OCCOM
290
OCEANUS
of the system of direct assistance, sought to carry out mure fully the idea of Geulinx; his monads are all of the same nature, aud each represents one and the same universe, thus producing absolute harmony; but as in- dividuals they are all completely distinct from each other, progressing harmoniously, and tlius correspond- ing to each other, and constituting a divinely pre- established harmony. The body and the soul are sub- ject to different laws; but God has so regulated the parallelism of their action that it results in a harmoni- ous whole. Thus the occasionalism of Geulinx is an- nidled by the theory of a regidar system of causes and effects, or harmony, by virtue of which we find in each moment a double series of intermediate causes accompanying an originally combined im|)ulse. Leib- nitz perceived a real alternate action of the body and the mind, but rejected it. Sensualism, on the other hand, considers the mind as the reflex of the sensitive faculty, while idealism looks upon the sensi- tive faculty as the reflex of spiritual spontaneity. From this we may conclude that Descartes had not yet fully reached occasionalism, -while Leibnitz had gone farther. The real medium is the system of Geulinx. — Herzog, Real-K)icyklopddie, x, 522. See Ueberweg, Hist, Philos. ii, 42, 54 ; Newell, Spend. Philos. i, 99.
Occoni, S.VM(p)soN, an American Indian preacher, was born at Mohegan, on Thames River, near Norwich, Conn., about the year 1723. When Occom was a boy, Jlr. Jewett, the minister of New London, now Mont- ville, was accustomed to preach once a fortnight at Mo- hegan. During the religious excitement about 1739 and 1740, several ministers visited the Indians, who repaired to the neighboring churches. Occom at this period became the subject of permanent religious im- pressions, and was soon desirous of becoming the teacher of his tribe. He could then read by spelling, and in a year or two learned to read the Bible. At the age of nineteen he went to the Indian school of Mr. Wheelock, of Lebanon, and remained with him four years. In 1748 he kept a school in New London, but soon went to Montauk, on Long Island, where he taught a school among the Indians ten or eleven years, at the same time being the religious teacher of the Indians in their own language, and preaching also to the Skenecock or Yenecock Indians, distant thirty miles. During a re- vival among the JMontauks many became Christians. He was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery Aug. 29, 1759, and was from that time a regular member of the pres- bytery. In 1706 Mr. Wheelock sent him to England with Mr. Whitaker, the minister of Norwich, to promote the interests of Moor's Indian charity school. He was the first Indian preacher who visited England. The houses in which he preached were thronged. Between Feb. IG, 170(5, and July 22, 1767, he preached in various parts of the kingdom between three hundred and four hundred sermons. Large charitable donations were ob- tained, and the school was soon transjdanted to Hanover, N. II., and connected with Dartmouth College. After his return, Occom sometimes resided at Mohegan, and was often en)ployed in missionary labors among distant Indians. In 1786 he removed to Brotherton, near Utica, N. Y., in the neighborhood of the home of the Stock- bridge Indians, who were of the Mohegan roof, and who had formerly been under the instruction of Jlr. Sergeant and Mr. lulwards. A few of the Mohegans, and other Indians of Connecticut, Long Island, and Rhode Island, removed about the same time. The Oneidas gave them a tract of land. Occom died in July, 1792. Dr. D wight says, " I heard Mr. Occom twice. His discourses, though not proofs of superior talent, were decent ; and his ut- terance in some degree eloquent. His character at times labored under some imputations; yet there is good rea- son to believe that most, if not all, of them were un- founded ; and there is satisfactory evidence that he was a man of (liety." An account of the Montauk Iiuiians, written by Occom, is preserved in the "Historical Collec- tions." He published a sermon at the execution of Moses
Paul, an Ii-.dian, at New Haven, Sept. 2, 1772 (London, 1789, 4to), with an account of the Montauk Indians, which has been published in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Col- lect. 1st ser. x, 106. See Buel, Ordination Sermon ; His- torical Collections, iv, 68 ; v, 13 ; ix, 89, 90 ; x, 105 ; Dwight, Travels, ii, 112 ; Allen, Amer. Biog. Diet. s. v.; Gillet, /fist. Fresh. Ch. in U. S. A. i, 161, 368, 388. (J. N. P.)
Occurrence, a term used in ecclesiastical lan- guage to designate a case when two festivals fall on the same day. The lesser is either omitted or antici- pated, or translated, that is, deferred to the nearest va- cant day. Festivals concur when at vespers the office of one day commences before the other is terminated. The lesser daj' is then only commemorated. See Wal- cott. Sacred Archaolof/y (Lond. 1868), p. 407.
Oceaiiica, the name given to the fifth division of the globe, comprising all the islands which intervene between the south-eastern shores of the continent of Asia and the western shores of the American continent. It naturally divides itself into three great sections — Ma- lay Archipelago, Australasia (q. v.) or Melanesia, and Polynesia (q. v.).