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 vary inversely as its distance from the apex, and the forces, electric and magnetic, would therefore vary inversely as the square root of the distance from the apex, instead of inversely as the distance, which is obviously necessary in order that the displacement may be confined to the surface. This conflict of conditions constitutes instability. In the ''Phil. Mag. for April, 1889, I suggested that whilst there must be a solution of some kind, one representing a steady'' state was impossible. This conclusion is confirmed by the failure of Prof. Thomson's proposed surface-wave to keep itself going.

Prof. Thomson, who otherwise confirms my results, has also extended the matter by supposing that the medium itself is set in motion, as well as the electrification. This is somewhat beyond me. I do not yet know certainly that the ether can move, or its laws of motion if it can. Fresnel thought the earth could move through the ether without disturbing it; Stokes, that it carried the ether along with it, by giving irrotational motion to it. Perhaps the truth is between the two. Then there is the possibility of holes in the ether, as suggested by a German philosopher. When we get into one of these holes, we go out of existence. It is a splendid idea, but experimental evidence is much wanting.

But if we consider that the medium supporting the electric and magnetic fluxes is really set moving when a body moves, and assume a particular kind of motion, it is certainly an interesting scientific question to ask what influence the motion exerts on the electromagnetic phenomena. I do not, however, think that any new principles are involved.

The general connections of E and H, referred to fixed space without conductivity, being

where p stands for d/dt and e and h are the impressed parts of E and H; if there is also motion of electrification, we have to consider it to constitute a convection-current, a part of the true current, and so make (2) become

where ρ is the density of electrification, whose velocity is u. [See Part II.] It now remains to specify e and h. They are zero when the medium supporting the fluxes is at rest. But if it moves, and its velocity is w, there is, first, the electric force due to motion in a magnetic field,

which is well known; and next the magnetic force due to motion in an electric field,


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 which is not so well known. (First, I believe, given by me in the third Section of "Electromagnetic Induction and its Propagation," The Electrician, January 24, 1885 [vol. I., p. 446]; again, obtained in a different way in Section XXIL, January 15, 1886 [vol. I., p. 546]; see also Phil. Mag., August, 1886 [vol. II., Art. L.], and an example of the use of (4) and (5) in The Electrician, April 12, 1889, p. 683 [vol. II., Art. LI.].)

The mechanical force called by Maxwell the "electromagnetic force" is VCB, where C is the true current and B the induction. It is the force on the matter supporting electric current. Let it move. If w is its velocity, the activity of the force is

Similarly, as I obtained in Section XXII. above referred to, there is a mechanical force (the magneto-electric) on matter supporting magnetic current G=μpH/4π, expressed by 4πVDG, and its activity is

Of course e and h. are reckoned as impressed forces, which is the reason of the change of sign. Their activities are eC and hG.

It should be remarked further, that the above expressions for e and h are not certain. For I have shown that the sources of all disturbances are the lines of curl of the impressed forces (Phil. Mag., Dec., 1887) [vol. II., p. 362], and that the fluxes produced depend solely upon the curls of e and h, both as regards the steady fluxes and the variable ones leading to them. We may, therefore, use any other expressions for e and h which have the same curls as the above. And, in fact, we see that equations (1) and (2) only contain their curls.

Equations (1) and (3), with e and h defined by (4) and (5), therefore enable us to determine the effect of the moving medium. Prof. Thomson also arrives at (4) and (5), and at the "magneto-electric force," in his paper to which I have referred, by an entirely different method. And to show how well things fit together, he concludes, from the consideration of the moving medium, that a moving electrified surface is a current-sheet, which is another way of saying that a convection current is a part of the true current, as expressed in (3). I must, however, disagree with Prof. Thomson's assumption that the motion must be irrotational. It would appear, by the above, that this limitation is unnecessary.

As an example, and to introduce a new point, take the case of a charge q moving at speed u along the axis of z. It will come to the same thing if we keep the charge at rest, and move the medium the other way. We then use the equations (1) and (2), and in them use (4) and (5) with w=-u. Now when the steady state is arrived at, we have p=0, so (1) and (2) become

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 In addition, the divergence of D must be q at the origin, and the divergence of B must be zero. The latter gives, applied to (9),

which gives H fully in terms of E. Eliminate H from (8) by means of (10), and we get

or

where E3 is the z-component of E and k a unit vector along z; or, integrating, and writing the three components,

where P is a scalar potential. Here is the new point. There is a potential, of a peculiar kind. The displacement due to the moving charge is distributed in precisely the same way as if it were at rest in an eolotropic medium, whose permittivity is c in all directions transverse to the line of motion, but is smaller, viz., c(1-u²/v²), along that line and parallel to it. The potential P is given by

It is a particular case of eolotropy. In general, c1, c2, c3, the principal permittivities, are all unequal. Then, with q at the origin, the potential is

Observe that although the electric force in the substituted problem of a charge at rest in an eolotropic medium is the slope of a potential; yet it is not so when the medium is isotropic, and moves past the fixed charge, or vice versâ, although the distributions of displacement are the same.

When u=v, we abolish the permittivity along the z-axis in the substituted case, so that the displacement must be wholly transverse. We then have the plane electromagnetic wave. When u is greater than v it makes the permittivity negative along z; this is an impossible electrical problem, and furnishes another reason for supposing that there can be no steady state in the corresponding electromagnetic problem.

It now remains to find what would happen if electrification were conveyed through a medium faster than the natural speed of propagation of disturbances. There is the cone; but what takes place within it?

Aug. 25, 1889.


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 predominant, and we may expect a sensible error in applying the electrostatic theory. It is, however, quite easy—in fact, easier—to use longer waves. But in any case, the exact calculation of the permittance and inductance of a vibrator involves a good deal of mathematics to find relatively small corrections.

July 21, 1889.

Theory of the Slow Motion of a Charge.

1. following paper consists of, First, a short discussion of the theory of the slow motion of an electric charge through a dielectric, having for object the possible correction of previously published results. Secondly, a discussion of the theory of the electromagnetic effects due to motion of a charge at any speed, with the development of the complete solution in finite form when the motion is steady and rectilinear. Thirdly, a few simple illustrations of the last when the charge is distributed.

Given a steady electric field in a dielectric, due to electrification. It is sufficient to consider a charge q at a point, as we may readily extend results later. If this charge be shifted from one position to another, the displacement varies. In accordance, therefore, with Maxwell's inimitable theory of a dielectric, there is electric current produced. Its time-integral, which is the total change in the displacement, admits of no question; but it is by no means an elementary matter to settle its rate of change in general, or the electric current. But should the speed of the moving charge be only a very small fraction of that of the propagation of disturbances, or that of light, it is clear that the accommodation of the displacement to the new positions which are assumed by the charge during its motion is practically instantaneous in its neighbourhood, so that we may imagine the charge to carry about its stationary field of force rigidly attached to it. This fixation of the displacement at any moment definitely fixes the displacement-current. We at once find, however, that to close the current requires us to regard the moving charge itself as a current-element, of moment equal to the charge multiplied by its velocity; understanding by moment, in the case of a distributed current, the product of current-density and volume. The necessity of regarding the moving charge as an element of the "true current" may be also concluded by simply considering that when a charge q is conveyed into any region, an equal displacement simultaneously leaves it through its boundary.

Knowing the electric current, the magnetic force to correspond becomes definitely known if the distribution of inductivity be given;


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Rh and when this is constant everywhere, as we shall suppose now and later, the magnetic force is simply the circuital vector whose curl is 4π times the electric current; or the vector-potential of the curl of the current; or the curl of the vector-potential of the current, etc., etc. Thus, as found by J. J. Thomson, the magnetic field of a charge moving at a speed which is a small fraction of that of light is that which is commonly ascribed to a current-element itself. I think it, however, preferable to regard the magnetic field as the primary object of attention; or else to regard the complete system of closed current derived from it by taking its curl as the unit, forming what we may term a rational current-element, inasmuch as it is not a mere mathematical abstraction, but is a complete dynamical system involving definite forces and energy.

2. Let the axis of z be the line of motion of the charge q at the speed u; then the lines of magnetic force H are circles centred upon the axis, in planes perpendicular to it, and its tensor H at distance r from the charge, the line r making an angle θ with the axis, is given by

where v=sin θ, E the intensify of the radial electric force, c the permittivity such that μ0cv²=1, if μ0 is the other specific quality of the medium, its inductivity, and v is the speed of propagation.

Since, under the circumstance supposed of u/v being very small, the alteration in the electric field is insensible, and the lines of E are radial, we may terminate the fields represented by (1) at any distance r=a from the origin. We then obtain the solution in the case of a charge q upon the surface of a conducting sphere of radius a, moving at speed u. This realization of the problem makes the electric and magnetic energies finite. Whilst, however, agreeing with J. J. Thomson in the fundamentals, I have been unable to corroborate some of his details; and since some of his results have been recently repeated by him in another place, it may be desirable to state the changes I propose, before proceeding to the case of a charge moving at any speed.

The Energy and Forces in the Case of Slow Motion.

3. First, as regards the magnetic energy, say T. This is the space-summation Σμ0H²/8π; or, by (1), ,

The limits are such as include all space outside the sphere r=a. The coefficient $$\scriptstyle{\frac{1}{3}}$$ replaces $$\scriptstyle{\frac{2}{15}}$$.

