text:
Black Act

An act for the more effectual punishing wicked and evil-disposed persons going armed in disguise, and doing injuries and violences to the persons and properties of his Majesty’s subjects, and for the more speedy bringing the offenders to justice.

I. WHEREAS several ill-designing and disorderly persons have of late associated themselves under the name of Blacks, and entered into confederacies to support and assist one another in stealing and destroying of deer, robbing of warrens and fish-ponds, cutting down plantations of trees, and other illegal practices, and have, in great numbers, armed with swords, fire-arms, and other offensive weapons, several of them with their faces blacked, or in disguised habits, unlawfully hunted in forests belonging to his Majesty, and in the parks of divers of his Majesty’s subjects, and destroyed, killed and carried away the deer, robbed warrens, rivers and fish-ponds, and cut down plantations of trees; and have likewise solicited several of his Majesty’s subjects, with promises of money, or other rewards, to join with them, and have sent letters in fictitious names, to several persons, demanding venison and money, and threatning some great violence, if such their unlawful demands should be refused, or if they should be interupted in, or prosecuted for such their wicked practises, and have actually done great damage to several persons, who have either refused to comply with such demands, or have endeavoured to bring them to justice, to the great terror of his Majesty’s peaceable subjects:

For the preventing which wicked and unlawful practices, be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons, in parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same. That if any person or persons, from and after the first day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three, being armed with swords, fire-arms, or other offensive weapons, and having his or their faces blacked, or being otherwise disguised, shall appear in any forest, chase, park, paddock, or grounds inclosed with any wall, pale, or other fence, wherein any deer have been or shall be usually kept, or in any warren or place where hares or conies have been or shall be usually kept, or in any high road, open heath, common or down, or shall unlawfully and wilfully hunt, wound, kill, destroy, or steal any red or fallow deer, or unlawfully rob any warren or place where conies or hares are usually kept, or shall unlawfully steal or take away any fish out of any river or pond; or if any person or persons, from and after the said first day of June shall unlawfully and wilfully hunt, wound, kill, destroy or steal any red or fallow deer, fed or kept in any places in any of his Majesty’s forests or chases, which are or shall be inclosed with pales, rails, or other fences, or in any park, paddock, or grounds inclosed, where deer have been or shall be usually kept; or shall unlawfully and maliciously break down the head or mound of any fish-pond, whereby the fish shall be lost or destroyed; or shall unlawfully and maliciously kill, maim or wound any cattle, or cut down or otherwise destroy any trees planted in any avenue, or growing in any garden, orchard or plantation, for ornament, shelter or profit; or shall set fire to any house, barn or out-house, or to any hovel, cock, mow, or stack of corn, straw, hay or wood; or shall wilfully and maliciously shoot at any person in any dwelling-house, or other place; or shall knowingly send any letter, without any name, subscribed thereto, or signed with a fictitious name, demanding money, venison, or other valuable thing; or shall forcibly rescue any person being lawfully in custody of any officer or other person, for any of the offences before mentioned; or if any person or persons shall, by gift or promise of money, or other reward, procure any of his Majesty’s subjects to join him or them in any such unlawful act; every person so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy.

II. And whereas notwithstanding the laws now in force against the illegal practices above mentioned, and his Majesty’s royal proclamation of the second day of February which was in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, notifying the same, many wicked and evil-disposed persons have, in open defiance thereof, been guilty of several of the offences before mentioned, to the great disturbance of the publick peace, and damage of divers of his Majesty’s good subjects; It is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons, who since the second day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, have committed or been guilty of any of the offences aforesaid, who shall not surrender him, her or themselves, before the twenty-fourth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three, to any of the justices of his Majesty’s court of kings bench, or to any one of his Majesty’s justices of the peace, in and for the county where he, she or they did commit such offence or offences, and voluntarily make a full confession thereof to such justice, and a true discovery upon his, her or their oath or oaths, of the persons who were his, her or their accomplices in any of the said offences, by giving a true account of their names, occupations and places of abode, and to the best of his, her or their knowledge or belief, discover where they may be found, in order to be brought to justice, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy.

III. Provided nevertheless, That all and every person and persons, who have been guilty of any the offences aforesaid, and shall not be in lawful custody for such offence on the said first day of June and shall surrender him, her or themselves, on or before the said twenty-fourth day of July as aforesaid, and shall make such confession and discovery as aforesaid, shall by virtue of this act be pardoned, acquitted and discharged of and from the offences so by him, her or them confessed as aforesaid; any thing herein contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

IV. And for the more easy and speedy bringing the offenders against this act to justice, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons shall be charged with being guilty of any of the offences aforesaid, before any two or more of his Majesty’s justices of the peace of the county where such offence or offences were or shall be committed, by information of one or more credible person or persons upon oath by him or them to be subscribed, such justices before whom such information shall be made as aforesaid, shall forthwith certify under their hands and seals, and return such information to one of the principal secretaries of state of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, who is hereby required to lay the same, as soon as conveniently may be, before his Majesty, his heirs or successors, in his or their privy council; whereupon it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs or successors, to make his or their order in his or their said privy council, thereby requiring and commanding such offender or offenders to surrender him or themselves, within the space of forty days, to any of his Majesty’s justices of the court of king’s bench, or to any one of his Majesty’s justices of the peace, to the end that he or they may be forth coming, to answer the offence or offences wherewith he or they shall so stand charged, according to the due course of law; which order shall be printed and published in the next London Gazette, and shall be forthwith transmitted to the sheriff of the county where the offence shall be committed, and shall, within six days after the receipt thereof be proclaimed by him, or his officers, between the hours of ten in the morning, and two in the afternoon, in the market-places upon the respective market-days, of two market-towns in the same county, near the place where such offence shall have been committed; and a true copy of such order shall be affixed upon some publick place in such market-towns; and in case such offender or offenders shall not surrender him or themselves, pursuant to such order of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, to be made in council as aforesaid, he or they so neglecting or refusing to surrender him or themselves as aforesaid, shall from the day appointed for his or their surrender as aforesaid, be adjudged, deemed and taken to be convicted and attainted of felony, and shall suffer the pains of death as in case of a person convicted and attainted by verdict and judgment of felony, without benefit of clergy; and that it shall be lawful to and for the court of king’s bench, or the justices of oyer and terminer, or general gaol-delivery for the county, where the offence is sworn in such information to have been committed, upon producing to them such order in council, under the seal of the said council, to award execution against such offender and offenders, in such manner, as if he or they had been convicted and attainted in the said court of king’s bench, or before such justices of oyer and terminer, or general gaol-delivery respectively.

V. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons, who shall, after the time appointed as aforesaid, for the surrender of any person or persons, so charged upon oath with any the offences aforesaid, be expired, conceal, aid, abet or succour, such person or persons, knowing him or them to have been so charged as aforesaid, and to have been required to surrender him or themselves, by such order or orders as aforesaid, being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy.

VI. Provided nevertheless, and it is hereby declared and enacted, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent or hinder any judge, justice of the peace, magistrate, officer or minister of justice whatsoever, from taking, apprehending and securing, such offender or offenders, against whom such information shall be given, and for requiring whose surrender such order in council shall be made as aforesaid, by the ordinary course of law; and in case such offender or offenders, against whom such information, and for requiring whose surrender such order in council shall be made as aforesaid, shall be taken and secured in order to be brought to justice, before the time shall be expired, within which he or they shall be required to surrender him or themselves, by such order in council as aforesaid, that then in such case no further proceeding shall be had upon such order made in council against him or them so taken and secured as aforesaid, but he or they shall be brought to trial by due course of law; any thing herein before contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

VII. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the first day of June one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three, the inhabitants of every hundred, within that part of the kingdom of Great Britain called England, shall make full satisfaction and amends to all and every the person and persons, their executors and administrators, for the damages they shall have sustained or suffered by the killing or maiming of any cattle, cutting down or destroying any trees, or setting fire to any house, barn or out-house, hovel, cock, mow or stack of corn, straw, hay or wood, which shall be committed or done by any offender or offenders against this act; and that every person and persons, who shall sustain damages by any of the offences last mentioned, shall be and are hereby enabled to sue for and recover such his or their damages, the sum to be recovered not exceeding the sum of two hundred pounds, against the inhabitants of the said hundred, who by this act shall be made liable to answer all or any part thereof; and that if such person or persons shall recover in such action, and sue execution against any of such inhabitants, all other the inhabitants of the hundred, who by this act shall be made liable to all or any part of the said damage, shall be rateably and proportionably taxed, for and towards an equal contribution for the relief of such inhabitant, against whom such execution shall be had and levied; which tax shall be made, levied and raised, by such ways and means, and in such manner and form, as is prescribed and mentioned for the levying and raising damages recovered against inhabitants of hundred in cases of robberies, in and by an act, intituled, An act for the following hue and cry, made in the twenty-seventh year in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

VIII. Provided nevertheless, That no person or persons shall be enabled to recover any damages by virtue of this act, unless he or they by themselves, or by their servants, within two days after such damage or injury done him or them by any such offender or offenders as aforesaid, shall give notice of such offence done and committed unto some of the inhabitants of some town, village, or hamlet, near unto the place where any such fact shall be committed, and shall within four days after such notice, give in his, her or their examination upon oath, or the examination upon oath of his, her or their servant or servants, that had the care of his or their houses, out-houses, corn, hay, straw or wood, before any justice of the peace of the county, liberty or division, where such fact shall be committed, inhabiting within the said hundred where the said fact shall happen to be committed, or near unto the same, whether he or they do know the person or persons that committed such fact, or any of them; and if upon such examination it be confessed, that he or they do know the person or persons that committed the said fact, or any of them, that then he or they so confessing, shall be bound by recognizance to prosecute such offender or offenders by indictment, or otherwise, according to the laws of this realm.

