text:
The Terriford Mystery/Chapter 11

N EVERY human drama where anguish, shame, despair, play a part, there are always certain minor characters who deserve, though they never receive, almost as much sympathy as do the principals in the tragedy.

As the doctor and his wife sat awaiting the return of Jean Bower, they felt as if the whole of their happy, dignified house of life had fallen into ruins about them. Deep in her troubled heart Mrs. Maclean was quite as much concerned with the position of her husband as she was with that of her niece, dearly as she loved the girl. For Jean was young enough to start another life, and, as the years went on, all that was now happening, and about to happen, would become a painful memory and nothing more.

How different the case of her husband—to say nothing of herself!

Already Mrs. Maclean felt as if the doctor had aged perceptibly during the last hour. He was sitting staring into the fire, doing nothing, not even smoking. He had asked her to tell Elsie that he would not be at home this morning to any patients, and that all calls must be telephoned on at once to Dr. Tasker. It was worse, far worse, than if death, unexpected, unheralded, and coming in some peculiarly terrible shape, had entered the house.

The door opened, and they both turned round quickly. Speaking in a hushed voice, Elsie said:

“I thought maybe you'd like to know that a machine has just driven past. There was a policeman on the box, and I'm afraid—I make no doubt—that I saw Mr. Garlett riding inside.”

She did not wait to hear her master's comment on her piece of news, but, with true delicacy, retreated quickly into her kitchen.

The husband and wife looked at each other, a dozen unspoken questions as to the whereabouts of Jean remaining unuttered by either. At last Mrs. Maclean said slowly: “I expect the child will be back in a few minutes; she can't but know what's happened.”

“What you expect,” said her husband rather gruffly, “is neither here nor there. What one expects never happens in this life. The only thing of which we may be quite sure is that she won't have been allowed into the Thatched House. But as to whether she will know that Garlett has been arrested depends on”

And then as he said the word “on” they heard the front door open and Jean's steady, quiet voice: “Is Aunt Jenny upstairs, Elsie?” and Elsie's far more moved tones in answer: “The mistress is with the docttor [sic], Miss Jean, in the dining room.

Dr. Maclean and his wife stood up—the door opened, and the girl looked from one to the other.

“Harry's been arrested for the murder of his wife,” she said, “and now we've got to arrange for his defence.”

She turned and shut the door behind her.

“I couldn't help hearing what you said to Elsie before I went out, for I was just coming through the scullery. Was what you wanted to tell me, both of you, anything about Harry?”

And then Mrs. Maclean did a fine thing. She would have given the world to stay where she was, but she told herself that it would be far easier for the girl to endure what had to be said if the two others were alone together, and so, quietly, she left the room.

Jean came over to where the doctor was sitting. And though he still remained silent, she saw his hand make an uncertain movement toward his breast pocket.

“May I see the letter you had this morning? I think I ought to see it, Uncle Jock.”

“Yes,” he said slowly, “I think you ought to see it. And I will go further, my dear, and say you ought to ponder over its contents very carefully.”

He handed her the letter his one-time fellow-student had written, and she read it through—once quickly, and then once very slowly.

At last she let the piece of paper flutter down on to the hearth-rug.

He scarcely dared look at her, yet at last, when she did speak, there was in her tone a ring of confidence, almost of happy confidence, that somehow irritated him.

“The first thing we've go to do,” she exclaimed, “is to get Mr. Kentworthy to come and see us. I don't know what happens when an innocent man is accused of murder. Who looks after his interests? Would it be Mr. Toogood, the solicitor to the Etna China Company?”

“I suppose Mr. Toogood will be the solicitor in charge of the case,” he answered gravely. “I intend to get a London man.”

She gazed at him surprised. “How d'you mean? Why should you have a solicitor, Uncle Jock?”

He got up. “Because,” he said, looking down into her flushed face, “I gave a wrong death certificate.”

He could not help adding, with a touch of intense bitterness, “I am the simple country doctor who was taken in, and who unwittingly abetted the murderer in his foul deed.”

Then he sat down, heavily, in his armchair by the fire.

She threw herself on her knees on the ground before him.

“You don't mean, you can't mean, that you think Harry?”

And there was something so piteous, so terrible, in the eyes that looked up into his that he quailed before that searching accusing glance.

“The one thing we know for certain is that Emily Garlett died as the result of a huge dose of arsenic,” he said quietly.

He stood up, and, putting out his hands, raised her from the ground. “If you want to help this man, you must face the truth, my dear.”

“The truth?” she echoed.

“The truth that the whole world, on the evidence now available, will consider Garlett guilty. You, I understand, believe him to be absolutely innocent?”

“Absolutely innocent,” she repeated, in a steady voice; but in her wide-open eyes there was a look of anguished questioning as to what he believed.

Dr. Maclean could not face that look, and, hardly knowing what he was doing, he walked over to the window and looked out into the wintry garden.

Behind him were uttered tonelessly the words: “Would you mind my sending a telegram to Mr. Kentworthy?”

He turned round. “Do so, by all means. And then I suppose we'd better go and see Mr. Toogood, and I'll apply for permission to see Garlett.”

“Do go on calling him Harry, Uncle Jock!”

“I will,” he said quickly. “I will, my dear. But you know that till very lately I always did call him Garlett.”

As she was going towards the door, he called her back. “Do you feel, under the circumstances, that you ought to stay here in Terriford?”

“D'you want me to go away, Uncle Jock?”

He groaned. “Want you to go away? Don't you know what a difference your coming here has made to me—as well as to your Aunt Jenny? We've never talked about it, even to one another, but it's been the one blot on our happy married life that we had no child. You've become our child. Want you to go away!”

She walked up to him and put her hand through his arm. She was very moved, and for one fleeting moment she forgot Harry Garlett.

“Then why,” she faltered, “why did you say that cruel, cruel thing just now, Uncle Jock?—I mean about my leaving Bonnie Doon?”

“Because,” he answered painfully, “if you stay here your life will become unendurable between now and Harry's trial. Your aunt and I have already talked it over. She suggests you and she going away together to some quiet spot where you can pass as Miss Maclean.”

“But why should I do that?” asked the girl in a bewildered tone. “I don't understand.”

He looked at her and saw what she said was true—that she was still quite unaware of the tide of noisome gossip which had flowed over her name and her innocent, girlish past since the exhumation of Mrs. Garlett.

“I supposed,” he said slowly, “that you were aware, Jean, of what the people who believe Harry Garlett guilty take to have been his motive.”

He waited a moment, then saw that still no glimmer of his meaning crossed her mind.

“Has it never occurred to you that Harry Garlett is believed to have fallen in love with you before his wife died?”

“No one can believe that.” She spoke with entire conviction. “He hardly knew me, and admits that he did not even like me. He would far rather have had some one at the factory quite unconnected with his private life. Why, he almost always turned over to Mr. Dodson any letters to which answers had to be dictated!”

“I'm not telling you what I believe—but what other people believe,” he said in a low voice, and suddenly the full meaning of what his words implied became clear to her.

“I can't bear it,” she whispered, “oh, Uncle Jock, I can't bear it!”

As even the best and the kindest of human beings will feel under stress of circumstances, Dr. Maclean gathered a cruel courage from seeing her distress.

“It would be very wrong to conceal from you what you are up against, my dear. As far as the average man and woman can see, Harry Garlett was the only human being in the world who could be affected in the smallest degree by his wife's death. The question of money is ruled out—there only remains love.”

She turned on him in a flash. “Then you ought to admit his absolute innocence, for you know as well as I do that he was very much vexed with me for having written the letter that brought him back. It took him some time,” she hesitated, “something like a month, before we became even on friendly terms together. After that,” there came a radiant look into her face, “after that I admit he came to love me, though even then”

She stopped abruptly and covered her face with her hands.

He looked at her eagerly. Was it possible that she was going to reveal some fact hitherto concealed by her that might throw light on the mystery?”

“Yes?” he said, “yes, Jean? What happened then?”

“Dr. Tasker happened,” she was smiling through her tears. “But for Dr. Tasker, we might have gone on as we were for a long, long time. Don't think me unkind, for it wasn't as if he had ever really cared, but I have often thanked God for Dr. Tasker!”

It was fortunate for her that Jean Bower had no clue to the look which came over Dr. Maclean's face. He was seeing her in the witness-box, admitting her love for Harry Garlett, unconscious that by so doing she would provide for most members of the jury the strongest of all reasons for the crime for which Harry Garlett was on trial for his life.

“And now,” she asked, “may I go and telephone a telegram to Mr. Kentworthy, Uncle Jock?”

A few moments later his wife came into the room. “Jenny,” exclaimed the doctor, “almost has that child convinced me of Harry Garlett's innocence!”

A hush, almost of death, over Bonnie Doon. A hush broken by a moment of almost intolerable disappointment, for the reply to the telegram sent to Mr. Kentworthy ran: “Am ill in bed. Will come as soon as possible. Doctor forbids journey for three days.”

Dr. Maclean felt this to be a bad setback, all the worse because somehow it was so entirely unexpected. And what he felt was experienced in a far, far stronger and more anguished degree by Jean Bower. She had pinned all her faith on James Kentworthy. She had felt that he would be the one tower of strength in a world where everything was falling into ruins about her. Her misery was much increased by the suspicion that her uncle was inclined to believe Harry Garlett guilty. She knew only too well the generous warmth he would have shown had he really believed her lover innocent.

At last she suggested timidly that they might go to Grendon and see Mr. Toogood. But to that suggestion he answered irritably, “After all, I can't wholly neglect my patients.”

“Go out, do, and get that job over!” exclaimed Mrs. Maclean sharply. And he actually went out for his usual round, late in that long, inexpressibly dreary morning, glad that he, at any rate, had something to do, and so was not compelled to sit with his wife and Jean waiting they knew not for what.

At last he came in. They all sat down to their midday meal, and then Dr. Maclean suddenly lost his temper. Looking across the table he had seen Jean surreptitiously pushing the little piece of meat with which her aunt had served her under a salad leaf.

