text:
Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/327

Rh When Sir Rüdeger voided the hall, there followed him, all told, five hundred men or more, kinsmen and vassals of the lord of Bechelaren, from whom King Gunther later gained great scathe. Then a Hunnish champion spied Etzel walking close by Dietrich. He, too, would take this chance, but the fiddler dealt him such a blow that his head felt soon before King Etzel’s feet. When the lord of the land was come outside the house, he turned him about and gazed on Folker. “Woe is me of these guests. This is a direful need, that all my warriors should lie low in death before them. Alas for the feasting,” quoth the noble king. “Like a savage boar there fighteth one within, hight Folker, who is a gleeman. I thank my stars that I escaped this fiend. His glees have an evil sound, the strokes of his bow draw blood; forsooth his measures fell many a hero dead. I wot not, with what this minstrel twitteth us, for I have never had such baleful guest.”

They had permitted whom they would to leave the hall. Then there arose within a mighty uproar; sorely the guests avenged what there had happed them. Ho, what helmets bold Folker broke! The noble King Gunther turned him toward the sound. “Hear ye the measures, Hagen, which Folker yonder fiddleth with the Huns, when any draweth near the towers? ’Tis a blood-red stroke he useth with the bow.”

“It rueth me beyond all measure,” quoth Hagen, “that in this hall I sate me down to rest before the hero did. I was his comrade and he was mine; and come we ever home again, we shall still be so, in loyal wise. Now behold, most noble king, Folker is thy friend, he earneth gladly thy silver and thy gold. His fiddle bow


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/49

Rh in its pantheon for ail gods and all ideas, baptising them by orthodox names or justifying them by ingenious fictions. It will send forth apostles and colonies even to the furthermost regions of the distant South, which, alien in blood and in tradition, will nevertheless accept them and surrender its best intellect to their control. It will even admit into the lower ranks of its own body men of foreign birth by means of legal fictions, in order to maintain its control of religion. Though itself splitting up into scores of divisions varying in purity of blood and tradition, it will still as a whole maintain its position as against all other classes of society. That the Brahman is the Deity on earth, and other classes shall accept this dogma and agree to take their rank in accordance with it, will become the principle holding together a vast agglomeration of utterly diverse elements within the elastic bounds of Catholic Brahmanism.

But as yet this condition of things has not arrived. The Brahmans are still comparatively pure in blood and homogeneous in doctrine, and they have as yet sent forth no colonies south of the Vindhya. They are established in the lands of the Ganges and Jamna as far to the east as Benares, and they look with some contempt on their kinsmen in the western country that they have left behind. They are busily employed in working out to logical conclusions the ideas

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

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/49


text:
Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/328

270 doth cut through the hardest steel, on the helmets he breaketh the bright and shining gauds! Never have I seen fiddler stand in such lordly wise as the good knight Folker hath stood to-day. His glees resound through shield and helmet. Certes he shall ride good steeds and wear lordly raiment.”

Of all the kinsmen of the Huns within the hall, not one of these remained alive. Thus the clash of arms died out, since none strove with them longer. The lusty knights and bold now laid aside their swords.


text: The Nibelungenlied (Shumway)/33

title: The Nibelungenlied (Shumway)/33


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/145

 What further conversation Novak had with grandfather is of no consequence, but so much as this is certain, that when he departed grandfather shook hands with him, as if he was his best friend, and promised himself the pleasure of more frequent intercourse.

When Novak inquired for grandmother she shut herself in the kitchen and would not even see him.

Uncle John did not trouble him to wait. The candle still burnt on the table, and grandmother was still stewing something at the hearth.

Grandfather told grandmother that he should like her to leave them alone, and that she should soon hear all about it. But he said this with an air of affability and grandmother obeyed at once.

In this affability of his there lay something very engaging so that in that moment grandfather was again like himself, and what he formerly used to be.

Uncle John was struck by it.

And he began like a diplomatist.

First about the work that had been done that day, then about what was to be done to-morrow, until he approached to the very threshold of what he had in mind.

“You see, John dear,” he said, “when you reflect upon your life it has always been something sacred to me. Thou wert yet a little child when we two grey-headed folk wept over thee for joy to see what a merry little thing thou wert; so ready, too, to take hold of anything good. And thou wast worthy of the pride we felt in thee. Thou didst prosper in every thing and wert everywhere well-spoken-of. I well believed that I was sowing good seed in thy heart. If it was not all good, forgive me, my will was good, and if all did not turn out as I expected, who is to blame for that? We always sow in hope that the harvest will succeed, but also it does not always depend upon ourselves. Sometimes the sky grows overcast, and when I ponder everthing from thy young days it does not yet come into my head that thou deliberately desirest my affliction. Tears of joy and tears of affliction are two quite different things, and a father is hardly reconciled to weep in affliction over his son. What I have instilled into thee, impart again to thy children, but recollect that it is very sickening to be no longer obeyed by a son, on whom one has lavished every attention, and, indeed, I should not wish that thou shouldst ever experience it in thy children.”


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/60

58 phases as Bhava, Śarva, Ugra, Mahā-dēva or the Great God, Rudra, Īśāna or the Lord, and Aśani or the Thunderbolt (KB. VI. 2-9). Armed with his terrors, he is fit to be employed in the service of conscience. Hence a myth has arisen that in order to punish Prajāpati for his incest with his daughter the gods created Bhūta-pati (who is Paśu-pati or Rudra under a new name), who stabbed him. The rest of the myth is as immaterial to our purpose as it is unsavoury; what is important is that the conscience of the Brahmans was beginning to feel slight qualms at the uncleanness of some of their old myths and to look towards Rudra as in some degree an avenger of sin. In this is implied an immense moral advance. Henceforth there will be a gradual ennoblement of one of the phases of the god's character. Many of the best minds among the Brahmans will find their imaginations stirred and their consciences moved by contemplation of him. To them he will be no more a mere demon of the mountain and the wild. His destructive wrath they will interpret as symbolising the everlasting process of death-in-life which is the keynote of nature; in his wild dances they will see imaged forth the everlasting throb of cosmic existence; to his terrors they will find a reverse of infinite love and grace. The horrors of Rudra the deadly are the mantle of Śiva the gracious. Thus, while the god's character in its

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/60


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/146

 Grandfather stood there almost meek and gentle. Even Uncle John felt that much, very much, of what had so long separated him from grandfather’s heart fell from him all at once. Those remembrances of early life, of that family union and that peace which had never been disturbed, awakened in him an eager longing to win back that peace which had been banished from their home as if by enchantment.

A man has moments when he slackens in his opposition. The harsher characteristics of those against whom we struggle disappear, and there emerge in place of them better sides to which we had been blind for many a long day. This relaxation of mind is, in fact, a pause, and in moments of repose a man makes plans. If in such moments he should all at once stand hand in hand with his opponent, perhaps he would then and there give his hand in reconciliation.

As I say these moments are moments of rest and reconciliation. Sometimes, however, opposition slackens in them only that it may afterwards exhibit itself with new force, and develop to a truly amazing degree.

Uncle John did not slacken in his opposition. Sometimes a child takes a weapon out of our hands which we would not have surrendered before for all the world.

Grandfather disarmed Uncle John by his moderation; he was meek and gentle as a child.

“Do you really think you cannot give up Betuska?” inquired grandfather, after a pause, during which he narrowly observed his son.

Grandfather’s voice almost quavered.

“Oh, father, have you called me to you only to demand this?” answered Uncle John, almost with anguish.

“Come, I did not wish to hurt your feelings, and you see that we separate in good part.”

Uncle John listened submissively.

“You think that Betuska really loves you.”

“As surely as I believe in God”, answered uncle.

“See, now, I do not wish to dissipate this belief. If you think you are acting rightly settle it with your own conscience. Only one thing I implore of you. If you are to undertake the farm you will require a wife who is a good manager. For my part I do not wish to detract from Betuska, or suggest that she could not undertake our household. But yet there can be no harm in looking elsewhere also, in order that you may compare. In look-


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/59

Rh to differ one from another in their attributes and personalities, they are in essence one and negligible in the eyes of the master of the ritual lore. In the beginning, say the Brāhmaṇas, all the gods (except Prajāpati, of course) were alike, and all were mortal; then they performed sacrifices and thereby became immortal, each with his peculiar attributes of divinity. Thus at bottom they are all the same thing, merely phases of the universal godhead, waves stirred up by the current of the cosmic sacrifice. They have no terrors for the priesthood. But there is one deity who obstinately refuses to accommodate himself to this convenient point of view, and that is Rudra, or Śiva. By rights and logically he ought to fall into rank with the rest of the gods; but there is a crossgrained element in his nature which keeps him out. As we have seen, he comes from a different source: in origin he was a demon, a power of terror, whose realm of worship lay apart from that of the gods of higher class, and now, although it has extended into the domains of orthodox religion, an atmosphere of dread still broods over it. Rudra wields all his ancient terrors over a much widened area. The priests have assigned him a regular place in their liturgies, and fully recognise him in his several

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/59


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/147

 ing elsewhere, you by no means fetter yourself, and if you are convinced then at all events you act from conviction.”

Uncle John saw what grandfather was aiming at.

“The Horakoffs, of Brizoff, begged us to send you to see them. I hear their daughter is pretty, and with expectations; if you do not like her you need not take her.”

“Oh, father, by everything in the world I implore do not tempt me so cruelly”, cried Uncle John with clasped hands.

