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ProCD v. Zeidenberg/Opinion of the Court

[p1448] EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Must buyers of computer software obey the terms of shrinkwrap licenses? The [p1449]  district court held not, for two reasons: first, they are not contracts because the licenses are inside the box rather than printed on the outside; second, federal law forbids enforcement even if the licenses are contracts. 908 F. Supp. 640 (W.D. Wis. 1996). The parties and numerous amici curiae have briefed many other issues, but these are the only two that matter--and we disagree with the district judge's conclusion on each. Shrinkwrap licenses are enforceable unless their terms are objectionable on grounds applicable to contracts in general (for example, if they violate a rule of positive law, or if they are unconscionable). Because no one argues that the terms of the license at issue here are troublesome, we remand with instructions to enter judgment for the plaintiff.

I
ProCD, the plaintiff, has compiled information from more than 3,000 telephone directories into a computer database. We may assume that this database cannot be copyrighted, although it is more complex, contains more information (nine-digit zip codes and census industrial codes), is organized differently, and therefore is more original than the single alphabetical directory at issue in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, 113 L. Ed. 2d 358, 111 S.C.t. 1282 (1991). See Paul J. Heald, The Vices of Originality, 1991 Sup. Ct. Rev. 143, 160-68. ProCD sells a version of the database, called SelectPhone (trademark), on CD-ROM discs. (CD-ROM means "compact disc--read only memory." The "shrinkwrap license" gets its name from the fact that retail software packages are covered in plastic or cellophane "shrinkwrap," and some vendors, though not ProCD, have written licenses that become effective as soon as the customer tears the wrapping from the package. Vendors prefer "end user license," but we use the more common term.) A proprietary method of compressing the data serves as effective encryption too. Customers decrypt and use the data with the aid of an application program that ProCD has written. This program, which is copyrighted, searches the database in response to users' criteria (such as "find all people named Tatum in Tennessee, plus all firms with 'Door Systems' in the corporate name"). The resulting lists (or, as ProCD prefers, "listings") can be read and manipulated by other software, such as word processing programs.

The database in SelectPhone (trademark) cost more than $ 10 million to compile and is expensive to keep current. It is much more valuable to some users than to others. The combination of names, addresses, and sic codes enables manufacturers to compile lists of potential customers. Manufacturers and retailers pay high prices to specialized information intermediaries for such mailing lists; ProCD offers a potentially cheaper alternative. People with nothing to sell could use the database as a substitute for calling long distance information, or as a way to look up old friends who have moved to unknown towns, or just as a electronic substitute for the local phone book. ProCD decided to engage in price discrimination, selling its database to the general public for personal use at a low price (approximately $ 150 for the set of five discs) while selling information to the trade for a higher price. It has adopted some intermediate strategies too: access to the SelectPhone (trademark) database is available via the America On-line service for the price America Online charges to its clients (approximately $ 3 per hour), but this service has been tailored to be useful only to the general public.

If ProCD had to recover all of its costs and make a profit by charging a single price--that is, if it could not charge more to commercial users than to the general public--it would have to raise the price substantially over $ 150. The ensuing reduction in sales would harm consumers who value the information at, say, $ 200. They get consumer surplus of $ 50 under the current arrangement but would cease to buy if the price rose substantially. If because of high elasticity of demand in the consumer segment of the market the only way to make a profit turned out to be a price attractive to commercial users alone, then all consumers would lose out--and so would the commercial clients, who would have to pay more for the listings because ProCD could not obtain any contribution toward costs from the consumer market.

[p1450] To make price discrimination work, however, the seller must be able to control arbitrage. An air carrier sells tickets for less to vacationers than to business travelers, using advance purchase and Saturday-night-stay requirements to distinguish the categories. A producer of movies segments the market by time, releasing first to theaters, then to pay-per-view services, next to the videotape and laserdisc market, and finally to cable and commercial tv. Vendors of computer software have a harder task. Anyone can walk into a retail store and buy a box. Customers do not wear tags saying "commercial user" or "consumer user." Anyway, even a commercial-user-detector at the door would not work, because a consumer could buy the software and resell to a commercial user. That arbitrage would break down the price discrimination and drive up the minimum price at which ProCD would sell to anyone.

Instead of tinkering with the product and letting users sort themselves--for example, furnishing current data at a high price that would be attractive only to commercial customers, and two-year-old data at a low price--ProCD turned to the institution of contract. Every box containing its consumer product declares that the software comes with restrictions stated in an enclosed license. This license, which is encoded on the CD-ROM disks as well as printed in the manual, and which appears on a user's screen every time the software runs, limits use of the application program and listings to non-commercial purposes.

Matthew Zeidenberg bought a consumer package of SelectPhone (trademark) in 1994 from a retail outlet in Madison, Wisconsin, but decided to ignore the license. He formed Silken Mountain Web Services, Inc., to resell the information in the SelectPhone (trademark) database. The corporation makes the database available on the Internet to anyone willing to pay its price--which, needless to say, is less than ProCD charges its commercial customers. Zeidenberg has purchased two additional SelectPhone (trademark) packages, each with an updated version of the database, and made the latest information available over the World Wide Web, for a price, through his corporation. ProCD filed this suit seeking an injunction against further dissemination that exceeds the rights specified in the licenses (identical in each of the three packages Zeidenberg purchased). The district court held the licenses ineffectual because their terms do not appear on the outside of the packages. The court added that the second and third licenses stand no different from the first, even though they are identical, because they might have been different, and a purchaser does not agree to--and cannot be bound by--terms that were secret at the time of purchase. 908 F. Supp. at 654.

II
Following the district court, we treat the licenses as ordinary contracts accompanying the sale of products, and therefore as governed by the common law of contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code. Whether there are legal differences between "contracts" and "licenses" (which may matter under the copyright doctrine of first sale) is a subject for another day. See Microsoft Corp. v. Harmony Computers & Electronics, Inc., 846 F. Supp. 208 (E.D. N.Y. 1994). Zeidenberg does not argue that Silken Mountain Web Services is free of any restrictions that apply to Zeidenberg himself, because any effort to treat the two parties as distinct would put Silken Mountain behind the eight ball on ProCD's argument that copying the application program onto its hard disk violates the copyright laws. Zeidenberg does argue, and the district court held, that placing the package of software on the shelf is an "offer," which the customer "accepts" by paying the asking price and leaving the store with the goods. Peeters v. State, 154 Wis. 111, 142 N.W. 181 (1913). In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, a contract includes only the terms on which the parties have agreed. One cannot agree to hidden terms, the judge concluded. So far, so good--but one of the terms to which Zeidenberg agreed by purchasing the software is that the transaction was subject to a license. Zeidenberg's position therefore must be that the printed terms on the outside of a box are the parties' contract--except for printed terms that refer to or incorporate other terms. But why would Wisconsin fetter the parties' choice in this [p1451]  way? Vendors can put the entire terms of a contract on the outside of a box only by using microscopic type, removing other information that buyers might find more useful (such as what the software does, and on which computers it works), or both. The "Read Me" file included with most software, describing system requirements and potential incompatibilities, may be equivalent to ten pages of type; warranties and license restrictions take still more space. Notice on the outside, terms on the inside, and a right to return the software for a refund if the terms are unacceptable (a right that the license expressly extends), may be a means of doing business valuable to buyers and sellers alike. See E. Allan Farnsworth, 1 Farnsworth on Contracts § 4.26 (1990); Restatement (2d) of Contracts § 211 comment a (1981) ("Standardization of agreements serves many of the same functions as standardization of goods and services; both are essential to a system of mass production and distribution. Scarce and costly time and skill can be devoted to a class of transactions rather than the details of individual transactions."). Doubtless a state could forbid the use of standard contracts in the software business, but we do not think that Wisconsin has done so.

Transactions in which the exchange of money precedes the communication of detailed terms are common. Consider the purchase of insurance. The buyer goes to an agent, who explains the essentials (amount of coverage, number of years) and remits the premium to the home office, which sends back a policy. On the district judge's understanding, the terms of the policy are irrelevant because the insured paid before receiving them. Yet the device of payment, often with a "binder" (so that the insurance takes effect immediately even though the home office reserves the right to withdraw coverage later), in advance of the policy, serves buyers' interests by accelerating effectiveness and reducing transactions costs. Or consider the purchase of an airline ticket. The traveler calls the carrier or an agent, is quoted a price, reserves a seat, pays, and gets a ticket, in that order. The ticket contains elaborate terms, which the traveler can reject by canceling the reservation. To use the ticket is to accept the terms, even terms that in retrospect are disadvantageous. See Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585, 113 L. Ed. 2d 622, 111 S.C.t. 1522 (1991); see also Vimar Seguros y Reaseguros, S.A. v. M/V Sky Reefer, 132 L. Ed. 2d 462, 115 S.C.t. 2322 (1995) (bills of lading). Just so with a ticket to a concert. The back of the ticket states that the patron promises not to record the concert; to attend is to agree. A theater that detects a violation will confiscate the tape and escort the violator to the exit. One could arrange things so that every concertgoer signs this promise before forking over the money, but that cumbersome way of doing things not only would lengthen queues and raise prices but also would scotch the sale of tickets by phone or electronic data service.

Consumer goods work the same way. Someone who wants to buy a radio set visits a store, pays, and walks out with a box. Inside the box is a leaflet containing some terms, the most important of which usually is the warranty, read for the first time in the comfort of home. By Zeidenberg's lights, the warranty in the box is irrelevant; every consumer gets the standard warranty implied by the UCC in the event the contract is silent; yet so far as we are aware no state disregards warranties furnished with consumer products. Drugs come with a list of ingredients on the outside and an elaborate package insert on the inside. The package insert describes drug interactions, contraindications, and other vital information--but, if Zeidenberg is right, the purchaser need not read the package insert, because it is not part of the contract.

