Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/762

Rh 704 O B E O B L munity, after defrayal of the costs and payment of a small remu neration to the actors. The villagers regard the Passion Play as a solemn act of religious worship, and the performances are charac terized by the greatest reverence. The principal parts are usually hereditary in certain families, and are assigned with regard to moral character as well as dramatic ability. It is considered a disgrace not to be allowed to take part in the play, and the part of Christ is looked upon as one of the greatest of earthly honours. In the years intervening between the representations the villagers are carefully drilled in dramatic performances by their pastor, and most witnesses agree in rating very highly the results produced by the combined religious fervour and artistic instinct of these Alpine peasants. It is to be feared, however, that the concourse of fashionable visitors who now flock to the performance will gradu ally have the effect of impairing its genuineness and simplicity. Edward Devrient (in 1850) was among the first to direct general attention to Oberammergau ; and numerous German monographs have since appeared on the same subject. A short notice of the play is also given by Hase, Das Geisthche Schai .spiel (Engl. tr. by A. W. Jackson, 1880). English accounts of the per formances have been given by Blackburn (new ed., 1SSO), MacColl (reprinted from the Times, 1880), Molloy (1880), Oxenham (1880), and others. An English version of the text of the Passion Play has been published by E. Childe (1880). Articles on the subject have also appeared in the following magazines : Cen- tiu-i/, 1SS3 ; Blackwoo l s, vol. cvii.; Contemporary, vol. xyiii.; Macmulans, vol. ii.; Harper s, vols. xlii. and xliii.; Once a Week, vol. xxiii. OBERHAUSEN, a Prussian town of recent origin, in the province of the Rhine, is situated 5 miles from the east bank of that river and 20 miles to the north of Diissel- dorf. Its importance is due to the fact of its being one of the busiest railway junctions in Germany, and to the ex tensive coal-pits in the vicinity. The town also possesses iron- works, rolling-mills, zinc smelting-works, railway work shops, and manufactures of wire-rope, glass, porcelain, and soap. The annual export of coals is estimated at about 700,000 tons. The first houses of Oberhausen were built in 1845, and it received its municipal charter in 1875. In 1880 it contained 16,680 inhabitants, of whom 12,079 were Roman Catholics. OBERLIN, a village of the United States, in Russia township, Lorain county, Ohio, 35 miles west-south-west of Cleveland by the Lake Shore and Michigan Railway, has a population of 3242 (1880), and is well known as the seat of Oberlin College. This institution for liberal education, open to all irrespective of sex or colour, was founded in 1833 by the Rev. John J. Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart, and named in honour of J. F. Oberlin ; by the year 1835 it comprised a theological seminary, a college proper, a ladies department, and a preparatory .school ; and since then a conservatory of music has been added. In 1883 nine distinct buildings were occupied by the various sections ; the total number of teachers was 73, and of pupils 1474 (698 male, 776 female, 78 coloured), and the library contained 20,000 volumes. OBERLIN, JEAN FREDERIC (1740-1826), pastor and philanthropist, was the son of a teacher, and was born 31st August 1740 at Strasburg, where he studied theology. In 1766 he became Protestant pastor of Waldbach, a remote and poverty-stricken region in the Steinthal (Ban de la Roche) in Alsace. At once he set himself to better the material equally with the spiritual condition of the inhabit ants. He began by constructing roads through the valley and erecting bridges, inciting the peasantry to the enterprise by himself taking a mattock and commencing operations. His example proved equally effectual in introducing an improved system of agriculture, with the result that the sterile Waldbach soon &quot;began to blossom as the rose.&quot; Substantial cottages were erected, various industrial arts were introduced, and activity and comfort began to prevail in homes formerly tenanted by listless and ignoble poverty. Regarding the intellectual needs of his parishioners Oberlin was also keenly solicitous. He founded an itinerant library, originated infant schools the first that have existed and established an ordinary school at each of the five villages in the parish. In the work of education he received great assistance from Louise Scheppler, who lived in his house in the capacity of servant and housekeeper. By his unselfish devotion to their interests Oberlin won so entirely the confidence of his parishioners that he was consulted in the most minute domestic affairs, and his word became the recognized unwritten law of the district. He died 1st June 1826, and was interred with great manifestations of honour and affection at the village of Fouday. Since his death the Steinthal has suffered no interruption to its prosperity. When he began his labours its inhabitants did not number more than 500 ; in the beginning of the century they had increased to about 3000 ; and now they are supposed to number about 6000. Among the numerous narratives of the labours of Oberlin mention may be made of Sims, Brief Memorials of Oberlin, London, 1830 ; Memoirs of Oberlin, with a short notice of Louisa Scheppler, London, 1838, 2d ed. 1852 ; H. Ware, Biography of Oberlin, Boston, 1845 ; Spach, Oberlin le pastcur, Strasburg, 1865, 2d ed. 1868 ; Riff, Drci Bildcraus dem Lcben von Papa Oberlin, Strasburg, 1880 ; and Butler, Life of J. F. Oberlin, 1882. The collected writings of Oberlin were published by Burkhardt at Stuttgart in 1843, in 4 vols. OBERLIN, JEREMIE JAQTJES (1735-1806), archaeologist, brother of Jean Frederic Oberlin noticed above, was born at Strasburg 8th August 1735. While studying theology at the university he devoted special attention to Biblical archaeology. In 1755 he was chosen professor at the gymnasium of his native town, in 1763 librarian to the university, in 1770 professor of rhetoric, and in 1782 of logic and metaphysics. Oberlin published several manuals on archaeology and ancient geography, and made frequent excursions into different provinces of France to investigate antiquarian remains and study provincial dialects, the result appearing in Essai sur le patois Lorrain, 1775; Dissertations sur les Minnesingers, 1782-89; and Observa tions concernant le patois et les moeurs des gens de la cam- pagne, 1791. He also published several editions of Latin authors. He died 10th October 1806. OBERON (Auberon, Alberon), king of the fairies, husband of Titania, first appears in literature as protector of the hero in Huon de Bordeaux, a chanson de geste, dating from about the 12th century (see FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 638). The name corresponds to the German Alberich or Elferich (elf-king). The fairy element in the legend of Huon has been treated in modern times by Wieland in the poem, and by Weber in the opera, of Oberon ; and the story of the elf-king s quarrel with Titania, as every one knows, supplies an important motif in Shakespeare s Midsummer Night s Dream. OBESITY. See CORPULENCE, vol. vi. p. 435. OBI. See SIBERIA. OBLIGATION, in law, is a term derived from the Roman law, in which obligatio signified a tie of law (vin- cuhim juris) whereby one person is bound to perform or forbear some act for another. The obligatio of Roman law arose either from voluntary acts or from circumstances to which legal consequences were annexed. In the former case it was said to arise ex contractu, from contract, in the latter quasi ex contractu, ex delicto, or quasi ex delicto, that is to say, from tort, or from acts or omissions to which the law practically attached the same results as it did to contract or tort. Obligatio was used to denote either end of the legal chain that bound the parties, the right of the party who could compel fulfilment of the obligatio, the creditor, or the duty of the party who could be compelled to fulfilment, the debitor. In English law obligation has only the latter sense. Creditor and debtor have also lost their Roman law signification ; they have been narrowed to mean the parties where the obligation is the payment of a sum of money. In English law obligation is used in at least four senses (1) any duty imposed by law; (2) the special duty created by a vincidum juris ; (3) not the duty, but the evidence of the duty, that is to say, an instrument under seal, otherwise called a bond ; (4) the