“Look here!” he called cut sharply, “you won't do Harry Garlett any good by starving yourself, Jean. The one hope the poor fellow has got is that we should all keep an even keel.”

Jean drew the little piece of meat out into the open again, and ate it.

At last a welcome diversion was caused by Elsie.

“There's some one on the 'phone, sir, who wants to speak to you urgent. It's Lawyer Toogood, I'm thinking.”

The doctor jumped up and hurried into his consulting room. “Yes? Who is it?”

“Toogood. I've seen Garlett, and I'd rather like to have a few words with you, Maclean. Can you make it convenient to come early this afternoon?”

“Of course I will. And, Toogood, may I bring my niece, Jean Bower?”

“Bring her by all means. But I should like to see you alone first.”

“Can you give me any word of hope?” Dr. Maclean's voice instinctively lowered.

“Wait till I see you; I don't like to say much over the 'phone. The town's in a state of wild excitement. There's actually a little crowd of people round the door of my office at this moment, just waiting to catch any one who comes in or out!”

And twenty minutes later, the patience of the idle folk who hung about the High Street in the hope of catching a glimpse of some actor in what was already beginning to be called the Terriford Mystery, was rewarded.

Dr. Maclean's familiar covered-in two-seater dashed up to the fine old red brick house on the door of which was a big brass plate bearing the words, “Toogood, Lane & Co., Solicitors,” and the group of idlers pressed forward to see the girl who was the heroine of the case alight from the car.

“She looks a deep one,” ventured a voice; and then there came the answer from more than one pair of lips, “Ay, ay, so she do!”

Her ordeal, or rather Dr. Maclean's ordeal, for she was unaware of the glances levelled at her, did not last long, for the doctor and his niece were kept only a moment standing outside the mahogany door.

Mr. Toogood had hurried downstairs as soon as he had heard the two-seater drawing up in the street, and this alone would have marked the great importance he attached to the visit, for he was not the man to put himself out unnecessarily.

He shook hands with them both in a perfunctory, hurried way, and then led the way up to the spacious first floor. Once there, he opened the door of a back room:

“Now then, my dear young lady, you go in here! I'm afraid it will be some time before I shall ask you to join us.”

He shut the door on her, and preceded Dr. Maclean into the large front room which, though lined with tin boxes, each of which was inscribed in white letters with the name of some local worthy, might have been the comfortable study of a man of leisure.

On the flat writing table stood a bunch of sweet-smelling hot-house flowers, for Mr. Toogood was a keen gardener.

“Well, Maclean? Sit ye down! This is a grim business, eh?”

Dr. Maclean sat down, and he noticed that Mr. Toogood's round, genial face was set in hard lines. The two men often had occasion to meet, and sometimes on disagreeable business, but the doctor had never seen the lawyer look as he looked now.

At last the doctor muttered: “I don't know what to think, Toogood. Perhaps I've been lucky—but in the course of my long practice I've never even suspected the secret administration of poison.”

“I can't say the same. I think you'd be surprised if you knew how often I've suspected—perhaps I ought to say half suspected—murder! In our line of country the longing for money is the thing that leads to crime.”

“There was nothing of the sort in this case,” exclaimed the doctor. “Garlett had all the money he wanted.”

“I was going on to say,” observed the lawyer, significantly, “that next to money love is the most potent begetter of crime.”

Dr. Maclean remained silent, and the lawyer, fingering a ruler on his table, said musingly:

“Garlett was a very good-looking chap, yet he never seemed to care for women.”

Mr. Toogood unconsciously used the past tense, and Dr. Maclean, noticing that he had done so, felt a slight shock.

He leaned forward: “D'you think Garlett in real danger, Toogood? I want you to tell me the truth, for it's of terrible moment to us—because of our niece.”

A change came over the lawyer's face. “It is indeed!” he exclaimed.

It was a curious fact, but a fact nevertheless, that during the last two or three minutes Mr. Toogood had completely forgotten Jean Bower's connection with the man now talking to him. His mind had been full of her—but entirely in connection with Harry Garlett. It was as Garlett's secretary, not as Dr. Maclean's niece, that he had considered the girl's unhappy situation.

He told himself that he must go warily, the more so that two or three of the men who had spoken to him of the case that morning had seemed to think it possible that Jean Bower might find herself in the dock with Harry Garlett. He now remembered, with a touch of acute dismay, that a fellow lawyer had actually observed: “I'm told they found no arsenic at the Thatched House—but that young woman, Garlett's lady love, being a doctor's niece, must have access to all kinds of poisons, eh?”

So, setting a guard on his tongue, Mr. Toogood came back to the matter in hand.

“You'll be the most important witness, both before the magistrates and at the trial, Maclean. I suppose you knew Mrs. Garlett very well indeed—not only as her medical man, but as a friend?”

“Yes, I think I can say that,” said the doctor cautiously, “although the poor woman never cared for anybody apart from the man she married. As for female friends—well, Miss Prince was her only intimate acquaintance. She was on bad terms with Mrs. Cole-Wright, and she never cared to see my wife.” The doctor smiled a rueful smile—“Though she was prim and old-fashioned, Emily Garlett liked men very much, more than she did women. The day before she died she had two gentlemen callers—the rector for one, I know.”

“You saw her pretty often, I suppose?”

“Yes, she often sent for me, though there was little I could do for her.”

“You attributed her death to violent indigestion, acting on the heart?” queried the lawyer, glancing down at a paper lying on the table before him.

Dr. Maclean hesitated; this was touching on what had already become a very sore subject with him.

“I made a bad break there, Toogood,” he admitted painfully.

“Oh, well, we all make mistakes! It would have been strange indeed had you suspected arsenic.”

He was debating within himself how he could introduce the subject of Jean Bower, when the doctor suddenly gave him a lead.

“I hope my niece won't be called as a witness,” he observed, with just that touch of alteration in his voice which betrayed to the other's legal ear that the speaker felt very nervous.

Mr. Toogood did not answer for a few moments, and then he put his two hands on the table and looked keenly across at his visitor. He felt the time had come to speak plainly.

“It's no use beating about the bush, Maclean. I suppose you know what's being said in Grendon to-day, and what will be said all over England to-morrow?”

As the doctor remained silent, he went on:

“Your niece is regarded as having provided the only motive for the crime—if crime there was.” And, as the doctor still said nothing, he added: “I'm not telling you anything you didn't know, or at least suspect—eh, Maclean?”

And then, at last, the other spoke out, “I realize that what you say is true, but, I'd like you to believe, at any rate, that that notion, or suspicion—I don't know what to call it—is a damned lie, Toogood! That's God's truth—though I realize how difficult it will be to make the truth apparent.”

Mr. Toogood took a mouthpiece from off his table and whistled down it, “I'm not to be disturbed on any account.”

Then he got up, walked across to the door, opened it, looked out on to the empty landing, and, shutting the door, came and stood by the doctor.

“Look here, Maclean! I don't forget the night that you and I spent by our boy's beside just before he died—or how good you were to me and to my poor wife. That's why I'm going to do my very best to help you, and to shield that unfortunate girl. But I feel I owe you the truth, and I'm afraid—nay, I'm more than afraid—I'm sure that if Garlett committed this awful crime he did it for love of your niece. Even now he can think of nothing else! When I saw him in the prison this morning the first thing he said to me was: 'I want you to convey a message to Miss Bower, Toogood. I want you to explain to her that I don't want her ever to come here—to this horrible place.'”

Dr. Maclean opened his mouth to speak, and then he shut it again.

“And that wasn't all! While I was trying to get out of him something which might be of value when he is brought up before the magistrates, his mind was so full of Miss Bower that he really could hardly attend to what I was saying!”

“They've hardly seen one another, and never alone, since the exhumation of Mrs. Garlett's body,” observed the doctor in a low voice.

The lawyer stared at him.

“They were alone in the Thatched House this morning,” he said abruptly. “I mean when Garlett was arrested.”

“I'm sure that isn't true,” said the doctor firmly.

“My dear Maclean, it is true. The Inspector came in about quite another matter, and gave me the most moving account of how he found them together in that empty house. He said it would have melted the heart of a stone to see the way the poor girl behaved. She wouldn't leave Garlett—she clung to him—he said it reminded him of stories he had read of couples in the Indian Mutiny.”

“My God!” exclaimed the doctor, “I knew nothing of this”

The lawyer pursued his advantage.

“I'm afraid there have been many things of which you have known nothing, Maclean.” Instinctively he lowered his voice: “To my mind, Garlett, who has been starved so long of all natural human emotion, fell in love with your niece at first sight. No doubt the girl was unaware of it for quite a long time. But you're not going to tell me that last winter, when she first became secretary to his company, Garlett didn't see enough of her to have a hundred opportunities of finding out how far more attractive she was than his wife?”

Dr. Maclean remained silent. With a feeling of sick dismay he realized that what the other man said was only too true.

“In a way, for all his jolly, open manner, Garlett was a secretive chap,” went on Mr. Toogood. “I've been his lawyer even since he married, but he's never talked to me about his private affairs, or consulted me in any way. As a matter of fact Mrs. Garlett was far more businesslike. She knew what she wanted; I always enjoyed a talk with her.” He smiled rather ruefully. “There were no flies on poor Emily”

“But you must admit,” chipped in the doctor, “that she was never jealous; in that she wasn't at all true to type, if I may say so.”

“You're right there!” exclaimed the lawyer. “She simply worshipped that man. Nothing was too good for him. And yet—and yet, there was always something spinsterish about her, eh, Maclean?”

Dr. Maclean nodded: “I know what you mean. It was that which accounted for Garlett's attitude to the poor soul. His attitude was much more that of a kind and attentive nephew than that of a husband—still, he didn't seem to mind.”

“Rubbish—stuff! Of course he minded! You and I have met here to-day to look facts in the face. To throw that still young man with an exceedingly attractive, and, I'm told, lively, intelligent girl, was just tempting providence.”

“It's done every day—in all the business offices in the world,” said the doctor defensively.

