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 is in the background and the surroundings, which give the movements distinct local colors and strange sounding names.

As a rule, however, the tyranny of inequality has been at the bottom of all revolts and revolutions. Only that in the past it was embodied in religions and autocracies, today it is embodied in industrialism. The masters in the past were the kings and priests, while in our times they are the captains of industry and the labor leaders. Under either condition, however, a long-suffering and downtrodden people will be driven ultimately to extremes of materialism expressed in universal negations.

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2nd S. No 1., ] taken for the abbreviation of and; and "now" was misread, new. That Mr. Utterson himself took particular pains with this little work is clear, because, in my copy, he has introduced more than one MS. emendation, to remedy the inaccuracy of his printer. There is a small, but remarkable error, within two leaves of the end; and I notice it the more willingly, because it is in a direct, but unavowed plagiarism from Shakspeare; which, although the book was in Malone's hands, seems to have escaped observation. The grammatical peculiarity of the following couplet from Shakspeare's Lucrece, 1594, has been remarked upon:

Barnefield, in the next year, has it thus, avoiding apparent tautology:

Mr. Utterson's compositor misprinted "cares," eares, materially perverting the passage; and in the first stanza of the same page, he put "cups" for corps:

"And Agamemnon's cups her meate must be."

I never saw Malone's copy of Cynthia, and my corrections are from my own transcript of Mr. Heber's exemplar.

Edward Guilpin's Skialetheia, or the Shadowe of Truth, published in 1598, is another of the reprints from the Beldornie press. If I am not mistaken, it was nearly the last work issued, before the death of the amiable and accomplished proprietor. He received the transcript from Oxford, and unfortunately had it put in type before he had any opportunity of collating it with the original; which we know to be by Guilpin only by quotations from it, with his name, in England's Parnassus, 1600. It consists of epigrams and satires. In Epig. ., we have "case" for sort, in the 7th line; and the next piece of the same kind is twice addressed to "Rimes" instead of Rivus. In Epig. ., this line is met with:

"Who piertly iests, can caper, daunce, and sing;"

which ought to be—

"Who piertly jets, can caper, daunce, and sing."

Supposing that, by some chance, we had no original to refer to, we might never have known what the author really wrote; and might have considered a proposition to substitute jets (i.e. struts) for "jests," as purely impertinent and needless. We could not, however, but have treated what follows, in the first satire, as a corruption:

What could we have made out of "bucher" but butcher? And yet that word would not at all answer the purpose. What, then, says the copy of 1598?

"Give it a new touch, livelier dialect"

It is not difficult to see how a person, transcribing carelessly, might make livelier look like "bucher." Again, in Satire 2., we meet with this passage as reprinted:

Instead of which, Guilpin wrote and printed:

We will take another instance from Satire 4., where these lines occur:

For "teaching," of the reprint, the old copy has Scorching: love's glorious world was scorched with glowing tongue. See, in the next place, how the mistake of a single letter directly contradicts what the poet intended:

Now, whatever Guilpin meant by "fore-ceited malice," it is very evident that he meant that millions of reasons will not extenuate it. His words, truly given, are,

"Millions of reasons nill extenuate."

"Nill" is the old abbreviation of ne will, or will not; and the printing of "will," instead of nill, makes the author say exactly the contrary of what he really did say. One more proof shall suffice for Skialetheia: it is taken from the last Satire, and close to the end of it. The line, as reprinted, is this:

"If that some weevil, mouth-worme, barley-cap."

As originally printed in 1598, it is this:

"If that some weevil, mault-worme, barly-cap."

Every body knows what a malt-worm is, especially in connexion with "barley-cap;" but Mr. Utterson's edition misrepresents the text.

Hoping that I shall not be deemed ungrateful to a real and great benefactor of letters, in pointing out these blemishes, I shall hereafter endeavour to continue the subject. I shall probably have occasion to speak of some of my own delinquencies of a similar description. Maidenhead.

I have been greatly pleased with the information to be found from time to time in "N. & Q." respecting Sir John Vanbrugh, of whom I have

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This is the Bolshevism we meet with, as early as the fifth century, in Persia. Its exponent and leader, a man named Mazdak, was a priest in Neishapur before he became a prophet. King Kobad, the little father of the great Nushirvan, was then on the throne; and Christianity, which had penetrated Persia, was still convulsed by the controversies of the single and the double nature of Christ and the persecutions that generally followed or accompanied them.

The theology of the Fathers and the philosophy of St. Paul carried the dissensions through Armenia to Persia, thus weakening the newly acquired faith, which had but a slight hold upon the people. It certainly had little or no influence upon King Kobad. As for Mazdak, he must

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 have found his original inspiration in St. Paul. "The law worketh wrath; where no law is, there is no transgression." This he announced as a divine revelation to the people and proceeded to draw his own conclusions and enlarge upon them. His second revelation was that all men are born equal and have a right to maintain this equality through life. His third: Everything belongs to God, and it is impious in man to claim or to appropriate to himself what is the property of the Creator.

The law worketh wrath; all men are born equal; God is the direct source and owner of all things: with these three cardinal doctrines, Mazdak embarked upon his utopian career, pursuing the fatal phantom of his logic. He took St. Paul by the letter, shaking the spirit out of his words. Or he may not have been endowed with sufficient grace to see the true essence of the Gospel, considering as mere theology or mysticism such doctrines as are calculated to elevate the believer to the free life of the spirit.

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THE DESCENT OF BOLSHEVISM Mazdak wanted freedom—the sort of freedom, in fact, that is today the object of popular clamor. "Where no law is, there is no transgression." St. Paul was twisted into a universal negation, which Mazdak pretended to have discovered, through the medium of Fire, in Zoroaster's own divine bosom. For he would destroy the new religion by invoking the aid of the old. And he would establish the reign of perfect equality on earth to justify divine ownership and power. For if all titles of worldly things are vested in God, they are destined for the common use of all human kind.

Mazdak's three cardinal fallacies were more attractive, indeed, to the people than Christianity. And they were excellent vehicles for a counter-movement. Mazdak moved and many others moved with him. In spite of his initial success, however, he knew that, without royal sanction and support, the new Temple—the Temple of Fire and Freedom and Common Ownership—would not long endure. But with a king [3]

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 and a prophet at its head, the new cult would spread, would prosper, would triumph. The prophet was there; and he set out to convert the king. His qualifications were traditional. He began by setting the first example in sanctity and abstemiousness. He clothed himself in coarse wool, denied himself at first all worldly things, and retired into seclusion for meditation and prayer.

And when King Kobad demanded a miracle before he embraced the new faith, he was not disappointed. Mazdak invited him to the Temple, where he heard the Fire speaking to the Prophet. The fact that a man was hidden behind the altar to lend the flames a tongue, did not much matter. From Tabari to Gibbon, all historians agree that Mazdak was a downright impostor. They are also agreed that Kobad was a royal scoundrel. The new cult appealed to him for more than one reason, and he was predisposed to accept any penny wonder as divine.

For he had an illicit carnal desire which

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 could be sanctioned only by some such religion as Mazdakism. "He was not nice in point of conscience," as one historian puts it; nor was he happy on the throne. His brother and his courtiers cast an enchantment upon his crown and, as soon as he became a Mazdakite, they whisked it away. And he was cast into prison as a warning to Mazdak and his followers. But the warning was of no avail; for in addition to a prophet and a king, the movement gained the support of a queen. Kobad's wife became an ardent Mazdakite. And by smiling assent to the jailer one night, she succeeded in having her husband, hidden in a mattress, carried away. This was a signal triumph for the new cult. And Mazdak, son of Bambadan, thereafter called himself the Sign, the Demonstration, the Word, the Redeemer.

And his followers set out zealously, violently to prove themselves faithful to his creed. Everything was to be held in common, "Goods, Women, Children and the Rest." And for more than fifty years

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 there was no relaxation in the practice, which, of course, was accompanied by plunder and bloodshed, by all the crimes, in fact, that lawlessness and anarchy engender. Everywhere his votaries seized the wives, the daughters and the property of others. And the King could not punish them, having become himself a Mazdakite. When Kobad escaped from prison, he fled to the White Huns, a powerful tribe of Central Asia, who invaded Persia, and were defeated by the great Bahram Gur, to whom Omar pays the mocking tribute:

But the White Huns were still camping on the frontier, awaiting the opportunity for another Great Offensive. The opportunity came when Kobad arrived and straightway made an alliance with his country's enemies. And at the head of an army of White Huns he led the invasion, entered the capital in triumph, smote

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 his infidel brother off the throne and regained the crown.

And Mazdakism, which had suffered a momentary check in his absence, became again a power of terror and frightfulness in the land. In the name of Equality, Lawlessness and Communism, the tables were turned, every crime was sanctioned or condoned, the rich, in consequence, becoming poor, the poor becoming rich, and everywhere the mob ruled supreme. Morality and religion were renounced, abolished; man became a law unto himself; and the strong, whether of the proletariat or the bourgoisiebourgeoisie [sic] of those times, prevailed.

