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Rh child, are you going to remain in that cottage of Mr. Chumley's?"

"Why—I really don't know, Mrs. Prentice. There seems no other place to go"

"He is horribly overcharging you, child," said the lady, quickly.

"I know. But there are so few small places in decent neighborhoods—mother says she doesn't know what to do about it."

"I fancy, Jessica Is that your name?"

"Josephine, Mrs. Prentice; only they all call me Jess."

"Very well—Jess. Sounds a good practical name—and you are a practical girl; I can see that. Now, Jess, I fancy you have to do something yourself toward moving, to get your mother started, eh?"

"Oh! but I don't know where to go"

The car began to slow down. Mrs. Prentice had run into a quiet side street, not two blocks from the cottage at the foot of Whiffle Street.

"See here," said the lady, stopping the motor and preparing to alight. "I want you to see this little dove-cote—that's what I have always called it. It is set behind a grassy front yard and there is a little garden at the back. You'll love it in spring and summer."

"Oh, but Mrs. Prentice, is it empty?"


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112 "It's too empty. That's the trouble. The tenant I had left unexpectedly." She neglected to say that she had paid the tenant a certain sum to leave the cottage and move into another house. "I don't want the house empty during the cold weather. I have paid to have a fire kept up in the furnace for a week so that the pipes would not freeze. Come in."

It was a dear little cottage; Jess Morse was delighted with it. And so much more convenient than Mr. Chumley's. Besides, there was a good reason why the owner paid to have the fires kept up all this week of cold weather. Every room was fresh with paint and paper—the smell of varnish was still plain. It was really a delightful little place and the furniture at home would fit into the several rooms so nicely!

Jess Morse saw all this at once. She was delighted And two dollars less a month than the cottage in which they had lived so long!

"It is a way opened, Mrs. Prentice!" she murmured. "Better than we could ever expect. I thank you from the very bottom of my heart!"


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Rh down to the lower margin of the cornea. But upon examination with focal illumination, it is impossible to say whether it lies before or behind the membrane. The structure of the deeper layers of the cornea is so loose, and their connection with the membrane of Descemet is so slight, that the wandering downward of the pus-cells, assisted by gravity, meets with but little obstruction. But when the pus has once reached the membrane of Descemet, it can easily pass through the openings of the ligamentum pectinatura into the anterior chamber. It is possible that the pus may settle in this manner, but the question is, does it actually do so? According to Horner's observations, this process takes place on the posterior surface of the membrane of Descemet. The pus-cells from the corneal ulcer penetrate the membrane of Descemet, accumulate upon its posterior surface, and finally sink downward. Evidently an accumulation of pus in the corneal substance could not immediately rise and discharge itself with the aqueous humor when a puncture is made in the cornea at some distance from it in the horizontal direction. At least the walls of the channels through which it had sunk would remain infiltrated and would show a distinct cloudiness. If now, after paracentesis of the cornea, nothing remain but the diffuse clouding of the anterior layers, we are forced to the conclusion that the appearances which seemed to be in the corneal substance, really were in the anterior chamber. Experiments upon the eyes of guinea-pigs and rabbits have furnished results which confirm this view.

Iritis is a complication which generally occurs quite early and is seldom absent. The change in the color of the iris, caused by it, cannot always be well seen, on account of the clouding of the cornea, but can generally be detected, at least at the margin of the pupil. The diagnosis is confirmed by the posterior synechiæ, which are made to appear by the action of atropine. Often there are, simultaneously, especially near the lower margin of the pupil, semi-transparent flakes floating in the aqueous humor, which present exactly the appearance of coagulated fibrin. Frequently, in consequence of the purulent infiltration, the tissue of the iris, as appears in the operation of iridectomy, is exceedingly weak and brittle.


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when Jess got home—and Mrs. Prentice took her there in the car, but would not come in herself—she had hard work to satisfy her mother that such a change as this opportunity suggested was a good one for them to make. In short, Mrs. Morse did not enthuse.

"Just think of the trouble of it all," she sighed. "My dear Jess, we have been here so long"

"But Mr. Chumley doesn't want us any longer," interposed Jess.

"Tut, tut! that is only the old gentleman's way. He really will not raise our rent, do you think?"

"Why, Mother!" expostulated the girl, "he has already raised it and threatened to put us out if we don't find the increased three dollars on the first."

"I am afraid you were not politic enough," said her mother.

"One cannot be politic with Mr. Chumley.


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114 He wants his house for another tenant; he has as good as said so. And do come and see Mrs. Prentice's little cottage. It is a love."

Even after she had seen it, however, Mrs. Morse was doubtful. She shrank from the change.

"And think of the expense of moving," she declared.

"But the two dollars less we pay a month will soon pay for that," said Jess, eagerly.

"Well—er—perhaps," admitted her mother, doubtfully.

Jess had to do it all, however. She had to attend to every detail of the change. Fortunately her mother received a check of some size and the daughter obtained a part of it for current expenses. She hired a truckman, packed most of their possessions after school hours, and saw to the setting up of their goods and chattels in the new home.

There were several tons of furnace coal in the cellar of the new home. In the old cottage there had been no heater. Mrs. Prentice told Jess that she could pay for the coal a little at a time, and the girl gladly availed herself of this advantage.

For the winter promised to be a severe one. Since frost had set in in earnest there had been no let-up. Jess and her mother moved during


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Rh the short holiday vacation. The day school closed; the contestants for the prize offered by Mrs. Kerrick handed in their plays. The announcement of the successful one would be after the intermission—on the first Monday of the New Year.

When the Morses really came to remove their goods from the house in which they had lived so long, old Mr. Chumley would have liked to get out an injunction against their doing so.

"I never thought you'd do it, Widder!" he croaked, having hurried over the minute he heard the moving man was at the door. "Why—why mebbe we could have split the difference. P'r'aps three dollars a month more was a leetle steep."

"Oh, dear me!" sighed Mrs. Morse. "Really, Mr. Chumley, this is Jess's doings. She thinks the change will be better for us"

"Now then! I wouldn't let no young'un snap me like I was the end of a whip!" cried the old man. "You bundle your things back into the house, and we'll call it only a one-fifty raise."

But here Jess interfered. "Are you prepared to take two dollars off the rent, instead of adding any, and will you make the repairs we have been asking for all this year, Mr. Chumley?" she demanded, briskly.

"My goodness me! I can't. It ain't possible.


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116 The property don't bring me enough as it is."

"Then there's no use talking to us," said Jess, drawing her arm through her mother's. "Mrs. Prentice's house is all freshly done over, and has a heater, which this house hasn't, and everything is in spick and span order."

"That Mrs. Prentice! I might ha' knowed it!" cackled Mr. Chumley. "And she was for having you arrested for stealing once."

This was the very first Mrs. Morse had heard about the night Jess had had her queer experience, and she had to be told all about it now. She saw at once that her own regular work for the Courier arose out of her daughter's acquaintance with the wealthy Mrs. Prentice.

"And she is one of the leaders in our Hill society!" gasped the poor lady. "I declare! I shall never be able to face her again—although I have only a bowing acquaintance with her. She will very well know who is putting all the society items into the paper."

"Well, it's honest," said Jess, stubbornly.

"My goodness me! How practical you are, Jess," exclaimed her mother. "Isn't anything but bread-and-butter, and such things, appealing to you in life, child?"

Jess did not answer. She was naturally as frivolous of mind as any other girl of her age,


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Rh only the happenings in their domestic life of the last few weeks had made her far more thoughtful.

And really, the little dove-cote, as Mrs. Prentice had called their new home, was a veritable love of a place! Mrs. Morse had to admit herself that it was a great improvement over the house where they had lived so long.

As it was vacation week, she let Jess go right ahead to settle things while she stuck to the typewriter. And Jess was glad to have plenty to occupy her mind. The suspense of waiting for the committee to decide upon the winner of the prize was hard to endure indeed.

One evening, however, Chet came after her, for there was a big moonlight skating party on Lake Luna. By this time people who had horses and sleighs had made quite a trotting course from Centerport to Keyport in one direction, and from Centerport to Lumberport at the other end of the lake.

There were certain motor enthusiasts, too, who had rigged their cars so that they would travel on the ice; but Chet Belding and Lance Darby had beaten them all. The trotting course hugged the shore, the skaters followed the same course, but farther out on the ice, and beyond, toward the middle of the lake, the iceboats had free


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118 swing. And there were several very fast "scooters" and the like upon Lake Luna.

But Laura's brother and his chum declared that "they'd got 'em all beat to a stiff froth!" And on this night they produced the finished product of their joint work for the last several weeks.

"What do we call it? The Blue Streak!" declared Chet. "And that's the way she travels. We tried her out this morning and Well, you girls will admit that you never traveled fast before."

"My goodness me, Laura! Do you think it is safe for us to venture with them?" demanded Jess.

"If Chet brings me home in pieces he knows what mother will do to him," returned her chum, laughing.

The novel boat certainly attracted considerable attention when the boys ran it out of the old boathouse and pushed it far away from the skating course. It combined the principles of an aircraft with runners of the familiar iceboat.

"Just call it an aero-iceyacht, and let it go at that," said Chet. "That hits it near enough."

"And it really can sail in the air or on the ice—like a hydroplane?" demanded Jess.

"You'll think so," Chet assured her.


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Rh The boat was driven by a propeller similar to those on aeroplanes; and this propeller was fastened to the crossbeam on which were the two forward runners—somewhat similar to the mast on the ordinary lake iceboat. The body and rudder plank, at right angles to this crossbeam, supported the two-cylinder gasoline engine, which Chet bought at the motor repair shop of Mr. Purcell.