Mr. Toogood began toying with some of the papers on his table.

“I'll tell you one thing I heard last night,” he observed without looking up, “in the bar of the King's Head Hotel, as a matter of fact. It was asserted that within a week of Mrs. Garlett's death your niece received by post an anonymous gift of a most beautiful diamond ring. If the purchase of that ring can be traced to Garlett, it will produce a very unpleasant impression at the trial.”

The doctor felt a strange sensation suddenly sweep over him. He had often seen a woman in hysterics, and he had all your medical man's contempt for that special form of disordered feminine nerves, but now he felt as if he himself might easily burst out crying and laughing together.

“That ring,” he exclaimed, “was my wife's gift to her niece on the girl's twenty-second birthday. It is a poor little bit of a thing, with a turquoise in the middle and two small pearls, one on either side. One of the pearls had gone dead, and my wife sent it away to have it replaced by a good pearl. So she arranged that the gift should reach our niece anonymously on her birthday. If the stories that are being told of Garlett and Jean are on a level with that story”

The other raised his hand.

“I should be deceiving you, Maclean, were I to admit that all, or even most of the stories now being told concerning your niece and Garlett are as easily refuted as is apparently this story of the diamond ring. Let us simply take what we know to be true.”

“How d'you mean?”

“What happened after Mrs. Garlett's death? Garlett gave out he was going away for a long time—perhaps for as long as a year. I thought it odd that he didn't come to see me, to make the arrangements any ordinary man of business makes when going away for so long a period. But he just sent me a hasty note as to the proving of his wife's will, and left the very day of the funeral! I thought his conduct very strange then, and I don't mind telling you now that I hope the other side won't get hold of it. But there's one thing we can't keep from them—that is Garlett's sudden return at the end of three months. Now why did he do that?”

“Because of old Dodson's state of health,” replied Dr. Maclean hotly.

“The direct cause of his return was a letter from your niece. He told me that himself the first time I met him.”

“That letter,” said Dr. Maclean sharply, “was written on my advice—in fact she showed me the letter before she sent it off to Garlett. The girl was placed in a very difficult position at the factory.”

“I know that,” said the lawyer quickly. “Everybody knew that it was most awkward for the girl. Old Dodson used to make love to her. I heard about it at the time. I believe he went so far as to propose marriage more than once!”

Dr. Maclean stared at Mr. Toogood in amazement. He knew that this was true, but he had thought it was a secret between him and Jean. He had not even told his wife.

The other read what was passing in his mind.

“You're surprised, my good friend, at that fact being known? Probably Miss Jean never told a soul except, perhaps, you”

The doctor nodded.

“Good God, man! D'you suppose that in such a place as the Etna China factory every thing that happens isn't known?”

“I hold to it that no one can say Harry Garlett fell in love with my niece before his wife's death,” said Dr. Maclean firmly.

“I suppose you wouldn't go so far as to declare that Garlett didn't fall in love with her the moment he came back, eh?”

“I think he did,” was the reluctant answer, “but I'm convinced he didn't know it himself.”

“I wish I was as sure of that as you are. But I agree that he wouldn't have spoken so soon if it hadn't been that he found that Tasker was after her, eh?”

Dr. Maclean stared in fresh astonishment at the lawyer.

“There's very little going on hereabouts that I don't know,” remarked Mr. Toogood.

There was a pause, then: “Whom are you going to get to defend Garlett?” asked Dr. Maclean eagerly, “or haven't you yet made up your mind?”

The other smiled—a superior smile. “The moment I learned that Garlett was to be arrested I got a call through to our London agents and I secured Sir Harold Anstey.”

“The man who got Mrs. Panford off?”

“Of course! He's the greatest of living advocates, and at first I was afraid there was going to be a hitch. The man's so gorged with money and success that he can pick and choose his cases”

Dr. Maclean looked uncomfortable.

“Surely you don't think we could have done better?” asked the lawyer, nettled.

“I suppose not—and yet, Toogood, only last week I read somewhere that Anstey's nickname is 'the murderer's friend.' We don't want to condemn Garlett beforehand, eh?”

Mr. Toogood leaned forward.

“It will take the whole of Sir Harold Anstey's wit and skill to save our man from the gallows. Make no mistake about that! Still, there's one hopeful feature. I've found out—unofficially, of course—that the Crown people have been in touch with every chemist in every place where our friend ever played cricket in the last ten years! But they've found nothing.”

“Then they haven't traced arsenic in any form to Garlett's possession?” asked the doctor eagerly.

“So far that's the one missing link—and a very important link it is! By the way, you've never had a dispensary, have you?”

The question was asked carelessly, but the doctor knew very well what was in the lawyer's mind, and his thoughts flew to the other side of the book-lined wall to his left—to the room where Jean Bower was sitting, waiting for this long interview to end.

“No,” he said quietly, “I have never had a dispensary, Toogood. For what it's worth, I may tell you that I make it a rule to keep no drugs in my house at all. Were it otherwise, I should be constantly worried by the village people. When I prescribe anything of the kind they've got to trudge into Grendon to get it.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to mention Miss Prince and her amateur doctoring, but he refrained. After all, Miss Prince, whatever her special knowledge, could no more procure poison than could the simplest cottage wife in Terriford village. So, after a moment's pause, he only added: “How about a statement from me, Toogood?”

“I think we had better let the Crown people see you first,” said the solicitor thoughtfully. “After all, you've nothing to conceal. So it may be better for you to be a Crown witness friendly to our side.”

Both men stood up.

“I should like to ask you one delicate question, Maclean”; the lawyer hesitated, then went on: “Of course you are aware that the fellow who got up this case originally—I mean Kentworthy—procured a deposition stating that Garlett and some young woman used to meet in a wood at night last spring. Are you certain that that young woman was not your niece? Forgive me for asking the question. I won't press it, if you'd rather not answer.”

“I'd stake my life that it was not my niece!” exclaimed the doctor.

“Without going quite so far as that, I'm inclined to agree with you, and it confirms a view I've formed in the last few hours.”

“What view is that?” asked Dr. Maclean, eagerly.

“My view,” said the solicitor quietly, “is that there was a second woman in Garlett's life. A woman who was never seen in Terriford at all—whom he probably came to know years before he ever saw your niece. If he had some secret married woman friend who had, say, lately become a widow, we have a second person who may have had an interest in Mrs. Garlett's death.”

“That seems very far-fetched,” observed the doctor.

“In a murder case, nothing is too far-fetched if it throws an element of doubt into the jury's mind.”

“I see what you mean,” said the other doubtfully.

“Has any one turned up yet to take a statement from Miss Bower?”

Dr. Maclean was taken much aback by the ominous question.

“D'you mean,” he exclaimed, “that my niece can be compelled to be a witness at Garlett's trial for murder?”

“She'll be a leading witness,” was the answer. “I thought you realized that.”

“She never even saw Mrs. Garlett,” said the doctor in a low voice.

“Miss Bower will not be questioned as to her relations with Mrs. Garlett, but with Mrs. Garlett's husband,” observed Mr. Toogood.

Dr. Maclean groaned.

“It's hard, Maclean, but if your view is the right one, if the girl is absolutely innocent of any wrong-doing, she'll come through all right. I'm a firm believer in the old saying that Truth will out—even in an affidavit!' And now we'd better have her in, for I must give her that message from poor Garlett.”

He left the room, and a moment later returned with Jean Bower.

“I had a talk with Mr. Garlett this morning, and he asked me to tell you that he hopes you will make no effort to see him while he is in prison, Miss Bower.”

As a look of deep unhappiness flooded her quivering face, he added hastily:

“I'm sure he is acting in the wisest, as well as in the kindest, way for both of you. Though I should not have suggested his message, I heartily approve of his having sent it.”

“Shall I be able to write to him freely? Or will our letters be read?” she asked.

“I'm afraid that your letters will all be perused by the governor. Mr. Garlett is allowed to communicate with me, as his legal adviser, quite privately, and I think it possible that Dr. Maclean may be allowed to see him alone. But with regard to you—well, I doubt if even a wife's letters are given unopened to a prisoner.”

“I see,” said the girl dully.

“But that must not prevent your writing him cheerful letters,” went on the solicitor. “The great thing you've got to do is to keep up the man's spirits. Your uncle here tells me that you are absolutely convinced of Mr. Garlett's innocence?”

She was too choked with tears to do more than nod.

“We have a splendid counsel—the best, I think I may say, in Europe. I'm sure you've heard of Sir Harold Anstey?”

Now Jean Bower had also seen a photograph of the famous advocate in a picture paper, and underneath the portrait had been printed the words: “Sir Harold Anstey, affectionately known at the Bar as 'the murderer's friend.'”

“Sir Harold is a wonderful man,” went on Mr. Toogood eagerly; “I shall never forget having seen him once in court. It was in the great Panford case. There didn't seem a hope for the woman in the dock, but he got her off! He has an astonishing way with a jury.”

“I see,” said Jean, again in that toneless, dull voice.

“And then there's another thing. It's everything for a witness to have Sir Harold with him or her. I suppose—” he hesitated uncomfortably—“I suppose, Miss Bower, that you realize that a gentleman will soon come from London in order to take a statement from you. On that statement you will be examined and cross-examined—so you must be careful what you say or admit when answering his questions.”

“I quite understand that.”

Jean had already regained her composure, and it was well that she had done so, for, as Mr. Toogood escorted his important visitors down to the front door, by some curious accident every human being in the substantial house happened at that moment either to have business in the hall, or to be standing at one of the doors that gave into the hall.

The lawyer felt vexed. And yet? Yet even he felt the general excitement contagious. He could not help being glad that his firm was about to play a prominent part in what was evidently going to be a famous case. It was also satisfactory to reflect that Harry Garlett, unlike the vast majority of criminals, was a wealthy man, and that the huge costs were thus certain to be paid.

Even so, as he walked upstairs back to his own room, Mr. Toogood told himself that Jean Bower was the last kind of young woman for whom he would have been tempted to commit murder twenty years ago. She seemed so quiet, so dull, so unemotional.