4. Next, as regards the mutual magnetic energy M of the moving charge and any external magnetic field. This is the space-summation


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 Σμ0H0H/4π, if H0 is the external field; and, by a well-known transformation, it is equivalent to ΣA0Γ, if A0 is any vector whose curl is μ0H0, whilst Γ is the current-density of the moving system. Further, if we choose A0 to be circuital, the polar part of Γ will contribute nothing to the summation, so that we are reduced to the volume-integral of the scalar product of the circuital A0 of the one system and the density of the convection-current in the other. Or, in the present case, with a single moving charge at a point, we have simply the scalar product A0uq to represent the mutual magnetic energy; or

which is double J. J. Thomson's result.

5. When, therefore, we derive from (3) the mechanical force on the moving charge due to the external magnetic field, we obtain simply Maxwell's "electromagnetic force" on a current-element, the vector product of the moment of the current and the induction of the external field; or, if F is this mechanical force,

which is also double J. J. Thomson's result. Notice that in the application of the "electromagnetic force" formula, it is the moment of the convection-current that occurs. This is not the same as the moment of the true current, which varies according to circumstances; for instance, in the case of a small dielectric sphere uniformly electrified throughout its volume, the moment of the true current would be only $$\scriptstyle{\frac{2}{3}}$$ of that of the convection-current.

The application of Lagrange's equation of motion to (3) also gives the force on q due to the electric field so far as it can depend on M; that is, a force

$\scriptstyle{-q\mathbf{A}_{0},}$

where the time-variation due to all causes must be reckoned, except that due to the motion of q itself, which is allowed for in (4). And besides this, there may be electric force not derivable from A0, viz.

$\scriptstyle{-q\nabla\Psi_{0},}$

where Ψ0 is the scalar potential companion to A0.

6. Now if the external field be that of another moving charge, we shall obtain the mutual magnetic energy from (3) by letting A0 be the vector-potential of the current in the second moving system, constructed so as to be circuital. Now the vector-potential of the convection-current qu. is simply qu/r; this is sufficient to obtain the magnetic force by curling; but if used to calculate the mutual energy, the space-summation would have to include every element of current in the other system. To make the vector-potential circuital, and so be able to abolish this work, we must add on to qu/r the vector-potential of the displacement current to correspond. Now the complete current may be considered to consist of a linear element qu having two poles; a radial current outward from the + pole in which the current-density is $\scriptstyle{qu/4\pi r_{1}^{2}}$;|undefined and a radial current inward to the – pole, in which the current-density is $\scriptstyle{-qu/4\pi r_{2}^{2}}$;|undefined where r1 and r2 are the distances of any point from the


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 poles. The vector-potentials of these currents are also radial, and their tensors are $$\scriptstyle{\frac{1}{2}qu}$$ and $\scriptstyle{-\frac{1}{2}qu}$. We have now merely to find their resultant when the linear element is indefinitely shortened, add on to the former qu/r, and multiply by μ0, to obtain the complete circuital vector-potential of qu, viz.:—

where r is the distance from q to the point P when A is reckoned, and the differentiation is to s, the axis of the convection-current. Both it and the space-variation are taken at P. The tensor of u is u. Though different and simpler in form (apart from the use of vectors) this vector-potential is, I believe, really the same as the one used by J. J. Thomson. From it we at once find, by the method described in § 4, the mutual energy of a pair of point-charges q1 and q2, moving at velocities u1 and u2, to be

when at distance r apart. Both axial differentiations are to be effected at one end of the line r.

As an alternative form, let ε be the angle between u1 and u2, and let the differentiation to s1 be at ds1 that to s2 at ds2, as in the German investigations relating to current-elements; then

Another form, to render its meaning plainer. Let λ1, μ1, v1 and λ2, μ2, v2 be the direction-cosines of the elements referred to rectangular axes, with the x-axis, to which λ1 and λ2 refer, chosen as the line joining the elements. Then

J. J. Thomson's estimate is

Comparing this with (8) we see that there is a notable difference.

7. The mutual energy being different, the forces on the charges, as derived by J. J. Thomson by the use of Lagrange's equations, will be different. When the speeds are constant, we shall have simply the before-described vector product (4) for the "electromagnetic force;" or

if F1 is the electromagnetic force on the first and F2 that on the second element, whilst H1 and H2 are the magnetic forces. Similar changes are needed in the other parts of the complete mechanical forces.


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 It may be remarked that (if my calculations are correct) equation (7) or its equivalents expresses the mutual energy of any two rational current-elements (see § 1) in a medium of uniform inductivity, of moments q1u1, and q2u2, whether the currents be of displacement, or conduction, or convection, or all mixed, it being in fact the mutual energy of a pair of definite magnetic fields. But, since the hypothesis of instantaneous action is expressly involved in the above, the application of (7) is of a limited nature.

General Theory of Convection Currents.

8. Now leaving behind altogether the subject of current-elements, in the investigation of which one is liable to be led away from physical considerations and become involved in mere exercises in differential coefficients, and coming to the question of the electromagnetic effects of a charge moving in any way, I have been agreeably surprised to find that my solution in the case of steady rectilinear motion, originally an infinite series of corrections, easily reduces to a very simple and interesting finite form, provided u be not greater than v. Only when u>v is there any difficulty. We must first settle upon what basis to work. First the Faraday-law (p standing for d/dt),

requires no change when there is moving electrification. But the analogous law of Maxwell, which I understand to be really a definition of electric current in terms of magnetic force, (or a doctrine), requires modification if the true current is to be

viz. the sum of conduction-current, displacement-current, and convection-current ρu, where ρ is the volume-density of electrification. The addition of the term ρu was, I believe, proposed by G. F. Fitzgerald.

(This was not meant exactly for a new proposal, being in fact after Rowland's experiments; besides which, Maxwell was well acquainted with the idea of a convection-current. But what is very strange is that Maxwell, who insisted so strongly upon his doctrine of the quasi-incompressibility of electricity, never formulated the convection-current in his treatise. Now Prof. Fitzgerald pointed out that if Maxwell, in his equation of mechanical force,

$\scriptstyle{\mathbf{F}=\mathbf{VCB}-e\nabla\Psi-m\nabla\Omega,}$

had written E for $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla\Psi,}$$ as it is obvious he should have done, then the inclusion of convection-current in the true current would have followed naturally. (Here C is the true current, B the induction, e the density of electrification, m that of imaginary magnetic matter, Ψ the electrostatic and Ω the magnetic potential, and E the real electric force.)

Now to this remark I have to add that it is as unjustifiable to derive H from Ω as E from ψ; that is, in general, the magnetic force is not the slope of a scalar potential; so, for $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla\Omega}$$ we should write H, the real magnetic force.


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 But this is not all. There is possibly a fourth term in F, expressed by 4πVDG, where D is the displacement and G the magnetic current; I have termed this force the "magneto-electric force," because it is the analogue of Maxwell's "electromagnetic force," VCB. Perhaps the simplest way of deriving it is from Maxwell's electric stress, which was the method I followed.

Thus, in a homogeneous nonconducting dielectric free from electrification and magnetization, the mechanical force is the sum of the "electromagnetic" and the "magnetoelectric," and is given by

$\scriptstyle{\mathbf{F}=\frac{1}{v^{2}}\frac{d\mathbf{W}}{dt},}$|undefined

where W=VEH/4π is the transfer-of-energy vector.

It must, however, be confessed that the real distribution of the stresses, and therefore of the forces, is open to question. And when ether is the medium, the mechanical force in it, as for instance in a light-wave, or in a wave sent along a telegraph-circuit, is not easily to be interpreted.)

The companion to (11) in a nonconducting dielectric is now

Eliminate E between (11) and (13), remembering that H is circuital, because μ0 is constant, and we get

the characteristic of H. Here $$\scriptstyle{\nabla^{2}=d^{2}/dx^{2}+\cdots,}$$ as usual.

Comparing (14) with the characteristic of H when there is impressed force e instead of electrification ρ, which is

$\scriptstyle{\left(p^{2}/v^{2}-\nabla^{2}\right)\mathbf{H}=\mathrm{curl}~cp\mathbf{e},}$

we see that ρu becomes cpe/4π. We may therefore regard convection-current as impressed electric current. From this comparison also, we may see that an infinite plane sheet of electrification of uniform density cannot produce magnetic force by motion perpendicular to its plane. Also we see that the sources of disturbances when ρ is moved are the places where ρu has curl; for example, a dielectric sphere uniformly filled with electrification (which is imaginable), when moved, starts the magnetic force solely upon its boundary.

The presence of "curl" on the right side tells us, as a matter of mathematical simplicity, to make H/curl the variable. Let

and calculate A, which may be any vector satisfying (15). Its characteristic is

The divergence of A is of no moment, and it is only vexatious complication to introduce ψ. The time-rate of decrease of A is not the real


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 distribution of electric force, which has to be found by the additional datum

where E is the real force.

9. "Symbolically" expressed, the solution of (16) is

Here the numerator of the fraction to the right is the vector-potential of the convection-current. Calling it A0, we have

Inserting in (18) and expanding, we have

Given then ρu as a function of position and time, A0 is known by (19), and (20) finds A, whilst (15) finds H.

Complete Solution in the Case of Steady Rectilinear Motion.Physical Inanity of Ψ.

10. When the motion of the electrification is all in one direction, say parallel to the z-axis, u, A0, and A are all parallel to this axis, so that we need only consider their tensors. When there is simply one charge q at a point, we have

$\scriptstyle{A_{0}=qu/r,}$

and (20) becomes

at distance r from q. When the motion is steady, and the whole electromagnetic field is ultimately steady with respect to the moving charge, we shall have, taking it as origin,

$\scriptstyle{p=-u(d/dz)=-uD\,}$

for brevity; so that

Now the property

brings (22) to

and the property

where ν=sin θ, θ being the angle between r and the axis, brings (24) to


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 which, by the Binomial Theorem, is the same as

the required solution.

