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 There is one important distinction to be drawn between the Byzantine and the Latin apses; they are both semicircular internally, but externally the former are nearly always polygonal. It follows, therefore, that in those churches in Italy where the apse is polygonal externally, it is a sign of direct Byzantine influence. This is found in St Mark’s, Venice; Sta Fosca, Torcello; Murano; nearly all the churches at Ravenna; and in the Crusaders’ churches throughout Syria. In the Coptic church in Egypt we find other characteristics; in the churches of the Red and White Monasteries, attributed to St Helena, an unusual depth is given to the apse, in the walls of which niches are sunk; in the church of St John at Antinoë there are no fewer than seven. Similar niches are found in the apses of St Mark’s, Venice, built in 828, it is said in imitation of St Mark’s in Alexandria, to receive the relics of St Mark brought over from there.

In a large number of the apses in the Coptic churches the seats round the apse with the bishop’s throne in the centre are still preserved; of these the best examples are at Abu Sargah, Al ʽAdra and Abu-s-Sifain. Unfortunately there are no remains of the fittings in the tribunes of the ancient Roman basilicas, but those in St Peter’s at Rome, which were probably copied from them, are recorded in drawings, there being two or three rows of stone seats with the papal throne in the centre. It is possible also that some may still exist in the other early Christian basilicas at Rome, but there have been so many changes that it is not possible to trace them. In the cathedral of Parenzo in Istria ( 532–535), the hemicycle of marble seats for the clergy with the episcopal chair in the centre still exists. A similar arrangement is found in the apse of the church of the 6th century attached to the church of St Helena in the island of Paros, where there are eight steep grades of semicircular stone seats with the bishop’s chair in the centre. The aspect of the interior of this apse has in consequence very much the appearance of a Roman theatre. A third example, better known, exists at Torcello, with six concentric seats rising one above the other, and in the centre the episcopal chair with a flight of thirteen steps down in front of it.

In the basilica at Bethlehem, the east end of which was reconstructed probably in the 5th century, apses of similar dimensions to the eastern apse were built at the north and south end of the transept. The same disposition is found in the Coptic churches of the Red and White Monasteries just referred to, in the church of St Elias at Salonica (c. 1012), the cathedral of Echmiadzin in Armenia, at Vatopedi, Mt. Athos, and some other Byzantine churches. An early example in France exists in the church of Germigny-des-Prés on the Loire (806; rebuilt 1868), where the three apses are horseshoe on plan, and the same is found in the church at Oberzell in the island of Reichenau, Lake of Constance, except that the eastern apse there is square. Small examples also are found at Querqueville and at St Wandrille near Caudebec, both in Normandy, but the finest development takes place in the church of St Maria im Capitol at Cologne, where the aisles are carried round both the northern and southern apses. The same feature exists in the cathedral of Tournai in Belgium and the churches at Cambrai, Soissons and Valenciennes (the last destroyed at the Revolution) in France, and also in the cathedrals of Como and of Pisa in Italy. Without aisles, there are examples in the churches of the Apostles and of St Martin at Cologne; St Quirinus at Neuss; at Roermond; St Cross, Breslau; the cathedral of Bonn; and, at a later date, in the Marienkirche at Trier; S. Elizabeth at Marburg; the church of Sta Maria-del-Fiore at Florence; and the cathedral of Parma.

In consequence of a change made in the orientation of apses in the 6th or 7th century, others were subsequently added at the west end of existing churches, and this is considered to have been the case at Canterbury; but in the German churches sometimes apses were built from the first at both ends, such as are shown on the manuscript plan of St Gall, of the 9th century. Western apses exist at Gernrode; Drübeck; Huyseburg; the Obermünster of Regensburg; St Godehard in Hildesheim; the cathedrals of Worms and Trier; the Abbey church of Laach; the Minster at Bonn; and in St Pietro-in-Grado near Pisa.

The triapsal churches, to which we have referred, are those in which the side apses form the termination of the side aisles; but where there are transepts, the aisles are sometimes not continued beyond them, and the expansion of the transept to north and south gives more ample space for apses; of these there are many examples, as in the Abbey church of Laach in Germany; at Romsey; Christchurch, Hants; Gloucester, Ely, Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, in England; and at St Georges de Boscherville in France; sometimes there being space for two apses on each side.

In the beginning of the 13th century in France, the apses became radiating chapels outside the choir aisle, henceforth known as the chevet. These radiating chapels would seem to have been suggested in Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, but the feature is essentially a French one and in England is found only in Westminster Abbey, into which it was introduced by Henry III., to whom the chevets of Amiens, Beauvais and Reims were probably well known.

APSE and APSIDES, in mechanics, either of the two points of an orbit which are nearest to and farthest from the centre of motion. They are called the lower or nearer, and the higher or more distant apsides respectively. The “line of apsides” is that which joins them, forming the major axis of the orbit. APSINES of Gadara, a Greek rhetorician, who flourished during the 3rd century After studying at Smyrna, he taught at Athens, and gained such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus (235–238). He was the friend of Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, who speaks of his wonderful memory and accuracy. Two rhetorical treatises by him are extant: , a handbook of rhetoric greatly interpolated, a considerable portion being taken from the Rhetoric of Longinus; and a smaller work,  , on Propositions maintained figuratively.

APT, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Vaucluse, on the left bank of the Coulon, 41 m. E. of Avignon by rail. Pop. (1906) 4990. The town was formerly surrounded by massive ancient walls, but these have now been for the most part replaced by boulevards; many of its streets are narrow and irregular. The chief object of interest is the church of Sainte-Anne (once the cathedral), the building of which was begun about the year 1056 on the site of a much older edifice, but not completed until the latter half of the 17th century. Many Roman remains have been found in and near the town. A fine bridge, the Pont Julien, spanning the Coulon below the town, dates from the 2nd or 3rd century. A tribunal of first instance and a communal college are the chief public institutions. The chief manufactures are silk, confectionery and earthenware; and there is besides a considerable trade in fruit, grain and cattle. Apt was at one time the chief town of the Vulgientes, a Gallic tribe; it was destroyed by the Romans about 125 and restored by Julius Caesar, who conferred upon it the title Apta Julia; it was much injured by the Lombards and the Saracens, but its fortifications were rebuilt by the counts of Provence. The bishopric, founded in the 3rd century, was suppressed in 1790. APTERA (Greek for “wingless”), a term in zoological classification applied by Linnaeus to various groups of wingless arthropods, including some of the insects, the centipedes, the millipedes, the Arachnida (scorpions, spiders, &c.) and the Crustacea. In

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text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apse

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title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apse


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apsines

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apsines


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apt

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apt


text:
The New International Encyclopædia/Mohair

MO'HAIR (OF. mouhaire, mouaire, mohere, Fr. moire, from Ar. mukhayyar, fabric of goats' hair). The wool of the Angora goat (see ) of Asia Minor and South Africa. Few animals have so beautiful a covering as the fine, soft, silky, long, and always pure white wool of this goat. Each animal at the annual clip in April or May yields from two pounds to four pounds of wool. The fabric mohair made from this wool is characterized by its light weight, smooth, dust-shedding surface, and lustre. In pile fabrics, such as plushes and astrakhans, mohair is

used for the pile-warp, while the body is made of cotton. The fabric known as camel's hair is made from the best mohair, which enters into the manufacture of many fabrics. Consult The Angora Goat (Farmers' Bulletin, No. 137, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1901). For the production of mohair in the United States, see.


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The New International Encyclopædia/Mohammed

MOHAM'MED (Ar. Muhammad, the Praised; according to Deutsch, Sprenger, and Hirschfeld, the predicted Messiah (cf. Haggai ii. 7). The founder of Islam. He was born about A.D. 570, at Mecca, the son of Abd Allah, of the family of Hashim and Amina, of the family of Zuhra, both of whom belonged to branches of the powerful tribe of the Koreish. His father, a poor merchant, died before or shortly after Mohammed's birth; and his mother, after the fashion of her tribe, gave the child to a Bedouin woman, that she might nurse him in the healthful air of the desert. The infant was subject to fits, which were ascribed to demons, and the nurse brought him back in his third year. Three years afterwards his mother died. His grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, adopted the boy; and when the grandfather died, Mohammed's uncle, Abu Talib, a man of influence, though poor, took him into his house, and remained his best friend and protector throughout his life. The later tradition has surrounded Mohammed's youth with unreliable legends. What is known is that he at first gained a scanty livelihood by tending the flocks of the Meccans, and that he once or twice accompanied his uncle on his journeys to South Arabia and Syria. In his twenty-fifth year he entered the service of a rich widow named Khadija, who was also of the Koreish, and accom- panied her caravans, perhaps as a camel-driver, to the fairs. Soon Khadija, who was much older than he and twice widowed, offered him her hand, which he accepted. She bore him a son, Al-Kasim, and four daughters, Fatima, Zainab, Rukaiya, and Umm Kulthum; and afterwards a second son, whom he called Abd Allah. Both sons died early. Mohammed conducted Khadija's business at Mecca with success, although he spent much time in solitary contemplation. He was esteemed for his integrity and good judgment, and there is nothing of much importance to be told of his life until he reached his fortieth year, and received his first revelation.