Next consider the software industry itself. Only a minority of sales take place over the counter, where there are boxes to peruse. A customer may place an order by phone in response to a line item in a catalog or a review in a magazine. Much software is ordered over the Internet by purchasers who have never seen a box. Increasingly software arrives by wire. There is no box; there is only a stream of electrons, a collection of information that includes data, an application program, instructions, many limitations ("MegaPixel 3.14159 cannot be used with Byte-Pusher 2.718"), and the terms of [p1452]  sale. The user purchases a serial number, which activates the software's features. On Zeidenberg's arguments, these unboxed sales are unfettered by terms--so the seller has made a broad warranty and must pay consequential damages for any shortfalls in performance, two "promises" that if taken seriously would drive prices through the ceiling or return transactions to the horse-and-buggy age.

According to the district court, the UCC does not countenance the sequence of money now, terms later. (Wisconsin's version of the UCC does not differ from the Official Version in any material respect, so we use the regular numbering system. Wis. Stat. § 402.201 corresponds to UCC § 2-201, and other citations are easy to derive.) One of the court's reasons--that by proposing as part of the draft Article 2B a new UCC § 2-2203 that would explicitly validate standard-form user licenses, the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws have conceded the invalidity of shrinkwrap licenses under current law, see 908 F. Supp. at 655-66--depends on a faulty inference. To propose a change in a law's text is not necessarily to propose a change in the law's effect. New words may be designed to fortify the current rule with a more precise text that curtails uncertainty. To judge by the flux of law review articles discussing shrinkwrap licenses, uncertainty is much in need of reduction--although businesses seem to feel less uncertainty than do scholars, for only three cases (other than ours) touch on the subject, and none directly addresses it. See Step-Saver Data Systems, Inc. v. Wyse Technology, 939 F.2d 91 (3d Cir. 1991); Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd., 847 F.2d 255, 268-70 (5th Cir. 1988); Arizona Retail Systems, Inc. v. Software Link, Inc., 831 F. Supp. 759 (D. Ariz. 1993). As their titles suggest, these are not consumer transactions. Step-Saver is a battle-of-the-forms case, in which the parties exchange incompatible forms and a court must decide which prevails. See Northrop Corp. v. Litronic Industries, 29 F.3d 1173 (7th Cir. 1994) (Illinois law); Douglas G. Baird & Robert Weisberg, Rules, Standards, and the Battle of the Forms: A Reassessment of § 2-207, 68 Va. L. Rev. 1217, 1227-31 (1982). Our case has only one form; UCC § 2-207 is irrelevant. Vault holds that Louisiana's special shrinkwrap-license statute is preempted by federal law, a question to which we return. And Arizona Retail Systems did not reach the question, because the court found that the buyer knew the terms of the license before purchasing the software.

What then does the current version of the UCC have to say? We think that the place to start is § 2-204(1): "A contract for sale of goods may be made in any manner sufficient to show agreement, including conduct by both parties which recognizes the existence of such a contract." A vendor, as master of the offer, may invite acceptance by conduct, and may propose limitations on the kind of conduct that constitutes acceptance. A buyer may accept by performing the acts the vendor proposes to treat as acceptance. And that is what happened. ProCD proposed a contract that a buyer would accept by using the software after having an opportunity to read the license at leisure. This Zeidenberg did. He had no choice, because the software splashed the license on the screen and would not let him proceed without indicating acceptance. So although the district judge was right to say that a contract can be, and often is, formed simply by paying the price and walking out of the store, the UCC permits contracts to be formed in other ways. ProCD proposed such a different way, and without protest Zeidenberg agreed. Ours is not a case in which a consumer opens a package to find an insert saying "you owe us an extra $ 10,000" and the seller files suit to collect. Any buyer finding such a demand can prevent formation of the contract by returning the package, as can any consumer who concludes that the terms of the license make the software worth less than the purchase price. Nothing in the UCC requires a seller to maximize the buyer's net gains.

Section 2-606, which defines "acceptance of goods", reinforces this understanding. A buyer accepts goods under § 2-606(1)(b) when, after an opportunity to inspect, he fails to make an effective rejection under § 2-602(1). ProCD extended an opportunity to reject if a buyer should find the license terms [p1453]  unsatisfactory; Zeidenberg inspected the package, tried out the software, learned of the license, and did not reject the goods. We refer to § 2-606 only to show that the opportunity to return goods can be important; acceptance of an offer differs from acceptance of goods after delivery, see Gillen v. Atalanta Systems, Inc., 997 F.2d 280, 284 n.1 (7th Cir. 1993); but the UCC consistently permits the parties to structure their relations so that the buyer has a chance to make a final decision after a detailed review.

Some portions of the UCC impose additional requirements on the way parties agree on terms. A disclaimer of the implied warranty of merchantability must be "conspicuous." UCC § 2-316(2), incorporating UCC § 1-201(10). Promises to make firm offers, or to negate oral modifications, must be "separately signed." UCC §§ 2-205, 2-209(2). These special provisos reinforce the impression that, so far as the UCC is concerned, other terms may be as inconspicuous as the forum-selection clause on the back of the cruise ship ticket in Carnival Lines. Zeidenberg has not located any Wisconsin case--for that matter, any case in any state--holding that under the UCC the ordinary terms found in shrinkwrap licenses require any special prominence, or otherwise are to be undercut rather than enforced. In the end, the terms of the license are conceptually identical to the contents of the package. Just as no court would dream of saying that SelectPhone (trademark) must contain 3,100 phone books rather than 3,000, or must have data no more than 30 days old, or must sell for $ 100 rather than $ 150--although any of these changes would be welcomed by the customer, if all other things were held constant--so, we believe, Wisconsin would not let the buyer pick and choose among terms. Terms of use are no less a part of "the product" than are the size of the database and the speed with which the software compiles listings. Competition among vendors, not judicial revision of a package's contents, is how consumers are protected in a market economy. Digital Equipment Corp. v. Uniq Digital Technologies, Inc., 73 F.3d 756 (7th Cir. 1996). ProCD has rivals, which may elect to compete by offering superior software, monthly updates, improved terms of use, lower price, or a better compromise among these elements. As we stressed above, adjusting terms in buyers' favor might help Matthew Zeidenberg today (he already has the software) but would lead to a response, such as a higher price, that might make consumers as a whole worse off.

III
The district court held that, even if Wisconsin treats shrinkwrap licenses as contracts, § 301(a) of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 301(a), prevents their enforcement. 908 F. Supp. at 656-59. The relevant part of § 301(a) preempts any "legal or equitable rights [under state law] that are equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright as specified by section 106 in works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression and come within the subject matter of copyright as specified by sections 102 and 103". ProCD's software and data are "fixed in a tangible medium of expression", and the district judge held that they are "within the subject matter of copyright". The latter conclusion is plainly right for the copyrighted application program, and the judge thought that the data likewise are "within the subject matter of copyright" even if, after Feist, they are not sufficiently original to be copyrighted. 908 F. Supp. at 656-57. Baltimore Orioles, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Players Ass'n, 805 F.2d 663, 676 (7th Cir. 1986), supports that conclusion, with which commentators agree. E.g., Paul Goldstein, III Copyright § 15.2.3 (2d ed. 1996); Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 101[B] (1995); William F. Patry, II Copyright Law and Practice 1108-09 (1994). One function of § 301(a) is to prevent states from giving special protection to works of authorship that Congress has decided should be in the public domain, which it can accomplish only if "subject matter of copyright" includes all works of a type covered by sections 102 and 103, even if federal law does not afford protection to them. Cf. Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., 489 U.S. 141, 103 L. Ed. 2d 118, 109 S.C.t. 971 (1989) (same principle under patent laws).

[p1454] But are rights created by contract "equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright"? Three courts of appeals have answered "no." National Car Rental Systems, Inc. v. Computer Associates International, Inc., 991 F.2d 426, 433 (8th Cir. 1993); Taquino v. Teledyne Monarch Rubber, 893 F.2d 1488, 1501 (5th Cir. 1990); Acorn Structures, Inc. v. Swantz, 846 F.2d 923, 926 (4th Cir. 1988). The district court disagreed with these decisions, 908 F. Supp. at 658, but we think them sound. Rights "equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright" are rights established by law--rights that restrict the options of persons who are strangers to the author. Copyright law forbids duplication, public performance, and so on, unless the person wishing to copy or perform the work gets permission; silence means a ban on copying. A copyright is a right against the world. Contracts, by contrast, generally affect only their parties; strangers may do as they please, so contracts do not create "exclusive rights." Someone who found a copy of SelectPhone (trademark) on the street would not be affected by the shrinkwrap license--though the federal copyright laws of their own force would limit the finder's ability to copy or transmit the application program.

Think for a moment about trade secrets. One common trade secret is a customer list. After Feist, a simple alphabetical list of a firm's customers, with address and telephone numbers, could not be protected by copyright. Yet Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp., 416 U.S. 470, 40 L. Ed. 2d 315, 94 S.C.t. 1879 (1974), holds that contracts about trade secrets may be enforced--precisely because they do not affect strangers' ability to discover and use the information independently. If the amendment of § 301(a) in 1976 overruled Kewanee and abolished consensual protection of those trade secrets that cannot be copyrighted, no one has noticed--though abolition is a logical consequence of the district court's approach. Think, too, about everyday transactions in intellectual property. A customer visits a video store and rents a copy of Night of the Lepus. The customer's contract with the store limits use of the tape to home viewing and requires its return in two days. May the customer keep the tape, on the ground that § 301(a) makes the promise unenforceable?