11. To derive H, the tensor of the circular H, let rv=h, the distance from the axis. Then, by (15),

by (27), if μ=cos θ. Performing the differentiation, and also getting out E the tensor of the electric force, we have the final result that the electromagnetic field is fully given by

with the additional information that E is radial and H circular.

Now, as regards Ψ, if we bring it in, we have only got to take it out again. When the speed is very slow we may regard the electric field as given by $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla\Psi}$$ plus a small correcting vector, which we may call the electric force of inertia. But to show the physical inanity of Ψ, go to the other extreme, and let u nearly equal v. It is now the electric force of inertia (supposed) that equals $$\scriptstyle{+\nabla\Psi}$$ nearly (except about the equatorial plane), and its sole utility or function is to cancel the other $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla\Psi}$$ of the (supposed) electrostatic field. It is surely impossible to attach any physical meaning to Ψ and to propagate it, for we require two Ψ's, one to cancel the other, and both propagated infinitely rapidly.

As the speed increases, the electromagnetic field concentrates itself more and more about the equatorial plane, $$\scriptstyle{\theta=\frac{1}{2}\pi.}$$ To give an idea of the accumulation, let u²/v²=.99. Then cE is .01 of the normal value q/r² at the pole, and 10 times the normal value at the equator. The latitude where the value is normal is given by

Limiting Case of Motion at the Speed of Light. Applications to a Telegraph Circuit.

12. When u=v, the solution (29) becomes a plane electromagnetic wave, E and H being zero everywhere except in the equatorial plane. As, however, the values of E and H are infinite, distribute the charge along a straight line moving in its own line, and let the linear-density be q. The solution is then

at distance r from the line, between the two planes through the ends of the line perpendicular to it, and zero elsewhere.

To further realize, let the field terminate internally at r=a, giving a cylindrical-surface distribution of electrification, and terminate the tubes


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 of displacement externally upon a coaxial cylindrical surface; we then produce a real electromagnetic plane wave with electrification, and of finite energy. We have supposed the electrification to be carried through the dielectric at speed ν, to keep up with the wave, which would of course break up if the charge were stopped. But if perfectly conducting surfaces be given on which to terminate the displacement, the natural motion of the wave will itself carry the electrification along them. In fact we now have the rudimentary telegraph-circuit, with no allowance made for absorption of energy in the wires, and the consequent distortion. If the conductors be not coaxial, we only alter the distribution of the displacement and induction, without affecting the propagation without distortion.

If we now make the medium conduct electrically, and likewise magnetically, with equal rates of subsidence, we shall have the same solutions, with a time-factor ε-ρt producing ultimate subsidence to zero; and, with only the real electric conductivity in the medium the wave is running through, it will approximately cancel the distortion produced by the resistance of the wires the wave is passing over when this resistance has a certain value. We should notice, however, that it could not do so perfectly, even if the magnetic retardation in the wires due to diffusion were zero; because in the case of the unreal magnetic conductivity its correcting influence is where it is wanted to be, in the body of the wave; whereas in the case of the wires, their resistance, correcting the distortion due to the external conductivity, is outside the wave; so that we virtually assume instantaneous propagation laterally from the wires of their correcting influence in the elementary theory of propagation along a telegraph-circuit which is symbolized by the equations

where R, L, K, and S are the resistance, inductance, leakage-conductance, and permittance per unit length of circuit, C the current, and V what I, for convenience, term the potential-difference, but which I have expressly disclaimed to represent the electrostatic difference of potential, and have shown to represent the transverse voltage or line-integral of the electric force across the circuit from wire to wire, including the electric force of inertia. Now in case of great distortion, as in a long submarine cable, this V approximates towards the electrostatic potential-difference, which it is in Sir W. Thomson's diffusion theory; but in case of little distortion, as in telephony through circuits of low resistance and large inductance, there may be a wide difference between my V and that of the electrostatic force. Consider, for instance, the extreme case of an isolated plane-wave disturbance with no spreading-out of the tubes of displacement. At the boundaries of the


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 disturbance the difference between V and the electrostatic difference of potential is great.

But it is worth noticing, as a rather remarkable circumstance, that when we derive the system (32) by elementary considerations, viz. by extending the diffusion-system by the addition of the of inertia and leakage-current, we apparently as a matter of course take V to mean the same as in the diffusion-system. The resulting equations are correct, and yet the assumption is certainly wrong. The true way appears to be that given by me in the paper last referred to, by considering the line-integral of electric force in a closed curve. [vol. II., p. 187. Also p. 87]. We cannot, indeed, make a separation of the electric force of inertia from $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla\Psi}$$ without some assumption, though the former is quite definite when the latter is suitably defined. But, and this is the really important matter, it would be in the highest degree inconvenient, and lead to much complication and some confusion, to split V into two components, in other words, to bring in Ψ and A.

In thus running down Ψ, I am by no means forgetful of its utility in other cases. But it has perhaps been greatly misused. The clearest course to pursue appears to me to invariably make E and H the primary objects of attention, and only use potentials when they naturally suggest themselves as labour-saving appliances.

Special Tests. The Connecting Equations.

13. Returning to the solutions (29), the following are the special tests of their accuracy. Let E1 and E2 be the z and h components of E. Then, by (11) and (13), with the special meaning assumed by p, we have

{{centre|$$\left.\begin{array}{rcl} \scriptstyle{\frac{1}{h}\frac{d}{dh}hH} & \scriptstyle{=} & \scriptstyle{-cu\frac{dE_{1}}{dz},}\\ \scriptstyle{-\frac{dH}{dz}=-cu\frac{dE_{2}}{dz},\quad} & \scriptstyle{\mathrm{or}} & \scriptstyle{\quad H=cuE_{2}}\\ \scriptstyle{\frac{dE_{1}}{dh}-\frac{dE_{2}}{dz}=-\mu_{0}u\frac{dH}{dz},\quad} & \scriptstyle{\mathrm{or}} & \scriptstyle{\quad\frac{dE_{1}}{dh}=\left(1-\frac{u^{2}}{v^{2}}\right)\frac{dE_{2}}{dz}.}\end{array}\right\}\scriptstyle{\cdots\text{(33)}}$$}}

In addition to satisfying these equations, the displacement outward through any spherical surface centred at the charge may be verified to be q; this completes the test of the accuracy of (29).

But (33) are not limited to the case of a single point-charge, being true outside the electrification when there is symmetry with respect to the z-axis, and the electrification is all moving parallel to it at speed u.

When u=v, E1=0, and E2=E=μvH, so that we reduce to

outside the electrification. Thus, if the electrification is on the axis of z, we have

differing from (31) only in that q, the linear density, may be any function of z.


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 The Motion of a Charged Sphere. The Condition at a Surface of Equilibrium (Footnote).

14. If, in the solutions (29), we terminate the fields internally at r=a, the perpendicularity of E and the tangentiality of H to the surface show that (29) represents the solutions in the case of a perfectly conducting sphere of radius a, moving steadily along the z-axis at the speed u, and possessing a total charge q. The energy is now finite. Let U be the total electric and T the total magnetic energy. By space-integration of the squares of E and H we find that they are given by

in which u<v. When u=v, with accumulation of the charge at the equator of the sphere, we have infinite values, and it appears to be only possible to have finite values by making a zone at the equator cylindrical instead of spherical. The expression for T in (37) looks quite wrong; but it correctly reduces to that of equation (2) when u/v is infinitely small. [I am indebted to Mr. G. F. C. Searle, of Cambridge, for the opportunity of making a somewhat important correction before going to press. In a private communication (August 19, 1892) he informed me that he had verified the accuracy of the solution for a point-charge, which he had also obtained in another way, from equations equivalent to (33), without the use of the function A of §§ 8 to 10; but he cast doubt upon the validity of the extension made in § 14, from a point-charge to a charged conducting sphere, and asked the plain question (in effect), What justification is there for terminating the displacement perpendicularly, to make a surface of equilibrium?

On examination, I find that there is no justification whatever, exceptions excepted. The true boundary condition may, however, be found without a fresh investigation. On p. 499 the problem of uniform motion of electrification through a dielectric medium, or conversely, of the uniform motion of the whole medium past stationary electrification, is reduced to a case of eolotropy in electrostatics. The effect of the motion of the isotropic medium on the displacement emanating from stationary electrification is there shown to be identical with the effect of keeping the medium stationary and reducing its permittivity in lines parallel to the (abolished) motion from c to c(1-u²/v²), whilst keeping the transverse permittivity the same. The transverse concentration of the displacement is obvious. Now the function P (equation (14), p. 499) is the electrostatic potential in the stationary eolotropic problem, so that its slope $$\scriptstyle{-\nabla P}$$, which call F, is the electric force, and the displacement D is a linear function thereof, say D=λF, where λ is the permittivity operator. The condition of equilibrium is that F is perpendicular to the surface where it terminates, this being required to make or the voltage zero in every circuit. Now, in the corresponding problem of the same electrification in a moving isotropic medium, we have the same function P (no longer the electrostatic potential) and the same derived vector F, whilst the displacement D is also derived from F in the same way. But whilst the meaning of D is the same in both cases, that of F is not. In the eolotropic case, F is the


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 The State when the Speed of Light is exceeded.