IX. Provided also, and be it further enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That where any offence shall be committed against this act, and any one of the said offenders shall be apprehended, and lawfully convicted of such offence,within the space of six months after such offence committed, no hundred, or any inhabitants thereof, shall in any wise be subject or liable to make any satisfaction to the party injured, for the damages he shall have sustained; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

X. Provided also, That no person, who shall sustain any damage by reason of any offence to be committed by any offender contrary to this act, shall be thereby enabled to sue, or bring any action against any inhabitants of any hundred, where such offence shall be committed, except the party or parties sustaining such damage, shall commence his or their action or suit within one year after such offence shall be committed.

XI. And for the better and more effectual discovery of the offenders above-mentioned, and bringing them to justice, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful to and for any justice of the peace, to issue his warrant to any constable, headborough, or other peace officer, thereby authorizing such constable, head-borough, or other peace-officer, to enter into any house, in order to search for venison stolen or unlawfully taken, contrary to the several statutes against deer-stealers, in such manner, as by the laws of this realm such justice of the peace may issue his warrant to search for stolen goods.

XII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons shall apprehend, or cause to be convicted any of the offenders above-mentioned, and shall be killed, or wounded so as to lose an eye or the use of any limb, in apprehending or securing, or endeavouring to apprehend or secure any of the offenders above-mentioned, upon proof thereof made at the general quarter-sessions of the peace for the county, liberty, division or place, where the offence was or shall be committed, or the party killed, or receive such wound, by the person or persons so apprehending, and causing the said offender to be convicted, or the person or persons so wounded, or the executors or administrators of the party killed, the justices of the said sessions shall give a certificate thereof to such person or persons so wounded or to the executors or administrators of the person or persons so killed, by which he or they shall be entitled to receive of the sheriff of the said county the sum of fifty pounds, to be allowed the said sheriff in passing his accounts in the exchequer; which sum of fifty pounds the said sheriff is hereby required to pay within thirty days from the day on which the said certificate shall be produced and shewn to him, under the penalty of forfeiting the sum of ten pounds to the said person or persons to whom such certificate is given, for which said sum of ten pounds, as well as the said sum of fifty pounds, such person may and is hereby authorized to bring an action upon the case against such sheriff, as for money had and received to his or their use.

XIII. And whereas the shortness of the time within which prosecutions for offences against the statute made in the third and fourth years of the reign of their late majesties King William and Queen Mary, intituled, An act for the more effectual discovery and punishment of deer-stealers, are limited to be commenced, has been a great encouragement to offenders; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any prosecution for any offence against the said statute, shall or may be commenced within three years from the time of the offence committed, but not after.

XIV. And for the better and more impartial trial of any indictment or information, which shall be found commenced or prosecuted for any of the offences committed against this act, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every offence that shall be done or committed contrary to this act, shall and may be enquired of, examined, tried and determined in any county within that part of the kingdom of Great Britain called England, in such manner and form, as if the fact had been therein committed; provided, That no attainder for any of the offences made felony by virtue of this act, shall make or work any corruption of blood, loss of dower, or forfeiture of lands or tenements, goods or chattels.

XV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this act shall be openly read at every quarter-sessions, and at every leet or law-day.

XVI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this act shall continue in force from the first day of June one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three, for the space of three years, and from thence to the end of the then next session of parliament, and no longer. [Continued for five Years by 12 Geo I. c. 30.]

XVII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any venison, or skin of any deer, shall be found in the custody of any person or persons, and it shall appear that such person or persons bought such venison or skin of any one, who might be justly suspected to have unlawfully come by the same, and does not produce the party of whom he bought it, or prove upon oath the name and place of abode of such party, that then the person or persons who bought the same, shall be convicted of such offence, by any one or more justice or justices of the peace, and shall be subject to the penalties inflicted for killing a deer, in and by the statute made in the third and fourth year of the reign of their late majesties King William and Queen Mary, intituled, An act for the more effectual discovery and punishment of deer-stealers.

title: Black Act


text:
Talk:Black Act

Uploaded the text of the Black Act, which I had previously transcribed and published on my blog at http://alsatia.org.uk/site/2011/07/the-black-act/ Can't find any details on how to format statutes. Please post a link to the relevant doc, and I'll sort it out! Technolalia (talk) 02:07, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Black Act


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John (1761-1809)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John (1742-1821)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John Francis


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Jonas (1617-1679)


text:
Executive Order 842

It is hereby ordered that on and after July 1, 1908, the land within the boundaries shown on the attached diagram, heretofore set apart, reserved, and proclaimed as parts of the Coeur D'Alene and Bitter Root National Forests, shall be known as the Clearwater National Forest. It is not intended by this order to release any land from reservation or to reserve any land not heretofore embraced in a National Forest.

. ,
 * June 26, 1908.

title: Executive Order 842


text: Talk:Executive Order 842

title: Talk:Executive Order 842


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Jonas (1691?-1741)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Philip (fl.1573)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Philip (1705-1783)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/365

Rh LIX

sunshine of a summer sun

On the proud domes of Elrington

Glows with a beam divinely bright

In one unquenched, unvarying light,

And high its archèd windows rise,

As if to invite the smiling skies;

And proud its mighty columns show

Between them ranked in haughty row;

And sweet and soft the solemn shade

By the o'erarching portals made.

The starry halls of Elrington

May glisten in that glorious sun,

For fêtes and feasts are given to-day

To noble Lords and Ladies gay;

And that vast city of the sea

Which round us lies so endlessly

Has hither sent its proudest train

To worship mirth and fly from pain.

The sunshine of a summer's sun

Glows o'er the graves of Elrington,

Where city walls spread wide around

The flower and foliage laden ground.

All round the hot and glaring sky

Bespeaks a mighty city nigh;

And through each opening in the shade

Palace and temple crown the glade.

So here an oasis stands

'Mid the wide wastes of Egypt's sands.


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/366

310 This glorious vision of a grove,

With flowers beneath and fruits above,

Lies in that city's human sea

Whose streets stretch round so ceaselessly.

Oh! who could pass unnoticed by

This scene of nature's royalty?

Instead of birds to warble there,

Ethereal music fills the air,

Breathed from these halls thrown open wide

To admit the ever-changing tide

Of Earth and Afric's hope and pride.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Richard (1619-1683)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/375

Rh LXIII

TO A WREATH OF SNOW

voyager of heaven!

O silent sign of winter skies!

What adverse wind thy sail has driven

To dungeons where a prisoner lies?

Methinks the hands that shut the sun

So sternly from this morning's brow

Might still their rebel task have done

And checked a thing so frail as thou.

They would have done it had they known

The talisman that dwelt in thee,

For all the suns that ever shone

Have never been so kind to me!

For many a week and many a day

My heart was weighed with sinking gloom

When morning rose in mourning grey

And faintly lit my prison room.

But angel like, when I awoke,

Thy silvery form, so soft and fair,

Shining through darkness, sweetly spoke

Of cloudy skies and mountains bare;


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Richard (1810-1878)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/376

320 The dearest to a mountaineer

Who all life long has loved the snow

That crowned his native summits drear,

Better than greenest plains below.

And voiceless, soulless, messenger,

Thy presence waked a thrilling tone

That comforts me while thou art here,

And will sustain when thou art gone.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Robert Ross Rowan


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


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/367

Rh LX

ancient ship upon my ancient sea

Begins another voyage—nay, they're gone;

And whither wending? who is gone with thee?

Since parted from thee I am left alone,

Unknowing what my river's fate may be,

Into its native world of tempests thrown.

Lost like the spectres once my eye before,

Which wilder visions muster'd to my mind;

Lost and unnoticed far away the roar

Of southern waters breaking to the wind,

With thunder volleys rolling on before

As the wild gale sweeps wilder on behind,

And every vision of old Afric's shore

As much forgot and vanished out of mind

As the wild track thou makest so long ago

From those eternal waves that surge below.

