HOMILY (Greek, homilia, intercourse), as an ecclesiastical term, a discourse addressed to an audience on some subject of religion. The homily was so called to distinguish it from the speeches of profane orators. The ancient hom ily was sometimes simply a conversation, the prelate talking to the people and interrogating them, and they in turn talking to and interro gating him. The difference between the homily and the sermon was the entire absence of ora torical display from the former, and the eluci dation of the Scriptural text in natural order, without throwing the exposition into the form of an essay.
The earliest existing examples of the hom ily proper are those of Origen in the 3d cen tury. In the schools of Alexandria and An tioch this form of discourse was sedulously cultivated, and Clement of Alexandria, Di onysius and Gregory Thaumaturgus are among the names most eminent in this department. Augustine and Gregory the Great were among the Western composers of homilies. Later still Bede, several of the popes and foreign ecclesi astics still adhered to the homiletic form of exposition as the most suitable to impress the truths of Scripture with efficacy on the popu lar mind.
In the Church of England there were two books of homilies that were long authoritative, and are still sometimes appealed to to settle disputes as to what the Anglican doctrine is in points on which they hear.
a variety of the com mon pigeon in which the love of home and power of flight have been developed to make the bird useful and reliable as a bearer of messages; also a fancy variety characterized by the possession of certain definite points, but not necessarily useful as a homer. The show carrier-pigeon is a large, long-necked variety, with abnormally developed wattles about the base of the beak and round the eyes, but the true homer is of smaller size and lacks the enormous tuberculated growth.
The training and breeding of homing-pig eons were long almost confined to Belgium, and two main types of the Belgian homer have been distingsfisked as the Antwerp and the Liege varieties, the former being larger but less graceful in form than the latter. American
-pigeon fanciers breed mainly from the Ant werp type, and the birds are commonly desig cated Antwerp.
The training of a homing-pigeon begins when it is about three months old. It may then be taken to a distance of about a mile from its loft in ,a suitable direction and liber ated in order that it may fly back. After an interval of a day or two it should be carried three miles from home in the same direction and set free, and on the third occasion, a few days later still,. the distance is usually increased to six miles. This mode of training is con tinued steadily during the season, the succes sive distances above those already mentioned 25, 50, 75, 96, 125, 155 and 200 miles. The intervals of rest must be carefully pre served especially in times when the weather is unfavorable. During the bird's second season it is made to repeat something of its first year's performances and to extend its flight to 250 miles or possibly to a greater distance. Dur ing the following three seasons good birds will be at their best, and even for some few years later they may do good work. During the training period and also at other times the housing and feeding of the birds must be care fully attended to.
Velocities of over 30 yards per second have been recorded for various pigeons, but the aver age velocity is rather less than half that amount, One bird, in 1896, actually covered the from Thurso to London, just over 500 miles, within one day, its average velocity being about 24 yards per second. In unfavor able weather the height attained varies from about 320 to rather. over 400 feet, but in good weather some birds will reach a height of about 1,000 feet. The distance from Algiers to Paris, fully 1,100 miles, is one of the longest on rec ord as been traveled by a pigeon.