philosopher and literary critic, born in Lower Lusatia; professor at Halle; wrote against the Hegelian philosophy as pantheistic, and also studies in Shakespeare (1806-1884).
Ulster (1,617), the northern province of Ireland, is divided into the nine counties of Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone, and has an area of 8560 sq. m.; became an English settlement in 1611, and was largely colonised from Scotland; it is the most Protestant part of the island, though the Catholics predominate, and is the most enterprising and prosperous part; the land is extensively cultivated, and flax growing and spinning the chief industries.
Ultimus Romanorum (the last of the Romans), name given by Cæsar to Brutus, as one with whom the old Roman spirit would become extinct; applied to the last of any sturdy race.
Ultramontanism, name given to extreme views in the matter of the prerogatives and authority of the Pope, so called in France as prevailing on the other side of the Alps.
Ulugh-Beg, a Tartar prince, grandson of Tamerlane; astronomy was a favourite study of his, and in the patronage of it he founded an observatory at Samarcand; after a reign of 40 years conjointly with his father and by himself, he was put to death by a son who had rebelled against him (1394-1449).
Ulysses (i. e. Greek Odysseus), chieftain of Ithaca, one of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War, in which he was with difficulty persuaded to join, but in which, however, he did good service both by his courage and his counsels; he is less famed for what he did before Troy than for what befell him in his ten years' wandering homeward after, as recorded by Homer in a separate poem called after him the “Odyssey” (q. v.), which relates his stay among the lotus-eaters (q. v.), his encounter with Polyphemus (q. v.), the enchantments of Circe (q. v.), the Sirens (q. v.), and Calypso (q. v.), and his shipwreck, &c. Tennyson represents him as impatient of the humdrum life of Ithaca on his return, and as longing to join his Trojan comrades in the Isles of the Blessed. See Penelope and Telemachus.
Ulysses' Bow, a bow which only Ulysses could wield.
Uma (the gracious one), the consort of Siva (q. v.), and sometimes also of Rudra (q. v.).
Umballa (499), a city in the Punjab, 150 m. NW. of Delhi; is an important military station and a railway centre; carries on a large trade.
Umbria, a province of ancient Italy, between Cisalpine Gaul and the territory of the Sabines; inhabited originally by a powerful Latin race.
Umlaut, name given by Grimm to the modification of a vowel in a syllable through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding.
Una (i. e. who is one), the personification of Truth, the companion of St. George in his adventures, and who, after various adventures herself, is at last wedded to him.
Uncial Letters, large round characters or letters used in ancient MSS.
Uncle Sam, name given to the United States Government, derived from a humorous translation of the initials U.S.
Unconscious, The, name given to a spiritual supernatural influence operating in and affecting the life and character, but which we are not sensible of ourselves, and still less reveal a conscious sense of to others.
Understanding, The. See Reason.
Undine, a female spirit of the watery element, naturally without, but capable of receiving, a human soul, particularly after being wedded to a man and after giving birth to a child.
Undulatory Theory, the theory that light is due to vibrations or undulations in the ether as the medium through which it is transmitted from its source in a luminous body.
Unearned Increment, increase in the value of land or any property without expenditure of any kind on the part of the proprietor.
Unicorn, a fabulous animal like a horse, with a cubit and a half long horn on the forehead; was adopted by James I. as the symbol of Scotland on the royal arms; is in Christian art a symbol of the incarnation, and an emblem of female chastity.
Uniformity, Act Of, an Act passed in England in 1662 regulating the form of public prayers and rites to be observed in all churches, and which had the effect of driving hundreds of clergymen from the Established Church.
Unigenitus, The Bull, a bull beginning with this word, issued by Pope Clement XI. in 1713 against Jansenism (q. v.) in France, and which was in 1730 condemned by the civil authorities in Paris.
Union, Federal, name given to a union of several States in defence or promotion of the common good, while each State is independent of the rest in local matters.
Union, The, a name applied in the English history to (1) the Union of England and Scotland in 1603 under one crown, by the accession of James VI. of Scotland to the throne of England on the death of Elizabeth; (2) the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, under one Parliament seated at Westminster, into the United Kingdom of Great Britain; and (3) to the Union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain to Ireland in 1801, when the Irish Parliament was abolished, and was represented, as it still is, in the Imperial.
Union Jack, originally the flag of Great Britain, on which the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew are blended, with which certain white streaks were blended or fimbriated after the Union with Ireland.
Unionists, name given to the Liberal party opposed to Mr. Gladstone's measure to grant Home Rule to Ireland.