A law student uses the LEXIS database, containing public-domain documents, under a contract limiting the results to educational endeavors; may the student resell his access to this database to a law firm from which LEXIS seeks to collect a much higher hourly rate? Suppose ProCD hires a firm to scour the nation for telephone directories, promising to pay $ 100 for each that ProCD does not already have. The firm locates 100 new directories, which it sends to ProCD with an invoice for $ 10,000. ProCD incorporates the directories into its database; does it have to pay the bill? Surely yes; Aronson v. Quick Point Pencil Co., 440 U.S. 257, 59 L. Ed. 2d 296, 99 S.C.t. 1096 (1979), holds that promises to pay for intellectual property may be enforced even though federal law (in Aronson, the patent law) offers no protection against third-party uses of that property. See also Kennedy v. Wright, 851 F.2d 963 (7th Cir. 1988). But these illustrations are what our case is about. ProCD offers software and data for two prices: one for personal use, a higher price for commercial use. Zeidenberg wants to use the data without paying the seller's price; if the law student and Quick Point Pencil Co. could not do that, neither can Zeidenberg.

Although Congress possesses power to preempt even the enforcement of contracts about intellectual property--or railroads, on which ''see Norfolk & Western Ry. v. Train Dispatchers,'' 499 U.S. 117, 111 S.C.t. 1156, 113 L. Ed. 2d 95 (1991)--courts usually read preemption clauses to leave private contracts unaffected. American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 130 L. Ed. 2d 715, 115 S.C.t. 817 (1995), provides a nice illustration. A federal statute preempts any state "law, rule, regulation, standard, or other provision . . . relating to rates, routes, or services of any air carrier." 49 U.S.C. App. § 1305(a)(1). Does such a law preempt the law of contracts--so that, for example, an air carrier need not honor a quoted price (or a contract to reduce the price by the value of frequent flyer miles)? The Court allowed that it is possible to read the statute that [p1455]  broadly but thought such an interpretation would make little sense. Terms and conditions offered by contract reflect private ordering, essential to the efficient functioning of markets. 115 S.C.t. at 824-25. Although some principles that carry the name of contract law are designed to defeat rather than implement consensual transactions, id. at 826 n.8, the rules that respect private choice are not preempted by a clause such as § 1305(a)(1). Section 301(a) plays a role similar to § 1301(a)(1): it prevents states from substituting their own regulatory systems for those of the national government. Just as § 301(a) does not itself interfere with private transactions in intellectual property, so it does not prevent states from respecting those transactions. Like the Supreme Court in Wolens, we think it prudent to refrain from adopting a rule that anything with the label "contract" is necessarily outside the preemption clause: the variations and possibilities are too numerous to foresee. National Car Rental likewise recognizes the possibility that some applications of the law of contract could interfere with the attainment of national objectives and therefore come within the domain of § 301(a). But general enforcement of shrinkwrap licenses of the kind before us does not create such interference.

Aronson emphasized that enforcement of the contract between Aronson and Quick Point Pencil Company would not withdraw any information from the public domain. That is equally true of the contract between ProCD and Zeidenberg. Everyone remains free to copy and disseminate all 3,000 telephone books that have been incorporated into ProCD's database. Anyone can add sic codes and zip codes. ProCD's rivals have done so. Enforcement of the shrinkwrap license may even make information more readily available, by reducing the price ProCD charges to consumer buyers. To the extent licenses facilitate distribution of object code while concealing the source code (the point of a clause forbidding disassembly), they serve the same procompetitive functions as does the law of trade secrets. Rockwell Graphic Systems, Inc. v. DEV Industries, Inc., 925 F.2d 174, 180 (7th Cir. 1991). Licenses may have other benefits for consumers: many licenses permit users to make extra copies, to use the software on multiple computers, even to incorporate the software into the user's products. But whether a particular license is generous or restrictive, a simple two-party contract is not "equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright" and therefore may be enforced.

REVERSED AND REMANDED


text: Talk:ProCD v. Zeidenberg

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:ProCD v. Zeidenberg


text: Index:Tom Thumb's picture alphabet.djvu

title: Index:Tom Thumb's picture alphabet.djvu


text:
Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/16

8 will be to love, to admire, and to imitate; and that never, at any point of time, past, present, or to come, can a true Poet be defrauded of his just fame.

But we need not speak of Poets alone (though we have done so at present to expose the miserable pretensions of Mr Coleridge), but look through all the bright ranks of men distinguished by mental power, in whatever department of human science. It is our faith, that without moral there can be no intellectual grandeur; and surely the self-conceit and arrogance which we have been exposing, are altogether incompatible with lofty feelings and majestic principles. It is the Dwarf alone who endeavours to strut himself into the height of the surrounding company; but the man of princely stature seems unconscious of the strength in which nevertheless he rejoices, and only sees his superiority in the gaze of admiration which he commands. Look at the most inventive spirits of this country,—those whose intellects have achieved the most memorable triumphs. Take, for example, Leslie in physical science, and what airs of majesty does he ever assume? What is Samuel Coleridge compared to such a man? What is an ingenious and fanciful versifier to him who has, like a magician, gained command over the very elements of nature,—who has realized the fictions of Poetry,—and to whom Frost and Fire are ministering and obedient spirits? But of this enough.—It is a position that doubtless might require some modification, but in the main, it is and must be true, that real Greatness, whether in Intellect, Genius, or Virtue, is dignified and unostentatious; and that no potent spirit ever whimpered over the blindness of the age to his merits, and, like Mr Coleridge, or a child blubbering for the moon, with clamorous outcries implored and imprecated reputation.

The very first sentence of this Literary Biography shews how incompetent Mr Coleridge is for the task he has undertaken.

"It has been my lot to have had my name introduced both in conversation and in print, more frequently than I find it easy to explain; whether I consider the fewness, unimportance, and limited circulation of my writings, or the retirement and distance in which I have lived, both from the literary and political world."

Now, it is obvious, that if his writings be few, and unimportant, and unknown, Mr Coleridge can have no reason for composing his Literary Biography. Yet in singular contradiction to himself—

"If," says he, at page 217, vol. i. "the compositions which I have made public, and that too in a form the most certain of an extensive circulation, though the least flattering to an author's self-love, had been published in books, they would have filled a respectable number of volumes."

He then adds,

"Seldom have I written that in a day, the acquisition or investigation of which had not cost me the precious labour of a month!"

He then bursts out into this magnificent exclamation,

"Would that the criterion of a scholar's ability were the number and moral value of the truths which he has been the means of throwing into general circulation!"

And he sums up all by declaring,

"By what I have effected am I to be judged by my fellow men."

The truth is, that Mr Coleridge has lived, as much as any man of his time, in literary and political society, and that he has sought every opportunity of keeping himself in the eye of the public, as restlessly as any charlatan who ever exhibited on the stage. To use his own words, "In 1794, when I had barely passed the verge of manhood, I published a small volume of juvenile poems." These poems, by dint of puffing, reached a third edition; and though Mr Coleridge pretends now to think but little of them, it is amusing to see how vehemently he defends them against criticism, and how pompously he speaks of such paltry trifles. "They were marked by an ease and simplicity which I have studied, perhaps with inferior success, to bestow on my later compositions." But he afterwards repents of this sneer at his later compositions, and tells us, that they have nearly reached his standard of perfection! Indeed, his vanity extends farther back than his juvenile poems; and he says, "For a school boy, I was above par in English versification, and had already produced two or three compositions, which I may venture to say, without reference to my age, were somewhat above mediocrity. Happily he has preserved one of those wonderful productions of his precocious boyhood, and our readers will judge for themselves what a clever child it was.


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Gratiot v. United States (45 U.S. 80)/Dissent McLean

Mr. Justice McLEAN dissented.

When the decision in this case was announced, I did not intend to file a written dissent; but as the case is important to the plaintiff in error, beyond the damages recovered, and as the counsel desire the views of all the members of the court of the points ruled, I shall, in a very few words, state the ground of my dissent.

Many depositions were read in this case to show the usage of the government in regard to pay, in the military service for extra services performed; and also as to what constituted the appropriate duties of the chief of the Engineer Department. A great variety of facts were thus proved, having a direct bearing upon the duties of the plaintiff and the services stated by him as extra, as not appertaining to his office, and for which he claimed a compensation. A number of instances were referred to where pay had been allowed for extra services under the decisions of this court, and a much greater number under the general usage of the government. Among other instructions, General Gratiot's counsel asked the court to instruct the jury, 'that if they find from the evidence, that the defendant, by the direction of the President or Secretary at War, performed any of the services charged for in the last item of his account, being the said item attached to Fowler's deposition, and that the services so rendered were out of the limits of his official duties as chief engineer, he is entitled to compensation for such extra services as a set-off in this action.'

'The court refused this instruction, because the whole evidence in the cause, without any exception, is written evidence, which the court is called on to construe and apply, and not the jury; and from such evidence to ascertain, as matter of law, what were the defendant's duties and acts; and taking all the evidence and construing it the most favorably for the fedendant, performed any service showing or tending to show the defendant performed any service not appertaining to his duties as chief engineer; and for the proper instruction on the item referred to, the eighth instruction is to govern the jury.'