Mr. Toogood recalled the last time he had been out to Terriford. It had been to take the poor doomed woman's instructions as to her will. She had only a few thousand pounds to leave, for she had settled the bulk of her fortune on her husband years ago. And suddenly he reminded himself that neither he nor the doctor had mentioned Miss Agatha Cheale, one of Mrs. Garlett's legatees, who had been actually present at her death. She would be a witness, and an important witness, for the defence, for she, at any rate, could testify as to the excellent terms on which the husband and wife had been.

title: The Terriford Mystery/Chapter 11


text:
Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/187

Rh scarce perceptible. They afterwards flowed into the Euphrates, whence they came. The gardens of Semiramis, which astonished Asia several ages after, were only a feeble imitation of these ancient prodigies; for in the time of Semiramis, everything began to degenerate among men and women.

But what was more admirable in Babylon, and eclipsed everything else, was the only daughter of the king, named Formosanta. It was from her pictures and statues that, in succeeding times, Praxiteles sculptured his Aphrodite, and the Venus of Medicis. Heavens! what a difference between the original and the copies! So that King Belus was prouder of his daughter than of his kingdom. She was eighteen years old. It was necessary she should have a husband worthy of her; but where was he to be found? An ancient oracle had ordained that Formosanta could not belong to any but him who could bend the bow of Nimrod.

This Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord," (Gen. x:9) had left a bow seventeen Babylonian feet in length, made of ebony, harder than the iron of Mount Caucasus, which is wrought in the forges of Derbent; and no mortal since Nimrod could bend this astonishing bow.

It was again said "that the arm which should bend this bow would kill the most terrible and ferocious lion that should be let loose in the Circus of Babylon." This was not all. The bender of the bow and the conqueror of the lion should overthrow all his rivals;

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


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/262

{| style="margin: auto;" ! English. ! Pantang Kapur. ! Remarks.
 * 20 Fire || p'hángat ||
 * 21 Strong || t'gâp || (Malay) stout, muscular, solid
 * 22 Hard || t'gâp ||
 * 23 To follow || jok (S. Madek) ||
 * || t'roh (K. L'makau) ||
 * 24 To learn || b'troh ||
 * 25 To walk || jok p'ngunyîs || see 10
 * 26 A Road || jok bagin || see 27
 * 27 Large || bagin (S. Madek) ||
 * || kori (K. L'makau) ||
 * 28 Wide || bagin ||
 * 29 Stout || bagin ||
 * 30 Much || kon ||
 * 31 Rich || kon ||
 * 32 A rapid || p'ng'rep (S. Madek) ||
 * || talar (K. L'MakauL'makau [sic]) ||
 * 33 A tooth || p'ng'rep, or p'ng'rep p'mamah ||
 * 34 A rat || p'ng'rep ||
 * 35 A horn || p'ng'rep p'ningôl || see 205
 * 36 Tusk (elephant) || p'ng'rep kon p'n'gâp || see 42
 * 37 A well || p'ng'rep ||
 * 33 A fish || p'hompang (S. Madek) ||
 * || p'ngumpan (K. L'makau) ||
 * 39 Leg || p'n'gâp ||
 * 40 Bone || p'n'gâp ||
 * 41 Shoulder || p'n'gâp ||
 * 42 Elephant || bagin p'n'gâp || see 27 and 39-41
 * || kori p'n'gâp ||
 * 43 Sandfly || p'nchadok ||
 * 44 Fly, horsefly || p'hôrong ||
 * 45 Mosquito || p'hôrong (S. Madek) ||
 * || p'nchadok p'n'kok isî (K. L'makau) || see 172
 * 46 To act || p'muat || (Malay) buat
 * 47 To grow || m'mantil ||
 * 48 To cut wood || manchas, mantil, or m'mantil ||
 * 49 To lie down || mantil ||
 * 50 Parang, knife || p'canchas ||
 * }
 * 35 A horn || p'ng'rep p'ningôl || see 205
 * 36 Tusk (elephant) || p'ng'rep kon p'n'gâp || see 42
 * 37 A well || p'ng'rep ||
 * 33 A fish || p'hompang (S. Madek) ||
 * || p'ngumpan (K. L'makau) ||
 * 39 Leg || p'n'gâp ||
 * 40 Bone || p'n'gâp ||
 * 41 Shoulder || p'n'gâp ||
 * 42 Elephant || bagin p'n'gâp || see 27 and 39-41
 * || kori p'n'gâp ||
 * 43 Sandfly || p'nchadok ||
 * 44 Fly, horsefly || p'hôrong ||
 * 45 Mosquito || p'hôrong (S. Madek) ||
 * || p'nchadok p'n'kok isî (K. L'makau) || see 172
 * 46 To act || p'muat || (Malay) buat
 * 47 To grow || m'mantil ||
 * 48 To cut wood || manchas, mantil, or m'mantil ||
 * 49 To lie down || mantil ||
 * 50 Parang, knife || p'canchas ||
 * }
 * 43 Sandfly || p'nchadok ||
 * 44 Fly, horsefly || p'hôrong ||
 * 45 Mosquito || p'hôrong (S. Madek) ||
 * || p'nchadok p'n'kok isî (K. L'makau) || see 172
 * 46 To act || p'muat || (Malay) buat
 * 47 To grow || m'mantil ||
 * 48 To cut wood || manchas, mantil, or m'mantil ||
 * 49 To lie down || mantil ||
 * 50 Parang, knife || p'canchas ||
 * }
 * 47 To grow || m'mantil ||
 * 48 To cut wood || manchas, mantil, or m'mantil ||
 * 49 To lie down || mantil ||
 * 50 Parang, knife || p'canchas ||
 * }
 * 50 Parang, knife || p'canchas ||
 * }
 * }


text:
Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/188

166 but he was above all things to be very sagacious, the most magnificent and most virtuous of men, and possess the greatest curiosity in the whole universe.

Three kings appeared, who were bold enough to claim Formosanta Pharaoh of Egypt, the Shah of India, and the great Khan of the Scythians. Belus appointed the day and place of combat, which was to be at the extremity of his park, in the vast expanse surrounded by the joint waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Round the lists a marble amphitheatre was erected, which might contain five hundred thousand spectators. Opposite the amphitheatre was placed the king's throne. He was to appear with Formosanta, accompanied by the whole court; and on the right and left between the throne and the amphitheatre, there were other thrones and seats for the three kings, and for all the other sovereigns who were desirous to be present at this august ceremony.

The king of Egypt arrived the first, mounted upon the bull Apis, and holding in his hand the cithern of Isis. He was followed by two thousand priests, clad in linen vestments whiter than snow, two thousand eunuchs, two thousand magicians, and two thousand warriors.

The king of India came soon after in a car drawn by twelve elephants. He had a train still more numerous and more brilliant than Pharaoh of Egypt.

The last who appeared was the king of the Scythians. He had none with him but chosen warriors, armed with bows and arrows. He was mounted


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/45

 On the Dispersal of Seeds by Mammals.

HE relations of animals to plants in the matter of fertilization has been the subject of many hundred papers and books written by various observers, especially since DARWIN published his well-known researches. But the various modifications and adaptations of the seed and fruit for distribution by animals, although of almost equal im- portance in the evolution of new forms, has been very much neglected. No one can avoid being struck by the observation that there are a very large number of plants in some orders, which closely resemble each other in the form and colouring of the flowers and yet differ very materially in the fruit. In many of these cases it is the necessity of special adaptation for dispersal of the seed that is the cause of the various modi- fications of the fruit or seed. Seeds are, as is well known, dispersed by the aid of animals, either by being swallowed by them and afterwards passed from the body at some distance from the parent plant, or by adhering to their fur or feathers and so being borne away, or by being thrown to a distane by them, as will be explained later on. Or again they may be dispersed by the aid of wind or water, being in the first instance blown far from the tree, and in the latter case being drifted away by sea or river currents; and lastly they may be scatterdscattered [sic] by merely mechanical means, as in the explosive capsules of the Castor-oil (Ricinus communis), and other Euphorbiaccous plants, or by merely rolling by their own weight when falling from the top of a lofty tree.


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/46

 I may here call attention to a fact which has been over- looked by some naturalists in dealing with this subject, name- ly, that it is of no advantage to a plant to have its seeds borne to great distances but that on the contrary it may be posi- tively injurious. In the first place the plants may be partially or wholly unisexual, the male and female flowers being on different trees. This is especially common among East Indian jungle trees, notably in the orders Euphorbiaccæ, Sapin- dace, and Myristicace.

Now if we suppose that a flock of pigeons have swooped down upon a nutmeg tree in fruit and swallowed a quantity of the seeds, and then flown away in all directions for, say, a hundred miles before passing the seed, the plants will even- tually be at so great a distance apart, that it will be impossible for the flowers of the female trees to be fertilized, and such isolated trees can never reproduce themselves.