Gone!—'tis a word which through life's troubled waste

Seems always coming, and the only one

Which can be called the present. Hope is past,

And hate and strife, and love and peace are gone

Before we think them, for their rapid haste

Scarce gives us time for one short smile or groan

Ere that thought dies and new ones come between

It, and our senses like to fleeting suns.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Thomas (d.1735)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/368

312 And yet there is—or seems at least to be—

A general scheme of thought that colours all;

So though each one be different, all agree

In the same melancholy shade-like pall;

Even as the shadows look the same to me,

Though cast, I know, from many a varying wall

In this vast city—hut and temple sharing

In the same light, and the same darkness wearing.

Not that I deem all life a course of shade,

Nor all the world a waste of streets like these:

From youth to age a mighty change is made

As from this city to the southern seas.

For years through youthful hope our course is laid,

For years in sloth a sea without a breeze,

For years within some silent, shapeless cave,

Changing, and still the same, yet swiftly passing.

'Tis here 'tis there, 'tis nowhere—oh! my soul,

Is there no rest from such a fruitless chasing

Of the wild dreams that ever round me roll?

Each as it comes the parting thought defacing,

Yet all still hurrying to the self-same goal.

Gone! Can I catch them? — but their path alone

Stretching afar toward one for ever gone!

What have I now? The star that brightly shone


text:
Executive Order 1686

In accordance with the provisions of section 40 of the act entitled "An act to increase the efficiency of the permanent military establishment of the United States", approved February 2, 1901, which authorizes the President to "prescribe the kinds and quantities of the component articles of the Army ration, and to direct the issue of substitutive equivalent articles in place of any such components whenever, in his opinion, economy and a due regard to the health and comfort of the troops may so require," the Executive Order of January 11, 1911, is amended in the following particulars:

Lard compound is added as a substitutive article for lard, at the rate of .64 oz. to the ration.

The note at the foot of the garrison ration is revoked, and the following is substituted therefor:

 * —Food for troops traveling on United States Army transports will be prepared from the articles of subsistence stores which compose the ration for troops in garrison, varied by the substitution of other articles of authorized subsistence stores, the total daily cost per man of the food consumed not to exceed 20 per cent more than the current cost of the garrison ration, except on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas, when 60 per cent increase over the same current cost is authorized.

. ,
 * January 21, 1913.

title: Executive Order 1686


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/369

Rh Now seems as nothing in the single cloud

That shadows it and long has seemed to hover

O'er all the crossing thoughts that overflowed.

In this wrecked spirit, oh! my ocean,

Well may'st thou plough the deep so free and proud:

Thou bear'st the dim tie of ceaseless dreams,

The fount, the confluence of a thousand streams.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Thomas (d.1792)


text: Talk:Executive Order 1686

title: Talk:Executive Order 1686


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Thomas (1779-1852)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/370

314 LXI

not see myself again

A wanderer o'er the Atlantic main;

I do not backward turn my eye

T'wards sleepless sea and stormy sky.

Oh no; these brighter visions vast

To woodlands of the west have past;

And there shall Hesperus arise

To watch my treasure where it lies.

The present lands, the present clime,

Forbid the dreams of olden time;

The present thoughts, the present hour,

Are rife with deeds of sterner power:

And who shall be my leading star

Amid the howling storm of war?

Hark! listen to the distant gun

From the battlefield of Edwordston;

It breaks upon the awful roar

Which stuns my ears around,

And makes the shout of victory

Strike with a hollow sound.

My struggles all are crowned with power,

And Fortune gives a glorious hour.

Men who hate me kneel before me,

Men who kneel are forced t'adore me;

My name is on a million tongues,

The million babble on my wrongs;


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Thomas (1821-1887)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/371

Rh And twenty years of tyrant pride

Which strove this modern God to hide,

At last have vanished in the rays

Of his unquenched, unclouded blaze,

Oh! is not Jesus come again

Over his thousand saints to reign?

To free the world from tyrant's chain,

While sin and hatred vainly spit

Their venomed fury, as they sit.

Their reign is past, their power is gone,

For fallen is mighty Babylon.

Through the hoarse howling of the storm

I saw, but did I truly see

One glimpse of that unearthly form

Whose very form is Victory?

'Twas but a glance, and all seems past,

For cares like clouds again return,

And I'll forget him till the blast

For ever from my soul has flown—

That vision of a mighty host

Crushed helpless into earth and Dust!

Forget him! In the cannon's smoke

How dense it thickens, till on high,

By the wild storm blasts roughly broke,

It parts in volumes through the sky

That hurriedly are drifting by,

'Till the dread burst breaks forth once more

With whitening clouds which seem to fly

Affrightened from that ceaseless roar.


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/372

316 And there it lightens! Dashed with gore

The thick of battle rends in twain,

While their rough ranks of bristling steel

Flashing afar, while armed men

In mighty masses loud and vast,

Like the wild waters of the main

Lashed into foam.—When, there again

Behold him!


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, William (1590-1659)


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/373

Rh LXII

o'er his face a solemn light

Comes smiling from the sky,

And shows to sight the lustre bright

Of his uplifted eye;

The aimless, heedless carelessness

Of happy infancy

O'er such a solemn fearfulness

Commingling with his glee,

The parted lips, the golden hair;

Oh who so blest as thee!

Memory! how thy magic fingers,

With a wild and passing thrill,

Wake the cord whose spirit lingers,

Sleeping silently and still,

Fast asleep and almost dying,

Through my days of changeless pain,

Till I dream the strings are lying,

Never to be waked again.

Winds have blown, but all unknown;

Nothing could arouse a tone

In that heart which like a stone

Senselessly has lain.

All seemed over—friend and lover

Strove to waken music there;

Flow the strings their fingers over,

Still in silence swept the air.


text:
Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/374

318 Memory! Memory comes at last,

Memory of feelings past,

And with an Æolian blast

Strikes the strings resistlessly.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, William (1790-1851)


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Rh Saulcy, for the reason that his transliteration of the Behistun inscription was accomplished before he left Ba<rcla(l in October 1849,^ and therefore before it was possible for liini to receive even the earliest of De Sanlcy's pamphlets. Menant afterwards concedes that Rawlinson's work on the Obelisk proves preliminarv labours which lie graciously admits may justly claim to be independent.- Xor is it true, as Menant says, that 'it was l)y following I)e Saulcy's steps that all later progress has been accomplished.' •^ The precise opjx)- site approaches more nearly to the truth. It was by abandoning the alphabetical system, to which De Saulcy cluiiLi' with stranu't* jXM-tinacitv to the last, that all later ])rogress was in reality accomplished; and two months after these pamplilets wei'e wi'itten this was precisely wh;it was done by Ilincks with unmistnkable perspi- cuity in the A})pendix to his Khorsabad Essay.

The two tracts of De Saulcy, written in 1849, gave the transliteration according to his peculiar system of the whole of the Achaemenian inscriptions accessible to him. The t(^xt of the Behistun inscrij)tion had not, of course, escaped as yet from the jealous hands of the English Major. The translation of these inscriptions was comi)arativelv easv, for it was onlv necessary to follow the Persian version, which was already known. De Saulcv may therefore claim to be the first who ac- complished this task, which neither Ilincks nor Eawlin- son thouii'ht necessary to attempt. But De Saulcy did not rest satisfied with this achievement. On February 3, 18-"), he published a transliteration of ninety-six lines • of the inscription engraved upon the bulls at the entrance to Khorsabad ; and he accompanied it by a

^ Memoir by Canon Uawlinson, p. ir>!>. - Mt'nant, p. 151.

^ lb. p. 14t5. Fi>r an even more enthusiastic appreciation of his services si'C p. 148.

D D


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402 translation, which two years later he still considered was suHiciently accurate. On February 12, he also contri- buted a Memoir on the lloval Xanies at Nimrud.^ These two publications appeared between Major Eawlhi- son's lectures of January 19 and February 10. In the iirst lecture, liawlinson gaVe the earliest translation of a purely Assyrian inscription that had ever appeared, wdth the exception of the few lines rendered by Longperier and Hincks. Tt was taken from the Black l)elisk, and he promised to read at the next sitting a precis of the Khorsabad inscaiption.- It was clear, therefore, that he had already prepared it. Meanwhile, after this announcement was made, and thirteen days l^efore it was carried ijito execution, De Saulcy's trans- lation appeared. This forms the second long Assyrian inscrij)tion to be translated, and it can scarcely be denied that De Saul(*y and liawlinson had worked upon it independently of each other. The report of l?awlin- son\s second lecture was uiven in the SVthena^um' on March 2. It is, as we have said, impossible to estimate the comparative merits of the two works, because we liave not seen De Pauley's pamphlet. It can only be judged ])y what wc know of that writer's later acquire- ments.