The eighth instruction need not be repeated, as it asserts the same principles contained above, in which be court left nothing for the jury. When this case was before this court, 15 Peters, 371, the court, in referring to the act of 1802, which provided for the organization of the Engineer Corps, cited the 27th section, which declares, 'that the said corps when so organized shall be established at West Point, in the State of New York, and shall constitute a military academy; and the engineers, assistant engineers, and cadets of the said corps shall be subject, at all times, to do duty in such places, and on such service, as the President of the United States shall direct.' The court observe,-'However broad this enactment is in its language, it never has been supposed to authorize the President to employ the Corps of Engineers upon any other duty, except such as belongs either to military engineering, or to civil engineering.' 'But assuming the President possessed the fullest power, under this enactment, from time to time to employ any officers of the corps in the business of civil engineering, still it must be obvious, that, as their pay and emoluments were or would be regulated with reference to their ordinary military and other duties, the power of the President to detach them upon other civil services would not preclude him from contracting to allow such detached officers a proper compensation for any extra services. Such a contract may not only be established by proof of some positive regulation, but may also be inferred from the known practice and usage of the War Department.'

Gen. J. G. Swift, who was formerly at the head of the Engineer Corps, in his deposition, which was read as evidence, said,-'I have looked over the account hereto attached, amounting to $37,127.42, and am of opinion that the business or functions therein charged do not pertain to the functions of a civil engineer, nor do they pertain to the functions of a military engineer.' And he states, that while chief of the Engineer Corps he received additional compensation for extra services.

Major McNeil, a witness, and who is a civil engineer, states, on being requested 'to look at the account of Charles Gratiot, hereto annexed or appended, and state whether the services therein charged belong to civil engineering or military engineering, or to either,' answered,-'I should say that they would be classed under neither. They do not belong to the duties of the engineer, either civil or military.'

Captain Talcott held a commission in the Engineer Corps, from August, 1818, to September, 1836, and he states, that while in the corps for extra services he received extra allowances. And he also says,-'I have examined the account' (of General Gratiot) 'appended, and am of opinion that the several items of services charged for do not appertain to either military or civil engineering.' And further,-'I do not consider them the appropriate duties of the chief engineer, or of any other engineer.'

It is admitted, that so far as the duties of the chief of engineers were regulated by law, or by regulations of the War Department, they may be considered as matter of law for the court, but much parol evidence was heard as to the appropriate duties of that officer, and to ascertain what part of the services charged for came within such duties. Now these were matters of fact for the jury, and not for the court. The claim was to be allowed or rejected, according to the usage of the department, and that usage, like every other fact not established by judicial decision, is a subject of proof.

The depositions above referred to were only a part of those which were read in evidence. Other witnesses differed with those I have cited, as to some of the material facts stated, and to determine this conflict was the peculiar province of the jury. But the whole evidence was ruled by the court, and not permitted to be weighed by the jury. On this ground, I think the judgment should be reversed.

This ruling is attempted to be sustained by the view of the court in the case in 15 Peters, above cited.

The third item charged by General Gratiot, in the account then relied on, was as follows:-'For extra services, in conducting the affairs connected with the civil works of internal improvement carried on by the United States, and referred to the Engineer Department for execution, and which did not constitute any part of his duties as a military officer, from the 1st day of August, 1828, to the 6th day of December, 1838, inclusive, ten years and one hundred and twenty-eight days, at $3,600 per annum, $37,262.46.' And in their opinion in that case, the court did say, 'As to the 3d item, constituting a charge of $37,262.46, for extra services, in conducting the affairs connected with the civil works of internal improvement, very different considerations may apply. The court are of opinion, that this item has no just foundation in law; and therefore, that the evidence which was offered in support of it, if admitted, would not have maintained it.' The reason assigned by the court was, that the services specified came within the official and ordinary duties of the office.

Now, the account rendered at the last trial differed in amount, though the difference is small, from the one charged in the first account, and to which the above remarks of the court are applicable. But there is a much greater difference.

The items of service are specified in the last account, spreading over several pages, instead of the general charge cited. And the depositions which I have referred to, and others not named, were taken in the cause subsequently to the delivery of the above opinion. The facts thus thrown into the case gave it a new aspect. They particularized the service, and showed, by distinguished engineers, what did and what did not belong to the duties of General Gratiot, as chief of engineers.

In the opinion of the court, the service, as generalized in the first account, being connected with internal improvements, came within the general regulations of the War Department, and might, therefore, in their opinion, be decided as matter of law. However this may be, I hold that the new and numerous facts proved as to usage and the extra duties of General Gratiot were matters for the jury and not for the court; consequently, that there was error in withholding them from the jury.

In his account, General Gratiot charged the government for the disbursement of upwards of eighteen millions of dollars for 'fortifications, internal improvement, light-houses and beacons, Military Academy, lithographic piers, northwest executive buildings, and northern boundary of Ohio.'

The transcript containing the above charge was regularly certified by the Treasury Department as having been presented by General Gratiot, and disallowed, 'as not admissible against the treasury.' That the services charged for were rendered was not disputed.

Benjamin Fowler, a clerk in the Engineer Department, testified that the services, as charged by General Gratiot, had been performed.

In their second instruction, the court informed the jury that the defendant was not entitled to any credit for commissions on disbursements on account of appropriations for fortifications, as charged by him. Of this item, the only evidence in the cause is that furnished by the transcript introduced by the United States, as the principal evidence on which the defendant is charged, and the evidence thereby furnished, is not sufficient to authorize the jury to allow the defendant the credit claimed. The same instruction was substantially given in regard to disbursements for fortifications, and for other objects, as charged.

Now it would seem that the transcript above stated, certified by the Treasury as containing General Gratiot's account disallowed, proved the services charged were rendered; and they were also proved by Fowler, whose deposition was taken in 1842, since this case was before us on the former writ of error. And whatever part of those disbursements did not appropriately belong to the office of General Gratiot, under the usage of the War Department and the opinion of this court in the former case, would constitute a fair ground for compensation.

Some of the other instructions might be commented on, in reference to the evidence, but I deem it unnecessary to do so, as in my opinion the judgment should be reversed on the grounds already stated.


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Page:The poetical works of William Blake, 1906 - Volume 1.djvu/296

 258 BLAKE'S POEMS and to the human form of God, and to the praise of 'good-ness.' He is derided for not having made prophetic books of his own. Blake now proceeds to ' out-do ' him, and continues the same system ever afterwards. 'JEHOVAH/ ' HEAVEN/ AND 'HELL' ' Jehovah ' is itself, of course, no more a sacred name than the French exclamation Par bleu ! is a binding oath. The original name is well known to be irrecoverably lost, because during too long a period the commandment that forbids taking this name in vain was understood as forbidding its pronun-ciation in conversation or its record in history. The speaking of it once a year by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies hailing ceased, — we do not know why, — it was lost altogether. ' Jehovah' therefore is simply a guess-work substitute, and we may well ask ourselves how much of substitute and of gucss-ivork on the subject of its meaning the Owner of the lost name allowed to arise among men, or how much of such conjecture represents truth.

Blake offers his own reading: — 'After Christ's death, He (who divells in flaming fire) became Jehovah.' — 'Marriage of Heaven and Hell, ' page 6. This He is the impersonation of fatherhood, and therefore in a more elementary state (before the death of Christ) was the great Desirer, the Spirit of Desire in all men — called (says Blake) Satan by Milton in ' Paradise Lost. ' Blake's own use of the word Satan, first indicated in the close of 'The Ghost of Abel,' is elaborated in 'Jerusalem.' The Creator, as distinguished from the Father — or, in the 'Book of Genesis,' Elohim, as distinguished from Jehovah, is kept apart as a separate idea all through Blake's work. In the close of the book of 'The Ghost of Abel,' he writes the two names in a way that suggests an idea closely resembling that ' of Hengstenberg in the passage, ' Hitherto that Being who, in one aspect, was Jehovah, in another had always been Elohim.The great crisis now dreio nigh 'in which Jehovah Elohim would be changed into Jehovah.' The obscurantism of all keepers of sacred tradition is not yet quite cast off even in our own day, for the authorised version of the Bible still fails to denote the particular places where the particular names come in either by printing them as they stood or by using uniform, equivalents with an initial code vocabulary. In Blake's last book, 'Milton,' the word Jehovah only occurs seven times — Page 6, line 27 ; page 7, line 22 ; page 10, lines 20, 24, and 25 ; page 11, lines 24, 26. The first


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Ixion (Browning)