Unitarians, a designation applicable to all monotheists in religion, including Jews and Mohammedans, but generally and more specially applied to those who deny the Church doctrine of the Trinity, and in particular the divinity of Christ, and who have at different times and in different countries assumed an attitude, both within the pale of the Church and outside of it, of protestation against the opposite orthodox creed in the interests of rationalistic belief; the name is also employed in philosophy to designate those who resolve the manifold of being into the operation of some single principle.
United Brethren, name given to the Moravians (q. v.).
United Presbyterians, a body of Presbyterians in Scotland who dissent from the Established Church on chiefly ecclesiastical grounds, and had their origin in union in 1847 of the Secession Church of 1733 with the Relief Church of 1752, bodies previously in dissent as well. A further union of the United Presbyterian body with the Free Church is to all appearance about to be consummated.
United Provinces. See Holland.
United States (62,622), the great Western republic; occupies an area nearly as large as all Europe, bounded on the N. by the Dominion of Canada, on the E. by the Atlantic, on the S. by Mexico and the Gulf, and on the W. by the Pacific, extending 2700 m. from E. to W., and on an average 1600 m. from N. to S.; on the coasts are few capes, inlets, and islands, except on that of New England; there are two great mountain systems, the Appalachians on the E. and the Rockies, the Cascade ranges, &c., on the W., which divide the territory into four regions—an eastern, which slopes from the Appalachians to the Atlantic, a manufacturing region; a central, which slopes S., formed by the Mississippi Valley, an agricultural and pastoral region; a plateau supported by the Rocky and Cascade ranges, a metalliferous region; and a territory with the valley of the Sacramento, which slopes to the Pacific, of varied resources. The great rivers are in the Mississippi Valley, as also the two largest lakes, the Michigan and Great Salt Lake, though there are important rivers both for navigation and water-power on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. The climate is of every variety, from sub-arctic to sub-tropic, with extremes both as regards temperature and moisture, in consequence of which the vegetation is varied. The mineral wealth is immense, and includes, besides large beds of coal, all the useful metals. The industries, too, are manifold, and embrace manufactures of all kinds, with agriculture, grazing, mining, and fishing, while commerce is prosecuted with an activity that defies all rivalry, the facilities in railway and waterway being such as no other country can boast of, for there are over 182,000 miles of railway, not to mention street railways and traction lines, with telegraphic and telephonic communication. The population is mostly of British and German descent, with eight million negroes, who are all English-spoken. The Government is a federal republic of 45 States; the legislature consists of two Houses—a Senate representing the States, each one sending two members, and a House of Representatives representing the people, every citizen over 21 having a vote, and every 170,000 voters having a representative—the head of the Government being the President, elected for a term of four years, and commander-in-chief of both army and navy. Religious equality prevails through all the States, though the Protestant section of the Church is in the ascendant, and education is free and general, though backward in some of the former slave-holding States, the cost being met by State or local funds, supplemented by the Federal Government.
United States, Presidents of, George Washington (1789-1797); John Adams (1797-1801); Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809); James Maddison (1809-1817); James Munroe (1817-1825); John Quincy Adams (1825-1829); Andrew Jackson (1829-1837); Martin Van Buren (1837-1841); John Tyler (1841-1845); John K. Polk (1845-1849); Zachary Taylor (1849-1850); Millard Fillmore (1850-1853); Franklin Pierce (1853-1857); James Buchanan (1857-1861); Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865); Andrew Johnson (1865-1869); Ulysses D. Grant (1869-1877); Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881); James A. Garfield (1881); Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885); Grover Cleveland (1885-1889); Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893); Grover Cleveland (1893-1897); William McKinley (1897-1901); Theodore Roosevelt (1901).
Unities, Three, name given to the rule laid down by Aristotle that a tragedy should be limited to one subject, to one place, and a single day.
Universalists, a body of Christians who profess to believe in the final restoration of all the fallen, angels as well as men; a body chiefly of American growth, having an ecclesiastical organisation, and embracing a membership of 40,000; there are many of them Unitarians, and all are more or less Pelagian in their views of sin.
Unknown, The Great, name given to Sir Walter Scott from withholding his name in publishing the Waverley novels.
Unterwalden (27), a canton of Switzerland S. and E. of Lucerne, consisting of two parallel valleys 15 m. long running N. and S.; an entirely pastoral country, and exports articles of husbandry.
Unyanyembe, a district of German East Africa, with a town of the name, with a settlement of Arabs who cultivate the soil, the fruits of which they export.
Unyoro (1,500), a native State of Central Africa, between Lake Albert Nyanza and the territory of Uganda.
Upan`ishads (Instructions), a voluminous heterogeneous collection of treatises connected with the Vedas, and the chief source of our knowledge of the early metaphysical speculations and ethical doctrines of the Hindus; they are to a great extent apocryphal, and are posterior to the rise of Buddhism.