It was a fourteen-horse-power engine, water-cooled, and geared with a chain to the propeller.

"We tried a belt first," said Lance; "but the blamed thing slipped so that old Chet evolved the chain-gear idea. Great, eh?"

"How can we tell till we see it work?" demanded Laura.

"And you don't have to lie down for 'low bridge' when the boom goes over on this iceyacht!" cried Jess, enthusiastically. "We can sit up."

"All the time," agreed Lance.

"I think it's simply great!" declared Laura.

"All because you, Mother Wit, suggested using the kite for motive power that day," said her brother, admiringly. "That gave us the idea. If a kite would give motive power to a man skating, why not use a more up-to-date air-power scheme on the ice?"


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Rh The sudden surging forward of the Arabs was only apparently sudden. For centuries previously the Arab migration had been in preparation. It was the last great Semitic migration connected with the economical decline of Arabia. Such a decline is indisputable, even though we may not be disposed to accept all the conclusions which have in recent times been connected with this oft-discussed thesis. Ever since the commencement of our chronology the Arabs had been in fluctuation. South-Arabian tribes were lords of Medina, others also from South Arabia were settled in Syria and Mesopotamia. Legendary information, confirmed however by inscriptions of Southern Arabia, shews that for a long period the conditions of life in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula had been growing worse. With the decline of political power the care of the public waterworks, on which the prosperity of the land more or less depended, also suffered. In short, long before Mahomet Arabia was in a state of unrest, and a slow, uncontrollable infiltration of Arabian tribes and tribal branches had permeated the adjoining civilised lands in Persian as also in Roman territory, where they had met with the descendants of earlier Semitic immigrants to those parts, the Aramaeans, who were already long acclimatised there.

Persia and Byzantium suffered severely from this constant unrest in their border provinces, and both empires had endeavoured to organise the movement and to use it as a fighting medium, the one against the other. The Romans had organised the Syrian Arabs for this purpose under the leadership of princes of the house of Ghassān, the most celebrated of whom even received the title of patrician, while the Sāssānids founded a similar bulwark in Ḥīra, where the Lakhmites, under Persian sovereignty, lived a princely life, greatly celebrated by Arabian poets. A short-sighted policy, and probably also internal weakness, permitted the ruin of both of these States, which would have offered an almost insuperable barrier to the Islāmitic expansion. The hitherto united dominions of the Ghassānids were subdivided and various governors took the place of the popular Lakhmite princes. Thus the great empires had succeeded in destroying the smaller Arabian States which had grown too powerful, but the tradition remained, according to which the Arabians on the borders might with impunity levy contributions on the neighbouring cultivated countries during the constant wars between Persia and Byzantium. These traditions were assimilated by those Arabs then gradually becoming dependent on Medina, and their procedure was sanctioned and encouraged by the young and rising Caliphate; at first in a wavering, but later in a more and more energetic manner. The expansion of the Saracens is thus the final stage in a process of development extending over centuries. Islām was simply a change in the watchword for which they fought; and thus arose at the same time an organisation which, based on religious and ethnical principles and crowned with unexpected success, was bound to attain an historical


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120 "And it worked!" shouted Lance.

"Oh, hurry!" cried Jess. "I'm crazy to see how it sails."

The boys placed the girls amidships, and showed them how to cling to the straps on either side. Lance took his place on the crossbeam—to act as weight on either end if such balance was needed; Chet took the tiller.

"Open her up;" the latter commanded his chum. "Only quarter round with the switch when the engine gets her stroke. Now, careful! Hang on, girls!"

The next moment the engine began to throb regularly, and the blades of the propeller whirled. In half a minute they had gained such momentum that the eye could not distinguish the blades themselves—they simply made a blur in the moonlight.

The craft lunged ahead.


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330 isolation and becomes heir to the Oriental-Hellenistic civilisation. It appears as the last link in a long development of universal history. From the days of Alexander the Great until the time of the Roman emperors the East had been compelled to endure Western conditions and European rule. But as in the days of the earlier emperors the Hellenic spirit was stifled by the embrace of the East, and as the classical world greedily absorbed the cults and religions of the East, an ethnical reaction of the East sets in from the third century onwards and the Semitic element begins to stir beneath the Hellenistic surface. Within the Christian sphere this current shews itself more especially in the territories of the Greek and Aramaic languages, and the difference between the Greek and the Latin Churches is mainly that between Asia and Europe. With the expansion of the Arabs then the East reacquires in the political sphere the independence which had been slowly preparing in the domain of civilisation. Nothing absolutely new therefore arrives from the expansion of the Arabs, not even conditions uncongenial to the West of the Middle Ages; in fact on closer examination we perceive an intimate inner relationship in the world of thought between the Christianity of the Middle Ages and Islām. This fact is moreover not remarkable, for both spheres of culture repose on the same foundation, the Hellenistic-Oriental civilisation of early Christian times. In the territory of the Mediterranean circle conquered by the Arabs this civilisation lived on, but as the empire of the Caliphs thrust its main centre further and further eastward, and annexed more and more the traditions of ancient Persia, the culture of Islām, at first strongly tinged with Hellenism, was bound to assume an ever stronger Oriental character. On the other hand on Western ground the Germanic genius freed itself from this civilisation, which as a foreign import could not thrive there, to develop out of its remnants the typically Western forms of the Middle Ages.

Just as the ecclesiastical conception on the one hand broke the historical continuity, it perceived on the other hand in the expansion of the Arabs nothing but a further extension of the religion of Islām and therefore totally misunderstood the real nature of the movement. It was not the religion of Islām which was by that time disseminated by the sword, but merely the political sovereignty of the Arabs. The acceptance of Islām by others than Arabians was not only not striven for, but was in fact regarded with disfavour. The subdued peoples might peacefully retain their old religions, provided only they paid ample tribute. As on conversion to Islām these payments ceased, at least in the early times such changes of religion were disliked. The circumstance that a few pious men subsequently practised such proselytism, or that the material advantages of apostasy gradually led the population of the conquered countries to Islām, must not blind our eyes to the fact that the movement originated from quite other motives.


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moon, hanging low upon the horizon, was young but brilliant. The air was so keen and clear that without the help of the moonlight it seemed as though the stars must have flooded the lake with white light.

Nearer the southern shore the jingle of sleighbells and the laughter and shouting of the skaters marked the revelers who gave a free course to the ice-boats out here nearer the open water. For both east and west of Cavern Island, which lay in the middle of Lake Luna, opposite Centerport, the ice was either unsafe, or there were long stretches of open water. The freight boats up and down the lake kept this channel open.

But there was a wide and safer course before the flying aero-iceboat. And soon she was moving so fast that the girls heard nothing but the shriek of the wind rushing by.

Here and there before them lanterns glowed like huge fireflies. These lights were in the rigging of several ice-yachts. Chet and Lance had


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122 a pair of automobile searchlights rigged forward on their own boat.

Another yacht had started from the old boathouse at about the time our friends and their new-fangled craft got under way. There were girls aboard it, too; but at first the Beldings and Jess and Lance did not recognize the other party.

The strange yacht was distinguished, however, by a red and green lamp. As Chet had been slow in starting, the other boat got ahead. But now, although the wind was fair and the other yacht traveled splendidly, the aero-iceboat bore down upon it, beating it out and leaving it behind like an express train going by a freight.

However, Chet would not allow Lance to throw on all speed. There were too many other craft on the ice before them—and it was night.

The lights of the City of Centerport soon fell behind them; then, almost at once, they picked up the lights of Keyport at the extreme end of the lake. They were traveling some!

Chet had strapped on a megaphone, which he had borrowed from Short and Long, who was coxswain of the boys' Central High eight-oared shell, and through this he shouted his orders to Lance. They ran down within a mile of Keyport, and then shut off the engine and circled about on the momentum they had gained. There


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Rh were too many skaters and sleighs on the ice down here to make ice-boating either safe or pleasurable.

"My goodness me! Wasn't that fun?" gasped Jess.

"Felt like you was traveling some, eh?"

"Oh, Chet! it was great!"

"It certainly is a fine boat, Bobby," agreed Laura. "You and Launcelot have done well."

"Wait!" said Lance, warningly.

"Wait for what?" demanded Laura.

"We didn't travel that time. We were only preparing you—warming her up, as it were. Wait till we let her out."

"My goodness!" cried Jess. "Can you go faster?"

"We'll show you, going home," said Chet.

Just then the boat with the green and red light swooped down upon them and a voice shouted:

"What kind of a contraption is that you've got there, Belding?"

"Hullo!" exclaimed Chet. "That's Ira Sobel's yacht. Ira is Purt Sweet's cousin." Then he answered: "Oh, this is a little rigging of my own, Mr. Sobel. But she can travel. Rather beat's your Nighthawk, eh?"

"Well, she did that time," admitted Sobel, doubtfully.


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 CHAPTER XI

THE EXPANSION OF THE SARACENS

GENERAL REMARKS, ASIA, EGYPT

The migration of the Teutonic tribes and the expansion of the Saracens form the basis of the history of the Middle Ages. As the migrations laid the foundation for the development of the Western States, the diffusion of the Saracens gave the form which it has kept till our own day to the ancient contrast of East and West. These two movements gave birth to the severance between Christian Europe and the Muslim East, momentous not only throughout the Middle Ages but even to the present day. True, Spain was long included in the Muslim territory, while Eastern Europe and Asia Minor formed part of the Christian sphere, but these later changes simply alter the geographical aspect; the origin of the contrast, affecting universal history, dates back to the seventh century.

