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asperges

(Encyclopedia)asperges əspûrˈjəs [key], ceremonial sprinkling of the people with holy water by the priest before the Sunday High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. The accompanying antiphon begins, Asperges me,...

Lin Sen

(Encyclopedia)Lin Sen lĭn sŭn [key], 1868–1943, president of China (1932–43). He was an anti-Manchu revolutionary, overseas organizer for the Kuomintang, and parliamentarian. For a time after the death of Sun...

Longinus, fl. 1st cent.? a.d., Greek literary critic

(Encyclopedia)Longinus lŏnjīˈnəs [key], fl. 1st cent.? a.d., Greek literary critic; writer of the famous treatise On the Sublime. Nothing is known of his life, and for a long time his work was attributed to Cas...

Paphos

(Encyclopedia)Paphos pāˈfŏs [key], two ancient cities, SW Cyprus, on the coast. Old Paphos was probably founded in the Mycenaean period by colonists from Greece or Phoenicia. Modern excavations have revealed rui...

Percy, George

(Encyclopedia)Percy, George, 1580–1631?, English colonial official in Virginia. He sailed to Virginia with the expedition of 1606–7 and was deputy governor (1609–10) after John Smith's return to England and, ...

Black Watch

(Encyclopedia)Black Watch or Royal Highland Regiment, Scottish infantry regiment. The first companies were raised in 1725 to watch the rebellious Scottish highlands and keep the peace, and the regiment was formed 1...

Ranters

(Encyclopedia)Ranters, name given to the adherents of an antinomian movement in England about the time of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649–59). Its principal teaching was pantheistic, that God is present i...

Bates, H. E.

(Encyclopedia)Bates, H. E. (Herbert Ernest Bates), 1905–74, English author, b. Rushden, Northamptonshire. During World War II he served with the Royal Air Force. A good storyteller, Bates had the ability to rende...

Staël, Nicholas de

(Encyclopedia)Staël, Nicholas de nēkôläˈ də stäl [key], 1914–55, French painter, b. St. Petersburg, Russia. Reared in Brussels, he traveled extensively before settling in France in 1940. De Staël evolved ...

Thurrock

(Encyclopedia)Thurrock, borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 124,300), SE England, on the Thames River. The borough includes Tilbury, which has large docks that are part of the Port of London. Among Thurrock's ...