High in the dome, suspended, of Hell, sad triumph, behold us! Here the revenge of a God, there the amends of a Man. Whirling forever in torment, flesh once mortal, immortal Made — for a purpose of hate — able to die and revive, Pays to the uttermost pang, then, newly for payment replenished, Doles out — old yet young — agonies ever afresh; Whence the result above me: torment is bridged by a rainbow, — Tears, sweat, blood, — each spasm, ghastly once, glorified now. Wrung, by the rush of the wheel ordained my place of reposing, Off in a sparklike spray, — flesh become vapour thro' pain, — Flies the bestowment of Zeus, soul's vaunted bodily vesture, Made that his feats observed gain the approval of Man, — Flesh that he fashioned with sense of the earth and the sky and the ocean, Framed should pierce to the star, fitted to pore on the plant, — All, for a purpose of hate, re-framed, re-fashioned, refitted Till, consummate at length, — lo, the employment of sense! Pain's mere minister now to the soul, once pledged to her pleasure — Soul, if untrammeled by flesh, unapprehensive of pain! Body, professed soul's slave, which serving beguiled and betrayed her, Made things false seem true, cheated thro' eye and thro' ear, Lured thus heart and brain to believe in the lying reported, — Spurn but the traitrous slave, uttermost atom, away, What should obstruct soul's rush on the real, the only apparent? Say I have erred, — how else? Was I Ixion or Zeus? Foiled by my senses I dreamed; I doubtless awaken in wonder: This proves shine, that — shade? Good was the evil that seemed? Shall I, with sight thus gained, by torture be taught I was blind once? Sisuphos, teaches thy stone — Tantalos, teaches thy thirst Aught which unaided sense, purged pure, less plainly demonstrates? No, for the past was dream: now that the dreamers awake, Sisuphos scouts low fraud, and to Tantalos treason is folly. Ask of myself, whose form melts on the murderous wheel, What is the sin which throe and throe prove sin to the sinner! Say the false charge was true, — thus do I expiate, say, Arrogant thought, word, deed, — mere man who conceited me godlike, Sat beside Zeus, my friend — knelt before Heré, my love! What were the need but of pitying power to touch and disperse it, Film-work — eye's and ear's — all the distraction of sense? How should the soul not see, not hear, — perceive and as plainly Render, in thought, word, deed, back again truth — not a lie? "Ay, but the pain is to punish thee!" Zeus, once more, for a pastime, Play the familiar, the frank! Speak and have speech in return! I was of Thessaly king, there ruled and a people obeyed me: Mine to establish the law, theirs to obey it or die: Wherefore? Because of the good to the people, because of the honour Thence accruing to me, king, the king's law was supreme. What of the weakling, the ignorant criminal? Not who, excuseless, Breaking my law braved death, knowing his deed and its due — Nay, but the feeble and foolish, the poor transgressor, of purpose No whit more than a tree, born to erectness of bole, Palm or plane or pine, we laud if lofty, columnar — Loathe if athwart, askew, — leave to the axe and the flame! Where is the vision may penetrate earth and beholding acknowledge Just one pebble at root ruined the straightness of stem? Whose fine vigilance follows the sapling, accounts for the failure, — Here blew wind, so it bent: there the snow lodged, so it broke? Also the tooth of the beast, bird's bill, mere bite of the insect Gnawed, gnarled, warped their worst: passive it lay to offence. King — I was man, no more: what I recognized faulty I punished. Laying it prone: be sure, more than a man had I proved, Watch and ward o'er the sapling at birthtime had saved it, nor simply Owned the distortion's excuse, — hindered it wholly: nay, more — Even a man, as I sat in my place to do judgment, and pallid Criminals passing to doom shuddered away at my foot, Could I have probed thro' the face to the heart, read plain a repentance, Crime confessed fools' play, virtue ascribed to the wise, Had I not stayed the consignment to doom, not dealt the renewed ones Life to retraverse the past, light to retrieve the misdeed? Thus had I done, and thus to have done much more it behoves thee, Zeus who madest man — flawless or faulty, thy work! What if the charge were true, as thou mouthest, — Ixion the cherished Minion of Zeus grew vain, vied with the godships and fell, Forfeit thro' arrogance? Stranger! I clothed, with the grace of our human, Inhumanity — gods, natures I likened to ours. Man among men I had borne me till gods forsooth must regard me] — Nay, must approve, applaud, claim as a comrade at last. Summoned to enter their circle, I sat — their equal, how other? Love should be absolute love, faith is in fulness or nought. "I am thy friend, be mine!" smiled Zeus: "If Heré attract thee," Blushed the imperial cheek, "then — as thy heart may suggest!" Faith in me sprang to the faith, my love hailed love as its fellow, "Zeus, we are friends — how fast! Heré, my heart for thy heart!" Then broke smile into fury of frown, and the thunder of "Hence, fool!" Then thro' the kiss laughed scorn "Limbs or a cloud was to clasp?" Then from Olumpos to Erebos, then from the rapture to torment, Then from the fellow of gods — misery's mate, to the man! — Man henceforth and forever, who lent from the glow of his nature Warmth to the cold, with light coloured the black and the blank. So did a man conceive of your passion, you passion-protesters! So did he trust, so love — being the truth of your lie! You to aspire to be Man! Man made you who vainly would ape him: You are the hoUowness, he — filling you, falsifies void. Even as — witness the emblem, Hell's sad triumph suspended, Born of my tears, sweat, blood — bursting to vapour above — Arching my torment, an iris ghostlike startles the darkness, Cold white — jewelry quenched — justifies, glorifies pain. Strive, my kind, though strife endure thro' endless obstruction, Stage after stage, each rise marred by as certain a fall! Baffled forever — yet never so baffled but, e'en in the baffling, When Man's strength proves weak, checked in the body or soul — Whatsoever the medium, flesh or essence, — Ixion's     Made for a purpose of hate, — clothing the entity Thou, — Medium whence that entity strives for the Not-Thou beyond it, Fire elemental, free, frame unencumbered, the All, — Never so baffled but — when, on the verge of an alien existence, Heartened to press, by pangs burst to the infinite Pure, Nothing is reached but the ancient weakness still that arrests strength, Circumambient still, still the poor human array, Pride and revenge and hate and cruelty — all it has burst through, Thought to escape, — fresh formed, found in the fashion it fled, — Never so baffled but — when Man pays the price of endeavour, Thunderstruck, downthrust, Tartaros-doomed to the wheel, — Then, ay, then, from the tears and sweat and blood of his torment, E'en from the triumph of Hell, up let him look and rejoice! What is the influence, high o'er Hell, that turns to a rapture Pain — and despair's murk mists blends in a rainbow of hope? What is beyond the obstruction, stage by stage tho' it baffle? Back must I fall, confess "Ever the weakness I fled"? No, for beyond, far, far is a Purity all-unobstructed! Zeus was Zeus — not Man: wrecked by his weakness, I whirl. Out of the wreck I rise — past Zeus to the Potency o'er him! I — to have hailed him my friend! I — to have clasped her — my love! Pallid birth of my pain, — where light, where light is, aspiring Thither I rise, whilst thou — Zeus, keep the godship and sink!

title: Ixion (Browning)


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Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/17

1817.] "Underneath a huge oak-tree, There was of swine a huge company; That grunted as they crunch'd the mast, For that was ripe and fell full fast. Then they trotted away for the wind grew high, One acorn they left and no more might you spy."

It is a common remark, that wonderful children seldom perform the promises of their youth, and undoubtedly this fine effusion has not been followed in Mr Coleridge's riper years by works of proportionate merit.

We see, then, that our author came very early into public notice; and from that time to this, he has not allowed one year to pass without endeavouring to extend his notoriety. His poems were soon followed (they may have been preceded) by a tragedy, entitled, the "Fall of Robespierre," a meagre performance, but one which, from the nature of the subject, attracted considerable attention. He also wrote a whole book, utterly incomprehensible to Mr Southey, we are sure, in that Poet's Joan of Arc; and became as celebrated for his metaphysical absurdities, as his friend had become for the bright promise of genius exhibited by that unequal, but spirited poem. He next published a Series of political essays, entitled, the "Watchman," and "Condones ad Populum." He next started up, fresh from the schools of Germany, as the principal writer in the Morning Post, a strong opposition paper. He then published various outrageous political poems, some of them of a gross personal nature. He afterwards assisted Mr Wordsworth in planning his Lyrical Ballads; and contributing several poems to that collection, he shared in the notoriety of the Lake School. He next published a mysterious periodical work, "The Friend," in which he declared it was his intention to settle at once, and for ever, the principles of morality, religion, taste, manners, and the fine arts, but which died of a gallopping consumption in the twenty-eighth week of its age. He then published the tragedy of "Remorse," which dragged out a miserable existence of twenty nights, on the boards of Drury-Lane, and then expired for ever, like the oil of the orchestral lamps. He then forsook the stage for the pulpit, and, by particular desire of his congregation, published two "Lay Sermons." He then walked in broad day-light into the shop of Mr Murray, Albemarle Street, London, with two ladies hanging on each arm, Geraldine and Christabel,—a bold step for a person at all desirous of a good reputation, and most of the trade have looked shy at him since that exhibition. Since that time, however, he has contrived means of giving to the world a collected edition of all his poems, and advanced to the front of the stage with a thick octavo in each hand, all about himself and other Incomprehensibilities. We had forgot that he was likewise a contributor to Mr Southey's Omniana, where the Editor of the Edinburgh Review is politely denominated an "ass," and then became himself a writer in the said Review. And to sum up "the strange eventful history" of this modest, and obscure, and retired person, we must mention, that in his youth he held forth in a vast number of Unitarian chaples—preached his way through Bristol, and "Brummagem," and Manchester, in a "blue coat and white waistcoat;" and in after years, when he was not so much afraid of "the scarlet woman," did, in a full suit of sables, lecture on Poesy, to "crowded, and, need I add, highly respectable audiences," at the Royal Institution. After this slight and imperfect outline of his poetical, oratorical, metaphysical, political, and theological exploits, our readers will judge, when they hear him talking of "his retirement and distance from the literary and political world," what are his talents for autobiography, and how far he has penetrated into the mysterious non-entities of his own character.

Mr Coleridge has written copiously on the Association of Ideas, but his own do not seem to be connected either by time, place, cause and effect, resemblance, or contrast, and accordingly it is no easy matter to follow him through all the vagaries of his Literary Life. We are told,

"At school I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time a very severe master. * * * I learnt from him that Poetry, even that of the loftiest and wildest odes, had a logic of its own as severe as that of science. * * * * * Lute, harp, and lyre; muse, muses, and inspirations; Pegasus, Parnassus, and Hippocrene; were all an abomination to him. In fancy I can almost hear him now exclaiming, 'Harp? Harp? Lyre? Pen and Ink! Boy you mean! Muse! boy! Muse! your Nurse's daughter you mean!