The transliteration from which we have quoted made its appearance in February lS-")4, having ap- parently ])een sent to ])ress in June 18-33, or some three years after Ivawlinsorrs version of the same text.^ It camiot, therefore, claim the induli>vnce so willini>'lv accorded to a first effort : on the contrary, it is dis- tinctly put forward as a rival Essay, intended to prove ' the essential error of Rawlinson's method of readini^:.'

^ Sn' l(\< III ^crijtt ions (Ic Ninive (Paris, 1S;>0); Heme Orienfalej lSo2^ ii. 168. Cf. Meiiant, Les Ecritiiren, y, ^'Jiy ; Lfuv/ups jx'rduesy'^. 150.

- Ailunawtij Jan. l^t), ISoO, p. 105. ' Jounial Asiatif/ite, 1854, iii. 93.


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Rh It was designed at the same time to show that not one of the iieneral resuUs reached in the two Memoirs of 1849 had now to be abandoned, and also to establish liis legitimate right to a large share of priority of discovery to which De Saulcy says he attached great value. We have already disposed of his claims to priority so far as regards the consonantal values of the Babylonian signs found in the trilingual inscriptions, and we are at a loss to imagine in what other directtion he fancied that he had achieved priority. So fiir indeed from his studies having ever been in advance of his contemporaries, they uniformly lagged far behind, and he evinces a singular inabilitv even to follow the results obtained by their genius. A remarkable instance of tliis is seen in his rejection of Longperier s reading of 'Sargon' hi the Khorsabad hiscription. 'The M, k or //,' he writes in 1802, 'is in reality a d' \ and in the Table he ])ublislied in 18-34 it is actually found under that heading. He reirrets that lie is obliged to renounce all hope of iinding the ' Sargon of the Bible' at Khorsabad ; and he reads ' Sardon ' instead.

De Saulcy still adheres to his alphabetical interpre- tation, and it is no doubt the svUabarium of Eawlinson that is ' the essential error ' he sets himself to remove. Ilis transliteration accordhiirlv consists, as the reader will liave observed, of an innnense airglomeration of consonants which the student is left to brim*" within the ])OssiI)ilities of liuman utterance as best he may. It is clearly a comparatively easy task to arrange a number of signs according to the simple consonantal sounds they contain. Hincks reached this point in 1847, and De Saulcv's latest effort seems to carrv us back to that rudimentary stage of the inquiry. Here we find the signs distributed among the various classes of gutturals, dentals and so on, exactly as in Hincks's Table seven

D D 2


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moorehead, John


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404 years before. It is possiljle that the later writer is

more complete and accurate ; it could scarcely have

])eeii othei'wise, considerhi^- the larij-e amount of data

n(nv available and the im])os-il)ilitv of not beintr

iruided, to some extent at least, by the Svllabarium of « - » »

Hawlin^on and Ilinrks. Yet in this eleraentarv work

of simjile classification there are numerous errors he

mipht have escaped if he had condescended to place

more dependence ui)on their authority. Thus, for

example, amonir his i>utturals wc iiiid U)f course bare

and stripped of their vocalic garments) the sisins for

ijf, f(j', (d and zi. His dental> include two gutturals,

the siuns for ga and (ji. Among his labials he

irives us the si^rn^ for ns and /;//. Amonir his

linuuals are those for ki and S'l and they include

the siiins for the svllables f(n\ hnr and rit\ while « . »

the ^ii>'n for nl is found amonii" the sibilants. Xot- withstanding all liis efforts to escape syllabic values, he was forced to enumerate a few — /y///?, al\ akh, at, ba)\ and of the two siuns lie gives for (IS, one should l)e si and the other shi\ while his is should Ix^ us. With few exceptions all these might liave been found correctlv ijivcn l)v Eawlinson three vears before. Hincks had Iohlj' aii'o pointed out in his Kliorsabad Ks^av (June 1840) that a clear distinction is maintained between the vowels, and l)etween the surd and sonant consonants. Yet here we find the siirns for )iK /'*, OIL and b^ and thost- for / and r all classed indilVerentlv together. His treatment of the vowels is not less l)ehind the knowled<je of the time. The sinorle vowel a is represented l.)v no less than seven signs that really express an^ (/, ap, /, ruli, man. it. Two of these


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moorsom, Constantine Richard


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Rh signs, according to De Saulcy, also express ha, and one eitlier e or i, lla lias four signs, none correct. They are really the signs for a, it, i and //. He was correct in supposing the language contained two diphthongs, ai and la \ but neither of his signs for ai is correct: one has, in fact, the value of tu\

It may be said in conclusion that on all points of difference between Kawlinson and De Saulcv, both as rcLiards the theory of the lani>uaire and the details of its expression, liawlinson was right and De Saulcy hope- lessly wrong. De Saulcy was not only unable to teach Eawlinson anytliing, but, as we have already o])served, he was incai)al)le to a very remarkable degree of appre- hending the truth from otliers. He lived for many years afterwards, l)Ut his P]ssay on the Behistun inscrip- tion seems to have been the last occasion on which he meddled with cuneiform studies. lie probably re- cognised more clearlv tlian some of his admirers liow incompetent he was to make any useful contribution to the subject. It is impossible to refrain from sympathy with him. He tells us he spent a whole year hi ' com- paring sign by sign and transcribing all the Achaemenian texts without ex(,*eption.' ^ Nothing is more calculated to overwhelm the mind with despondency than to pass vears of fruitless toil amid such arid wastes as these and to discover in the end that the natural ability to make useful ai)plicatin of the knowledge acquired is wholly wanting. For the true genius of a decipherer is a rare gift, and no amount of industry or learning can compensate for its absence. Hincks and liawlin- son possessed it with exceptional intensity. Many of the other scholars whose labours we have reviewed were endowed to a less degree — Grotefend, Jacquet and Lassen. Even Longperier, in the few lines he

^ Re rue Or lent ale y loc. cit.


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406 contributed to the subject evinced no little aptitude in this direction; but De Saulcv was sin<rularlv deficient in the special qualifications it required. It would have been more worthy of the position he occupied in other departments of study if he could have restrained the irritation that the consciousness of the waste of so much effort could not fail to produce. It was lamentable that he should iVet fully pretend to have anticipated the dis- coveries of liawhns(jn, or that he should have presented his own crude performance as a possible rival to his. It would almost seem, from the extreme raritv of his pamphlets, that he endeavoured to suppress the evidence of his failure, and it would l)e well if liis countrymen were to allow his work in this department to pass out of the reacli of farther controversv.

The translation of the Balndonian Column of the Behistun inscription was apparently tliou^ihtat the time to dispenx' with the necessity of any special publication of the Semitic columns of the other Achaemenian inscriptions at Pei"se[)olis and Xaksh-i-Eustam. De f^aulcyhad indeed devoted himself to this portion of the su])i(M*t in ]S4t), and ]\I(^nant informs us that 'all the trilin^iual inscriptions then known were already trans- lated/ ' But they do not ap{)ear to have attracted the attention of any more com{)etent scholar till 1859^ when M. Oppert pul)lished a portion of them in the second volume of his ' Expedition en Mesopotamie.' lie <iave the text, with transliteration and translation of the Window inscription L and B (Darius); D and E (Xerx(\sj. and the unilinoual II (Darius) from Persepolis; the lon/i' inscription and the three short ones at Naksli- i-liustam, the Kof Xerxesat Van, and the S of Artaxerxes Mnemon at Susa. He also i^ave a new translation of the Behistun inscription without text or transliteration.

' Lcmgues perdueSf p. 140.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moorsom, William Scarth


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Rh A peculiar feature of his book is that he has made a transcription of the iiiscrii)tioii into Ileljrew characters. A complete editioii of the Babylonian columns of the Achaemenian inscriptions was published by Dr. 13ezold in 1882, with text, transliteration, translation and com- mentary, and is now the standard edition.

We have now brought to a close this tedious history of the various steps that led up to the decipherment of the Achaemenian inscriptions; and we have described the share taken in its accomplishment by a long succes- sion of scholars, from Tvchsen to Oppert. The whole of these inscriptions wen^ now interpreted and their con- tents made known to tlu* world. The difficulties of the cuneiform character, which at first appeared insui)erable, were at lenuth surmounted.

The sul)ject for a Iouli* time seemed to yield no results at all connneusurate to the labour and ability lavished upon it. Its interest seemed to be limited to the arid domains of philology, or at l)est to throw a sidelight u})on a few matters f no great importance in ancient history. Some scholars were d to be much more trustworthy than was long sui)posed ; but these were matters that could only aff(M-t a small and com])aratively worthless class o^ dilettanti. At length, however, there came the great Assyrian discoveries and the ai)parltion hi the cuneiform records of 'Jehu, the son of Omri,' and a liost of other notabilities of sacred history. The study was raised at once, especially in England, to an entirely dilfereiit plane of interest. Lectures began to be delivered upon it througliout the provinces ; books were written by Vaux, Boiiomi, Ferausson, and many others, to explain tin* subject to the public. The


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408 great work of liayard was quickly followed by a popular edition, and was translated into German. Curiosity was stimulated by the appearance, in 1853, of an account of the results of fartlier exj)lorations. Whether the new learniniif would tend to confirm the ancient records or wliether it would compel a revision of cherished beliefs l)cgan to Ije dcl)ated in many quarters, far l)eyond the cinde of learned societies.