The same observation applies to plants which require a special fertilizing insect. If the secd is borne to a district where the fertilizer does not exist, it is to all intents and pur- poses destroyed. In this case, however, it is possible that another fertilizer may be found who can do the work fairly well, and indeed it is rare that any plant depends on a single species of fertilizer. And lastly there is always a risk of the seeds being deposited in an unsuitable locality, if borne too far away. This, however, is obviated by the conservative habits of the agents, thus fruit pigeons which always inhabit thick jungle, even if they did travel a long way with the seeds, inasmuch as they naturally fly to thick jungle, would almost certainly drop the seed in a locality similar to the one they took it from, and in the same way wading birds carrying seeds adhering to their feathers, would in their long migratory flights pass over jungles and deserts and only stop at pools or swamps where the seeds might get planted. In the matter of wind-dispersed seeds also it is not difficult to show, especially in the flora of the big jungles, that travelling for a long distance is of no object and indeed does not seem to be aimed at. The object aimed at is rather to sprinkle the seeds at such a distance from the parent trece that the roots of


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/47

 the latter may not interfere with the growth of the young plant, but not too widely to be absolutely isolated, nor on ground unsuited to the requirements of the species. It must be pointed out also that in the thick jungle where the foliage is very dense there is always a risk of the fruit when fallen resting in the branches, or in the tangled mass of creepers that mats together the branches of the big trees. It is, there. fore, important that the fruits or seeds should be in many cases modified so as to avoid this accident. Besides in the case of such palms as Pholidocarpus and Elaeis where the stem is roughened by the projecting bases of the fallen leaves, there is always danger of the seeds resting in the spaces be- tween these leaf bases and the trunk. This is usually obviated by the fruits being made edible and sought by birds, or mam- mals, as in the date-palms (Phoenix) or by the inflorescence being elongate so that the fruit is held out from the tree on long branches as in Pholidocarpus. The oil-palm (Elaeis guineen- sis) is not a native of Malaya, though often cultivated, and the spadix of fruit is short-stalked and hidden among the leaves, so that, unless some animal or bird devours the fruit, there is a great risk of the seed lodging among the leaf stalks, and as no bird here seems to care for the fruit, this is what often happens in trees in the Malay Peninsula. I have seen trees in the Botanic Gardens in which the spaces between the old leaf bases and the stem at the top of the trees were full of seedling oil-palms which, of course, would soon perish from want of nourishment.

In the Malay Peninsula, as elsewhere, the birds play the most important part in the dispersal of seed, but the mammals are agents also of considerable importance, and in this paper I intend to speak of their action in this work, and to compare it with that of the birds.

In the dense jungles that cover the hills of the Malay Penin- sula one very soon notices that bird life gets scantier and scantier the further one penetrates them. Pigeons, hornbills and finches become scarcer, and almost entirely disappear, and even monkeys are not so abundant as one would expect.

In the woods of the Tahan valley in Pahang I have seen the


text:
Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/189

Rh upon a superb tiger, which he had tamed, and which was as tall as any of the finest Persian horses. The majestic and important mien of this king effaced the appearance of his rivals; his naked arms, as nervous as they were white, seemed already to bend the bow of Nimrod.

These three lovers immediately prostrated themselves before Belus and Formosanta. The king of Egypt presented the princess with two of the finest crocodiles of the Nile, two sea horses, two zebras, two Egyptian rats, and two mummies, with the books of the great Hermes, which he judged to be the scarcest things upon earth.

The kingof India offered her a hundred elephants, each bearing a wooden gilt tower, and laid at her feet the, written by the hand of Xaca himself.

The king of the Scythians, who could neither write nor read, presented a hundred warlike horses with black fox-skin housings.

The princess appeared with a downcast look before her lovers, and reclined herself with a grace that was at once modest and noble.

Belus ordered the kings to be conducted to the thrones that were prepared for them. "Would I had three daughters," said he to them, "I should make six people this day happy!" He then made the competitors cast lots which should try Nimrod's bow first. Their names inscribed were put into a golden casque. That of the Egyptian king came out first, then the name of the king of India appeared. The king of


text:
Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 18; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9.pdf/11

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9

5

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/48

 ground in some places strewn with fruits of various big trees absolutely untouched by animals or birds. In such spots the struggle for dispersal must be very great, and there must be a very large number of seeds wasted. Many trees and climbers in the dense jungle fruit very heavily and one frequently finds (especially where monkeys are absent) the ground beneath these plants almost car- peted with seedlings a short time after the fall of the fruit, but on visiting the same spot a few weeks later only a few of these young plants are to be seen. Nearly all have perished, partly from overcrowding and partly from absence of light. Nor does the waste of young plants end here, for a very large proportion of those that do become trees can never push their branches through the dense mass of older trees so as to be fully exposed to the light, when alone they can flower.

The contrast between the woods of the colder climates and the jungles of the tropics is most strongly brought out by the wonderful disproportion of species in a given arca. In cold climates one freqently [sic] sees woods consisting almost exclu- sively of one species of trec such as the beechwoods of Southern England, and the firwoods of Norway, but in a Malay forest all the trees appear to be of different species.

Indeed it is only in exceptional places which are suited to a limited number of species (such a spot, for instance, as a mangrove swamp) that one secs a large number of individuals of one species together. In the jungles, which are suited to the requirements of a great variety of species, the different individuals are isolated, for here the ground is already so thickly covered with older trees and shrubs, that there are but few vacancies to be filled up. And thus of the immense number of seeds which fall from the trees, but few can find vacant spots on which they can develope [sic] into trees.

The assistance of the wind or of the mammals or birds which dwell in the forests is used to fill up these vacancies.

The plants which make use of animals to disperse their seeds either possess juicy or fleshy eatable fruits of which the seeds are passed through the bodies of the animals unhurt, or dry nuts, or again the fruits may be adhesive either by some viscid


text:
Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/190

168 Scythia, viewing the bow and his rivals, did not complain at being the third.

While these brilliant trials were preparing, twenty thousand pages and twenty thousand youthful maidens distributed, without any disorder, refresh- ments to the spectators between the rows of seats. Every one acknowledged that the gods had instituted kings for no other cause than every day to give festivals, upon condition they should be diversified—that life is too short for any other purpose; that law-suits, intrigues, wars, the altercations of theologists, which consume human life, are horrible and absurd; that man is born only for happiness; that he would not passionately and incessantly pursue pleasure were he not designed for it; that the essence of human nature is to enjoy ourselves, and all the rest is folly. This excellent moral was never controverted but by facts.

While preparations were being made for determining the fate of Formosanta, a young stranger, mounted upon a unicorn, accompanied by his valet, mounted on a like animal, and bearing upon his hand a large bird, appeared at the barrier. The guards were surprised to observe in this equipage a figure that had an air of divinity. He had, as has been since related, the face of Adonis upon the body of Hercules; it was majesty accompanied by the graces. His black eyebrows and flowing fair tresses, wore a mixture of beauty unknown at Babylon, and charmed all observers. The whole amphitheatre rose up, the


text:
Page:A list of the birds of Australia 1913.djvu/346

 314 A LIST OF THE [PASSERIFORMES

Corvus coronoides tasmanicus. Tasmanian Raven. Corvus marianae tasmanicus Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 443, 1912; Tasmania. Range; Tasmania.

Corvus bennetti. Corvus bennetti bennetti. Small-billed Crow. Corvus bennetti North, Vict. Nat., Vol. XVII., p. 170, 1901 ; Moolah, Western New South Wales. Range: Interior of New South Wales; Interior of South Australia.

Corvus bennetti bonhoti. Western Small-billed Crow. Corvus bennetti bonhoti Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 442, 1912; Murchison, West Australia. Range: Interior of West Australia ; Northern Territory.

Corvus cecilae. Corvus cecilae cecilae. Northern Crow. Corvus coronoides cecilae Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 442, 1912; Napier Broome Bay, North-west Australia. Range: North-west Australia ; Northern Territory.

Corvus cecilae marngli. Little North-western Crow. Corvus cecilae marngli Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 52, 1912; Marngle Creek, West Kimberley, West Australia. Range: West Australia (West Kimberley).

Corvus cecilae queenslandicus. Queensland Crow. Corvus bennetti queenslandicus Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 443, 1912; Dawson River, Queensland. Range: Queensland; Northern New South Wales.

Genus STREPERA.

Strepera Lesson, Traite d'Orn., p. 329, 1830. Type (by tautonymy) : C. strepera Latham = Corvus gracuLinus White. Synonym: Coronica Gould. Synops. Birds Austr., pt. i., 1837. Type : Corvus graculinus White.

Strepera graculina. Strepera graculina graculina. Pied Crow-Shrike. Corvus graculinus White, Journ. Voy. N.S.W., p. 251. 1790; New South Wales.


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/49

 material or by hooks or recurved bristles by which they adhere to the fur and are thus borne away.

The following are the mammalia of the Malay Peninsula which eat fruit, and probably all act to a certain extent, as some do to a very large extent, as seed dispersers:—

Quadrumana:—Hylobates (Wau-Wau), two species; Semnopithecus (Lotong), one or more; Macacus, two or three species; Cheiroptera (bats); Pteropus (Fruit-bats), two or more species. Insectivora:—Tupaia, several. Carnivora:— Viverra (civetcats), several species; Arctictis (Binturong) and probably Hemigale; the bear Helarctos malayanus; Rodentia Sciurus (Squirrels), several, Sciuropterus (Flying Squirrels), Mus (Mice and Rats), proably [sic] several. In addition to these must be added the deer, the wild pig (Sus indicus), the elephant, and probably the wild ox (Bos gaurus) and the buffalo (Bubalus arnee), which disperse seeds of grasses and other herbaceous plants both by swallowing seeds in the herbage they eat, and by bearing, attached to their skins, the adhesive fruits and seeds.

Quadrumana.—The monkeys haunt the big jungles wander- ing about in small flocks and avoiding the open country. They live chiefly on fruit, and of these they generally attack the juicy or succulent kinds, although they will occasionally eat the chestnuts and other dry fruits. The commonest species in Singapore is the Kra (Macacus cynomolgus) and this is one of the most important of the seed-dispersing mammals. The fruits I have chiefly seen it devouring are those of various species of Eugenia, Baccaurea, Mangifera, Willughbeia, Dialium, Trichosanthes, Nephelium, Careya, Strychnos, Eleocarpus, Randia, Calophillum, Gardenia. And here I will point out that the fruits eaten by mammals are usually plain green in colour and inconspicuous, and frequently of considera- ble size, whereas those which are intended for dispersal by birds are often scarlet, orange or yellow, more rarely blue or white and small. The reasons for this arc, that the mammals move comparatively slowly through the jungle searching the fruit close at hand, for it is impossible for them to see far into the thick mass of foliage, whereas the birds moving more


text:
Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/191

Rh better to view the stranger. All the ladies of the court viewed him with looks of astonishment. Formosanta herself, who had hitherto kept her eyes fixed upon the ground, raised them and blushed. The three kings turned pale. The spectators, in comparing Formosanta with the stranger, cried out, "There is no other in the world but this young man who can be so handsome as the princess."

