Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Lecks. It was made in the form of the small roundish cakes called roupai, collyræ. COLLYRIDIANS, in church history, a sect towards the close of the fourth century, denominated from a little cake, called by the Greeks Avoidia, collyridia, which they offered to the Virgin Mary. They were chiefly Arabian women, who, out of an extravagant veneration for the Virgin, met once a year to celebrate a solemn feast, and to render divine honors to Mary, as to a goddess; eating the cake which they offered in her name: St. Epiphanius, who relates the history of this superstitious ceremony, ridicules it. They sprung up in opposition to the Antidico-Marianitis. COLLY'RIUM, n. s. the eyes.

Lat. An ointment for

COLMAN (George), a celebrated theatrical writer, was born at Florence about 1733. His father, Thomas Colman, esq. married a sister of the countess of Bath, being, at that time, British resident at the court of the grand duke of Tuscany. He received the early part of his education at Westminster school, where Churchill, Lloyd, Thornton, and others, who afterwards distinguished themselves in the literary world, were his intimate companions. His poetical genius appeared while at school; and a copy of verses which he addressed to his cousin lord Pulteney, were afterwards published in the Saint James's Magazine. From Westminster he removed to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he gave many proofs of his lively genius; and, in conjunction with Bonnel Thornton, produced a weekly paper called the Connoisseur, which was continued from January, 1754, to September, 1756, and published afterwards in 4 vols. 12mo. This work appeared about the same time with the World, the Adventurer, and the Rambler, and though it met not with an equal share of approbation, yet it may justly be affirmed that it contains some papers superior to any in them, for ludicrously portraying the manners of the day. After taking the degree of A. M. Mr. Colman left college, and took up his residence in London. He entered at Lincoln's Inn, and was soon admitted to the bar, but he never followed that profession; being more inclined to the pursuit of literature. In 1760 he published a dramatic piece of great humor, entitled Polly Honeycombe, which was acted at Drury-lane with great success; and the next year he produced the comedy of the Jealous Wife, which was thought superior to any which had appeared for many years. By the death of lord Bath in 1754, he came to the possession of a handsome fortune, which was considerably augmented by that of general Pulteney in 1767. Still, however, he continued to write for the stage, and, in conjunction with Garrick, produced that excellent comedy called the Clandestine Marriage. He also translated the comedies of Terence into blank verse, which added considerably to his fame as a writer. In 1768 he became a patentee of Covent-garden theatre, but soon after sold his share, and made a purchase of the Haymarket theatre from Mr. Samuel Foote, which be supplied either with original pieces or translations, and for which he was at considerable

VOL. VI.

pains to engage the ablest actors, particularly in comedy. Having translated Horace's Art of Poetry, he prefixed an ingenious account of the design of its author, and added to the value of the whole by numerous critical notes. Among a number of small pieces of the humorous kind, the Genius, and the Gentleman, were both productions of his. In 1789 he had a stroke of the palsy, which greatly impaired his understanding, in consequence of which his son was entrusted with the management of the theatre; and he died in August, 1794.

COLMAN (St.), the founder of the church and bishopric of Cloyne in Ireland, flourished about the end of the sixth century. A well, reputed holy, to the north-west of Cloyne, is dedicated to him, and is much frequented by the Irish Catholics on his anniversary, November 24th.

CO'LMAR, n. s. Fr. A sort of pear.

COLMAR, a large and handsome town of France, capital of the department of Upper Rhine and ci-devant province of Alsace. It is situated on two small rivers, the Fecht and the Lauch, is surrounded by a wall flanked with towers, and contains 15,000 inhabitants. This town is supposed to be the ancient Argentivaria. It was fortified towards the middle of the seventeenth century; but Louis XIV took it in 1673, and demolished the works; and the French have ever since retained it. It is twenty-seven miles north-west of Bale, and thirty-four S. S. W. of Strasburgh.

COLME, a river of France, which branches from the Aa, at Watte, in the department of the Straits of Calais.

COLN, a river of Essex, which rises near Clare in Suffolk, and, passing by Halstead and Colchester, runs into the German Ocean between Mersey Island and the main land. The famous Colchester oysters are bred in the salt water pools, at the mouth of this river.

COLNBROOK, a town of Buckinghamshire, seated on the river Coln, which separates this county from Middlesex. It is a great thoroughfare on the western road, and has several good inns.

COLOCYNTHIS. See CUCUMIS.

COLOGNA, a rich town in the Venetian territory, containing 6200 inhabitants, who trade in wine and silk. It lies twenty miles S. S. E. from Vicenza.