“Nay, nay, I do not intend anything so bad as you seem to think. But about this one girl I pray you to listen to me, in order that I may see whether my grey hairs have yet any respect paid to them by you. Go then to see her. I leave your will entirely free. I do not the least fetter you; but only about this one thing, I pray you. If you are not suited there you may then do as you like. And if you still wish it you may then take—even Betuska.”

This last word grandfather scarcely pronounced at all—his voice was as it were broken.

But Uncle John did not oppose his will. It appeared to him that this road was open to him in order that by it he might win Betuska. A moment before he had not the least idea that he was so near the realization of what was the single wish of his soul.

Uncle John kissed grandfather’s hand, and grandfather felt that on it fell a tear. “I shall go there”, he said, and went out of the room.

In appearance all was now again at peace at grandfather’s, and reconciliation, as it were, now drew them all to one another

When Novak departed from grandfather’s he betook himself by a direct road to Kubista’s. I do not know whether he did this by an impulse of his own, or whether grandfather had given him some hint. But this is certain that Novak was so crafty that he managed to extort everything from grandfather which might have endangered the success of his conspiracy.

Such people do everything for the sake of gain, and from the like motives pervert young people to passion, worse than in the olden times they perverted the barbarians to faith.

At Kubista’s Novak again introduced himself as before with humble bows, flattery, and subtle speeches, and his eyes flashed from side to side like the sting of a wasp.

There is no need of the horse’s hoof, and of horns on the forehead for a man to think, speak, and act, like a very devil.


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/61

Rh lower phases remains the same as before, claiming the worship of the basest classes of mankind, and nowise rising to a higher level, it develops powerfully and fruitfully in one aspect which attracts grave and earnest imaginations. The Muni, the contemplative ascetic, penetrates in meditation through the terrors of Śiva's outward form to the god's inward love and wisdom, and beholds in him his own divine prototype. And so Śiva comes to be figured in this nobler aspect as the divine Muni, the supreme saint and sage.

While the worship of Śiva is slowly making its way into the heart of Brahmanic ritualism, another movement is at work which is gradually drawing many of the keenest intellects among the Brahmans away from the study of ritual towards an idealistic philosophy which views all ritual with indifference. Its literature is the Upanishads.

The passing of the Ṛigvēdic age has left to the Brahmans a doctrinal legacy, which may be thus restated: a single divine principle through a prototypic sacrifice has given birth to the universe, and all the processes of cosmic nature are controlled by sacrifices founded upon that primeval sacrifice. In short, the ritual symbolises and in a sense actually is the whole cosmic process. The ritual implies both the knowledge of the law of sacrifice and the proper practice of that law, both understanding arid works. This is the

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/61


text:
Page:On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground.pdf/11

246 a rearrangement of the figures in greater groups, with consequent recalculation.

A circumstance that argues very greatly in favour of the opinion that the absorption-coefficient given in cannot contain great errors, is that so very few logarithms have a positive value. If the observations of Langley had been wholly insufficient, one would have expected to find nearly as many positive as negative logarithms. Now there are only three such cases, viz., for carbonic acid at an angle of 40°, and for water-vapour at the angles 36°.45 and 36°.15. The observations for 40° are not very accurate, because they were of little interest to Langley, the corresponding rays not belonging to the moon's spectrum but only to the diffused sunlight from the moon. As these rays also do not occur to any sensible degree in the heat from a body of 15° C., this non-agreement is without importance for our problem. The two positive values for the logarithms belonging to aqueous vapour are quite insignificant. They correspond only to errors of 0.2 and 1.5 per cent, for the absorption of the quantity $\text{W}=1$, and fall wholly in the range of experimental errors.

It is certainly not devoid of interest to compare these absorption-coefficients with the results of the direct observations by Paschen and Ångström. In making this comparison, we must bear in mind that an exact agreement cannot be expected, for the signification of the above coefficients is rather unlike that of the coefficients that are or may be calculated from the observations of these two authors. The above coefficients give the rate of absorption of a ray that has traversed quantities of carbonic acid ($\text{K}=1.1$) and water-vapour ($\text{W}=0.3$); whilst the coefficients of Paschen and Ångström represent the absorption experienced by a ray on the passage through the first layers of these gases. In some cases we may expect a great difference between these two quantities, so that only a general agreement can be looked for.

According to Paschen's figures there seems to exist no sensible emission or absorption by the aqueous vapour at wave-lengths between $$0.9~\mu$$ and $$1.2~\mu$$ (corresponding to the angle of deviation 40°). On the other hand, the representation of the sun's spectrum by Langley shows a great many


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/148

 Novak did not inquire for the daughter, for he at once recognized Betuska, when her mother signed to her to put bread and butter on the table.

“Thank you kindly, I will not eat; in fact, I have just risen from table.” And here he mentioned the name of grandfather, and said he had dined with him.

He was not at fault in mentioning grandfather’s name. By so doing he so far constrained Betuska at least to his purpose that she wished to listen to him. Passion is not particular about the messenger, but is very observant of the message.

Then Novak began jestingly to speak about betrothals, and weddings, and what a grand wedding had but lately been arranged by him, and how people thanked him wherever he went, and said he was like a father to young people; and indeed they almost everywhere called him father; and he ran on in the like strain about good deeds of his own that would have been sufficient to make a man glorious to the third generation.

“Oh! ho! little daughter”, he said, as if it slipped his tongue, and blinked at Betuska’s mother in a particular way which is vulgarly called “tipping the wink”.

Her mother smiled slightly, and Kubista said, “Come, Betuska, what do you say to that?” But he said it in a jesting tone of voice, and not as though he had anything in his mind.

“I have a husband on hand,” said Novak, and thereupon he snapped the fingers of his right hand, “of regular habits, comme il faut, spruce as a cedar, and with plenty of these.”

And he slapped the pocket in which his money jingled.

“Perhaps I might bring him to you next Sunday”, said Novak aiming straight to his purpose.

Betuska, seeing that he really meant something stayed in the room, and with imploring eyes looked at her father and mother.

“Come, come, you know,” said Kubista, “that might have been; but then you know, that cannot be, for there is a certain hitch in the affair.”

Could anything in the world have surprised Novak?

Novak put on an expression of countenance just as if he wished to say that he thought as much all along, but his eyes darkened with a peculiar venom, and around his mouth just such a sneer formed itself as though he wished to say frankly, “How I pity you for trusting him.”


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/27

Rh which is periodically drunk by the gods and therefore wanes month by month. The next step will soon be taken, and the priests will say that Sōma is the moon; and literature will then obediently accept this statement, and, gradually forgetting nearly everything that Sōma meant to the Ṛigvēdic priests, will use the name Sōma merely as a secondary name for Chandra, the moon and its god. A very illuminating process, which shows how a god may utterly change his nature. Now we turn to the hero-gods.

Indra and the Aśvinā at the beginning came to be worshipped because they were heroes, men who were supposed to have wrought marvellously noble and valiant deeds in dim far-off days, saviours of the afflicted, champions of the right, and who for this reason were worshipped after death, perhaps even before death, as divine beings, and gradually became associated in their legends and the forms of their worship with all kinds of other gods. Times change, gods grow old and fade away, but the remembrance of great deeds lives on in strange wild legends, which, however much they may borrow from other worships and however much they may be obscured by the phantom lights of false fancy, still throw a glimmer of true light back through the darkness of the ages into an immeasurably distant past.

Indra is a mighty giant, tawny of hair and beard and tawny of aspect. The poets tell us

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/27


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/149

 And out loud he said, “Perhaps some family friend, eh?”

“Possibly something of the kind”, answered Kubista.

“Hm!” sneered Novak. “There is a hitch in this affair also.”

All thought that Novak alluded to the well-known relation of old Kubista to grandfather, and paid no further attention to what he had said.

But Novak perceiving that they failed to catch his real drift, put on a fresh grimace, as though he had hit upon just the right trump.

“For John is making friends somewhere else.”

“That is a lie!” cried out Betuska, enraged at the light manner in which he spoke of Uncle John, and her face flushed scarlet.

“Lie, or no lie,” continued Novak, “I cannot know everything; still less, for that matter, can a young schoolgirl. But next Sunday John is off to Brizoff on a visit to the Horakoffs.”

“You lie in your throat,” cried out Betuska again, and trembled all over. The storm of passion which then for the first time came in a kind of paroxysm, did not allow her time to find any other defensive weapon. But at the same time her countenance reflected all the indignation she felt at the lightly spoken words of Novak.

Betuska went to her mother, laid her head on her mother’s shoulder, and gave way to a bitter fit of weeping.

Sobbing she reproached her parents for suffering any one to speak—any godless miscreant.

Kubista loved his daughter above measure. He did not permit Novak to say any more in that daughter’s presence, but at the same time, for the sake of her mother, he wished to test whether the matter had any substantial foundation. He took Novak by the hand, went out with him into the parlour, and then cross-questioned him at considerable length.

The end of the interview was this, that Kubista told Novak not to come to his house again, and as to the visit of that youth to which Novak had pledged himself—that nothing more must be said about it.