An a(*count of the progress subsequently made in the knowledge of the Assyrian lanaiuiire lies beyond the scope of our present work. It was indeed a happy accident that the power of reading Assyrian should have Ijeen acquired just as a countless number of inscriptions in that language were brought to light. Excavations contiimed at Nineveh and elsewhere under the direction of Mr. Layard durinir the winters of 1840 and 1850; and hi the autnnui of 1851, Colonel Raw- linson returned to Haiidad. lie was charged with the general supervision of the work, while Mr. Hormuzd Uassam assununl the pi*actical direction in the field, rarlianient sanctioned a grant of tliree thousand pounds, and many large sums were contributed by private indi\iduals, including five hundred pounds from Lord tlohn I\ussell.^ Soon aft(M-, Rassam discovered the famous inscription of Tiglath Pelescr, which aflbrded the earliest glimpse into a long-foigotten history. In it the o'enealoi>T of the Assyrian kiims was traced back to the fourteenth century u.c., and the names of no less than twenty-five sovereiuiis were recorded.- The inscription itself was written at a time when Assur was still the capital of the kingdom and Xineveh was too unimportant to be mentioned, liawlinsoii was surprised to find that the language was more ])olislicd then than at a later time, and he was obliged to admit that

^ Memoir, \). ]7l>. - Ih. ]). ISI.


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Rh the discovery 'annihilates all my theories about the modernicity of Assyrian civilisation.' ^ Shortly after, he was able to announce that ' all the Assyrian kings men- tioned in the Bible have now been identified,' - and many others who occur in profane history, so, that almost a perfect list has now been obtained. Two French expeditions were engaged at the same time on the work of exploration. M. Place, from 1851 to 1854, devoted liimself chiefly to Khorsabad, thouirh with scarcely the success his perseverance merited. Rut the chief effort was made l)y the Commission headed by M. Fresnal, 1852-4, which included M. Oppert among its members, and which concerned itself principally with the exploration of the ruins of Babylon. Mean- while Southern l>ab\'lonia was explored by [Mr. Loftus, whom we have already mentioned in connection with Susa ; and by Mr. Taylor, the Yice-Consul at Bussorah.

It is to their lalxmrs durinu* the winters of 1853 and

«

1854 that we owe the recovery of the history of the Vau'Iv Babylonian Empire that long preceded even the foundation of Assyria. The forgotten cities of Nippur, Erech, Larsa, Ur and Eridu were once more summoned to surrender the n^cords of a civilisation reaching l)ack manv thousand years l)efore the Christian era. In 1854, Bawlinson was able to send home a list of eigh- teen of the primitive kings of the ancient Babylonia and of twenty other personages of less exalted station : and hi' records his surprise at the discovery of ^ monarchs who must have reigned before the establishment of the Assyrian Empire.' "^ Till then it was generally held that Babylon owed its foundation to the late period oi' the great Nebuchadnezzar.^ Early in 1854, a fruitful discovery was made in the Lion Eoom of the North

' /. It. A. »S. Keport, 18.")3, xv. p. xvii. - lb. Keport, I8r)4, vol. xvi.

^ lb. Keport, 18o4, xvi. p. xiv. * //;. xii. 477.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morant, Philip


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410 Palace of Assurbanipal at Koiiyunjik. Here large number of tablets were found, which subsequent investigation showed to consist of lexicons and phrase- books to enable the student to acquire the primitive language of Babylonia, from which it afterwards became apparent the larger portion of the Assyrian literature had been derived. Rawlinson was the first to detect the existence of this language in a tablet sent to him from Larsa by Mr. Loftus. He announced the discovery in a valuable paper, contributed to the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society' in 1855, on the Early History of Babylonia. At that time, however, he had made but little progress in this new study, for he says : ' I have no hesitation in pronouncing the language to be Semitic' In the following' year he found out his mistake, and, having carefully studied the vocabularies from Kouyunjik, he speaks of it more guardedly as the Chaldean or Hamitic language of Babylonia.' Six years later, we still hear of the 'Hamitian language. of which not much is yet understood.' For a time it was known also as the Proto-Chaldean; Hincks seems to have been the first to call it by its later name of Akkadian, but Rawlinson was the earliest to make any considerable progress in its study. In 1866, he endeavoured to translate the tablets bearing on astronomy and other scientific subjects ; but he found 'the primitive Babylonian language' was so extensively employed in these documents that it was ' advisable to undertake a thorough examination of this ancient and


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Rh most difficult language.' The result was that he thought it was intermediate between the African lani^-uaires and the Proto-Turanian or Finno-U^rian, which he proposed to classify under the name of the uplands of Central Africa, and was the speech of the Akkads or Iliahlanders. From that circumstance it gradually acquired the name of Akkadian, suggested by Hincks.^
 * Eiythean Group/ He considered it came from the

The recovery of this ancient language is among the most interesting? results of cuneiform discovery. The most ancient records in the world are written in it, and it opens a page of history hitherto entirely unknown. It shows that a Turanian race led the van of civilisation, and was the founder of both the religion and literature of the ►Semitic people of Irak.

The first period of discovery was now drawing to a close. The French retired in 18-34, and Colonel Kawlinson in March IS-lo. Nearly twenty years were to elapse before the excavations were renewed by George Smith, in 1873.

]\Ieanwhile the immber of scholars interested h\ tliese siilyects l)egan to increase. Dr. Samuel Birch did irood service in assistiiiu' llie i)ul)li('ation of Lav- ard's inscriptions.- ]\lr. Bosanquet contributed a large number of articles on the questions of cln'onology raised by these new discoveries,^ a matter that also occupied Ixawlinson.^ Ilincks also turned his attention to trans- lation, and it is to him we owe the translations in Mr.

1 ,/. li. A. S. IJeport, June 1866, N.S. ii.

- Trans. S. B. A. 18?^(>, ix., article by Mr. Pinches. Dr. Birch's interest in the subject (bxte.^ from 1H4<), when he wrote on the discovery of the name of Babylon, in Proceeditiya of the Society of Litter ature.

' 8ee Athencf'umy Sept. and Oct. l>^ol; ./. It. A. S. 1854-5, and many others.

"* Athenaeum, March and April, 1854.


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412 Layard's ' Xiiieveli and Balnloii/ published in 1853, and also a version of the Bavian inscription.^ In 1854 lie wrote an essay on Assyrian mvtholoiify, but he still continued to be chieHy ent^an-ed \yith the OTamniar. Ilis dissertation on the Pronoun apjjeared in 1853; on the Verb in 1855 to 1850, a work that has been characterised as his most vahiable contribution; ^ on Akkadian, 1855; on Tiiilntli Pcleser, 1857; on Poly- })liony5 1803; and finally a treatise on Assyrian Gram- mar, beii'un in 1800 in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society,' which was iuterrui)ied by his death. ^Ir. Fox Talbot was also added to the number of translators. In 1850 he rendered a portion of the East India House inscription, and for a number of years he applied him- self to the translation of the most important inscrip- tions.^ Mr. Xorris, relieyed from the burden of the k^usian Column, turned his attention to Assyrian weij^'hts (1850), and subsequently bec^ame known as the author of th(» first Assyrian dictionary (ISOO)."* In France, ]\I. p[)(M't acquired an interest in Assyrian durinu' his recent journey to the East, and he earned a reputation in this department of study by the appear- ance of his 'ICtudes Assyriennes ' in the 'Journal Asiatique,' Fel)ruary 1857. From that period he has continued to be one of the inost prolific and the most useful of the cuneiform scliolars of France. The numljer of th(\se was fiirtlier increased by the a})pear- ance of M. Menant, in 1858, as the writer of a 'Notice sur les Inscriptions cuneiformes de la Collection de M. L. deLayal.'^ ^oon afterwards (1800) he published

- J, II. A. K. X.S. l{.-port/ls67, Hi.
 * Layard, 'Sineveh and Babylon^ 18S2, p. xlvii.

^ U. Report, LSoB, xvi.

appeared in lS68 (J. Ji. A, S. Keport, May 18U8, iii. p. xv).
 * I/>. N.S. 186(3, ii. The first instalment of the separate publication

' ^lohl, op. cit. Keport, June 1859.