But the most amazing things about Mazdakism, is the inconsistency that is scarcely found outside the Orient, where piety and crime go hand in hand. For while it encouraged, even sanctioned all kinds of unspeakable abominations, it imposed upon its followers a rigid observance of the sacredness of animal life. Mazdak himself was a vegetarian, and he prohibited the killing of animals for food or for sport.

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 Indeed, to kill a man who had an abundance of the things of the world, was in his eye, a virtue; but to kill even an insect was a crime. And he continued to pray and to wear coarse wool even in his last days, when his own wealth and his harim were re-distributed among the people. How true of him the Arabic couplet:

When King Kobad died, his son the Great Nushirvan took a real pious interest in the new cult. He introduced it to the higher equality, led it to the final communism—Death. On his coronation he made a speech worthy of a great monarch, in which he promised many good things to all his subjects and called upon them to help him make good his promise. Whereupon, he ordered the chiefs of the Sect, Tabari, tell us to appear before him and had their heads cut off. Others say that

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 he imitated Jehu in the Book of Kings. Which means that he had the Mazdakites assemble in the Temple, and at his command, his executioners descended upon them and introduced them in a jiffy to the higher equality.

And he issued an edict abolishing the practice of Mazdakism and confirming the domestic rights of Society. The wealth and property of the Mazdakites were divided among the poor; such as could be identified were returned to their lawful owners; and the women held in the slavery of communism were freed and given the option of either returning to their former homes or of remaining, as legal wives, with whom they had accustomed themselves to live.

Such was the justice of Nushirvan. But in spite of the heads that were cut off and the Jehu method of extermination, Mazdakism continued to squirm in the dust and succeeded in making its way to other lands. For the new law of the community of women was later observed and

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 in Syria; and, with the other doctrines of Mazdak, it spread to the West and was embraced, archeologists tell us, by what remained of the ancient Gnostics.

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In Arabia, after the death of Mohammed, a party of extremists and fanatics renounced all existing authority, civil and religious, proclaiming Allah their only Master and Sovereign. The Prophet himself is more or less responsible for their action; for having given the Arabs a religion, a form of constitution, and a moral code, he failed to lay down or suggest any rule governing the right of succession. The field was open to any of his friends and companions who had the will, the power and the ill fortune to succeed him. The first two, however, commanded the confidence and obtained the suffrage of the Faithful. The third was the first to be assassinated; and the fourth, Ali, who ultimately met with the same fate as his predecessor, had many rival candidates, among

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 them the powerful and wily Moawia. Forty years after the Prophet's death, therefore, the state of Islam was shaken by wars and torn by tribal strife.

This was not promising, was not edifying. And among the people who revolted against one claimant or another, were the group of extremists I have mentioned, who renounced them all and would obey only the Koran. The Prophet, they argued, did not name a successor, laid down no rule for the succession, did not evidently believe in delegating his divine power to man. The three leaders, Ali, Moawia and Amru, are all usurpers and it is the right of true Muslem to deny them their suffrage. Nay, it is their pious duty, in order to uphold Islam, to get rid of them all.

The Khawarij, or Seceders who started this movement, were the only so-called orthodox Muslems who, reading between the lines of the Holy Book, were able to con the esoteric wisdom and the divine will. All power emanates from God—a variation of Mazdak's All titles are vested in

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 God—and mankind is responsible to Him alone. He is the one and only ruler, and they the Khawarij would recognize no other. Those that claimed to be vicars of God and his Prophet on earth, are usurpers, therefore, and impostors. Islam should not be ruled by an autocrat called khalif or imam, but by local councils elected by the people. This is the democracy that was so dear to the Arabs even before the Prophet; and the Khawarij called themselves the only true apostles of Mohammedanism and democracy. And they would proclaim its reign by the sword; they would reduce its enemies by assassination. Accordingly, three of their leaders met one day in the Kaaba and swore by the Black Stone and the Koran to carry out their criminal plan. Each one of the conspirators chose his victim; and Ali, Moawia and Amru were to be assassinated at one appointed day and hour. But the plot was discovered and the Khawarij decided to fight in the open like true Arabs. They

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 declared war on Ali and his rivals in the field; but they were defeated by Ali's forces in the battle of Nahrawan. They were dispersed; they were not crushed. Instead of a united army, they broke up into various sects, who conducted a secret propaganda both in Arabia and Persia against the civil and spiritual authority of Islam. The Prophet is dead, but Allah liveth forever. This was the slogan that was whispered in secret councils and was yet to shake the very foundation of the Faith.

It was not heard of, after the defeat of the Khawarij, for over a hundred years. But in the ninth century, Abdallah ibn Maimoun Kaddah of Ahwaz revived it and expanded upon it. He was wise enough to see, however, that not until his followers were strongly united and well armed would the method of the Khawarij be favorable to him and his ideals. For he was a man of lofty ideals, this Persian of Ahwaz. He began by founding a secret society which was to bind together Arabs and Persians,

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 Muslems, Christians and Jews,—indeed, all mankind. Kaddah had political ambition also, which he could not realize by openly antagonizing the existing governments. But he proclaimed a new right of succession.

There was Ismail, the son of the sixth Imam after Ali and descendant from Ali's line. And Kaddah, who was a master of mystic lore, ingeniously evolved the theory of hidden and revealed successors to the Prophet. Ismail, he claimed, was the last revealed, and since his death the succession continued through hidden or unincarnate imams. But he, Kaddah, awaiting the psychological moment, harbored the secret purpose, the ambition of proclaiming himself to Islam the first revealed imam and khalif after Ismail. He died, however, a disappointed man. For one named Obeidullah was the founder of the new dynasty. But Kaddah and his followers were nevertheless called Ismailites, a name that even today is despised and

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 dreaded by orthodox Mohammedans, because to them it is synonymous with infidelity, immorality, anarchy and crime.

For Kaddah's secret society was founded on a universal negation and wrapt in a crazy-quilt of philosophy. Its deep mysteries were revealed only to those who had attained the highest degree of the Order. It had novices and missionaries called dais to preach its political and outwardly religious doctrines. It offered inducements to all classes and creeds and led them on, from a mystical interpretation of Islam—the Ismailite method was allegorical—to a total renunciation of its teachings. "The inner doctrine," says one Orientalist, "was philosophical and eclectic." In other words, Mazdakism was resuscitated; the Khawarij idea was taken down from the shelf and dusted; and both were invested with the dignity of Neo-Platonic and Neo-Pythagorian wisdom. But in their interpretation of the Koran, some of the Ismailite doctors pushed the allegory so far that it ended in nothing less than the

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 of all public worship and the foundation of a purely philosophic—in name—and a very licentious moral code—in reality—on the ruins of all revelations and all civil and spiritual authority.

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Among the foremost disciples of Kaddah of Ahwaz was an Arab of Bahrein called Karmat or Quermut, who in the latter part of the ninth century (880 A. D.) established in Irak a secret society of his own and, like his master Kaddah, took to preaching in allegories. Like him too, he taught the doctrine of "hidden and revealed imams," but he added that while the imam is hidden, his cause must be revealed and upheld by missionaries. And he, Hamdan Quermut, first assumed this modest role and soon became the leader of a new movement. It is curious how his followers were transformed by degrees, as they advanced in the secret order, from true and pious Mohammedans to atheists and anarchists, in a word, to Mazdakites.

His ladder, which was broad at the base,

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 tapered at the top to a point, from which the Karmathian plunged headlong into a regenerated world of absolute freedom and equality. The Koran is full of mysteries, Quermut warned the climber as he set his ladder firmly on the ground of faith; and mysteries must be taught and explained. The early teachers of Islam were often wrong; only seven imams are infallible; the others are all in error. Climb, climb higher. Every infallible imam had a prophet who was obeyed in all things; the last imam was Ismail. Another step, and Quermut is his prophet. Still another, and the traditions vanish from view. The next disposes of religion itself; prayers, fasting, alms, the pilgrimage are no longer essential to salvation. For behold, you are reaching the top, the vanishing point and you are free to entertain any belief or unbelief so long as you recognize no authority, temporal or spiritual, but that of Quermut, the new Prophet. Thus the Karmathian gradually sheds his creed, renounces his faith, but is in duty bound

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 to fight against all Muslem power and authority.

For since Islam combined the spiritual and civil power in one ruler called khalif and imam, these secret societies were origginallyoriginally [sic] a protest against one or more of its tenets as well as against its established governments. And since it was founded as much on the sword as on the Koran, and united in the person of the khalif the functions of pontiff and sovereign, almost in all the sects, secret or otherwise, the chief ground of the schism is the contested succession to the throne. And the Karmathians, who secretly coveted the throne, made certain concessions at first to religion. But while they adopted the two fundamental doctrines of Islam, that is, the omnipotence of God and the fixedness of Fate, they declared all the others, even as the Wahhabys of today, vain and futile. Nay, they are snares contrived to exalt a certain portion of mankind at the expense of the vast majority. And they the Karmathians would free the majority from

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 these snares. They would utterly destroy the foundation of all existing order, set men free from the despotism of all morals and laws and creeds, and re-establish their direct allegiance to God. Some of these so-called high mysteries are entertained also by the Sufis of today. But Sufism does not prompt to action and rebellion. The Sufi detaches himself from the world and all its tyrannies and evils,—rises on the ladder to the vanishing point, so to speak, and stays there,—while the Karmathians, the Ismailites and other kindred sects, would fight to substitute the reign of Allah for the reign of man on earth. And the Arab is no where so well at home as in metaphysical abstractions and the desert. He is most credulous, is more believing, in fact, than religious. His deep sense of the possibilities that may be hidden in the depths of the unknown, induces in him a ready easy credence in any message supposedly divine. If one prophet, why not another? Mohammed has by no means closed the Arab nation's account

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 with Allah. This is the religious reason for Quermut's great success. The political reason is still more plausible. The Abbaside khalifs were usurpers. Most of them were tyrants and profligates. Moreover, they favored the foreigners at court, even though they secretly plotted against them, more than they did the Arabs. The Khalif Mo'tasem's Turkish guards at the palace soon became a power in Baghdad. And the Karmathians, aroused by their intrigues, found in them additional cause for revolt. They disclaimed the Abbasides, abhorred their worldly pomp, denounced their tyranny and their unpatriotic conduct, and finally declared war upon them. Their battle-cry was, "Allah liveth forever, Allah sufficeth us!" And combining thus the religious and the political issues, based on the wholesale negations excepting only Allah, for both worlds, they raised the standard of revolt; and for a century or more they were a terror to the Khalifs of Baghdad and the undisputed masters of Arabia.

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 And Quermut, not long after his first missionary activities, became the Prophet, the Guide, the Director. He was also called the Camel, the Word, even the Holy Ghost—the Herald of the Messiah. The Millenium madness, which was upon Europe at that time, had reached, it seems, Arabia, and Quermut, the Universal, incorporated it into his Scheme of Salvation.

Most of his followers were of the Beduin tribes, who found Islam too irksome, too exacting, and were ready to join any movement that would offer encouragement to their liberal and looting spirit. And they were desperate, indomitable fighters. Under the leadership of two Generals, Abu-Said and his son Abu Taher, they conquered first the provinces of Oman and Bahrein and established themselves at Hasa behind the burning sands of the Red Desert, where they themselves were secure against any attack or invasion. Northward they marched to Irak, laying waste everything before them; to upper Syria, where they stormed and captured the city

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 of Baalbek, putting its inhabitants to the sword. There were no novices among the Karmathians in action, at war. They all had mastered the higher mysteries, and were fighting like demons to establish the reign of Allah on earth. No army of the Khalifs could withstand their desperate attacks and their slaughter. They threw themselves into the jaws of death, blindly obeying the command of their leaders. But Mecca is the ultimate goal of every Muslem, and every Muslem rebellion. Without it, no victory is complete. Towards Mecca, therefore, commanded by Abu Taher, the Karmathians swept over the desert. And like swarms of locusts, wave after wave, they descended upon the City at the height of the pilgrimage season and committed, in the name of Allah, the most unspeakable crimes and abominations. Thirty thousand of the pilgrims were slain; the well of Zamzam was choked with the dead; the House of God, the Kaaba, was polluted; the Holy Veil was torn in shreds; and the Black Stone, the

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 most sacred relic of Islam, was carried off to Hasa. But it was restored twenty years later.

And although their atrocities had the effect of uniting for a time all the Mohammedan factions against them, they continued for many years after the capture of Mecca and the sacking of the Kaaba, to achieve one victory after another and spread the terror of their power in the land. It was a war waged by anarchy and rapine, not only against Islam, but against Society and all organized governments. "The sect of the Karmathians," says Gibbon, "may be considered as the second cause of the decline and fall of the empire of the Khalifs." And the death of Abu Taher, their great General, may be considered as one of the principal causes of the decline and fall of the Karmathians. The Beduins themselves, who first joined the movement and were chiefly responsible for its success, turned against it when its power began to wane. At the close of the tenth century,

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 after the death of Abu Taher, the Karmathians were defeated in Irak and soon after they lost the control of the pilgrimage. The Beduin tribes therefore had no longer any use for them. Not only did they refuse them their support, but they revolted against what remained of their authority. The revolt became general, and one after another of the provinces recovered their independence. One Beduin sheikh alone, it is stated, besieged and took Katif, the capital of Bahrein.

The Wahhabys of today continue to rule in Hasa, maintaining their independence even against the new King of Hijaz. And under their Mohammedan puritanism is the smouldering fire of the Karmathians. They, too, once captured and sacked the Holy City of Mecca and still nourish, under the guise of piety and the assumption of learning, the most dangerous designs against it and Islam.

Like the Mazdakites, like the Khawarij, the Karmathians were not completely destroyed. They had other successors than

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 the Wahhabys. Straggling bands of freethinkers and freebooters, followers of Abu Taher and Quermut, continued to rove on the borderland of Society till the middle of the eleventh century, when their famous slogan was beginning to be heard among the hills of Persia and Syria and was soon to be embodied in one of the most fiendishly criminal movements against law and order that is recorded in the history of the world.

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Three students in Neishapur, swearing eternal friendship to each other, entered one day into a fantastic agreement by which they were to circumvent Fortune. Whoever succeeded first, pledged himself to lend a helping hand to the others. The one was destined to power; the other to fame; and the third, to the universal malediction of mankind. Nizam ul-Mulk, who afterwards became vezier to the Sultan Malek Shah; Omar Khayyam, who refused the proffered favors of his former college friend, preferring the Book of Verse and the Jug of Wine; and Hasan ibn Sabah, who was later known and feared as the Old Man of the Mountain, the founder of the Sect of Assassins, were the three young covenanters of Neishapur. In his early days Hasan nursed the dream of power; and this agreement, which

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 was made at his suggestion, was an insurance policy, as it were, to his dream. And to be sure, Nizam ul-Mulk made good his promise, and Hasan, unlike Omar, was glad to accept the post he secured him at the court of Malek Shah. But as he was not capable of serving any one else but himself, he no sooner sat on the divan of authority than he began to build him a ladder of the favors of his benefactor and former fellow student. Before he had taken the first step, however, which was to be on the very head of Nizam, he was given a lesson in fidelity and gratitude, and politely escorted to the gate. The lesson was wasted upon him, and Nizam was thereafter marked out as one of his enemies. It was Hasan's boast that, with the aid of two faithful friends, he could have overturned the power of "the Turk and the Peasant," meaning the Sultan and his Vezier. For twenty-two years he nursed his grudge, while laying the foundation of his power. His patience, like his rascality, was inexhaustible. Having fallen at the court of Malek

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 Shah, Hasan joined the Ismailites, was initiated into their high mysteries and soon became a dai, missionary, of persuasive eloquence and zeal. Meanwhile he was planning for new adventures in foreign lands. The Sultan of Egypt at that time was an Ismailite and consequently a rival to the Khalif of Baghdad. Hasan would set forth to Egypt, therefore, to warm his hands at the fire of the Khalif's favor. His fame as an Ismailite dai had preceded him. And when the Khalif Mostanser heard he was coming, he sent a delegation to meet and greet him at the border.

Honors were showered upon Hasan. He was received at court as a man of righteousness and piety; he was invited to speak at the Lodge of Cairo; he was made a member of the Council of Wisdom; he was proclaimed the chief bearer of the torch of truth. But soon his fortunes at the court of Mostanser began to radiate his egregious egotism, fostering the seeds of hate and jealousy all around. And his ladder of intrigue for absolute power which he

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 had built, toppled finally under him, and once more he was politely escorted to the gate. Nay, to the castle, where he was to meditate in solitary confinement on the practical uses of fidelity and gratitude. But the castle, as the story goes, fell like a house of cards without any visible cause whatever, before Hasan reached it. Which was looked upon as a divine sign in his favor and decided the Khalif to banish him from Egypt.

He was placed, therefore, on board of a ship which had to weather many storms before it reached the Syrian coast. The stormy sea gave Hasan an opportunity to perform one of those miracles that mark the beginning of a prophet's career. His fellow travellers, who were not students in meteorology, soon became disciples and followers of the new Mahdi, the commander of the winds and waves. In Damascus and Aleppo he sowed, in passing, the seeds of his secret doctrines, which were later to grow into daggers dripping with blood. And on his return to Persia he entrenched

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 himself with a few faithful followers in the mountain fortress of Alamut. This marked the beginning of his power. The sect of the Assassins was established principally on the tenets of the Karmathians. The only difference being that, instead of waging open war against his enemies, against society in general, Hasan adopted the policy of secret assassination. This required emissaries who would blindly obey his commands. Like the Karmathian, therefore, his sect was formed of different degrees of membership. Those who stood lowest in the order were the novices, the common people. They had to observe the ordinary tenets of Islam. The dais or missionaries were, a degree higher than the rafiks or companions; and they were both taught to believe in nothing and to scoff at the devotion of the Faithful. But the most important class of the Order was that of the fadais or assassins, who were schooled in self-sacrifice and murder. And at the head of it was Sheikh ul-Jahal, the Old Man of the Mountain, Hasan ibn

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 Sabah, and chief of the three provinces over which his power soon extended. Hasan never forgot his former college friend and benefactor Nizam ul-Mulk. He was certainly a man of enduring grievances and long-cherished grudges. So the Vezier of Malek Shah and his son were the first victims of the Assassins.