15. The question now suggests itself, What is the state of things when u>v? It is clear, in the first place, that there can be no disturbance at all in front of the moving charge (at a point, for simplicity). Next, considering that the spherical waves emitted by the charge in its motion along the z-axis travel at speed v, the locus of their fronts is a conical surface whose apex is at the charge itself, whose axis is that of z, and whose semiangle θ is given by

The whole displacement, of amount q, should therefore lie within this cone. And since the moving charge is a convection-current qu, the displacement-current should be towards the apex in the axial portion of the cone, and change sign at some unknown distance, so as to be away from the apex either in the outer part of the cone or else upon its boundary. The pulling back of the charge by the electric stress would require the continued application of impressed force to keep up the motion, and its activity would be accounted for by the continuous addition made to the energy in the cone; for the transfer of energy on its boundary is perpendicularly outward, and the field at the apex is being continuously renewed.

The above general reasoning seems plausible enough, but I cannot find any solution to correspond that will satisfy all the necessary conditions. It is clear that (29) will not do when u>v. Nor is it of any use to change the sign of the quantity under the radical, when needed, to make real. It is suggested that whilst there should be a definite solution, there cannot be one representing a steady condition of E and H with respect to the moving charge. As regards physical electric force, and is not parallel to D. In the moving isotropic medium, on the other hand, F is not the electric force, which is E, parallel to D. Nevertheless, the same condition formally obtains, for we have in the moving medium, requiring that F shall be perpendicular to a surface of equilibrium, not the electric force or displacement. P=constant is therefore the equation to a surface of equilibrium. That is, in the case of a point-charge, the surfaces of equilibrium are not spheres, but are concentric oblate spheroids, whose principal axes are proportional to the square roots of c, c, and c(1-u²/v²), the principal permittivities in the eolotropic problem. In the extreme case of u=v, the spheroid reduces to a flat circular disc, with a single circular line of electrification on its edge. It would seem, however, to be a matter of indifference, in this extreme case, whether the conductor be a disc or a solid sphere. Bearing in mind the conditions assumed to prevail in the problem of motion of sources of displacement in a uniform medium, we see that if we introduce conductors, say by filling up spaces void of electric force with conducting matter, this should not interfere with the assumed motions. (See also "Electromagnetic Theory," § 164.)

Equations (36), (37) express the electric and magnetic energy outside a sphere of radius a, within which is either a point-source at the origin, or any equivalent spheroidal electrified surface.

In the corresponding bidimensional problem of § 17 in the text, with the solution (43), it is clear from the above that the surface of equilibrium is an elliptic cylinder, the shorter axis being in the direction of motion, and the axes themselves in the ratio $$\scriptstyle{1\text{ to }\left(1-u^{2}/v^{2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}}$$. This surface degenerates to a flat strip when u=v.]


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 possibility, in connexion with the structure of the ether, that is not in question. [The difficulty about the above method and solution (29) is that it is not explicit enough when u>v, and does not indicate the limits of application. It gives a real solution for the hinder cone, a real solution for the forward cone, and an unreal solution in the rest of space, but we have no instruction to reject the part for the forward cone and the unreal part, nor have we any means of testing that the remainder, confined to the hinder cone, is the proper solution, viz., by the test of divergence, to give the right amount of electrification. The integral displacement comes to -∞. Now this may require to be supplemented by +∞+q on the boundary of the cone, but we have no way of testing it.

But certain considerations led me to the conclusion that the problem of u>v was really quite as definite a one as that of u<v, and that a correct method of a general character (independent of the magnitude of u) would show this explicitly. I therefore (in 1890) attacked the problem from a different point of view, employing the method of resistance-operators (or an equivalent method). Form the complete differential equation D=φu, connecting the displacement D associated with a moving point-charge with its velocity u, which is any function of the time t. Here φ is a differential operator, a function of p or d/dt. The solution of this equation gives D explicitly in terms of u, whether steady or variable, and its structure indicates the limits of application.

Taking u=constant, we obtain the result (29) when u<v. But when u>v, the formula tells us to exclude all space except the hinder cone, and that in it, the solution is not (29), but double as much. That is, double the right member of the first of (29) when u>v. The boundary of the cone is also a displacement sheet. The displacement is to the charge in the cone, and from the charge on its surface. Being so near the end of the second volume, I regret that there is no space here for the mathematical investigation, which cannot be given in a few words, and must be reserved.]

A Charged Straight Line moving in its own Line.

16. Let us now derive from (29), or from (27), the results in some cases of distributed electrification, in steady rectilinear motion. The integrations to be effected being all of an elementary character, it is not necessary to give the working.

First, let a straight line AB be charged to linear density q, and be in motion at speed u in its own line from left to right. Then at P we shall have

from which H=-dA/dh gives

where μ=cos θ, ν = sin θ.

When P is vertically over B, and A is at an infinite distance, we shall find

which is one half the value due to an infinitely long (both ways) straight current of strength qu. The notable thing is the independence of the ratio u/v.


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 But if u=v in (40), the result is zero, unless ν1=1, when we have the result (41). But if P be still further to the left, we shall have to add to (41) the solution due to the electrification which is ahead of P. So when the line is infinitely long both ways, we have double the result in (41), with independence of u/v again. But should q be a function of z, we do not have independence of u/v except in the already considered case of u=v, with plane waves, and no component of electric force parallel to the line of motion. A Charged Straight Line moving Transversely. 17. Next, let the electrified line be in steady motion perpendicularly to its length. Let q be the linear density (constant), the z-axis that of the motion, the x-axis coincident with the electrified line and that of y upward on the paper. Then the A at P will be

where y and z belong to P, and x1, x2 are the limiting values of x in the charged line. From this derive the solution in the case of an infinitely long line. It is

where ν=sin θ understanding that E is radial, or along qP in the figure, and H rectilinear, parallel to the charged line. Terminating the fields internally at r=a, we have the case of a perfectly conducting cylinder of radius a, charged with q per unit of length, moving transversely. When u=v there is disappearance of E and H everywhere except in the plane $$\scriptstyle{\theta=\frac{1}{2}\pi}$$, as in the case of the sphere, and consequent infinite values. It is the curvature that permits this to occur, i.e. producing infinite values; of course it is the self-induction that is the cause of the conversion to a plane wave, here and in the other cases. There is some similarity between (43) and (29). In fact, (43) is the bidimensional equivalent of (29). A Charged Plane moving Transversely. 18. Coming next to a plane distribution of electrification, let q be the surface-density, and the plane be moving perpendicularly to itself. Let it be of finite breadth and of infinite length, so that we may calculate H from (43). The result at P is


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518 When P is equidistant from the edges, H is zero. There is therefore no H anywhere due to the motion of an infinitely large uniformly charged plane perpendicularly to itself. The displacement-current is the negative of the convection-current and at the same place, viz. the moving plane, so there is no true current.

Calculating E1; the z-component of E, z being measured from left to right, we find

The component parallel to the plane is H/cu. Thus, when the plane is infinite, this component vanishes with H, and we are left with

the same as if the plane were at rest.

19. Lastly, let the charged plane be moving in its own plane. Refer to the first figure, in which let AB now be the trace of the plane when of finite breadth. We shall find that

z1 and z2 being the extreme values of z, which is measured parallel to the breadth of the plane.

Therefore, when the plane extends infinitely both ways, we have

above the plane, and its negative below it. This differs from the previous case of vanishing displacement-current. There is H, and the convection-current is not now cancelled by coexistent displacement-current.

The existence of displacement-current, or changing displacement, was the basis of the conclusion that moving electrification constitutes a part of the true current. Now in the problem (48) the displacement-current has gone, so that the existence of H appears to rest merely upon the assumption that moving electrification is true current. But if the plane be not infinite, though large, we shall have (48) nearly true near it, and away from the edges; whilst the displacement-current will be strong near the edges and almost nil where (48) is nearly true.

But in some cases of rotating electrification, there need be no displacement anywhere, except during the setting up of the final state. This brings us to the rather curious question whether there is any difference between the magnetic field of a convection-current produced by the rotation of electrification upon a good nonconductor and upon a good conductor respectively, other than that due to diffusion in the conductor. For in the case of a perfect conductor, it is easy to imagine that the electrification could be at rest, and the moved conductor merely slip past it. Perhaps Professor Rowland's forthcoming experiments on convection-currents may cast some light upon this matter.

 * December 27, 1888.


text:
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature

/Preface/

/Hebrew or Aramaic Abbreviations/

/List of Abbreviations/

/Addenda et Corrigenda/

/Index/


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[William Wirt was born at Bladensburg. Maryland, in 1772. He was admitted to the bar in 1792 and began practice at Culpeper Court-House, Virginia. After 1799 he resided chiefly at Richmond until his appointment as Attorney-General of the United States in 1817. This position he held for twelve years, and upon his retirement from office he resided in Baltimore. He died at Washington in 1834. During Wirt's practice of law in Virginia his best-known legal argument was his celebrated speech in 1807 against Aaron Burr at the latter's trial for treason. In addition to success at the bar Wirt had the distinction of being regarded for many years as the chief man of letters in the South.]

In one of my late rides into the surrounding country, I stopped at a little inn to refresh myself and my horse; and, as the landlord was neither a Boniface nor "mine host of the garter," I called for a book, by way of killing time while the preparations for my repast were going forward. He brought me a shattered fragment of the second volume of The Spectator,


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2 which he told me was the only book in the house, for "he never troubled his head about reading"; and by way of conclusive proof, he further informed me that this fragment, the only book in the house, had been sleeping unmolested on the dust of his mantelpiece for ten or fifteen years. I could not meet my venerable countryman, in a foreign land, and in this humiliating plight, nor hear of the inhuman and gothic contempt with which he had been treated, without the liveliest emotion. So I read my host a lecture on the subject, to which he appeared to pay as little attention as he had before done to The Spectator; and, with the sang froid of a Dutchman, answered me in the cant of the country, that he "had other fish to fry," and left me.

