or Aurichalcum, a metallic substance resembling gold in colour, but very inferior in value. It was well known to the Romans, who often took advantage of its resemblance to gold; for some sacrilegious characters, who could not resist the temptation of taking gold from temples and other public places, chose to conceal their guilt by replacing it with orichalcum. It was thus that Julius Caesar acted when he robbed the capitol of three thousand pounds weight of gold; in which he was followed by Vitellius, who despoiled the temples of their gifts and ornaments, and replaced them with this inferior metal. It has been a matter of dispute with philosophers and others, what the composition of this metal could be, or how it was procured; it is probable, at least, that it was analogous to our brass, if not wholly the same with it.

The Romans were not only in possession of a metallic substance, called by them orichalcum, and resembling gold in colour, but they knew also the manner of making it; and the materials from which they made it were the very same with those from which we make brass. There are, indeed, authors of great repute who think very differently, and consider the art of making brass as an invention wholly modern. Thus M. Cronstedt does not think it just to conclude from old coins and other antiquities, that the making of brass was known in the most ancient times; and the authors of the French Encyclopédie assure us that our brass is a very recent invention. It appears, however, from Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiv. § 2), and from the concurring testimony of other writers, that orichalcum was not a pure or original metal; but that its basis was copper, which the Romans changed into orichalcum by means of cadmia, a species of earth which they threw upon the copper, and which it absorbed. It has indeed been contended that the cadmia of Pliny was native arsenic; an opinion which scarcely merits confutation, but which must appear extremely groundless, when we reflect that it is impossible to make either brass or copper from arsenic, and that Pliny expressly calls the substance from which brass was made a stone. The testimony of Ambrose bishop of Milan in the fourth century, and of Primasius bishop of Adrumetum, in Africa, in the sixth, and of Isidorus bishop of Seville in the seventh, all seem to confirm Pliny's account. We may therefore safely conclude, that the Romans knew the method of making brass by mixing cadmia or calamine with copper. Yet it is probable they were not the inventors of this art, but borrowed it from some other country. It appears from a variety of testimonies that brass was made in Asia, in a manner similar to that employed at Rome; and a variety of places are mentioned where it was commonly made. It is supposed by some that in India, as well as in other parts of Asia, it was made in the remotest ages.

With respect to orichalcum, it is generally supposed that there were two sorts of this metal, one factitious, and the other natural. The fictitious, whether we consider its qualities or its composition, appears to have been the same with our brass. As to the natural orichalcum, there is no impossibility in supposing that copper ore may have been so intimately blended with an ore of zinc, or of some other metallic substance, that the compound, when smelted, might yield a mixed metal of a paler hue than copper, and resembling the colour of gold or of silver.

We know of no country in which orichalcum is found at present; nor was it anywhere found in the age of Pliny, who does not seem to have known the country where it had ever been obtained. He admits, indeed, that it had been formerly dug out of the earth; but it is remarkable, that in the very passage where he mentions by name the countries most celebrated for the production of different kinds of copper, he only says in general, concerning orichalcum, that it had been found in other countries, but without specifying any particular country. Plato acknowledges that orichalcum was a thing only talked of even in his time; it was then nowhere to be met with, although in the island of Atlantis it had been formerly extracted from the mine. The Greeks were in possession of a metallic substance called orichalcum before the foundation of Rome. It is mentioned by Homer and by Hesiod, and by both of these poets in such a manner as shows that it was then held in great esteem. Other ancient writers have expressed themselves in similar terms of commendation; and it is principally from the circumstance of the high reputed value of orichalcum that authors have been induced to suppose that the ancient metal of this name was a natural substance, very different from the factitious one in use at Rome, and probably in Asia, and which, it has been shown, was in no respect different from our brass.

But this conclusion cannot be validly deduced from their He taught the doctrines of Christianity to the women and girls, as well as to the men; and taking in a too literal sense what Christ says of becoming voluntary eunuchs, cast himself, to prevent his deserving or suffering scandal. He took a voyage to Rome in 211, in the beginning of the reign of Caracalla, under the pontificate of Zephyrinus. On his return he published many works, whereby he acquired an extraordinary reputation, which drew to him a great number of auditors. But Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, conceiving a jealousy of him, endeavoured upon various pretences to injure him. At length Origen went to Antioch, whither the Empress Mammæa had sent for him to hear him discourse on the Christian religion. He did not however stay long there, but returned to Alexandria, where he continued to teach till the year 228, when he left that city and travelled into Achaia. He then went into Palestine, and was ordained by the bishops of that province at forty-two years of age. But the circumstance of his being ordained by foreign bishops, without the permission of Demetrius, renewed that prelate's resentment against him; upon which Origen hastily returned to Alexandria, to endeavour to mollify him. Demetrius, however, drove him thence in the year 231, and caused him to be excommunicated, and even deposed, in a council which was held in Egypt. Origen then retired to Caesarea in Palestine, where he raised a celebrated school, and had St Gregory Thaumaturgus, and a great number of other persons who were illustrious for their virtue and learning, as his disciples. He afterwards travelled to Athens, and, at the desire of Firmilianus, staid some time at Caesarea in Cappadocia; whence he was invited into Arabia, to convince and bring back to the truth Beryllus bishop of Bostra, who maintained that the Word had no existence before his incarnation. Origen had the happiness to make him sensible of his mistake; and some years afterwards he was sent into Arabia by an assembly of bishops, to dispute against certain persons who maintained that the souls of the dead remained in a state of insensibility till the general resurrection. At length the seventh persecution of the Christians began in the reign of Decius, and none was treated with greater severity than Origen. He supported with incredible constancy the dreadful torments which the persecutors of the Christians invented against them; torments which were the more insupportable, as they were made to continue for a long time, and as the persecutors took the greatest care to prevent his expiring in the midst of his tortures. But in the most excruciating agony he discovered an heroic courage, and suffered nothing to escape him which was unworthy a disciple of Jesus Christ. Origen died at Tyre in the year 254, aged sixty-nine. He was the author of a great number of excellent works. The principal of those which have descended to us are, 1. A Treatise against Celsus, of which a good edition in Greek and Latin, with notes, has been published by Spencer; 2. A number of Homilies, with Commentaries on the Holy Scriptures; 3. Philocalia, and several other treatises; 4. Fragments of his Hexapla, collected by Montfaucon, in two volumes folio. Of all Origen's works, the loss of the Hexapla is most to be regretted. This work was thus named from its containing six columns, in the first of which was the Hebrew text of the Bible; in the second, the same text in Greek characters; in the third, the Greek version of the Septuagint; in the fourth, that of Aquila; in the fifth, that of Symmachus; and in the sixth, Theodosian's Greek version. This admirable work first suggested the idea of our Polyglot Bibles. Of the book of Principles we have only an incorrect Latin version. The most complete edition of the works of Origen is that of Father Delarue, a Benedictine, in Greek and Latin. Montfaucon likewise published, in two volumes folio, some remains and fragments of his Hexapla. He ought not to be