The ushers, struck with astonishment, asked him if he was a king? The stranger replied that he had not that honor, but that he had come from a distant country, excited by curiosity, to see if there were any king worthy of Formosanta. He was introduced into the first row of the amphitheatre, with his valet, his two unicorns, and his bird. He saluted, with great respect, Belus, his daughter, the three kings, and all the assembly. He then took his seat, not without blushing. His two unicorns lay down at his feet; his bird perched upon his shoulder; and his valet, who carried a little bag, placed himself by his side.

The trials began. The bow of Nimrod was taken out of its golden case. The first master of ceremonies, followed by fifty pages, and preceded by twenty trumpets, presented it to the king of Egypt, who made his priest bless it; and supporting it upon the head of the bull Apis, he did not question his gaining this first victory. He dismounted, and came into the middle of the circus. He tried, exerted all his strength, and made such ridiculous contortions that


text:
Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/50

 rapidly and at a higher elevation can detect fruit, if coloured, at a great distance and can speedily make their way to it, and that besides many of the fruit-eating mammals are nocturnal and, therefore, colour would be useless to them in the dark. Berries and drupes are eaten whole (except for the skin) by the monkeys, if they are small, like Nephelium, Zisyphus. In these fruits the sweet pulp often adheres strongly to the stone making it so slippery that it is almost impossible to avoid swallowing the latter. Zisyphus calophyllus, a common creeper with small globose fruit, and the Mata-kuching (Nephelium malaiense) are good instances of this form of drupe. In Baccaurea motleyana, Hook, the Rambai, the seeds, of which there are three in a fruit inclosed in sweet pulp, are very thin, and are quite troublesome to eject.

The Malays and the Sakais in eating these fruits generally swallow the seeds even of such large drupes as the Rambutan, and I have seen in the deserted encampments of the Sakais in Pahang germinating seeds of the Rambutan which had been swallowed and had passed through their bodies. The Malays indeed say that this is the most wholesome and pleasant way of eating these fruits.

There are two forms of the fruit of the Polessan (Nephelium mutabile), in one of which the flesh adheres tightly to the stone, and in the other it is firmer, and readily breaks away, and can be nibbled off easily. If a monkey ate the cling-stone variety the seed would slip down its throat, while from the firmer-fleshed free-stone variety it would nibble the flesh and throw the stone away. In drupes of this kind it is essential. that they should not be too large for an animal to swallow, and there is a decided advantage in the sweet pulp being very thin as it is thus more slippery and cannot be detached by biting. Many large and heavy fruits like those of the wild mangoes (Mangifera cæsia, lagenifera, etc.) and Careya are carried by the monkeys who gather them to a convenient perch to be eaten, and in doing so they frequently drop them, so that one finds large fruits partially eaten often at considerable distances from the parent tree. But the weight of these fruits has also another advantage, by preventing their lodging in the tangled


text: The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Prague, city of seven hills


text: The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/The Ancient Prague University


text:
Page:Varied Types (1903).djvu/214

 studying a mountain with a magnifying glass; to study it in the past is like studying it through a telescope.

For this reason England, like every other great and historic nation, has sought its typical hero in remote and ill-recorded times. The personal and moral greatness of Alfred is, indeed, beyond question. It does not depend anymore than the greatness of any other human hero upon the accuracy of any or all of the stories that are told about him. Alfred may not have done one of the things which are reported of him, but it is immeasurably easier to do everyone of those things than to be the man of whom such things are reported falsely. Fable is, general1y speaking, far more accurate than fact, for fable describes a man as he was to his own age, fact describes him as he is to a handful of inconsiderable antiquarians many centuries after. Whether Alfred watched the cakes for the neat-herd's wife, whether he sang songs in the Danish camp, is of no interest to anyone except those who set out to prove under considerable disadvantages that they are

title: Page:Varied Types (1903).djvu/214


text: Index:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/1


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/2


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/3


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/4


text: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children

title: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children


text: Maps of the Juba Expedition (1901)

title: Maps of the Juba Expedition (1901)


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/5

 The Gaekwad Studies in Religion and Philosophy: XI.


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/6


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/7


text: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children/The Rose-bush


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/8


text: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children/The Sparrow


text: Category:Art articles in The Czechoslovak Review


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/9

It was at your feet that I first learned to appreciate historical and literary research, and the following pages constitute the earliest fruits of that literary labour of mine the impetus for which I am proud to have received from you. I crave your indulgence for my taking the liberty of dedicating the same to your revered name, with the hope that it will not fail to attract the same generous sympathy from you as you have always shown to your pupil.


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/10


text: Category:Art in periodicals

title: Category:Art in periodicals


text: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children/The Little Grey Dog


text: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children/Why?

title: Fairy Tales for Workers' Children/Why?


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/11

It was as a Fellow of the Seminar for the Comparative Study of Religions at the College, Baroda, that the present work was begun. The subject was taken up in the first place as a parallel study to that contained in a paper in the Indian Philosophical Review, Volume II, July 1918, pp. 24-32 entitled "Maimonides and the Attainment of Religious Truth." But as I proceeded with my investigation I thought it might be best to let Averroes speak for himself. For this reason I have here translated certain treatises of Averroes, as edited in the Arabic text by D. H. Muller in "Philosophie und Theologie von Averroes." Munich 1859. I am confident that the book will prove an interesting one and will explain itself to the reader without any introduction on my part.


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/12

 Though owing to my appointment at Hyderabad I resigned my position at Baroda soon after commencing this work I wish here to express my thanks to Professor Alban G. Widgery of Baroda for his constant sympathy with and encouragement for my work in and out of the Seminar. He has also kindly accepted the book for inclusion in the Gaekwad Studies in Religion and Philosophy. I am indebted to him for a complete revision of the manuscript and for the onerous work of seeing the book through the press. I am also indebted to my brother Mutazid Wali ur Rehrnan, B. A. for valuable help in rendering many obscure passages.

Osrnania University, Hyderabad.


text: Template:Interlinear translation

title: Template:Interlinear translation


text: Index:The Great Detective Stories, a Chronological Anthology (1927).djvu


text:
Template:TOC row 1-2out-1

 * - class="__toc_row_1-m-1 wst-toc-row-1-2out-1 "
 * colspan=2|
 * colspan=2|

title: Template:TOC row 1-2out-1


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/13


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/314


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/313


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/312


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/311


text:
Page:A discvurse of the great ouerthrow.pdf/4

 And ſince theſe troubles it is found that the olde Lord would not ſuffer paſſage to be geuen to the Kings troupes, but when the Leaguers had paſſed by, he would not (although he did) ſee them: And ſo much yet did this contagion breake foorth to the harme of manie Inhabitants of his Towne, who affected the Vicont, that they which were encountred by the kinges troupes, (information being geuen of their demeanor) they were iudged to be of good prize, and voluntarely paid ranſom.

Beſides this, the Vicont hauing intelligence of the ſicknes of his father, had ſeduced manie perſons to his parttaking, to the end to ſurprice the place as ſoone as occaſion might bee miniſtred vnto him, but was preuented by the diligence of Monſieur de Sallerin, chiefe Gouernor for his Maieſtie of the Towne and Caſtle of Loches. Who hauing had intelligence of theſe actions, and conſidering likewiſe the enormitie and danger which this place might be vnto all that Countrie, and chieflie vnto the town of Loches, which was not aboue fiue or ſixe miles diſtant from them, he iudged that it was requiſite to remedie it ſpeedelie.

And meaning to ouerſlip no time, hee ſent on the ſecond ſunday of this moneth of Februarie, the young Prince of Campagnol to ſurpriſe the ſaid Town of Guierche, being aſſiſted with theſe Captaines, Prat, Brunet, Gardellia, de l’Aage,


text: Index:Books from the Library of Congress (IA minorsurgeryban00whar).pdf


text: The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes

title: The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes


text:
Page:A discvurse of the great ouerthrow.pdf/5

 Beray, Orignac, Cormier, and others of the ordinarie followers of the ſayd Lord of Sallerin, who executed ſo happely the enterpriſe, that they tooke the ſaid Towne on Mondaye, being the third day of Februarie, about ſeuen of the clock in the morning, by the order & direction which the Lord of Sallerin had geuen. In the taking whereof, there was few ſlaine of account, but the Lorde de la Chaſtiere, who was ſlaine in flight, being chiefe Commaunder of the ſaide Towne, and much affectioned vnto the Vicont.

This being done, preſently the Lorde of Campagnoll gaue aduertiſement of this exploit to the Lord Sallerin Pou, that he might prouide for that which might follow: for that the caſtle was not yet taken, neither had they wherewith to force them, and the old Lord of the place had aduertiſed his ſonne the Vicont, of his miſhap, willing him to come to his ſuccours. Which thing gaue apparant teſtimonie of entercourſe betweene the father and the ſonne, and that the ſhewe which the old Lorde made, was but to keepe his goods, being in his minde and action altogether enemie to the king.

The Lorde of Sallerin vnderſtanding of theſe accidents, and reſoluting to goe thether in perſon, as well for that he would not leaue his Soldiers and friendes in danger, as alſo not to leaue ſuch a worke vnfiniſhed, being a thing of


text:
Page:A discvurse of the great ouerthrow.pdf/6

 great importance, to the ſeruice of the King, & benefit to al the Countrie: and hauing alreadie prepared for that enterpriſe, there was preſently ſent him by Monſieur de Vaure, brother vnto Monſieur de Montigici, thirtie light horſemen, and fiftie Harquebuſiers on horsbacke, being guided by the Lord of Boys la Vigne, hee aduertiſed alſo Captaine Coueſelles, Lieutenant to the Lorde of Leſſart a Chaſtillop, to come thether with his Garriſon, and the Captaine Houſſaye, and Merey, with ſixtie harguebuſies, on horsback.

In the meane time the ſaid Lord of Sallerin ſent the Captaines S. Anne, S. Michall, and Chizeaux, being of the regiment of the Lorde de Vatau, to the ſaide Towneof Guierche, to ſerue and ayde the ſaid Lord of Campagnoll in theſe affaires, and himſelfe vſed diligence in all other thinges which he thought conuenient for his purpoſe.