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Rh the 'Ecritures cuneiformes,' an 'Expose des Travaux qui out prepare la Lecture des Inscriptions,' which is still a useful apology for the science. For, notwith- standing all the magnificent results already obtained, the science was still in need of an apologist. In 1852, Professor Wilson, the President of the Royal Asiatic Society, went so far as to regard the Assyrian Inscriptions as still 'merely dumb memorials of antiquity' Very great discrepancies were indeed yet to be found in translations of the same passages by different scholars, and the true meaning of a large number of words continued to be warmly disputed. It was found, in fact, that M. Stern of Götingen still maintained that the language was entirely alphabetical; that there were no ideographs; and he read every syllable of one inscription differently from De Saulcy, except the proper names. Mr. Fox Talbot attributed the prevailing incredulity 'to the fact that each cuneiform group represents not always the same syllables, but sometimes one and sometimes another': in other words, to the existence of polyphones. Hence it was inferred that the system adopted 'cannot be true, and the interpretations based upon it must be fallacious.' He proposed, therefore, to submit the whole matter to a practical test. lie accordingly translated the inscription of Tiglath Peleser, recently found at Kaleh Sherghat, and forwarded it in a sealed envelope to the President of the Asiatic Society. Three other scholars — Rawlinson, Hincks, and Oppert — were then invited to make independent versions of the same inscription, and to comnumicate them under cover to


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414 the Society. Carefully litliograpliod copies had been executed for this purpose, so that there mioht be iio variation in the text. A competent jury of examiners were selected, amoiig whom were Professor Wilson (the President), Mr. Grote, Dean Milman, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and Wliewell ; and on the day appointed the sealed packets were opened in their presence. It was found that Dr. Hincks had not had time to trans- late the whole, and that 0])pert had connnitted the double blunder of working from a copy executed by himself, and of makinu' his translation in Eno-lish, a language with which lie was imperfectly acquainted. A careful comparison was. however, undertaken, and the Jury issued their report on May 2iK lb57. Grote and Milman were of opinion ' that the coincidences betweeri the translations, l)ot]i as to the sense and the verbal rendering' were very remarkable.' Wilkinson made a sepai'ate re[)ort, and stated that ' the similarity is quite equal to what it would be in the translation of an ordinary historical inscription in ]\i>yptian hiero- glyphics.' Indeed,' he adds, 'the resemblance is so great (very often exactly the same, woi'd for word) that the interpretation could not ])e arl)itrary ' ; but while ' there is a remarkaljle concurrence as to the u'eneral meaning of each })aragraph. . . very many words were diirerentlv translated.' The closest resemblance \yas found to exist Ijetween the versions of Eawlinson and Iliiicks. Talbot was ' less positive and precise,' and i)pert showed the greatest divergence. The examiners farther noted their opinion passage by passage, and as we look down the pages, among many yerdicts of 'very near,' ' nnich alike,' and so on, we (ind other judgments much less satisfactory, such as • many coincidences and many variations ' : ' some


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Rh coincidences and great variations '; and even ' totally diflerent.'

Much indeed yet remained to be done before accuracy could be achieved, and the voice of the doubter was not yet stilled. In France especially, the greatest scepticism prevailed as to the geimineness of the translations, and those of Oppert, in the 'Journal Asiatique ' were received with general incredulityJ Neither T)e Saulcy nor Longperier took any farther share in the work, and their silence increased the discoura<xement. A very eminent Frenchman, Count de Gobineau, had just written on the ' Ecritures des Textes cuneiformes ' and attacked the whole system ])ursued by Eawlinson and Op{)ert.- The one lie proposed to substitute is too grotesque to merit description, but the defection of a scholar so well known in Oriental studies intensified the urowinij unl)elief.'^ It was at this conjuncture that Menant pul)lished his book on Cuneiform Writing, in which he related the successive steps that had led up to the decipherment of the inscriptions (1860): an under- taking which he describes four j^ears later, in his second edition, as having slowly produced a beneficial ellect. Some people may have been more inlluenced l)y the striking reward conferred upon M. ])pert by the Institut in 1800, which awarded him the prize of twenty thousand francs, founded by the Emperor for the ' work or the discovery most calculated to the honour of France,' and this, we learn with surprise, allbrded ' une sanction qui devrait dissiper toutes les susceptibilites.' These susceptibilities were, however,

1857, p. 663.
 * See Menant, Larif/ues jyerdnes, p. 177. lie refers to Atht-nceitmy May

'^ Mohl, op. cit. Report, June 1^69, ii. 257. 3 lb. June 1864, ii. 505.


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416 by no means dispelled by any such Imperial mandate. Mold writes with evident sympathy that ' j)eople decry a languag'e in which one can never know if a syllable is ideographic or phonetic, and, when phonetic, which of two or tliree different values it may have in that place." ^ Gobineau still remained recalcitrant (1864), and Sir Georu^e Cornewall Lewis contended in the 'Astronomy of the Ancients' that neither Egyptian nor As>vrian could ever l)e restored.- Lord ^Macaulav also rejected the interpretation with undisguised contempt.^ It was only by slow deiirees that these doubts were hnally extinguished, and that the cuneiform lanij^uaofes have conquered the univei'sal recognition of all com- petent inquirers.

When liawlinson returned from Bagdad in 18^5, he was appointed a Director of the East India Company, and he entered Parliament as ^Member for Eeigate. In 18-">9 he went to Persia as British envoy, a position from which he retired iji the following year.

After his resignation, he devoted himself for some years almost exclusively to his old cuneiform pursuits. H(*. undertook to supervise the pul)lication of the ' Inscriptions of Western Asia,' and he might be found at work upon them daily at the Kritisli Museum. Mr. George Smith was aiipoiiited liis working assistant, and in that position ]w gained the intimate knowledge of the Assyrian laniiiuiiie which he afterwards turned to such excellent account. Thc^ lirst volume of the Inscriptions appeared in IS-V.), and the last, or fifth, in 1884.^ liawlinson entered Parliament once more in 1865, as Member for Frome, but retired on his re-appointment

' Mohl, oj>. ciV. June lS^l,ii. oG4.

'^ Trans, S. //. A. lss(i, ix., article by Mr. Pinches. Cf. Report, May 1S62, ./. B. A. S. 1S(jl>, xix.

^ Layard, 2sinereli and liahylon, new ed. p. xxxviii, note. ' J. li, A. *V. 1S0, xvii. lit'port, 1S.*)9. Memoirs, p. 241.


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Rh to the India Office in 1868. He fell a victim to influenza in 1895, at the age of eighty-five. During his life he was gradually overwhelmed with honours bestowed upon him by learned Societies in various quarters of the globe; but a grateful country was long reluctant to confer its seal of recognition. Military authorities are naturally unwilling to acknowledge the merits of distinguished officers who descend to civil employments; and in 1851, after the publication of the Behistun inscription, he had to sue in somewhat humble terms for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On his return from Bagdad in 1855, when the walls of the Museum were lined with the trophies he had accumulated and the country was enraptured with the new arcana of knowledge his genius had unveiled. Lord Clarendon thought a knighthood worthy of his acceptance. This he hastened to decline, and shortly afterwards he received the more appropriate honour of K.C.B. (1856).

The dignities to which he subsequently rose were due to political services and social position, and seem to have been entirely unconnected with the achievements we have recounted.

As for Dr. Hincks, he appears never to have obtained any reward whatever, unless the Gold Medal of a provincial academy can be regarded as such. He had the misfortune to be born an Irishman, and to fill the obscure position of a country clergyman, so that he was,


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418 no doubt, reconciled from the first to the inevitable sequence of disparagement and neglect. After all, hieroglyphic figures and cuneiform signs are inconvenient subjects for pulpit oratory, and not likely to edify a rustic congregation or to lead to preferment in the Church. The estimate in which he was held, even in learned circles, may be gathered from the short paragraph allotted to him in the 'Athenaeum,' where he explained one of the most far-reaching discoveries in Assyrian, as compared to the three long columns that follow, devoted to a few unimportant observations made by Rawlinson. But notwithstanding his apparent failure to obtain the recognition that was his due, when the evening of life approached and the time for departure came, he could dwell with satisfaction on the work of his life; and though in the years to come few might remember his name, he could not fail to enjoy the conviction that the rich fields of knowledge he had opened to view would remain the assured possession of man for all generations to come.


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corybantes

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corybantes


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Rh

the room where the dressing-table stood, and where the wax candles burnt on the wall, I found Miss Havisham and Estella; Miss Havisham seated on a settee near the fire, and Estella on a cushion at her feet. Estella was knitting, and Miss Havisham was looking on. They both raised their eyes as I went in, and both saw an alteration in me. I derived that from the look they interchanged.

"And what wind," said Miss Havisham, "blows you here, Pip?"

Though she looked steadily at me, I saw that she was rather confused. Estella, pausing a moment in her knitting with her eyes upon me, and then going on, I fancied that I read in the action of her fingers, as plainly as if she had told me in the dumb alphabet, that she perceived I had discovered my real benefactor.

