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stowed on its virtues by the ancients are altogether extravagant;et we perhaps treat its medical virtues with too much contempt.
Is leaf is very balsamic, and its flower diffuses a delicious odour.The inhabitants of Crete apply it with success on various occa-sions, The leaf, when dried and taken in an infusion with sugar,makes a very pleasant drink, of a finer flavour than tea. It is therean immediate cure for a weak stomach.
O. Heracleoticum, or Winter Sweet Marjoram, a finelyscented aromatic, excellent for culinary purpCSfl-v particularly forbroths, soups, Ac. It is also useful for giving fragrance to Cl "S'meats, and other medical purposes: so that it is proper both forkitchen and physic gardens, and may also be employed in thepleasure ground.
O. Makjoranum, or Annual Swert Marjoram, is an aro-matic of the highest fragrance, is admirable for kitchen use, andexcellent for nosegays.
O. Vulgare, the Common Wild-pot Marjoram, possessesthe same properties with the Heracleoticum. All the speciesflower in July and August; the flowers are small, monopetalous,l-ingent, universally hermaphrodite, and collected into verticilliround the stalks; succeeded by ripe seed in autumn.
OR1GEN, one of the most celebrated ecclesiastical writers,greatest geniuses, and most learned men of the primitive church,during the third century, was born at Alexandria, A. D. 185 ;and was surnamed Adamantius , either from his indefatigable ap-plication to study, or from the firmness he discovered amidst thetorments he suffered for the faith. Leonidas his father trainedhim with great care, and made him study the Holy Scriptures from his infancy, in which he made surprising progress ; and veryearly manifested a rage for expounding the scriptures allegorically,which he afterwards carried to great excess, lie had afterwardsin philosophy Ammonius the celebrated Christian philosopher, andSt. Clement of Alexandria for his instructors. At 18 years of agehe succeeded that great man in the office of catechist; an impor-tant employment, which consisted in teaching divinity, and ex-pounding the scriptures. Leonidas his father had suffered mar-tyrdom the year hefore, during the persecution of Severus in 202;and Origen had shewn such eagerness to follow his father to mar-tyrdom, that his mother was obliged to hide his cloaths to preventhis going abroad. Origen had a great concourse of auditors whoattended his school, some of whom were of the faithful, and otherspagans. He confirmed and strengthened the first in their faith,and converted most of the others; and there were such a numberof martyrs amongst his disciples, that it might be said, that he keptrather a school of martyrdom than of divinity. He taught thedoctrines of Christianity to the women as well as to the men ; andtaking in a too literal sense what Christ says of becoming volun-tary eunuchs, castrated himself, to prevent his deserving or suffer-ing scandal. He took a voyage to Rome in 211, in the beginninguf Caracalla ’s reign, and under the pontificate of Zepherinus. Athis return he published many works, by which he acquired an ex-traordinary reputation, that drew to him a great number of audi-tors. But Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, conceiving a jealousyof him, endeavoured by various pretences to injure him. Atlength Origen went to Antioch , whither the empress Mammxaliad sent for him to hear him discourse on the Christian religion.He returned to Alexandria, where lie continued to teacli till theyear 22S, when he travelled into Achaia, and Palestine , and wasordained by the bishops of that province at 42 years of age. Hisbeing ordained by foreign bishops, without the permission of De-metrius, renewed that prelate’s resentment; on which Origen re-turned to Alexandria, to endeavour to mollify him : but Deme-trius drove him thence in 231, and caused him to be excommuni-cated, and even deposed in a council held in Egypt. Origen then retired to Cxsarea in Palestine , where he raised a celebratedschool, and had St. Gregory Thaumaturges, and a great numberof illustrious persons among his disciples. He afterwards travelledto Athens ; and at the desire of Eirmilianus, staid some time atCaesarea in Cappadocia ; whence he was invited into Arabia.Under the seventh persecution of the Christians in the reign ofDecius, noiie were used with greater severity than Origen . liesupported with incredible constancy the dreadful torments whichhis persecutors invented against him. He died at 'Pyre in 254,aged 6q. lie was the author of a great number of excellentworks. 1 he principal of those extant are, J. A Treatise against
VOL. iv.— no. 166.
Celsus. 2. A great number of Homilies, with Commentaries onthe Holy Scriptures. 3. Philocalia , and several other Treatises.
