Orb

“ Not the stream of undulating silver over which poets have raved these many years, and which painters have fruitlessly essayed to convey to canvass, but the glorious, full, round orb itself. This he had never seen before, and he wondered why it should be. Almost as though in answer to his thought, a faint zephyr breathed across the surface of the waters, and beginning near the shores, the ripples rolled towards him, and with them brought the shimmering moonlight until all in a moment, the reflected orb had disappeared, and the usual silvery line of light replaced it. ”

“ The "orb," also known as the "mound" (Lat. mundus, "world") , consisting of a globe surmounted by a cross, forms part of many regalia, being a symbol of sovereignty (see Regalia) . In architecture the meaning to be attached to the word "orb" is doubtful. ”

“ The orbit of this earth, resembles the ear-ring of the goddess of the three worlds; and the verdant orb of this planet, is as the pendant gem of the ringlet, continually with the fluctuations of its people. ”

“ As of old, the orb in its decline followed them, seemingly rolling along the distant housetops, and assuming a crescent shape, as it appeared from behind the dome of the Institute. There was a dazzling sunset, they had never beheld a more magnificent one, such a majestic descent amidst tiny cloudlets that changed into purple network, between the meshes of which a shower of gold escaped. ”

“ We might then picture to ourselves every orb in the solar system carrying onward its faintly luminous crowns of boreal and austral light, not shining with constant lustre, or in the same constant position, but at one time leaping in coloured steamers to a great distance from the body they adorned, and anon sinking down and growing fainter and fainter, or occasionally disappearing altogether. ”

“ Are, say you, Matthew, Mark and Luke and holy John?
Lost, is it, lost, to be recovered never?
However,
The place of worship the meantime with light
Is, if less richly, more sincerely bright,
And in blue skies the Orb is manifest to sight. ”

“ The Orbs There are two Orbs in the Jewel House, one for the King and the other for the Queen. The orb is a very ancient Christian emblem, and signifies the domination of the Christian religion over the world. It may be described as a globe of gold on which stands a cross. The King’s Orb, which is known as the Orb of England, is a very valuable and richly gemmed emblem, and is only placed in the hand of the King or Queen who is actual sovereign of the realm. ”

“ The orb seemingly rising above the horizon, but, in reality, at rest, is the source of all the glory which is spreading over the fair face of earth. The atoms of that remote body, vibrating with intensest activity, send forth in all directions ethereal waves, and of these relatively but a very few, about one in two thousand millions, fall upon our earth, producing the phenomena of sunlight. ”

“ Above this annual orb, the sun, in its small epicycle, gliding through the 12 signs of the anomaly, within the space of 182 terrestrial revolutions, hours 15.6.58., from left to right, falls from apogee to perigee; and, within the same time, rises from perigee to apogee, and brings with it, the index, namely its central radius, inhering to the axis of the equatorial orb and cutting the four greatest circles from the center. ”

“ She had torn open her habit, and her bosom was half exposed. The weapon's point rested upon her left breast: and, oh! that was such a breast! The moon-beams darting full upon it enabled the monk to observe its dazzling whiteness: his eye dwelt with insatiable avidity upon the beauteous orb: a sensation till then unknown filled his heart with a mixture of anxiety and delight; ”

“ Well are we entitled to give names unto the stars; for we know the moment of their rising and [Pg 177] their setting, and can be with them at every part of their shining journey through the boundless ether. While generations of men have lived, died, and are buried, the astronomer thinks of the golden orb that shone centuries ago within the vision of man, and lifts up his eye undoubting, at the very moment when it again comes glorious on its predicted return. ”

“ If you look at them through a glass that does not multiply much, the stars will not appear clearly separate from one another, but Saturn’s orb will appear somewhat elongated, of the shape of an olive, thus, But if you should use a glass which multiplies a surface more than a thousand times, there will appear very distinctly three orbs, almost touching one another ”