The conditions attending his advent as a religious leader are important. By the year 600 Christianity had penetrated Arabia through Syria and Abyssinia. Judaism no less played a prominent part in the peninsula, particularly in the north, which was dotted over with Jewish colonies founded by emigrants after the destruction of Jerusalem, and especially round about Yathrib (Medina). That both Christianity and Judaism had found an entrance into the more southerly part of Arabia is shown by the monotheistic inscriptions found there. Besides these two important religious elements, several sects, remnants of the numerous ancient sects which had sprung up everywhere during the first Christian centuries on the borders of Syria and Babylonia, heightened the religious ferment which, shortly before the time of Mohammed, began to move the minds of the thoughtful. Certain men in the Hedjaz (Waraka, Obaid Allah, Othman, Zaid, and others) began to preach the futility of the ancient paganism, with its star-worship, its

and festive ceremonies, its temples and fetishes. It had long ceased to be a living faith, but the mass of the people clung to it as to a sacred inheritance from times immemorial. The unity of God, the ‘ancient religion of Abraham,’ was the doctrine promulgated by the religious reformers, and many were roused by their words to search for a form of religion which should embody both the traditions of their forefathers and a purer doctrine of the divinity, and turned to Judaism or to Christianity. Mecca, the centre of the pilgrimages of most of the Arabian tribes, where, from times anterior to the city itself, the ../Kaaba/ (q.v.), Mount Arafat, the valley of Mina, etc., had been held sacred—the Koreish, Mohammed's tribe, had had supreme care over these sanctuaries since the fifth century—was naturally the scene of much of this reform preaching. Surrounded by such conditions, Mohammed in his fortieth year entered the field as a teacher of a faith independent alike of the old idolatry and of Judaism and Christianity. Like other Oriental prophets, he claimed to have received a divine call, which, he asserted, had come to him in the solitude of the mountain Hira, near Mecca. Gabriel appeared to him, and commanded him to proclaim the name of Allah—that is, to preach the true religion. That Mohammed was no common impostor is clear. The source of his visions is more difficult to determine. By some they have been attributed to his epilepsy. Undoubtedly they were in considerable measure due to his frequent retirement into desert solitudes, which brought on the ecstasies so familiar in Oriental religious enthusiasts. Waraka, one of his wife's relatives, who had embraced Judaism, may have instructed him in Jewish doctrines and told him the stories of the patriarchs and Israel, not as they are related in the Bible, but as in the Midrash. The legendary poetry of the latter seems to have made as deep an impression on Mohammed's poetical mind as the doctrine of the unity of God and the moral teachings of the Old Testament, together with those civil and religious laws, scriptural and oral, which are either contained as germs or fully developed in this record. Christianity exercised less influence upon him. His knowledge of the New Testament was confined to a few apocryphal books; and while he recognized Jesus, whom, together with Moses, he called the greatest prophet next to himself, his notions of the Christian religion and its founder were excessively vague. He told of his mission to Khadija, who stood by him faithfully from the first, to his daughter, his step-son Ali, his favorite slave Zaid, whom he had freed and adopted, and to his trustworthy friend, Abu Bekr. His other relatives rejected his teachings. Abu Lahab, his uncle, called him a fool; and Abu Talib, his uncle and adoptive father, although he protected him, never professed belief in Mohammed's works.

By the fourth year of his mission he had made forty proselytes, chiefly slaves and people from the lower ranks; and now first he claimed to have received a command to come forward publicly as a preacher, and to defy the unbelievers. He vigorously assailed the superstition of the Meccans, and exhorted them to believe in a just but merciful God, eternal, indivisible, almighty, and all-wise, and in himself as chosen, like the prophets of old, to teach mankind how to escape the punishments of hell and attain eternal

He adopted a primitive Oriental doctrine that the mercy of God is to be obtained by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. He was too practical to challenge the strong belief in the sacredness of the Kaaba and the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and he made them a part of the new religion; but he unsparingly condemned certain barbarous habits of the Bedouins, such as the killing of their new-born daughters. The prohibition of certain kinds of food also belongs to the first period, when he was still under the influence of Judaism; the prohibition of gambling, usury, etc., probably are of a somewhat later date. Whether he did or did not understand the art of writing and reading is not quite clear; but be employed the services of amanuenses for his Koranic dicta, which at first consisted merely of brief rhymed sentences, in the manner of the ancient Arabic soothsayers. The Meccans looked upon him as a common ‘poet’ or ‘soothsayer,’ who was not in his right senses, or simply a liar. Nevertheless, the number of his converts increased until his progress compelled attention; and, finally, fearing for the sacredness of Mecca, the rejection of which would deprive them both of their preëminence and of revenue, they assailed the new prophet and his adherents, who dared “to call their ancient gods idols, and their ancestors fools.” The converted slaves and freedmen had to undergo terrible punishment; and others suffered so much at the hands of their own relatives that they were fain to revoke their creed; so that the Prophet himself advised his followers to emigrate to Abyssinia. Mohammed himself yielded so much as to acknowledge the idols he had assailed as intermediate between God and man; but he soon revoked this as an inspiration of Satan, thereby increasing the hatred of his adversaries, who in every way tried to throw ridicule upon him. At last it became necessary that he should be put beyond the reach of his persecutors, and Abu Talib hid him in a fortified castle of his own in the country. Hamza, his uncle, and Omar, who was formerly an enemy of Mohammed, and who later succeeded Abu Bekr as the third head of Islam, continued in the meantime to spread the new doctrine. The Koreish now demanded that Mohammed should be delivered into their hands: but Abu Talib steadfastly refused to comply with their wishes; a feud thereupon broke out with the family of the Hashimites, and Mohammed and all the members of his family, except, perhaps, Abu Lahab, were excommunicated. After the space of three years, however, the ‘peace party’ in Mecca brought about a reconciliation, and Mohammed was allowed to return. A great grief befell him at this time—his faithful wife Khadija died, and shortly afterwards his uncle, Abu Talib, and to add to his misery the vicissitudes of his career had reduced him by this time to poverty. A migration to Taif, where he sought to improve his position, proved a failure; it was with great difficulty that he escaped with his life. Shortly after his return from Taif he married Sauda, and in the course of his later life so increased the number of his wives that at his death he left nine, of whom Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bekr, and Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, are best known.

In the course of time Mohammed succeeded in converting several men from Yathrib, who came to Mecca on pilgrimage. The inhabitants of that city had long been accustomed to hear from the

numerous Jews living their the words ‘Revelation,’ ‘Prophecy,’ ‘God's Word,’ ‘Messiah’—to the Meccans mere sounds without meaning. In Yathrib the new faith took a strong hold. The next pilgrimage brought twelve, and the third more than seventy, adherents of the new faith from that city; and with these Mohammed entered into a close alliance. He now conceived the plan of seeking refuge in the friendly city, and in the year 622 (about twelve years after entering upon his work), after encouraging about 150 of his adherents to migrate to Yathrib, he fled thither, accompanied by Abu Bekr. The fugitives reached their destination not without danger, and were enthusiastically received. Thenceforth Yathrib was known as Madinat al-Nabi (City of the Prophet), or Medina. The flight (the Hejira) is one of the great events of Islam and the starting-point of the Mohammedan calendar. See.

The Hejira was also a turning-point in the career of Mohammed. Previously he had been despised as a madman or imposter; now he became judge, lawgiver, and ruler of Medina, and of two powerful Arabian tribes. His first care was to organize his forms of worship; his next to proselytize the numerous Jews who inhabited the city, to whom, besides having received their principal dogmas into his religion, he made many important concessions in the outer observances of Islam, and concluded alliances with many of their tribes; but the Jews resisted conversion. They ridiculed his pretensions, and by their constant taunts made him their bitter adversary up to the hour of his death. The most important act in the first year of the Hejira was his permission to go to war with the enemies of Islam in the name of God, a kind of manifesto chiefly directed against the Meccans. Not being able at first to fight his enemies in the open field, he endeavored to weaken their power by attacking the caravans of the Koreish on their way to Syria. He interfered materially with their trade, concluded alliances with the adjoining Bedouin tribes, and at last the signal for open warfare was given. A battle between 314 Moslems and about 600 Meccans was fought at Bedr, in the second year of the Hejira; the former gained the victory, and made many prisoners. A great number of adventurers soon flocked to Mohammed's colors, and he made successful expeditions against the Koreish and the Jewish tribes, chiefly the Bani Kainuka, whose fortified castle he took after a long siege. He sustained heavy losses, and was himself wounded in the battle near Ohod, but his power increased so rapidly that in the sixth year of the Hejira he was able to proclaim a public pilgrimage to Mecca. Although the Meccans did not allow this to he carried out, he gained the still greater advantage that they concluded a formal peace with him, and thus recognized him as an equal power and belligerent. He now sent missionaries all over Arabia and beyond the frontiers without hindrance; and in the following year celebrated the pilgrimage for three days undisturbed at Mecca. Soon afterwards he narrowly escaped death from poisoning at the hands of a Jewess, one of whose relatives had been killed while fighting against him. His missionaries went to Khosru II., of Persia, to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, to the King of Abyssinia, and to the Governor of Egypt, and the chiefs of several Arabic tribes received the new gospel; but the King of Persia, and Amru, the

Ghassanide, rejected his proposals, and Amru had the messenger executed. This was the cause of the first war between the Christians and the Moslems, in which the latter were beaten with great loss by Amru. The Meccans took the occasion to commit depredations upon certain allies of Mohammed, with the result that the Prophet marched upon the city, captured it without a blow, and was recognized as ruler and prophet. This completed the triumph of the new faith in Arabia. Mohammed now undertook to destroy all traces of idolatry in Mecca, and to establish the laws and ceremonies of his true faith; but he soon learned of a new attack by a considerable force of Arab tribes, gathered near Taif (630). Again he was victorious, and his influence and reputation correspondingly expanded. Deputations came to do homage to him in the name of the various tribes, either as the messenger of God or at least as the Prince of Arabia, and the year 9 of the Hejira was therefore called the Year of the Deputations. He made extensive preparations for a war against the Eastern Empire, but was not able to assemble forces enough to carry out his plan. Toward the end of the tenth year of the Hejira he undertook, at the head of at least 40,000 Moslems, his last solemn pilgrimage to Mecca, and there (on Mount Arafat) instructed them in the important laws and ordinances, chiefly of the pilgrimage; and the ceremonies observed by him on that occasion were fixed for all time. (See .) He exhorted his believers to righteousness and piety, recommended them to protect the weak, the poor, and women, and to abstain from usury. Soon after his return from Mecca he became ill and began to decline rapidly. He took part in public prayers as long as he could. At last, realizing the near approach of death, he preached to the people, recommending Abu Bekr and Usama, the son of Zaid, for the leadership of the army. He asked whether he had wronged any one, read passages from the Koran, and exhorted the people to peace among themselves, and to strict obedience to the tenets of the faith. A few days' afterwards he died in the arms of Ayesha, his favorite wife, on the 12th of the third month, in the year 11 of the Hejira (June 8, 632). His death caused intense excitement, and Omar tried to persuade the people that he was still alive. But Abu Bekr said to the assembled multitude: “Whoever among you has served Mohammed, let him know that Mohammed is dead; but he who has served the God of Mohammed, let him continue in His service, for He is still alive, and never dies.” He had made no provision for a successor, and the quarrel over the leadership, which not long after divided the Moslem world into two warring sects, began before Mohammed's body was buried. Abu Bekr finally received the homage of the principal Moslems at Medina. Mohammed was buried in the night in the house of Ayesha, where he had died, and which afterwards became part of the adjoining mosque.