The Middle Ages regarded the severance from such a one-sided ecclesiastical and clerical point of view as was bound to obscure the comprehension of historical facts. The popular version of the matter, even among the cultured classes of to-day, is still under the spell of this tradition: — "Inspired by their prophet, the Arab hordes fall upon the Christian nations, to convert them to Islām at the point of the sword. The thread of ancient development is torn completely asunder; a new civilisation, that of Islām, created by the Arabs, takes the place of the older civilisation of Christianity; the eastern and western countries are opposed to each other on terms of complete estrangement, reacting on each other only during the period of the crusades.” If we look into Arabian sources with this idea before us, we shall find it fully confirmed, for Arabian tradition also took its bearings from the ecclesiastical standpoint, like the tradition of the West; with one as with the other everything commenced with Mahomet and the expansion of the Arabs; Mahomet and the first Caliphs made all things anew and substantially created the civilisation of Islām. It is only in recent times that historical research has led away from this line of thought. We recognise now the historical continuity. Islām emerges from its


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124 "My goodness me!" the friends heard the Central High dandy exclaim. "I weally wouldn't want to travel any faster, Ira. I—I haven't weally got my breath yet!"

"Oh, I say!" cried another voice from the ice-boat, and they recognized Lily Pendleton's. "What do you think about the prize? Did you hear?"

"Why, they haven't decided on the best play yet, have they?" returned Jess, eagerly, and before her chum could speak.

"No. But I heard they'd put it all into Mr. Monterey's hands. He's the manager of the Opera House, you know. And mother is very well acquainted with him. You girls laughed at my play"

"Not I, Lily," interrupted Laura, good-naturedly. "I was too afraid that the rest of you might have a chance to laugh at mine."

"Well, I bet I've a good chance to win. Mr. Monterey is real nice, and mother is going to see him."

"Pooh!" exclaimed Chet. "She's one of those people who think influence brings things about. Don't you be worried, girls; I bet Mr. Sharp won't let anybody get that prize through favoritism."

"That's very encouraging, Chet," said Jess.


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Rh "But perhaps Lily will win it. You know, she goes to plays more than any other girl in the Junior class of Central High, that's true. And she reads novels—real silly ones. Maybe she knows how to write just what would please a theatrical manager."

"Pooh!" said Laura, "I'm not giving up all hope yet—especially because of Lil Pendleton's say-so."

"Now, look out!" shouted Lance. "All ready to go back, Chet?"

"Start her!" exclaimed his chum. "Cling tight, girls—and take a good breath. I want to time this trip. It's all of nine miles to the starting point and we'll show you"

His voice trailed off and the girls did not hear the rest of his speech. The big propeller-wings began to beat the air, and the sound rose to a keen buzzing. Chet snapped his watch back into his pocket, raised his hand, and the ice-boat tore ahead.

In twenty seconds the wind rushed past them so that the girls were forced to bend their heads. The way was clear and Lance had "let her out." Chet bent sidewise watching the ice through his goggles. Occasionally he screamed an order to his chum, who signalled with his hand that he heard and understood.


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126 It was like the flight of a meteor! Laura and Jess never had realized before what it meant to travel fast. Motoring on land was nothing like this. As though shot out of some huge cannon the aero-iceboat skimmed the lake. The wind was almost in their faces, but that made little difference to this new invention of the chums.

The other yachts had to tack against the wind; not so the aero-iceboat. Swift and straight she flew and suddenly Chet roared to Lance to shut down, and the propeller groaningly stopped.

Chet flung up his goggles and drew out his watch.

"Eight and a half minutes!" he cried, with glee. "And, as I told you, it's a good nine miles."

"Let me off! let me off!" gasped his sister, struggling down from the narrow body of the boat. "Why! I never want to travel any faster, Chet. Do you think it is safe?"

"You bet it is, Miss Laura," said Lance. "Or we wouldn't have invited you girls to go with us."

"Just wait till some day—say Saturday. By daylight I'd drive this thing faster than that. I tell you, we've got the speediest craft on the whole lake."

"It beats what Mrs. Case told us about ski


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Rh running in Sweden," cried Jess, who was delighted with the experience. "And if Mrs. Case starts a class to travel on skis this winter, I want to be in it."

"Well! it's all right to hear about. But the experience is sort of shaking," sighed Laura. "I'm not sure that I have an over-abundance of pluck, after all."


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332 importance quite different from that of buffer States like Ḥīra and Ghassān.

Under these circumstances it would be a mistake to regard the Arab migration merely as a religious movement incited by Mahomet. The question may in fact be put whether the whole movement is not conceivable without the intervention of Islām. There can in any case be no question of any zealous impulse towards proselytism. That strong religious tie which at the present time binds together all Muslims, that exclusive religious spirit of the later world of Islām, is at all events not the primary cause of the Arab migration, but merely a consequence of the political and cultural conditions caused by it. The importance of Islām in this direction lies in its masked political character, which the modern world has even in our own time to take into consideration. In the outset Islām meant the supremacy of Medina, but it soon identified itself with Arabianism, i.e. it preached the superiority of the Arabian people generally. This great idea gives an intellectual purport to the restless striving for expansion, and makes a political focus of the great Arabian State of Medina, founded on religion. Hunger and avarice, not religion, are the impelling forces, but religion supplies the essential unity and central power. The expansion of the Saracens' religion, both in point of time and in itself, can only be regarded as of minor import and rather as a political necessity. The movement itself had been on foot long before Islām gave it a party cry and an organisation. Then it was that the minor streams of Arabian nationality, gradually encroaching on the cultivated territory, united with the related elements already resident there and formed that irresistible migratory current which flooded the older kingdoms, and seemed to flood them suddenly.

If the expansion of the Saracens is thus allowed to take its proper place in the entire development of the Middle Ages, a glance at the state of affairs at the time of the prophet's death leads directly to the history of the Arab migration itself.

The death of the prophet is represented by tradition as an event which surprised the whole world and to the faithful seemed impossible, notwithstanding the fact that Mahomet had always confessed himself to be a mortal man. He had, it is true, never taken his eventual decease into consideration, nor had he left a definite code of laws or any instructions regarding his succession. But can we suppose a similar self-deception also among his nearest companions, who must certainly have seen how he was ageing, and must have had him before them in all his human weakness? Can we suppose any delusion in so circumspect a nature as Abū Bakr, or in such a genius for government as Omar? The energetic and wise conduct of both these men and their companion Abū 'Ubaida, immediately after the catastrophe, seems to prove the contrary and their action seems based on well-prepared arrangements. Energetic action was moreover very necessary, for it was


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Rh a giant task which Mahomet bequeathed to those entrusted with the regulation of his inheritance. At the very outset loomed up the difficulties in the capital itself. The sacred personality of the prophet had succeeded in holding in check the old antipathies within the ranks of the Medina allies (Anṣār) and the continual petty jealousies between these and the Muhājirūn, the companions of his flight from Mecca. But on his death, which for the great majority was sudden and unexpected, these two groups confronted each other, each claiming the right to take up the lead. As soon as the news of the death first reached them the Khazraj, the most numerous tribe of the Anṣār, assembled in the hall (Saḳīfa) of the Banū Sā'ida. Informed of this by the Aus, who feared a revival of the old dissensions, Abū Bakr, Omar and Abū 'Ubaida at once repaired thither and arrived just in time to prevent a split in the community. The hot-blooded Omar wanted to put a stop to it promptly and by energetic means, and would of a certainty have spoiled the whole situation, but at this stage the venerable and awe-inspiring Abū Bakr, the oldest companion of the prophet, intervened and whilst fully recognising the merits of the Anṣār insisted on the election of one of the Ḳuraishite companions of the prophet as leader of the community. He proposed Omar or Abū 'Ubaida. The proposal did not meet with success and the discussion became more and more excited; suddenly Omar seized the hand of Abū Bakr and rendered homage to him, and others followed his example. In the meantime the hall and adjoining rooms had become filled with people belonging, not to either of the main groups, but to the fluctuating population of Muslim Arabs of the neighbourhood, who had in the preceding years become especially numerous in Medina, and whose main interest was that matters should remain in statu quo. These people really turned the scales, and thus Abū Bakr was chosen by a minority and recognised on the following day by the community, though unwillingly, as even tradition is unable to veil, on the part of many. They rendered homage to him as the representative (Khalīfa) of the prophet. The term Caliph was at that time not regarded as a title, but simply as a designation of office; Omar, the successor of Abū Bakr, is said to have been the first to assume the distinctive title "Commander of the Faithful," Amīr al-Mu'minīn, rendered by the Greek papyri as.

The election of Abū Bakr was doubtless a fortunate one, but it was regarded in circles closely interested as an inexcusable coup de main. Quite apart from the fact that the Anṣār had failed to carry their point and were accordingly in bad humour, the nearer relations of the prophet and their more intimate companions appear to have carried out a policy of obstruction which yielded only to force. Ali, the husband of the prophet's daughter Fāṭima and father of the prophet's grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥusain, who had previously held the first claim to the supreme position, was suddenly ousted from the front rank. His


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334 uncle 'Abbās and probably also Ṭalḥa and Zubair (two of the earliest converts to Islām) allied themselves with him. Ali was a good swordsman but not a man of cautious action or quick resolve. He and those nearest to him appear to have had no other object in view than to gather around the corpse of the prophet while the fight for the succession was raging without. The news of Abū Bakr's election however roused them at last from their lethargy, and thereupon ensued an act of revenge, shrouded certainly in mystery by Muslim tradition, but which cannot be obliterated; the body of the prophet was secretly buried during the same night below the floor of his death-chamber. It was the custom, after pronouncing the benediction over the coffin, to carry the dead in solemn procession through the town to the cemetery. As however this procession would have simultaneously formed the triumphal entry of the new ruler, the body was disposed of as quickly as possible without the knowledge of Abū Bakr or the other leading companions. Tradition, which represents the old companions as working together in pure friendship and unanimity, has endeavoured with much care to picture these remarkable occurrences as legal. For instance Mahomet is said to have stated previously that prophets should always be buried at the spot where they died. To the modern historian however this episode unveils the strong passions and deep antipathies which divided, not only the Meccans and the Medina faction, but also the nearest companions of the prophet. Abū Bakr's rule was but feebly established, and a dissolution of the young realm would have been inevitable had not the pure instinct of self-preservation forced the opposing parties into unity.