Novak excused himself with many fresh bows and obsequious speeches, without retracting a word of what he had said. He begged them to forgive him for having come. “My intention”, said he, “never was to disturb your domestic tranquillity-indeed, I assure you I came with the purest intentions.” And when he had said everything that he meant to say he departed. Rh


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/26

24 in the priestly rites inspires religious ecstasy. This drinking of the sōma-juice is already an ancient and important feature in the worship of our Aryans, as it is also among their kinsmen in Iran; so it is no wonder that the spirit of the sacred plant has been made by the priests into an important deity and celebrated with endless abundance of praise and prayer. As with Agni, Sōma's appearance and properties are described with inexhaustible wealth of epithets and metaphors. The poets love to dwell on the mystic powers of this wonderful potion, which can heal sickness of soul and body and inspire gods and men to mighty deeds and holy ecstasy. Most often they tell how the god Indra drank huge potions of it to strengthen himself for his great fight with the dragon Vṛitra. Most of this worship is of priestly invention; voluminous as its rhetoric is, it makes no great impression on the laity, nor perhaps on the clergy either. Some of the more ingenious of the priests are already beginning to trace an affinity between Sōma and the moon. The yellow sōma-stalks swell in the water of the pressing-vat, as the yellow moon waxes in the sky; the sōma has a magical power of stimulation, and the moon sends forth a mystic liquid influence over the vegetation of the earth, and especially over magic plants; the sōma is an ambrosia drunk by gods and heroes to inspire them to mighty deeds, and the moon is a bowl of ambrosia

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/26


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/150

 But now they had to comfort Betuska. She reproached her parents for confiding their anxiety about her to any one, though it broke her heart, and for having more regard to strangers than to their own daughter. The poor girl was only quieted when her parents assured her that they did not believe anything that Novak had said in their house.

Betuska met Uncle John about two days after this, in the evening, at the fatal boundary-stone of grandfather’s and Kubista’s field.

Uncle John noticed at once that she had been crying, and asked her the reason of it.

Instead of answering Betusha burst out into a fresh fit of crying, and tears, hot as the anguish in her heart trickled over her poor face, testifying to the measureless disquietude of her soul.

The more Uncle John questioned her the more she sobbed. He refrained from further attempts, and kissed her face with so much warmth that her tears fell afresh over it.

When this struggle had somewhat subsided in her she began to bewail the misfortune of their parent’s mutual estrangement. She augured nothing good from this, and for some time she could not rid herself of a certain presentiment which foreboded misfortune. Even a stranger began uninvited to meddle with their affairs, and who could say but his sole business was to separate them.

Uncle John consoled her. He succeeded after this natural explosion of a sensitive soul, for Betuska was so shy that she did not dare to mention a single word about Novak’s visit and what she had heard from him. She was in her heart of hearts convinced that it was all a scandalous lie, and only trumped up by gossips in order to separate them. And yet this conviction paved the way to fresh tears, just because it failed to find words to express itself.

Uncle John encouraged her to be patient. Nothing, he said, could occur even the least to dissipate their mutual trust and confidence. Next, as to the relation in which their angry parents stood to one another he thought he might soon hope to see an end of it. For grandfather—his father—had just begun to show himself much more amenable to reason, much more conciliatory, than he had ever done before. Let interlopers say what they liked, for himself he meant to show them by deeds what he thought of their speeches, and by means, certainly, check all unbridled gossip.


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/151

 Twilight had already gathered, and the scent of mown clover and meadow land was wafted over the fields, while birds winged their way to a neighbouring coppice, there to spend the evening and the night according to their wont.

Betuska seemed to be already quite easy in mind.

Only as it were involuntary she hinted that she was looking forward to next Sunday, and glanced up at uncle’s eyes to see what he thought of it. But Uncle John seemed as if he had not paid much attention: at first he was slightly abstracted, then he smiled and kissed Betuska.

And Betuska was soon as she had been before; she even jested a little-aye, even hinted that next Sunday she would put on a new dress, which she hoped uncle would like, and think suited her.

After that Uncle John hinted, only as it were involuntarily, that on Sunday he would not be at home.

A pang went to Betuska’s heart, but she made as though it were a laughing matter to her.

“Certainly I cannot guess where you are going”, she said, half jestingly.

“And perhaps I don’t mean to tell you”, said Uncle John, and pressed her hand more warmly than before.

“I will guess in what direction you are going”, and she guessed, pointing with her hand in different directions, until at last she pointed as if by accident in the direction of the place where uncle was to go on Sunday.

“Come, come, I will tell you no more”, said uncle, and kissed her mouth to prevent hearing any further questions.

But Betuska now apparently meant to have her own way. She said she could never bear to await Sunday for she would not dare to be looking in the direction of the place whither uncle had to go.

Uncle John now slightly hesitated, for he was afraid of occasioning her superfluous anxiety. He already consoled himself in fancy by picturing how on his return he would communicate his message to her, and tell her how he meant very soon to take her home with him to his own farm, with the words, “You see, in this farm, you are mistress, and my wife. I am merely going for a walk to Brizoff”, he said, and as if to make up for his reticence, he added, “I must do it to please my father.”

Betuska had heard enough: more she did not wish to know. All the blood in her body crowded to her heart, and in that heart resounded something like the tolling of a funeral bell. But she


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/25

Rh from the two firesticks, from trees of the forest, from stones, or as lightning from the clouds, his kinship with the sun, his dwelling in three abodes (viz. as a rule on earth, in the clouds as lightning, and in the upper heavens as the sun), his place in the homes of men as a holy guest, a friend and a kinsman, his protection of worshippers against evil spirits and malignant sorcerers, and especially his function of conveying the oblation poured into his flames up to the gods. Thus they are led to represent him as the divine Priest, the ideal hierophant, in whom are united the functions of the three chief classes of Ṛigvēdic sacrificial priests, the hōtā, adhvaryu, and brahman, and hence as an all-knowing sage and seer. If infinite zeal and ingenuity in singing Agni's praises and glorifying his activities can avail to raise him to the rank of a great god, we may expect to find him very near the top. But it is not to be. The priests cannot convince the plain man of Agni's super-godhead, and soon they will fail to convince even themselves. The time will shortly come when they will regard all these gods as little more than puppets whose strings are pulled by the mysterious spirit of the sacrifice.

The priests have another pet deity, Sōma. For the sacred rites include the pressing and drinking of the fermented yellow juice of the sōma-plant, an acid draught with intoxicating powers, which when mixed with milk and drunk

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/25


text:
Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/152

 never let it appear. And this was the fault, just as though she thought that Uncle John had not been perfectly sincere with her. She smiled, but her lips trembled; she would perhaps have soonest burst out crying, but already tears refused to flow. But she concealed it all in the presence of Uncle John. While he conducted her home she jested, and when he gave her a kiss at parting she returned it as warmly as if she wished to empty all her store of affection, and had no more cause to think of a future day.

Just as they separated she said almost jestingly that she wished him success at Brizoff

Sunday came and Uncle John set off to go to Brizoff just at the same time when people were setting out for church. Thus among others he met Betuska, who was dressed in her new white dress, but even her face was dressed in a new dress: it was paler than ever before. Betuska long held Uncle John by the hand, and begged him in a voice almost painful to hear, to forgive her if she had ever wronged him in anything. “For”, she said, “I am going to church to-day, and would gladly be reconciled with all.”

These words struck Uncle John to the heart, but he felt himself happy beyond measure.

Then she said that she would wait for him in the evening, so he must return pretty early. And when they had bade one another adieu, Betuska looked long after him, until he vanished behind the nearest hillock.

The whole afternoon she waited at a spot on the road to Brizoff. Already early the shades of evening settled over the fish-pond, while she waited for uncle. The stars came out and the moon rose, and uncle yet came not. Betuska knelt on the bank, looked up to a firmament full of light and beauty, looked down to the waters in which all that beauty and all that light were reflected; she yearned for that beauty and prayed for her lover.

Her parents already missed her from home, and went to seek her. They found her, but Betuska belonged no more either to them or to herself. The waves on the margin of the pool frolicked with her dress, raven locks emerged for a moment above the glimmering water, her white hands were clasped in prayer, the beautiful mouth breathed no more.


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/24

22 with the sky by day and night. This is the final blow. No deity that is plainly limited to any one phase or form of nature in India can be or become a great god; and speedily all their real divinity fades away from Mitra and Varuṇa, and they shrivel into insignificance.