After he had ordered theſe thinges before ſpoken and rehearſed, he cauſed two Culuerins to be prepared in readines, for to march, as hee thought, very requiſite, and ſent to Monſieur the Mayor of Tours, praying him to ſende him the Captaine la Vallade, with threeſcore harguebuſies, for to ſafeconduct the two peeces.

And meaning himſelfe to goe before, hee gaue order to receiue the ſaid Captaine, Lorde Vallade, into Loches, and there to ſtay vntill he


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/208

 Universe:—The Law teaches that the universe was invented and created by God, and that it did not come into being by chance or by itself. The method adopted by the Law for proving this is not the one upon which the Asharites have depended. For we have already shown that those methods are not specially certain for the learned, nor common enough to satisfy all the classes of men. The methods which are really serviceable are those which have a very few premises, and the results of which fall very near to the commonly known ideas. But in instructing the common people the Law does not favour statements composed of long and complete reasonings, based upon different problems. So everyone who, in teaching them, adopts a different course, and interprets the Law according to it, has lost sight of its purpose and gone astray from the true path. And so also, the Law in giving illustrations for its reasonings uses only those which are present before us.


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/209

 Whatever has been thought necessary for the common people to know, has been explained to them by the nearest available examples, as in the case of the day of Judgment. But whatever was unnecessary for them to know, they have been told that it was beyond their knowledge, as the words of God about the Soul. Now that we have established this, it is necessary that the method adopted by the Law for teaching the creation of the universe to the common people be such as would be acknowledged by all. It is also necessary that since there cannot be found anything present to illustrate the creation of the universe the Law must have used the examples of the creation of things in the visible world.

So the method adopted by Law is that the universe was made by God. If we look intently into the verse per-


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/210

 taining to this subject we shall see that the method adopted is that of divine solicitude, which we know to be one of those which prove the existence of God. When a man sees a thing made in a certain shape, proportion and fashion, for a particular advantage is derived from it, and purpose which is to be attained, so that it becomes clear to him, that had it not been found in that shape, and proportion, then that advantage would have been wanting in it, he comes to know for certain that there is a maker of that thing, and that he had made it in that shape and proportion, for a set purpose. For it is not possible that all those qualities serving that purpose be collected in that thing by chance alone. For instance, if a man sees a stone on the ground in a shape fit for sitting, and finds its proportions and fashion of the same kind, then he would come to know that it was made by a maker, and that he had made it and placed it there. But when he sees nothing in it,


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/211

 which may have made it fit for sitting then he becomes certain that its existence in the place was by chance only, without its being fashioned by any maker. Such is also the case with the whole of the universe. For when a man sees the sun, the moon, and all the stars, which are the cause of the four seasons, of days and nights, of rain, water and winds, of the inhabitation of the parts of the earth, of the existence of man, and of the being of all the animals and the plants and of the earth being fit for the habitation of a man, and other animals living in it; and the water fit for the animals living in it; and the air fit for birds, and if there be anything amiss in this creation and edifice, the whole world would come to confusion and disorder, then he would come to know with certainty that it is not possible that this harmony in it for the different members of the universe—man, animals, and plants—be found by chance only. He will


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/212

 know that there is one who determined it, and so one who made it by intention, and that is God, exalted and magnified may He be. He would know with certainty that the universe is a created thing, for he would necessarily think that it is not possible that in it should be found all this harmony, if it be not made by some one, and had come into existence by chance alone. This kind of argument is quite definite and at the same time clear, and some have mentioned it here. It is based upon two principles which are acknowledged by all. One of them being, that the universe, with all its component parts, is found fit for the existence of man and things; secondly, that which is found suitable in all its parts, for a single purpose, leading to a single goal, is necessarily a created thing. So those two principles lead us naturally to admit that the universe is a created thing, and that there is a maker of it. Hence "the argument of analogy" leads to two


text: Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/14


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/213

 things at one and the same time, and that is why it is the best argument for proving the existence of God. This kind of reasoning is also found in the Quran in many verses in which the creation of the universe is mentioned. For instance, "Have We not made the earth a bed, and the mountains for shelter to fix the same? And have We not created you of two sexes; and appointed your sleep for rest and made the night a garment to cover you, and destined the day to a gaining of a livelihood; and built over you seven heavens, and placed therein a burning lamp? And do We not send down from the clouds pressing forth rain, water pouring down in abundance, that We may hereby produce corn and herbs, and gardens planted thick with trees." If we ponder over this verse it would be found that our attention has been called to the suitability of the different parts of the universe for the existence of man. In


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/214

 the very beginning we are informed of a fact well-known to all—and that is that the earth has been created in a way which has made it suitable for our existence. Had it been unstable, or of any other shape, or in any other place, or not of the present proportion, it would not have been possible to be here, or at all created on it. All this is included in the words, "Have We not made the earth a bed for you"? for in a bed are collected together all the qualities of shape, tranquility, and peace, to which may be added those of smoothness and softness. So how strange is this wonderful work and how excellent this blessedness, and how wonderful this collection of all the qualities! This is so because in the word mihad (bed) are brought together all those qualities, which are found in the earth, rendering it suitable for the existence of man. It is a thing which becomes clear to the learned after much learning and a long time, "But God will appropriate His


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/215

 mercy unto whom He pleaseth." Then as to the divine words, "And the mountains for stakes,"—they tell us of the advantage to be found in the tranquility of the earth on account of the mountains. For had the earth been created smaller than it is now, that is, without mountains it would have been quivered by the motion of other elements, the water and the air, and would have been shaken and thus displaced. This would naturally have been the cause of the destruction of the animal world. So when its tranquility is in harmony with those living on it, it did not come into being by chance alone, but was made by some one's intention, and determination. Certainly it was made by One who intended it, and determined it, for the sake of those living on it. Then He calls our attention to the suitability of the existence of night and day for animals. He says "And made the night


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/216

 a garment to cover you; and destined the day to a gaining of your livelihood." He means to say that He has made the night like a covering and clothing for all the things, from the heat of the sun. For had there been no setting of the sun at night, all the things, whose life has been made dependent upon the sun, would have perished—that is, the animals and the plants. As clothing protects the people from the heat of the sun, in addition to its being a covering, so God likened the night to it. This is one of the most beautiful of the metaphors. There is also another advantage in the night for the animals: their sleep in it is very deep, after the setting of the sun, which keeps faculties in motion, that is, wide awake. So God has said, "And appointed your sleep for rest," on account of the darkness of the night. Then He says, "And built over you seven heavens, and placed therein a burning lamp." Here by the word building He means their creation,


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/217

 and their harmony with the created things, and their arrangement and system. By strength He means that power of revolution and motion which is never slackened, and never overtaken by fatigue; and they never fall like other roofs and high edifices. To this refer the words of God, "And made the heaven a roof well-supported." By all this He shows their fitness in number, shape, fashion, and movement, for the existence of those who live on the earth round it. Were one of the heavenly bodies, not to speak of all, to stop for a moment all would be chaos on the face of the earth. Some people think the blast of the last trumpet, which will be the cause of the thunderbolt, will be nothing but a stop in the revolution of the heavenly bodies. Then He tells us of the advantage of the sun for those living on the earth and says, "And placed therein a burning lamp." He calls it a lamp because in reality it


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/218

 is all darkness, and light covers the darkness of the night, and if there be no lamp, man can get no advantage out of his sense of sight at nighttime; and in the same way if there were no sun the animals can have no benefit of their sense of seeing. He calls our attention to this advantage of the sun, ignoring others because it is the noblest of all the advantages and the most apparent of all. Then He tells us of His kindness in sending down rain, for the sake of the plants and the animals. The coming down of rain in an appointed proportion, and at an appointed season, for the cultivated fields cannot be by chance alone, but is the result of divine solicitude for us all. So He says, "And do We not send down from the clouds pressing forth rain, water pouring down in abundance that We may hereby produce corn and herbs, and gardens planted thick with trees." There are many verses of the Quran on this subject. For instance, He says, "Do ye not see


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/219

 how God hath created the seven heavens, one above another, and hath placed the moon therein for a light, and hath appointed the sun for a taper? God hath also provided and caused you to bring forth corn from the earth." If we were to count all such verses and comment upon them showing the kindness of the Creator for the created, it would take too many volumes. We do not intend to do it in this book. If God should grant us life and leisure we shall write a book to show the kindness of God to which He has called our attention.

It should be known that this kind of argument is just contrary to that which the Asharites think leads to the knowledge of God. They think that the creation does not lead us to the knowledge of God through any of His goodness, but through possibility, that is, the possibility which is found in all things, which we can understand to be of his shape or of quite a contrary one. But


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/220

 if this possibility be found alike in both the cases, then there is no wisdom in the creation of the universe, and there is found no harmony between man and the parts of it. For, as they think, if it is possible for the things to have any other form than they have now, then there can exist no harmony between man and other existent things by the creation of which God has obliged man and commanded him to be thankful to Him. This opinion, by which the creation of man, as a part of the universe, is just as possible, for instance, as his creation in the void, is like the opinion of those who say that man exists but he could have been created in quite a different shape, and yet could perform actions like a man. According to them it is also possible that he may have formed the part of another universe quite different from the existing one. In that case the blessing of the universe can have no obligation for man, for they are not necessary for his purpose.


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/221

 Hence man is quite careless of them and they of him. So their existence is no blessing to him. This is all against the nature of man.