The news of the death appeared to let loose all the centrifugal forces of the new State. According to Muslim accounts all Arabia was already subjected and converted to Islām; and as soon as the news of Mahomet's death was known, many of the tribes seceded from Islām and had to be again subjected in bloody wars and reconverted. This apostasy is termed Ridda, a change of belief, a well-known term of the later law of Islām. In reality Mahomet, at the time of his death, had by no means united Arabia, much less had he converted all the country to Islām. Not quite all of what to-day forms the Turkish province of Ḥijāz, that is the central portion of the west coast of Arabia with its corresponding back-country, was in reality politically joined with Medina and Mecca as a united power, and even this was held together more by interest than by religious brotherhood. The tribes of Central Arabia, e.g. the Ghaṭafān, Bāhila, Ṭayyi', Asad, etc., were in a state of somewhat lax dependence on Mahomet and had probably also partially accepted the doctrine of Islām, whilst in the Christian district to the north and in Yamāma, which had its own prophet, and in the south and east of the peninsula Mahomet either had no connexions whatever or had made treaties with single or isolated tribes, i.e. with a


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632] weak minority. It was inexplicable to the subsequent historians of the Arabian State that after the death of Mahomet so many wars were necessary on Arabian soil; they accounted for this fact by a Ridda, an apostasy, from Islām. The death of the prophet was doubtless a reason for secession to all those who had unwillingly followed Mahomet's lead, or who regarded their contracts as void on his death. The majority of those regarded as secessionists (Ahl ar-Ridda) had however previously never been adherents of the religion, and many had not even belonged to the political State of Islām. It has but recently been recognised that an intelligible history of the expansion of the Arabs is only possible by making these wars against the Ridda the starting-point from which the great invasions developed themselves, more from internal necessity than through any wise direction from Medina – undertakings moreover from the enormous extent of which even the optimism of Mahomet would have flinched.

The movement in Arabia had received through the formation of the State of Medina a new and powerful stimulation. Mahomet's campaigns, with their rich booty, had allured many from afar. He had moreover, as a great diplomatist, strengthened the opposition where he could find no direct acknowledgment. His example alone had also its effect. Should not the prophet of the Banū Ḥanīfa, of the Asad, or of the Tamīm be able to do what the Meccan Nabī had done? In this way prophetism gained ground in Arabia, i.e. the tension already existing grew until it neared an outburst. The sudden death of Mahomet gave new support to the centrifugal tendencies. The character of the whole movement, as it forces itself on the notice of the historian, was of course hidden from contemporaries. Arabia would have sunk into particularism if the necessity caused by the secession of the Ahl ar-Ridda had not developed in the State of Medina an energy which carried all before it. The fight against the Ridda was not a fight against apostates; the objection was not to Islām per se but to the tribute which had to be paid to Medina; the fight was for the political supremacy over Arabia; and its natural result was the extension of the dominions of the prophet, not their restoration. With such a distribution of the Arabian element as has been described it was only in the nature of things that the fight must make itself felt moreover beyond the boundaries of Arabia proper.

Only a few of the tribes more nearly connected with Medina recognised the supremacy of Abū Bakr, the others all seceding. Before the news of these secessions reached Medina an expedition, which had been prepared by Mahomet before his death, had already departed for the Syrian border to avenge the defeat at Mu'ta. Medina was therefore quite denuded of troops. A few former allies wished to utilise this precarious position and make a sudden attack on Medina; this however was prevented by Abū Bakr with great energy. Fortunately the expedition


text: Harmonium (Stevens)/The Load of Sugar-Cane


text: Harmonium (Stevens)/Le Monocle de Mon Oncle


text: Harmonium (Stevens)/Nuances of a Theme by Williams


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336 returned in time to enable him to capture the camp of the insurgents after a severe battle at Dhu-l-Ḳaṣṣa (Aug.-Sept. 632). Khālid ibn al-Walīd, who had already distinguished himself under Mahomet, was thereupon entrusted with the task of breaking the opposition of the tribes of Central Arabia. Khālid was without doubt a military genius of the first rank. He was somewhat lax in matters of religion and could be as cruel as his master had been before him; but was a brilliant strategist, carefully weighing his chances; yet once his mind was made up, he was endued with an energy and daring before which all had to yield. He is the actual conqueror of the Ridda, and his good generalship secured victory after victory for Islām.

With a force of about 4000 men he again reduced the Ṭayyi' to obedience, and then in rapid succession routed at Buzākha the Asad and Ghaṭafān, who had gathered round a prophet called Ṭalḥa, scoffingly styled by the Muslims Ṭulaiḥa, meaning the little Ṭalḥa. Khālid's success caused fresh troops to flock to his standard. He then at once proceeded further into the territory of the Tamīm, but against the wishes of the Anṣār accompanying him and without the authority of the Caliph. This arbitrary procedure, together with a cruel act of personal revenge which he performed at the last-named place, caused his recall; he was however not only exculpated, but a proposal of his was adopted, to strike a heavy blow at the Banū Ḥanīfa in Yamāma. At this place the prophet Maslama was then ruling, and as in the case of Ṭulaiḥa the Muslims sarcastically formed a diminutive of his name and styled him Musailima. According to tradition this Musailima had maintained friendly relations with Mahomet. Be that as it may, certain it is that he was not in any way subject to Medina in either a political or religious sense, but more probably an imitator of his successful colleague Mahomet. In any case his rule was somewhat firmly established, and it cost Khālid a bloody battle to destroy his power. This memorable battle was fought at 'Aḳrabā and was without doubt the bloodiest and most important during the whole of the Ridda war. We are as yet but poorly informed in regard to the chronology of these events, but it may probably be assumed that the battle of 'Aḳrabā was fought about one year after the death of the prophet.

By the side of these great successes of Khālid the campaigns of other generals in Baḥrain, 'Umām, Mahra, Ḥaḍramaut and Yaman are less important. Moreover the earliest subjection of all these lands under the rule of Islām was not carried out by troops specially sent out from Medina; it may even be doubtful if the commanders, with whose names these conquests are associated, were despatched from Medina. It may be that they were only subsequently legalised and that Muhājir ibn Abī Umayya was the first actual delegate of the Caliph. In any case these districts were unsettled for a long time after the Muslim troops had invaded Syria and the 'Irāḳ. Further, the same districts were in less than


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632] half a century later almost independent, and later still a focus of heterodox tendencies.

The further march of events is connected, not with these wars but with Khālid's unparalleled succession of victories, and with the complication on the Syrian border. The subjection of Central Arabia to Medina inspired the Arabs of the border districts with a profound respect, but it simultaneously excited the warlike propensities of the most important tribes of Arabia. It would have been an enormous task for the government in Medina to compel all these restless elements, accustomed to marauding excursions, to live side by side in neighbourly peace under the sanctuary of Islām in unfertile Arabia. Within the boundaries of the empire however such fratricidal feuds were henceforth abolished. It was only to be expected that after the withdrawal of Khālid's army a reaction against Medina should seize upon the newly subjected tribes. The necessity of keeping their own victorious troops employed, as also of reconciling the subjected ones to the new conditions, irresistibly compelled an extension of the Islāmitic rule beyond the borders of Arabia. Chronologically the raid on 'Irāḳ (the ancient Babylonia) stands at the commencement of these enterprises. This however was quite a minor affair, and the main attention of the government was directed to Syria.

Before going further, we have to shew that our exposition differs radically from all the usual descriptions of the expansion of the Arabs, not only in our estimates of the sources and events, but also in our chronological arrangement of them. The conquests of the Saracens have in later years been a focus of scientific debate. Through the labours of De Goeje, Wellhausen and Miednikoff a complete revolution in our views has been effected. We have learnt to differentiate the various schools of tradition, of which that of 'Irāḳ, represented by Saif ibn Omar, has produced an historical novel which can hardly be classed as actual history. The reports of the Medina and the Syrian schools are more trustworthy, and a certain amount of reliance may be placed on the Egyptian school, but they all suffer from later harmonising efforts, and also from their revision during the period of the Abbasids, in which it was sought in every way to depreciate the Umayyads. All these traditions are now being collected and critically sifted in the stupendous annals of Leone Caetani. His epoch-making results are utilised in the following paragraphs.

Between Yamāma and the Ḥīra district, which we must regard as a long, narrow strip of country, the North Arabian (Ishmaelite) tribe of Bakr ibn Wā'il led a nomadic existence on the borders of the cultivated country, covered by the protecting marshes of the lower Euphrates, and this tribe was again subdivided into various independent minor groups. They formed part of the restless border tribes against which Ḥīra had been erected as a bulwark. The sub-tribe of the Banū Shaibān especially


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 grapher, who thinks of nothing but the heads and tails of rivers, and lays down the streams of Terra Incognita as accurately as if he had been there. He is a person of pleasant fancy, and makes a sort of fairy land of every country he touches, from the Frozen Ocean to the Deserts of Zahara.

How does he settle matters with Mr. Firedamp?