Next we turn to a spirit of a very different sort, the Fire-god, Agni. The word agni is identical with the Latin ignis; it means "fire," and nothing else but fire, and this fact is quite sufficient to prevent Agni from becoming a great god. The priests indeed do their best, by fertile fancy and endless repetition of his praises, to lift him to that rank; but even they cannot do it. From the days of the earliest generations of men Fire was a spirit; and the household fire, which cooks the food of the family and receives its simple oblations of clarified butter, is a kindly genius of the home. But with all his usefulness and elfish mystery Fire simply remains fire, and there's an end of it, for the ordinary man. But the priests will not have it so. The chief concern of their lives is with sacrifice, and their deepest interest is in the spirit of the sacrificial fire. All the riches of their imagination and their vocabulary are lavished upon him, his forms and his activities. They have devoted to him about 200 hymns and many occasional verses, in which they dwell with constant delight and ingenious metaphor upon his splendour, his power, his birth from wood,

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/24


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/34

32 to him by an eagle. What these straits were is indicated in another hymn (IV. xxvii.), which tells us that he was imprisoned, and escaped on the back of the eagle, which he compelled to carry him; the watchman Kṛiśānu shot an arrow at the bird, but it passed harmlessly through its feathers. Evidently in the story Indra had a hard struggle with rival gods. One poet says (RV. IV. xxx. 3): "Not even all the gods, O Indra, defeated thee, when thou didst lengthen days into nights," which apparently refers also to some miracle like that ascribed to Joshua. Another tradition (MS. I. vi. 12) relates that while Indra and his brother Vivasvān were still unborn they declared their resolve to oust the Ādityas, the elder sons of their mother Aditi; so the Ādityas tried to kill them when born, and actually slew Vivasvān, but Indra escaped. Another version (TS. II. iv. 13) says that the gods, being afraid of Indra, bound him with fetters before he was born; and at the same time Indra is identified with the Rājanya, or warrior class, as its type and representative. This last point is immensely important, for it really clinches the matter. Not once, but repeatedly, the priestly literature of the generations that will follow

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/34


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/22

6 a little startling to men who had made this their bête noir. The prophet of such a change would have been laughed to scorn half a dozen years before. Indeed, few of this class, even those who fancied themselves most familiar with the instrument, thought it possible to create such a power in so brief a space of time out of the Constitution. This was doubtless due to a failure to give adequate weight and consideration to two factors which were destined to effect materially the result; first, the capacity of the country for great and rapid growth, and second, of even more immediate influence, the means and methods that would at once be called into being to effectuate the plain provisions of the Constitution. To those who occupied this position the financial operations of Hamilton were not merely unlooked-for, but they assumed the aspect of unwarranted, and even wicked, violations of the Constitution. Thus step by step as the work of organization went on, the central government developed a power and patronage which was at once surprising and highly disapproved of by many sometime ardent Federalists; and thereby steadily estranging many from the administration, it built up an opposition, and an opposition that had a firmer party-basis than most of those who composed it realized.

This fundamental division of political opinion, which has now come to be universally recognized, may be wholly or partly concealed by the temper of certain times or the absorbing claims of specific measures, but nevertheless it is always present,


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/23

Rh and according to the trend given to political action it is pronounced or obscure; but when this or that diversion has ceased to operate, the old ruts are again followed and the old division made plain. The condition of public affairs, both at home and abroad, during the early years of our national life, ran in courses that made this great division most prominent. Individual tastes were reinforced or modified by the special advantages the one policy or the other offered to the different States or sections of the country. These in turn, even as they dictated, were intensified and accentuated by leanings to British or French sympathies. As the one class of ideas was dominant in one country and the other in the other, they to a remarkable extent came to stand for the two policies. It is almost impossible, at the distance of nearly a century, to regard without the liveliest wonder the intense bitterness engendered by these different foreign attachments, and the tremendous influence which they exerted over the minds of our forefathers between the era of the Revolution and the second war with Great Britain. They were not a mere natural hostility against the mother country growing out of the prolonged war, and an equally natural spirit of gratitude for the timely aid of France. They differed from such sentiments so widely as not even to be comparable to them, and did not end with awakening sympathy and dislike, or even of governing our foreign relations, but extended to our domestic concerns and dictated our home policy. All of these things tended in the


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/24

8 same direction and drew a sharp line between the advocates of a strong and of a feeble central government.

In addition to these causes there was a special development of what may be called the "individualism," which is generally found as a prominent feature of that theory of government which looks towards liberalism and democracy. That is, the development of the importance of the individual in relation to the State. Mr. Jefferson was a most advanced advocate of this principle. Under his leadership it was gradually advanced, and finding a ready acceptance, especially in the South and West, became one of the greatest forces in the development and permanence of the party he founded. The noble system of English law, which from the time of the first settlements had been firmly established in the colonies, had for some time been marked by a comparative neglect of the individual, a neglect which in its administration had been accentuated to such an extent that at the era of our revolution English jurisprudence seemed much too indifferent to the personal rights of citizens. Property rights were preferred to personal rights, and the most trifling violations of the former were visited with much more speedy and severe punishment than the most serious assaults upon the latter. The libel law was peculiarly oppressive, and its administration had been a scandal and a shame. The prosecutions under this law for a century before this country achieved its independence, had been enough to discourage the most


text:
Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/56

 countenance so ingenuous, that it was impossible not to be prepossessed in his favor; added to which, one hoped that the son of such a father could never entirely degenerate: "he has, however, degenerated sadly," said Byron, "but as he is yet young, he may improve; though to see a person of his age and sex so devoted to gossip and scandal, is rather discouraging to those who are interested in his welfare."

He talked of Lord -; praised his urbanity, his talents, and acquirements; but above all, his sweetness of temper and good-nature. "Indeed I do love Lord -," said Byron, "though the pity I feel for his domestic thraldom has something in it akin to contempt. Poor dear man! he is sadly bullied by Milady; and, what is worst of all, half her tyranny is used on the plea of kindness and taking care of his health. Hang such kindness! say I. She is certainly the most imperious, dictatorial person I know - is always en reine; which, by the by, in her peculiar position, shows tact, for she suspects that were she to quit the throne she might be driven to the antechamber; however, with all her faults, she is not vindictive as a proof, she never extended her favor to me until after the little episode respecting her in ’English Bards;' nay more, I suspect I owe her friendship to it. Rogers persuaded me


text:
Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/225

Rh It thus appears that 401 teachers receive in all rupees 1,297-4-9, averaging to each rupees 3-3-9 per month. At the time I visited this district I had not adopted the practice of noting the different sorts of perquisites received by teachers, every thing coming under that denomination being recorded in one sum.

Regarding the school-houses of this district, I shall transcribe only a few of my notes which appear to contain any thing peculiar or characteristic. In one village the school-house was built by the teacher at a cost in money of rupees 1-4, with the aid of his pupils who brought materials from the jungle. In another the school-house was built by the scholars at a cost of rupees 1-8, in addition to their own labour. The house is thatched, and the walls consist of branches and leaves of the palm and sal trees interlaced. In a third the scholars assembled in the village place of worship, and they were engaged in building a school-house with thatched roof, beams and rafters, and mud- walls, which was expected to cost in all about rupees ten, besides their labour. Several school-houses are noted as having been built by subscription amongst the parents. Baithak-khanas, kachahris, store-houses, verandas, shops, and temples, are used here as elsewhere. The temples consecrated to, the Judge of the Departed, the of Hinduism, I have found frequently used as school-houses in this district in consequence of the extent to which the worship of that deity under the title of Dharmaraj prevails.

In 412 schools the total number of scholars is 6,383, giving to each school an average of 15.14, and the average age of the whole number at the time when the different schools were visited was 10.05 years. The age of entering and the probable age of leaving school were not ascertained in this district.

Of the whole number of scholars, 3 are Dhangars, a tribe of Coles; 3 are Sonthals, another forest tribe; 20 are Christians, the children of native converts taught in a Missionary school; and 232 are Musalmans. All the rest, amounting to 6,125, are Hindus, and the number of each Hindu caste is exhibited in the following list:—


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/41

Rh maṇas tell us again and again that Vishṇu is the sacrifice. Evidently when they repeat this they are repeating an old hieratic tradition; and it is one which perfectly explains the facts of the case. Vishṇu, I conceive, was originally nothing more or less than the embodied spirit of the sacrificial rites. His name seems to be derived from the root vish, meaning stimulation or inspiration; and this is exactly what the sacrifice is supposed in priestly theory to do. The sacrifice, accompanied by prayer and praise, is imagined to have a magic power of its own, by which the gods worshipped in it are strengthened to perform their divine functions. One poet says to Indra: "When thy two wandering Bays thou dravest hither, thy praiser laid within thine arms the thunder" (RV. I. lxiii. 2); and still more boldly another says: "Sacrifice, Indra, made thee wax so mighty ... worship helped thy bolt when slaying the dragon" (III. xxxii. 12). So it would be very natural for the priests to conceive this spirit of the sacrificial rites as a personal deity; and this deity, the Brāhmaṇas assure us, is Vishṇu. Then the idea of the three strides and the association with Indra would easily grow up in the priestly imagination. The inspiring power of the sacrifice is supposed to pervade the three realms of the universe, earth, sky, and upper

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/41


text:
Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/57

 to suppress the passage in the other editions. After all, Lady - has one merit, and a great one in my eyes, which is, that in this age of cant and humbug, and in a country - I mean our own dear England - where the cant of Virtue is the order of the day, she has contrived, without any great resemblance of it, merely by force of - shall I call it impudence or courage? - not only to get herself into society, but absolutely to give the law to her own circle. She passes, also, for being clever; this, perhaps owing to my dulness, I never discovered, except that she has a way, en reine, of asking questions that show some reading. The first dispute I ever had with Lady Byron, was caused by my urging her to visit Lady -; and, what is odd enough," laughing with bitterness, " our first and last difference was caused by two very worthless women."

