Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tait, Archibald Campbell, 1811–82, British churchman, archbishop of Canterbury, b. Edinburgh. He grew up a Presbyterian, but he early decided to enter the ministry of the Church of England. In 1834 ...

(Encyclopedia) Hinduism hinˈdo͞oĭzəm [key], Western term for the religious beliefs and practices of the vast majority of the people of India. One of the oldest living religions in the world, Hinduism is unique a...

(Encyclopedia) lobbying, practice and profession of influencing governmental decisions, carried out by agents who present the concerns of special interests to legislators and administrators. The term originated in t...

(Encyclopedia) Courbet, Gustave güstävˈ ko͞orbāˈ [key], 1819–77, French painter, b. Ornans. He moved to Paris in 1839 and studied there, learning chiefly by copying masterpieces in the Louvre. An avowed real...

(Encyclopedia) Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837–1909, English poet and critic. His poetry is noted for its vitality and for the music of its language. After attending Eton (1849–53) and Oxford (1856–60) he se...

(Encyclopedia) Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron, 1871–1937, British physicist, b. New Zealand. Rutherford left New Zealand in 1895, having earned three degrees from the Univ. of New Zealand but having fail...

(Encyclopedia) Scott, Robert Falcon, 1868–1912, British naval officer and antarctic explorer. He commanded two noted expeditions to Antarctica. The first expedition (1901–4), in the Discovery, organized jointly ...

(Encyclopedia) Tantra tŭnˈtrə [key], in both Hinduism and Buddhism, esoteric tradition of ritual and yoga known for elaborate use of mantra, or symbolic speech, and mandala, or symbolic diagrams; the importance o...

(Encyclopedia) Walton, Sir William Turner, 1902–83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918–19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitw...

(Encyclopedia) object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditi...