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Rh “Well,” I said laughing in deprecation. “I don’t mind your dreaming. But this is not the way to anywhere.”

“Where may you be going then?” he asked.

“I? Home,” I replied with dignity.

“You are a Beardsall?” he queried, eyeing me with bloodshot eyes.

“I am!” I replied with more dignity, wondering who the fellow could be.

He sat a few moments looking at me. It was getting dark in the wood. Then he took up an ebony stick with a gold head, and rose. The stick seemed to catch at my imagination. I watched it curiously as we walked with the old man along the path to the gate. We went with him into the open road. When we reached the clear sky where the light from the west fell full on our faces, he turned again and looked at us closely. His mouth opened sharply, as if he would speak, but he stopped himself, and only said “Good-bye—Good-bye.”

“Shall you be all right?” I asked, seeing him totter.

“Yes—all right—good-bye, lad.”

He walked away feebly into the darkness. We saw the lights of a vehicle on the high-road: after a while we heard the bang of a door, and a cab rattled away.

“Well—whoever’s he?” said George laughing.

“Do you know,” said I, “it’s made me feel a bit rotten.”

“Ay?” he laughed, turning up the end of the exclamation with indulgent surprise.

We went back home, deciding to say nothing to


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Rh

Came they to him in dreams?—He could not tell. Sleeping or waking now small difference made; For even while he slept he knew full well That his dear Mother and that darling Maid Both in the Garden of the Dead were laid: And yet he saw them as in life, the same, Save only that in radiant robes arrayed, And round about their presence when they came There shone an effluent light as of a harmless flame.

And where he was he knew, the time, the place,— All circumstantial things to him were clear. His own heart undisturb'd. His Mother's face How could he chuse but know; or knowing, fear Her presence and that Maid's, to him more dear Than all that had been left him now below? Their love had drawn them from their happy sphere; That dearest love unchanged they came to show; And he must be baptized, and then he too might go.

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


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collingridge, Peter Bernardine


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142

With searching ken the Jesuit while he spake Perused him, if in countenance or tone Aught might be found appearing to partake Of madness. Mark of passion there was none; None of derangement: in his eye alone, As from a hidden fountain emanate, Something of an unusual brightness shone: But neither word nor look betrayed a state Of wandering, and his speech, though earnest, was sedate.

Regular his pulse, from all disorder free; The vital powers perform'd their part assign'd; And to whate'er was ask'd, collectedly He answer'd. Nothing troubled him in mind; Why should it? Were not all around him kind? Did not all love him with a love sincere, And seem in serving him a joy to find? He had no want, no pain, no grief, no fear: But he must be baptized; he could not tarry here.


text: A tale of Paraguay/Canto 4

title: A tale of Paraguay/Canto 4


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Rh only house in the road it doesn't matter if nobody can get near it, I s'pose.

. Never mind, dear. Perhaps you'll win to-morrow. (She moves to back of table.)

. Perhaps I'll—perhaps I'll——! What d'you mean? (Bursts out laughing) There! You always know what's going on inside o' me, don't you, mother?

. Ought to, after thirty years, John. (She goes to dresser, and busies herself wiping tumblers an tray there.)

(down ). And it's not such a bad place, dad, after all. One of the few old-fashioned houses left near London. None o' your stucco villas. Homelike, I call it. And so do you, or you wouldn't ha' bought it. (Rolls a cigarette.)

(., growling). Nice job I made o' that, too! With two hundred pounds owin' on it.

(on back of chair, ). Why, I shall work that off in no time, dad. Matter o' three years, with the rise promised me.

. If you don't get married.

. Not me. Not that sort. . I wish you would, Herbert. A good, steady, lad——

. Lots o' time, mother. Sufficient for the day—as the sayin' goes. Just now my dynamos don't leave me any time for love-making. Jealous they are, I tell you!

(chuckling). I lay awake o' night often, and think: If Herbert took a nap, and let his what-d'you-call-ums—dynamos, run down, all Fulham

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36 the women. They were sitting in the window seat watching for us, mother and Alice and Lettie.

“You have been a long time!” said Lettie. “We’ve watched the sun go down—it set splendidly—look—the rim of the hill is smouldering yet. What have you been doing?”

“Waiting till your Taurus finished work.”

“Now be quiet,” she said hastily, and—turning to him, “You have come to sing hymns?”

“Anything you like,” he replied.

“How nice of you, George!” exclaimed Alice, ironically. She was a short, plump girl, pale, with daring, rebellious eyes. Her mother was a Wyld, a family famous either for shocking lawlessness, or for extreme uprightness. Alice, with an admirable father, and a mother who loved her husband passionately, was wild and lawless on the surface, but at heart very upright and amenable. My mother and she were fast friends, and Lettie had a good deal of sympathy with her. But Lettie generally deplored Alice’s outrageous behaviour, though she relished it—if “superior” friends were not present. Most men enjoyed Alice in company, but they fought shy of being alone with her.

“Would you say the same to me?” she asked.

“It depends what you’d answer,” he said, laughingly.

“Oh, you’re so bloomin’ cautious. I’d rather have a tack in my shoe than a cautious man, wouldn’t you Lettie?”

“Well—it depends how far I had to walk,” was Lettie’s reply—“but if I hadn’t to limp too far——”


text:
The Astral Plane/Chapter III/II

II. NON-HUMAN It might have been thought fairly obvious, even to the most casual glance, that many of the terrestrial arrangements of Nature which affect us most nearly have not been designed exclusively with a view to our comfort, to even our ultimate advantage. Yet it was probably unavoidable that the human race, at least in its childhood, should imagine that this world and everything it contains existed solely for its own use and benefit; but undoubtedly we ought by this time to have grown out of that infantile delusion and realized our proper position and the duties that attach to it.

That most of us have not yet done so is shown in a dozen ways in our daily life — notably by the atrocious cruelty habitually displayed towards the animal kingdom under the name of sport by many who probably consider themselves highly civilized people. The veriest tyro in the holy science of occultism knows that all life is sacred and that without universal compassion there is no true progress; but it is only as he advances in his studies that he discovers how manifold evolution is, and how comparatively small a place humanity really fills in the economy of Nature.

It becomes clear to him that as earth, air, and water support myriads of forms of life which, though invisible to the ordinary eye, are revealed to us by the microscope, so the higher planes connected with our earth have an equally dense population of whose existence we are ordinarily completely unconscious. As his knowledge increases he becomes more and more certain that in one way or another the utmost use is being made of every possibility of evolution, and that wherever it seems to us that in Nature force is being wasted or opportunity neglected, it is not the scheme of the universe that is in fault, but our ignorance of its method and intention.

For the purposes of our present consideration of the non-human inhabitants of the astral plane it will be best to leave altogether out of consideration those early forms of the universal life which are evolving, in a manner of which we can have little comprehension, through the successive encasement of atoms, molecules, and cells. If we commence at the lowest of what are usually called the elemental kingdoms, we shall even then have to group together under this general heading an enormous number of inhabitants of the astral plane upon whom it will be possible to touch only slightly, as anything like a detailed account of them would swell this manual to the dimensions of an encyclopaedia.

The most convenient method of arranging the non-human entities will perhaps be in four classes — it being understood that in this case the class is not, as previously, a comparatively small subdivision, but usually a great kingdom of Nature at least as large and varied as, say, the animal or vegetable kingdom. Some of these classes rank considerably below humanity, some are our equals, and others again rise far above us in goodness and power. Some belong to our scheme of evolution — that is to say, they either have been or will be men like ourselves; others are evolving on entirely distinct lines of their own. (See the diagram of “The Evolution of Life” in The Hidden Side of Things, p. 86.)

Before proceeding to consider them it is necessary in order to avoid the charge of incompleteness, to mention that in this branch of the subject two reservations have been made. First, no reference is made to the occasional appearances of high Adepts from other planets of the solar system and of even more august Visitors from a still greater distance, since such matters cannot fitly be described in an essay for general reading; and besides it is practically inconceivable, though theoretically possible, that such glorified Beings should ever need to manifest themselves on a plane so low as the astral. If for any reason they should wish to do so, the body appropriate to the plane would be temporarily created out of astral matter belonging to this planet, as in the case of the Nirmanakaya.