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Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/18

10 ''Pierian Spring! O Aye! the cloister Pump!''' * * * * Our classical knowledge was the least of the good gifts which we derived from his zealous and conscientious tutorage."

With the then head-master of the grammar-school, Christ Hospital, we were not personally acquainted; but we cannot help thinking that he has been singularly unfortunate in his Eulogist. He seems to have gone out of his province, and far out of his depth, when he attempted to teach boys the profoundest principles of Poetry. But we must also add, that we cannot credit this account of him; for this doctrine of poetry being at all times logical, is that of which Wordsworth and Coleridge take so much credit to themselves for the discovery; and verily it is one too wilfully absurd and extravagant to have entered into the head of an honest man, whose time must have been wholly occupied with the instruction of children. Indeed Mr Coleridge's own poetical practices render this story incredible; for, during many years of his authorship, his diction was wholly at variance with such a rule, and the strain of his poetry as illogical as can be well imagined. When Mr Bowyer prohibited his pupils from using, in their themes, the above-mentioned names, he did, we humbly submit, prohibit them from using the best means of purifying their taste and exalting their imagination. Nothing could be so graceful, nothing so natural, as classical allusions, in the exercises of young minds, when first admitted to the fountains of Greek and Latin Poetry; and the Teacher who could seek to dissuade their ingenuous souls from such delightful dreams, by coarse, vulgar, and indecent ribaldry, instead of deserving the name of "sensible," must have been a low-minded vulgar fellow, fitter for the Porter than the Master of such an Establishment. But the truth probably is, that all this is a fiction of Mr Coleridge, whose wit is at all times most execrable and disgusting. Whatever the merits of his Master were, Mr Coleridge, even from his own account, seems to have derived little benefit from his instruction, and for the "inestimable advantage," of which he speaks, we look in vain through this Narrative. In spite of so excellent a teacher, we find Master Coleridge,

"Even before my fifteenth year, bewildered in metaphysicks and in theological controversy. Nothing else pleased me. History and particular facts lost all interest in my mind. Poetry itself, yea novels and romances, became insipid to me. This preposterous pursuit was beyond doubt injurious, both to my natural powers and to the progress of my education."

This deplorable condition of mind continued "even unto my seventeenth year." And now our readers must prepare themselves for a mighty and wonderful change, wrought, all on a sudden, on the moral and intellectual character of this metaphysical Greenhorn. "Mr Bowles' Sonnets, twenty in number, and just then published in a quarto volume (a most important circumstance!) were put into my hand!" To those sonnets, next to the School-master's lectures on Poetry, Mr Coleridge attributes the strength, vigour, and extension, of his own very original Genius.

"By those works, year after year, I was enthusiastically delighted and inspired. My earliest acquaintances will not have forgotten the undisciplined eagerness and impetuous zeal with which I labor'd to make proselytes, not only of my companions, but of all with whom I conversed, of whatever rank, and in whatever place. As my school finances did not permit me to purchase copies, I made, within less than a year and a half, more than forty transcriptions, as the best presents I could make to those who had in any way won my regard. My obligations to Mr Bowles were indeed important, and for radical good!"

There must be some grievous natural defect in that mind which, even at the age of seventeen, could act so insanely; and we cannot but think, that no real and healthy sensibility could have exaggerated to itself so grossly the merits of Bowles' Sonnets. They are undoubtedly most beautiful, and we willingly pay our tribute of admiration to the genius of the amiable writer; but they neither did nor could produce any such effects as are here described, except upon a mind singularly weak and helpless. We must, however, take the fact as we find it; and Mr Coleridge's first step, after his worship of Bowles, was to see distinctly into the defects and deficiencies of Pope (a writer whom Bowles most especially admires, and has edited), and through all the false diction and borrowed plumage of Gray! But


text:
Translation:The Train of Life

The Train of Life There’s always a bayonet, snow, or storm – Eternally train will take me! I came where I had to: the dull platform No sense to repack so lately …

I had not the eyes for people – their bales – Resurge will my eyes when perish! It felt much the same: from lodgings stale To cheapest third-classy carriage!

With lukewarm chops and warmless cheeks … My soul, I would choose the gutter! Still better than here, with the filthy reeks Of everyday greasy clutter:

Hair-curlers, wet wrappers, Red-heated hair snappers, (Hair-burning knick-knackers!) And oilcloth tatters, Cologne-smelling dappers Big-happy-family joys (Like sewing ploys) ‘Where’s the coffee-pot, Royse?’ Pretzels and bed-sills and matrons and bacons The dreariest chaperones and chaplets

I will not in this bundle of female flesh Wait for my deathly doom! I want for the train to be drunk and rash – Death is no class’s boon!

For prowess, for rashness, for head-smashing crashness! – How the devils do bother! – And a God’s pilgrim saying: ‘In Kingdom come …’ I’ll yell, cutting in: ‘I’d rather!’

A platform. And rail-blocks. A lonely stalk In grasp of my hand. Let go, now Too late to hold on. Too tired of talk I look at the stars from low down

And through the rainbow of planets gone – Anyone tell how many? – I look and I see: the doom is done No sense to repent, not any

Поезд_жизни_(Цветаева)

title: Translation:The Train of Life


text:
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title: User talk:86.145.5.254


text:
Page:Female Prose Writers of America.djvu/128

 among the dreamy fantasies of the great idealist, as she had been among the log cabins of the far west.

In July, 1847, the “Union Magazine” was commenced in New York under her auspices as sole editor. After a period of eighteen months, the proprietorship of the Magazine changed hands, its place of publication was transferred to Philadelphia, and its name changed to “Sartain’s Union Magazine.” Under the new arrangement, Mrs. Kirkland remained as associate editor, her duties being limited, however, almost entirely to a monthly contribution. This arrangement continued until July, 1851. Her whole connexion with the Magazine runs through a course of four years, and much of the marked success of that periodical is due to the character of her articles. Having been myself the resident editor of the Magazine during the last two and a half years of that time, and conducted its entire literary correspondence, I suppose I have the means of speaking with some confidence on this point, and I have no hesitation in saying, that of all its brilliant array of contributors, there was not one whose articles gave such entire and uniform satisfaction as those of Mrs. Kirkland. During her first visit to Europe, she wrote incidents and observations of travel, which were published, first in the Magazine, and afterwards in book form, under the title of “Holidays Abroad; or, Europe from the West,” in two volumes, 1849. Excepting these, and one or two stories, her contributions have been in the shape of essays, and they form, in my opinion, her strongest claim to distinction as a writer.

 THE MYSTERY OF VISITING.  is something wonderfully primitive and simple in the fundamental idea of visiting. You leave your own place and your chosen employments, your slipshod ease and privileged plainness, and sally forth, in special trim, with your mind emptied, as far as possible, of whatever has been engrossing it, to make a descent upon the domicile of another, under the idea that your presence will give him pleasure, and, remotely, yourself. Can anything denote more amiable simplicity? or, according to a certain favourite vocabulary, can anything be more intensely green? What a confession of the need of human sympathy! What bonhommie in the conviction that you will be welcome! What reckless self-committal in the whole affair! Let no one say this is not a good-natured world, since it still keeps up a reverence for the fossil remains of what was once the heart of its oyster.


text:
Muléykeh

If a stranger passed the tent of Hóseyn, he cried "A churl's!" Or haply "God help the man who has neither salt nor bread!" —"Nay," would a friend exclaim, "he needs nor pity nor scorn More than who spends small thought on the shore-sand, picking pearls, —Holds but in light esteem the seed-sort, bears instead On his breast a moon-like prize, some orb which of night makes morn.

"What if no flocks and herds enrich the son of Sinán? They went when his tribe was mulct, ten thousand camels the due, Blood-value paid perforce for a murder done of old. 'God gave them, let them go! But never since time began, Muléykeh, peerless mare, owned master the match of you, And you are my prize, my Pearl: I laugh at men's land and gold!'

"So in the pride of his soul laughs Hóseyn—and right, I say. Do the ten steeds run a race of glory? Outstripping all, Ever Muléykeh stands first steed at the victor's staff. Who started, the owner's hope, gets shamed and named, that day. 'Silence,' or, last but one, is 'The Cuffed,' as we use to call Whom the paddock's lord thrusts forth. Right, Hóseyn, I say, to laugh!"

"Boasts he Muléykeh the Pearl? " the stranger replies: "Be sure On him I waste nor scorn nor pity, but lavish both On Duhl the son of Sheybán, who withers away in heart For envy of Hóseyn's luck. Such sickness admits no cure. A certain poet has sung, and sealed the same with an oath, 'For the vulgar—flocks and herds! The Pearl is a prize apart.' "

Lo, Duhl the son of Sheybán comes riding to Hóseyn's tent, And he casts his saddle down, and enters and "Peace!" bids he. "You are poor, I know the cause: my plenty shall mend the wrong. 'T is said of your Pearl—the price of a hundred camels spent In her purchase were scarce ill paid: such prudence is far from me Who proffer a thousand. Speak! Long parley may last too long."

Said Hóseyn, "You feed young beasts a many, of famous breed, Slit-eared, unblemished, fat, true offspring of Múzennem: There stumbles no weak-eyed she in the line as it climbs the hill. But I love Muléykeh's face: her forefront whitens indeed Like a yellowish wave's cream-crest. Your camels—go gaze on them! Her fetlock is foam-splashed too. Myself am the richer still."