Mohammed was not an idealist, and his religion was adapted to his age and surroundings. It has been said that he gave the people as much religion as he thought they could take care of, judging by his knowledge of them and of his own tendencies. He was at times deceitful, cunning, even revengeful and cowardly, and much addicted to sensuality. But he is praised for his amiability, his faithfulness toward friends, his tenderness toward his family, his frequent

readiness to forgive an enemy, and the extreme simplicity of his domestic life. He lived, when already in full power, in simple quarters, mended his own clothes, and freed all his slaves. He was much inclined to melancholy and nervous sensitiveness. His mind contained a strange mixture of truth and error, of right and wrong. Entering the field as the foe of the old superstitions, he yet clung to superstitious beliefs current among his people. He believed in jinns, omens, charms, and dreams. However much the religion of Islam may, rightly or wrongly, he considered the bane and cause of the decay of Eastern States and nations in our day, it must, in the first place, not be forgotten that it is not necessarily Islam which has caused the corruption, as indeed its ethics are for the most part of the higher order; and in the second place, that Mohammed is not to be made responsible for all the errors of his successors. Take him all in all, the history of humanity has seen few more earnest and sincere ‘prophets,’ using the word prophet in the true sense of one irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish, and to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of which is often unknown to himself.

Mohammed is described as of middle height, lean, but broad-shouldered, with slightly curling hair about a well-developed head. His eyes, overhung with thick lashes, were large and coal-black; his nose, large and slightly bent, was well formed. A long beard added to the dignity of his appearance. A black mole between his shoulders became known among the faithful as the ‘seal of prophecy.’

.—Of the lives of Mohammed the best are: In English, Sir William Muir (4 vols., London, 1851-61; 2d ed., abridged, 1 vol., ib., 1894); in German, Nöldeke (Hanover, 1863); Weil (Stuttgart, 1864); Sprenger (2d ed., Berlin, 1869); Krehl (Leipzig, 1884); Grimme (Münster, 1892); in French, Lamairesse and Dujarrie (Paris, 1898). Consult also Saint Hilaire, Mahomet et le Coran (Paris, 1865); Wellhausen, Muhammed in Medina (Berlin, 1882); id., Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, iii. and iv. (ib., 1887-89); August Müller, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendlande, vol. i. (Berlin, 1885); Muir, Mahomet and Islam (London, 1887); Ameer Ali, The Life and Teachings of Mohammed (London, 1891); and the works mentioned under and . See also .


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Cato's Letters/Letter 101

SIR, I have been told that in some former reigns, when the attorney-general took it in his head to make innocent or doubtful expressions criminal by the help of forced innuendos, the method of proceeding was as follows: If the counsel for the prisoner insisted, that the words carried no seditious meaning, but might and ought to be understood in a reasonable sense; he was answered, that his exception would be saved to him upon arrest of judgment; in the mean time the information was tried, and the malign intention of the words was aggravated and left to a willing jury; and then, upon a motion in behalf of the prisoner, to arrest judgment, because the words were not criminal in law, he was told, that the jury were judges of the intention; and having found it an ill one, it was too late to take the exception. Whether this was ever the truth, I have not lived long enough to affirm from my own knowledge; or, whether this method of proceeding be law now, I have not skill enough in that science to determine: But I think I may justly say, that if it be law, it is worth the consideration of our legislature whether it ought to continue so.

It is certain, that there is no middle in nature, between judging by fixed and steady rules, and judging according to discretion, which is another word for fancy, avarice, resentment, or ambition, when supported by power, or freed from fear. And I have said in my former letter, that as there can be no convenience but has an inconvenience attending it, so both these methods of judging are liable to objections. There is a constant war between the legislature and the pleader; and no law was ever enacted with so much circumspection, but flaws were found out afterwards in it, and it did not answer all the purposes intended by the law-makers; nor can any positive law be framed with so much contrivance, but artful men will slip out of it, and particularly in relation to libels. There are so many equivoques in language, so many sneers in expression, which naturally carry one meaning, and yet may intend another, that it is impossible by any fixed and stated rules to determine the intention, and punish all who deserve to be punished. But to get rid of this inconvenience at the expence of giving any man, or number of men, a discretionary power to judge another’s intentions to be criminal, when his words do not plainly denote them to be so, is subverting all liberty, and subjecting all men to the caprices, to the arbitrary and wild will, of those in power. A text in scripture cannot be quoted, without being said to reflect on those who break it; nor the ten commandments read, without abusing all princes and great men, who often act against them all.

I must therefore beg leave to think, that it is a strange assertion, which, as I have heard, has been advanced by lawyers in Westminster-Hall; viz. That it is an absurdity to affirm, that a judge and jury are the only people in England who are not to understand an author’s meaning; which, I think, may be true in many instances, when they act judicially, and the words which he uses, candidly construed, do not import that meaning. Tiberius put many Senators to death, for looking melancholy or dissatisfied, or enviously at his power; and Nero many others, for not laughing at his play, or laughing in the wrong place, or sneering instead of laughing; and very probably both judged right in their intentions; but sure no body will think amongst us, that such examples ought to be copied. A man, by not pulling off his hat, or not low enough, by a turn upon his heel, by a frowning countenance, or an over-pleasant one, may induce his spectators to believe that he intends a disrespect to one to whom it is criminal to own it; yet it would be a strange act of power to punish him for this unobservance. So words may be certainly chosen with such art, or want of it, that they may naturally carry a compliment, and perhaps may mean it; and yet other people, by knowing that the person intended does not deserve one, may think him abused And if this way of judging may be indulged in Westminster-Hall, the Lord have mercy upon poets, and the writers of dedications, and of the epitaphs too upon great men. Surely it is of less consequence to mankind, that a witty author should now and then escape unpunished, than that all men should hold their tongues, or not learn to write, or cease writing.

I do agree, when the natural and genuine meaning and purport of words and expressions in libelous writings carry a criminal intention, that the writer ought not to escape punishment by subterfuge or evasion, or by a sly interpretation hid in a corner, and intended only for a court of justice, nor by annexing new names to known things, or by using circumlocutions instead of single sounds and expressions; for words are only arbitrary signs of ideas; and if any man will coin new words to old ideas, or annex new ideas to old words, and let this meaning be fully understood, without doubt he is answerable for it. But when words used in their true and proper sense, and understood in their literal and natural meaning, import nothing that is criminal; then to strain their genuine signification to make them intend sedition (which possibly the author might intend too) is such a stretch of discretionary power, as must subvert all the principles of free government, and overturn every species of liberty. I own, that with such a power, some men may escape censure who deserve censure, but with it no man can be safe; and it is certain, that few men or states will be aggrieved by this indulgence, but such as deserve much worse usage.

It is a maxim of politicks in despotick governments, that twenty innocent persons ought to be punished, rather than one guilty man escape; but the reverse of this is true in free states, in the ordinary course of justice: For since no law can be invented which can give power enough to their magistrates to reach every criminal, without giving them, by the abuse of the same law, a power to punish innocence and virtue, the greater evil ought to be avoided: And therefore when an innocent or criminal sense can be put upon words or actions, the meaning of which is not fully determined by other words or actions, the most beneficent construction ought to be made in favour of the person accused. The cause of liberty, and the good of the whole, ought to prevail, and to get the better of the just resentment otherwise due to the impertinence of a factious scribbler, or the impotent malice of a turbulent babbler.

This truth every man acknowledges, when it becomes his own case, or the case of his friends or party; and almost every man complains of it when he suffers by it: So great is the difference of men’s having power in their hands or upon their shoulders! But at present, I think that no party amongst us can find their account either in the suppression or in the restraint of the press, or in being very severe in their animadversion upon the liberties taken by it. The independent Whigs think all liberty to depend upon freedom of speech, and freedom of writing, within the bounds of manners and discretion, as conceiving that there is often no other way left to be heard by their superiors, nor to apprize their countrymen of designs and conspiracies against their safety; which they think ought to be done boldly, though in respect to authority, as modestly as can be consistent with the making themselves understood; and such among them as have lately quitted their independence, think themselves obliged to handle a subject tenderly, upon which they have exerted themselves very strenuously in another circumstance of fortune.

Very many of the Tories, who may be at present ranked amongst the former sort of men, and who every day see more and more the advantages of liberty, and forget their former prejudices, will not be contented hereafter to receive their religion and politicks from an ignorant licenser, under the direction of those who have often neither religion nor politicks. And even the Jacobites themselves are so charmed with their own doughty performances, that they would not lose the pleasure of scolding at or abusing those whom they cannot hurt. Many of our spiritual guides will not be deprived of doing honour to themselves, and advantage to their flocks, from informing the world what they ought to believe by their particular systems; and the dissenting preachers are willing to keep their own flocks, and would not have the reasonableness of their separation judged of alone by those who differ from them, and have an interest in suppressing them. And I believe that all our world would be willing to have some other news besides what they find in the Gazette; and I hope that I may venture to say, that there is no number of men amongst us so very popular, as by their single credit and authority to get the better of all these interests.