It had been so long since I had had an opportunity of opening an agreeable collection, that the few numbers which were now before me appeared almost entirely new; and I cannot describe to you the avidity and delight with which I devoured those beautiful and interesting speculations.

Is it not strange, my dear S——, that such a work should have ever lost an inch of ground? A style so sweet and simple, and yet so ornamented! a temper so benevolent, so cheerful, so exhilarating! a body of knowledge, and of original thought, so immense and various, so strikingly just, so universally useful! What person, of any age, sex, temper, calling, or pursuit, can possibly converse with The Spectator without being conscious of immediate improvement?

To the spleen he is as perpetual and never-failing an antidote as he is to ignorance and immorality. No matter for the disposition of mind in which you take him up; you catch, as you go along, the happy tone of spirits which prevails through out the work; you smile at the wit, laugh at the drollery, feel your mind enlightened, your heart opened, softened, and refined; and when you lay him down, you are sure to be in a better


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 humor, both with yourself and everybody else. I have never mentioned the subject to a reader of The Spectator who did not admit this to be the invariable process; and in such a world of misfortune, of cares and sorrows and guilt, as this is, what a prize would this collection be if it were rightly estimated!

Were I the sovereign of a nation which spoke the English language, and wished my subjects cheerful, virtuous, and enlightened, I would furnish every poor family in my dominions (and see that the rich furnished themselves) with a copy of The Spectator, and ordain that the parents or children should read four or five numbers aloud every night in the year. For one of the peculiar perfections of the work is, that while it contains such a mass of ancient and modern learning, so much of profound wisdom and of beautiful composition, yet there is scarcely a number throughout the eight volumes which is not level to the meanest capacity. Another perfection is, that The Spectator will never become tiresome to anyone whose taste and whose heart remain uncorrupted.

I do not mean that this author should be read to the exclusion of others; much less that he should stand in the way of the generous pursuit of science, or interrupt the discharge of social or private duties. All the counsels of the work have a directly reverse tendency. It furnishes a store of the clearest argument and of the most amiable and captivating exhortations, "to raise the genius, and to mend the heart." I regret only that such a book should be thrown by, and almost entirely forgotten, while the gilded blasphemies of infidels, and the "noontide trances" of pernicious theorists, are hailed with rapture and echoed around the world. For such, I should be pleased to see The Spectator universally substituted; and, throwing out the question of its morality, its literary information, its sweetly contagious serenity, and pure and chaste beauties of its style, and considering it merely as a curiosity,


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 4 as concentering the brilliant sports of the finest cluster of geniuses that ever graced the earth, it surely deserves perpetual attention, respect, and consecration.

There is, methinks, my S——, a great fault in the world, as it respects this subject: a giddy instability, a light and fluttering vanity, a prurient longing after novelty, an impatience, a disgust, a fastidious contempt of everything that is old. You will not understand me as censuring the progress of sound science. I am not so infatuated an antiquarian, not so poor a philanthropist, as to seek to retard the expansion of the human mind. But I lament the eternal oblivion into which our old authors, those giants of literature, are permitted to sink, while the world stands open-eyed and open-mouthed to catch every modern, tinseled abortion as it falls from the press. In the polite circles of America, for instance, perhaps there is no want of taste, and even zeal, for letters. I have seen several gentlemen who appear to have an accurate, a minute, acquaintance with the whole range of literature, in its present state of improvement; yet you will be surprised to hear that I have not met with more than one or two persons in this country who have ever read the works of Bacon or of Boyle. They delight to saunter in the upper story, sustained and adorned, as it is, with the delicate proportions, the foliage and flourishes, of the Corinthian order; but they disdain to make any acquaintance, or hold communion at all, with the Tuscan and Doric plainness and strength which base and support the whole edifice. …

It was one Sunday, as I traveled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous old wooden house in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in


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 traveling through those states, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship.

Devotion alone should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess that curiosity to hear the preacher of such a wilderness was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and very spare old man; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shriveled hands, and his voice were all shaking under the influence of a palsy; and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind.

The first emotions that touched my breast were those of mingled pity and veneration. But how soon were all my feelings changed! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the sacrament; and his subject was, of course, the passion of our Saviour. I have heard the subject handled a thousand times; I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose that in the wild woods of America I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos than I had ever before witnessed.

As he descended from the pulpit to distribute the mystic symbols, there was a peculiar, a more than human, solemnity in his air and manner which made my blood run cold and my whole frame shiver.

He then drew a picture of the sufferings of our Saviour: his trial before Pilate, his ascent up Calvary, his crucifixion, and his death. I knew the whole history; but never until then had I heard the circumstances so selected, so arranged, so colored! It was all new; and I seemed to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deliberate that his voice trembled on every syllable; and every heart in the


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 6 assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases had the force of description, that the original scene appeared to be at that moment acting before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews: the staring, frightful distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet; my soul kindled with a flame of indignation, and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively clinched.

But when he came to touch on the patience, the forgiving meekness of our Saviour; when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in tears to heaven, his voice breathing to God a soft and gentle prayer of pardon on his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,"—the voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew fainter and fainter, until, his utterance being entirely obstructed by the force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes and burst into a loud and irrepressible flood of grief. The effect is inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the congregation.

It was some time before the tumult had subsided, so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual, but fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for the situation of the preacher. For I could not conceive how he would be able to let his audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. But—no; the descent was as beautiful and sublime as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic.

The first sentence with which he broke the awful silence was a quotation from Rousseau: "Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ, like a God!"

I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the


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 whole manner of the man as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before did I completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on delivery. You are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher; his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian, and Milton, and associating with his performance the melancholy grandeur of their geniuses; you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling melody; you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the congregation were raised; and then the few moments of portentous, death like silence which reigned throughout the house; the preacher, removing his white handkerchief from his aged face (even yet wet from the recent torrent of his tears) and slowly stretching forth the palsied hand which holds it, begins the sentence, "Socrates died like a philosopher,"—then, pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both, clasped together, with warmth and energy to his breast, lifting his "sightless balls" to heaven, and pouring his whole soul into his tremulous voice,—"but Jesus Christ—like a God!" If it had indeed and in truth been an angel of light, the effect could scarcely have been more divine.

 DAVID CROCKETT

[David Crockett, the noted American pioneer and politician, was born in Tennessee in 1786. He was a typical backwoodsman, unlettered but shrewd, skillful as a hunter, and fond of an out-of-doors life. He served under Jackson in the war against the Creek Indians, and in 1826 was elected to Congress. At the close of his third term in Congress he enlisted with the Texan forces then at war with Mexico, and in 1836 was one of the defenders of the Alamo, where, on March 6th, with the rest of the garrison, he was killed by Santa Anna's troops.]


text: Ursule Mirouët (Tomlinson translation)/Part I/2


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*
At Nemours, there are only three or four households of unknown gentry, prominent amongst these being that of the Portenduère. These exclusive families frequent only the nobles who own the land or the châteaux in the neighborhood, amongst whom may be singled out the d’Aiglemonts, owners of the fine estate of Saint-Lange, and the Marquis du Rouvre, for whose property, overwhelmed with mortgages, the bourgeois were on the lookout. The nobles of the town were poor. For all estate, Madame de Portenduère possessed a farm yielding four thousand seven hundred francs income, and her town house. Against this little Faubourg Saint-Germain were grouped half a score of rich men, former millers, retired merchants, in a word, a miniature bourgeoisie under whom revolved small retail dealers, working men and peasants. This bourgeoisie, like that of the Swiss cantons and several other small countries, presents the curious spectacle of the irradiation of a few aboriginal families, probably Gallic, reigning over one territory, overrunning it and making the inhabitants all cousins. Under Louis XI., epoch in which the third Estate ended by turning its nicknames into real names, several of which became mingled with those of feudalism, the bourgeoisie of Nemours consisted of Minoret, de Massin, de Levrault and de Crémière. Under Louis XIII., these


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 four families already produced the Massin-Crémière, the Levrault-Massin, the Massin-Minoret, the Minoret-Minoret, the Crémière-Levrault, the Levrault-Minoret-Massin, the Massin-Levrault, the Minoret-Massin, the Massin-Massin, the Crémière-Massin, all this varied with junior, senior, Crémière-François, Levrault-Jacques, Jean-Minoret, enough to distract the father Anselm of the people, if the people had ever wanted a genealogist. The variations in the four elements of this domestic kaleidoscope became so complicated by births and marriages, that the genealogical tree of the citizens of Nemours would have puzzled even the benedictines of the Gotha almanac, in spite of the atomical science with which they arrange the zigzags of the German alliances. For a long time, the Minorets occupied the tanneries, the Crémières held the mills, the Massins applied themselves to trade, and the Levraults remained farmers. Happily for the country, these four stems spread instead of pivoting, or had thrust out fresh shoots by exiling children who sought their fortunes abroad; there are Minoret cutlers in Melun, some Levraults in Montargis, Massins in Orléans and Crémières of importance in Paris. The destinies of these bees from the mother hive are very varied. Rich Massins necessarily employ Massin workmen, in the same way as there are German princes in the service of Austria or Prussia. The same province sees a Minoret millionaire guarded by a Minoret soldier. Filled with the same blood and called by the same name to all similarity,