You see Mr. Firedamp has got as far as possible out of his way. Next to him is Sir Simon Steeltrap, of Steeltrap Lodge, Member for Crouching-Curtown, Justice of Peace for the county, and Lord of the United Manors of Springgun-and-Treadmill; a great preserver of game and public morals. By administering the laws which he assists in making, he


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 disposes, at his pleasure, of the land and its live stock, including all the two-legged varieties, with and without feathers, in a circumference of several miles round Steeltrap Lodge. He has enclosed commons and woodlands; abolished cottage-gardens; taken the village cricket-ground into his own park, out of pure regard to the sanctity of Sunday; shut up footpaths and alehouses, (all but those which belong to his electioneering friend, Mr. Quassia, the brewer;) put down fairs and fiddlers; committed many poachers; shot a few; convicted one third of the peasantry; suspected the rest; and passed nearly the whole of them through a wholesome course of prison discipline, which has finished their education at the expense of the county.

He is somewhat out of his element here:


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338 had brilliant traditions, for it was these people who had won the first and much celebrated victory of the Arabs over Persian regular troops at Dhu Ḳār before the rise of Islām (between 604 and 611). This tribe of the Banū Shaibān and their leader Muthannā ibn Ḥāritha, whose example was followed by the others, induced Khālid and his Muslims to cross the Persian boundary for the first time. That was not a matter of chance, but shews the deep inner connexion of the Saracen expansion with the migration already in being before the rise of Islām. The Shaibān, like all the other components of the Bakr ibn Wä'il, were wholly independent of Medina, and had no intention of becoming Muslims. But when Medina suddenly extended its dominion beyond Yamāma, and all Arabia echoed with the fame of Khālid in warfare, the Bakr found themselves in a dilemma between the rising Arabian great power and their old hereditary enemy, Persia. What could be more obvious than that, simply because they needed a screen for their rear, they should draw the related Muslims into their alliance and with their assistance continue their raids into the cultivated country? Khālid, reckless plunger that he was, seized with avidity this opportunity for fresh deeds of valour. Tradition reports that the chiefs of the Bakr tribes, and of them Muthannā first and foremost, paid a visit to the Caliph Abū Bakr at Medina, professed Islām, and received from Abū Bakr the command to conquer 'Irāḳ in conjunction with Khālid. In reality it is doubtful whether the Caliph even so much as knew of any connexion between Khālid and the Bakr tribes. At the same time it is not improbable that he gave his consent for Khālid to participate in one of the customary raids of the Bakr ibn Wā'il, but the conversion of the head of the tribes was no part of his plan, much less the conversion of the tribes themselves. They certainly from this time onward were in touch with Medina, and regarded themselves as in political alliance with the Muslims; and in the rapid developments of the next few years they were merged in the Caliph's dominions. Abū Bakr did not at first contemplate any systematic occupation of 'Irāḳ, for he was at that time considering an expedition against Syria, which from the point of view of Medina was of infinitely greater importance. Even at that time they desired to have Khālid in Syria; but he had in any case already taken part in the raid. the Banū Shaibān, either with or without the knowledge of the Caliph. How little any conquest of Persia was contemplated is shewn by the fact that the main body of Khālid's troops was ordered home to recruit, and he undertook his first invasion of Persian territory with only about 500 men, certainly well-selected troops, and then continued his march further with the same contingent into Syria.

Khālid attracted volunteers of all kinds from Central Arabia, and marched with them westward of the Euphrates to avoid the marshes; at Khaffān he effected a junction with the Bakr under Muthannā; their combined forces amounted in all to only two to three thousand men, but


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 among such a diversity of opinions he will hear some he will not like.

It was rather ill-judged in Mr. Crotchet to invite him today. But the art of assorting company is above these parvenus. They invite a certain number of persons without considering how they harmonise with each other. Between Sir Simon and you is the Reverend Doctor Folliott. He is said to be an excellent scholar, and is fonder of books than the majority of his cloth; he is very fond, also, of the good things of this world. He is of an admirable temper, and says rude things in a pleasant half-earnest manner, that nobody can take offence with. And next to him again is one Captain Fitzchrome, who is very much in love with a certain person that does not mean to have any thing to


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 say to him, because she can better her fortune by taking somebody else.

And next to him again is the beautiful, the accomplished, the witty, the fascinating, the tormenting, Lady Clarinda, who traduces herself to the said Captain by assertions which it would drive him crazy to believe.

Time will show, sir. And now we have gone the round of the table.

But I must say, though I know you had always a turn for sketching characters, you surprise me by your observation, and especially by your attention to opinions.

Well, I will tell you a secret: I am writing a novel.


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 A novel! Yes, a novel. And I shall get a little finery by it: trinkets and fal-lals, which I cannot get from papa. You must know I had been reading several fashionable novels, the fashionable this, and the fashionable that; and I thought to myself, why I can do better than any of these myself. So I wrote a chapter or two, and sent them as a specimen to Mr. Puffall, the bookseller, telling him they were to be a part of the fashionable something or other, and he offered me, I will not say how much, to finish it in three volumes, and let him pay all the newspapers for recommending it as the work of a lady of quality, who had made very free with the characters of her acquaintance.


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 Surely you have not done so?

Oh, no! I leave that to Mr. Eavesdrop. But Mr. Puffall made it a condition that I should let him say so.

A strange recommendation.

Oh, nothing else will do. And it seems you may give yourself any character you like, and the newspapers will print it as if it came from themselves. I have commended you to three of our friends here, as an economist, a transcendentalist, and a classical scholar; and if you wish to be renowned through the world for these, or any other accomplishments, the newspapers will con-


text: Talk:Anna Karenina (Dole)

title: Talk:Anna Karenina (Dole)


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 firm you in their possession for half-a-guinea a piece.

Truly, the praise of such gentry must be a feather in any one's cap.

So you will see, some morning, that my novel is "the most popular production of the day." This is Mr. Puffall's favorite phrase. He makes the newspapers say it of every thing he publishes. But "the day," you know, is a very convenient phrase; it allows of three hundred and sixty-five "most popular productions" in a year. And in leap-year one more.


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632-635] they had fortune on their side. They crossed the fertile land to the north of Ḥīra unmolested and plundering as they went; Ullais was also put under contribution, and suddenly they appeared before Ḥīra. The town was well fortified, but the garrison was palpably insufficient for an open battle. And what was the use of resistance within the walls if their rich lands around were to be desolated? Thinking thus they quickly resolved to pay a ransom, especially as the Arabs only demanded the ridiculously small sum of 60,000 dirhams. To the Arabs this seemed an enormous booty. Elated with victory they withdrew, and Ḥīra was thus saved for the time being. It is scarcely conceivable that the payment of this sum was regarded as an annual tribute. After this expedition Khālid marched on with his braves, by command of the Caliph, right through the enemy's territory, appearing in all directions with lightning speed and disappearing again with equal rapidity, from Ḥīra through Palmyra to Syria where he appeared, suddenly and unexpectedly, under the walls of Damascus. This expedition, so woven round with legendary lore, and apart from that a military masterpiece, shews better than anything else that the conquest of Persia was not premeditated, and that the Muslims were making their main effort in Syria. The raid against Ḥīra was made at a time of the greatest confusion in Persia, but few months after the accession of Yezdegerd, when the central authority was to some extent restored by his general Rustam. Thereupon a counter-raid was prepared against the plunderers. Muthannā sought help from Medina. This was in the early days of Omar's government, and he granted the request only with a certain amount of reluctance, refusing to spare his best troops from Syria. The combined troops of the Bakr and of Medina were few and badly handled, and in a second expedition they were almost annihilated; in the so-called Bridge battle Muthannā saved with difficulty the remnants of the Muslim army (26 Nov. 634). It was in consequence of this disaster that Omar, a year later (635), was led to a more energetic interference in the conditions of the 'Irāḳ, but even then his actions were somewhat dilatory. Of this it will be necessary to speak later, if only briefly. For a history of the Middle Ages the expansion of the Arabs in Mediterranean territories is of much greater importance.

The Arabian records of these events are not only distorted by lies, but are terribly confused: especially in their chronology. Fortunately we are better informed through some of the Byzantine writers, especially Theophanes. It was not the sagacity of the Caliphs, wanting to conquer the world, that flung the Muslim host on Syria, but the Christian Arabs of the border districts who applied to the powerful organisation of Medina for assistance. We are told very little about the relations between Mahomet and the great tribes of North Arabia, such as the Judhām, Kalb, Ḳuḍā'a, Lakhm, Ghassān; but the defeat of Mu'ta shews that they were enemies of Medina. It was only the expedition


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340 against Tabūk, which had to be subjected two years before the death of the prophet, that created friendly relations with at least a few of the tribes on the southern boundary of Palestine. In the war of conquest the great tribes of the former boundary State of the Ghassānids still fought on the side of the Byzantines. The tribes to the south of the Dead Sea however, such as the Judhām and Ḳuḍā'a, who commanded the route from Medina to Gaza, had every reason for connecting themselves more closely with Medina. Previously they had been in the pay of the Byzantines, and being moreover Christians, they had no intention of allying themselves with the Muslims. Soon after the battle of Mu'ta however, we are informed, the Emperor Heraclius, who at that time was in great financial difficulties owing to the debt contracted with the Church for the great Persian war, suspended the yearly subsidies to the Bedouins on the southern boundary, probably thinking that with the new political situation he might venture on this economy. At that time even a far-seeing politician could not have regarded as serious the organisation of the ever-divided Arabs living in the interior of Arabia. Judging by the behaviour of the northern tribes, they continued for a time to be paid. Theophanes even treats the suspension of subsidies as being in some way the cause of the summoning of the Muslims. Apart from this may be added that, after the victories of Khālid in Central Arabia, these border tribes, like the Bakr ibn Wā'il in the East, were led into a dilemma; as Byzantium withdrew the subsidies from them it was only natural that they made an alliance with the Muslims to recoup themselves by plundering raids.