But, besides the reasons that I have already given, there is another left behind, which is worth them all; namely, that all the methods hitherto taken to prevent real libels have proved ineffectual; and probably any method which can be taken, will only prevent the world from being informed of what they ought to know, and will increase the others. The subjecting the press to the regulation and inspection of any man whatsoever, can only hinder the publication of such books, as authors are willing to own, and are ready to defend; but can never restrain such as they apprehend to be criminal, which always come out by stealth. There is no hindering printers from having presses, unless all printing be forbidden, and scarce then: And dangerous and forbidden libels are more effectually dispersed, enquired after, and do more mischief, than libels openly published; which generally raise indignation against the author and his party. It is certain, that there were more published in King Charles II’s and King James’s times, when they were severely punished, and the press was restrained, than have ever been since. The beginning of Augustus’s reign swarmed with libels, and continued to do so, whilst informers were encouraged; but when that prince despised them, they lost their force, and soon after died. And, I dare say, when the governors of any country give no occasion to just reflexions upon their ill conduct, they have nothing to fear but calumny and falsehood.

Whilst Tiberius, in the beginning of his reign, would preserve the appearance of governing the Romans worthily, he answered a parasite, who informed him in the Senate, of libels published against his person and authority, in these words; Si quidem locutus aliter fuerit, dabo operam ut rationem factorum meorum dictorumque reddam; si perseveraverit, invicem eum odero: “If any man reflect upon my words or actions, I will let him know my motives and reasons for them; but if he still go on to asperse and hate me, I will hate him again.” But afterwards, when that emperor became a bloody tyrant, words, silence, and even looks, were capital.

T I am, &c.

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 101


text:
Cato's Letters/Letter 55

SIR, I shall, in this paper, consider and discuss a great point; namely, whether the killing of Julius Caesar was a virtue, or a crime? And because Dr. Prideaux, who condemns it, does not only speak his own sense, but that of a great party, I shall here transcribe what he says of it.

"He was murdered in the Senate-house, by a conspiracy of Senators. This was a most base and villainous act; and was the more so, in that the prime authors of it, Marcus Brutus, Decimus Brutus, Cassius, and Trebonius, and some others of them, were such as Caesar had in the highest manner obliged; yet it was executed under the notion of an high heroick virtue, in thus freeing their country from one whom they called a tyrant; and there are not wanting such as are ready, even in our days, to applaud the act. But divine justice declared itself otherwise in this matter: For it pursued every one of them that were concerned herein with such a just and remarkable revenge, that they were every man of them cut off in a short time after, in a violent manner, either by their own or other men's hands."

These are the Doctor's words, and this his judgment, which is roundly passed; but how justly, I hope to make appear before I have ended this letter. He has not told us what it was, that, in his opinion, rendered the person of Caesar so very inviolable. That Caesar had for his title, only power and success gained by violence, and all wicked means, is most certain. That the acquiring and exercising of power by force, is tyranny, is as certain; nor did ever any reasonable man say, that success was a proof of right. They who make the person of Caesar sacred, declare the person of a tyrant, and an usurper to be sacred; for no man ever lived, to whom those two characters do more notoriously belong. And if all the privileges and impunity belonging to a lawful magistrate, who protects his people, and rules himself and them by law, and their own consent, do also appertain to a lawless intruder, who is stronger than all, by being worse than all; and under the mock name of a publick magistrate, is a publick oppressor, scourge, usurper, executioner, and plunderer; then all these blessed consequences follow: That there is an utter end of all publick and private right and wrong, every magistrate may be a tyrant, every tyrant is a lawful magistrate; it is unlawful to resist the greatest human evil; the necessary means of self-preservation are unlawful; though it be lawful and expedient to destroy little robbers, who have as much right, and more innocence, than great ones, and who are only so for subsistence; yet it is impious and unlawful to oppose great robbers, who, out of lust, avarice, cruelty, or wantonness, take away life and property, and destroy nations at pleasure: That real, great, and general mischief, is defended by giving it a good name, by which he who commits it is protected; violence, fraud, and oppression, may be committed with security, if they be but called magistracy; and the execrable authors of them are not only safe, but sacred, if they be but called magistrates: Though it be unlawful to be a publick destroyer and murderer, yet it is unlawful to destroy him; that is, it is unlawful to prevent or punish that which is most impious and unlawful: And, finally, that any man who can oppress and enslave the world, and destroy nations, with the most and best men in them, may do all this with impunity.

If Julius Caesar was a lawful magistrate, then every man who has force and villainy enough, may make himself a lawful magistrate; and lawful magistrates are, or may be made by force and villainy. But if magistracy is not acquired by overturning with the sword all law and magistracy, then Julius Caesar was no magistrate; and if he was not, how came he by the rights and impunity with which lawful magistrates only are vested?

Against any man using unlawful force, every man has a right to use force. What crime would it have been in any Roman, or body of Romans, even without any commission from Rome, to have slain Alarick, or Attila, or Brennus, when they invaded the Roman territories? And what more right had Caesar than they? In truth, his crime was infinitely greater than theirs, as he added the sins of ingratitude, treachery, and parricide, to that of usurpation. The Goths and Gauls did indeed violate the laws of nations, in molesting and invading a country, that owed them neither subjection nor homage: But Caesar violated the laws of nature, and of his country, by enslaving those whom he was entrusted and bound to defend.

Every body, I believe, will own, that when he first made war upon his country, his country had a right to make war upon him; and to destroy him, who fought to destroy them. How came that right to cease, after he had, by his success in villainy and usurpation, added to his crimes, and made death still more his due? Or, is it lawful to resist and kill a robber before he has taken away your money, but not after he has done it? And does a villain grow sacred and inviolable, by the mere merit of completing his villainy? If Caesar had forfeited his life, as he certainly had by all the laws of Rome; why was it not lawful to take it away by the hands of thirty men, as by the arms of thirty thousand, and in the Senate as well as in the field?

The reason why one private man must not kill another in society, even when he does that which deserves death, is, that in society no man must be his own judge, or take his own revenge; but the more equitable law must give it him, and there are judges established for that purpose. But if the offender set himself above the law and the judges, he leaves a right to the person injured to seek redress his own way, and as he can get it. Whoever puts himself in a state of war against me, gives me a right of war against him; and violence is a proper remedy for violence, when no other is left.

That right which, in the state of nature, every man had, of repelling and revenging injuries, in such a manner as every man thought best, is transferred to the magistrate, when political societies are formed, and magistracy established; but must return to private men again, when the society is dissolved: Which dissolution may happen either through the natural demise of the persons entrusted with the publick authority, where there is no provision made in the constitution for others to succeed them; or when, by a superior unlawful force, they are restrained from answering the great end of their trust, in protecting the innocent; an end for which alone men part with their natural rights, and become the members and subjects of society.

It is a most wicked and absurd position, to say, that a whole people can ever be in such a situation, as not to have a right to defend and preserve themselves, when there is no other power in being to protect and defend them; and much more, that they must not oppose a tyrant, a traitor, an universal robber, who, by violence, treachery, rapine, infinite murders and devastations, has deprived them of their legal protection.

Now, that all these black characters belonged to Caesar, is indisputable fact; nor was there ever a traitor and a tyrant in the world, if he was not one. He broke, outrageously broke, every tie that can bind a human soul; honour, virtue, religion, law, trust, humanity, and every thing that is sacred and valuable amongst men. He was a subject and servant of the Roman commonwealth, greatly honoured and trusted by it; he was a Senator and high priest; he had been consul; he was general of one of its greatest armies, governor of one of its greatest and best provinces. All this power and credit, all these offices and forces, he turned, ungratefully, barbarously, and traitorously, upon his masters, and made a prey of his country with its own money and arms.

The means by which he did this mighty and consummate evil, were suitable to the end. He stuck at nothing; nor was any pitch of baseness too high or too low for him. He even submitted his person to infamous and unnatural prostitution, for the ends of ambition; and from a boy was in every faction for embroiling and overturning the state; first in the bloody measures of Marius; afterwards in the more terrible conspiracy of Catiline, to murder the consuls and the Senate, to burn Rome, and to enslave the commonwealth: And though he failed in that conspiracy, he went on conspiring; he corrupted the people, and headed parties of desperadoes, to frighten those whom he could not bribe: He oppressed the provinces, and destroyed their inhabitants; he robbed the publick temples; he slaughtered the armies of the republick; he seized the publick treasure; at last, he seized the world, and extinguished its liberty. Hear the dismal dread of the Roman Senate and people, upon that dreadful occasion, as the same is described by Lucan.

——Fuit haec mensura timoris, Velle putant quodcunque potest —— Omnia Caesar erat; privatae curia vocis Testis adest. Sedere patres, censere parati, Si regnum, si templa sibi, jugulumque senatus, Exiliumque petat.——— LUCAN. PHARSAL. I. 3. v. 108

Thus fell Rome, the glory and mistress of the earth, and the earth with it, under the yoke of a tyrant, whose parts increased his guilt, and made him the more dreadful. From the numberless mischiefs which he had done to get power, the highest were apprehended from him now he was possessed of it; and it was not doubted, but he would have proceeded to massacre and conflagration, had he been provoked by opposition.

———Namque ignibus atris Creditur ut captae rapturus moenia Romae. LUCAN. UT SUPRA, V. 99

And therefore most of the Senators were fled with Pompey, and Rome was left defenceless to the sword of the usurper.