4. Fragments of his Ilexapla, collected by father Montfaucon ;
2 vols. folio. Of all Origen ’s hooks, the loss of the Idexaples ismost to be regretted. This work was thus named from its con-taining six columns; in the first of which was the Hebrew text ofthe Bible ; in the second the same text in Greek characters; inthe third the Greek version of the Sepluagint; in the fourth thatof Aquila; in the fifth that of Symmaehus; and in the sixth thatof Theodosian. Tins aCT'.i:'?.!! 1 !; gave the first ft* ourPolyglot Bibles. 5. The Book of Principles; of which we haveonly an incorrect Latin version. In all his writings he discovereda surprising degree of modesty, candour, and humility ; a nobleand sublime genius, profound learning, and vast erudition. Hismanners were extremely pure, and he had a warm zeal for spread-ing the gospel. He had quick parts ; a strong imagination, and ahappy invention; and he wrote with so much ease, that he is saidto have dictated to seven or eight amanuenses at a time. He waswell acquainted with the sciences.
Origen , a Platonic philosopher, and the disciple and friend ofPorphyry, who studied philosophy under Ammonius: supposed tohave been the founder of the Origenians.
ORIGENIANI, or ORIGENIANS, ancient heretics, whoeven surpassed the abominations of the Gnostics . 'Epiphaniesspeaks of them as subsisting in his time ; but their numbers, hesays, were inconsiderable. Pis fixes their rise about the time ofthe great Origen ; but distinguishes them from the Origenists,whom he derives from Origen Adamantius. And St. Augustine expressly asserts, that it was anothtr Origen . Their doctrineswere shameful: they rejected marriage; they used several apo-cryphal books, as the acts of St. Andrew, &c. and endeavoured toexcuse their open vices by saying, that the Catholics did the samein private.
ORIGENISTS, in church history, a Christian sect in the 4thcentury, so called from their drawing their opinions from die writ-ings of Origen . The Origenists maintained, that the souls of men hada pre-existent state: that they were holy intelligences, and had sin-ned in heaven before the body was created ; that Christ is only theson of God by adoption ; that he has been successively united withall the angelical natures, and has been a cherub, a seraph, and all thecelestial virtues one after another; that, in future ages, he will hecrucified for the salvation of the devils, as he lias already been forthat of men; and that their punishment, and that of the damned, willcontinue only for a certain limited time. These are certainly dan-gerous opinions, and are no where to be found in the Bible .
ORIGINAL SIN, the sin of our first parents, by reason ofwhich we are naturally addicted to sin. See Theology.
ORIGUELA, or ORIHUELA, a town of Spain , in Valentia.Lon. 0. 56. W. Lat. 38. 22. N.
ORILLON, in fortification, is a small rounding of earth, facedwith a wall; raised on the shoulder of those bastions that havecasemates, to cover the cannon in the retired flank, and preventtheir being dismounted by the enemy. See Fortification .
ORINSAY, one of the Hebrides , between Boreray and NorthUist.
ORIO, a town of Spain, in Guipuscoa, 8 miles S. W. of St.Sebastian . Lon. 2. 19. W. Lat. 43. 23. N.
ORIOLE, or ORIOLUS, in ornithology, a genus belongingto the order of pica:. Bill conic, convex, very sharp and straight;mandibles equally long ; nostrils small, and lodged in the base ofthe bill, and partly covered ; tongue divided and sharp-pointed.These birds are natives of America , are clamorous and voracious,appear in flocks, feed on fruits and grain, and frequently havepensile nests, Latham enumerates forty-five species; Gmeiinfifty.
O. Acuta Cauda, the Sharp-tailed Oriole, is about thesize of a lark : the bill is dusky ; the crown is brown and cinere-ous : the cheeks are brown, bounded above and below with deepdull yellow. The throat is white; the breast, sides, thighs, andvent, are a dull pale yellow, spotted with brown ; the belly iswhite; the hack varied with ash-colour, black, and white; thewing-coverts are dusky, with ferruginous edges.
6. Pious, Climbing Oriole, is delineated in Plate CXX.
ORION, in astronomy, one of the constellations of the southernhemisphere . The ancients placed it near the feet of the bull. It2 U was