Observing that we appeared surprised at the extraordinary frankness, to call it by no harsher name, with which he talked of his ci-devant friends, he added: "Don't think the worse of me for what I have said: the truth is, I have witnessed such gross selfishness and want of feeling in Lady that I cannot resist speaking my sentiments of her." - I observed: "But are you not afraid she will hear what you say of her?"- He answered: "Were she to hear it she


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/40

38 find some priests harping on the same notion in another form, saying that Vishṇu's head was cut off by accident and became the sun; and later on we shall see Vishṇu bearing as one of his weapons a chakra, or discus, which looks like a figure of the sun. But really all this is an afterthought: in the Vēda, and the priestly literature that follows directly upon the Vēda, Vishṇu is not the sun. Nor do we learn what he is very readily from his second leading attribute in the Ṛig-vēda, his association with Indra, Yet it is a very clearly marked trait in his character. Not only do the poets often couple the two gods in prayer and praise, but they often tell us that the one performed his characteristic deeds by the help of the other. They say that Vishṇu made his three strides by the power of Indra (VIII. xii. 27), or for the sake of Indra (Vāl. iv. 3), and even that Indra strode along with Vishṇu (VI. lxix. 5, VII. xcix. 6), and on the other hand they tell us often that it was by the aid of Vishṇu that Indra overcame Vṛitra and other malignant foes. "Friend Vishṇu, stride out lustily," cries Indra before he can strike down Vṛitra (IV. xviii. 11). The answer to this riddle I find in the Brāhmaṇas, the priestly literature which is about to follow immediately after the Vēda. In plain unequivocal words the Brāh-

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/40


text:
Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/226

166

This is the first district in which my arrangements enabled me to obtain a complete view of the amount and distribution of vernacular instruction, with a confidence nearly approaching to certainty that no important omission had been made, from the number of scholars of the brahman caste, we may infer not only the large number of brahman families in the district, but also, in some measure, the extent to which they have engaged in the worldly employments prohibited to their caste. Another circumstance worthy of notice is the comparatively large number of scholars of the Kalu and Sunri castes, which are not only on religious grounds excluded from association with brahmans, but, according to former custom and usage, were generally deemed unworthy of participating in the advantages of literary instruction even in the humblest forms. The appearance also of the Dom, Keot, Hari, and other low castes in the list of scholars, although in less numbers, affords additional and still stronger illustrations of the increasing desire for instruction and of the unforced efforts to obtain it; for those castes are the lowest of the low, and were formerly as undesirous of instruction in letters as they were deemed unworthy of it. In the only Missionary school of this class in the district there are only two Hindu scholars, one of the Dom and the other of the Hari caste, from which it will be seen that all the other scholars of low caste are found in schools of exclusively native origin and entirely under native management.

In the Hindi schools of this district the wooden board is used, but not the brazen plate to write upon; and in the Bengali schools,


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/25

Rh courageous friends of free speech and a free press. From this source Mr. Jefferson drew a wholesome dread of any incroachments upon the freedom of the individual in whatever sphere, and curtailments of it were too recent and too great for it to be regarded as a figment of his brain. It appealed to him very strongly, falling in as it did with his natural habit of thought. Many regarded it as sufficiently guaranteed by the Constitution, but his fear and unrest were never satisfied even by so perfect a continuing guaranty, and he never ceased to watch over it jealously. He showed the first force of his convictions on this subject in the particular enumeration in the Declaration of Independence of the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," again in his insistence upon the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution, and in his watchful care throughout his career. There are many instances in which it behooves us to keep in view the dominant influence of this individualism on Mr. Jefferson's mind. It is not only the key to many of his own acts, but to the problems that afterwards grew out of them when it was attempted to wrest them to a widely different meaning. The natural result of these inclinations was exhibited in his steady advocacy of a general government of minimum power, a fostering of the influence of the States as the natural bulwarks against a strong central power, and his unwearied struggle for what was, indeed, the great end of all his policy, a democracy of the purest and simplest type, possessing all the power capable of


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/26

10 lodged in its hands and itself exercising as far as possible all the functions of government, itself the master, its office-holders the servants, and dictating and rightly requiring from all the most republican simplicity.

Such, in brief outline, were the sentiments of those who regarded the vigorous policy so promptly adopted and put into operation under Washington, with dislike and distrust. The overshadowing influence of the President held many to the warm support of the administration who would otherwise have been in the ranks of the opposition, and a far greater number yielded acquiescence to the same spell. There was, however, a steady growth towards the principles of those opposed to centralization. But for a long time they lacked both organization and party-name. Of leaders there was no lack. New York offered some brilliant candidates for headship; Massachusetts herself could have supplied an able champion; but by general consent the position was accorded to Virginia. Not at once, indeed, but gradually. In the House of Representatives, Madison quickly won the first place, but he was then, as ever afterwards, second to Jefferson, and by the time that the third presidential election had come, Jefferson was almost without a rival. Had the party been better organized, with a clearer enunciation of principles, they would have made a much better stand even thus early. They lacked cohesion sadly, and hitherto they were without any party-name of general acceptation. The name of Anti-Federalist was too


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/27

Rh negative, and to some still smacked of a false position; the name of Democrat, which was not uncommonly given at the time, was a term of reproach and grew out of the unfortunate conduct of Genet, and the taste of French affairs was then fast growing bitter in all men's mouths. They had already begun to give themselves out as Republicans, and then to join the two names into Democratic-Republicans; but as yet this name had not become fairly fixed upon the party.

Such was the general state of affairs when Adams became President, and Jefferson Vice-President. Mr. Jefferson with his unfailing political sagacity had remarked the weaknesses in the great body of men who thought with him, and now began a systematic course directed towards the remedying of those defects. His first impulses towards a cooperation with the policy that Mr. Adams might pursue were of brief duration. Their points of view were hopelessly at variance.

The President was an avowed admirer of the British Constitution, he had pronounced views of an aristocratical nature, and he was an uncompromising friend of strong government. The Vice- President, great as he was, was undeniably suspicious, and especially so of the northern Federalists. Even he forgot, that while at the Court of St. James Mr. Adams had pursued a most manly and independent course, and that, whatever his theories were, he had proved his patriotism and


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/43

Rh see the full meaning of India's cry before striking Vṛitra, "Friend Vishṇu, stride out lustily!"; for until the sacrifice has put forth its mystic energy the god cannot strike his blow. We are told also that Vishṇu cooks buffaloes and boils milk for Indra, for buffaloes were no doubt anciently offered to Indra. The vivid reality of Indra's character has clothed Vishṇu with some of its own flesh and blood; originally a priestly abstraction, he has become through association with Indra a living being, a real god. The blood which has thus been poured into his veins will enable him to live through a critical period of his life, until by combination with another deity he will rise to new and supreme sovereignty. But of that more anon. Meanwhile let us note the significance of this union of Vishṇu and Indra in the Vēda. Vishṇu, the spirit of Sacrifice, is in a sense representative of the Brahman priesthood, and Indra, as I have shown, is commonly regarded as typical of the warrior order. In the Ṛig-vēda Indra is powerless without Vishṇu's mystic service, and Vishṇu labours to aid Indra in his heroic works for the welfare of men and gods. Surely this is an allegory, though the priests may so far be only dimly conscious of its full meaning — an allegory

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/43


text:
Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/58

 would act the amiable, as she always does to those who attack her; while to those who are attentive, and court her, she is insolent beyond bearing."

Having sat with us above two hours, and expressed his wishes that we might prolong our stay at Genoa, he promised to dine with us on the following Thursday, and took his leave, laughingly apologizing for the length of his visit, adding, that he was such a recluse, and had lived so long out of the world, that he had quite forgotten the usages of it.

He on all occasions professes a detestation of what he calls cant; and says it will banish from England all that is pure and good; and that while people are looking after the shadow, they lose the substance of goodness; he says, that the best mode left for conquering it, is to expose it to ridicule, the only weapon, added he, that the English climate cannot rust. He appears to know every thing that is going on in England; takes a great interest in the London gossip; and while professing to read no new publications, betrays, in various ways, a perfect knowledge of every new work.

APRIL 2, 1823. MY DEAR LORD: I send you to-day's (the latest) Galignani.' My banker tells me, however,


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/28

12 republicanism in his masterly leadership in the first years of the Continental Congress. The distrust was probably mutual, but the President was the one to whom confidence and coöperation were due, and instead of that the Vice-President was the leader of the opposition and his rival for the suffrages of the people. The situation was too much for the administration. The President early gave offence by inauspicious speeches in regard to the relation of British and French influences, and kindred matters. The friends of France took especial exception to a remark to the effect that the American and French revolutions possessed not one point in common. Madison and Jefferson criticised this utterance freely in their correspondence, and it became the text for a public warning against a man who could hold such an opinion. Meanwhile our relations with France were growing more and more complicated. The performances of Genet produced a great revulsion of feeling on the part of many ardent French sympathizers. And from the time of his coming there was never quite the same feeling that had once prevailed. When Washington left office Adet's commission was suspended, and though he continued in Philadelphia, he was no longer accredited to the government. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney had set out bearing Monroe's recall and his own credentials to St. Denis. When he arrived he was received with much hauteur, and finally informed that the Directory declined to recognize him. All this had transpired in the last days of Washington's administration, but the news


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/44

42 bodying forth the priestly ideal of the reign of righteousness, in which the King is strong by the mystic power of the Priest, and the Priest lives for the service of the King.

There is another god who is destined to become in future ages Vishṇu's chief rival — Rudra, "The Tawny," or Śiva, "The Gracious." He belongs to the realm of popular superstition, a spiteful demon ever ready to smite men and cattle with disease, but likewise dispensing healing balms and medicines to those that win his favour. The Ṛigvēdic priests as yet do not take much interest in him, and for the most part they leave him to their somewhat despised kinsmen the Atharvans, who do a thriving trade in hymns and spells to secure the common folk against his wrath.

There are many more gods, godlings, and spirits in the Vēdic religion; but we must pass over them. We have seen enough, I hope, to give us a fair idea of the nature and value of that religion in general. What then is its value?