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 these four shuttles had unceasingly woven a human canvas, every shred of which happened to be gown or towel, superb cambric or coarse lining. The same blood ran in the head, in the feet or the heart, in the industrious hands, in diseased lungs or in a brow, big with genius. The heads of the clan dwelt faithfully in the little town, where the ties of kindred slackened or contracted at the will of events enacted by this strange cognomenism. In whatever country you go, change the names and you will recognize the fact, but without the poetry that feudalism imparted to it and that Walter Scott has reproduced with so much talent Let us look higher and examine human nature in history. All the noble families of the eleventh century, now almost all extinct, except the royal race of the Capets, have necessarily all co-operated in the birth of a Rohan, a Montmorency, a Bauffremont, and a Mortemart of to-day; in fact they must all necessarily be in the blood of the last gentleman who is truly a gentleman. In other words, every bourgeois is cousin to a bourgeois, and every nobleman, cousin to a nobleman. As it says in the sublime pages of the biblical genealogies, in a thousand years, three families, Shem, Ham and Japheth, can cover the globe with their children. A family can become a nation, and, unfortunately, a nation can once more become a single, simple family. To prove this, it suffices to apply to the investigation of ancestors and their accumulation that time increases in a retrograde geometrical progression multiplied by itself, the


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 calculation of that sage, who, when asking a Persian king, as a reward for having invented the game of chess, to give him one ear of corn for the first square of the chess-board whilst always doubling it, demonstrated that the kingdom itself would not suffice to pay it. The network of nobility encircled by the network of the bourgeoisie, this antagonism of two races, the one protected by immovable institutions, the other by the active patience of work and the wiles of trade, produced the revolution of 1789. The two races, almost reunited, stand today face to face with collateral heirs without any inheritance. What are they going to do? Our political future is pregnant with the reply.

The family of him who under Louis XV. called himself simply Minoret, was so numerous, that one of the five children, the Minoret whose entrance into the church created a sensation, went to seek his fortune in Paris, and only appeared at long intervals in his native town, where, upon the death of his grandparents, he doubtless came to fetch his share of the inheritance. After having suffered a great deal, like all young people gifted with a strong will and who wish to hold a place in the brilliant society of Paris, the child of the Minorets created for himself a finer destiny than he had perhaps ever dreamt of at the outset; for he had at once devoted himself to medicine, one of the professions which require talent and luck, but even more luck than talent. Supported by Dupont—of Nemours,—connected by a lucky chance with the Abbé Morellet that Voltaire


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 used to call Mords-les, and protected by the encyclopedists, Doctor Minoret attached himself like a satellite to the great doctor Bordeu, Diderot’s friend. D’Alembert, Helvétius, Baron d’Holbach, and Grimm, before whom he was a mere lad, doubtless ended, like Bordeu, by interesting themselves in Minoret, who, about 1777, had a fairly large practice of deists, encyclopedists, sensualists, and materialists, whatever you like to call the rich philosophers of those times. Although he was in no way a quack, he invented the famous balsam of Lelièvre, so much praised by the Mercure de France, the advertisement of which was always at the end of this newspaper, the weekly organ of the encyclopedists. The apothecary Lelièvre, a clever man, saw a speculation in what Minoret had only looked upon as a preparation to be placed in the pharmacopoeia, and loyally he had shared his profits with the doctor, who was a pupil of Rouelle’s in chemistry, as he had been Bordeu’s in medicine. One might have been a materialist for less. In 1778, period when la Nouvelle Héloïse reigned and people sometimes married for love, the doctor made a love match with the daughter of a famous harpsichord player, Valentin Mirouët, a celebrated musician, weak and delicate, who was killed by the Revolution. Minoret was intimately acquainted with Robespierre, to whom he had formerly given a gold medal for an essay upon the following subject: What is the origin of the opinion which spreads over the whole family part of the shame attached to the ignominious


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 ''penalties endured by a culprit? Is this opinion more harmful than effective? And, if it should be decided for the affirmative, what means should be employed to guard against the disadvantages resulting from this?'' The Royal Academy of Science and Art at Metz, to which Minoret belonged, must have the original of this essay. Although, thanks to this friendship, the doctor’s wife had nothing to apprehend, she was so afraid of going to the scaffold, that this unconquerable terror aggravated the aneurism which she owed to an exaggerated sensitiveness. In spite of all the precautions that an adoring man could take for his wife, Ursule met the cart full of the condemned, in which was Madame Roland, and this sight caused her death. Minoret, full of tenderness for his Ursule, to whom he had refused nothing and who had led a life of studied elegance, found himself almost poor after he had lost her. Robespierre had him appointed head physician to a hospital.

Although, during the animated altercations to which mesmerism gave rise, Minoret’s name acquired a celebrity which recalled him from time to time to his parents, the Revolution was so great a dissolvent and so broke up family connections that, in 1813, Nemours was entirely unaware of the existence of Doctor Minoret, who was led by an unforeseen chance to conceive the idea of returning, like a hare, to die at home.

Whilst traveling through France, where the eye so quickly wearies of the monotony of the plains, who is there that has not felt the delicious sensation


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 from the top of a hill, from its slope or at the turn, just when the promise is of a barren landscape, of discovering a fresh valley watered by a river, and a little town sheltered under the rock like a hive in the hollow of an old willow? At the sound of the Hue! of the postilion who is walking beside his horses, one shakes off sleep, one admires as a dream within a dream some beautiful landscape which is to the traveler what a remarkable passage in a book is to a reader, one of Nature’s brilliant thoughts. Such is the sensation caused by the sudden view of Nemours when one arrives there from Bourgogne. From there it is seen, encircled by bare, gray, white and black rocks, weirdly shaped, like those that are so often found in the forest of Fontainebleau, and from which the scattered trees shoot up, standing clearly out against the sky and giving a wild appearance to this species of crumbled wall. There the long forest hill ends which slopes from Nemours to Bouron while skirting the road. At the bottom of this crude amphitheatre stretches a field where the Loing flows, forming sheeted waterfalls. This delicious landscape, which follows the Montargis road, resembles an opera scene, so studied are the effects. One morning, the doctor, whom a rich invalid in Bourgogne had summoned, and who was returning post haste to Paris, not having said at the preceding stage which road he wished to take, was driven unconsciously through Nemours and, between two naps, once more beheld the country in the midst of which his childhood had been passed.


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 The doctor had then lost several of his old friends. The sectary of the Encyclopedia had witnessed the conversion of La Harpe, he had buried Lebrun-Pindare, and Marie-Joseph de Chénier, and Morellet, and Madame Helvétius. He assisted at the semi-downfall of Voltaire, attacked by Geoffroy, the continuer of Fréron. He was then thinking of retiring. And so, when his post chaise stopped at the top of the Grand’Rue of Nemours, he was prompted to inquire for his family. Minoret-Levrault came himself to see the doctor, who recognized his eldest brother’s son in the postmaster. This nephew presented his wife as the only daughter of father Levrault-Crémière, who, twelve years ago, had left him the post-house and the finest inn in Nemours.

“Well, nephew,” said the doctor, “have I any other heirs?”

“My aunt Minoret, your sister, married a Massin-Massin.”

“Yes, the surveyor of Saint-Lange.”

“She died a widow, leaving one daughter, who has just married a Crémière, a charming fellow, who has no employment as yet.”

“Well! she is my direct niece. Now, as my sailor brother died a bachelor, as Captain Minoret was killed at Monte-Legino, and as I am here, the paternal line is exhausted. Have I any relations on the maternal side? My mother was a Jean Massin-Levrault.”

“Of the Jean Massin-Levraults,” replied Minoret-Levrault, “there only remains one Jean Massin, who


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 married Monsieur Crémière-Levrault-Dionis, a fodder contractor, who perished on the scaffold. His wife died of despair and ruined, leaving a daughter married to a Levrault-Minoret, a farmer at Montereau, who does very well; and their daughter has just married a Massin-Levrault,—notary’s clerk at Montargis, where the father is a locksmith.”

“So I am not lacking in heirs,” said the doctor gaily, who desired to take a stroll round Nemours in company with his nephew.

The Loing undulates through the town, bordered by terraced gardens and tidy houses whose aspect gives rise to the belief that prosperity must dwell there rather than elsewhere. When the doctor turned out of the Grand’Rue into the Ruedes Bourgeois, Minoret-Levrault pointed out the property of Monsieur Levrault, a rich ironmonger in Paris, who, he said, had just let himself die.

“There, uncle, is a pretty house for sale, it has a delightful garden looking on the river.”

“Let us go in,” said the doctor, spying at the bottom of a little paved court, a house squeezed between the walls of two neighboring houses hidden by massive trees and climbing plants.

“It is built over cellars,” said the doctor, going in by a very steep flight of steps decorated with vases of white and blue faïence where geraniums were then in bloom.

Cut up, like most provincial houses, by a corridor leading from the court to the garden, there was nothing to the right but a drawing-room lighted by four


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 windows, two facing the court and two overlooking the garden; but Levrault-Levrault had sacrificed one of these windows as an entrance to a long brick greenhouse which reached from the drawing-room to the river, where it ended in a horrible Chinese pavilion.

“Good! by roofing this greenhouse and flooring it,” said old Minoret, “I could stow away my library and make a fine study of this extraordinary piece of architecture.”