Secondly, quite outside of and entirely unconnected with the four classes into which we are dividing this section, there are two other great evolutions which at present share the use of this planet with humanity; but about them it is forbidden to give any particulars at this stage of the proceedings, as it is not apparently intended under ordinary circumstances either that they should be conscious of man's existence or man of theirs. If we ever do come into contact with them it will most probably be on the purely physical plane, for in any case their connection with our astral plane is of the slightest since the only possibility of their appearance there depends upon an extremely improbable accident in an act of ceremonial magic, which fortunately only a few of the most advanced sorcerers know how to perform. Nevertheless, that improbable accident has happened at least once, and may happen again, so that but for the prohibition above mentioned it would have been necessary to include them in our list.

The Elemental Essence
1. The Elemental Essence belonging to our own evolution. As the name "elementary" has been given indiscriminately by various writers to any or all of man's possible post-mortem conditions, so this word "elemental" has been used at different times to mean any or all non-human spirits, from the most god-like of the Devas down through every variety of nature-spirit to the formless essence which pervades the kingdoms lying behind the mineral, until after reading several books the student becomes absolutely bewildered by the contradictory statements made on the subject. For the purposes of this treatise let it be understood that elemental essence is merely a name applied during certain stages of its evolution to monadic essence, which in its turn may be defined as the outpouring of Spirit or Divine Force into matter.

We are all familiar with the idea that before this outpouring arrives at the stage of individualization at which it forms the causal body of man, it has passed through and ensouled in turn six lower phases of evolution — the animal, vegetable, mineral, and three elemental kingdoms. When energizing through those respective stages it has sometimes been called the animal, vegetable, or mineral monad – though this term is distinctly misleading, since long before it arrives at any of these kingdoms it has become not one, but many monads. The name was, however, adopted to convey the idea that, though differentiation in the monadic essence had already long ago set in, it had not yet been carried to the extent of individualization.

When this monadic essence is energizing through the three great elemental kingdoms which precede the mineral, it is called by the name of "elemental essence." Before, however, its nature and the manner in which it manifests can be understood, the method in which spirit enfolds itself in its descent into matter must be realized.

Be it remembered, then, that when spirit resting on any plane (it matters not which — let us call it plane No. 1) wills to descend to the plane next below (let us call that plane No. 2) it must enfold itself in the matter of that plane — that is to say, it must draw round itself a veil of the matter of plane No. 2. Similarly when it continues its descent to plane No. 3, it must draw round itself the matter of that plane, and we shall then have, say, an atom whose body or outer covering consists of the matter of plane No. 3.  The force energizing in it — its soul, so to speak — will however not be spirit in the condition in which it was on plane No. 1, but will be that divine force plus the veil of the matter of plane No. 2.  When a still further descent is made to plane No. 4, the atom becomes still more complex, for it will then have a body of No. 4 matter, ensouled by spirit already twice veiled — in the matter of planes 2 and 3. It will be seen that, since this process repeats itself for every sub-plane of each plane of the solar system, by the time the original force reaches our physical level it is so thoroughly veiled that it is small wonder men often fail to recognize it as spirit at all.

Suppose that the monadic essence has carried on this process of veiling itself down to the atomic level of the mental plane, and that, instead of descending through the various subdivisions of that plane, it plunges down directly into the astral plane, ensouling, or aggregating round it a body of atomic astral matter; such a combination would be the elemental essence of the astral plane, belonging to the third of the great elemental kingdoms — that immediately preceding the mineral. In the course of its 2,401 differentiations on the astral plane it draws to itself many and various combinations of the matter of its several sub-divisions; but these are only temporary, and it still remains essentially one kingdom, whose characteristic is monadic essence involved down to the atomic level of the mental plane only, but manifesting through the atomic matter of the astral plane.

The two higher elemental kingdoms exist and function respectively upon the higher and the lower levels of the mental plane; but we are not at the moment concerned with them.

To speak, as we so often do, of an elemental in connection with the group we are now considering is somewhat misleading, for strictly speaking there is no such thing. What we find is a vast store of elemental essence, wonderfully sensitive to the most fleeting human thought, responding with inconceivable delicacy in an infinitesimal fraction of a second to a vibration set up in it even by an entirely unconscious exercise of human will or desire.

But the moment that by the influence of such thought or exercise of will it is moulded into a living force — into something that may correctly be described as an elemental — it at once ceases to belong to the category we are discussing, and becomes a member of the artificial class. Even then its separate existence is usually of the most evanescent character, and as soon as its impulse has worked itself out it sinks back into the undifferentiated mass of that particular subdivision of elemental essence from which it came.

It would be tedious to attempt to catalogue these subdivisions, and indeed even if a list of them were made it would be unintelligible except to the practical student who can call them up before him and compare them. Some idea of the leading lines of classification can, however, be grasped without much trouble, and may prove of interest.

First comes the broad division which has given the elementals their name — the classification according to the kind of matter which they inhabit. Here, as usual, the septenary character of our evolution shows itself, for there are seven such chief groups, related respectively to the seven states of physical matter — to "earth, water, air, and fire," or to translate from mediæval symbolism to modern accuracy of expression, to the solid, the liquid, the gaseous, and the four etheric conditions.

It has long been the custom to pity and despise the ignorance of the alchemists of the middle ages, because they gave the title of "elements" to substances which modern chemistry has discovered to be compounds; but in speaking of them thus slightingly we have done them great injustice, for their knowledge on this subject was really wider, not narrower, than ours. They may or may not have catalogued all the eighty or ninety substances which we now call elements; but they certainly did not apply that name to them, for their occult studies had taught them that in that sense of the word there was but one element, of which these and all other forms of matter were but modifications – a truth which some of the greatest chemists of the present day are just beginning to suspect.

The fact is that in this particular case our despised forefathers' analysis went several steps deeper than our own. They understood and were able to observe the ether, which modern science can only postulate as a necessity for its theories; they were aware that it consists of physical matter in four entirely distinct states above the gaseous — a fact which has not yet been re-discovered. They knew that all physical objects consist of matter in one or other of these seven states, and that into the composition of every organic body all seven enter in a greater or lesser degree; hence all their talk of fiery and watery humours, or "elements," which seems so grotesque to us. It is obvious that they used the latter word as a synonym for "constituent parts," without in the least degree intending it to connote the idea of substances which could not be further reduced. They knew also that each of these orders of matter serves as a basis of manifestation for a great class of evolving monadic essence, and so they christened the essence "elemental."

What we have to try to realize, then, is that in every particle of solid matter, so long as it remains in that condition, there resides, to use the picturesque phraseology of mediæval students, an earth elemental — that is, a certain amount of the living elemental essence appropriate to it, while equally in every particle of matter in the liquid, gaseous, or etheric states, the water, air, and fire "elementals" respectively inhere. It will be observed that this first broad division of the third of the elemental kingdoms is, so to speak, horizontal — that is to say, its respective classes stand in the relation of steps, each somewhat less material than that below it, which ascends into it by almost imperceptible degrees; and it is easy to understand how each of these classes may again he divided horizontally into seven, since there are obviously many degrees of density among solids, liquids, and gases.

There is, however, what may be described as a perpendicular division also, and this is somewhat more difficult to comprehend, especially as great reserve is always maintained by occultists as to some of the facts which would be involved in a fuller explanation of it. Perhaps the clearest way to put what is known on the subject will be to state that in each of the horizontal classes and subclasses will be found seven perfectly distinct types of elemental, the difference between them being no longer a question of degree of materiality, but rather of character and affinities.

Each of these types so reacts upon the others that, though it is impossible for them ever to interchange their essence, in each of them seven sub-types will be found to exist, distinguished by the colouring given to their original peculiarity by the influence which sways them most readily. It will be seen that this perpendicular division and subdivision differs entirely in its character from the horizontal, in that it is far more permanent and fundamental; for while it is the evolution of the elemental kingdom to pass with almost infinite slowness through its various horizontal classes and sub-classes in succession, and thus to belong to them all in turn, this is not so with regard to the types and sub-types, which remain unchangeable all the way through.

A point of which we must never lose sight in endeavouring to understand this elemental evolution is that it is taking place on what is sometimes called the downward curve of the arc; that is to say, it is progressing towards the complete entanglement in matter which we witness in the mineral kingdom, instead of away from it, as is most other evolution of which we know anything. Thus for it progress means descent into matter instead of ascent towards higher planes; and this fact sometimes gives it a curiously inverted appearance in our eyes until we thoroughly grasp its object. Unless the student bears this constantly and clearly in mind, he will again and again find himself beset by perplexing anomalies.

In spite of these manifold subdivisions, there are certain properties which are possessed in common by all varieties of this strange living essence; but even these are so entirely different from any with which we are familiar on the physical plane that it is exceedingly difficult to explain them to those who cannot themselves see them in action.

Let it be premised, then, that when any portion of this essence remains for a few moments entirely unaffected by any outside influence (a condition, by the way, which is hardly ever realized) it is absolutely without any definite form of its own, though its motion is still rapid and ceaseless; but on the slightest disturbance, set up perhaps by some passing thought-current, it flashes into a bewildering confusion of restless, ever-changing shapes, which form, rush about, and disappear with the rapidity of the bubbles on the surface of boiling water.

These evanescent shapes, though generally those of living creatures of some sort, human or otherwise, no more express the existence of separate entities in the essence than do the equally changeful and multiform waves raised in a few moments on a previously smooth lake by a sudden squall. They seem to be mere reflections from the vast storehouse of the astral plane, yet they have usually a certain appropriateness to the character of the thought¬stream which calls them into existence, though nearly always with some grotesque distortion, some terrifying or unpleasant aspect about them. A question naturally arises in the mind here as to what intelligence it is that is exerted in the selection of an appropriate shape or its distortion when selected. We are not dealing with the more powerful and longer-lived artificial elemental created by a strong definite thought, but with the result produced by the stream of half¬conscious, involuntary thoughts which the majority of mankind allow to flow idly through their brains. The intelligence, therefore, is obviously not derived from the mind of the thinker; and we certainly cannot credit the elemental essence itself, which belongs to a kingdom further from individualization even than the mineral, with any sort of awakening of the mental quality.

Yet it does possess a marvellous adaptability which often seems to come near it, and it is no doubt this property that caused elementals to be described in one of our early books as "the semi-intelligent creatures of the astral light." We shall find further evidence of this power when we come to consider the case of the artificial class. When we read of a good or evil elemental, it must always be either an artificial entity or one of the many varieties of nature-spirits that is meant, for the elemental kingdoms proper do not admit of any such conceptions as good and evil.

There is, however, undoubtedly a sort of bias or tendency permeating nearly all their subdivisions which operates to render them rather hostile than friendly towards man. Every neophyte knows this, for in most cases his very first impression of the astral plane is of the presence all around him of vast hosts of protean spectres who advance upon him in threatening guise, but always retire or dissipate harmlessly if boldly faced. It is to this curious tendency that the distorted or unpleasant aspect above mentioned must be referred, and mediæval writers tell us that man has only himself to thank for its existence. In the golden age before this sordid present, men were on the whole less selfish and more spiritual, and then the "elementals" were friendly, though now they are so no longer because of man's indifference to, and want of sympathy with, other living beings.

From the wonderful delicacy with which the essence responds to the faintest action of our minds or desires, it seems clear that this elemental kingdom as a whole is much what the collective thought of humanity makes it. Any one who will think for a moment how far from elevating the action of that collective thought is likely to be at the present time, will see little reason to wonder that we reap as we have sown, and that this essence, which has no power of perception, but only blindly receives and reflects what is projected upon it, should usually exhibit unfriendly characteristics.

There can be no doubt that in later races or rounds, when mankind as a whole has evolved to a much higher level, the elemental kingdoms will be influenced by the changed thought which continually impinges upon them, and we shall find them no longer hostile, but docile and helpful as we are told that the animal kingdom will also be. Whatever may have happened in the past, it is evident that we may look forward to a passable "golden age" in the future, if we can arrive at a time when the majority of men will be noble and unselfish, and the forces of nature will co-operate willingly with them.

The fact that we are so readily able to influence the elemental kingdoms shows us that we have a responsibility towards them for the manner in which we use that influence. Indeed, when we consider the conditions under which they exist, it is obvious that the effect produced upon them by the thoughts and desires of all intelligent creatures inhabiting the same world with them must have been calculated upon in the scheme of our system as a factor in their evolution.

In spite of the consistent teaching of all the great religions, the mass of mankind is still utterly regardless of its responsibility on the thought-plane; if a man can flatter himself that his words and deeds have been harmless to others, he believes that he has done all that can be required of him, quite oblivious of the fact that he may for years have been exercising a narrowing and debasing influence on the minds of those about him, and filling surrounding space with the unlovely creations of a sordid mind. A still more serious aspect of this question will come before us when we discuss the artificial elemental; but in regard to the essence it will be sufficient to state that we undoubtedly have the power to accelerate or delay its evolution according to the use which, consciously or unconsciously, we are continually making of it. It would be hopeless within the limits of such a treatise as this to attempt to explain the different uses to which the forces inherent in the manifold varieties of this elemental essence can he put by one who has been trained in their management. The majority of magical ceremonies depend almost entirely upon its manipulation, either directly by the will of the magician, or by some more definite astral entity evoked by him for that purpose.

By its means nearly all the physical phenomena of the séance-room are produced, and it is also the agent in most cases of stone-throwing or bell-ringing in haunted houses, such results as these latter being brought about either by blundering efforts to attract attention made by some earth-bound human entity, or by the mere mischievous pranks of some of the minor nature-spirits belonging to our third class. But we must never think of the "elemental" as itself a prime mover; it is simply a latent force, which needs an external power to set it in motion.

Although all classes of the essence have the power of reflecting astral images as described above, there are varieties which receive certain impressions much more readily than others — which have, as it were, favourite forms of their own into which upon disturbance they would naturally flow unless absolutely forced into some other, and such shapes tend to be a trifle less evanescent than usual.

Before leaving this branch of the subject it may be well to warn the student against the confusion of thought into which some have fallen through failing to distinguish this elemental essence which we have been considering from the monadic essence manifesting through the mineral kingdom. Monadic essence at one stage of its evolution towards humanity manifests through the elemental kingdom, while at a later stage it manifests through the mineral kingdom; but the fact that two bodies of monadic essence at these different stages are in manifestation at the same moment, and that one of these manifestations (the earth elemental) occupies the same space as and inhabits the other (say a rock), in no way interferes with the evolution either of one or the other, nor does it imply any relation between the bodies of monadic essence lying within both.

The Astral Bodies of Animals
2. The Astral Bodies of Animals. This is an extremely large class, yet it does not occupy a particularly important position on the astral plane, since its members usually stay there but a short time. The vast majority of animals have not as yet acquired permanent individualization, and when one of them dies the monadic essence which has been manifesting through it flows back again into the particular stratum whence it came, bearing with it such advancement or experience as has been attained during that life. It is not, however, able to do this quite immediately; the astral body of the animal rearranges itself just as in man's case, and the animal has a real existence on the astral plane, the length of which, though never great, varies according to the intelligence which it has developed. In most cases it does not seem to be more than dreamily conscious, but appears perfectly happy.

The comparatively few domestic animals who have already attained individuality, and will therefore be reborn no more as animals in this world, have a much longer and much more vivid life on the astral plane than their less advanced fellows, and at the end of it sink gradually into a subjective condition, which is likely to last for a very considerable period. One interesting subdivision of this class consists of the astral bodies of those anthropoid apes mentioned in The Secret Doctrine (vol. I, p. 184) who are already individualized, and will be ready to take human incarnation in the next round, or perhaps some of them even sooner.

Nature-Spirits
3. Nature-Spirits of all Kinds. So many and so varied are the subdivisions of this class that to do them anything like justice one would need to devote a separate treatise to this subject alone. Some characteristics, however, they all have in common, and it will be sufficient here to try to give some idea of those.

First we have to realize that we are here dealing with entities which differ radically from all that we have hitherto considered. Though we may rightly classify the elemental essence and the animal astral bodies as non-human, the monadic essence which ensouls them will, nevertheless, in the fullness of time, evolve to the level of manifesting itself through some future humanity comparable to our own, and if we were able to look back through countless ages on our own evolution in previous world-cycles, we should find that that which is now our casual body has passed on its upward path through similar stages.

That, however, is not the case with the vast kingdom of nature-spirits; they neither have been, nor ever will be, members of a humanity such as ours; their line of evolution is entirely different, and their only connection with us consists in our temporary occupancy of the same planet. Of course since we are neighbours for the time being we owe neighbourly kindness to one another when we happen to meet, but our lines of development differ so widely that each can do but little for the other.