Their suggestion met with the approval of the Caliph, who probably recognised that the commotion which had been raised must be diverted in some direction or other. The Medina people themselves, according to Arabian reports, do not appear to have at first displayed any enthusiasm for such a risky action; probably they had not forgotten the disaster of Mu'ta. Nevertheless in the autumn of 633 various small detachments were sent off into Syria, the first under Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān, a brother of the subsequent Caliph Mu'āwiya, the second under Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana, the third under 'Amr ibn al-'Āṣ. The first two bodies of troops, probably co-operating most of the time, took the direct track via Tabūk-Ma'ān; 'Amr marched along the coast via Aila ('Aḳaba); other smaller companies followed later and pushed forward from the South into the country east of the Jordan. The first to get engaged in battle was Yazīd. Approaching from westward he ascended the hills surmounting the Wādī 'Araba, the great valley south of the Dead Sea, and surprised several thousands of Byzantine troops under the Patricius of Caesarea, named Sergius. These were routed and compelled to retire on Gaza; before reaching this town however they were overtaken (4 Feb. 634) by the Arabs and annihilated, Sergius also losing his life. After this success Yazīd again retired beyond the protecting Dead Sea. Shortly


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RV 404 (CANTO II.])


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Rh among the rest, the appointing of sanctuaries for the protecting of those that were guilty of casual murder; which was a privilege to all Israel, since no man could be sure but some time or other it might be his own case; and it was for the interest of the land, that the blood of an innocent person, whose hand only was guilty, but not his heart, should not be shed, no not by the avenger of blood: of this law God here reminds them, which was so much for their advantage, that they might remind themselves of the other laws he had given them, which concerned his honour.

I. Orders are given for the appointing of these cities, v. 2. and very seasonably at this time when the land was surveyed, and so they were the better able to divide the coasts of it into three parts, as God had directed them, in order to the more convenient situation of these cities of refuge, Deut. 19. 3. Yet, it is probable that it was not done till after the Levites had their portion assigned them in the next chapter, because the cities of refuge were all to be Levites' cities. As soon as ever God had given them cities of rest, he bade them appoint cities of refuge, to which none of them knew but they might be glad to escape. Thus God provided, not only for their ease at all times, but for their safety in time of danger, and such times we must expect and prepare for in this world. And it intimates what God's spiritual Israel have, and shall have in Christ and heaven, not only to repose themselves in, but refuge to secure themselves in. And we cannot think these cities of refuge would have been so often and so much spoken of in the law of Moses, and have had so much care taken about them, (when the intention of them might have been effectually answered, as it is in our law, by authorising the courts of judgment to protect and acquit the manslayer in all those cases wherein he was to have privilege of sanctuary,) if they were not designed to typify the relief which the gospel provides for poor penitent sinners, and their protection from the curse of the law and the wrath of God, in our Lord Jesus, to whom believers flee for refuge, Heb. 6. 18. and in whom they are found, Phil. 3. 9. as in a sanctuary, where they are privileged from arrests, and there is now no condemnation to them, Rom. 8. 1.

II. Instructions are given for the using of these cities. The laws in this matter we had before, Numb. 35. 10, &c. where they were opened at large.

1. It is supposed that a man might possibly kill a person, it may be, his own child, or dearest friend, unawares and unwittingly, v. 3. not only whom he hated not, but whom he truly loved, beforetime, v. 5, for the way of man is not in himself. What reason have we to thank God who has kept us both from slaying, and from being slain by accident! In this case, it is supposed that the relations of the person slain would demand the life of the slayer, as a satisfaction to that ancient law, that who sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

2. It is provided, that if upon trial it appeared, that the murder was done purely by accident, and not by design, either upon an old grudge, or a sudden passion, then the slayer should be sheltered from the avenger of blood in any one of these cities, v. 4, 6. By this law he was entitled to a dwelling in that city, was taken into the care of the government of it, but was confined to it, as a prisoner at large; only if he survived the High Priest, then, and not till then, he might return to his own city. And the Jews say, "If he died before the High Priest in the city of his refuge and exile, and was buried there, yet at the death of the High Priest, his bones should be removed with respect to the place of his fathers' sepulchres."

7. And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba (which is Hebron,) in the mountain of Judah. 8. And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9. These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

We have here the nomination of the cities of refuge in the land of Canaan, which was made by the advice and authority of Joshua and the princes, v. 7. and upon occasion of the mention of this, is repeated the nomination of the other three in the lot of the other two tribes and a half, which was made by Moses, Deut. 4. 43. but (as Bishop Patrick thinks) they had not the privilege till now.

1. They are said to sanctify these cities, that is the original word for appointed, v. 7. Not that any ceremony was used to signify the consecration of them, only they did by a public act of court solemnly declare them cities of refuge; and, as such, sacred to the honour of God, as the protector of exposed innocency. If they were sanctuaries, it was proper to say, they were sanctified. Christ, our Refuge, was sanctified by his Father; nay, for our sakes he sanctified himself, John 17. 19.

2. These cities (as those also on the other side Jordan) stood in the three several parts of the country, so conveniently that a man might (they say) in half a day reach some one of them from any corner of the country: Kedesh was in Naphtali, the most northern tribe, Hebron in Judah, the most southern, and Shechem in Ephraim, which lay in the middle, about equally distant from the other two. God is a refuge at hand.

3. They were all Levites' cities, which put an honour upon God's tribe, making them judges in those cases wherein divine providence was so nearly concerned, and protectors to oppressed innocency; it was also a kindness to the poor refugee, that when he might not go up to the house of the Lord, nor tread his courts, yet he had the servants of God's house with him, to instruct him, and pray for him, and help to make up the want of public ordinances. If he must be confined, it shall be to a Levite-city, where he may, if he will, improve his time.

4. These cities were upon hills to be seen afar off, for a city on a hill cannot be hid; and this would both direct and encourage the poor distressed man that was making that way; and though therefore his way at last was up-hill, yet this would comfort him, that he would be in his place of safety quickly; and if he could but get into the suburbs of the city, he was well enough off.

5. Some observe a significancy in the names of these cities with application to Christ our Refuge. I delight not in quibbling upon names, yet am willing to take notice of these. Kedesh signifies holy, and our refuge is the holy Jesus. Shechem, a shoulder, and the government is upon his shoulder. Hebron, fellowship, and believers are called into the fellowship of Christ Jesus our Lord. Bezer, a fortification, for he is a Strong-hold to all them that


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 tion, may be by us observed in the fixed stars to be of two kinds: The one is, that of their apparent magnitudes varied, according as we, transported by the Earth, approach or recede from the same: The other (which likewise dependeth on the same accession and recession) their appearing unto us in the same Meridian, one while more elevated, and another while lesse. Moreover, you tell us (and I understand it very well) that the one and other of these mutations are not made alike in all the stars, but in some greater, and in others lesser, and in others not at all. The accession and recession whereby the same star ought to appear, one while bigger, and another while lesser, is insensible, and almost nothing in the stars neer unto the pole of the Ecliptick, but is greatest in the stars placed in the Ecliptick it self, and indifferent in the intermediate: the contrary happens in the other difference, that is, the elevation or depression of the stars placed in the Ecliptick is nothing at all, greatest in those neerest to the Pole of the said Ecliptick, and indifferent in the intermediate. Besides, both these differences are more sensible in the Stars neerest to us, in the more remote lesse sensible, and in those that are very far distant wholly disappear. This is, as to what concerns my self; it remaineth now, as I conceive, that something be said for the satisfaction of Simplicius, who, as I believe, will not easily be made to over-passe those differences, as insensible that are derived from a motion of the Earth so vast, and from a mutation that transports the Earth into places twice as far distant from us as the Sun.

Truth is, to speak freely, I am very loth to confesse, that the distance of the fixed Stars ought to be such, that in them the fore-mentioned differences should be wholly imperceptible.

Do not throw your self into absolute despair, Simplicius, for there may perhaps yet some qualification be found for your difficulties. And first, that the apparent magnitude of the stars is not seen to make any sensible alteration, ought not to be judged by you a thing improbable, in regard you see the guesses of men in this particular to be so grossely erroneous, especially in looking upon splendid objects; and you your self beholding v. g. a lighted Torch at the distance of 200 paces, if it approach nearer to you 3. or 4. yards, do you think that it will shew any whit encreased in magnitude? I for my part should not perceive it certainly, although it should approach 20. or 30. yards nearer; nay it hath sometimes happened that in seeing such a light at that distance I know not how to resolve whether it came towards me, or retreated from me, when as it did in reality approach nearer to me. But what need I speak of this? If the self same accession and recession (I speak of a distance


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634] afterwards 'Amr put in an appearance, coming from Aila with fresh troops, which had been further strengthened on the way by recruits. They raided the whole of southern Palestine as far as Gaza, and 'Amr in fact on one occasion pushed forward into the district of Ḳaisārīya (Caesarea).