On the opposite side of the corridor, overlooking the garden, was a dining-room, in imitation black lacquer with green and gold flowers, and separated from the kitchen by the frame of the staircase. A little office contrived behind this staircase, communicated with the kitchen, the iron-grated windows of which opened upon the courtyard. There were two rooms on the first floor; and above, roofed attics which were still inhabitable. After a rapid examination of this house covered from top to bottom with green trellis work, on the side of the courtyard as well as the garden side, and which terminated on the river in a terrace filled with faience vases, the doctor said:

“Levrault-Levrault must have spent a lot of money here!”

“Oh! sums as big as himself,” replied Minoret-Levrault. “He loved flowers, such nonsense! ‘What do they bring in?’ says my wife. You see, an artist came from Paris to paint his corridor with flowers in fresco. He put plate glass everywhere.


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 The ceilings were done up with cornices that cost six francs a foot. The dining-room floor is all inlaid, such follies! The house is not worth a penny the more.”

“Well, nephew, make this purchase for me, and let me know about it, here is my address; the rest my solicitor will see to.—Who lives opposite?” he asked, on leaving.

“Some refugees!” replied the postmaster, “a Chevalier de Portenduère.”

Once the house was bought, the famous doctor, instead of going there, wrote to his nephew to let it. The Folie-Levrault was inhabited by the notary of Nemours, who then sold his practice to Dionis, his head clerk, and who died two years after, saddling the doctor with a house to let just when Napoléon’s fate was being decided in the vicinity. The doctor’s heirs, pretty well deceived, had taken his desire to return as a rich man’s caprice, and were frantic at supposing him to have ties in Paris which would keep him there and rob them of their inheritance. Nevertheless, Minoret-Levrault’s wife seized this opportunity of writing to the doctor. The old man replied that as soon as peace was signed, once the roads were free of soldiers and communication re-established, he should come to live at Nemours. He paid a flying visit with two of his patients, a hospital architect and an upholsterer, who undertook repairs, interior arrangements and the transport of the furniture. Madame Minoret-Levrault offered, as caretaker, the cook of the


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 deceased old notary, who was accepted. When the heirs knew that their uncle or great-uncle Minoret was positively going to live at Nemours, their families were seized, in spite of the political events which at that time weighed upon Le Gâtinais and La Brie, with a devouring but almost legitimate curiosity. Was their uncle rich? Was he economical or extravagant? Would he leave a handsome fortune, or none at all? Had he any life annuities? This is what they finally learnt, but with infinite difficulty and by means of underhand espionage. After the death of Ursule Minoret, his wife, from 1789 to 1813, the doctor, appointed consulting physician to the Emperor in 1805, must have earned a great deal of money, but nobody knew his income; he lived simply, with no other expenses than those of a carriage by the year, and a sumptuous apartment; he never received company and nearly always dined out. His housekeeper, furious at not accompanying him to Nemours, told Zélie Levrault, the postmaster’s wife, that she knew the doctor to have fourteen thousand francs income from the Funds. Now, after twenty years’ practice in a profession which the titles of head physician of a hospital, physician to the Emperor, and member of the Institute rendered so lucrative, these fourteen thousand francs income, profit of successive investments, implied at the most one hundred and sixty thousand francs savings! To have saved only eight thousand francs a year, the doctor must have had a great many vices or a great many virtues to gratify;


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 but neither the housekeeper, nor Zélie, nor anybody could fathom the reason for this moderate expenditure; Minoret, who was much regretted in his neighborhood, was one of the most benevolent men in Paris, and, like Larrey, kept his charitable acts a profound secret. It was therefore with keen satisfaction that the heirs saw the arrival of the rich upholstery and the large library of their uncle, already an officer of the Legion of Honor, and appointed by the King chevalier of the order of Saint-Michel, perhaps on account of his retirement which made way for some favorite. But, when the architect, the painters, and the upholsterers had arranged all in the most comfortable manner, the doctor did not come. Madame Minoret-Levrault, who was superintending the upholsterer and the architect as if it were a question of her own fortune, learnt, through the indiscretion of a young man sent down to arrange the library, that the doctor took care of an orphan called Ursule. This news made wild havoc in the town of Nemours. The old man at last came home toward the middle of the month of January, 1815, and secretly installed himself with a little girl of ten months, accompanied by a wet-nurse.

“Ursule cannot be his daughter, he is seventy-one years old!” said the alarmed heirs.

“Whatever she may be,” said Madame Massin, “she will give us plenty of worry!”

The doctor gave a somewhat cold reception to his great-niece on the maternal side, whose husband had just bought the clerkship of the justice of the peace,


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 and who had been the first to venture to tell him of their hard situation. Massin and his wife were not rich. Massin’s father, a locksmith at Montargis, obliged to compound with his creditors, at sixty-seven years of age was working like a young man, and would leave nothing. Madame Massin’s father, Levrault-Minoret, had just died at Montereau, from the effects of war, having seen his farm burnt, his fields ruined and his cattle consumed.

“We shall get nothing from your great-uncle,” said Massin to his wife, who was already pregnant with her second child.

The doctor secretly gave them ten thousand francs, with which the clerk of the justice of the peace, a friend of the notary and sheriff of Nemours, started usury and went to work so thoroughly with the peasants of the vicinity, that just now Goupil knew him to be worth eighty thousand francs in unacknowledged capital.

As for his other niece, the doctor, through his connections in Paris, obtained the collectorship of Nemours for Crémière and guaranteed the security. Although Minoret-Levrault was in need of nothing, Zélie, jealous of the uncle’s liberality to his two nieces, introduced her son to him, who was then ten years old, and whom she was going to send to a college in Paris, where, she said, education was very expensive. As he was physician at Fontanes, the doctor obtained a half-scholarship at the college of Louis-le-Grand for his great-nephew, who was placed in the fourth class.


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 Crémière, Massin and Minoret-Levrault, exceedingly vulgar people, were mercilessly summed up by the doctor from the first two months during which they tried to encompass, not so much the uncle, as the inheritance. People who are guided by instinct have this disadvantage compared to people of ideas, that they are at once found out; instinct’s inspirations are too natural, and appeal too much to the eye not to be immediately perceived; whilst, to be fathomed, the conceptions of intellect demand an equal intelligence on both sides. After having bought the gratitude of his heirs, and having in some degree closed their mouths, the wily doctor alleged his occupations, habits, and the attentions required by the little Ursule as an excuse to avoid receiving them, without, however, forbidding them the house. He liked to dine alone, he went to bed and rose late, he had come to his native country in search of rest and solitude. These caprices of an old man appeared sufficiently natural, and his heirs contented themselves with calling upon him every Sunday between one and four o’clock, weekly visits which he tried to stop by saying to them:

“Do not come to see me unless you want me.”

The doctor, without refusing to grant consultations in serious cases, especially for the poor, would not become physician to the little hospital at Nemours, and declared that he would no longer practise his profession.

“I have killed people enough,” he said laughingly


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 to the Curé Chaperon, who, knowing him to be charitable, was pleading for the poor.

“He is notoriously eccentric!”

This remark, said about Doctor Minoret, was the harmless revenge of offended vanity, for the doctor formed for himself a society of persons who deserved to be classed opposite the heirs. Now, those of the bourgeois who thought themselves worthy of swelling the court of a man with a black ribbon, treasured up a ferment of jealousy against the doctor and his privileged friends, which, unfortunately, had its results.

Through some odd freak explained by the proverb: “Extremes meet,” the materialist doctor and the Curé of Nemours quickly became friends. The old man was very fond of backgammon, a favorite game with churchmen, and the Abbé Chaperon and the doctor were evenly matched. So the game was the first link between them. Then Minoret was charitable, and the Curé of Nemours was the Fénelon of Gâtinais. Both were broadly educated; the man of God was the only one in all Nemours who could understand atheism. To be able to argue, two men must in the first place understand each other. What pleasure is there in addressing pungent words to some one who does not feel them? The doctor and the priest both had too much good taste, and had seen too much of good society not to practise its precepts; they could in that case, wage that mimic warfare which is so necessary to all conversation. Each disliked the other’s opinions, but they respected


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 each other’s character. If such contrasts and such sympathies are not the elements of private life, must one not despair of society, which, especially in France, requires some kind of antagonism? It is from collision of character, not from conflict of ideas, that antipathies arise. The Abbé Chaperon was then the doctor’s first friend in Nemours. This ecclesiastic, then sixty years old, had been curé of Nemours since the revival of Catholic worship. Out of love for his flock, he had refused the vicariate of the diocese. If those who were indifferent to religious matters were pleased with him, the faithful loved him even more. Thus respected by his flock and valued by the population, the curé did good without inquiring into the religious opinions of unfortunate people. His vicarage had hardly furniture sufficient for his needs and was as cold and bare as a miser’s house. Avarice and charity betray themselves in similar effects; does not charity lay up for itself the treasure in Heaven that the miser lays up on earth? The Abbé Chaperon disputed his expenditure with his servant with as much severity as Gobseck did with his, if however, this famous Jew ever had a servant. The good priest often sold the silver buckles from his shoes and breeches to give the value of them to the poor who caught him without a penny. When they saw him coming out of his church, with the ends of his breeches tied into the buttonholes, the devotees of the town then went to find the curé’s buckles at the watchmaker and jeweler’s of Nemours, and scolded their pastor when


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 they brought them back to him. He never bought himself linen or clothes, and wore his garments until they were unwearable. His linen, thick with darns, marked his skin like a haircloth. Madame de Portenduère or other simple souls then agreed with the housekeeper to replace his linen or old clothes by new ones during his sleep, and the curé did not always remark the change at once. At home he ate off pewter and with knives and forks of wrought iron. When he received his officiating priests and curates on days of solemnity, which is a tax upon the curés of the district, he used to borrow silver and table linen from his friend the atheist.