The fadais were chosen of the youth of the land. Upon them the Old Man of the Mountain chiefly depended, and to them he looked for the consummation of his scheme of universal happiness. To fire their spirits, therefore, and arouse their self-sacrificing zeal, he contrived for them the most seductive pleasures. The valley of Alamut was walled in and a most brilliant garden was laid in the enclosure—a sample on earth of the Prophet's paradise. In it were streams and fountains of milk and honey, and water and wine; bulbuls and nightingales singing to the rose; gazelles prancing in the scented glades; serving boys with faces like the moon; and

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 jasmine covered kiosks where black-eyed huris languished in voluptuous bliss.

Marco Polo gives us a first hand account of this terrestrial paradise, which was designed for the fadais to spur them to their bloody task. Hasan's invention was a great success. A fadai, we are told, was first given hasheesh—hence the name assassins—was drugged into a trance and taken to the garden, where he awoke to find himself surrounded with all kinds of sensual and voluptuous pleasures. He imagined himself in a dream of paradisal bliss. But it lasted only a few days, when he would be drugged again with hasheesh and carried out in the same manner as he was carried in.

This foretaste of Paradise, which he was to enjoy in full and forever by executing the will of his Master Hasan, steeled his heart to the boldest and bloodiest deeds. These young fadais made no secret of their calling. They were conspicuous for the red caps and girdles they wore and the terror-spreading daggers they carried.

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 And their bloody deeds were sometimes done in the open and sometimes in the most mysterious manner. King Sanjar once determined to attack the castle of Alamut. But one morning he found near his bed a dagger stuck in the ground and bearing this message: Sultan Sanjar, beware. Had not thy character been respected, the hand which stuck this dagger in the hard ground could with greater ease have stuck it into thy soft bosom. Whereupon, King Sanjar changed his mind. There is no doubt that Hasan ibn Sabah was a man of penetrating insight and deep worldly wisdom. And he might have become a power at the court of either Malek Shah or the Khalif Mostanser, had he been decent enough to be thoughtful at least of his benefactors. But the imposing rascal would never have become the supreme ruler of a sect that made a profession of crime and a religion of assassination. Still, he must have died a disappointed man. For the thrones he sought to overturn and the religions he tried to destroy by the

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 doublefaced Monster of atheism and piety, of lawlessness and submission, continued, though rudely shaken during his time, to sway the minds and souls of men. And why? Because of the inconsistency and dishonesty that even an assassin or a chief of assassins, with the insight of Hasan, could well have avoided.

But his weakness was that he followed unquestioning in the path of the Ismailites who taught that lawlessness is good for the ruler, but bad for the subject; that the many are held together by the few through the bridle of the law; that religion is for the common people, knowledge and freedom from all restraints for the elect; and that a secret system of atheism and immorality could work the destruction of those in power. Such demoniacal cynicism never established a dynasty, much less a state of any endurance. Mazdakism was more consistent, if not also more sincere. "God the best ruler sufficeth us: nothing is true, all is allowed," said the chiefs and the initiated of the Assassins.

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 On the other hand, believing sincerely that morality and religion are the best sureties of a nation, the strongest bulwark of a state, they affected an extraordinary sanctity, wearing the coarsest garments and abstaining, in public at least, from wine and sensuous pleasures. Hasan himself, whatever his motive, rarely ventured outside of his castle in Alamut, where he lived a recluse for thirty-five years. But invisible himself, he saw with a thousand eyes the subtle machinations of princes, the sluggish engines of Oriental politics, the veiled altars of inimical sects and creeds. And he was the lord of a thousand secret daggers.

But in the ranks there was often dissension and murmurs of discontent. The reign of assassination, tempered with readings from the Koran, did not always succeed in veiling the high mysteries from the people, who were kept in the bonds of law and religion, while the chiefs often enjoyed every immunity. The disparity was becoming fatal to the cause. And Hasan himself

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 seems to have had his remorseful moments. Once, at least, he feared lest he should die without obtaining a knowledge of the truth! As a rule, however, his self-confidence and self-sufficiency triumphed in the end, even though he recognized the virtue of compromise. For on certain occasions, to mollify his followers, he would announce from the pulpit that the gates of mercy and grace are open to those who obey him; that they are the elect of mankind, free from all the obligations of the law, released from the burden and bondage of all commands and prohibitions. Except, of course, his own. For he, Hasan ibn Sabah, has brought to them the day of resurrection. A saturnalia such as that of the Mazdakites generally followed these pronouncements.

But the dynasties he had set out to desstroydestroy [sic],—the Fatemite of Egypt, the Abbaside of Baghdad, the Seljuk of Persia,—were still standing and holding their own despite his thousand secret daggers. Hasan, therefore, would set up one of his own. And by bribing his followers with

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 immunity from all laws and his assassins with a foretaste of Paradise, he succeeded in founding the dynasty that spread its red terror in many lands for more than two centuries. He invoked in his aid the Ismailite doctrine of hidden and revealed imams only to strike out one of its main supports. There was to be no more concealed imams; the last of them died before Hasan. Thenceforth, in his political scheme, the imam had to appear or lose his throne by default.

Every one of his successors, therefore, had it proclaimed that he was the promised imam, promised by his predecessor or by Hasan himself. And to preserve and strengthen the new dynasty, each one was to remove certain prohibitions, or rather to extend the immunity from laws and creeds to a greater number of his subjects. One of the rulers won so many adherents because he drank wine openly and freely and indulged in other forbidden practices. They saw in these lawless habits a clear sign of the coming imam who was to do away with all prohibitions. And there was

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 always, to be sure, a coming imam. This was the ideal the people continued to cherish,—the ideal that the leaders forever dandled before their eyes. And as a rule of succession, although marked with poison and slaughter,—the most natural thing in the world,—it was an improvement upon all the others.

But the inconsistencies of these Old Men of the Mountain sometimes reach the sublime. We have no reason to doubt that Hasan himself, unlike Mazdak four centuries before him, lived the life of an ascetic in his castle on the hilltop. The miniature paradise, which he could behold from his window, was not for him, but for the young fadais who were willing to die in doing his will. A magnanimity hardly to be surpassed in this world. And he was a Spartan too, this Hasan. He slew both his sons for no apparent reason except that one of them was suspected of conniving at the murder of a dai, the other was seen drinking wine. And he himself—the ruthlessness of Logic, the irony of

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 slain by his own brother-in-law after a long and prosperous reign, and when old Omar was still rhyming in Neishapur.

Those who followed him also passed away in the popular fashion. Jelaluddin Hasan III poisoned his father because he could not wait to succeed him in the ordinary manner. Otherwise, he was a good man. He restored the old doctrine—secret principles for the initiated and Islam for the people—and no assassinations of interest occurred during his happy reign, except, of course, his own. Like his father, he, too, was quietly removed by poison. His son who succeeded him was an imbecile. He took the people into his confidence and revealed to them all the high mysteries of the Sect. Religion, he announced, is abolished forever: laws and moralities are extinct. The people applauded and gave themselves up to feasting and pleasure.

Nevertheless, this imbecile Sheikh ul-Jabal ruled for thirty years, and were it not for his son, he might have died a natural death. Ruknuddin who succeeded him

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 was the last of the Assassin rulers in Persia and the most ambitious if not the most original. He sought the recognition of Europe: he dreamt of rising to respectability among kings. But the envoy he sent to the court of Henry III of England was not received with all the honors due to his rank. One of the King's bishops said something, in his presence, about Mohammedan pigs and hell-fire, which the envoy had to swallow and digest on his way back to his Master. Had Ruknuddin looked eastward, however, instead of westward for a sign, he might have saved himself the mortification of such European recognition.

For out of the heart of Asia at that time came forth the fierce Hulago—the British bishop must have blessed his soul—to bring the hell-fire and the pigs together. The Tartar hordes under his command, issuing from the fertile plains south of the Baikal Lake early in the thirteenth century, swept like a cyclone over Bokhara and Samarkand and Khorasan up to the

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 confines of Persia. One fortress after another fell before them, castle and palace were razed to the dust, cities were sacked and destroyed, and Alamut and Euknuddin were treated to a general massacre that sent the shivers down the spine of Assassindom. Thus the dynasty of Hasan ibn Sabah was completely overthrown in Persia.