COLOGNE, an electorate of Germany, and formerly an archbishopric, but of late years secularised, and included in the grand duchy of the Lower Rhine, under the Prussian dominion. It is mostly situated on the left bank of the Rhine, which bounds it on the east, and separates it from the duchy of Berg; on the north it is bounded by Gueldres and Cleves, on the west by the duchy of Juliers, and on the south by the electorate of Treves. It is about ninety miles long, by about fourteen of average breadth, and contains a population of nearly 220,000 souls. The upper part of this country is covered with large forests; but in the lower, corn and flax are produced in great plenty. It is included between 50° 30′ and 51°25′ Ň. lat., and 6° 35′ and 70 10' E. long., extending in a direction from south-east to north-west something in the

N

form of a semicircle. The Rhine, which is the principal river, is here a very considerable stream, receiving an accession of the waters of the Nethe, the Aar, the Erp, and the Neufs. The places of chief note are Cologne, the capital, Bonn, a very considerable town, once the metropolis and the residence of the elector, Bergheim, Bruyl, and Rheinburg. Great quantities of wine are sent out of this country by means of the Rhine, which flows nearly seventy miles along its borders. There are also some lead and iron mines. The religion most prevalent is the Roman Catholic; but free toleration is enjoyed by the Protestants, who are also eligible to fill public offices. Formerly the dignity of archbishop and that of elector were vested in the same person, who was arch-chancellor of the empire, and occupied the third place in the college.

COLOGNE, the capital of this electorate, is an ancient town, known to the Romans by the name of Colonia Agrippinæ because it was built by Agrippina, the wife of Claudius, and Colonia Ubiorum, from the Ubii, its ancient inhabitants. So early as the year 755 it was an archbishopric, and in 1260 it entered into the Hanseatic league, and was once considered one of the four principal Hanstowns. It is built in the form of a crescent, close to the Rhine, and is fortified with strong walls, flanked with thirty large towers, and surrounded with three ditches, the whole forming a circuit of nearly seven English miles; but it was taken by the French under general Jourdan, on the 6th of October, 1794, not only without resistance, but even with demonstrations of joy. The entrances to the town are by twenty-four gates, and within the walls there are nineteen parishes, two collegiate churches, two abbeys, thirty-nine monasteries, two establishments for noble ladies, an archiepiscopal seminary, and forty-nine chapels, besides some commandaries of the Teutonic order, and of the order of Malta. The French suppressed the university, which was established by pope Urban VI. in 1388, and established in its place a central school, with a library, a museum, philosophical apparatus, and botanic garden. The streets are generally narrow and crooked, and the houses very ill built, the only square worth noticing is the Forum. Novum, and the best buildings are the churches. The cathedral is vast but unfinished, in the Gothic style; it was built about the year 1248. Here they say three kings, or wise men, who came from the east to visit the Saviour are interred; they lay in a large purple shrine, spangled with gold, upon a pedestal of brass, in the middle of a square mausoleum, covered within and without with marble and jaspar. Formerly it was opened every morning at nine o'clock, when the kings were seen lying at full length, with crowns of gold on their heads, garnished with precious stones. Their names, which are Gaspar, Melchion, and Balthasar, are in purple characters on a little grate, which is adorned with an infinite number of large rich pearls and precious stones,

particularly an oriental topaz, as big as a pigeon's egg, and valued at 30,000 crowns. Over against them are six large branches of silver, with wax candles which burnt night and day. The bones of these men, we are told, were brought to Constantinople by Helena, mother of Constantine, from thence to Milan by Eustorpius, bishop of that see, and afterwards hither by archbishop Rainold. In the Jesuits' college are the portraits of the first thirteen generals of that order, with Ignatius Loyola at their head; and in the church, which is the finest in Cologne, are many rich statues, with an amazing quantity of fine silver plate; and the utensils for mass are all of gold enriched with precious stones. In the Cordeliers' church, is the tomb of our famous countryman, Duns Scotus, surnamed Doctor Subtilis, with this epitaph, Scotia me genuit, Anglia me suscepit, Gallia me docuit, Colognia me tenet.' In the church of St. Ursula they pretend to show her tomb, and the bones of the 11,000 virgin martyrs, though this arises from a mistaken inscription; the heads of some of them are kept in cases of silver, some of them covered with stuff of gold and velvet. The canonesses of St. Ursula were all countesses, and had a large revenue. They have, as they say, three of the thorns of our Saviour's crown, and one of the vessels which contained the water that he converted into wine at the marriage of Cana. The church of St. Gestian has a subterraneous church under it. The clergy are very numerous, and had formerly very large revenues; there are said to be not fewer than 2000 ecclesiastics of all ranks. Baron Poinitz said, that though Cologne was one of the greatest cities, it was one of the most melancholy in Europe; there being nothing to be seen but priests, friars, and students, many of whom begged alms with a song; and nothing to be heard but the ringing of bells. The population of this city is estimated at 50,000, the greater part of whom are papists;. the Protestants were formerly obliged to repair to the neighbouring town of Mulheim, in the duchy of Berg, for public worship, but they now enjoy toleration in this respect, and have many privileges. The trade of the town is chiefly in their hands.