Upon hearing of these surprising events the Emperor Heraclius, who at that time was still dwelling at Emesa, in northern Syria, concentrated a great army to the south of Damascus, and placed it under the command of his brother Theodorus. It was unusually difficult for the Greeks to recognise any plan of attack on the part of the Arabs; these simply advanced without any definite aim; the leader of each detachment went whithersoever he listed, and whither he conceived the greatest amount of booty was available. Possibly the troops of Theodorus may have destroyed a small detachment of the Arabs in the country east of the Jordan, but in any case they advanced very slowly in a southerly direction, where the greatest danger threatened, for Jerusalem was temporarily cut off from the sea, and even Caesarea and Gaza were threatened. Immediately after this advance Khālid, approaching in their rear from the Euphrates, suddenly appeared before Damascus (24 April 634). He remained unmolested, because all available troops were then on the way to the South. Clever strategist that he was, and without the selfish greed for plunder of the other leaders, Khālid at once recognised the precarious position of the Arabs in the southern part of Palestine. Advancing down the country east of Jordan he succeeded, probably with the utmost difficulty, in effecting a junction with the detachments in the South, engaged in their own selfish interests. Finally, in the Wādī 'Araba, he united with 'Amr and Yazīd, who were retiring before the approaching Byzantines. This effected, the combined forces of the Muslims once more advanced against Theodorus, who had occupied a strong position at Ajnādain, or better Jannābatain, between Jerusalem and Gaza. On 30 July 634 a bloody battle ensued, terminating in a brilliant victory for the Arabs. Who commanded the Arabs, or whether in fact they had any commander-in-chief, remains a matter of doubt, but it is probably not wide of the mark to recognise the actual victor in Khālid. Hereupon all Palestine lay open to the Arabs, i.e. all the flat country; the well-fortified towns, even though without large garrisons, held out for a considerable time longer. The Arabs, who still regarded themselves as being out on a plundering expedition, probably spared the resident population less than they did later, when the systematic occupation took place. Report states that Gaza also fell at this time, but this simply means that Gaza was laid under contribution in the same way that Ḥīra had been before. The Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem, in his Christmas sermon at the end of the year 634, describes in moving terms the doleful condition of the country. Anarchy appears to have ruled supreme. The Arabs dispersed themselves throughout the country, and even pushed forward far towards the North; the temporary


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 twice as great as that from the Sun to us) in the star of Saturn is almost totally imperceptible, and in Jupiter not very observable, what shall we think of the fixed stars, which I believe you will not scruple to place twice as far off as Saturn? In Mars, which for that it is nearer to us

Pray Sir, put your self to no farther trouble in this particular, for I already conceive that what hath been spoken touching the unaltered apparent magnitude of the fixed stars may very well come to passe, but what shall we say of the other difficulty that proceeds from not perceiving any variation in the mutation of aspect?

We will say that which peradventure may satisfie you also in this particular. And to make short, would you not be satisfied if there should be discovered in the stars face mutations that you think ought to be discovered, in case the annual motion belonged to the Earth?

I should so doubtlesse, as to what concerns this particular.

I could wish you would say that in case such a difference were discovered, nothing more would remain behind, that might render the mobility of the Earth questionable. But although yet that should not sensibly appear▪ yet is not its mobility removed, nor its immobility necessarily proved, it being possible, (as Copernicus affirmeth) that the immense distance of the Starry Sphere rendereth such very small Phænomena unobservable; the which as already hath been said, may possibly not have been hitherto so much as sought for, or if sought for, yet not sought for in such a way as they ought, to wit, with that exactnesse which to so minute a punctuality would be necessary; which exactnesse is very difficult to obtain, as well by reason of the deficiency of Astronomical Instruments, subject to many alterations, as also through the fault of those that manage them with less diligence then is requisite. A necessary argument how little credit is to be given to those observations may be deduced from the differences which we find amongst Astronomers in assigning the places, I will not say, of the new Stars or Comets, but of the fixed stars themselves, even to the altitudes of the very Poles, in which, most an end, they are found to differ from one another many minutes. And to speak the truth, who can in a Quadrant, or Sextant, that at most shall have its side * 3. or 4. yards long, ascertain himself in the incidence of the perpendicular, or in the direction of the sights, not to erre two or three minutes, which in its circumference shall not amount to the breadth of a grain of * Mylet? Besides that, it is almost impossible, that the Instrument should be made, and kept with absolute exactnesse. Ptolomey


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 DEC. 27.

Returned, all stock landed, found it very hard work, as the ship was 3 miles out -

DEC. 28.

Came home with Mr. Orkney & A -

DEC. 29.

Out to show him (Mr. Orkney) run & stock.

DEC. 30.

Went to W's with Mr. Orkney and showed him sheep by the way, horses at home, & returned home, Mr Orkney was much pleased with all he saw; & the sheep quite surprised and pleased him, as they could not look better.

DEC. 31.

At home not well, enough to work; as I have had rather too much of late. A mustered all stray cattle & T & L working bullocks. The "Aurifera" was to leave today.

1865.

JAN. 1.

Sunday.

JAN. 2.

At work at building. A took cattle down river. L clearing stones.

JAN. 3.

The same.


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342 appearance of the Arabs before Emesa in January 635 is credibly authenticated by a Syrian source.

During the six months following the battle of Ajnādain the tone of public opinion must have undergone a considerable change. Men of the rank of Khālid and 'Amr could not but perceive that they could not go on with such planless raids; a systematic occupation of the country appeared urgent. In addition to this the Caliph Abū Bakr died soon after the battle of Ajnādain (634) and the energetic far-seeing Omar had been nominated by him as his successor and recognised on all sides without question. This new view was further supported both at the front and at head-quarters by the continued pressing forward of the Arab element from the south of the peninsula; after the termination of the Ridda wars these people, incited by the unparalleled successes of the Medina people, also marched to Syria. These new arrivals did not however arrive in the form of organised troops, but advanced in tribes, bringing their wives and children with them and hoping to find in the new land fertile residential areas. This process is very difficult to record in detail, and doubtless extended over several years. It was only after the battle of the Yarmūk that the Arabs really began seriously to take in hand the administration of the country. But within six months of the battle of Ajnādain there began a much more systematic progress of the Arabs, who were now clearly placed under the supreme command of Khālid. The last troops of Heraclius had now withdrawn to Damascus, the defeated Theodorus had been recalled to Constantinople, and the conduct of further operations lay in the hands of Baanes, who concentrated his troops in the beginning of 635 at Fiḥl, a strategically important position situated south of the Sea of Gennesareth and covering the crossing of the Jordan and the route to Damascus. By cutting dykes he endeavoured to prevent the advance of the Arabs. Impressed however probably by their slowly changing conception of the task before them and led by Khālid, the Muslims forced the position at Fiḥl (23 Jan. 635) and immediately afterwards took possession of Baisān (Bethshan). They then pushed forward determinedly towards Damascus. Baanes again opposed their advance at Marj aṣ-Ṣuffar (25 Feb. 635) but was defeated and two weeks later the Muslims were before the gates of Damascus.

The Arabs were not in a position properly to lay siege to the town, for they were quite ignorant of this kind of warfare. They were compelled therefore to endeavour to isolate the town, and so to exasperate the residents as to cause them to compel the garrison to surrender. It was however not until the early autumn (Aug.-Sept.) that the town capitulated, after Heraclius had endeavoured in vain on several occasions to relieve it; in one of the abortive attempts he had however inflicted on the Arabs a rather serious reverse. The capitulation ensued at last palpably through the treachery of the civil authorities, assisted by the Bishop and the tax-collector. After the fall of Damascus the Arabs


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 I'm not going to Lady Sachse's alone, looking as if I couldn't catch a man to escort me, under the eyes of half the French house of peers If they've got a house of peers You don't catch me No fear!" she mimicked his creaky voice. "You can go away as soon as you've shown yourself as my escort

"But, good God!" Perowne cried out, "that's just what I mustn't do. Campion said that if he heard any more of my being seen about with you he would have me sent back to my beastly regiment. And my beastly regiment is in the trenches You don't see me in the trenches, do you?"

"I'd rather see you there than in my own room," Sylvia said. "Any day!"

"Ah, there you are!" Perowne exclaimed with animation. "What guarantee have I that if I do what you want I shall bask in your smile as you call it? I've got myself into a most awful hole, bringing you here without any papers. You never told me you hadn't any papers. General O'Hara, the P.M., has raised a most awful strafe about it And what have I got for it Not the ghost of a smile And you should see old O'Hara's purple face Someone woke him from his afternoon nap to report to him about your heinous case and he hasn't recovered from the indigestion yet Besides, he hates Tietjens Tietjens is always chipping away at his military police  O'Hara's lambs

Sylvia was not listening, but she was smiling a slow smile at an inward thought. It maddened him.

"What's your game?" he exclaimed. "Hell and hounds, what's your game You can't have come


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 here to see him. You don't come here to see me, as far as I can see. Well then

Sylvia looked round at him with all her eyes, wide open as if she had just awakened from a deep sleep.

"I didn't know I was coming," she said. "It came into my head to come suddenly. Ten minutes before I started. And I came. I didn't know papers were wanted. I suppose I could have got them if I had wanted them You never asked me if I had any papers. You just froze on to me and had me into your special carriage I didn't know you were coming."

That seemed to Perowne the last insult. He exclaimed:

"Oh, damn it, Sylvia! you must have known You were at the Quirks' squash on Wednesday evening. And they knew. My best friends."

"Since you ask for it," she said, "I didn't know And I would not have come by that train if I had known you would be going by it. You force me to say rude things to you." She added: "Why can't you be more conciliatory?" to keep him quiet for a little. His jaw dropped down.

She was wondering where Christopher had got the money to pay for a bed at the hotel. Only a very short time before she had drawn all the balance of his banking account, except for a shilling. It was the middle of the month and he could not have drawn any more pay That, of course, was a try on her part. He might be forced into remonstrating. In the same way she had tried on the accusation that he had carried off her sheets. It was sheer wilfulness, and when she looked again at his motionless features she knew that she had been rather stupid But she was at


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 the end of her tether: she had before now tried making accusations against her husband, but she had never tried inconveniencing him Now she suddenly realized the full stupidity of which she had been guilty. He would know perfectly well that those petty frightfulnesses of hers were not in the least in her note; so he would know, too, that each of them was just a try on. He would say: "She is trying to make me squeal. I'm damned if I will!"