Upas Tree, a poison-yielding-tree, at one time fabled to exhale such poison that it was destructive to all animal and vegetable life for miles round it.
Upolu (16), the principal island in the Samoan group (q. v.), is 140 m. in circumference, and rises in verdure-clad terraces from a belt of low land on the shore, with Apia, the capital of the group, on the N. border.
Uppingham, market-town in Rutland, with a famous public school.
Upsala (21), the ancient capital of Sweden, on the Sala, 21 m. NW. of Stockholm, the seat of the Primate, and of a famous university with 1900 students, and a library of 250,000 volumes; its cathedral, built of brick in the Gothic style, is the largest in Sweden, contains the tombs of Linnæus and of Gustavus Vasa.
Ural, a river of Russia, which rises in the E. of the Urals and forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and falls after a course of 870 m. by a number of mouths into the Caspian Sea.
Urals, The, a range of mountains rich in precious as well as useful metals, extending from the Arctic Sea to the Sea of Aral, and separating European from Asiatic Russia, and is 1330 m. in length, 60 m. in breadth, and 3000 ft. in average height.
Uralsk (26), a town, a Cossack centre, on the Ural River, 280 m. from the Caspian Sea, and a place of considerable trade.
Urania, the muse of astronomy, is represented with a globe in her hand, to which she points with a small rod.
Uranus, a planet, the outermost but one of the solar system, is 1770 millions of miles from the sun, takes 30,686 of our days, or 84 of our years, to revolve round it, has four times the diameter of the earth, and is accompanied by four moons; it was discovered in 1781 by Herschel, and called by him Georgium Sidus in honour of George III.
Uranus (Heaven), in the Greek mythology the son of Gaia (the Earth), and by her the father of the Titans; he hated his children, and at birth thrust them down to Tartarus, to the grief of Gaia, at whose instigation Kronos, the youngest born, unmanned him, and seized the throne of the Universe, to be himself supplanted in turn by his son Zeus.
Urban, the name of eight Popes: Urban I., Pope from 223 to 230; Urban II., Pope from 1088 to 1099, warm promoter of the first Crusade; Urban III., Pope from 1185 to 1187; Urban IV., Pope from 1261 to 1264; Urban V., Pope from 1362 to 1370, man of an ascetic temper; Urban VI., Pope from 1378 to 1389, in his reign the schism in the papacy began which lasted 40 years; Urban VII., Pope in 1590; and Urban VIII., Pope from 1623 to 1644, founded the College de Propaganda Fide.
Urbino, an ancient town of Central Italy, 20 m. SW. of Pesaro; was once the capital of a duchy; is the seat of an archbishop, and was the birthplace of Raphael.
Uri (17), a Swiss canton N. of Unterwalden; is almost entirely pastoral; is overlooked by Mount St. Gothard; Altdorf is the capital.
Urim and Thummim, two ornaments attached to the breastplate of the Jewish high-priest which, when consulted by him, at times gave mysteriously oracular responses.
Urquhart, Sir Thomas, of Cromarty, a cavalier and supporter of Charles I., and a great enemy of the Covenanters in Scotland; travelled much, and acquired a mass of miscellaneous knowledge, which he was fain to display and did display in a most pedantic style; posed as a philologist and a mathematician, but executed one classical work, a translation of Rabelais; is said to have died in a fit of laughter at the news of the restoration of Charles II. (1605-1660).
Ursa Major, the Greater Bear, a well-known constellation in the northern hemisphere, called also the Plough, the Wagon, or Charles's Wain, consists of seven bright stars, among others three of which are known as the “handle” of the Plough, and two as the pointers, so called as pointing to the pole-star.
Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear, an inconspicuous constellation, the pole-star forming the tip of the tail.
Ursula, St., virgin saint and martyr, daughter of a British king; sought in marriage by a heathen prince, whom she accepted on condition that he became a Christian and that he would wait three years till she and her 11,000 maidens accomplished a pilgrimage to Rome; this pilgrimage being accomplished, on their return to Cologne they were set upon and all save her slain by a horde of Huns, who reserved her as a bride to Etzel, their king, on the refusal of whose hand she was transfixed by an arrow, and thereby set free from all earthly bonds; is very often represented in art with arrows in her hands, and sometimes with a mantle and a group of small figures under it, her martyred sisters.
Ursulines, an order of nuns founded in 1537 by St. Angela Merici of Brescia in honour of St. Ursula, devoted to the nursing of the sick and the instruction of the young, and now established in homes in different cities of both Europe and North America.