Many writers have included these spirits among the elementals, and indeed they are the elementals (or perhaps, to speak more accurately, the animals) of a higher evolution. Though much more highly developed than our elemental essence, they have yet certain characteristics in common with it; for example, they also are divided into seven great classes, inhabiting respectively the same seven states of matter already mentioned as permeated by the corresponding varieties of the essence. Thus, to take those which are most readily comprehensible to us, there are spirits of the earth, water, air, and fire (or ether) — definite intelligent astral entities residing and functioning in each of those media.

It may be asked how it is possible for any kind of creature to inhabit the solid substance of a rock, or of the crust of the earth. The answer is that since the nature-spirits are formed of astral matter, the substance of the rock is no hindrance to their motion or their vision, and furthermore physical matter in its solid state is their natural element — that to which they are accustomed and in which they feel at home. The same is true of those who live in water, air, or ether.

In mediæval literature, these earth-spirits are often called gnomes, while the water-spirits are spoken of as undines, the air-spirits as sylphs, and the ether-spirits as salamanders. In popular language they are known by many names — fairies, pixies, elves, brownies, peris, djinns, trolls, satyrs, fauns, kobolds, imps, goblins, good people, etc. — some of these titles being applied only to one variety, and others indiscriminately to all.

Their forms are many and various, but most frequently human in shape and somewhat diminutive in size. Like almost all inhabitants of the astral plane, they are able to assume any appearance at will, but they undoubtedly have definite forms of their own, or perhaps we should rather say favourite forms, which they wear when they have no special object in taking an other. Under ordinary conditions they are not visible to physical sight at all, but they have the power of making themselves so by materialization when they wish to be seen.

There are an immense number of subdivisions or races among them, and individuals differ in intelligence and disposition precisely as human beings do. The great majority of them apparently prefer to avoid man altogether; his habits and emanations are distasteful to them, and the constant rush of astral currents set up by his restless, ill-regulated desires disturbs and annoys them. On the other hand, instances are not wanting in which nature¬spirits have as it were made friends with human beings and offered them such assistance as lay in their power, as in the well-known stories told of the Scotch brownies or of the fire-lighting fairies mentioned in spiritualistic literature. (See Spirit Workers in the Home Circle, by Morell Theobald.)

This helpful attitude, however, is comparatively rare, and in most cases when they come in contact with man they either show indifference or dislike, or else take an impish delight in deceiving him and playing childish tricks upon him. Many a story illustrative of this curious characteristic may be found among the village gossip of the peasantry in almost any lonely mountainous district; and any one who has been in the habit of attending séances for physical phenomena will recollect instances of practical joking and silly though usually good-natured horse-play, which almost always indicate the presence of some of the lower orders of the nature-spirits.

They are greatly assisted in their tricks by the wonderful power which they possess of casting a glamour over those who yield themselves to their influence, so that such victims for the time see and hear only what these fairies impress upon them, exactly as the mesmerized subject sees, hears, feels, and believes whatever the magnetizer wishes. The nature-spirits, however, have not the mesmerizer's power of dominating the human will, except in the case of quite unusually weak-minded people, or of those who allow themselves to fall into such a condition of helpless terror that their will is temporarily in abeyance. They cannot go beyond deception of the senses, but of that art they are undoubted masters, and cases are not wanting in which they have cast their glamour over a considerable number of people at once. It is by invoking their aid in the exercise of this peculiar power that some of the most wonderful feats of the Indian jugglers are performed — the entire audience being in fact hallucinated and made to imagine that they see and hear a whole series of events which have not really taken place at all.

We might almost look upon the nature-spirits as a kind of astral humanity, but for the fact that none of them — not even the highest — possesses a permanent reincarnating individuality. Apparently, therefore, one point in which their line of evolution differs from ours is that a much greater proportion of intelligence is developed before permanent individualization takes place; but of the stages through which they have passed, and those through which they have yet to pass, we can know little.

The life-periods of the different subdivisions vary greatly, some being quite short, others much longer than our human life-times. We stand so entirely outside such a life as theirs that it is impossible for us to understand much about its conditions; but it appears on the whole to be a simple, joyous, irresponsible kind of existence, such as a party of happy children might lead among exceptionally favourable physical surroundings. Though tricky and mischievous, they are rarely malicious unless provoked by some unwarrantable intrusion or annoyance; but as a body they also partake to some extent of the universal feeling of distrust for man, and they generally seem inclined to resent somewhat the first appearance of a neophyte on the astral plane, so that he usually makes their acquaintance under some unpleasant or terrifying form. If, however, he declines to be frightened by any of their freaks, they soon accept him as a necessary evil and take no further notice of him, while some among them may even after a time become friendly and manifest pleasure on meeting him.

Some among the many subdivisions of this class are much less childlike and more dignified than those we have been describing, and it is from these sections that the lower types among the entities who have been reverenced under the name of wood-gods, or local village-gods, have been drawn. Such entities would be quite sensible of the flattery involved in the reverence shown to them, enjoy it, and are usually quite ready to do any small service they can in return. (The village-god is also often an artificial entity, but that variety will be considered in its appropriate place). The Adept knows how to make use of the services of the nature-spirits when he requires them, but the ordinary magician can obtain their assistance only by processes either of invocation or evocation — that is, either by attracting their attention as a suppliant and making some kind of bargain with them, or by endeavouring to set in motion influences which would compel their obedience. Both methods are extremely undesirable, and the latter is also excessively dangerous, as the operator arouses a determined hostility which may easily prove fatal to him. Needless to say, no one studying occultism under a qualified Master would ever be permitted to attempt anything of the kind at all.

The Devas
4. The Devas. The highest system of evolution connected with this earth, so far as we know, is that of the beings whom Hindus call the Devas, who are elsewhere described as Angels, sons of God, etc. They may, in fact, be regarded as a kingdom, lying next above humanity, in the same way as humanity in turn lies next above the animal kingdom, but with this important difference, that while for an animal there is no possibility of evolution (so far as we know) through any kingdom but the human man, when he attains a certain high level, finds various paths of advancement opening before him of which this great Deva evolution is only one.

In comparison with the sublime renunciation of the Nirmanakaya, the acceptance of this line of evolution is sometimes mentioned in the books as "yielding to the temptation to become a god", but it must not be inferred from this expression that any shadow of blame attaches to the man who makes this choice. The path which he selects is not the shortest, but it is nevertheless very noble, and if his developed intuition impels him towards it, it is certainly that which is best suited for his capacities. We must never forget that in spiritual as in physical climbing it is not every one who can bear the strain of the steeper path; there may be many for whom what seems the slower way is the only possiblity, and we should indeed be unworthy followers of the great Teachers if we allowed our ignorance to betray us into the slightest thought of disposal towards those whose choice differs from our own.

However confident ignorance of the difficulties of the future may allow us to feel now, it is impossible for us to tell at this stage what we shall find ourselves able to do when, after many lives of patient striving, we have earned the right to choose our own future; and indeed, even those who "yield to the temptation to become gods" have a sufficiently glorious career before them, as will presently be seen. To avoid possible misunderstanding it may be mentioned par parenthése that there is another and entirely evil sense sometimes attached in the books to this phrase of "becoming a god," but in that form it certainly could never be any kind of "temptation" to the developed man, and in any case it is altogether foreign to our present subject.

In oriental literature this word "Deva" is frequently used vaguely to mean almost any kind of non-human entity, so that it often includes great divinities on the one hand, and nature-spirits and artificial elementals on the other. Here, however, its use will be restricted to the magnificent evolution which we are now considering.

Though connected with this earth, the Angels are by no means confined to it, for the whole of our present chain of seven worlds is as one world to them, their evolution being through a grand system of seven chains. Their hosts have hitherto been recruited chiefly from other humanities in the solar system, some lower and some higher than ours, since but a very small portion of our own has as yet reached the level at which for us it is possible to join them; but it seems certain that some of their very numerous classes have not passed in their upward progress through any humanity at all comparable to ours.

It is not possible for us at present to understand much about them, but it is clear that what may be described as the aim of their evolution is considerably higher than ours; that is to say, while the object of our human evolution is to raise the successful portion of humanity to a certain degree of occult development by the end of the seventh round, the object of the angelic evolution is to bring their foremost rank to a much higher level in the corresponding period. For them, as for us, a steeper but shorter path to still more sublime heights lies open to earnest endeavour; but what those heights may be in their case we can only conjecture.