The Ṛig-vēda is essentially a priestly book; but it is not entirely a priestly book. Much of the thought to which it gives utterance is popular in origin and sentiment, and is by no means of the lowest order. On this groundwork the priests have built up a system of hieratic thought and ritual of their own, in which there is much that deserves a certain respect. There is a good deal

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/44


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/29

Rh had not reached this country when Adams was inaugurated. The country generally was exasperated by the rejection of Pinckney, and the circumstances of that rejection made the course of France, which for a long time had been directed towards a separation between the executive and a large body of the people, more patent than at any previous time. But Adams declared it to be his desire to heal the differences if possible, and to do all in his power to prevent the breach from widening. In order to accomplish this he summoned Congress to a special session in May and expressed his intention of nominating a commission to be sent to France to endeavor to bring about an accommodation. This commission as first drawn was to consist of Pinckney, Dana, and Marshall, but Dana declined, and Gerry was substituted for him. Gerry and Marshall set out promptly and joined Pinckney in Holland. Their credentials and instructions were adequate to the broadest scope of negotiation and there was great hope that they would be able to effect an accommodation. But at the same time there was a growing distrust of French attitudes, and particularly of the increasing power of Buonaparte. Even Mr. Jefferson was doubtful what the times would bring forth. Time slipped away. Negotiation was slow and communication between the countries imperfect. Public interest was fairly on tip-toe.

The envoys had reached Paris early in October, and six months had now elapsed. Just at this moment the weight was lifted from the President's heart which had been so sorely stung by insult and


text:
Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/394

316

So diverse was the chanting, thereby ‘twas plain to see

That Christians and heathens were not in unity.

And yet the men of Gunther to church would go withal;

They from their beds together had risen one and all.

The warriors then array’d them in clothes so finely wrought,

That better raiment never by heroes had been brought

To any king’s dominions. Ill did it Hagen please.

Said he: “Now should ye, heroes, don other suits than these.

“Enough about the matter ye surely understand;

Ye should, instead of roses, bear weapons in the hand.

For caps beset with jewels take shining helms and good;

Since we are well-adviséd of wicked Kriemhild’s mood.

“This day must we do battle, I will to you declare;

Instead of silken doublets, ye should your hauberks wear,

And in the place of mantles take bucklers good and wide—

That if they seek a quarrel, the brunt ye may abide.

‘“My well-belovéd masters, your friends and kinsmen too,

Go now unto the Minster,— that should ye gladly do—

And pray to God Almighty in your distress and need:

For know now, of a surety, that Death is nigh indeed.

“See, too, that ye forget not aught ill that ye have done,

And with true zeal and duty stand ye before God’s throne.

Of this, right noble warriors, I warn ye well afore,

Save God in Heaven may grant it, ye’ll hear no masses more.”


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/45

Rh of fine poetry in it. There is also in it some idea of a law of righteousness: in spite of much wild and unmoral myth and fancy, its gods for the most part are not capricious demons but spirits who act in accordance with established laws, majestic and wise beings in whom are embodied the highest ideals to which men have risen as yet. Moreover, the priests in the later books have given us some mystic hymns containing vigorous and pregnant speculations on the deepest questions of existence, speculations which are indeed fanciful and unscientific, but which nevertheless have in them the germs of the powerful idealism that is destined to arise in centuries to come. On the other hand, the priests have cast their system in the mould of ritualism. Ritual, ceremony, sacrifice, professional benefit — these are their predominant interests. The priestly ceremonies are conceived to possess a magical power of their own; and the fixed laws of ritual by which these ceremonies are regulated tend to eclipse, and finally even to swallow up, the laws of moral righteousness under which the gods live. A few generations more, and the priesthood will frankly announce its ritual to be the supreme law of the universe. Meanwhile they are becoming more and more indifferent to the personalities of the gods, when they have preserved any; they are quite ready to ascribe attributes of one deity to another, even attributes

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/45


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/46

44 of nominal supremacy, with unscrupulous inconsistency and dubious sincerity; for the personalities of the different gods are beginning to fade away in their eyes, and in their mind is arising the conception of a single universal Godhead.

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/46


text: A Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron


text:
Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/113

Rh “We don’t run an establishment to teach women trades,” said another, in answer to my plea for work.

“Well, as they are not born with the knowledge, how do they ever learn?” I asked.

“The girls always have some friend who wants to learn. If she wishes to lose time and money by teaching her, we don’t object, for we get the work the beginner does for nothing.”

By no persuasion could I obtain an entree into the larger factories, so I concluded at last to try a smaller one at No. 196 Elm Street. Quite unlike the unkind, brusque men I had met at other factories, the man here was very polite. He said: “If you have never done the work, I don’t think you will like it. It is dirty work and a girl has to spend years at it before she can make much money. Our beginners are girls about sixteen years old, and they do not get paid for two weeks after they come here.”

“What can they make afterward?”

“We sometimes start them at week work—$1,50 a


text:
Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/114

112 week. When they become competent they go on piecework—that is, they are paid by the hundred.”

“How much do they earn then?”

A good worker will earn from $5 to $9 a week.”

“Have you many girls here?”

“We have about sixty in the building and a number who take the work home. I have only been in this business for a few months, but if you think you would like to try it, I shall speak to my partner. He has had some of his girls for eleven years. Sit down until I find him.”

He left the office, and I soon heard him talking outside about me, and rather urging that I be given a chance. He soon returned, and with him a small man who spoke with a German accent. He stood by me without speaking, so I repeated my request. “Well, give your name to the gentleman at the desk, and come down on Monday morning, and we will see what we can do for you.”

And so it was that I started out early in the morning. I had put on a calico dress to work in and to suit my chosen trade. In a nice little bundle, covered with brown paper with a grease-spot on the center of it, was my lunch. I had an idea that every working-girl carried a lunch, and I was trying to give out the impression that I was quite used to this thing. Indeed, I considered the lunch a telling stroke of thoughtfulness in my new role, and eyed with some pride, in which was mixed a little dismay, the grease-spot, which was gradually growing in size.

Early as it was I found all the girls there and at work. I went through a small wagon-yard, the only entrance to the office. After making my excuses to the gentleman at the desk, he called to a pretty little girl, who had her apron full of pasteboard, and said:

“Take this lady up to Norah.”

“Is she to work on boxes or cornucopias?” asked the girl.


text:
Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/115

Rh “Tell Norah to put her on boxes.”

Following my little guide, I climbed the narrowest, darkest, and most perpendicular stair it has ever been my misfortune to see. On and on we went, through small rooms, filled with working girls, to the top floor—fourth or fifth story, I have forgotten which. Any way, I was breathless when I got there.

“Norah, here is a lady you are to put on boxes,” called out my pretty little guide.

All the girls that surrounded the long tables turned from their work and looked at me curiously. The auburn-haired girl addressed as Norah raised her eyes from the box she was making, and replied:

“See if the hatchway is down, and show her where to put her clothes.”

Then the forewoman ordered one of the girls to “get the lady a stool,” and sat down before a long table, on which was piled a lot of pasteboard squares, labeled in the center. Norah spread some long slips of paper on the table; then taking up a scrub-brush, she dipped it into a bucket of paste and then rubbed it over the paper. Next she took one of the squares of pasteboard and, running her thumb deftly along, turned up the edges. This done, she took one of the slips of paper and put it quickly and neatly over the corner, binding them together and holding them in place. She quickly cut the paper off at the edge with her thumb-nail and swung the thing around and did the next corner. This I soon found made a box lid. It looked and was very easy, and in a few moments I was able to make one.

I did not find the work difficult to learn, but rather disagreeable. The room was not ventilated, and the paste and glue were very offensive. The piles of boxes made conversation impossible with all the girls except a beginner, Therese, who sat by my side. She was very


text:
Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/395

XXXI.]

They went unto the Minster, the princes with their men.

But in the hallow’d precincts bold Hagen spake again

And bade them halt, lest any should leave the company:

“None knoweth what the Hunfolk to us may do,” said he;

“My friends, set down your bucklers upright before your feet,

And answer ye to any who may unkindly greet

With deep and deadly sword-stroke. Hark ye, to Hagen’s rede,

So will ye find it worthy to serve you in your need.”

With that Hagen and Volker, the twain together, went

In front of the great Minster. ’Twas done with this intent,

That they might make it certain that the king’s wife would need

To crowd them as she enter’d: their mien was grim indeed.

Then came the land’s Upholder, and eke his lady fair.

And deck’d about the body with raiment rich and rare

One saw the doughty warriors along with them go by;

The dust aloft was whirling from Kriemhild’s chivalry.

Now when the mighty ruler in armour saw array’d

The kings and their companions, how quickly then he said:

“Why thus my friends behold I marching with helmets on?

’Twould grieve me,on my honour, had aught to them been done.

“I’ll gladly make atonement, however they think good;

If any here have vext them in either heart or mood,

I give them full assurance that sorely vext am I;

And whatsoe’er they bid me I’ll do it readily.”


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/42

40 heavens; this idea is expressed in the common ritual formula bhūr bhuvas svaḥ, and is symbolised by three steps taken by the priest in certain ceremonies, which are translated into the language of myth as the three strides of Vishṇu. Observe that in the Ṛig-vēda the upper heaven is not the dwelling-place of Vishṇu only; Agni the Fire-god, Indra and Sōma have their home in it also (RV. I. cliv. 6, IV. xxvi. 6, xxvii. 3-4, V. iii. 3, VIII. lxxxix. 8, IX. lxiii. 27, lxvi. 30, lxviii. 6, lxxvii. 2, lxxxvi. 24, X. i. 3, xi. 4, xcix. 8, cxliv. 4). Later, however, when their adventitious divinity begins to fade away from Agni and Sōma, and Indra is allotted a special paradise of his own, this "highest step" will be regarded as peculiar to Vishṇu, Vishṇōḥ paramam padam.

