Part 257 (2/2)

ISAC OF YORK, the father of Rebecca in ”Ivanhoe.”

ISABELLA, queen of Castile; her marriage with Ferdinand of Aragon led to the union under one sceptre of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, which was followed 10 years after by their united occupancy of the throne of all Spain; she was an able woman, and a.s.sociated with her husband in every affair of State (1451-1504). See FERDINAND V.

ISABELLA II., ex-queen of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand VII.; succeeded him in 1833; was forced to leave the country in 1868; took refuge in France, and in 1870 abdicated in favour of her son.

ISABEY JEAN BAPTISTE, French portrait-painter, born at Nancy; painted many of the notabilities of France in his day (1767-1855).

ISaeUS, an Attic orator, and the teacher of Demosthenes; wrote 64 orations, of which only 10 are extant, and these not on political issues but forensic, and particularly the law of inheritance.

ISAIAH, one of the great Hebrew prophets, the son of one Amoz; was a citizen of Jerusalem, evidently of some standing, and who flourished between 750 and 700 B.C.; like AMOS (q. v.), he foresaw the judgment that was coming on the nation for its unfaithfulness, but felt a.s.sured that G.o.d would not altogether forsake His people, and that ”a remnant,” G.o.d's elect among them, would be saved--that though the casket would be shattered in pieces, the jewel it contained would be preserved.

See HEBREW PROPHECY.

ISAIAH, THE ASCENSION OF, an apocryphal book giving an incoherent account of the martyrdom of Isaiah, and a vision he had under the reign of Hezekiah, apparently the origin of the tradition in Heb. xi. 37, about the prophet having been ”sawn asunder.”

ISAIAH, THE PROPHECIES OF, consist of two divisions, the first extending from chap. i. to chap. x.x.xix., and the second from chap. xl. to the end; these two divisions were for long believed to be throughout the work of Isaiah the son of Amoz, but modern criticism a.s.signs them in the main to different authors, the one living 150 years after the other; and the reasons for this conclusion are that the author of the latter belonged to a different period of Jewish history from that of the former, is not of the same temper, and has much deeper spiritual insight, while his hopes and expectations are built on a more spiritual view of the method of salvation, the Messiah of the former, for instance, being a conquering king, and that of the latter a suffering Redeemer, who to save the nation has to bear the burden of its sins, and the brunt of them, and so bearing, bear them away.

ISAMBERT, FRANcOIS ANDRe, a noteworthy French lawyer, politician, and historian, born at Aunay; began to practise in Paris at the age of twenty-six; becoming known in politics, he gained considerable renown by certain works on French law and by his advocacy of the claims of the liberated slaves in the French West Indies; entering the Chamber of Deputies after the Revolution of July 1830, he set himself to oppose the Jesuits and to further freedom; ”The Religious Conditions of France and Europe” and a ”History of Jerusalem” were among his later works; he died at Paris (1792-1857).

ISANDULA, place 110 m. NW. of Durban, where a force of British troops was encamped in January 22, 1879, and was set upon and almost annihilated by a body of Zulus.

ISAURIA, in ancient times this name was given to the northern slopes of the Taurus in Asia Minor, what is now Karamania; the Isaurians were a wild, savage people; from the 1st to the 4th centuries they were the terror of neighbouring States, and gave Rome herself considerable trouble; but from the 5th century they disappear from history.

ISCHIA (22), a beautiful volcanic island 6 m. off the Bay of Naples; its scenery, climate, and mineral springs make it a health resort; it produces excellent fruits and wines; it is liable to severe earthquakes; in the last (1883), 4000 persons perished. The chief town (3) bears the same name.

ISCHL, a town in Upper Austria, picturesquely situated on the river Traun, 33 m. SE. of Salzburg; famous for its saline baths; has salt-works, where 8000 tons of salt are annually manufactured.

ISENGRIN, the wolf, typifying the feudal baron in the epic tale of Reynard the Fox, as the fox does the Church. See REYNARD.

ISER, a German river, which rises in the Tyrol N. of Innsbruck, pa.s.ses through Munich, and falls into the Danube after a course of 180 m.

ISeRE, a river in the SE. of France, which gives name to a dep.

(572), and which, after a course of 180 m. falls into the Rhone near Valence.

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