But the Syrian branch, which was established during Hasan's time, was still beyond Hulago's power. It continued, even after the fall of Ruknuddin and the capture of Alamut, to be a red terror to rulers and princes as well as to the Crusaders. The reign of the dagger in Syria was based on the principle of absolute impartiality. It made no distinction between Mohammedans and Christians, Orientals and Europeans. The followers of Bahram, the Syrian Old Man of the Mountain, practiced the most unspeakable atrocities against the inhabitants as well as against those in power. Carrying off women and children from the streets in open day, was

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 the least of their crimes. And they improved upon the method of their Persian colleagues by extending the privileges of their Sect to alien princes and rulers.

"They caused assassination to be committed," one historian states, "at the solicitation of other princes for motives of interest in which religion had no share." In other words, they were a corporation of professional murderers, whose services were at the disposal of any prince or ruler in trouble. It is this Syrian branch, which became independent of Alamut, that is known to the Crusaders. Count Raymond of Tripoli and Conrad of Montferrat were slain probably by the fadais, who had acquired so much power that every scoundrel assumed their name as a convenient cloak for his crimes. Their reign of terror struck the mightiest and the boldest with fear and trepidation. It produced two new diseases in the land—moral torpor and mental paralysis.

And the work of the dagger was reinforced with conspiracies and intrigues for

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 additional power. Perhaps the Assassins wanted a window on the sea when they entered into a secret treaty with the Crusaders by which they were to barter Damascus for Tyre. But the plot was discovered in time, and the people of Damascus rose against them, massacring six thousand in the streets and crucifying the more prominent among them along the city walls. Aleppo and Diarbekr followed the example of Damascus. But these massacres had little or no effect, it seems, upon a Sect that lived by assassination. It continued to flourish, even after its power had been broken in Persia, until the Mamluk Sultan Bibars, a score of years later, set out from Egypt to imitate in Syria Hulago's example. And he was as successful as the Tartar chief. For the Assassins were ultimately out-assassined, almost exterminated by Bibars, and their Sect was abolished,—"buried," as one historian puts it, "amidst the ruins of thrones and altars, and covered with the universal execration of mankind."

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 The fact is, however, that the remnants of it were driven into secrecy and silence; and some of them, till this day, are to be found in Kerman and Khorasan, where they are protected to some extent by British officials. And the Ismailites of upper Syria today, though they be suspected of nature-worship, have forgotten, through centuries of submission to the Turks, the use of the dagger,—they have lost the faculty of violence.

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Born of mysticism and religious chaos, the movements in the East against organized society were, nevertheless, concealed by the apostles of violence, under the cloak of religion. There have been similar movements in the West, which, under the mask of philosophy, sought to undermine all existing authority in the state and all creeds and moral codes in the nation.

Most prominent among these is the intellectual Bolshevism, which first appeared in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century. The rebel cry of a group of fanatics, who were then known as the Illuminati or Perfectibilists, is re-echoed today and translated into machine guns by the Sparticides, whose patron saint is not the Thracian gladiator and leader of the slaves against Rome in Pompei's time, but Adam Weishaupt, who adopted the name of

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 Spartacus. And the members of the secret society he founded assumed the names of Cato, Hannibal, Alcibiades and other heroes of antiquity. Adam Weishaupt, who was Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt, had studied with the Jesuits, was for a time a militant member of the Order and later became its bitterest enemy. When it was suppressed in Germany, Weishaupt proposed to found another order based upon the same principles of discipline, but with a vastly different object. His scheme was to establish a society which in time should govern the world by abolishing, as we shall see, Christianity and overturning all civil governments. He discussed with some of his Jesuit friends the more attractive, the innocuous features of his project, but they refused to have anything to do with it. Weishaupt then struck out alone, availing himself of the medium of his lecture room to spread among his pupils his pet theories of equality and internationalism, and his philosophy of the

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 pastoral virtues. He drew for them fascinating pictures of a happy society, where "every office was held by a man of talent and virtue and every talent is set in a place fit for its exertion."

In the undercurrents of his Canon Law lectures, Weishaupt was a link between Rousseau and Hebert. Patriotism is a narrow-minded prejudice, incompatible with universal benevolence;—the princes and nobles—the diplomats of our day—instead of serving the people, served only their kings, and under the flattering idea of "the balance of power" they kept the nations in subjection;—the pernicious influence of accumulated property is an insurmountable obstacle to the happiness of any nation;—man has fallen from his high estate in civil society and only by returning to nature can he accomplish a complete regeneration. And now and then, not in the lectures perhaps, but certainly in the letters of Spartacus, he advocated the adoption of any means to an end. The preponderancy of good in the ultimate result

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 consecrated every means, and wisdom and virtue consisted in properly determining the balance. Here we get his idea of Cosmopolitanism, or internationalism, which was to be promoted, when necessary, by violence.

Thus paving the way in his lecture room, which "became the seminary of Cosmopolitanism," he was able in 1776 to gather a few intellectual rebels, his staunch disciples, and form the secret society of the Perfectibilists, which later became known throughout Europe as the Illuminati. Its first object was to check the tyranny of princes and priests and establish a state of universal equality. It sought to enlist among its members Christians of every profession and especially free masons of the eclectic order, such as the Lodge Theodore of Good Council, which was founded in Munich in 1775 and became afterwards the principal centre of the Illuminati.

The members on admission were pledged to blind obedience to the order of their superiors. Their subservience was

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 by a strict system of secret confessions and monthly reports checked by mutual espionage. And like the Jesuit Order, they made special efforts to enlist young men of wealth and rank and social importance, so that gradually, through them, they would control the mainsprings of all authority and power. Furthermore, like the secret societies of the East, its membership was divided into classes and degrees. But the free masons alone—a proof that it had abjured Christianity—were eligible to the degrees of regent and magnus, or masters of the higher mysteries. All the members, however, were to be the beneficiaries of a system designed to free them from all religious prejudices, to cultivate among them the social virtues and to animate them by a great, a feasible and speedy prospect of universal happiness. (A sort of Get-Happy-Quick Scheme, indeed.) And this can only be realized in a state of liberty and moral and social equality, free from all the obstacles which

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 rank and riches throw in the way of man. "Our secret association," wrote Weishaupt, "works in a way that nothing can withstand it, and man shall soon be free and happy." It worked, in fact, in many ways; one of which was to unite and dominate through the Lodge Theodore in Munich the various secret societies of Europe. And more secret ways, on which the higher mysteries only can shed some light. For as far as the public utterances of Weishaupt go, they seem to embody nothing outside of a legitimate purpose to overturn the despotisms of kings and priests and to free the mind of man from political fallacies and religious superstitions. But when we penetrate behind the veil, we find the dark currents that connect the Illuminati with the Ismailites of Islam as well as with the Mazdakites of Persia.

All things, good and evil, come out, it seems, of the East. The Illuminati, like the Ismailites, dealt in allegories; and like the Mazdakites, they played with fire. In

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 the letters of Spartacus-Weishaupt, if they are all authentic, is a complete revelation of the secret teachings and designs of the Order.

"The allegory on which I am to found the mysteries of the higher order," he writes to Cato (Zwack, a judge of Munich) "is the Fire-Worship of the Magi. We must have some worship,"—shades of the Old Man of the Mountain!—and none is so apposite." And he goes on to give his own allegorical interpretation of Christianity. Jesus of Nazareth is made out to be "the Grand Master of the Order." For he taught the lesson of reason under the guise of religion; he combined his secret doctrines, which he revealed only to the chosen few, with the popular beliefs and customs of his time. Liberty and equality are the great aims of all his teachings; and these can only be attained through morality and virtue. Here is an example: Man has fallen from the condition of liberty and equality—the state of pure nature. He is under subordination and civil bondage,

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 which are born of organized society. His submission is the Fall, the Original Sin. And the Kingdom of Grace is that of restoration by illumination, or through the disciplina arcani (secret disciplines) and the pastoral virtues. This is the New Birth.

All of which would seem quite innnocuousinnocuous [sic], no better and no worse in fact than parlor anarchy or socialism. But the Illuminati did not stop here. They would restore man to his pristine purity, free him from all subjugation, raise him to his original state of liberty and equality, redeem him, in a word, and all mankind. Here we get an intimation of the higher purpose, a peep into the higher mysteries, where even allegories are stripped of their seductive masks. But the teachings of the Assassins and the doctrines of the Ismailites are clothed, for the benefit of the Illuminati, in philosophic rags picked up at the doors of Spinoza and Plato. All things are inherent in Nature and God and the

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 World are one, may cover a few sore spots; but the nakedness here and there of Atheism, is as appalling as that of Hasan ibn Sabah, who denounced all religions as the contrivances of ambitious and wicked men. Immorality, too, suffers no disguise. And with these we are to have the Patriarchal State, based upon the Pastoral Virtues, where "the peasant, the citizen, and the householder" are sovereigns and where subordination and inequality are no more. They must vanish forever from the face of the earth. "By this plan," writes Spartacus to Cato, "we shall direct all mankind. In this manner and by the simplest means we shall set all in motion and flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived that we may in secret influence all political transactions." And the list of the contents of a chest, which was discovered after the Order was suppressed by the Elector of Bavaria, gives us an idea of "the simplest means" of setting the world in flames, of destroying the universe in order to

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 establish on its ruins the reign of the Pastoral Virtues. Among the things mentioned in this list are explosives of various kinds, dynamite, "a composition which blinds and kills when spurted in the face," "a method for filling a bed-chamber with pestilential vapors," strange herbs for procuring abortion, and aphrodisiacs concealed in Latin names. Simpler by far is the method of the Assassins.