What now had the Romans to do in this calamitous case, under this enormous oppressor; owing them duty and allegiance as one of their own citizens, but, like a barbarous conqueror and an alien, holding them in bonds with his sword at their throats? Law, liberty, and appeals, were no more! A tyrant was their chief magistrate; his will their only law. Because he had murdered one half of the people, had he therefore a right to govern the rest? And because he had robbed them of most of their property, were they obliged to give him the remainder? Does the success of a criminal sanctify his crime, or are crimes sanctified by their greatness? If only an intention to destroy the state, was high treason and death; how did the executing of that execrable intention become lawful government, and acquire a right of allegiance?

I say, what remained now to the Romans to be done for relief? As to legal process against Caesar, there could be none; omnia Caesar erat! Nor was there any publick force great enough to oppose him: He had before destroyed or corrupted the armies of the commonwealth. Or, if a new army could have been drawn together, ought an opportunity to have been given him to have destroyed that too? Or, was it lawful to kill him, and twenty or thirty thousand men with him, and perhaps with the like slaughter on the other side, and with the loss of the best and bravest Romans whom his ambition had left unmurdered; and yet was it unlawful to kill him, without all this apparatus, expence, and mischief? Strange! that the killing by surprize a single traitor and parricide, who had forfeited his life by all the laws of God and man, should be esteemed a heinous and crying crime; and yet that the surprizing and cutting to pieces a whole army should be reckoned heroick virtue!

It was a known maxim of liberty amongst the great, the wise, the free ancients, that a tyrant was a beast of prey, which might be killed by the spear as well as by a fair chase, in his court as well as in his camp; that every man had a right to destroy one who would destroy all men; that no law ought to be given him who took away all law; and that, like Hercules's monsters, it was glorious to rid the world of him, whenever, and by what means soever, it could be done.

If we read the stories of the most celebrated heroes of antiquity (men of whom the present world is not worthy) and consider the actions that gained them their highest reverence and renown, and recommended their names to posterity with the most advantage; we shall find those in the first rank of glory, who have resisted, destroyed, or expelled tyrants and usurpers, the pests, the burdens, and the butchers of mankind. What can be more meritorious, what more beneficent to the world, than the saving of millions of men at the expense of one grand murderer, one merciless and universal plunderer? And can there be any better or other reason given for the killing of any guilty man, but the preserving of the innocent? Indeed, an action so glorious to those that did it, and so benevolent and advantageous to those for whom it was done, could never have been censured in the world, if there had not lived in all ages abject flatterers, and servile creatures of power, always prepared to sanctify and abet any [of] the most enormous wickedness, if it were gainful: And these are they who have often misled good men in the worst prejudices.

Timoleon, one of the wisest and most virtuous men that ever blessed this earth, spent a long and glorious life in destroying tyrants; he killed, or caused to be killed, his own brother, when he could not persuade him to lay down an usurped power, and no other means were left to save his country. And if this action cost him afterwards much grief and melancholy, it was owing to his own tender heart, and the curses and reproaches of a mother otherwise indulgent. He was even censured for this his sorrow, as if it had got the better of his love to mankind; and when he at last overcame it, he shewed that it was not occasioned for having slain a tyrant, but his brother; for he immortalized the rest of his life in doing nothing else but destroying tyrants, and restoring liberty.

But if the killing Caesar were so great a crime, how comes Catiline to be still so universally detested, for only intending what Caesar accomplished! It is true, Caesar did not burn Rome; nor did he save it out of any tenderness to it, but saved it for himself: He spared fire, only because the sword was sufficient. I would here ask another question: If Oliver Cromwell had died by any of the numerous conspiracies formed to take away his life; would posterity have condemned the action for this reason alone, that it was done the only way that it could be done?

But there is an instance in the Roman history, that will set this matter yet in a fuller light; it is the story of Spartacus, a Thracian slave and gladiator, who bid fair for being lord of the Roman world. He seems to me to have had personal qualifications and abilities, as great as those of Caesar, without Caesar's birth and education, and without the measure of Caesar's guilt. For I hope all mankind will allow it a less crime in any man to attempt to recover his own liberty, than wantonly and cruelly to destroy the liberty of his country.

It is astonishing to consider, how a poor slave, from the whip and the chain, followed only by about seventy fugitive gladiators, should begin a revolt from the most powerful state that ever the world saw; should gather and form, by his courage and dexterity, a formidable army; should inspire resolution and fidelity into the very dregs of mankind; should qualify his sudden soldiers, composed of thieves and vagabonds, to face and defeat the Roman legions, that were a terror to the world, and had conquered it; should keep together, without pay or authority, a raw and lawless rabble, till he had vanquished two Roman armies, and one of them a Praetorian army: And even when Crixius, his fellow-commander, envying his glory and success, had withdrawn from him, and carried with him a great number of his forces, and was cut to pieces with twenty thousand of his men, by Q. Arrius the praetor, yet he still continued to conquer. He beat that very Arrius that had killed Crixius; he defeated Lentulus the consul; he overcame L. Gellius, another consul; and in all likelihood, had he not been weakened by the above defection of Crixius, he had beat Crassus too, and seen himself lord of Rome.

Now I would ask the advocates of lawless power, the friends to the life and name of Caesar, whether Spartacus, if he had succeeded in his last battle against Crassus, had been lawful and irresistible King of Rome? And whether the Senate and people of Rome, with the greatest part of the known world, would have owed him duty and allegiance? Or, would he not have continued still a thief and a robber? And if he had continued so, then, by all the laws of nature and self-preservation, as well as by the municipal laws of every country in the world, every man was at liberty to seize him how he could, and to kill him if he resisted, or ran away.

Tell me, O ye unlimited slaves, ye beasts of lawless power, ye loyal levellers of right and wrong! how came Caesar by a better title to dominion than Spartacus had, whose sword was as good, though not quite so prosperous and destructive, as Caesar's? Tell me where lay the difference between them, unless in their different success; and that Spartacus was as great a man, but Caesar a greater traitor and tyrant?

Indeed, had Sir Robert Filmer, or any other of the honest and sage discoverers of Adam's right heir, lived in those days (as they have done since, and plainly pointed him out) and complimented Caesar, as doubtless they would, with a lineal and hereditary title from Aeneas, wandering prince of Troy; he might have been called the Lord's Anointed, as well as others, and his assassination been accounted rebellion, and worse than the sin of witchcraft. But as I do not find that Caesar, though he valued himself upon his descent from the pious Trojan hero, did yet claim any dictatorial right by virtue of his illustrious parentage; I have therefore taken liberty to treat him as a mere traitor, an usurper, and a tyrant.

G I am, &c.

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 55


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Page:The American Indian.djvu/231

Rh or jaws, as the case may require. Collections of these masks are to be found in our large museums, where they stand as objective data as to what the native conceives his gods to be like. Masks are used elsewhere, even among the Aztec and Inca, but among the wilder tribes are not highly developed as here on the coast of the salmon area.

The whole subject of ritualism in the New World is too complicated to give an adequate view of it in a single chapter. Yet, from even this superficial sketch it appears that the phenomenon is strongest in Mexico and Peru, or the regions of highest culture, and that as we go outward in both continents from these centers, ritualism becomes less and less conspicuous. If we consider the United States and Canada only, it appears strongest in the centers of clan organization. Another general characteristic of New World ritualism is that wherever it appears, these rituals are the formalized narratives of an assumed supernatural, or spirit revelation, from the gods. The tracing out of the distribution of these rituals over the several areas of the New World is destined to become one of the most important problems of our subject and promises to reveal in the most satisfactory way the earlier historical contacts of the various existing tribes.

SUPERNATURAL GUARDIANS AND TOTEMISM

Under the head of Social Grouping we enumerated the most striking totemic features associated with clans and gentes, but the totemic complex is also intimately bound up with the very fundamental trait of individual guardians. This trait is particularly strong among the bison hunters but far from infrequent elsewhere. It is usually one of the equipments of a warrior which youths acquire by fasting and spiritual endeavors. The procedure usually takes this form: if a youth does not have a dream or vision which his superiors regard as supernatural, he is instructed and prepared for the inducing of such an experience and left in a lonely place to fast and pray, day and night. If a spirit appears, it is usually in animal form and that animal becomes in a sense the individual guardian of the supplicant. This guardian is, however, conceived of as

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186 a spirit and not merely as a bear, eagle, wolf, etc., which are after all, but the objective links between the individual and the source of spiritual power. A very considerable number of objects in our museum collections are the material bonds between warriors and these personal guardians, usually classed under the technical name of medicine objects, or charms. Particularly among the tribes of the Mississippi Valley, these often form small bundles with short rituals and in some cases we find these accompanied by series of larger and more complex bundles often rising to the level of tribal ceremonies. The Pawnee, for example, have a hierarchy of these bundles extending from the tribe down to family groups. The center for this special bundle development seems to be about the Great Lakes in the Central Algonkin sphere of influence, but it has its analogies in the tribes of the Lower Mississippi and the Pueblos of the Rio Grande. Further, we note that certain Aztec legends mention two bundles miraculously handed down to the people in the days of their tribal migrations. Each of the two main divisions of the Aztec took one of these bundles for its chief guidance. As to the contents of these bundles, we are not fully enlightened, but one contained a crystal of some kind and the other a set of fire sticks, reminding us of Pawnee bundles. We must suspect, therefore, that the ritualistic bundle is an old and fundamental development in North American culture, and that it is based upon the much less specialized and more widely distributed concept of the individual guardian.