She would have to adopt much more formidable methods. She said: "He shall he shall  he shall come to heel."

Major Perowne had now closed his jaw. He was reflecting. Once he mumbled: "More conciliatory! Holy smoke!"

She was feeling suddenly in spirits: it was the sight of Christopher had done it: the perfect assurance that they were going to live under the same roof again. She would have betted all she possessed and her immortal soul on the chance that he would not take up with the Wannop girl. And it would have been betting on a certainty But she had had no idea what their relations were to be, after the war. At first she had thought that they had parted for good when she had gone off from their flat at four o'clock in the morning. It had seemed logical. But, gradually, in retreat at Birkenhead, in the still, white, nun's room, doubt had come upon her. It was one of the disadvantages of living as they did that they seldom spoke their thoughts. But that was also at times an advantage. She had certainly meant their parting to be for good. She had certainly raised her voice in giving the name of her station to the taxi-man with the pretty firm conviction that he would hear her; and she had


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 been pretty well certain that he would take it as a sign that the breath had gone out of their union Pretty certain. But not quite

She would have died rather than write to him; she would die, now, rather than give any inkling that she wanted them to live under the same roof again She said to herself:

"Is he writing to that girl?" And then: "No! I'm certain that he isn't." She had had all his letters stopped at the flat, except for a few circulars that she let dribble through to him, so that he might imagine that all his correspondence was coming through. From the letters to him that she did read she was pretty sure that he had given no other address than the flat in Gray's Inn But there had been no letters from Valentine Wannop Two from Mrs. Wannop, two from his brother Mark, one from Port Scatho, one or two from brother officers and some officials chits She said to herself that, if there had been any letters from that girl, she would have let all his letters go through, including the girl's Now she was not so certain that she would have.

In the glass she saw Christopher marching woodenly out of the hotel, along the path that led from door to door behind her It came to her with extraordinary gladness—the absolute conviction that he was not corresponding with Miss Wannop. The absolute conviction If he had come alive enough to do that he would have looked different. She did not know how he would have looked. But different Alive! Perhaps self-conscious: perhaps satisfied

For some time the major had been grumbling about his wrongs. He said that he followed her about all day, like a lap-dog, and got nothing for it. Now she


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 wanted him to be conciliatory. She said she wanted to have a man on show as escort. Well then, an escort got something At just this moment he was beginning again with:

"Look here will you let me come to your room to-night or will you not?"

She burst into high, loud laughter. He said:

"Damn it all, it isn't any laughing matter Look here! You don't know what I risk There are A.P.M.'s and P.M.'s and deputy sub-acting A.P.M.'s walking about the corridors of all the hotels in this town, all night long It's as much as my job is worth

She put her handkerchief to her lips to hide a smile that she knew would be too cruel for him not to notice. And even when she took it away, he said:

"Hang it all, what a cruel-looking fiend you are Why the devil do I hang around you? There's a picture that my mother's got, by Burne-Jones  A cruel-looking woman with a distant smile  Some vampire  La belle Dame sans Merci  That's what you're like."

She looked at him suddenly with considerable seriousness

"See here, Potty she began. He groaned:

"I believe you'd like me to be sent to the beastly trenches Yet a big, distinguished-looking chap like me wouldn't have a chance At the first volley the Germans fired, they'd pick me off

"Oh, Potty," she exclaimed, "try to be serious for a minute I tell you I'm a woman who's trying who's desperately wanting  to be reconciled to her husband I would not tell that to another soul I would not tell it to myself But one


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 the Heavenly forces, which Satan expected himself, as the eldest officer; and his not being able to brook another to be put in over his head, I say, that fine-spun thought of Mr. Milton would appear to be strain'd too far, and only serve to convince us that he (Milton) knew nothing of the matter. Satan knows very well, that the Messias was not declared to be the Son of God with power till by and after the resurrection from the dead, and that all power was then given him in heaven and earth, and not before; so that Satan's rebellion must derive from other causes, and upon other occasions, as he himself can doubtless give us an account, if he thinks fit, and of which we shall speak farther in this history.

What a fine history might this old Gentleman write of the Antediluvian world, and of all the weighty affairs, as well of state as of religion, which happen'd during the fifteen hundred years of the patriarchal administration!

Then, who like him, could give a full and compleat account of the deluge, whether it was a meer vindictive, a blast from heaven, wrought by a supernatural power in the way of miracle? or whether, according to Mr. Burnet's Theory, it was a consequence following antecedent causes by the meer necessities of nature, seen in constitution, natural position, and unavoidable working of things, as by the Theory publish'd by that learn'd enthusiast it seems to be?

Satan could easily account for all the difficulties of the Theory, and tell us whether, as there was a natural necessity of the deluge, there is not the like necessity and natural tendency to a conflagration at last.

Would the Devil exert himself as an historian, for our improvement and diversion, how glorious an account could he give us of Noah's voyage


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 gery," and have had more independent power than the story implied. It is, indeed, impossible accurately to fix the relations of the teacher and his disciple. Pope acknowledged in the strongest possible terms his dependence upon Bolingbroke, and Bolingbroke claims with equal distinctness the position of instigator and inspirer. His more elaborate philosophical works are in the form of letters to Pope, and profess to be a redaction of the conversations which they had had together. These were not written till after the Essay on Man; but a series of fragments appear to represent what he actually set down for Pope's guidance. They are professedly addressed to Pope. "I write," he says (fragment 65), "to you and for you, and you would think yourself little obliged to me if I took the pains of explaining in prose what you would not think it necessary to explain in verse,"—that is, the freewill puzzle. The manuscripts seen by Mallet may probably have been a commonplace book in which Bolingbroke had set down some of these fragments, by way of instructing Pope, and preparing for his own more systematic work. No reader of the fragments can, I think, doubt as to the immediate source of Pope's inspiration. Most of the ideas expressed were the common property of many contemporary writers, but Pope accepts the particular modification presented by Bolingbroke. Pope's manipulation of these materials causes much of the Essay on Man to resemble (as Mr. Pattison puts it) an exquisite mosaic work. A detailed examination of his mode of transmutation would be a curious study in the technical secrets of

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 in the main ground-work of language, in monosyllables, in the names of numbers, and the appellations of such things as would be first discriminated on the immediate dawn of civilization. The resemblance which may be observed in the characters upon the medals and fignets of various districts of Asia, the light which they reciprocally reflect upon each other, and the general analogy which they all bear to the same grand Prototype, afford another ample field for curiosity. The coins of Assam, Napaul, Cashmeere and many other kingdoms are all stamped with Shanscrit letters, and mostly contain allusions to the old Shanscrit Mythology : the same conformity I have observed on the impressions of seals from Bootan and Tibet. A collateral inference may likewise be deduced from the peculiar arrangement of the Shanscrit alphabet, so very different from that of any other quarter of the world. This extraordinary mode of combination still exists in the greatest part of the East, from the Indus to Pegu, in dialects now apparently unconnected, and in characters completely dissimilar; but is a forcible argument that they are all derived from the same source. Another channel of speculation presents itself in the names of persons and places, of titles and dignities, which are open to general notice, and in which, to the farthest limits of Asia, may be found ma- nifest


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 literary execution. A specimen or two will sufficiently indicate the general character of Pope's method of constructing his essay.

The forty-third fragment of Bolingbroke is virtually a prose version of much of Pope's poetry. A few phrases will exhibit the relation:—

"The universe," I quote only a few phrases from Bolingbroke, "is an immense aggregate of systems. Every one of these, if we may judge by our own, contains several, and every one of these again, if we may judge by our own, is made up of a multitude of different modes of being, animated and inanimated, thinking and unthinking but all concurring in one common system Just so it is with respect to the various systems and systems of systems that compose the universe. As distant as they are, and as different as we may imagine them to be, they are all tied together by relations and connexions, gradations, and dependencies." The verbal coincidence is here as marked as the coincidence in argument. Warton refers to an eloquent passage in Shaftesbury, which contains a similar thought; but one can hardly doubt that Bolingbroke was in this case the immediate source. A

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 Placida, however, who was very kind and gentle, begged for a milder sentence, and at last it was settled that Mutinosa should become her slave for life unless she should have a child to take her place.

The king was told of his wife’s fate and submitted to it, which, as he could do nothing to help it, was the only course open to him.

The fairies then all dispersed, Placida taking her slave with her, and on reaching her palace she said: ‘You ought by rights to be scullion, but as you have been delicately brought up the change might be too great for you. I shall therefore only order you to sweep my rooms carefully, and to wash and comb my little dog.’

Mutinosa felt there was no use in disobeying, so she did as she was bid and said nothing.

After some time she gave birth to a most lovely little girl, and when she was well again the fairy gave her a good lecture on her past life, made her promise to behave better in future, and sent her back to the king, her husband.

Placida now gave herself up entirely to the little princess who was left in her charge. She anxiously thought over which of the fairies she would invite to be godmothers, so as to secure the best gift, for her adopted child.

At last she decided on two very kindly and cheerful fairies, and asked them to the christening feast. Directly it was over the baby was brought to them in a lovely crystal cradle hung with red silk curtains embroidered with gold.

The little thing smiled so sweetly at the fairies that they decided to do all they could for her. They began by naming her Graziella, and then Placida said: ‘You know, dear sisters, that the commonest form of spite or punishment amongst us consists of changing beauty to ugliness, cleverness to stupidity, and oftener still to change a person’s form altogether. Now, as we

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