As soon as this spirit of sacrifice was thus personified, he at once attached himself to Indra; for Indra is pre-eminently the god of action, and for his activities he needs to be stimulated by sacrifice and praise. As the priests will tell us in plain unvarnished words, "he to whom the Sacrifice comes as portion slays Indra" (AB. I. iv.). Therefore we are told that Vishṇu aids Indra in his heroic exploits, that Vishṇu takes his strides and presses Sōma in order that Indra may be strengthened for his tasks. Now we can

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/42


text:
Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/227

Rh besides the plantain-leaf, the leaf of the sâl tree is used in the third stage of instruction. The following is the distribution of the scholars into the four established grades:—

The former remark applies here also, that nearly all the scholars are in the second and fourth stages of instruction.

In one school Christian instruction is communicated, in 35 schools commercial accounts only, in 47 schools agricultural accounts only, and in 316 schools both commercial and agricultural are taught. In one school commercial accounts and written works, and in 12 schools both commercial and agricultural accounts with written works are taught.

Subhankar was found in use in eight schools, and in one school a Bengali translation from Sanscrit called the Nataka of  or relating to the amours of Radha and Krishna. In one school two works were employed as school books called Ashta Dhatu and Ashta Sabdi, containing, respectively, the conjugation of eight Sanscrit verbs and the declension of eight Sanscrit nouns; and in four schools the verses of Chanakya were taught; in one with, and in three without, a Bengali translation.

The thirteen thanas of this district contain in all 629 Bengali schools, of which seven are found in one village, six in another, and five in a third. Nine villages contain three each; fifty-nine two each; and four hundred and sixty-six one each.

The number of teachers is 639, being ten in excess of the number of schools. Nine Missionary schools and one supported by the Rajah of Burdwan are conducted each by two teachers. Six hundred and sixteen common village schools and four Missionary schools are taught by the same number of teachers. The average age of all the teachers is 39·05 years. Three of the teachers are Christians, nine are Musalmans, and six hundred and twenty-seven are Hindus. The following are the castes of the Hindu teachers and the number of each:—


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/30

14 vituperation. The X. Y. Z. despatches arrived and were made public on the 3d of April, 1798. A tremendous revulsion of feeling was the result. "Millions for defence, not one cent for tribute," became the cry on every hand. Adams was for once almost a popular hero. Federalism was in high feather. A French war seemed imminent, and for the moment would have been received with acclamation by all parties. This seemed to be the time to press forward vigorous measures that would undo much past evil and prevent much future annoyance. The programme embraced three acts. The first a change of the naturalization law; the second an alien act; the third a sedition act. The effect of the first was to alter the period of residence necessary to citizenship from five to fourteen years, to require a registration of all white aliens, and to forbid the naturalization of alien enemies. The Alien Act permitted the banishment of aliens under the simple order of the President, and in case of refusal to depart it authorized imprisonment and deprivation of the right to become a citizen. This was for alien friends, for the act drew this distinction. Alien enemies could be detained, banished, imprisoned, all at the discretion of the President. This was a most remarkable stretch of authority, but the Sedition Act was far more radical. It originated in the Senate, and must have alarmed not merely the friends of France and the Republican party, but equally all clear-sighted friends of freedom and of calm legislation. As introduced, its first section declared


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/47

Centuries have passed since the hymns of the Ṛig-vēda were composed. The Aryans have now crossed the fateful ridge on the east of their former settlements, and have spread themselves over the lands of Northern Hindostan around the upper basins of the Ganges and Jamna, reaching eastward as far as Bihar and southward down to the Vindhya Mountains, and in the course of their growth they have absorbed not a little of the blood of the dark-skinned natives. The old organisation of society by tribes has come to an end, though the names of many ancient tribes are still heard; the Aryans are now divided laterally by the principle of what we call "caste," which is based upon a combination of religious and professional distinctions, and vertically by the rule of kings, while a few oligarchic governments still survive to remind them of Vēdic days. In these kingdoms the old tribes are beginning to be fused together; from these combinations new States are arising, warring with one another, constantly waxing and waning. Society is ruled politically

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/47


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/48

46 by kings, spiritually by Brahmans. With the rise of the kingdom an Established Church has come into existence, and the Brahman priesthood works out its principles to the bitterest end of logic.

The Brahmans are now, more than they ever were before, a close corporation of race, religion, and profession, a religious fraternity in the strict sense of the words. While other classes of the Aryans have mixed their blood to a greater or less degree with that of the natives, the Brahmans have preserved much of the pure Aryan strain. They, moreover, have maintained the knowledge of the ancient Vēdic language in which the sacred hymns of their forefathers were composed, of the traditions associated with them, and of the priestly lore of Vēdic ritual. Proud of this heritage and resolved to maintain it undiminished, they have knitted themselves into a close spiritual and intellectual aristocracy, which stands fast like a lighthouse amidst the darkness and storms of political changes. They employ all the arts of the priest, the thinker, the statesman, and even the magician to preserve their primacy; and around them the manifold variety of the other castes, in all their divisions and subdivisions, groups itself to make up the multi-coloured web of Indian life.

In course of time this priesthood will spread out octopus-like tentacles over the whole of India. Becoming all things to all men, it will find a place

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/48


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/31

Rh France to be a public enemy, and made the giving of comfort or aid to Frenchmen or France by any one owing allegiance to the United States treason, and punishable with death. The second clause made the concealing or withholding of information concerning the acts made treason by the preceding section misprision of treason, and punishable by fine and imprisonment. The third was directed against combinations and conspiracies to resist the laws and the execution of the laws by officers of the United States. This crime of sedition was punishable by fine and imprisonment, and the judges were given authority to require securities for future good conduct. The fourth section was directed against seditious publications.

It would have been wonderful had such a measure become a law. It was tremendously sweeping in its provisions ; to pronounce France and her people enemies when not in a state of declared war was unexampled, and to make it a high misdemeanor to use language "tending to justify the hostile conduct of the French government" a great stretch of censorship. The first two sections were stricken out bodily; not, however, till they had served to create alarm, and to supply a bugbear wherewith to frighten the uneasy, as examples of what the administration party desired and were working to obtain. The last two sections were purged of their more objectionable features, but a residuum remained ample to awake the fiercest invectives and the most determined opposition. It now included the two classes of seditious practices


text:
Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/228

168

In this list the Sunri, Kalu, Dhoba, Bagdhi, and Chandal, castes are those which the long established usages of the country would have either discouraged or altogether excluded from a knowledge of letters. Two of the teachers are lepers.

In this district I ascertained that there were four teachers who taught gratuitously, of whom one was a Musalman and three Hindus, and of the latter one was a Chandal.

The paid teachers are thus sub-divided according to the nature and amount of the remuneration which they receive:—

Thus 635 teachers receive in all rupees 2,076-5-9, which averages to each teacher per month rupees 3-4-3. Many of the teachers, who do not acquire sufficient for their livelihood by teaching, eke out their income by engaging in farming, in money-lending, in retail-trade, in weaving, in worldly service, in temple-service, &c.; and all of them have occasional presents from the scholars during the progress of their educaition, and even after they have left school, which cannot be ascertained or estimated. The teachers of the Missionary schools and of the school supported by the Rajah of Burdwan are paid, but not by the parents of the scholars. In the Missionary schools the pupils, besides receiving gratuitous instruction, are also furnished with paper, pens, ink, leaves, and books. In the school of the Rajah of Burdwan similar materials are supplied, together with a daily payment of the one-sixteenth part of an anna (five gundas of cowries, i. e., 20 cowries or 1 buri) to each scholar for refreshments. Three of the Hindu scholars are wholly fed at the expense of the Rajah for a period


text:
Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/116

114 timid at first, but after I questioned her kindly she grew more communicative.

“I live on Eldrige Street with my parents. My father is a musician, but he will not go on the streets to play. He very seldom gets an engagement. My mother is sick nearly all the time. I have a sister who works at passementerie. She can earn from $3 to $5 a week. I have another sister who has been spooling silk in Twenty-third Street for five years now. She makes $6 a week. When she comes home at night her face and hands and hair are all colored from the silk she works on during the day. It makes her sick, and she is always taking medicine.”

“Have you worked before?”

“Oh, yes; I used to work at passementerie on Spring Street. I worked from 7 until 6 o’clock, piecework, and made about $3 50$3.50 [sic] a week. I left because the bosses were not kind, and we only had three little oil lamps to see to work by. The rooms were very dark, but they never allowed us to burn the gas. Ladies used to come here and take the work home to do. They did it cheap, for the pleasure of doing it, so we did not get as much pay as we would otherwise.”

“What did you do after you left there?” I asked.

“I went to work in a fringe factory on Canal Street. A woman had the place and she was very unkind to all the girls. She did not speak English. I worked an entire week, from 8 to 6, with only a half-hour for dinner, and at the end of the week she only paid me 35 cents. You know a girl cannot live on 35 cents a week, so I left.”

“How do you like the box factory?”