In the extended discussions of totemism by Frazer and others this generalized concept of the relation between the New World native and his animal-like guardians is elevated to the plane of an explanatory theory, often called the "American theory of totemic origin." However, the leading American students of the subject are disposed to regard this theory as accounting for facts peculiar to the New World totemic systems rather than as universal in application. Even in the New World, exceptions have been cited to show that similar totemic complexes seem to have had very different histories and so have superficial similarity. Facts of this tenor have

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The American Journal of Science/Series 3, Volume 22/Note on Photographs of the Spectrum of the Comet of June, 1881

XXIV.—Note on Photographs of the Spectrum of the Comet of June, 1881; by Professor

appearance of a large comet has afforded an opportunity of adding to our knowledge of these bodies by applying to it a new means of research. Owing to the recent progress in photography, it was to be hoped that photographs of the comet and even of its spectrum might be obtained and peculiarities invisible to the eye detected. For such experiments my observatory was prepared, because for many years its resources had been directed to the more delicate branches of celestial photography and spectroscopy, such as photography of stellar spectra and of the nebulæ. More than a hundred photographs of spectra of stars have been taken, and in the nebula of Orion details equal in faintness to stars of the 14·7 magnitude have been photographed.

It was obvious that if the comet could be photographed by less than an hour's exposure, there would be a chance of obtaining a photograph of the spectrum of the coma, especially as it was probable that its ultra-violet region consisted of but few lines. In examining my photographs of the spectrum of the voltaic arc, a strong band or group of lines was found above H, and on the hypothesis that the incandescent vapor of a carbon compound exists in comets this band might be photographed in their spectrum.

Accordingly, at the first attempt, a photograph of the nucleus and part of the envelopes was obtained in seventeen minutes on the night of June 24th, through breaks in the clouds. On succeeding occasions, when an exposure of 162 minutes was given, the tail impressed itself to an extent of nearly ten degrees in length.

I next tried by interposing a direct vision prism between the sensitive plate and object glass to secure a photograph which would show the continuous spectrum of the nucleus and the banded spectrum of the coma. After an exposure of eighty-three minutes, a strong picture of the spectrum of the nucleus, coma and part of the tail was obtained, but the banded spectrum was overpowered by the continuous spectrum.

I then applied the two-prism spectroscope used for stellar spectrum photography, anticipating that although the diminution of light would be serious after passing through the slit, two prisms and two object glasses, yet the advantage of being able to have a juxtaposed comparison spectrum would make the attempt desirable, and moreover, the continuous spectrum being more weakened than the banded by the increased dispersion the latter would become more distinct.

Three photographs of the comet's spectrum have been taken with this arrangement with exposures of 180 minutes, 196 minutes and 228 minutes, and with a comparison spectrum on each. The continuous spectrum of the nucleus was plainly seen while the photography was in progress. It will take some time to reduce and discuss these photographs and prepare the auxiliary photographs which will be necessary for their interpretation. For the present it will suffice to say that the most striking feature is a heavy band above H which is divisible into lines, and in addition two faint bands, one between G and h and another between h and H. I was very careful to stop these exposures before dawn, fearing that the spectrum of daylight might become superposed on the cometary spectrum.

It would seem that these photographs strengthen the hypothesis of the presence of carbon in comets; but a series of comparisons will be necessary, and it is not improbable that a part of the spectrum may be due to other elements.

271 Madison Avenue, New York.


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Author:Charles Colebrook Sherman

Works

 * (with Edwin A. Start)
 * (with J. A. Montgomery)

title: Author:Charles Colebrook Sherman


text: Author:Henry Draper

title: Author:Henry Draper


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The New International Encyclopædia/Mohammed (sultans)

MOHAMMED. The name of four sultans of Turkey.— was the son of Sultan Bajazet I., who was defeated and captured by Timur in 1402 and died in captivity in 1403. Mohammed I., after sharing the supreme power with his brothers, became sole Sultan in 1413. He reigned until 1421. He consolidated the Empire, which had suffered from the inroad of Timur.— (c. 1430-81) was Sultan from 1451 to 1481. He was surnamed El-Ghazi, i.e. conqueror (of infidels), and also Buyuk, i.e. the Great. He was born at Adrianople, and succeeded his father, Amurath II. His first acts were the murder of his brothers and the suppression of a rebellion in Karamania. Having thus secured himself on the throne, he bent all his energies in order to effect the capture of Constantinople. This city was now the sole remnant of the once mighty empire of the Cæsars, and after more than a year spent in

preparations, Mohammed commenced the siege on April 6, 1453, with an army of about 70,000 and a fleet of 320 vessels. The Greeks, aided by gallant bands under Gian Giustiniani, a noble Genoese, long maintained an obstinate resistance. On the morning of May 29th the Turks made a combined attack by land and sea without success; but the retirement from the ramparts of Giustiniani, who had been severely wounded, caused a panic among his followers, and the simultaneous charge of a chosen body of Janizaries, with Mohammed himself at their head, proved irresistible. The brave Emperor, Constantine XI., died in the breach, and the Turks poured in over his corpse to plunder and devastate his capital. Mohammed now transferred the seat of his government to Constantinople, and sought to gain the good will of the inhabitants by promising them a free exercise of their religion. After achieving this great conquest, he made formidable preparations for the invasion of Hungary. Belgrade was the first point of attack; but János Hunyady (q.v.) compelled him to raise the siege (1450). Soon after this Mohammed became master of the Morea, annexed Servia, and conquered the Empire of Trebizond, an offshoot of the Byzantine Empire. He then turned his arms against the Albanians, whose leader, Scanderbeg, long defied the Turkish power. Scanderbeg died in 1468, and ten years later the subjugation of Albania was completed. In 1470 Mohammed conquered Negropont from the Venetians. In 1475 he made the Khan of the Crimea tributary, and at the same time deprived the Genoese of Kaffa. In 1480, however, he was repulsed by the Knights of Saint John from Rhodes. In the same year he captured Otranto, in Italy, the last achievement of his reign. Mohammed was possessed of great abilities; he was brave, enterprising, and sagacious; he is said to have spoken five languages fluently, and to have been well versed in geography, ancient history, natural sciences, and the fine arts. But the brilliancy of his career, and the occasional generosity and even magnanimity which he showed, cannot obliterate the recollection of those acts of cruelty and treachery which have justly branded him as the most ruthless tyrant of the House of Osman.— (1566-1603) was Sultan from 1595 to 1603. He succeeded his father and at once murdered his nineteen brothers. He waged war against Austria without success.— (1641-91) was Sultan from 1648 to 1687. He came to the throne when only seven years of age, succeeding his father, Ibrahim, who had been murdered by the Janizaries. The real rulers were the ../Kiuprili/ (q.v.). The reign of Mohammed IV. witnessed the collapse of Turkish power in Europe. The great onslaught upon the House of Austria in 1683 resulted in the defeat of ../Kara Mustapha/ (q.v.) before Vienna. When other disasters followed, Mohammed was dethroned in 1687. He died in prison.


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The American Journal of Science/Series 3, Volume 22/Spectroscopic Observations upon the Comet b, 1881

XXV.—Spectroscopic Observations upon the Comet b, 1881; by Professor.

the Comet was brightest the weather at Princeton was very tantalizing. From June 25 to July 3, the comet was seen and observed on every night except June 30, and on none of them, except July 2, more than an hour at a time, the work being invariably interrupted by clouds or fog.

For the spectroscopic observations I have used both the one-prism instrument, by the Clarks, which belongs with the Equatorial, and the solar spectroscope by Grubb—the latter with dispersive powers varying, according to occasion, from two to six dense glass prisms. The telescope was the 9½ inch Equatorial.

The following are the principal facts made out so far:

(1.) The spectrum of the nucleus was found to be for the most part simply continuous; but on several occasions, especially June 25, July 1, and July 12, it showed distinct bands, coinciding with those of the spectrum of the coma. When brightest the spectrum could easily be followed from the neighborhood of B to a point well above G; and in the lower portion it showed color strongly.

(2.) The spectrum of one of the jets which issue from the nucleus was isolated on June 29th and found to be continuous. I think this was usually the case with the jets, but it is seldom possible to separate the spectrum of a jet from that of the nucleus sufficiently to be perfectly sure.

(3.) The spectrum of the tail appears to be a continuous spectrum overlaid by a banded spectrum, the same as that of the coma. The bands in the spectrum of the tail were followed to a distance of about 20′ from the head, on June 29 and July 1. The continuous spectrum ceased to be visible before the bands were entirely lost sight of, using a slit wide enough to unite the b 's into one band.

(4.) The spectrum of the coma shows only three bright bands with a faint continuous spectrum connecting them. No other bands could be found, though the continuous spectrum could be followed from about half way between C and D, to above G. The Fraunhofer lines could not be seen either in the spectra of the nucleus or of the coma.

While the comet was brightest, the bands, especially the upper and lower ones, were very ill-defined, so much so as to interfere with satisfactory measurements of position. After July 1 the definition became better.

(5.) The coma spectrum was very carefully compared with the spectrum of the Bunsen burner flame, with the spectra of Greissler tubes containing CO, CO₂ and ether vapor, and also with the spark spectrum of magnesium and air. The wave length of the less refrangible edges of each of the three bands was carefully determined by micrometer measures, on June 29, and on July 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12.

All the comparisons concur in showing a close, and so far as the dispersive power employed could decide, an exact agreement between the spectrum of the comet and that of the Bunsen flame. On the other hand the discordance between the comet-spectrum and the spectra of the Geissler tubes was striking. The lower of the three comet bands was the only one which was even approximately coincident with any band of the tube spectrum.

(6.) The measurements on the evenings named give the following numbers for the wave-lengths of the bands, viz:

The lower band was much the most difficult to deal with. The maximum of brightness seems to be, not at the edge of the band, but a little way up, and this perhaps may explain the fact that I obtained 5564 in the case of Hartwig's comet (while Von Konkoly obtained 5610—a much better result). Dr. Watts (Nature, vol. xx, page 28) gives 5634·7, 5165·3 and 4739·8 as the wave-lengths for the corresponding bands in the spectrum of the Bunsen flame.

(7.) The middle band, on June 29, July 1, 2, and 3, showed three fine, bright lines upon it, one just at the lower edge of the band, and the other two at distances of about 30 Ångstrom units—coinciding apparently with three lines which are seen in the Bunsen flame spectrum, though I did not succeed in measuring them.