"Miss Havisham," said I, "I went to Richmond yesterday, to speak to Estella; and finding that some wind had blown her here, I followed."

Miss Havisham motioning to me for the third or fourth time to sit down, I took the chair by the dressing-table, which I had often seen her occupy. With all that ruin at my feet and about me, it seemed a natural place for me, that day.

"What I had to say to Estella, Miss Havisham, I will say before you, presently—in a few moments. It will not surprise you, it will not displease you. I am as unhappy as you can ever have meant me to be."

Miss Havisham continued to look steadily at me. I could see in the action of Estella's fingers as they worked, that she attended to what I said: but she did not look up.

"I have found out who my patron is. It is not a fortunate discovery, and is not likely ever to enrich me in

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, station, fortune, anything. There are reasons why I must say no more of that. It is not my secret, but another's."

As I was silent for a while, looking at Estella and considering how to go on, Miss Havisham repeated, "It is not your secret, but another's. Well?"

"When you first caused me to be brought here, Miss Havisham; when I belonged to the village over yonder, that I wish I had never left; I suppose I did really come here, as any other chance boy might have come—as a kind of servant, to gratify a want or a whim, and to be paid for it?"

"Ay, Pip," replied Miss Havisham, steadily nodding her head; "you did."

"And that Mr. Jaggers"

"Mr. Jaggers," said Miss Havisham, taking me up in a firm tone, "had nothing to do with it, and knew nothing of it. His being my lawyer, and his being the lawyer of your patron, is a coincidence. He holds the same relation towards numbers of people, and it might easily arise. Be that as it may, it did arise, and was not brought about by any one."

Any one might have seen in her haggard face that there was no suppression or evasion so far.

"But when I fell into the mistake I have so long remained in, at least you led me on?" said I.

"Yes," she returned, again nodding steadily, "I let you go on."

"Was that kind?"

"Who am I," cried Miss Havisham, striking her stick upon the floor and flashing into wrath so suddenly that Estella glanced up at her in surprise, "who am I, for God's sake, that I should be kind?"

It was a weak complaint to have made, and I had not meant to make it. I told her so, as she sat brooding over this outburst.

"Well, well, well!" she said. "What else?"

"I was liberally paid for my old attendance here," I said, to soothe her, "in being apprenticed, and I have asked these

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Rh questions only for my own information. What follows has another (and I hope more disinterested) purpose. In humouring my mistake, Miss Havisham, you punished—practised on—perhaps you will supply whatever term expresses your intention, without offence—your self-seeking relations?"

"I did. Why, they would have it so! So would you. What has been my history, that I should be at the pains of entreating either them or you not to have it so! You made your own snares. I never made them."

Waiting until she was quiet again—for this, too, flashed out of her in a wild and sudden way—I went on.

"I have been thrown among one family of your relations, Miss Havisham, and have been constantly among them since I went to London. I know them to have been as honestly under my delusion as I myself. And I should be false and base if I did not tell you, whether it is acceptable to you or no, and whether you are inclined to give credence to it or no, that you deeply wrong both Mr. Matthew Pocket and his son Herbert, if you suppose them to be otherwise than generous, upright, open, and incapable of anything designing or mean."

"They are your friends," said Miss Havisham.

"They made themselves my friends," said I, "when they supposed me to have superseded them; and when Sarah Pocket, Miss Georgiana, and Mistress Camilla, were not my friends, I think."

This contrasting of them with the rest seemed, I was glad to see, to do them good with her. She looked at me keenly for a little while, and then said quietly:

"What do you want for them?"

"Only," said I, "that you would not confound them with the others. They may be of the same blood, but, believe me, they are not of the same nature."

Still looking at me keenly, Miss Havisham repeated:

"What do you want for them?"

"I am not so cunning, you see," I said in answer, conscious that I reddened a little, "as that I could hide from you, even if I desired, that I do want something. Miss

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376 Havisham, if you could spare the money to do my friend Herbert a lasting service in life, but which from the nature of the case must be done without his knowledge, I could show you how."

"Why must it be done without his knowledge?" she asked, settling her hands upon her stick, that she might regard me the more attentively.

"Because," said I, "I began the service myself, more than two years ago, without his knowledge, and I don't want to be betrayed. Why I fail in my ability to finish it, I cannot explain. It is a part of the secret which is another person's and not mine."

She gradually withdrew her eyes from me, and turned them on the fire. After watching it for what appeared in the silence and by the light of the slowly wasting candles to be a long time, she was roused by the collapse of some of the red coals, and looked towards me again—at first, vacantly—then, with a gradually concentrating attention. All this time, Estella knitted on. When Miss Havisham had fixed her attention on me, she said, speaking as if there had been no lapse in our dialogue:

"What else?"

"Estella," said I, turning to her now, and trying to command my trembling voice, "you know I love you. You know that I have loved you long and dearly."

She raised her eyes to my face, on being thus addressed, and her fingers plied their work, and she looked at me with an unmoved countenance. I saw that Miss Havisham glanced from me to her, and from her to me.

"I should have said this sooner, but for my long mistake. It induced me to hope that Miss Havisham meant us for one another. While I thought you could not help yourself, as it were, I refrained from saying it. But I must say it now."

Preserving her unmoved countenance, and with her fingers still going, Estella shook her head.

"I know," said I, in answer to that action; "I know. I have no hope that I shall ever call you mine, Estella. I am ignorant what may become of me very soon, how poor

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Rh I may be, or where I may go. Still, I love you. I have loved you ever since I first saw you in this house."

Looking at me perfectly unmoved and with her fingers busy, she shook her head again.

"It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. I think that in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella."

I saw Miss Havisham put her hand to her heart and hold it there, as she sat looking by turns at Estella and at me.

"It seems," said Estella, very calmly, "that there are sentiments, fancies—I don't know how to call them—which I am not able to comprehend. When you say you love me, I know what you mean, as a form of word; but nothing more. You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there. I don't care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this; now, have I not?"

I said in a miserable manner, "Yes."

"Yes. But you would not be warned, for you thought I did not mean it. Now, did you not think so?"

"I thought and hoped you could not mean it. You, so young, untried, and beautiful, Estella! Surely it is not in Nature."

"It is in my nature," she returned. And then she added, with a stress upon the words, "It is in the nature formed within me. I make a great difference between you and all other people when I say so much. I can do no more."

"Is it not true," said I, "that Bentley Drummle is in town here, and pursuing you?"

"It is quite true," she replied, referring to him with the indifference of utter contempt.

"That you encourage him, and ride out with him, and that he dines with you this very day?"

She seemed a little surprised that I should know it, but again replied, "Quite true."

"You cannot love him, Estella?"

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378 Her fingers stopped for the first time, as she retorted rather angrily. "What have I told you? Do you still think, in spite of it, that I do not mean what I say?"

"You would never marry him, Estella?"

She looked towards Miss Havisham, and considered for a moment with her work in her hands. Then she said, "Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him."

I dropped my face into my hands, but was able to control myself better than I could have expected, considering what agony it gave me to hear her say those words. When I raised my face again, there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham's, that it impressed me, even in my passionate hurry and grief.

"Estella, dearest, dearest Estella, do not let Miss Havisham lead you into this fatal step. Put me aside for ever—you have done so, I well know—but bestow yourself on some worthier person than Drummle. Miss Havisham gives you to him, as the greatest slight and injury that could be done to the many far better men who admire you, and to the few who truly love you. Among those few there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long, as I. Take him, and I can bear it better for your sake!"

My earnestness awoke a wonder in her that seemed as if it would have been touched with compassion, if she could have rendered me at all intelligible to her own mind.

"I am going," she said again, in a gentler voice, "to be married to him. The preparations for my marriage are making, and I shall be married soon. Why do you injuriously introduce the name of my mother by adoption? It is my own act."

"Your own act, Estella, to fling yourself away upon a brute?"

"On whom should I fling myself away?" she retorted, with a smile. "Should I fling myself away upon the man who would the soonest feel (if people do feel such things) that I took nothing to him? There! It is done. I shall do well enough, and so will my husband. As to leading

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 me into what you call this fatal step, Miss Havisham would have had me wait, and not marry yet; but I am tired of the life I have led, which has very few charms for me, and I am willing enough to change it. Say no more. We shall never understand each other."

"Such a mean brute, such a stupid brute!" I urged in despair.

"Don't be afraid of my being a blessing to him," said Estella; "I shall not be that. Come! Here is my hand. Do we part on this, you visionary boyor man?"

"O Estella!" I answered, as my bitter tears fell fast on her hand, do what I would to restrain them; "even if I remained in England and could hold my head up with the rest, how could I see you Drummle's wife?"

"Nonsense," she returned, "nonsense. This will pass in no time."

"Never, Estella!"