It is only the lower fringe of this august body that need be mentioned in connection with our subject of the astral plane. Their three lower great divisions (beginning from the bottom) are generally called Kamadevas, Rupadevas, and Arupadevas respectively. Just as our ordinary body here – the lowest body possible for us — is the physical, so the ordinary body of a Kamadeva is the astral; so that he stands in somewhat the same position as humanity will do when it reaches planet F, and he, living ordinarily in an astral body, goes out of it to higher spheres in a mental vehicle just as we do in an astral body, while to enter the causal body is to him (when sufficiently developed) no greater effort than to use a mind body is to us.

In the same way the Rupadeva's ordinary body is the mental, since his habitat is on the four lower or rupa levels of that plane; while the Arupadeva belongs to the three higher levels, and owns no nearer approach to a body than the causal. But for Rupa and Arupa devas to manifest on the astral plane is an occurrence at least as rare as it is for astral entities to materialize on this physical plane, so we need do no more than mention them now.

As regards the lowest division — the Kamadevas — it would be a mistake to think of all of them as immeasurably superior to ourselves, since some have entered their ranks from humanity in some respects less advanced than our own. The general average among them is much higher than among us, for all that is actively or willfully evil has long been weeded out from their ranks; but they differ widely in disposition, and a really noble, unselfish, spiritually-minded man may well stand higher in the scale of evolution than some of them.

Their attention can be attracted by certain magical evocations, but the only human will which can dominate theirs is that of a certain high class of Adepts. As a rule they seem scarcely conscious of us on our physical plane, but it does now and then happen that one of them becomes aware of some human difficulty which excites his pity, and he perhaps renders some assistance, just as any of us would try to help an animal that we saw in trouble. But it is well understood among them that any interference in human affairs at the present stage is likely to do far more harm than good. Above the Arupadevas there are four other great divisions, and again, above and beyond the angelic kingdom altogether, stand the great hosts of the Planetary Spirits, but the consideration of such glorified beings would be out of place in an essay on the astral plane.

Though we cannot claim them as belonging exactly to any of our classes, this is perhaps the best place in which to mention those wonderful and important beings, the four Devarajas. In this name the word Deva must not, however, be taken in the sense in which we have been using it, for it is not over the Deva kingdom, but over the four, "elements" of earth, water, air, and fire, with their indwelling nature¬spirits and essences, that these four Kings rule. What the evolution has been through which they rose to their present height of power and wisdom we cannot tell, save only that it does not seem to have passed through anything corresponding to our own humanity. They are often described as the Regents of the Earth, or Angels of the four cardinal points, and the Hindu books call them the Chatur Maharajas, giving their names as Dhritarashtra, Virudhaka, Virupaksha, and Vaishravana. In the same books their elemental hosts are called Gandharvas, Kumbhandas, Nagas, and Yakshas respectively, the points of the compass appropriated to each being in corresponding order east, south, west, and north, and their symbolical colours, white, blue, red, and gold. They are mentioned in The Secret Doctrine as "winged globes and fiery wheels"; and in the Christian bible Ezekiel makes a remarkable attempt at a description of them in which similar words are used. References to them are to be found in the symbology of every religion, and they have always been held in the highest reverence as the protectors of mankind.

It is they who are the agents of man's karma during his life on earth, and they thus play an extremely important part in human destiny. The great karmic deities of the Kosmos (called in The Secret Doctrine the Lipika) weigh the deeds of each personality when the final separation of its principles takes place at the end of its astral life, and give as it were the mould of an etheric double exactly suitable to its karma for the man s next birth; but it is the Devarajas who, having command of the "elements" of which that etheric double must be composed, arrange their proportion so as to fulfil accurately the intention of the Lipika.

It is they also who constantly watch all through life to counterbalance the changes perpetually being introduced into man's condition by his own free will and that of those around him, so that no injustice may be done, and karma may be accurately worked out, if not in one way then in another. A learned dissertation upon these marvellous beings will be found in The Secret Doctrine, vol. I, pp. 180-186. They are able to take human material forms at will, and several cases are recorded when they have done so.

All the higher nature-spirits and hosts of artificial elementals act as their agents in the stupendous work they carry out, yet all the threads are in their hands, and the whole responsibility rests upon them alone. It is not often that they manifest upon the astral plane, but when they do they are certainly the most remarkable of its non-human inhabitants. A student of occultism will not need to be told that as there are seven great classes both of nature-spirits and elemental essence there must really be seven and not four Devarajas, but outside the circle of Initiation little is known and less may be said of the higher three.

title: The Astral Plane/Chapter III/II


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Rh guilty of such a crime, it was owing to their weakness under the torture; and so they suffered for an offence which they had never committed."

Father Grijalva, however, holds with his Father S. Augustine, who has said concerning such things, hœc ad nos non quibuscunque qualibus credere putaremus indignum, sed eis referentibus pervenerunt, quos nobis non existimaremus fuisse mentitos. "In the days of my Father S. Augustine," he says, "wonderful things were related of certain innkeepers in Italy, who transformed passengers into beasts of burden, to bring to their inns straw, barley, and whatever was wanted from the towns, and then metamorphosed them into their own persons, that they might purchase, as customers, the very commodities they had carried. And in our times the witches of Logrono make so many of these transformations, that now no one can doubt them. This matter of the Nahuales, or sorcerers of Tututepec, has been confessed by so many, that that alone suffices to make it credible. The best proof which can be had is, that they were condemned to death by course of justice; and it is temerity to condemn the judges, for it is to be believed that they made all due enquiry. Our brethren who have been ministers there, and are also judges of the interior court (that is of the conscience) have all held these transformations to be certain: so that there ought to be no doubt concerning it. On the


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Rh Alice turned away from Lettie, whom she often found rather irritating.

“You do look glum, Sybil,” she said to me, “did somebody want to kiss you?”

I laughed—on the wrong side, understanding her malicious feminine reference—and answered:

“If they had, I should have looked happy.”

“Dear boy, smile now then,”—and she tipped me under the chin. I drew away.

“Oh, Gum—we are solemn! What’s the matter with you? Georgy—say something—else I’s’ll begin to feel nervous.”

“What shall I say?” he asked, shifting his feet and resting his elbows on his knees. “Oh, Lor!” she cried in great impatience. He did not help her, but sat clasping his hands, smiling on one side of his face. He was nervous. He looked at the pictures, the ornaments, and everything in the room; Lettie got up to settle some flowers on the mantel-piece, and he scrutinised her closely. She was dressed in some blue foulard stuff, with lace at the throat, and lace cuffs to the elbow. She was tall and supple; her hair had a curling fluffiness very charming. He was no taller than she, and looked shorter, being strongly built. He too had a grace of his own, but not as he sat stiffly on a horse-hair chair. She was elegant in her movements.

After a little while mother called us in to supper.

“Come,” said Lettie to him, “take me in to supper.”

He rose, feeling very awkward.

“Give me your arm,” said she to tease him. He did so, and flushed under his tan, afraid of her


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collings, Samuel


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 with the other, for we ought to call that the same argument which is derived from the same place, and the same argument may appear to some to be derived from the diction, to others from accident, to others from another (place), because each when it is transferred is not equally evident. As then in (deceptions) from equivocation, which mode of paralogism seems to be the most usual, some are manifest to every one, (for almost all absurd sentences are from diction, for instance, Vir ferebat per scalas ; a man put through a ladder:  and ?  To the sail-yard: and Utra boum ante pariet?  Neutra; sed retro ambæ; again, Estne Boreas ?  By no means, for it caused the death of a mendicant and a merchant.  Is it Evarchus?  No, but Apollonides; and almost all other deceptions in the same manner.)  Some seem notwithstanding to escape the most experienced, a proof of which is, that they oftentimes contend about names, as whether the one and being are predicated in the same signification, or in a different one, of all things. For to some indeed, being and the one seem to signify the same thing, but others solve the argument of Zeno and Parmenides, from saying that one and being are predicated multifariously. Likewise, also with regard to those derived from accident and each of the other (places), some arguments will be easy to perceive, but others difficult, and it is not alike easy in all, to perceive


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Rh liberty, affording me intense sport, and occasionally a dinner. Forty-eight stately cattle and my old horse 'Charley' (how he can go!) are the only remnants of the large herds once owned by the noble proprietor"

CHAPTER IX.

they neared the "hospitable mansion" the style of its architecture became fully developed. It was a square building of one story. The four walls were raised some seven feet from the ground, and were composed of split slabs set upright about three inches in thickness, and many of them standing at least three inches apart. Dodge explained that he was particularly fond of air, and therefore he was rather glad that the green timber had shrunk considerably. The hut was roofed with broad sheets of stringey bark lapped one over the other, and this perhaps was the most efficient work of the whole. The chimney, which occupied a considerable space, was built up with mud and turf. There was an apology for a window, which was stuffed up with flour-bags and dried grass; but the door and its hinges was a triumph of inventive skill, of which Dodge was justly proud.