It is hardly necessary to say that the evidence as to the identity of the flame and comet spectra is almost overwhelming; the peculiar ill-defined appearance of the cometary bands at the time of the comet's greatest brightness is, however, something which I have not yet succeeded in imitating with the flame spectrum. The comet spectrum on July 25th certainly presented a general appearance quite different from that of the later observations, as regards the definition of the bands.

Perhaps I may be allowed to record here a fact which has nothing to do with the comet, but was observed while adjusting the spectroscopes upon the sun in preparation for evening work. I find that the one-prism spectroscope shows the bright lines in the upper portion of the chromosphere spectrum, above h, better than any other instrument I have yet tried. I have hitherto always found it rather difficult to exhibit the two H's as bright lines to a person unused to the spectroscope, but with this instrument they are perfectly obvious—even obtrusive. The only (and indispensable) precaution needed is to put the slit accurately in the focal plane of the telescope for these special rays.

Princeton, July 14.


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 modern zoology the term has become restricted to the lowest order of the class Hexapoda or true insects. This order includes the bristle-tails and the springtails. Many wingless insects—such as lice, fleas and certain earwigs and cockroaches—are placed in various orders together with winged insects to which they show evident relationships. In such cases the absence of wings must be regarded as secondary—due to a parasitic or other special manner of life. But the bristle-tails and springtails, which form the modern order Aptera, are all without any trace of wings, and, on account of several remarkable archaic characters which they exhibit, there is reason for believing that they are primitively wingless—that they represent an early offshoot which sprang from the ancestral stock of the Hexapoda before organs of flight had been acquired by the class.

Characters.—In addition to the complete absence of wings and of metamorphosis, the Aptera are characterized by peculiar elongate mandibles (figs. 1, Mn.; 2, 4), with toothed apex and sub-apical grinding surface, like those of certain Crustacea; by the presence between the mandibles and maxillae of a pair of appendages (superlinguae or maxillulae), fig. 1, Mxl., which are absent or vestigial in all other insects; and, in most genera, by the presence in the adult of abdominal appendages used for locomotion, these latter varying in number from one to nine pairs. Among peculiarities of the internal organs the segmental arrangement of the ovaries in most members of the order is noteworthy. Many Aptera are covered with flattened scales like those of moths.

Classification.—The Aptera are divided into two divergent sub-orders, the (q.v.) or bristle-tails, and the Collembola or springtails.

Thysanura.—The bristle-tails have an abdomen of eleven segments, the tenth usually carrying a pair of long many-jointed tail-feelers (cerci, fig. 1, x.); sometimes a median, jointed tail-appendage is also present. To these feelers the popular name is due. There may also be abdominal appendages—in the form of simple unjointed stylets (fig. 1, ii.-ix.), accompanied by paired eversible sacs, probably respiratory in function—on eight (or fewer) other abdominal segments. The head of a bristle-tail carries a pair of compound eyes and a pair of elongate many-jointed feelers.

The air-tube system is developed in varying degree in different bristle-tails, the number of pairs of spiracles being three (Campodea), nine (Machilis), ten (Lepisma), or eleven (Japyx).

Four families of Thysanura are usually recognized. In the Machilidae and Lepismidae (these two families are known as the Ectotrophi) the maxillae are like those of typical biting insects, and there is a median tail-bristle in addition to the paired cerci; while in the Campodeidae and Japygidae (which form the group Entotrophi) the jaws are apparently sunk in the head, through a deep inpushing at the mouth, and there is no median tail-bristle. The cerci in Japyx are not, as usual, jointed feelers, but strong, curved appendages forming a forceps as in earwigs.

Collembola.—In springtails, or Collembola, the jaws are sunk into the head, as in the entotrophous Thysanura; the head carries a pair of feelers with not more than six (usually four) segments, and there are eight (or fewer) distinct simple eyes on each side of the head (fig. 2, 1, 2). These are in some genera like the single elements (ommatidia) of a compound insect eye, in others like simple ocelli. The abdomen consists of six segments only. The first of these usually carries a ventral tube, furnished with paired eversible sacs which assist the insects in walking on smooth surfaces, and perhaps serve also as organs for breathing. From the researches of V. Willem it appears that the viscid fluid which causes the adherence of the ventral tube is secreted by a pair of glands in the head whose ducts open into a superficial groove leading from the second maxillae backward to the tube on the first abdominal segment. The third abdominal segment usually carries a pair of short appendages whose basal segments are fused together; this is the “catch” (fig. 2, 7), whose function is to hold in place the “spring,” which is formed by the fourth pair of abdominal appendages—also with fused basal segments. In most Collembola the spring appears to belong to the fifth abdominal somite, but Willem, by study of the muscles, has shown that it really belongs to the fourth. The fused basal segments of the appendages form the “manubrium” of the spring, which carries the two “dentes” (usually elongate and flexible), each with a “mucro” at its tip (fig. 2, 5). The fifth abdominal segment is the genital, and the sixth the anal somite.

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74 common, but legal punishment was a thing almost unknown. Perugia, in consternation, became an altered city. Borgia was proud of his success. He assured the Pope that the rest of the country could be reduced to order and peace by measures of exceeding rigour.

Reigning over subjects unaccustomed to obey, befriended by no Power in Europe except the Turk, surrounded by hostile cardinals, with a flaw in his title which invited defiance and contempt, Alexander found himself in a position of the utmost danger. In the natural course of things, a power so wrongfully acquired, and so ill secured would have fallen speedily; and the Papacy bearing the penalty of its corruption would have been subjugated. It was only by resorting to extraordinary artifice of policy, by persisting in the unlimited use of immoral means, and creating" resources he did not lawfully possess, that Alexander could supply the total want of moral authority and material force. He was compelled to continue as he had begun, with the arts of a usurper, and to practise the maxim by which his contemporaries Lewis XI., Ferrante of Naples, and Ferdinand of Aragon prevailed over the disorganised and dissolving society of feudalism, that violence and fraud are sometimes the only way to build up a State. He depended on two things—on the exchange of services done in his spiritual capacity for gold, troops, and political support; and on the establishment of principalities for his own family. The same arts had been employed by his predecessors with less energy and profit. It was an unavoidable temptation, almost a necessity of his position, to carry them to the furthest excess.

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Rh earth, that he was supreme in the temporal as well as the spiritual order, that no laws or canons could bind him, for he himself was the animated law and the rightful judge over the princes of the world. He made the most of this doctrine, and resolutely applied it in practice. He declared that his authority was unlimited, that it extended over all men and all things. In virtue of this claim he bestowed Africa and America on the kings of Spain, excommunicating" beforehand all who would presume to trespass on these regions without licence. The plenitude of power thus exercised was justified by an enlargement of the mediæval theory, which adapted it to the enlarged horizon of the Church. It is the Pope's office, it was argued, to teach the Gospel to all nations, and to compel observance of natural law. But the heathen will not hear the Gospel, and will not keep the law, unless they are made subject to Christians. Conquest, said one of the best writers of the next generation, makes more converts in a few days than mere preaching in three hundred years. Civil rights and authorities cannot lawfully obstruct the propagation of the faith. The Spanish Government


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The spring serves the Collembola which possess it as an efficient leaping-organ (see ). But in some genera it is greatly reduced and in many quite vestigial.

Most springtails are without air-tubes, and breathe through the general cuticle of the body. But in one family (Sminthuridae) a spiracle, opening on either side between the head and the prothorax, leads to a branching system of air-tubes. The Sminthuridae are further characterized by the globular abdomen, which shows but little external trace of segmentation, and by the well-developed spring.

In the Entomobryidae the body is elongate and clearly segmented, but the dorsal region (tergum) of the prothorax is much reduced and the head downwardly directed; the spring is well developed. In the Achorutidae the head is forwardly directed, the tergum of the prothorax conspicuous, and the spring small or vestigial.

In many genera of springtails a curious post-antennal organ, consisting of sensory structures (often complex in form) surrounded by a firm ring, is to be noticed on the cuticle of the head between the eyes and the feelers. It may be of use as an organ of smell. Other sensory organs occur on the third and fourth antennal segments in the Achorutidae and Entomobryidae (fig. 2, 3).

Distribution and Habits.—The Aptera are probably the most widely distributed of all insects. Among the bristle-tails we find the genus Machilis, represented in Europe (including the Faeroe Islands) and in Chile; while Campodea lives high on the mountains and in the deepest caves. The springtails have even a wider distribution. The genus Isotoma, for example, has some of its numerous species in regions so remote as Alaska, Franz Josef Land, the Sandwich Islands, the South Orkneys, Graham Land, Kerguelen and South Victoria Land. As it is unlikely that these delicate insects could be transported across sea-channels, their wide and discontinuous range suggests both their great antiquity and the former existence of continental tracts over which they may have travelled to their present stations.

Springtails and bristle-tails live in damp concealed places—under stones or tree-bark, in moss, and in the decaying vegetable or animal matter which serves as food for most of them. Some species, however, eat fresh plant-tissues. A species of bristle-tail (Machilis maritima) and quite a number of springtails haunt the sea-coast at or below high-water mark. In such localities many thousands of individuals may sometimes be found associated together. The insect fauna of limestone caves both in Europe and North America is largely composed of Aptera, especially Collembola.

Geological History.—A supposed Thysanuran from the Silurian of New Brunswick has been described by G. F. Matthew, and another genus from the French Carboniferous by C. Brongniart. Not till the Tertiary do we find remains of Aptera in any quantity, species both of living and extinct genera being represented in the amber.

Development.—The embryonic development of several genera of Aptera, which has been carefully studied, will be more suitably described in comparison with that of other insects than here (see ).