On the whole, a man who denies the existence of the effects arranged according to the causes in the question of arts, or whose wisdom cannot understand it, then he has no knowledge of the art of its Maker. So also a man who denies the existence of an order of effects in accordance with causes in this universe, denies the existence of the Creator altogether. Their saying that God is above these causes, and that they cannot have any bearing on the effects by His command, is very far from the true nature of philosophy, nay, it is a destroyer of it. For if it is possible to have the same effects with other than the prescribed causes just in the same degree as by them, then where is the greatness in producing the effects from the known Causes? It is so because the effects from the causes have one of


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/222

 the following three reasons. Either the existence of the causes will be in place of the effects by compulsion, as a man's taking his food; or their being more perfect that is, the effect becoming better and more perfect through them, as a man's having two eyes, or they may have neither a better nor a more compulsive effect. In this case the existence of the effect and the cause would be by chance, without any intention at all; and, hence, there would be no greatness found in it. For instance, if the shape of human hand, the number of the fingers, and their length be neither necessary nor adding any perfection in its work in seizing things of different kind, then the actions of the hand from this shape, and number of parts, would be by chance alone. If it be so, then it makes no difference whether a man is given a hand or a hoof, or something else, like the different animals, for their particular actions. On the whole, if we ignore the causes and their effects, then


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/223

 there remains nothing to refute the arguments of those who believe in the creation of the universe by chance alone, that is, those who say that there is no Creator at all, and that which has come into being in this universe is the result of material causes. For taking one of the two alternatives it is not more possible that it may have happened by chance, than done by an independent Actor. So when the Asharites say that the existence of one or more possibilities shows that there is a particular Maker of these things, they can answer and say that the existence of things by one of these possibilities was by chance alone, for intention works as one of the causes, and that which happens without any means or cause is by chance. We see that many things come into being in this way. For example, the elements mix together by chance, and then by this unintentional mixing there is produced a new thing. They mix again, and this quite unintentionally produces


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/224

 quite a new thing. In this way every kind of creation may be said to have come into existence by chance.

We say that it is necessary that there be found order and arrangement, the more perfect and finished than what can be imagined. This mixing together of elements is limited and pre-arranged, and things produced by them are sure to happen, and no disorder has ever happened in them. But all this could not happen by chance alone, for that which happens in this way by chance is of the least value. It is to this that God refers, "It is the work of the Lord, who has rightly disposed all things." I would like to know what completeness can be found in things made by chance, for such things are by no means better than their opposites. To this God refers in the following words, "Thou canst not see in the Creation of the most Merciful any unfitness or disproportion. Lift thy eyes


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/225

 again to heaven, and look whether thou seest any flaw." . But what defect can be greater than that all the things can be found with any other quality than they really possess. For the non-existent quality may be better than the existing one. In this way, if one thinks that were the Eastern movement to become Western and vice versa, there would be no difference in the universe, then he has destroyed philosophy altogether. He is like a man who thinks that were the right side of the animals to become left, and vice versa, there would be no difference at all for one of the two alternatives is there. For as it is possible to say that it is made according to one alternative by an independent Maker, so it is possible to assert that it was all made by chance alone. For we see so many things coming into being by themselves.

It is quite clear to you that all the people see that lower kinds of creation


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/226

 could have been made in a different way from that in which they really are and as they see this lower degree in many things they think that they must have been made by chance. But in the higher creation they know that it is impossible to have been made in a more perfect and excellent form than that given to it by the Creator. So this opinion, which is one of the opinions of the Mutakallimun is both against the Law and philosophy. What we say is that the opinion of possibility in creation is closer to a complete denial of God, than leading us nearer to Him. At the same time it falsifies philosophy. For if we do not understand that there is a mean between the beginnings and ends of the creation, upon which is based the ends of things, then there can neither be any order nor any method in it. And if they be wanting then there can be no proof of the existence of an intelligent and knowing Maker; for taking them together with cause and


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/227

 effect we are led to the fact that they must have been created by wisdom and knowledge. But on the other hand the existence of either of two possibilities shows that they may have been performed by a not-knowing Maker and by chance alone. Just as a stone falling on the earth may fall in any place, on any side, and in any form. It will show the want of the existence either of a creator at all or at least of a wise and knowing Creator. The thing which has compelled the Mutakallimun of the Asharites to adopt this opinion is a denial of the action of those natural forces which God has put in all things, as He has endowed them with life, power and so forth. They avoided the opinion that there was any other creator but God, and God forbid that there be any other, for he is the only creator of the causes and they are made effective by His command only. We will talk of this in detail when discoursing on Fate and Predestination. They were also afraid


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/228

 that by admitting the natural causes they might be accused of saying that the universe came into being by chance only. They would have known that a denial of it means a denial of a great part of the arguments, which can be advanced for a proof of the existence of God. One who denies any part of God's creation denies His work which falls very near to a denial of a part of His attributes. On the whole as their opinion is based upon hasty conclusions, which come to the mind of a man by superficial thought and as apparently it appears that the word "intention" can be applied to one who has power to do bad or otherwise, they saw that if they did not admit that all the creation is possible, they would not be able to say that it came into existence by the action of an intending creator. So they say that all the creation is possible so that they may prove that the creator is an intelligent one. They never thought of the order which is necessary in things made, and


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/229

 with that their coming from an intelligent creator. These people have also ignored the blame they will have to bear in thus denying wisdom to the creator; or maintaining that chance should be found governing creation. They know, as we have said, that it is necessary, on account of the order existent in nature, that it must have been brought into being by some knowing creator, otherwise the order found in it would be by chance. When they were compelled to deny the natural forces, they had to deny with them a large number of those forces which God has made subservient to His command for the creation and preservation of things. For God has created some things from causes which He has produced from outside, these are the heavenly bodies; there are other things which He has made by causes placed in the things themselves, that is, the soul, and other natural forces, by which he preserves those things. So how wicked is the man who destroyeth


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/230

 philosophy, and "invented a lie about God."

This is only a part of the change which has taken place in the Law, in this and other respects, which we have already mentioned, and will mention hereafter. From all this it must have become clear to you that the method which God had adopted for teaching His creatures that the universe is made and created by Him is the method of kindness and wisdom, towards all His creatures and especially towards man. It is a method which bears the same relation to our intellect, as the sun bears to our senses. The method which it has adopted towards the common people about this problem is that of illustration from things observed. But as there was nothing which could be given as an illustration, and as the common people cannot understand a thing, an illustration of which they cannot see, God tells us that the universe was created in a


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/231

 certain time out of a certain thing, which He made. He tells us his condition before the creation of the universe, "His throne was above the waters." He also says, "Verily your Lord is God who created the heavens and the earth in six days," and "Then He set His mind to the creation of the heavens, and it was smoke." In addition to these there are other verses of the Book, pertaining to this subject. So it is incumbent that nothing out of them should be interpreted for the common people, and nothing should be presented to them in explaining it but this illustration. For one who changes it, makes the wisdom of the Law useless. If it be said that the Law teaches about the universe that it is created, and made out of nothing and in no time, then it is a thing which even the learned cannot understand, not to speak of the common people. So we should not deviate in this matter of the Law, from the method laid down in it


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/244

 one of the works of the prophets, just as curing is the work of the physicians, so that one who can cure is certainly a physician. This is one of the fallacies of the argument. Moreover, if we admit the existence of the prophetic mission, by putting the idea of possibility, which is in fact ignorance, in place of certainty, and make miracles a proof of the truth of man who claims to be a prophet it becomes necessary that they should not be used by a person, who says that they can be performed by others than prophets, as the Mutakallimun do. They think that the miracles can be performed by the magicians and saints. The condition which they attach with them is that miracles prove a man to be a prophet, when he at the same time claims to be so, for the true prophet can perform them as opposed to the false ones. This is an argument without any proof, for it can be understood either by hearing or reason. That is, it is said that one whose claims to prophecy are wrong, cannot perform miracles, but as we have


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/245

 said, when they cannot be performed by a liar, then they can only be done by the good people, whom God has meant for this purpose. These people, if they speak a lie, are not good, and hence cannot perform the miracles. But this does not satisfy the people who think miracles to be possible from the magicians, for they certainly are not good men. It is here that the weakness of the argument lies. Hence some people have thought that the best thing is to believe that they cannot be performed but by the prophets and hence magic is only imagination, and not a change of essence. Among these are also men who deny all sorts of marvelous things from the saints.

It is clear to you from the life of the prophet, peace be upon him, that he never invited any man or community to believe in his prophecy, and that which he has brought with him from God, by means of the performance of any miracles, in support of his claim, such as changing one element into another. Whatever miracles


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/246

 did appear from him were only performed in the natural course of things, without on his part any intention of contention or competition. The following words of the Quran will make this clear; "And they say: We will by no means believe in thee, until thou cause a spring of water to gush forth for us out of the earth, and thou have a garden of palm-trees and vines, and thou cause rivers to spring forth from the midst there-of in abundance; or thou cause the heaven to fall down in pieces upon us, as thou hast given out, or thou bring down God and the angels to vouch for thee; or thou have a house of gold, or thou ascend by a ladder to heaven; neither will we believe thy ascending thither alone, until thou cause a book to descend unto us, bearing witness of thee which we may read. Answer: My Lord be praised, Am I other than a man sent as an apostle?" Then again, "Nothing hindered us from sending you with miracles, except that the former nations have


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/247

 charged them with imposture." The thing by which we invited the people to believe in him, and with which he vied with them is the Quran. For says God, "Say, verily, if men and genii were purposely assembled, that they might produce a book like this Quran, they could not produce one like unto it, although the one of them assigned the other." Then further he says, "will they say, He hath forged the Quran? Answer, bring therefore ten chapters like unto it forged by yourself." This being the case the miracle of the Prophet with which he vied with the people and which he advanced as an argument for the truth of his claim to the prophetic mission, was the Quran. If it be said, that this is quite clear, but how does it appear that the Quran is a miracle, and that it proves his prophecy, while just now we have proved the weakness of the proof of prophecy by means of miracles without any exceptions in the case of any


text:
Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/74

May God perpetuate your honour and bless you, and screen you always from the eyes of misfortune. Through your excellent intelligence and good understanding you have learned a great part of all these sciences, till your insight informed you of the doubt which arises concerning the eternal knowledge of God, with its being at the same time concerned with created things. Thus, in the interests of truth, it is now incumbent upon us to remove the doubt from your mind, after we have stated it clearly. For one who does not know the problem adequately cannot very well solve the doubt.