A year goes by: lo, back to the tent again rides Duhl. "You are open-hearted, ay—moist-handed, a very prince. Why should I speak of sale? Be the mare your simple gift! My son is pined to death for her beauty: my wife prompts 'Fool, Beg for his sake the Pearl! Be God the rewarder, since God pays debts seven for one: who squanders on Him shows thrift.' "

Said Hóseyn, "God gives each man one life, like a lamp, then gives That lamp due measure of oil: lamp lighted—hold high, wave wide Its comfort for others to share! once quench it, what help is left? The oil of your lamp is your son: I shine while Muléykeh lives. Would I beg your son to cheer my dark if Muléykeh died? It is life against life: what good avails to the life-bereft?"

Another year, and—hist! What craft is it Duhl designs? He alights not at the door of the tent as he did last time, But, creeping behind, he gropes his stealthy way by the trench Half-round till he finds the flap in the folding, for night combines With the robber—and such is he: Duhl, covetous up to crime, Must wring from Hóseyn's grasp the Pearl, by whatever the wrench.

"He was hunger-bitten, I heard: I tempted with half my store, And a gibe was all my thanks. Is he generous like Spring dew? Account the fault to me who chaffered with such an one! He has killed, to feast chance comers, the creature he rode: nay, more— For a couple of singing-girls his robe has he torn in two: I will beg! Yet I nowise gained by the tale of my wife and son.

"I swear by the Holy House, my head will I never wash Till I filch his Pearl away. Fair dealing I tried, then guile, And now I resort to force. He said we must live or die: Let him die, then,—let me live! Be bold—but not too rash! 1 have found me a peeping-place: breast, bury your breathing while I explore for myself! Now, breathe! He deceived me not, the spy!

"As he said—there lies in peace Hóseyn—how happy! Beside Stands tethered the Pearl: thrice winds her headstall about his wrist: 'T is therefore he sleeps so sound—the moon through the roof reveals. And, loose on his left, stands too that other, known far and wide, Buhéyseh, her sister born: fleet is she yet ever missed The winning tail's fire-flash a-stream past the thunderous heels.

"No less she stands saddled and bridled, this second, in case some thief Should enter and seize and fly with the first, as I mean to do. What then? The Pearl is the Pearl: once mount her we both escape." Through the skirt-fold in glides Duhl,—so a serpent disturbs no leaf In a bush as he parts the twigs entwining a nest: clean through, He is noiselessly at his work: as he planned, he performs the rape.

He has set the tent-door wide, has buckled the girth, has clipped The headstall away from the wrist he leaves thrice bound as before, He springs on the Pearl, is launched on the desert like bolt from bow. Up starts our plundered man: from his breast though the heart be ripped, Yet his mind has the mastery: behold, in a minute more, He is out and off and away on Buhéyseh, whose worth we know!

And Hóseyn—his blood turns flame, he has learned long since to ride, And Buhéyseh does her part,—they gain—they are gaining fast On the fugitive pair, and Duhl has Ed-Dárraj to cross and quit, And to reach the ridge El-Sabán,—no safety till that be spied! And Buhuyseh is, bound by bound, but a horse-length off at last, For the Pearl has missed the tap of the heel, the touch of the bit.

She shortens her stride, she chafes at her rider the strange and queer: Buhéyseh is mad with hope—beat sister she shall and must, Though Duhl, of the hand and heel so clumsy, she has to thank. She is near now, nose by tail—they are neck by croup—joy! fear! What folly makes Hóseyn shout "Dog Duhl, Damned son of the Dust, Touch the right ear and press with your foot my Pearl's left flank!"

And Duhl was wise at the word, and Muléykeh as prompt perceived Who was urging redoubled pace, and to hear him was to obey, And a leap indeed gave she, and evanished for evermore. And Hóseyn looked one long last look as who, all bereaved, Looks, fain to follow the dead so far as the living may: Then he turned Buhéyseh's neck slow homeward, weeping sore.

And, lo, in the sunrise, still sat Hóseyn upon the ground Weeping: and neighbours came, the tribesmen of Bénu-Asád In the vale of green Er-Rass, and they questioned him of his grief; And he told from first to last how, serpent-like, Duhl had wound His way to the nest, and how Duhl rode like an ape, so bad! And how Buhéyseh did wonders, yet Pearl remained with the thief.

And they jeered him, one and all: "Poor Hóseyn is crazed past hope! How else had he wrought himself his ruin, in fortune's spite? To have simply held the tongue were a task for a boy or girl, And here were Muléykeh again, the eyed like an antelope, The child of his heart by day, the wife of his breast by night!"— "And the beaten in speed!" wept Hóseyn: "You never have loved my Pearl."

title: Muléykeh


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60 There are other continuations, but they are still worse for White. If, however, the adversary's stones are already posted on the line of advance sometimes it is only safe to skip one point, and of course in close positions the stones must be played so that they are actually connected. The Japanese call this skipping of "Me" by the terms "Ikken tobi," "Nikken tobi," "Sangen tobi," etc., which literally means "to fly one, two, or three spaces." Although this is plain enough, these relations are nevertheless shown on Plate 13, Diagrams, , and. When stones of opposite colors on the same line are separated by vacant space in a similar way (Diagram ), then the terms "Ikken kakari," "Nikken kakari," etc., are used. "Kakari" really means "to hang" or "to be related," but as used in this sense it might be translated "to attack."

Sometimes the stones are placed in relation to each other like the Knight's move in Chess. The Knight in Japanese is called "Keima," or "the honorable horse," and if the stones are of the same color the relation is called "Keima" or "Kogeima," "Ko" being the diminutive. If the stones are of opposite colors, then the phrase "Keima" or "Kogeima kakari" is used as in the previous case. The Japanese also designate a relation similar to the Knight's move, but farther apart, by special words; thus, if the stones are one space farther apart, it is called "Ogeima," or "the Great Knight's move," and if the stone is advanced one step still farther, it is called "Daidaigeima," or "the Great Great Knight's move." On Plate 13, Diagrams, , and , are shown "Kogeima," "Ogeima," and "Daidaigeima."

The next question that will trouble the beginner is where to place his stones when his adversary is advancing into his

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62 territory, and beginners are likely to play their stones directly in contact with the advancing forces. This merely results in their being engulfed by the attacking line, and the stones and territory are both lost. If you wish to stop your adversary's advance, play your stones a space or two apart from his, so that you have a chance to strengthen your line before his attack is upon you.

The next thing we will speak of is what the Japanese call the "Sente." This word means literally "the leading hand," but is best translated by our words "having the offensive." It corresponds quite closely to the word "attack," as it is used in Chess, but in describing a game of Go it is better to reserve the word "attack" for a stronger demonstration than is indicated by the word "Sente." The "Sente" merely means that the player having it can compel his adversary to answer his moves or else sustain worse damage, and sometimes one player will have the "Sente" in one portion of the board, and his adversary may disregard the attack and by playing in some other quarter take the "Sente" there. Sometimes the defending player by his ingenious moves may turn the tables on his adversary and wrest the "Sente" from him. At all events, holding the "Sente" is an advantage, and the annotations on illustrative games abound with references to it, and conservative authors on the game advise abandoning a stone or two for the purpose of taking the "Sente."

Sometimes a player has three stones surrounding a vacant space, as shown in Plate 13, Diagram, and the question arises how to attack this group. This is done by playing on the fourth intersection. The Japanese call this "Nozoku," or "peeping into," and when a stone is played

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Rh in this way it generally forces the adversary to fill up that "Me." It may be mentioned here also that when your adversary is trying to form "Me" in a disputed territory, the way to circumvent him is to play your stones on one of the four points he will obviously need to complete his "Me," and sometimes this is done before he has three of the necessary stones on the board. The term "Nozoku" is also applied to any stone which is played as a preliminary move in cutting the connection between two of the adversary's stones or groups of stones.

Sometimes a situation occurs as shown in Plate 13, Diagram. Here it is supposed to be White's move, and he must, of course, play at K 8, whereupon Black would play at K 7 ("Osaeru"), and White would have to play at L 8 ("Nobiru"), and so on until, if these moves were persisted in, the formation would streach in a zigzag line to the edge of the board. This situation is called "Shicho," which really means a "running attack." It results in the capture of the white stones when the edge of the board is reached, unless they happen to find a comrade posted on the line of retreat, for instance, at P 4, in which case they can be saved. Of course, between good players "Shicho" is never played out to the end, for they can at once see whether or not the stones will live, and often a stone placed seemingly at random in a distant part of the board is played partly with the object of supporting a retreating line should "Shicho" occur.

Plate 13, Diagram, shows a situation that often arises, in which the White player, by putting his stone at M 1 on the edge of the board, can join his two groups of stones. This is so because if Black plays at L 1 or N 1, white can

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text:
Author:William Gilbert (1544-1603)

Works

 * On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth (English Translation by Sylvanus P. Thompson, 1900)

title: Author:William Gilbert (1544-1603)


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64 immediately kill the stone. This joining on the edge of the board is called by the special term "Watari," which means "to cross over." Sometimes we find the word "Watari" used when the connection between two groups is made in a similar way, although not at the extreme edge of the board.

A much more frequent situation is shown at Plate 13, Diagram. It is not worthy of special notice except because a special word is applied to it. If Black plays at S 1, it is called "Haneru," which really means the flourish which is made in finishing an ideograph.