After relating the difficulties which had beset his attempt at building, heightened by the want of several articles which are generally held to be indispensable (one constant source of annoyance was a great scarcity of nails), Dodge came to the matter of the hinges.—"I had a boy," he said, "who helped me with the cattle.—Oh! he was a boy.—I called him 'the Gorger:' first, because he was in doubt about his own name; and secondly, because, although only a boy in years, he

title: Page:Australian Emigrant 1854.djvu/119


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172 contrary, it is useful to understand it, that if at any time in heathen lands the devil should work any of these metamorphoses, the Indians may see we are not surprised at them, and do not hold them as miraculous, but can explain to them the reason and cause of these effects, which astonish and terrify them so greatly."

He proceeds to show that the devil can only exercise this power as far as he is permitted by God, in punishment for sin, and that the metamorphosis is not real, but only apparent; the sorcerer not being actually transformed into a lion, but seeming as if he were both to himself and others. In what manner he can tear a man really to pieces with imaginary claws, and devour him in earnest with an imaginary mouth, the good friar has not condescended to explain.—Historia de la Orden de S. Augustin en la Provincia de N. Espana, pp. 34, 35.

The more ghastly in proportion as more of the appearance of life is preserved in the revolting practice. Such, however, it was not to the feelings of the Egyptians, who had as much pride in a collection of their ancestors, as one of the strongest family feeling could have in a collection of family pictures. The body, Diodorus says, is delivered to the kindred


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collingwood, Cuthbert


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Rh with every member so whole and entire that no part of the body seems to be altered, even to the very hairs of the eyelids and the eyebrows, so that the beauty and shape of the face seems just as before. By which means many of the Egyptians laying up the bodies of their ancestors in stately monuments, perfectly see the true visage and countenance of those who were buried many ages before they themselves were born: so that in regarding the proportion of every one of these bodies, and the lineaments of their faces, they take exceeding great delight, even as if they were still living among them. (Book i.)

They believe, says Herodotus (Euterpe, § 123.), that on the dissolution of the body the soul immediately enters into some other animal; and that after using as vehicles every species of terrestrial, aquatic, and winged creatures, it finally enters a second time into a human body. They affirm that it undergoes all these changes in the space of three thousand years. This opinion some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own, but I shall not, though I could, specify their names.

How little did the Egyptians apprehend that the bodies which they preserved with such care to be ready again for use when the cycle should be fulfilled, would one day be regarded as an article of trade, broken up, exported piecemeal, and administered in grains and scruples as a costly medicine to rich


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174. A preference was even given to virgin mummy!

The bodies of the Incas from the founder of the empire were preserved in the Temple of the Sun; they were seated each on his litter, and in such excellent preservation that they seemed to be alive; according to the testimony of P. Acosta and Garcilaso, who saw them and touched them. It is not known in what manner they were prepared, so as to resist the injuries of time. Gomara (c. 195.) says they were embalmed by the juice of certain fragrant trees, which was poured down their throats, and by unguents of gum. Acosta says that a certain bitumen was used, and that plates of gold were placed instead of eyes, so well fitted that the want of the real eye was not perceived. Garcilaso thought the chief preparation consisted in freezing them with snow. They were buried in one of the courts of the hospital of St. Andres.—''Merc. Peruano'', No. 221.

Hideous exhibitions of this kind are sometimes made in monasteries, where they are in perfect accord with monastic superstition. I remember seeing two human bodies dry and shrivelled, suspended in the Casa dos Ossos, at Evora, in a chapel, the walls of which are lined with skulls and bones.

"Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of Palermo pointed out to strangers, they fail not to singularise a convent of Capuchins at a small


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collingwood, George


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collingwood, Roger


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Rh from town, the beautiful gardens of which serve as a public walk. You are shown, under the fabric, a vault divided into four great galleries, into which the light is admitted by windows cut out at the top of each extremity. In this vault are preserved, not in flesh, but in skin and bone, all the Capuchins who have died in the convent since its foundation, as well as the bodies of several persons from the city. There are here private tombs belonging to opulent families, who, even after annihilation, disdain to be confounded with the vulgar part of mankind. It is said, that in order to secure the preservation of these bodies, they are prepared by being gradually dried before a slow fire, so as to consume the flesh without greatly injuring the skin; when perfectly dry, they are invested with the Capuchin habit, and placed upright, on tablets, disposed step above step along the sides of the vault; the head, the arms, and the feet are left naked. A preservation like this is horrid. The skin discoloured, dry, and as if it had been tanned, nay, torn in some places, glued close to the bones. It is easy to imagine, from the different grimaces of this numerous assemblage of fleshless figures, rendered still more frightful by a long beard on the chin, what a hideous spectacle this must exhibit; and whoever has seen a Capuchin alive, may form an idea of this singular repository of dead friars."—Sonnini.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Anthony


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 приготовлять (dur of приготовить) to prepare. Провизию для экскурсии надо приготовлять с вечера. Food for the excursion has to be prepared the night before.

пригрозить (pct of грозить).

придираться (dur of придраться) to pick on. В таможне ко мне страшно придирались. They were picking on me something terrible at the customs office.

придраться (-дерусь, -дерётся; p -дрался, -дралась, -дралось, -дрались; pct of придираться).

приду See прийти.

придумать (pct of придумывать) to think up, to invent. Вы это очень удачно придумали. That was a very clever thing you thought up. — Он придумал новый способ упаковки. He invented a new way of packing. — Ничего лучше придумать нельзя. You couldn't invent anything better than that.

придумывать (dur of придумать).

придусь See прийтись.

приеду See приехать.

приезд arrival. Сообщите нам заблаговременно о вашем приезде. Tell us beforehand when you're going to arrive.

приезжать (dur of приехать) to come. Он всегда у нас останавливается, когда приезжает в город. He always stays with us when he comes to town. • to arrive. Когда она приезжает? When will she arrive?

приезжий ([-žj-] AM) visiting. Сегодня в клубе выступает приезжий лектор. A visiting lecturer is speaking at the club today. • visitor. Вы здешний или приезжий? Do you belong here or are you a visitor? • guest. В этом году на курорте много приезжих. There are many guests at this summer resort this year. • newcomer. Вы приезжий, вы наших порядков не знаете. You're a newcomer and don't know how we do things here.

приём admittance. Приём учащихся в это училище уже прекращён. The admittance of students to this school has already stopped. • welcome. Они оказали нам сердечный приём. They gave us a hearty welcome. • stroke. Выучитесь сперва основным приёмам игры в теннис, а потом записывайтесь на состязание. First learn the basic tennis strokes, and then enter a match. □ Приём посылок производится до пяти часов вечера. Parcels will be accepted till five o'clock in the evening. • Сегодня приёма нет. No visitors today. • Придите ко мне в часы приёма. Come and see me during visiting hours. • Я вас научу очень простому приёму для этой работы. I'll teach you a very simple trick for this work.

приёмная (AF) waiting room.

приехать (-еду, -едет; imv supplied as приезжай; pct of приезжать) to arrive. Он, вероятно, приедет сегодня. He'll probably arrive today. • to come. Вы приехали поездом или на машине? Did you come by train or by car?

приз (P -ы) prize. Он получил первый приз на состязании. He won first prize in the contest.

призвать (-зову, -вёт; p -звала; ppp призванный, sh F -звана; pct of призывать) to call. Поднялся такой шум, что председатель должен был призвать собрание к порядку. Such a noise arose that the chairman was forced to call the meeting to order. □ Его призвали на военную службу. He was drafted.

признавать (-знаю, -знает; imv -знавай; prger -знавая; dur of признать) to recognize. Он не признаёт ничьего авторитета. He doesn't recognize authority.