But unlike the Assassins and unlike his namesake, Spartacus and his followers were timid in action,—they lacked the heroic spark, and the self-sacrificing zeal. Their incendiarism was an abstraction. They only dreamed and philosophized. They had visions, too, of eternal bliss and voluptuous pleasures. For they were also to found a Lodge of Sister Illuminati. "It will be of great service," wrote Alcibiades, "and procure us both much information and money, and will suit charmingly the taste of many of our truest members who are lovers of the sex. It should

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 consist of two classes, the virtuous and the free-hearted." But the members had some trouble, it seems, in achieving pristine purity and practicing the pastoral virtues. According to John Robison, who exposed the Order a few years after it was suppressed and who translated some of the letters of Spartacus, they were sneaky, white-livered rascals, without the virtue even of an Ismailite, who fought in the open or an Assassin, who sacrificed himself for a full share of Mohammed's paradise. Spartacus himself realized this and bemoaned it in print. Thus, for instance, to Cato: "Alcibiades sits the day long with the vintner's pretty wife and then sighs and pines. A few days ago at Corinth (they also gave modern cities ancient names), Tiberius attempted to ravish the wife of Democides, and her husband came in upon them. Good heavens, what Areopagitae I have got." Admitting that some of these Spartacus letters may be forgeries, designed to discredit the Order, there is nothing to

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 that among its secret practices the so-called disciplina arcani often became a bacchanalian orgy. For, all the pastoral and social virtues to the contrary, sensual pleasures were restored to the rank they hold in the Epicurean philosophy—but not openly proclaimed.

Herein they differ from the Bacchanalians of Rome, who, in the sixth century of the Republic, tried to cover with the wine-stained mantle of their god the most nefarious designs against the established authorities of the City and the State. But the Illuminati were secret worshippers of Bacchus, while they pretended to be votaries of Ceres. That they took the names of the heroes of antiquity in vain, is the least of their sins. And while secretly preparing their "pestilential vapors" and poison gases for the human race, formally and on stoical principles, they santionedsanctioned [sic] only self-murder. They little realized, in doing this, that they were invoking in their justification the memory of Judas. Indeed, as far as they, at least, were concerned, Judas

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 Iscariot was their patron saint. For as a rule, rebels are loyal to each other, and members of a secret society practice loyalty at least in self-defense. But the Illuminati spied upon, cheated and betrayed each other.

Indeed, the downfall of the Order was brought about by two of its own members who, to save their own skin, revealed its high mysteries to the authorities, before it entered upon the tenth year of its "illumination." Whereupon the Bavarian Government issued an edict against it, many of its members were deported, and Weishaupt was deprived of his professorship and banished to Switzerland. Its secret doctrines, however, continued to spread over Europe. They leavened more or less all the subsequent revolutions and found good soil for a time in the United States.

John Humphrey Noyes, who became, through what he called "a second conversion," a perfectionist, founded the Oneida Community and, harking back to the Illuminati and beyond them towards the East

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 to the Mazdakites, tried to establish a Utopia, in which all things were held in common. For Noyes and his followers, who accepted the reign of God, there was no longer any law or rule of duty. They were a law unto themselves. They were free to do as they pleased. And under the influence of the divine Spirit, which dwelt in them, they could do only what was right. They were perfect—Perfectionists. And they were equalitarians: they held all things in common. And they gave up all religious observances, like the Ismailites, renounced allegiance to the United States Government, and instituted, what was called, "a complex system of marriage." But complex or simple, John Noyes could not by any marriage system or lack of it, raise communism to a virtue or an acceptablelegal formula, or even screen it under the semblance of religion. Noyes was a mild and sincere fanatic. But his Community, after a checkered career of forty years, developed into—and is still today—a fruit canning

title: Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/76


text:
Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/77

 Oneida Company, Ltd.! But he was not responsible for this vulgar metamorphosis of his Utopia; for long before that, when his marriage system was exposed, he fled with a few of his followers to Canada.

Many other experiments in universal brotherhood and equality took place in the United States, and were conducted in a peaceful and truly philosophic or religious manner. In spite of which, their success was only temporary. Human nature itself was against them—did not respect even the undoubted sincerity of their founders. I need but mention two other utopians in proof of this. There was Thomas Lake Harris, who established the Brotherhood of the New Life and who, having survived it and its internal dissensions, set to work finally as a vinyardist in Santa Rosa, California. And there was the French reformer, Etienne Cabet, who fled his own country and sought to establish, in 1848, the reign of equality and brotherhood in Texas. But the internal dissensions of his Icarian Community and the external

title: Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/77


text:
Page:The Oak.djvu/33

 large cotyledons, without tearing them away from the structures just described, he will find that each is attached by a minute stalk to a sort of ridge just beneath the tiny plumule; this ridge is sometimes termed the collar. He will also see that the plumule and radicle fit closely into a cavity formed by the two cotyledons, and so do not interfere with the very close fitting of their two flat faces.

Summing up these essential features of the structure of the ripe acorn and its contents, we find that the fruit contains within its pericarp (which is a more or less complex series of layers, of which the outermost is hard) the seed; that this seed comprises a membranous testa inclosing an embryo; and that the embryo is composed of two huge cotyledons, a minute radicle, and a still more minute plumule; and that the tip of the radicle is turned towards the pointed end of the acorn, lying just inside the membranes.

Leaving the details of structure of the membranes until a later period, when we trace their development from the flower, I must devote some paragraphs to a description of the minute anatomy and the contents of the embryo as found in the ripe acorn, so that the process of germination may be more intelligible. Thin sections of any portion of the embryo placed under the microscope show that it consists almost entirely of polygonal chambers or cells, with very thin membranous walls, and densely filled with certain granule-like contents. These polygonal cells have not their

title: Page:The Oak.djvu/33


text:
Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/531

Rh of the inception of the investigation at Flagstaff and its execution and thought he had detected a short rotation for it.

Belopolski made his attempt at elongation in spite of knowing what I shall now explain. For elongation, although the time when the planet is easiest seen, is not that in which it is best examined spectrographically for rotation.

In the case of a body reflecting light, the shift varies from what it is if the body be emitting it, from twice as much in some positions to nothing at all in others. This is because the reflecting surface itself moves to or from the waves. Thus if a planet be on the side of the sun away from the earth, the rim of it which is approaching the earth advances to meet each new wave and so shortens it by just the amount

of its own advance, thus doubling the shortage which would result if it emitted the waves itself. The receding side in the same manner doubles the recession. If the planet be at right angles to the sun the waves are affected as if they were emitted and we have a single shortening or lengthening, as the case may be. If the planet be between us and the sun, the rim is running from the sun at just the speed it is approaching us and the total effect is nil.

Thus in the case of Venus, the evidence of tilt obtained depends entirely on where you take her. Superior conjunction or when she lies beyond the sun is the best time spectrographically and it was this that Dr. Slipher chose. He caught the planet just as she was coming out from' behind the sun as evening star. In this he was abetted by the clear and steady air of Flagstaff, which enabled him to got her while she was still not far from the sun himself.


text: Blaise Pascal/Thoughts/Section 3

title: Blaise Pascal/Thoughts/Section 3


text:
Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/535

Rh

the true rotation period. This means that they would have shown Venus's to within 14 minutes if the conditions were as good. As Jupiter's spectrograms are easier to measure than Venus's, while Mars's are more difficult, we may take 25 minutes for the mean of the two criteria. I need perhaps not tell you that no previous spectrograms of Jupiter for rotation had come up to this precision.

From these two determinations on Jupiter and Mars we may determine the utmost period of rotation for Venus which the spectroscope could disclose. This would be the period for which the probable error was just equal to the quantity to be measured. From Mars we have for a 24-hour period on Venus a probable error of 31 minutes. This is one forty-eighth of the quantity measured on the supposition of a day's period. One of 48 days, therefore, would have its probable error equal to the quantity itself. From Jupiter we get in the same way 96 days. Thus from two to three months would be the limit of leisureliness the spectroscope could be got to note, and it was just this quantity that the investigations on Venus themselves expressed.

The spectroscope, therefore, definitely asserts that the rotation of Venus does not take place in anything approaching twenty-four hours, and by negativing any period up to two or three months long corroborates to the limit of its ability that shown by eye observation, one of 225 days.