"You will get me out of your thoughts in a week."

"Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since—on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marsh, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you. God forgive you!"

In what ecstasy of unhappiness I got these broken words

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380 out of myself, I don't know. The rhapsody welled up within me, like blood from an inward wound, and gushed out. I held her hand to my lips some lingering moments, and so I left her. But ever afterwards, I remembered—and soon afterwards with stronger reason—that while Estella looked at me merely with incredulous wonder, the spectral figure of Miss Havisham, her hand still covering her heart, seemed all resolved into a ghastly stare of pity and remorse.

All done, all gone! So much was done and gone, that when I went out at the gate, the light of day seemed of a darker colour than when I went in. For a while, I hid myself among some lanes and bye-paths, and then struck off to walk all the way to London. For, I had by that time come to myself so far, as to consider that I could not go back to the inn and see Drummle there; that I could not bear to sit upon the coach and be spoken to; that I could do nothing half so good for myself as tire myself out.

It was past midnight when I crossed London Bridge. Pursuing the narrow intricacies of the streets which at that time tended westward near the Middlesex shore of the river, my readiest access to the Temple was close by the river-side, through Whitefriars. I was not expected till to-morrow, but I had my keys, and, if Herbert were gone to bed, could get to bed myself without disturbing him.

As it seldom happened that I came in at that Whitefriars gate after the Temple was closed, and as I was very muddy and weary, I did not take it ill that the night-porter examined me with much attention as he held the gate a little way open for me to pass in. To help his memory I mentioned my name.

"I was not quite sure, sir, but I thought so. Here's a note, sir. The messenger that brought it, said would you be so good as read it by my lantern?"

Much surprised by the request, I took the note. It was directed to Philip Pip, Esquire, and on the top of the superscription were the words, "." I opened it, the watchman holding up his light, and read inside, in Wemmick's writing:

"."

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writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others’ uses, will write now for mine,— Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is.

I, writing thus, am still what men call young; I have not so far left the coasts of life To travel inland, that I cannot hear That murmur of the outer Infinite Which unweaned babies smile at in their sleep When wondered at for smiling; not so far, But still I catch my mother at her post Beside the nursery-door, with finger up, ‘Hush, hush—here’s too much noise!’ while her sweet eyes Leap forward, taking part against her word B

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2 In the child’s riot.Still I sit and feel My father’s slow hand, when she had left us both, Stroke out my childish curls across his knee; And hear Assunta’s daily jest (she knew He liked it better than a better jest) Inquire how many golden scudi went To make such ringlets.O my father’s hand, Stroke the poor hair down, stroke it heavily,— Draw, press the child’s head closer to thy knee! I’m still too young, too young to sit alone.

I write.My mother was a Florentine, Whose rare blue eyes were shut from seeing me When scarcely I was four years old; my life, A poor spark snatched up from a failing lamp Which went out therefore. She was weak and frail; She could not bear the joy of giving life— The mother’s rapture slew her.If her kiss Had left a longer weight upon my lips, It might have steadied the uneasy breath, And reconciled and fraternised my soul With the new order.As it was, indeed, I felt a mother-want about the world, And still went seeking, like a bleating lamb Left out at night, in shutting up the fold,— As restless as a nest-deserted bird Grown chill through something being away, though what It knows not. I, Aurora Leigh, was born To make my father sadder, and myself Not overjoyous, truly.Women know

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Rh The way to rear up children, (to be just,) They know a simple, merry, tender knack Of tying sashes, fitting baby-shoes, And stringing pretty words that make no sense, And kissing full sense into empty words; Which things are corals to cut life upon, Although such trifles: children learn by such, Love’s holy earnest in a pretty play, And get not over-early solemnised,— But seeing, as in a rose-bush, Love’s Divine, Which burns and hurts not,—not a single bloom,— Become aware and unafraid of Love. Such good do mothers.Fathers love as well —Mine did, I know,—but still with heavier brains, And wills more consciously responsible, And not as wisely, since less foolishly; So mothers have God’s licence to be missed.

My father was an austere Englishman, Who, after a dry life-time spent at home In college-learning, law, and parish talk, Was flooded with a passion unaware, His whole provisioned and complacent past Drowned out from him that moment.As he stood In Florence, where he had come to spend a month And note the secret of Da Vinci’s drains, He musing somewhat absently perhaps Some English question whether men should pay The unpopular but necessary tax With left or right hand—in the alien sun B 2

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4 In that great square of the Santissima, There drifted past him (scarcely marked enough To move his comfortable island-scorn,) A train of priestly banners, cross and psalm,— The white-veiled rose-crowned maidens holding up Tall tapers, weighty for such wrists, aslant To the blue luminous tremor of the air, And letting drop the white wax as they went To eat the bishop's wafer at the church; From which long trail of chanting priests and girls, A face flashed like a cymbal on his face, And shook with silent clangour brain and heart, Transfiguring him to music.Thus, even thus, He too received his sacramental gift With eucharistic meanings; for he loved.

And thus beloved, she died.I've heard it said That but to see him in the first surprise Of widower and father, nursing me, Unmothered little child of four years old, His large man's hands afraid to touch my curls, As if the gold would tarnish,—his grave lips Contriving such a miserable smile, As if he knew needs must, or I should die, And yet 'twas hard,—would almost make the stones Cry out for pity.There's a verse he set In Santa Croce to her memory, 'Weep for an infant too young to weep much When death removed this mother'—stops the mirth To-day, on women's faces when they walk

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Rh With rosy children hanging on their gowns, Under the cloister, to escape the sun That scorches in the piazza.After which, He left our Florence, and made haste to hide Himself, his prattling child, and silent grief, Among the mountains above Pelago; Because unmothered babes, he thought, had need Of mother nature more than others use, And Pan’s white goats, with udders warm and full Of mystic contemplations, come to feed Poor milkless lips of orphans like his own— Such scholar-scraps he talked, I’ve heard from friends, For even prosaic men, who wear grief long, Will get to wear it as a hat aside With a flower stuck in’t.Father, then, and child, We lived among the mountains many years, God’s silence on the outside of the house, And we, who did not speak too loud, within; And old Assunta to make up the fire, Crossing herself whene’er a sudden flame Which lightened from the firewood, made alive That picture of my mother on the wall. The painter drew it after she was dead; And when the face was finished, throat and hands, Her cameriera carried him, in hate Of the English-fashioned shroud, the last brocade She dressed in at the Pitti.‘He should paint No sadder thing than that,’ she swore, ‘to wrong Her poor signora.’Therefore, very strange The effect was.I, a little child, would crouch

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6 For hours upon the floor, with knees drawn up And gaze across them, half in terror, half In adoration, at the picture there,— That swan-like supernatural white life, Just sailing upward from the red stiff silk Which seemed to have no part in it, nor power To keep it from quite breaking out of bounds: For hours I sate and stared. Asssunta’s awe And my poor father’s melancholy eyes Still pointed that way. That way, went my thoughts When wandering beyond sight. And as I grew In years, I mixed, confused, unconsciously, Whatever I last read or heard or dreamed, Abhorrent, admirable, beautiful, Pathetical, or ghastly, or grotesque, With still that face. . . which did not therefore change, But kept the mystic level of all forms And fears and admirations; was by turns Ghost, fiend, and angel, fairy, witch, and sprite,— A dauntless Muse who eyes a dreadful Fate, A loving Psyche who loses sight of Love, A still Medusa, with mild milky brows All curdled and all clothed upon with snakes Whose slime falls fast as sweat will; or, anon, Our Lady of the Passion, stabbed with swords Where the Babe sucked; or, Lamia in her first Moonlighted pallor, ere she shrunk and blinked, And, shuddering, wriggled down to the unclean; Or, my own mother, leaving her last smile In her last kiss, upon the baby-mouth

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Rh My father pushed down on the bed for that,— Or, my dead mother, without smile or kiss, Buried at Florence. All which images, Concentred on the picture, glassed themselves Before my meditative childhood,. . as The incoherences of change and death Are represented fully, mixed and merged, In the smooth fair mystery of perpetual Life.

And while I stared away my childish wits Upon my mother’s picture, (ah, poor child!) My father, who through love had suddenly Thrown off the old conventions, broken loose From chin-bands of the soul, like Lazarus, Yet had no time to learn to talk and walk Or grow anew familiar with the sun,— Who had reached to freedom, not to action, lived, But lived as one entranced, with thoughts, not aims,— Whom love had unmade from a common man But not completed to an uncommon man,— My father taught me what he had learnt the best Before he died and left me,—grief and love. And, seeing we had books among the hills, Strong words of counselling souls, confederate With vocal pines and waters,—out of books He taught me all the ignorance of men, And how God laughs in heaven when any man Says, ‘Here I’m learned; this, I understand; In that, I am never caught at fault or doubt.’ He sent the schools to school demonstrating

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