-ся to confess. Ну, признавайтесь, кто из вас виноват? Come on now, confess; which one of you is guilty? □ Я этого, признаюсь, не ожидал. Frankly, I didn't expect it.

признак sign. Раненый не подавал признаков жизни. The wounded man didn't show any signs of life. — Он вечно обижается; это первый признак того, что он неумный человек. He always feels insulted; that's the first sign that he's not very clever.

признать (ppp признанный, sh F -знана; pct of признавать) to admit. Не упрямьтесь и признайте свою ошибку. Don't be stubborn; admit your mistake. • to find. Доктора признали его положение безнадёжным. Doctors found his condition hopeless.

-ся to admit. Это мне, признаться, не совсем понятно. I must admit, I don't understand it completely. • to tell. Он мне только что признался в любви. He just told me he loved me.

призову See призвать.

призывать (dur of призвать) to make an appeal. Горсовет призывает население помогать беженцам. The city soviet is making appeals to the population for aid to the refugees.

прийти (приду, придёт; p пришёл, -шла, -о, -и; pap -шедший; pct of приходить) to arrive. Наш поезд пришёл рано утром. Our train arrived early in the morning. • to come in. Посмотрите, кто там пришёл. See who came in. • to come. Вам пришло письмо. A letter came for you. — Как вы пришли к этому выводу? How did you come to this conclusion? □ прийти в себя to come to. *Она уже пришла в себя. She's already come to. • to pull oneself together. Успокойтесь, придите в себя. Calm down; pull yourself together. прийти в ужас to be horrified. Я пришёл в ужас, увидев, что он наделал. I was horrified to see what he had done. прийти в ярость to have a fit (of anger). Почему он пришёл в такую ярость? Why did he have such a fit all of a sudden? □ Вот уже и зима пришла! Well, winter's finally here! • Не понимаю, как вам это могло прийти в голову. I just can't understand how you got this into your head. • Эта машинка уже пришла в полную негодность. This typewriter is no longer serviceable.

-сь to have to. Ему придётся ещё немного подучиться. He still has a little more to learn. — Нам пришлось на это согласиться. We had to agree to that. • to fall. Пятое в этом месяце пришлось в субботу. The fifth of this month fell on a Saturday. □ как придётся any way. Поставьте пока книги как придётся, я потом разберись. Just put the books down any way; I'll straighten them out later. □ Смотрите, шуба-то как раз по мне пришлась. Look! That fur coat looks as if it was made just for me. • *Как видно, он там не ко двору пришёлся. It seems that he just couldn't get along there. • Это блюдо вам, видно, пришлось по вкусу. It looks as if that dish appealed to your taste. • Нам без вас туго придётся. It'll be hard for us without you.

прикажу See приказать.

приказ order. Ну, поймите же, что я только исполняю приказ. You must understand, I'm only carrying out orders. — Этот приказ был вчера опубликован. This order was made public yesterday.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Arthur


text: The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 3/The Corsair/Canto III


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176 It is not surprising that such practises arise from superstition; but it is strange, indeed, that they should afford any gratification to pride. That excellent man, Fletcher of Madeley, has a striking remark upon this subject. "The murderer," says he, "is dissected in the surgeon's hall, gratis; and the rich sinner is embowelled in his own apartment at great expence. The robber, exposed to open air, wastes away in hoops of iron; and the gentleman, confined to a damp vault, moulders away in sheets of lead; and while the fowls of the air greedily prey upon the one, the vermin of the earth eagerly devour the other."

How different is the feeling of the Hindoos upon this subject from that of the Egyptians! "A mansion with bones for its rafters and beams; with nerves and tendons for cords; with muscles and blood for mortar; with skin for its outward covering; filled with no sweet perfume, but loaded with feces and urine; a mansion infested by age and by sorrow, the seat of malady, harassed with pains, haunted with the quality of darkness, and incapable of standing long.—Such a mansion of the vital soul lets its occupier always cheerfully quit."—Inst, of Menu.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, David


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Rh It is difficult to explain the superior quickness of sight which savages appear to possess. The Brazilian tribes used to eradicate the eyelashes and eyebrows, as impeding it. "Some Indians," P. Andres Perez de Ribas says, "were so quicksighted that they could ward off the coming arrow with their own bow."— L. ii. c. 3. p. 41.

The point of honour in drinking is not the same among the savages of Guiana, as among the English potators: they account him that is drunk first the bravest fellow.—Harcourt's Voyage.

Inconvenient as this may seem, it was the full-dress of the Tupi and Guarani tribes. A fashion less gorgeous and elaborate, but more refined, is described by one of the best old travellers to the East, Francois Pyrard.

"The inhabitants of the Maldives use on feast-days this kind of gallantry. They bruise saunders (sandal wood) and camphire, on very slicke and smooth stones, (which they bring from the firm land,) and sometimes other sorts of odoriferous woods. After they compound it with water distilled


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178 of flowers, and overspread their bodies with this paste, from the girdle upwards; adding many forms with their finger, such as they imagine. It is somewhat like cut and pinked doublets, and of an excellent savour. They dress their wives or lemans in this sort, and make upon their backs works and shadows as they please." Skin-prints Purchas calls this.—Pyrard de Laval. Purchas, p. 1655.

The abominable practice of tarring and feathering was but too well known during the American war. It even found its way to England. I remember, when a child, to have seen a man in this condition in the streets of Bristol.

The costume of the savages who figured so frequently in the pageants of the sixteenth century, seems to have been designed to imitate the Brazilian tribes, best known to the French and English at that time. Indeed, this is expressed by Vincent Carloix, when in describing an entertainment given to Marechal de Vieilleville by the captains of the gallies at Marseilles, he says, Ayant lié six galères ensemble de front, et faict dresser les tables dessus, et tapissées en façon de grandes salles; ayant accoustrés les forceats en Bressiliens pour servir, ils firent une infinité de gambades et de tourbions à la façon des sauvages, que perSonne n'avoit encore veues; dont tout le monde, avec une extresme allaigresse, s'esbahissoit merveilleusement.—Mémoires, I. x. ch. 18.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, John (1741-1797)


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Rh sun, if it condescends to shine at all, does so with a sublime indifference to the effect of his rays in giving life and warmth. I well remember what the lake was like in the long bright days of summer; everything was then fresh and beautiful. The bright blue water, changing sometimes to rich emerald, reflected in varied tints the floating clouds above it. The three islands looked like little fairy gardens, and amid their crags the keen eye of imagination might see tiny medieval castles holding sway over diminutive domains. But now everything is sombre and desolate. The shore is encrusted with ice; the air is heavy with gloomy fogs and snow-laden clouds; the wind is blowing with searching, chilling keenness; the waters look dark as if threatening some coming calamity; the birds are silent; the flowers have hidden themselves, and I am shivering with cold.

I sat down on a rock, and gave way to reflections that were quite in harmony with the gloomy scene around me. I put myself for the time being in the place of the large landed proprietor. The life of a sheepowner may be more free and happy than that of a brave defender of his country, but, except for its health and freedom-giving qualities, it is not an enviable life. Just at the present time the farmer has emerged from the severest drought that has ever been experienced in this usually favoured island. It was so protracted and so intense that it killed thousands of trees, and caused great loss and deterioration of his flocks. He has been visited by calamitous Bush fires, which have destroyed thousands of acres of grass, and miles upon miles of valuable fencing which cannot be replaced save at great labour and expense; and he is constantly suffering from other losses, annoyances and anxieties.

I grew quite excited as I thought over the social and political anxieties of the class to which I belong, and I


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, John (d.1807)


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38 could not refrain from giving audible expression to my soliloquy.

'There is not, I believe, on the face of our glorious world a single human being—let him appear to be ever so happy, be he saint or sinner, beggar or gentleman, earl or emperor—who has not his under-current of grief and misery—his skeleton in the house. While some are oppressed with the cares of vast property, others are groaning under hopeless, chronic poverty. Millions bewail their past follies and blunders; millions more are the victims of degrading vice, and lost in the mazes of the basest passions. Millions drink to the dregs the cup of pleasure, and fritter away their precious—their most precious—time in idle and senseless gratifications. Who are they who are suffering the agonies of incurable disease, and why am I spared? What have the poor wretches done? Religion saith it is a sin to murmur, or to think of wriggling ourselves out of our mortal envelope. Is the world beautiful, and am I cold and hungry? I cannot love or admire the world. Am I in pain or without a penny? I abhor my existence and everything else. What to me are the joys of earth, the pleasures of life? And these odious demands for our hard-earned money—money that is so difficult to obtain, and so easy to get rid of. Pay! pay! pay! or the bloodhounds of the law will be let loose upon you. Pay! pay! pay! or the demons of the "Rabbit Act," the "Scab Act," and every other Act, will follow you about with red-hot fish-hooks. Our wool may sell for next to nothing, our sheep may die of rot, our lambs of fluke and tigers; our house may be burnt and our bank smashed; nevertheless, we must pay! pay!' I raised my voice and struck a rock a tremendous blow with my stick, and cried out: 'There's the very devil himself to pay, and the devil will be paid!'