Uruguay (730), the smallest State in South America and a republic, formerly called Banda Oriental; lies between the Atlantic and the Uruguay River, and is bounded on the S. by the estuary of the Plata; it covers an area of over 70,000 sq. m., and is little more than one-third the size of France; the mineral wealth is abundant, but little has been done to exploit it; the cultivation of the soil is only begun, and the land is mostly given over to pasture, cattle-rearing and sheep-farming being the chief industries, and the chief products and exports being hides, wool, preserved meats, and similar articles of commerce. The people are mostly natives of mixed race, with some 30 per cent. of Europeans; primary education is compulsory; there are numerous schools, and a university, and though the established religion is Roman Catholic, all others are tolerated. Montevideo is the capital.
Urumiya (32), a town in Persia, near a lake of the name, SW. of the Caspian Sea, the seat of a Nestorian bishop and the birthplace of Zoroaster.
Usedom (33), island belonging to Prussia, at the mouth of the Oder, with Schwinemünde on the N.
Ushant, island off the W. coast of France, in department of Finisterre, where Howe gained a signal victory over the French in 1794.
Usher, James, Irish episcopal prelate, born in Dublin of good parentage, educated at Trinity College, Dublin; took orders and devoted years to the study of the Fathers of the Church; was in 1607 appointed professor of Divinity in his Alma Mater, in 1620 bishop of Meath, and in 1621 archbishop of Armagh; in 1640 he went to England, and during the rebellion next year his house was broken into and plundered, after which he settled in London and was eight years preacher at Lincoln's Inn; adhered to the royal cause, but was favoured by Cromwell, and by him honoured with burial in Westminster; he was a most saintly man, evangelical in his teaching, and wrote a number of learned works (1581-1656).
Utah (207), a territory on the western plateau of the United States, W. of Colorado, traversed by the Wahsatch range, at the foot of which lies the Great Salt Lake, is in extent nearly three times as large as Scotland, and occupied by a population four-fifths of which are Mormons, a territory rich in mines of the precious and useful metals as well as coal; originally wholly a desert waste, but now transformed where the soil has admitted of it, into a fruit-bearing region. Salt Lake City (q. v.) is the capital.
Utakamand, the summer capital of the Presidency of Madras, India, on the Nilgherries, 7000 ft. above the sea-level, and where the temperature in summer is as low as 60°.
Utgard (out-yard), in the Norse mythology a place or circle of rocks on the extreme borders of the world, the abode of the giants, the same as Jötunheim.
Utica, an ancient city of North Africa, founded by the Phoenicians on a site 20 m. NW. of Carthage; was in alliance with Carthage during the first and second Punic Wars, but took part with the Romans in the third, and became afterwards the capital of the Roman province.
Utica (56), a city in New York State, U.S., 232 m. NW. of New York City; is on the Erie Canal, in the heart of a dairy-farming district; has a noted market for cheese, and has various manufactures.
Utilitarianism, the theory which makes happiness the end of life and the test of virtue, and maintains that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse,” a theory characterised by Carlyle, who is never weary of denouncing it, as “reducing the infinite celestial soul of man to a kind of hay-balance for weighing hay and thistles on, pleasures and pains on.” The great apostle of this theory was John Stuart Mill, and the great father of it Jeremy Bentham.
Utopia (Nowhere), an imaginary island described by Sir Thomas More, and represented as possessing a perfect political organisation, and which has given name to all schemes which aim at the like impossible perfection, though often applied to such as are not so much impossible in themselves as impracticable for want of the due individual virtue and courage to realise them.
Utraquists (i. e. both kinders), followers of Huss who maintained that the Eucharist should be administered to the people in both kinds, both bread and wine.
Utrecht (60), an old town, the capital of a province of the name (224), in Holland, on the Old Rhine, 23 m. SE. of Amsterdam; it is fortified by strong forts, and the old walls have been levelled into beautiful promenades; has a number of fine buildings, a Gothic cathedral, St. Martin's, a famous university with 700 students, and a library of 160,000 volumes, besides a town-hall and the “Pope's house” (Pope Adrian VI., who was born here), &c.; manufactures iron goods, textiles, machinery, &c., and trades in butter and cheese; here in 1713 the treaty was signed which closed the Spanish Succession War. Is the name also of a S. province of the Transvaal.
Uttoxeter, market-town of Staffordshire, 14 m. NE. of Stafford; has sundry manufactures and brewing; here Dr. Johnson did public penance, with head uncovered, as a man, for want of filial duty when, as a boy, he refused to keep his father's bookstall in the market-place when he was ill.
Uxbridge, town of Middlesex, 16 m. W. of London; has two fine churches, and a large corn-market.
Uzbegs, a race of Tartar descent and Mohammedan creed, dominant in Turkestan, the governing class in Khiva, Bokhara, and Khokand especially; territory now annexed to Russia.