“Well, the bosses seem very kind. They always say good-morning to me, a thing never done in any other place I ever worked, but it is a good deal for a poor girl to give two weeks’ work for nothing. I have been here almost two weeks, and I have done a great deal of work.


text:
Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/117

Rh It’s all clear gain to the bosses. They say they often dismiss a girl after her first two weeks on the plea that she does not suit. After this I am to get $1.50 a week.”

When the whistles of the surrounding factories blew at 12 o’clock the forewoman told us we could quit work and eat our lunch. I was not quite so proud of my cleverness in simulating a working girl when one of them said:

“Do you want to send out for your lunch?”

“No; I brought it with me,” I replied.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, with a knowing inflection and amused smile.

“Is there anything wrong?” I asked, answering her smile.

“Oh, no,” quickly; “only the girls always make fun of any one who carries a basket now. No working-girl

will carry a lunch or basket. It is out of style because it marks the girl at once as a worker. I would like to carry


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/32

16 and the publication of seditious libels on the government and its officers. Two clauses were added to modify the effect of these provisions. Section three permitted the truth in action for libel to be set up as a defence, contrary to the previous practice, and section four limited the continuance of this act to the period of the current administration, that is, to March 3, 1801.

Even before these laws were enacted a feeling of alarm spread everywhere. In the extreme Federalist States, no doubt, a feeling of triumph and exultation prevailed, but even in their borders there was no lack of dismay among the minority. The opposition in Congress labored strenuously to prevent their passage, but in vain. Once passed, the country was thrown into a perfect ferment. The different portions of the country were affected according to the dominant political opinion. Where the Federalists were strong political feeling bore them headlong into prosecutions under the new powers. In the Republican States a sense of injury and danger went hand in hand, and the question of the hour was how to repel the threatening destruction.

Mr. Jefferson did not fail to see that the great opportunity for his party had come. His keen political sagacity detected in an instant the fatal mistake the administration had made, and he began at once to look about him for the best means to turn his opponents' mistake to his own advantage. Naturally he felt some delicacy in appearing too forward in assailing a government of


text:
Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/396

318

To this made answer Hagen: “By none have we been harm’d.

It is my masters’ custom to go thus fully arm’d

To every courtly meeting,— until three days have run;

To Etzel we will tell it if aught to us be done.”

This answer made by Hagen Kriemhilda heard right well.

How hatefully upon him her sidelong glances fell!

Yet would she not more frankly her country’s customs own,

Though they to her a long time in Burgundy were known.

Yet though her hate towards him so cruel was and fell,

If anyone to Etzel the truth had dared to tell,

He doubtless had prevented what came to pass ere long:

But none of them would tell it, her mastery was so strong.

Then with the queen advancing there came a mighty band;

But this same pair of warriors deign’d not to take their stand

Two hand-breadths further backward, which made the Hunfolk wroth.

Ay, they must press and jostle with those bold heroes both.

The chamberlains of Etzel were ill-content at this,

And would upon the warriors have somewhat wrought amiss,

If they had dared to do it the king’s High Grace before.

There was a mighty jostling, but so far nothing more.

When service now was ended and they would thence be gone,

All suddenly on horseback appear’d full many a Hun;

And many a beauteous lady was with Kriemhilda seen;

Full seven thousand warriors came riding with the queen.


text:
Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/39

Rh mountable, and I believe that the Aśvinā of India have the same origin as the Twin Horsemen of Greece. At any rate both the pairs are hero-gods, whose divinity has been created by mankind's need for help and admiration for valour. Whether there was any human history at the back of this process we cannot say.

Now we may leave the heroes and consider a god of a very different kind, Vishṇu.

The Ṛig-vēda has not very much to say about Vishṇu, and what it says is puzzling. The poets figure him as a beneficent young giant, of unknown parentage, with two characteristic attributes: the first of these is his three mystic strides, the second ins close association with Indra. Very often they refer to these three strides, sometimes using the verb vi-kram, "to step out," sometimes the adjectives uru-krama, "widely-stepping," and uru-gāya, "wide-going." The three steps carry Vishṇu across the three divisions of the universe, in the highest of which is his home, which apparently he shares with Indra (RV. I. xxxii. 20, cliv. 5-6, III. lv. 10; cf. AB. I. i., etc.). Some of them are beginning to imagine that these steps symbolise the passage of the sun through the three divisions of the world, the earth, sky, and upper heaven; certainly this idea will be held by many later scholars, though a few will maintain that it denotes the sun at its rising, at midday, and at its setting. Before long we shall

title: Page:Hindu Gods and Heroes.djvu/39


text:
Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/397

XXXI.]

Kriemhilda with her ladies within the window sat

long with royal Etzel: ell pleased was he thereat.

Fain would they see the jousting those doughty heroes show’d:

Ay! in the lists before them what warriors strange there rode!

And thither had the marshal, the right brave Dankwart, too,

Come with his squires attending: his lords’ own retinue

With him, too, he had taken from the Burgundian land.

The steeds for the bold Niblungs well saddled were at hand.

When they their steeds had mounted— the kings and every man—

Forthwith the stalwart Volker to counsel them began,

That all should tilt together after their country’s mode;

in course of which, thereafter, the chiefs right nobly rode.

For what the hero counsell’d they did not underrate.

The crowding and the shouting were both exceeding great.

Within the wide inclosure was gather’d many a man;

Then Etzel and Kriemhilda to gaze thereon began.

Six hundred knights together upon the field appear’d,

The warriors of Dietrich, coming the guests toward.

They thought with the Burgundians some knightly sport to try,

And would, had he allow’d it, have done it readily.

Ay me! what goodly warriors forthwith towards them made!

But when to the lord Dietrich the news thereof was said,

With Gunther’s men forbade he that any sport should be.

He fear’d for his retainers: and surely need had he.


text:
Page:Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.pdf/13

Introduction platform. The online edition of the Atlas similarly relies on this widely available and familiar platform to present all the data included in the print edition and much more.

Some of the maps have been updated from the previous edition; others are entirely new. Likewise, many of the contributors have been involved with the project since its inception, while others (especially those working on entirely new maps) have been specially commissioned for this edition. The format of the Atlas remains much the same, however: a text covering the general issues of language endangerment in each of the regions into which the maps are divided, followed by a set of maps on which languages are plotted using a colour-coded system showing the degree of endangerment. The markers are of uniform size: it would be impossible to clearly represent tiny speech communities within a vast area inhabited by majority languages. The online version shows, at the click of a mouse on the marker, the exact latitude and longitude coordinates of a language as well as a wealth of other information, and permits interactive contributions from the world’s linguists, census-takers and, most importantly, language communities.

Since the process of language attrition and extinction is a slow one, usually occurring over several generations, the Atlas has had to be somewhat arbitrary in its choice of which languages to exclude. Our aim is to raise the alarm for languages that are, as the title states, in danger. We take this mandate to mean all languages that are known to be in decline towards a foreseeable point of extinction – where the mechanisms are not in place to ensure their transmission to future generations – a decline that is predictable, but not of course inevitable.

The terminology of the degrees of endangerment has changed slightly since the first and second editions of this Atlas. Professor Wurm had established the practice of naming the five gradations as: vulnerable languages, where decreasing numbers of children are being taught the language; endangered languages, meaning that the youngest speakers are young adults; seriously endangered languages, where the youngest speakers have already passed middle age; critically endangered languages, which have only a few elderly speakers remaining; and extinct languages, marked in the previous editions with a black cross where they were last known to be spoken. Of course, the world is littered with extinct languages, and those included here are only those that have died recently, within the past couple of generations. In practice this means: since an awareness of their plight and imminent extinction was recorded. All trace of these languages has, in some cases, been wiped out for ever.

Following a two-year period of research by an ad hoc team of linguists commissioned by UNESCO, a document was published under the title Language Vitality and Endangerment (UNESCO, 2003). It established six degrees of endangerment that ‘may be distinguished with regard to intergenerational transmission’:

''Safe (5): The language is spoken by all generations. The intergenerational transmission of the language is uninterrupted. [Thus such languages are not indicated in this Atlas.]''

''Stable yet threatened (5-): The language is spoken in most contexts by all generations with unbroken intergenerational transmission, yet multilingualism in the native language and one or more dominant language(s) has usurped certain important communication contexts. Note that such multilingualism alone is not necessarily a threat to languages.''

Vulnerable (4): Most, but not all, children or families of a particular community speak their parental language as their


text:
Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/33

Rh which he himself was the second in office. Nevertheless he lent himself willingly to the task of organizing, in a quiet way, a systematic assault upon these laws of Congress, and at once opened a correspondence calculated to elicit the best judgment of his coadjutors and gradually drew out a programme of action.

Virginia was by no means unanimous in reprobating these laws. She had a large and influential body of Federalists, who were led by bold and able leaders, and, as is not infrequently the case with minorities largely constituted of the wealthy and cultivated, many of the Virginia Federalists were extreme in their convictions and partisanship. But the influence of Jefferson was paramount and the result of Jeffersonian principles soon appeared on every hand. Meetings were held in many of the counties upon their county court days at which were adopted addresses or series of resolutions condemning or praying for the repeal of these laws. Among these counties were Prince Edward, Goochland, Orange, Augusta, Amelia, Powhattan, Louisa, and Caroline. Except Kentucky it made the greatest show of resistance. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania sent petitions of appeal to Congress, and the latter, being especially aroused by the plain personal attack contained in these laws upon the popular Gallatin, was very active in doing what was possible to secure the repeal.

It is a matter of general regret that so few of Mr. Jefferson's letters written just at this crisis