There was a terrific roar close to my side, and somebody said:


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xviii


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Rh 'Aye, I will, and I'll make you pay, I will!'

As I thought I was altogether alone, I started up in the wildest terror, and with a feeling of horror which I could not conquer, and cannot now describe, I turned slowly round, and lo! within six feet of me stood that terrible being, the far-famed 'Demon of the Great Lake.'

An iceberg glided down my vertebral column. The appearance of this awful being, far more repulsive than that of a real live yahoo, nearly drove me frantic with terror and despair, tempered with something like detestation, so utterly repugnant was it, and so far below everything which I had previously imagined in connection with created beings above the rank of beasts of the field. He was about seven feet in height. His face was frightful, and of a deep chocolate colour; his nose was hooked like an eagle's claw. He glared upon me with eyes like two leaden bullets of grape-shot just ready to go off; his mouth and teeth closely resembled the deadliest part of a rabbit-trap. On his head he wore a remarkably small cocked hat made of serpent's skin, as I was afterwards informed. His robe was the rough waterproof hide of a bunyip. In his right hand he carried a knotted caduceus with two live snakes twined around it, and with certain cabalistic characters engraved upon it; and on his left arm he bore what appeared to be several folds of the tail part of a boa-constrictor.

'I'll make you pay!' he again roared at the top of his voice, and gnashing his teeth with a loud snapping noise; 'and I'll double the amount and more, I will!'

'I kept silence for a long time, and I was trembling to my very boots; but seeing that he was working himself up into a fearful rage, I managed to stammer:

'Please, sir———'

'Oh, you have found your tongue at last, have you?' he said, in a somewhat mollified tone. 'Well, get up your courage, what little you have of it, and listen to my words.


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74 On fierce-heart Finn there fell likewise, on himself at home, the horrid sword-death; for Guthlaf and Oslaf of grim attack had sorrowing told, from sea-ways landed, mourning their woes. Finn’s wavering spirit bode not in breast. The burg was reddened with blood of foemen, and Finn was slain, king amid clansmen; the queen was taken. To their ship the Scylding warriors bore all the chattels the chieftain owned, whatever they found in Finn’s domain of gems and jewels. The gentle wife o’er paths of the deep to the Danes they bore, led to her land. The lay was finished, the gleeman’s song. Then glad rose the revel; bench-joy brightened. Bearers draw from their “wonder-vats” wine. Comes Wealhtheow forth, under gold-crown goes where the good pair sit, uncle and nephew, true each to the other one, kindred in amity. Unferth the spokesman at the Scylding lord’s feet sat: men had faith in his spirit, his keenness of courage, though kinsmen had found him


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40 You are in for it like a rabbit in a trap, and it is no use your doubling and twisting. I am not so bad as I appear; I can make myself look much better sometimes. I intend to show you some great things, and use you as you deserve. I have long had my watchful eye upon you, and you will suit me very well. I want a new private secretary, and you are the coming man. Salary one million sterling pounds per annum, and as many fine castles to live in as you like, and a thousand pleasures besides from year's end to year's end. You shall have power to give pleasure to, or to torture, whom you please. I have had many private secretaries, but was obliged to send them about their business on account of their idleness; but you are a hard worker, and will suit me very well.'

'And what has become of your secretaries, sir?' I ventured to ask.

'Gone to glory,' he replied laconically.

'But, sir,' I managed to say, 'I am growing old. I am unfitted for the office; and if I accepted it, what would my friends, what would the world, say?'

'Your friends!' said he, in a tone of the greatest contempt; 'it is fine news to me that you have any; and what have you to do with the world, or the world with you? Does the world care a farthing about you? No more words, I say. I am the world, and the prince of it.'

'What an extraordinary being!' I said to myself; 'he flies into a passion with me for not speaking, and when I do speak he commands me to hold my tongue.'

He now called out in a loud voice some words which I could not understand. Then he lifted his caduceus into the air over his head, and waved it to and fro three times. Suddenly a black shadow, deep, and appalling, and portentous of some great impending misfortune, spread itself over the face of the waters.


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alarming shadow, which each moment seemed to become broader and darker over the lake, was caused by an enormous balloon which I saw floating over our heads. It made a great blowing and hissing noise as it came near that was almost deafening. Settling down gradually until the car touched the ground close beside the place where we stood, the swollen monster came at last to rest. Then the demon addressed me again:

'Get in there!'

'No, sir,' I answered. 'I hope you will excuse me. I never was in a balloon, and it would not agree with my nerves. I prefer to remain here if it is all the same to you, sir.'

'Get in there!' he again shouted in a commanding tone.

'I will not.' I replied. My blood was rising, and even cowards may be brave sometimes.

The fiend in the car, the engine-driver, burst into a loud and derisive laugh. Then a peal of thunder from a neighbouring black cloud suddenly burst on my ears, and rain began to fall in torrents. The Demon scowled and, quick as thought, untwisted his tail from his arm, and seizing me with it round the waist, roughly hurled me into


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Mortimer


text: Artabanzanus/Chapter 3

title: Artabanzanus/Chapter 3


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Rh unsure at the sword-play. The Scylding queen spoke: “Quaff of this cup, my king and lord, breaker of rings, and blithe be thou, gold-friend of men; to the Geats here speak such words of mildness as man should use. Be glad with thy Geats; of those gifts be mindful, or near or far, which now thou hast. Men say to me, as son thou wishest yon hero to hold. Thy Heorot purged, jewel-hall brightest, enjoy while thou canst, with many a largess; and leave to thy kin folk and realm when forth thou goest to greet thy doom. For gracious I deem my Hrothulf, willing to hold and rule nobly our youths, if thou yield up first, prince of Scyldings, thy part in the world. I ween with good he will well requite offspring of ours, when all he minds that for him we did in his helpless days of gift and grace to gain him honor!” Then she turned to the seat where her sons were placed, Hrethric and Hrothmund, with heroes’ bairns,


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Rh ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY, COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM.

1.

are the winds, and still the evening gloom,

Not e'en a zephyr wanders through the grove,

Whilst I return to view my Margaret's tomb,

And scatter flowers on the dust I love.


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6 2.

Within this narrow cell reclines her clay,

That clay, where once such animation beam'd;

The King of Terrors seiz'd her as his prey;

Not worth, nor beauty, have her life redeem'd.

3.

Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel,

Or Heaven reverse the dread decree of fate,

Not here the mourner would his grief reveal,

Not here the Muse her virtues would relate.

4.

But wherefore weep? Her matchless spirit soars

Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day;

And weeping angels lead her to those bowers,

Where endless pleasures virtuous deeds repay.

5.

And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign!

And, madly, Godlike Providence accuse!

Ah! no, far fly from me attempts so vain;—

I'll ne'er submission to my God refuse.

6.

Yet is remembrance of those virtues dear,

Yet fresh the memory of that beauteous face;

Still they call forth my warm affection's tear,

Still in my heart retain their wonted place. 1802.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Richard (d.1732)


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76 young men together: the Geat, too, sat there, Beowulf brave, the brothers between.

A cup she gave him, with kindly greeting and winsome words. Of wounden gold, she offered, to honor him, arm-jewels twain, corselet and rings, and of collars the noblest that ever I knew the earth around. Ne’er heard I so mighty, ’neath heaven’s dome, a hoard-gem of heroes, since Hama bore to his bright-built burg the Brisings’ necklace, jewel and gem casket.—Jealousy fled he, Eormenric’s hate: chose help eternal. Hygelac Geat, grandson of Swerting, on the last of his raids this ring bore with him, under his banner the booty defending, the war-spoil warding; but Wyrd o’er whelmed him what time, in his daring, dangers he sought, feud with Frisians. Fairest of gems


text: The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 17