ULYSSES (i. e.  Greek Odysseus), chieftain of Ithaca, one of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War, in which he was with difficulty persuaded to join, but in which, however, he did good service both by his courage and his counsels; he is less famed for what he did before Troy than for what befell him in his ten years’ wandering homeward after, as recorded by Homer in a separate poem called after him the “ODYSSEY” (q. v.), which relates his stay among the LOTUS-EATERS (q. v.), his encounter with POLYPHEMUS (q. v.), the enchantments of CIRCE (q. v.), the SIRENS (q. v.), and CALYPSO (q. v.), and his shipwreck, &c.  Tennyson represents him as impatient of the humdrum life of Ithaca on his return, and as longing to join his Trojan comrades in the Isles of the Blessed.  See PENELOPE and TELEMACHUS.

ULYSSES’ BOW, a bow which only Ulysses could wield.

UMA (the gracious one), the consort of SIVA (q. v.), and
sometimes also of RUDRA (q. v.).

UMBALLA (499), a city in the Punjab, 150 m.  NW. of Delhi; is an important military station and a railway centre; carries on a large trade.

UMBRIA, a province of ancient Italy, between Cisalpine Gaul and the territory of the Sabines; inhabited originally by a powerful Latin race.

UMLAUT, name given by Grimm to the modification of a vowel in a syllable through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding.

UNA (i. e. who is one), the personification of Truth, the companion of St. George in his adventures, and who, after various adventures herself, is at last wedded to him.

UNCIAL LETTERS, large round characters or letters used in ancient MSS.

UNCLE SAM, name given to the United States Government, derived from a humorous translation of the initials U.S.

UNCONSCIOUS, THE, name given to a spiritual supernatural influence operating in and affecting the life and character, but which we are not sensible of ourselves, and still less reveal a conscious sense of to others.

UNDERSTANDING, THE.  See REASON.

UNDINE, a female spirit of the watery element, naturally without, but capable of receiving, a human soul, particularly after being wedded to a man and after giving birth to a child.

UNDULATORY THEORY, the theory that light is due to vibrations or undulations in the ether as the medium through which it is transmitted from its source in a luminous body.

UNEARNED INCREMENT, increase in the value of land or any property without expenditure of any kind on the part of the proprietor.

UNICORN, a fabulous animal like a horse, with a cubit and a half long horn on the forehead; was adopted by James I. as the symbol of Scotland on the royal arms; is in Christian art a symbol of the incarnation, and an emblem of female chastity.

UNIFORMITY, ACT OF, an Act passed in England in 1662 regulating the form of public prayers and rites to be observed in all churches, and which had the effect of driving hundreds of clergymen from the Established Church.