The care at Flagstaff with which the possibility of error was sought to be excluded in this investigation of the length of Venus's day and the concordant precision in the results are worthy of notice. For it is by thus being particular and systematic that the accuracy of the determinations made there in other lines besides this has been secured.

Now a certain peculiarity of Venus's appearance of a totally different kind from those so far spoken of, here comes in to corroborate both of the previous determinations: the perfect roundness of her figure. For this very rondure has something to disclose. If Venus rotated in anything like twenty-four hours her disk should be perceptibly flattened at the poles, her figure becoming squat in consequence of her spin. For though as rigid as steel to sudden impulses she would be like putty at


text:
Page:The Oak.djvu/70

 CHAPTER V.

(continued).

plunging into the intricacies of the vascular bundles it will be well to obtain some idea of the general plan of structure which they present on transverse section (Fig. 9). As already seen, each of the bundles of the ring consists of a xylem portion on the side next the center of the stem, and a phloëm portion on the side next the periphery, and these portions are separated by the cambium layer. The tissue in the center of the stem, and surrounded by the ring of bundles, is called the pith; the tissue outside the ring, and between it and the epidermis, is called the cortex; and the tissue left between the bundles is termed the primary medullary rays (Fig. 9).

It will, of course, be remembered that the term "ring," as used above, always expresses the fact that a cylinder is here viewed in section. Now, the cambium of the individual bundles soon unites across the primary medullary rays, and thus a complete hollow cylinder of cambium is formed throughout the stem, and, as we shall see later, throughout the root also. For the

title: Page:The Oak.djvu/70


text:
Page:The Oak.djvu/71

 it must suffice to notice that the cells of this cambium cylinder go on developing into new xylem, or phloëm, or medullary rays, according to position and circumstances; meanwhile we are only concerned with the vascular bundles of the young shoot.

On the transverse section through the very young shoot, provided the preparation is thin and examined with a high power of the microscope, the young vascular bundles are found to present a definite and symmetrical structure, easily distinguished from that of the fundamental cell-tissue in which they are, so to speak, imbedded (Fig. 12).

The cells of the medullary rays are seen in one, two, or several rows, each cell having the form of a parallelopiped or ordinary brick—the bricks being supposed standing on their narrow sides and with the long axes directed radially. The walls in contact with the vascular bundles are thickened, and soon become woody and beset with simple pits; the cells contain protoplasm and nuclei, and in winter become filled to crowding with starch grains. They also contain tannin.

The young vascular bundles, in section, project into the pith—like wedges with a rounded point—giving to the latter the five-rayed shape on the transverse section already referred to (Fig. 9).

The cells of the pith also have their walls thickened and pitted, and also contain protoplasm, nuclei, and tannin, and starch in winter. At the rounded angles of the vascular wedges the cells are smaller than

title: Page:The Oak.djvu/71


text:
User talk:Eternal-Entropy

Welcome
Welcome

Hello, Eternal-Entropy, and welcome to Wikisource! Thank you for. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
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Again, welcome! Beeswaxcandle (talk) 07:39, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

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text:
User talk:Neilrobinson

Welcome
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Hello, Neilrobinson, and welcome to Wikisource! Thank you for. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
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I hope you enjoy contributing to Wikisource, the library that is free for everyone to use! In discussions, please "sign" your comments using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your IP address (or username if you're logged in) and the date. If you need help, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question here (click  [ edit] ) and place  before your question.

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User talk:Marigold 99

Welcome
Welcome

Hello, Marigold 99, and welcome to Wikisource! Thank you for. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
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I hope you enjoy contributing to Wikisource, the library that is free for everyone to use! In discussions, please "sign" your comments using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your IP address (or username if you're logged in) and the date. If you need help, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question here (click  [ edit] ) and place  before your question.

Again, welcome! Beeswaxcandle (talk) 07:40, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

title: User talk:Marigold 99


text:
Index talk:The Oak.djvu

Interesting, there appears to be a typographical error in the source document. The contents page lists "Chapter IV" starting on page 52, but page 52 contains the beginning of "Chapter V". The chapter titles appear correct though. I surmise that the contents page is incorrect, as the Introduction does not have a chapter number there, but does in the actual body of the text. It's probably just a blooper on the part of the publisher, but it is possible this is a frankenstein DJVU spliced together from two different editions. MichelleG (talk) 07:41, 2 August 2012 (UTC).
 * I entirely agree; the contents page makes no allowance for the fact the "Introduction" is in fact simply the alternate title of "Chapter I". And in support of the stitched-monster idea, please note the funny insertion of a blank page and Plate II in between pages 6 and 7! MODCHK (talk) 08:33, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

title: Index talk:The Oak.djvu


text: Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 2.djvu/8


text:
Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/445

 No. 46.]

Question from the Office of Ordination.—?—Ans.

Blessed be the good providence of, who, in great compassion for this Church and Nation, has hitherto preserved us from heresies and schisms.

O, continue to us this great mercy, and grant that we, who are appointed to watch over Thy flock, may employ our learning and our time in promoting of true piety; that we may never grow secure and careless, but that we may endeavour to secure the power, as well as the form of godliness. Have pity upon all Christian Churches, that are distracted by contending parties, and reduce all that wander out of the way. Enable us to preserve this Church in peace and unity, by all means becoming the spirit of the Gospel. Keep us stedfast in the faith, that we may never be tossed about with any wind of doctrine, or the craft of men. Let the zeal and industry of those that are in error provoke us to be zealously affected in a righteous cause; in labouring to make men good, and in converting sinners from the error of their ways; which grant for  sake.—Amen.

"But," the Bishop, "himself also, as his important affairs will permit him, shall use his best endeavour by instruction,


text:
Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/446

2 suasion, and all good means he can devise, to reclaim both them and all other within his Diocese so affected."—Canon 66th.

2 Tim. iv. 3. "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears."

N.B. We are now in these sad times, and it behoves all faithful Pastors to know it. It is not the doctrine of the Gospel, if it favours men's lusts. They that will not receive, or who reject, the truth, are often judicially punished with a greediness to receive errors, falsehoods, and fables.

Ver. 5. "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, make full proof of (or fulfil) thy ministry." He that is wanting in any essential part, is wanting to his own salvation.

, Thou art just in all the troubles which Thou hast brought upon this Church and Nation. Yet, O, have mercy upon us, and restore to us that peace and unity which we once enjoyed.

Matt. vii. 20. "By their fruits ye shall know them." This rule, though given by himself, is seldom observed. The best fruits are counted as nothing, are overlooked, and often condemned by those who have none good to show. Hence, all the evils the Church suffers.

Matt. xiii. 25. "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." O, awaken the Pastors of Thy flock, and open their eyes, that they may perceive the tares which choke the seed,—the wolves which destroy Thy sheep.

A mixture of good and bad in the Church is necessary to instruct, exercise, purify, sanctify, and keep the righteous in humility.

Matt. xiii. 29. "Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." A zeal not regulated by this prohibition, allows no time to the good to grow strong in goodness, or to the wicked to forsake their evil ways; but chooses rather to destroy the good, provided they can but destroy the bad.

Rev. ii. 14, 20. "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Thou


text:
Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/447

Rh sufrerest that woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication." How dreadful is the government of the Church, wherein a man must answer for those sins which he does not hinder! To tolerate by silence those who favour and promote sin, rebukes in the persons of these Bishops.

O my ! Thou who givest me this warning, enable me to profit by it. Assist me, in this day of trial, effectually to oppose and suppress that spirit of impurity, idolatry, profaneness, and irreligion, which is broken in upon us.

If for fear of offending men, or from a false love of peace, we forbear to defend the truth, we betray and abandon it.

Acts xxviii. 29. "And when he had said these things,—the Jews had great reasonings among themselves." A preacher of the truth is not to be blamed for the contests which it gives occasion to carnal men to raise. Even Himself could not preach without disturbing sinners;—and if He came not to bring peace on earth, but a sword of division. His Ministers ought to expect to do the same.

It is not by the heat of disputation, but by the gentleness of charity, that souls are gained over to. And when controversy is necessary, as sometimes it is, let it never be managed with harshness, bitterness, or severity, lest it exasperate and harden, more than convert and edify. A prudent condescension has often prevailed upon the weak, and rendered them capable of hearkening to reason, when the contrary conduct would have removed them farther from the light.

We ought to avoid evil men and seducers, in order to shame them;—to deprive them of that credit, whereby they may do hurt;—to make them to return to a right mind;—and that we may avoid the snare ourselves.

The primitive Fathers were ever modest upon religious questions. They contented themselves with resolving such questions as were proposed to them, without starting new ones; and carefully suppressed the curious, restless temper.

May I receive from Thee, O, at all times, the rules of my behaviour on these occasions.


text:
Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/448

 judges otherwise than we do of these things. He knows the good He intends to bring out of evil,—either for the sanctification of the righteous,—conversion of the wicked, by His goodness in bearing with them,—or leaving them without excuse.