“ Those wonderful varieties in the appearance of the solar surface which have so long perplexed astronomers, not only supply in themselves interesting subjects of observation and examination, but gain an enhanced meaning from the consideration that they speak meaningly to us of the structure of an orb which is the source of light and heat enjoyed by a series of dependent worlds whereof our earth is—in size at least—a comparatively insignificant member. ”

“ It was a wonderful thing to think for how many thousands of years the dead orb above and the dead city below had gazed thus upon each other, and in the utter solitude of space poured forth each to each the tale of their lost life and long-departed glory. The white light fell, and minute by minute the quiet shadows crept across the grass-grown courts like the spirits of old priests haunting the habitations of their worship—the white light fell, and the long shadows grew till the beauty and grandeur of each scene and the untamed majesty of its present Death seemed to sink into our very souls, and speak more loudly than the shouts of armies concerning the pomp and splendour that the grave had swallowed, and even memory had forgotten. ”

“ In fine, we see in Saturn and his system a miniature, and a singularly truthful miniature, of the solar system. In one system, as in the other, there is a central orb, far surpassing all the members of the system in bulk and mass; in each system there are eight orbs circling around the central body ”

“ Of these emblems some are of a purely kingly significance, such as the Crown and Sceptre; others, like the Orb and Ring, have a religious connection, whilst others, as symbolized by the Sword and Spurs, are military emblems giving the knightly touch. ”

“ Incapable of categorically undoing the difficulty, we will only venture a conjecture: the glyph considered is that distinctive of the orb itself, since it also appears on the forehead of the solar snake of the same relief. The numerals might indicate that the chronological value of the face ought to be taken twice in some computation. What might this be? The central zone of the relief, circumscribed by the serpents, by its position on the face of the monument easily denotes the present epoch, or the historic sun. ”

“ But to attribute to these celestial Bodies contrary Motions at once, is an absurd Conceit, and much more to imagine, that the same Orb wherein the fixed Stars are, whose natural, Course takes up so many thousands of Years, should be turned about every twenty-four Hours. ”

“ In the beginning, the orb was placed in vacuum, stationary, and with its axis perpendicular to the plane of what is now called its orbit. Its only revolution was the diurnal.”
“And the changes of the seasons?”
“Had not yet taken place. The days and nights were equal; there were no eclipses; the same stars were always visible. This state of the earth is supposed, from certain geological proofs, to have continued about a thousand years, during which time the struggle between mind and matter was solely confined to quadrupeds. ”

“ with joy and shout The hollow Universal Orb they fill'd, And touch't thir Golden Harps, & hymning prais'd God and his works, Creatour him they sung, Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn. ”

“ It may be said, likewise, to be a Fire; not like our consuming ones, but like those of the celestial Orbs above, that have not only the Qualities of Heat and Brightness, but maintaining one uniform Course, are carried round their Orbits at once with equal Swiftness and Regularity. ”

“ This shows us how vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit Consideration, and Matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters of some pitiful Corner of this small Spot. ”

“ The Orbit.—Each orbit is a pyramidal cavity, the base of the pyramid being in front, at the orbital margin, and the apex behind, at the optic foramen, where the optic nerve and ophthalmic artery pass through. The four sides of the pyramid form the roof, floor, inner and outer walls of the orbit. The roof is arched from side to side and is made up of the frontal bone anteriorly, and the lesser wing of the sphenoid posteriorly. The floor is chiefly formed by the maxilla, though the malar forms a little of it in front. ”

“ 'Tis the witching hour of night,
Orbed is the moon and bright,
And the stars they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen—
⁠For what listen they? ”

“ For, if we assume that around each revolving sun there circles a retinue of planetary worlds, it is obvious that a much more complicated arrangement must exist among the orbs which enter into the formation of such a system than is found among those which gravitate round our Sun. ”