We will now take up a few of the other words that are used by the Japanese as they play the game. By far the most frequent of these are "Tsugu," "Kiru," "Nobiru," and "Osaeru." "Tsugu" means "to connect," and when two stones are adjacent but on the diagonal, as shown in Plate 13, Diagram, it is necessary to connect them if an attack is threatened. This may be done by playing on either side; that is to say, at Q 17 or R 16. If, on the other hand, Black should play on both these points, the white stones would be forever separated, and this cutting off is called "Kiru," although, as a rule, when such a situation is worthy of comment, one of the intersections has already been filled by the attacking player. Plate 13, Diagram, illustrates "Kiru," where, if a black stone is played at Q 12, the white stones are separated. "Kiru" means "to cut," and is recognizable as one of the component parts of that much abused and mispronounced word "Harakiri." "Nobiru" means "to extend," and when there is a line of stones it means the adding of another one at the end, not skipping a space as in the case of "Ikken tobi," but

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 with the stones absolutely connected. In Plate 13, Diagram, if Black plays at Q 9 it would be called "Nobiru." "Osaeru" means "to press down," and this is what we do when we desire to prevent our adversary from extending his line, as seen in the preceding diagram. It is done by playing directly at the end of the adversary's line, as shown in Diagram, where Black is supposed to play at Q 6. Here White must play on one side of the black stone, but it must be pointed out that unless there is support in the neighborhood for the stone used in "Osaeru," the stone thus played runs the risk of capture. In Diagram, explaining "Shicho," we also had an illustration of "Nobiru" and "Osaeru."

If a stone is played on the intersection diagonally adjacent to another stone, it is called "Kosumu," but this word is not nearly so much used as the other four. Sometimes, also, when it is necessary to connect two groups of stones instead of placing the stone so as actually to connect them, as in the case of "Tsugu," the stone is played so as to effectively guard the point of connection and thus prevent the adversary's stone from separating the two groups. This play is called "Kake tsugu," or "a hanging connection"; e.g., in Diagram, if a white stone were played at Q 11 it would be an instance of "Kake tsugu" and would have prevented the black stone from cutting off the White connection at Q 12, for, if the black stone were played there after a white stone had been placed at Q 11, White could capture it on the next move.

Passing from these words which describe the commonest moves in the game, we will mention the expression "Te okure"—literally "a slow hand" or "a slow move," which

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66 means an unnecessary or wasted move. Many of the moves of a beginner are of this character, especially when he has a territory pretty well fenced in and cannot make up his mind whether or not it is necessary to strengthen the group before proceeding to another field of battle. In annotating the best games, also, it is used to mean a move that is not the best possible move, and we frequently hear it used by Japanese in criticising the play.

"Semeai" is another word with which we must be familiar. It means "mutually attacking," from "Semeru," "to attack," and "Au," "to encounter," that is to say, if the White player attacks a group of black stones, the Black player answers by endeavoring to surround the surrounding stones, and so on. In our Illustrative Game, Number, the play in the upper right-hand corner of the board is an example of "Semeai." It is in positions of this kind that the condition of affairs called "Seki" often comes about.

Plate 13, Diagram, shows a position which is illustrated only because a special name is applied to it. The Japanese call such a relation of stones "Cho tsugai," literally, "the hinge of a door."

The last expression which we will give is "Naka oshi gatchi," which is the term applied to a victory by a large margin in the early part of the game. These Japanese words mean "to conquer by pushing the center." Beginners are generally desirous of achieving a victory in this way, and are not content to allow their adversary any portion of the board. It is one of the first things to be remembered, that, no matter how skilful a player may be, his adversary will always be able to acquire some territory, and

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Rh one of the maxims of the game is not to attempt to achieve too great a victory.

Before proceeding with the technical chapters on the Illustrative Games, Openings, etc., it may be well to say a word in regard to the method adopted for keeping a record of the game. The Japanese do this by simply showing a picture of the finished game, on which each stone is numbered as it was played. If a stone is taken and another stone is put in its place, an annotation is made over the diagram of the board with a reference to that intersection, stating that such a stone has been taken in "Ko." Such a method with the necessary marginal annotation is good enough, but it is very hard to follow, as there is no means of telling where any stone is without searching all over the board for it; and while the Japanese are very clever at this, Occidental students of the game do not find it so easy. Therefore, I have adopted the method suggested by Korschelt, which in turn is founded on the custom of Chess annotation in use all over the world. The lines at the bottom of the board are lettered from A to T, the letter I being omitted, and at the sides of the board they are numbered up from 1 to 19. Thus it is always easy to locate any given stone. In the last few years the Japanese have commenced to adopt an analogous method of notation.

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text: The Game of Go/Chapter IV

title: The Game of Go/Chapter IV


text: On the Magnet

title: On the Magnet


text:
Talk:On the Magnet

Text taken from a Distributed Proofreading project post-processed by me, Laverock.

title: Talk:On the Magnet


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Harrison, Benjamin


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Page:Smith - The game of go.djvu/145

 VI

“JOSEKI” AND OPENINGS

the earliest times the Japanese have studied the opening of the game. Especially since the foundation of the Go Academy there have been systematic treatises on this subject, and for keen and thorough analysis, these treatises have nothing to fear from a comparison with the analogous works on Chess openings. There is, however, a difference between the opening of the game in Chess and the opening in Go, because in the latter case the play can commence in each of the four corners successively, and therefore, instead of having one opening, it might be said that there are four.

The Japanese masters usually overcome this difficulty by treating a corner separately, as if it were uninfluenced by the position or the possibility of playing in the adjacent corners, and in their treatises they have indicated where the first stones in such an isolated corner can advantageously be played. These stones are called “Joseki.” As a matter of fact, these separate analyses or “Joseki” differ slightly from the opening of the game as actually played, because it is customary in opening the game to skip from one corner to another, and the moment a few stones are played in any corner the situation in the adjacent corners is thereby influenced. It is due to this fact also that in their treatises on the “Joseki” the Japanese writers do not continue the Rh

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120 as far as we are accustomed to in our works on Chess. While this method of studying the openings persists to the present time, one of the greatest of the Japanese masters, Murase Shuho, compiled a series of openings which correspond more closely to our Chess openings; that is to say, the game is commenced, as in actual play, all over the board, and is not confined to the study of one corner as in the case of the conventional "Joseki." Korschelt, in his work on the game, inserts about fifty of these openings by Murase Shuho, with notes that were prepared by the Japanese master especially for the use of foreigners, and I have selected a few of these in addition to the collection of "Joseki" which we will first consider.

The work from which my "Joseki" have been selected was compiled by Inouye Hoshin, and published in November, 1905. It was originally written for the "Nippon Shimbun," a newspaper published in Tokio. Of course, the annotations accompanying these "Joseki" are not the original ones from the Japanese text. Many of the things which I point out would be regarded as trite and obvious to a good player, and my annotations are intended solely to aid beginners in understanding some of the reasons for the moves given. It must also be understood that the series of "Joseki" which I have inserted falls far short of completeness. In a Japanese work on the game there would be at least five times as many.

Although the "Joseki" have been studied by the Japanese masters from the earliest times, it does not mean that the ordinary player in Japan is familiar with them; just as in this country we find a majority of Chess players have a very limited acquaintance with the Chess openings, so in

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Rh Japan many players attain a fair degree of skill without a thorough acquaintance with the "Joseki." It would certainly very greatly aid the beginner in attaining proficiency if he were to study these examples, and follow them as nearly as possible in actual play.

It would seem to us that in compiling a work on "Joseki," or openings, we would commence with the openings where no handicap is given, and later study those where there were handicaps; it is another instance of the divergent way in which the Japanese do things that they do just the opposite, and commence their treatises with the study of openings where handicaps are given. Inasmuch as this is a book on a Japanese subject, I shall follow their example and shall commence the study of "Joseki" in games where Black has a handicap.

As we have already seen, the handicap stone is always placed on a certain fixed point, which is the fourth intersection from the edge of the board in each direction, and White has five recognized methods of playing his first stone in relation to such handicap stone. These are called "Kogeima kakari," "Ogeima kakari," "Daidaigeima kakari," "Ikken taka kakari," "Nikken taka kakari." We shall take up examples of these in their order.

I

Plate 19 (A)

1. R 14. "Kogeima kakari." This is the most usual move for attacking the corner. The purpose of White's first move is to lay a basis for future aggression; he cannot, of course, play in the corner immediately, neither can he play nearer the black stone with advantage.

2. N 17. This move supports the handicap stone and also gains as much ground as possible for Black. Beginners would generally find O 17 more safe and conservative.

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text: On the Magnet/0-1

title: On the Magnet/0-1


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fliccius, Gerbarus


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62 She sat on a scarlet blanket spread on the ground, and over her, stretched from poles, was another for an awning. She was loaded with ornaments, row after row of beads about her neck, broad armlets and anklets of brass, pinchbeck rings, and a soft buckskin dress and leggings, heavily embroidered. Her ears were pierced twice—on the side as well as in the lobe—and from these holes were suspended circles of gilt. Her bright eyes, the satin smoothness of her hair, and the clear brown of the skin made a pretty picture. There was no attempt to blend into the brown the bright patch of carmine on each cheek.

Only extreme youth and its ever attractive charms can make one forget the heavy square shape of Indian faces and their coarse features. It was surprising to see all the other squaws giving up the field to this one so completely. They crouched near, with a sort of "every-dog-must-have-its-day" look, and did not even dispute her sway by making coy eyes as we spoke to them.

There were but few young men. Their absence was always excused by the same reason—they were out hunting. We knew how little game there was, and surmised—what we afterwards found to be true—that they had joined the hostile tribes, and only came in to the distribution of supplies and presents in the fall. A few rods from the village a tripod of poles was set in the ground, and lashed to it the Indian's shield, made of the hide of the buffalo where it is thickest about the neck. There were rude paintings and Indian hieroglyphics covering it. The shield is an heirloom with the Indian, and the one selected to hang out in this manner has

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