One single soul is worth the utmost pains of the greatest Minister of. But, then, let us take care, when it is brought into the fold, that he be a better Christian than before,—that he be not two-fold more the child of hell than before.


text: Tracts for the Times/Tract 46

title: Tracts for the Times/Tract 46


text: Tracts for the Times/Record I

title: Tracts for the Times/Record I


text:
Page:Wiltshire, Extracted from Domesday Book.djvu/81

[ 33 ] lands, with 25 ervants and 15 coliberts. Seventy-three villagers and 38 cottagers occupy 26 ploughlands. Here are 4 mills of the value of 16 hillings and eight pence. The meadow is a mile and a half long, and 5 furlongs broad. The pature is a mile and a half long, and 3 quarters broad. The wood is 3 miles in length, and 3 quarters of a mile in breadth. Six burgees in Crichelade belong to this manor, and pay 64 pence. This manor pays 70 pounds by weight, but it is only valued by the Englih at 60 pounds by tale. Two hides belong to the church of this manor, and conit of 2 ploughlands. The priet of the church holds them, and they are worth 40 hillings.

II. The King holds Coeham. The Earl Toti held it T.R.E. Here are 34 hides, but it was only aeed at 18 hides. Here are 50 ploughlands. Eleven of thee hides are in demene, wherein are 7 ploughlands and ervants.


text:
Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/36

16

 * 6 Anne, c. 12.
 * An Act for rendering more effectual an Act passed in the First Year of Her Majesties Reign intituled An Act for the better preventing Escapes out of the Queen's Bench and Fleet Prisons.
 * 6 Anne, c. 24.
 * An Act for discharging small Living from their First Fruits and Tenths and all Arrears thereof.
 * 6 Anne, c. 40.
 * An Act for rendring the Union of the Two Kingdoms more intire and complete.
 * 6 Anne, c. 41.
 * An Act for the Security of Her Majesties Person and Government and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line.
 * 6 Anne, c. 53.
 * An Act for settling and establishing the Court of Exchequer in the North Part of Great Britain called Scotland.
 * 6 Anne, c. 54.
 * An Act, the title of which begins with the words "An Act to inlarge," and ends with the words "for Payment of their First Fruits."
 * 6 Anne, c. 72.
 * An Act for the more effectual Discovery of the Death of Persons pretended to be alive to the Prejudice of those who claim Estates after their Deaths.
 * 6 Anne, c. 76.
 * An Act for the avoiding of Doubts and Questions touching the Statutes of divers Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches.
 * 6 Anne, c. 78.
 * An Act, the title of which begins with the words "An Act to make further Provision for electing," and ends with the words "to serve in Parliament."
 * 7 Anne, c. 5.
 * An Act for naturalizing Foreign Protestants.
 * 7 Anne, c. 12.
 * An Act for preserving the Privileges of Ambassadors and other publick Ministers of Foreign Princes and States.
 * }
 * An Act, the title of which begins with the words "An Act to inlarge," and ends with the words "for Payment of their First Fruits."
 * 6 Anne, c. 72.
 * An Act for the more effectual Discovery of the Death of Persons pretended to be alive to the Prejudice of those who claim Estates after their Deaths.
 * 6 Anne, c. 76.
 * An Act for the avoiding of Doubts and Questions touching the Statutes of divers Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches.
 * 6 Anne, c. 78.
 * An Act, the title of which begins with the words "An Act to make further Provision for electing," and ends with the words "to serve in Parliament."
 * 7 Anne, c. 5.
 * An Act for naturalizing Foreign Protestants.
 * 7 Anne, c. 12.
 * An Act for preserving the Privileges of Ambassadors and other publick Ministers of Foreign Princes and States.
 * }
 * An Act, the title of which begins with the words "An Act to make further Provision for electing," and ends with the words "to serve in Parliament."
 * 7 Anne, c. 5.
 * An Act for naturalizing Foreign Protestants.
 * 7 Anne, c. 12.
 * An Act for preserving the Privileges of Ambassadors and other publick Ministers of Foreign Princes and States.
 * }
 * 7 Anne, c. 12.
 * An Act for preserving the Privileges of Ambassadors and other publick Ministers of Foreign Princes and States.
 * }
 * }
 * }


text:
User:Chris55/Essay2

Improving the proofreading rate
There are an increasing number of indexed works that are not proofread and are effectively "dead". There were 2,200 last year and now are 3,300. In the last year, nearly 1,400 new index files were added but only 106 were completely checked.

Using different techniques including match and split, the basic time for preparing a work can come down to a few tens of seconds per page, but proofreading a page still needs 2-5 minutes or more, depending on the size and difficulty of the page.

Changing this situation needs a lot more proofreaders. At the moment the goal is not much more than one book a month. That needs to become hundreds of books to avoid the creation of the index file system becoming a disappointment.

Yet these index pages are effectively invisible to the newcomer. The only list that is presented is those books that are "done". The category list is worse than useless - it's a turnoff.

So we need to set up a proofreading project.

A look at the current state of play shows over 1,700 single volume index files not yet proofread:

These stats are broad-brush - mostly derived from Hesperion's lists. Multi-volume works have been separated—those which have 3 or more similar titles with mainly numbering differences - e.g. 700 copies of the Scientific American. Since they now dominate in numbers, we need to treat them separately to avoid them overwhelming the other categories as there are only around 100 different titles for 2,000 index files. The proofreading record is also noticeably worse than for single volume works. I've also excluded around 300 non-DJVU/PDF files from this analysis.

To attract new proofreaders clear lists of works that need proofreading and validation are needed, kept up-to-date by at least semi-automatic methods. We need to cater for a wide variety of tastes: different people will be attracted to poetry, history, novels, science, law reports, government documents etc. Categorising the index files would help this.

The main method of rewarding effort has been through marks placed on users' pages concerning "proofread of the month". Would that scale up by a factor of 10 or 100? Doubtful. Another approach would be to have a "progress page" where recent advances are recorded. This has to be able to deal with short and long works- 5 or 500 pages. Milestones are important: confirmed transitions from "To be proofread" to "To be validated" to "Done".

The top 10 in the multiple category, with the number of index files and total pages to be proofed for each, are:

If these are ever to be completed, then it needs a very different strategy. Here is a summary of the size of the task for multi-volume files.

Proofreading single volume works
There is a huge range of document sizes as shown by the table on the right:

Remembering that the amount of work is basically the number of pages, one can see that much of the work is in documents between 250 and 700 pages and these are very challenging tasks. We propose three sizes of task based on the number of pages to be proofed.

The first category currently includes quite a few works which need just a few pages tidied up to move on into the validation class. Here is an (almost) current listing. One thing that is obvious from these is that many are simply requiring pictures to be extracted from the djvu files. But these shorter works may also appeal to people who like to see completion of a task.

The intermediate length files are much more of a challenge. It's a much longer list and needs breaking up to smaller groups to be presentable. It's here where categorising would be of most use.

The longer works need a much more sustained approach, or else a cooperative one. They are more similar to the multi-volume works.

To make this more attractive it would help to be able to break down these long lists by categories: novels, histories, legislation, science etc. This would require the index files to be categorised, which is not present policy but would have significant benefits in the long run. Not only would these be categorised much earlier, but transclusion could be used to copy the categories into the mainspace, including the individual chapters if this is thought suitable.

Validation
The list of works to be validated is currently much shorter than the list needing proofreading for the not very good reason that not that many books have yet reached that stage. There aren't yet clear guidelines for validation: for example, if someone finds a problem which they can't fix and mark a page as problematic, many editors assume that the work needs to be moved back a stage to the "To be proofread" stage. But is this necessarily sensible? "To be validated" does not imply the proofreading removed all problems, or there wouldn't be need for a second stage. Maybe we need a second "blue" stage.

It is tempting to assume that validation can be given to newcomers as "there won't be so many problems". But in some ways it needs more experience to ensure that it keeps to desirable Wikisource guidelines. Much clearer guidelines are needed.

On the other hand, validation should be a more pleasant reading experience and we need to consider how we can encourage people who come to Wikisource purely to read a work to stay and contribute to the validation process. It could be an excellent way of recruiting proofreaders.

Reporting progress
The toolserver currently produces many useful statistics that not many people look at. But to encourage proofreading we do need some more specialised reports, such as:

 * 1) The number of pages advanced a stage (to proofed, validated)
 * 2) The number of index files advanced from "To be proofread" to "To be validated" and "Done".
 * 3) More focused reports on user activity.

The reports linked earlier have been produced by a mix of toolserver tools and manual collation but there's no reason why they can't all be produced on a regular basis automatically. We may need others.

Multi-volume Works
There is already an established mechanism in WikiProject for handling big projects and one can identify projects for more than half a dozen of the bigger works in the list. It's noticeable that many of the other bigger works have had little done on them.

It would seem sensible to encourage the formation of new wikiprojects to coordinate the proofreading of these other big projects and to send interested people to the project. In reporting progress it would help to concentrate on the current most active volume(s).

title: User:Chris55/Essay2