“ Oratório, an Oratorie, or place of prayers, a Chappell. Also a Pulpit.
Orbácche, as Orbachẻlle.
Orbachẻlle, beries, as of Bayes, or Iuniper.
Orbachéno, as Orbathióne.
Orbaménto, a blinding, a reauing of sight.
Orbáre, to blinde, to reaue of sight or goods, or anything else, to bereaue.
Orbathióne, an hearbe, resembling an vnripe Pomegranate.
Orbatióne, as Orbaménto.
Orbatúra, as Orbaménto.
Orbauilláno, a kind of bright changeable colour. Also a mock-begger.
Orbè, well now, goe too, how now? ”

“ Orbilius lived nearly a hundred years, but had lost his memory long before his death. As he was fifty in b. c. 63, he must have been born in b. c. 113, and have died shortly before b. c. 13. A statue was erected to him at Beneventum in the Capitol. He left a son Orbilius, who followed the profession of his father; and a slave and pupil of his, of the name of Scribonius, also attained some celebrity as a grammarian. Orbilius was the author of a work cited by Suetonius uuder the title of Perialogos but the name is evidently corrupt. ”

“ Radius of the Orbe of the Loadstone, is a straight line drawn from the summit of the orbe of the loadstone, by the shortest way, to the surface of the body, which, continued, will pass through the centre of the loadstone.
Orbe of Virtue, is all that space through which the Virtue of any loadstone extends. ”

“ But one day I ate a lavender berry—as the Ork did—and immediately I grew so small that I was scarcely two inches high. It was a very unpleasant condition and like the Ork I became frightened. I could not walk very well nor very far, for every lump of earth in my way seemed a mountain, every blade of grass a tree and every grain of sand a rocky boulder. For several days I stumbled around in an agony of fear. Once a tree toad nearly gobbled me up, and if I ran out from the shelter of the bushes the gulls and cormorants swooped down upon me. ”

“ I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.” ”

“ Then Orpheus took the lyre, and sang of Chaos, and the making of the wondrous World, and how all things sprang from Love, who could not live alone in the Abyss. And as he sang, his voice rose from the cave, above the crags, and through the tree-tops, and the glens of oak and pine. And the trees bowed their heads when they heard it, and the gray rocks cracked and rang, and the forest beasts crept near to listen, and the birds forsook their nests and hovered round. And old Cheiron claps his hands together, and beat his hoofs upon the ground, for wonder at that magic song. ”

“ So you will find that some will tell you that Orpheus is the personification of the winds which "tear up trees as they course along, chanting their wild music," and that Eurydice is the morning "with its short-lived beauty." Others say that Orpheus is "the mythological expression of the delight which music gives to the primitive races," while yet others accept without hesitation the idea that Orpheus is the sun that, when day is done, plunges into the black abyss of night, in the vain hope of overtaking his lost bride, Eurydice, the rosy dawn. ”

“ Then Orpheus took his harp, and began his magic song—‘How sweet it is to ride upon the surges, and to leap from wave to wave, while the wind sings cheerful in the cordage, and the oars flash fast among the foam! How sweet it is to roam across the ocean, and see new towns and wondrous lands, and to come home laden with treasure, and to win undying fame!’
And the good ship Argo heard him, and longed to be away and out at sea; till she stirred in every timber, and heaved from stem to stern, and leapt up from the sand upon the rollers, and plunged onward like a gallant horse ”

“ The light from the deck brought out dazzling scintillations from a beach composed of gigantic crystal pebbles as large as ostrich eggs. On the beach and grouped thickly all about our hull, swarmed a legion of creatures which—
Well, they were the brood of Orcon. They were the creatures who had given Ludwig Leider refuge and allied themselves with him in his attempt to make trouble for Earth. And they were half-bird, half-human! Their faces, bodies, arms, and legs were human. ”

“ The Roman Orcus holds the pallid souls, rapacious Orcus, sparing neither good nor bad. 81Gloomy is the Greek land of Hades, dark dwelling of the images of departed mortals, where the shades carry at once their living features and their dying wounds, and glide and cluster and whisper, and lead the shadow of a life. Like the savage hunter on his ghostly prairie, the great Orion still bears his brazen mace, still chases over the meadows of asphodel the flying beasts he slew of yore in the lonely mountains. ”