The principal exports are wine, timber, earthenware, slates and several other minerals, firearms, and various articles of hardware and kitchen utensils. Linen, woollen, and silk stuffs, lace, and thread, are manufactured here; and great quantities of eau de Cologne, so famous throughout Europe. It was formerly governed by its own senate in civil matters; but criminal causes belonged to the jurisdiction of the elector and his chapter, of whom the inhabitants were very jealous, so that they would not permit him to reside in the city; his usual residence used, therefore, to be at Bonn. Cologne is seventeen miles east of Juliers, forty-seven from Maestricht, and ten north of Bonn. It is situated in 6° 55′ E. long. and 50° 55′ N. lat.

!

COLOMBIA.

BIA, an extensive country, occupyater portion of the north and northrts of South America, between the 5° 50'S. and 12° 30′ N. lat., and 58° long. On the north and north-east fed by the Caribbean Sea and the Atan, on the west by the river Essequibo, ides it from Guiana, on the south by stward, and by Peru westward, while coast is washed by the great Pacific about twelve degrees of latitude from to the north, where it is connected by as of Darien with the province of GuaNorth America. In our article AMEhave treated, at some length, of this g portion of the transatlantic world; srising prosperity and political imporan independent state are every day benore apparent, we cannot forbear adding our former remarks.

s vast country, the eastern part was foristinguished by the name of Venezuela ccas, and the western was called New a, or Condinamarca, the name of the estern portion being Quito; the two forthese now constitute the great divisions republic of Colombia. For the minor diof these great districts, and the populaeach, we cannot do better than refer the to the Tables given in the description of untry of Colombia, under the article

ICA.

most prominent feature on the western the great Cordillera of the Andes, which through the whole extent from north to at an average distance of 150 miles from Pacific Ocean. Northward, about the second ree of latitude, a branch of this immense e strikes off in an east and north-east dition, and soon after another diverges a little the west, and then due north; forming three ferent main chains, with many subordinate es, crossing the country in all directions, hile the intervening valleys are watered by the ighty rivers and smaller streams, that rise mong the mountains. It is in this region that the Andes reach their greatest elevation, and the stupendous Chimborazo lifts its lofty summit to the height of 7147 yards above the level of the sea, exceeded alone by the vast Himalayan chain in the eastern continent. This mountain towers above all the rest: but to the north and south and east, others of a height little inferior are Been ascending to the skies, and exhibiting, with their snow-clad cones, a striking and beautiful contrast with the dark blue firmament above. The chief of these are Antisana, Cotopaxi, Illinissa, and Pichinga, varying in elevation about 1000 feet from each other. North of the equator this mighty chain diminishes gradually in height, and diverges in the third degree of latitude from the river Atrato, forming a narrow ridge at about 100 miles average distance from the coast, reaching to cape Vela; the greatest eleva

tion of this branch is about 16,000 feet, the plain of Caraccas in which it stands being 2660 feet above the sea. The Caraccas coast, which is of an immense extent, affords a continuation of this great table land, furnishing the most tremendous precipices in the world, and is lost in the sea nearly opposite to the island of Trinidad. The Cordillera of Caraccas, sometimes, in the western part, exceeds 8,000 feet; it includes some large and beautiful valleys. What is called the Cordillera of the Cataracts of Orinoco forms the second great branch of the Andes; between the third and sixth degrees of north latitude it extends itself, forming the lofty plain of Tuquillo and St. Martin, and exhibiting the peaks of Umama and Cavanami. Here the rivers Guavari, Meta, Zama, and Ymerida, take their rise, and the awful cataracts of Aturé and Maypuré occur. Beyond these this chain is of greater height, and stretches in a southerly direction as far as the Portuguèse frontiers, where a vast and impenetrable region of forest extends, over which no European has yet passed. Here are the sources of the magnificent river Orinoco, unknown both to the Spaniards and the civilised Indians themselves. The highest point of this Cordillera is Duida, a volcanic mountain above 8,465 feet high. Three vast plains run between the bases of these branches of the Andes, open to the Atlantic Ocean; the most northerly being that of Orinoco, luxuriant in herbage, but with comparatively few trees, and these widely scattered. Here an immense flat occurs, with vast savannahs, called Los Llanos (the Plains), where the residents of the towns and villages feed innumerable herds of cattle.

The enterprising Humboldt, who penetrated farthest and made the most valuable discoveries in this country, speaking of its general aspect, expresses himself thus:

When a traveller, newly arrived from Europe, penetrates for the first time into the forests of South America, nature presents herself to him under an unexpected aspect. The objects, that surround him, recall but feebly those pictures which celebrated writers have traced on the banks of the Mississippi, in Florida, and in other temperate regions of the New World. He feels at every step, that he is not on the confines, but in the very centre, of the torrid zone; not in one of the West India islands, but on a vast continent, where everything is gigantic-the mountains, the rivers, and the mass of vegetation. If he feel strongly the beauty of picturesque scenery, he can scarcely define the various emotions which crowd upon his mind; he can scarcely distinguish what most excites his admiration— the deep silence of those solitudes, the individual beauty and contrast of forms, or that vigor and freshness of vegetable life, which characte rise the climate of the tropics. It might be said that the earth, overloaded with plants, does not allow them space enough to unfold themselves. The trunks of the trees are every where concoaled

« ForrigeFortsett »