.—The modern study of the Aptera may be said to date from the classical memoirs of T. Tullberg, “Sveriges Podurider,” in ''Kongl. Svensk Vetensk. Akad. Handl''. x., 1872, and Sir J. Lubbock (Lord Avebury), “Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura,” Ray Society, 1873. In these, full references to the older literature will be found. Subsequently our knowledge of the Thysanura has been markedly advanced by J. T. Oudemans, Bijdrage tot de Kennis den Thysanura en Collembola (Amsterdam, 1888); B. Grassi, who published between 1885 and 1889 a series of memoirs entitled “I progenitori dei Miriapodi e degli Insetti,” in the ''Atti Accad. di Scienz. Nat. Catania, and the Memor. R. Accad. dei Lincei; and V. Willem, whose “Recherches sur les Collemboles et les Thysanoures,” in Mem. Cour. Acad. Roy. Belgique'', lviii., 1900, are indispensable to the student. In addition to this work of Willem, valuable anatomical papers on Collembola have been published by H. J. Hansen (Zool. Anz. xvi., 1893), J. W. Folsom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Anat. Harv. xxxv., 1899), C. Börner (Zool. Anz. xxiii., 1900), and K. Absolon (Zool. Anz. xxiii. and xxiv., 1900, 1901), the two latter writers having paid especial attention to the peculiar post-antennal and antennal sense-organs of springtails. Absolon has also written on the Collembola of caves. These writers, with H. Schött, C. Schäffer and others, have published many systematic papers on Collembola, as has F. Silvestri on Thysanura. British species are mentioned in Lubbock’s monograph; for recent additions see G.&mnsp;H. Carpenter and W. Evans (Proc. R. Phys. Soc. Edinb. xiv., 1899, and xv., 1903).

APTERAL (from the Gr. , wingless, , privative and  , a wing), an architectural term applied to amphiprostyle temples which have no columns on the sides; in the Ionic temple on the Acropolis at Athens known as Nike Apteros, the adjective is used, not as applying to the goddess of victory but to the absence of any peristyle on the sides. APTIAN (Fr. Aptien, from Apt in Vaucluse, France), in geology, the term introduced in 1843 by A. d’Orbigny (Pal. France Crét. ii.) for the upper stage of the Lower Cretaceous rocks. In England it comprises the Lower Greensand and part of the Speeton beds; in France it is divided into two sub-stages, the lower, “Bedoulian,” of Bedoule in Provence, with Hoplites deshayesei and Ancyloceras Matheroni; and an upper, “Gargasian,” from Gargas near Apt, with Hoplites furcatus (Dufrenoyi) and Phylloceras Guettardi. To this stage belong the Toucasia limestone and Orbitolina marls of Spain; the Schrattenkalk (part) of the Alpine and Carpathian regions; and the Terebrirostra limestone of the same area. Parts of the Flysch of the eastern Alps, the Biancone of Lombardy, and argile scagliose of Emilia, are of Aptian age; so also are the “Trinity Beds” of North America. Deposits of bauxite occur in the Aptian hippurite limestone at Les Baux near Arles, and in the Pyrenees. The Aptian rocks are generally clays, marls and green glauconitic sands with occasional limestones. (See and .) APULEIUS, LUCIUS, Platonic philosopher and rhetorician, was born at Madaura in Numidia about 125. As the son of one of the principal officials, he received an excellent education, first at Carthage and subsequently at Athens. After leaving Athens he undertook a long course of travel, especially in the East, principally with the view of obtaining initiation into religious mysteries. Having practised for some time as an advocate at Rome, he returned to Africa. On a journey to Alexandria he fell sick at Oea (Tripoli), where he made the acquaintance of a rich widow, Aemilia Pudentilla, whom he subsequently married. The members of her family disapproved of the marriage, and indicted Apuleius on a charge of having gained her affections by magical arts. He easily established his innocence, and his spirited, highly entertaining, but inordinately long defence (Apologia or De Magia) before the proconsul Claudius Maximus is our principal authority for his biography. From allusions in his subsequent writings, and the mention of him by St. Augustine, we gather that the remainder of his prosperous life was devoted to literature and philosophy. At Carthage he was elected provincial priest of the imperial cult, in which capacity he occupied a prominent position in the provincial council, had the duty of collecting and managing the funds for the temples of the cult, and the superintendence of the games in the amphitheatre. He lectured on philosophy and rhetoric, like the Greek sophists, apparently with success, since statues were erected in his honour at Carthage and elsewhere. The year of his death is not known.

The work on which the fame of Apuleius principally rests has little claim to originality. The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass (the latter title seems not to be the author’s own, but to have been bestowed in compliment, just as the Libri Rerum Quotidianarum of Gaius were called Aurei) was founded on a narrative in the Metamorphoses of Lucius of Patrae, a work extant in the time of Photius. From Photius’s account (impugned, however, by Wieland and Courier), this book would seem to have consisted of a collection of marvellous stories, related in an inartistic fashion, and in perfect good faith. The literary capabilities of this particular narrative attracted the attention of Apuleius’s contemporary, Lucian, who proceeded to work it up in his own manner, adhering, as Photius seems to indicate, very closely to the original, but giving it a comic and satiric turn. Apuleius

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76 profited by this sweeping grant, but attached no religious value to it, for they soon after agreed with Portugal to shift the line of partition which the Pope had drawn across the earth.

Alexander VI. employed the terrors of excommunication with a sparing hand. The risk was great and the weapon blunted. His censures against the King of France were effectually suppressed by Cardinal Julian. The Sorbonne declared that his threats might be disregarded with a safe conscience. They were of no avail when unsupported by material force. But in Italy, where they were backed by carnal weapons, men thought of them with awe, and the Venetians dreaded them even when unjust. Accordingly, the Pope used excommunication as a way of declaring war on those whom he was about to attack. The rebellious vassals were assailed with spiritual arms on account of their impiety as a prelude to the arrival of Cæsar's army.

It was by squandering ecclesiastical privileges, by the profusion of graces and dispensations, that he disarmed enemies, made friends, and got money. The Venetians accused him of abetting the Turks against them, and they dreaded extremely the progress of Cæsar Borgia in Romagna. Yet they feared to oppose him, for they required the Pope's aid in taxing the clergy, and in raising money from the people. They gained 120,000 ducats by the Jubilee in 1501.

Marriage dispensations became, by careful


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Rh, productive sources of revenue and of political influence. Charles VIII. wished to marry the betrothed bride of the King of the Romans, and the Pope was solicited on either side to permit or to prevent the match. He informed Valori that he meant to decide in favour of France, as the stronger and more useful power. But he said the thing was too scandalous to be done publicly, and afterwards spoke of the marriage as invalid. Divorce served him better even than dispensations. Lewis XII. wished to marry the widow of his predecessor, whose dower was the duchy of Brittany. He was already married; but Cæsar was despatched to France with the permission for the king to put away his wife. He was rewarded by a French principality, a French wife, and a French army wherewith to conquer Romagna. Ladislaus of Hungary desired to put away his wife, the widow of Mathias Corvinus. The Pope gave him leave, and earned 25,000 ducats by the transaction. He twice dissolved the marriage of Lucretia. The King of Poland had married a princess of the Greek Church, and had bound himself by oath not to compel her to change her religion. The Pope informed him that the oath was illegal, and not only absolved him from it, but required that compulsion should be used, if necessary, in order to convert her. But if neither ecclesiastical nor secular weapons should avail to subdue her obstinacy, then he commanded that she should be punished by having her goods confiscated, and by being turned out of her husband's house.


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 KG ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. tion ascribed to John. And the same Papias, of whom we now speak, professes to have received the declarations of the apostles from those that were in company with them, and says also that he was a hearer of Arislion and the presbyter John. For as he has often mentioned them by name, he also gives their state- ments in his own works. These matters, I trust, have not been uselessly adduced. But it may be important also to subjoin other declarations to these passages from Papias, in which he gives cer- tain wonderful accounts, together with other matters that he seems to have received by tradition. That the apostle Philip continued at Hierapolis, with his daughters, has been already stated above. But we must now show how Papias, coming to them, received a wonderful account from the daughters of Philip. For he writes that in his time there was one raised from the dead. Another wonderful event happened respecting Justus, surnamed Barsabas, who, though he drank a deadly poison, experienced nothing injurious through the grace of the Lord. This same Justus is mentioned in the book of Acts, after the resurrection, as the one over whom, together with Matthew, the holy apostles prayed, in order to fill up their number, by casting lots, to sup- ply the place of Judas the traitor. The passage is as follows ; "And they placed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was sur- named Justus and Matthias. And having prayed, they said." The same historian also gives other accounts, which he says he adds as received by him from unwritten tradition, likewise cer- tain strange parables of our Lord, and of his doctrine and some other matters ratlicr too fabulous. In these he says there would be a certain millennium after the I'esurrection, and that 'there would be a corporeal reign of Christ on this very earth ; which things he appears to have imagined, as if they were authorized by the apostolic narrations, not understanding correctly those matters which they propounded mystically in their representa- tions. For he was very limited in his comprehension, as is evident from his discourses ; yet he was the cause why most of the ec- clesiastical writers, urging the antiquit}'^ of the man, were carried away by a similar opinion ; as, for instance, Irenaas, or any other that adopted such sentiments. He has also inserted in his work


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Talk:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Joseph Cooper

Joseph Cooper Walker was the eldest of three children born to Cooper Walker (1725-1799), a Dublin cabinet-maker, and his wife (and second cousin), Mary Gordon. He was educated in Dublin by the Rev. Thomas Ball, but also received private tutoring at Castle Dawson, Blackrock, where, as an asthma sufferer, he was probably sent for the sea air. Unlike his brother, Samuel, he did not go to university, and worked instead as a clerk in the Irish treasury. Information added by Scotire 17 Oct. 2012


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Portal:In The Year of 1908

 * Betelguese, a trip through hell was published by Jean Louis De Esque (1908)

title: Portal:In The Year of 1908


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