“My silver is his salvation!” the doctor would then say.

These good actions, which were sooner or later discovered and always accompanied by spiritual encouragement, were accomplished with sublime naivete. This life was all the more meritorious, in that the Abbé Chaperon possessed erudition as extensive as it was varied, and rare attainments. With him, shrewdness and grace, simplicity’s inseparable companions, enhanced a delivery worthy of a prelate. His manners, his character and his habits imparted that exquisite savor to his conversation, which, with intelligence, is both witty and sincere. Disposed to humor, he never acted the priest in a drawing-room. Until Doctor Minoret’s arrival, the simple soul left his light under a bushel without any regret; but maybe he was very


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 pleased to turn them to account. Though when he came to Nemours he was rich in the possession of a fairly fine library and an income of two thousand francs, in 1829 the curé owned nothing more than the revenue from his cure, almost entirely distributed every year. An excellent counselor in delicate affairs or in troubles, many a person, who never went to church for consolation used to go to the presbytery to seek advice. One small anecdote will suffice to complete this moral picture. Some of the peasants, rarely, it is true, and after all dishonest people, said they were being sued, in order to rouse the benevolence of the Abbé Chaperon. They deceived their wives, who, seeing their home threatened with dispossession and their cows seized, deceived the poor curé with their innocent tears, so that he could then find them the necessary seven or eight hundred francs, with which the peasant would buy a plot of ground. When religious persons, churchwardens, explained the fraud to the Abbé Chaperon whilst begging him to consult them to avoid being made the victim of cupidity, he said:

“Perhaps these people would have committed some crime to get their acre of earth, is it not at least doing good to prevent evil?”

Readers may be pleased to here find the sketch of this figure, remarkable in that science and literature had passed through this heart and vigorous mind while leaving them uncorrupted.

At sixty, the Abbé Chaperon had entirely white hair, so keenly did he feel the misfortune of others,


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 so much also had the incidents of the Revolution told upon him. Twice he had been imprisoned for twice refusing to take an oath, and twice, as he expressed it, had he said his In Manus. He was middle-sized, neither fat nor thin. His face, deeply wrinkled, hollow and colorless, at once attracted attention by the profound tranquillity of the lines and the purity of the contour, which appeared to be bordered with light. The face of a chaste man with an indescribable radiance. Brown eyes with glowing pupils, animated this irregular face which was surmounted by an immense forehead. His glance exercised inexplicable influence by a gentleness which did not exclude strength. The arches over his eyes were like two vaults shaded by great grizzly eyebrows which were not at all alarming. As he had lost many of his teeth, his mouth was out of shape and his cheeks fallen in; but these ravages were not without charm, and the friendly wrinkles seemed to smile upon one. Without being the least gouty, he had such sensitive feet and walked with so much difficulty that he wore Orleans calfskin shoes in all weathers. He considered the fashion of wearing trousers ill suited to a priest and always appeared clothed in coarse black woolen stockings knitted by his housekeeper, and cloth breeches. He never went out in a cassock, but in a brown frock coat, and he adhered to the three-cornered hat, bravely worn through the worst times. This noble, handsome old man, whose face was always beautiful by the serenity of a blameless


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 soul, was to have so great an influence over the events and the men in this history that it is necessary first to trace the source of his authority.

Minoret took in three newspapers; one liberal, one ministerial, one ultra, several periodicals and some scientific journals, collections of which swelled his library. The newspapers, the encyclopedist and the books were an attraction to a former captain of the Royal-Swedish regiment, named Monsieur de Jordy, a Voltairean gentleman and an old bachelor who lived upon a pension of sixteen hundred francs and a life annuity. After having, through the medium of the curé, read the gazettes for several days, Monsieur de Jordy thought proper to go and thank the doctor. From the first visit, the old captain, formerly a professor in the military colleges, won the good graces of the old doctor, who hastened to return his call. Monsieur de Jordy, a dry, thin little man, always troubled with full bloodedness, although he had a very pale face, struck one at first by his fine forehead à la Charles XII., above which he kept his hair cut as close as that of that soldier-king. His blue eyes, profoundly sad, that seemed to say: “Love has passed by here,” interested one at first sight, and where one might catch glimpses of the memories which he otherwise guarded with such profound secrecy, that his old friends never surprised either any allusion to his past life or any one of those exclamations wrung through a similarity of calamities. He concealed the mournful mystery of his past under a philosophic


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 gaiety; but, when he thought himself alone, his movements, benumbed by a slowness that was less senile than calculated, attested some painful and uninterrupted thought; so the Abbé Chaperon had nicknamed him the Christian before knowing him. Always dressed in blue cloth, his rather stiff carriage and his clothes betrayed the former habits of military discipline. His gentle, harmonious voice stirred the soul. His beautiful hands, and the cut of his figure, which recalled that of the Comte d’Artois, whilst showing how charming he must have been in his youth, rendered the mystery of his life even more impenetrable. One asked one’s self involuntarily what misfortune could have overtaken the beauty, courage, grace, learning and all the most valuable qualities of heart which were formerly united in his person. Monsieur de Jordy always winced at the name of Robespierre. He took a great deal of snuff, and, strange to say, he left it off on account of the little Ursule, who, because of this habit, showed repugnance for him. From the time he was allowed to see this little one, the captain riveted long, almost passionate looks upon her. So madly did he love her games, and so much did he interest himself in her, that this affection tightened still closer the links between him and the doctor, who never dared ask this old bachelor:

“And you too have lost some children?”

There are beings, good and patient like him, who pass through life with a bitter thought in the heart and a smile both tender and mournful on the lips,


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 bearing with them the solution to the riddle without allowing it to be fathomed, through pride, disdain or vengeance perhaps, having none but God for confidant and comforter. Monsieur de Jordy saw no one at Nemours—where, like the doctor, he had come to die in peace—but the curé, always at the disposal of his parishioners, and Madame de Portenduère, who used to go to bed at nine o’clock. And so, tired out, he ended by going to bed early, in spite of the thorns with which his pillow was stuffed. So it was a piece of good luck for the doctor as well as for the captain, to meet a man who had seen the same society, and who spoke the same language, with whom to exchange ideas, and who went to bed late. Once Monsieur de Jordy, the Abbé Chaperon and Minoret had spent the first evening together, they experienced such pleasure from it, that the priest and the soldier returned every evening at nine o’clock, when, little Ursule having gone to bed, the old man found himself at liberty. And all three stayed up until twelve or one o’clock.


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468–503]

That were indeed a sorrow. This is none.

And if thou deem’st me foolish for my deed,

I am foolish in the judgement of a fool.

. Fierce shows the maiden’s vein from her fierce sire;

Calamity doth not subdue her will.

. Ay, but the stubborn spirit first doth fall.

Oft ye shall see the strongest bar of steel,

That fire hath hardened to extremity,

Shattered to pieces. A small bit controls

The fiery steed. Pride may not be endured

In one whose life is subject to command.

This maiden hath been conversant with crime

Since first she trampled on the public law;

And now she adds to crime this insolence,

To laugh at her offence, and glory in it.

Truly, if she that hath usurped this power

Shall rest unpunished, she then is a man,

And I am none. Be she my sister’s child,

Or of yet, nearer blood to me than all

That take protection from my hearth, the pair

Shall not escape the worst of deaths. For know,

I count the younger of the twain no less

Copartner in this plotted funeral:

And now I bid you call her. Late I saw her

Within the house, beyond herself, and frantic.

—Full oft when one is darkly scheming wrong,

The disturbed spirit hath betrayed itself

Before the act it hides.—But not less hateful

Seems it to me, when one that hath been caught

In wickedness would give it a brave show.

. Wouldst thou aught more of me than merely death?

. No more. ’Tis all I claim. Death closes all.

. Why then delay? No talk of thine can charm me,

Forbid it Heaven! And my discourse no less

Must evermore sound noisome to thine ear.

Yet where could I have found a fairer fame

Than giving burial to my own true brother?


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text: A Book of the Pyrenees

title: A Book of the Pyrenees


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/John III (pope)


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 176 in his own college. At Trinity he polled 107 votes against 51 that were given to Townshend. At St. John's Townshend secured 91 and 48 were given to Euston. It was à propos of this election that Paley was fabled to have preached before the university in the presence of Pitt on the text "There is a lad here, who hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many."

The comment of Wraxall over this electoral contest summed up the situation with complete justice. "Few men held a higher place in Fox's friendship than Townshend, a place to which he was well entitled by the elegance of his mind, his various accomplishments and steady adherence throughout life. Though not endowed with eminent parliamentary talents, he possessed an understanding highly cultivated, set off by the most pleasing manners. If party could ever feel regret, it would have been excited by his exclusion from a seat so honourable in itself as that of the University of Cambridge, to which he had attained by unwearied personal exertions."

Townshend's friendship with Fox and his influence over the Whig leader had by this time become known to the world at large. When Fox paid a long visit to Dublin in the closing months of 1777, Townshend accompanied him. Tickell, the brother-in-law of Sheridan, published anonymously in 1779 — it passed through at least three editions before the next year had run its course — a clever satire entitled "epistle from the honourable Charles Fox partridge shooting, to the honourable John Townshend cruising." Fox is represented as tired of pastime in the country and he hopes that Townshend is in like case. He indulges in satire over the peculiarities of his opponents in politics and adjures his friend to return to life at Westminster. The young Whig yachtsman is designated the "pride of fop alley though a little tanned" and there is spread before him an