Yes, every day adds a new thin layer of new thoughts, and these layers form the texture of our character. The materials come floating towards us, but the way in which they settle down depends much on the ebb and flow within us. We can do much to keep off foreign elements, and to attach and retain those which serve best in building up a strong rock. But from time to time a great sorrow breaks through all the strata of our soul--all is upheaved, shattered, distorted. In nature all that is grand dates from such convulsions--why should we wish for a new smooth surface, or let our sorrows be covered by the flat sediment of everyday life?
Man's true, genuine estimate, / The grand criterion of his fate, / Is not--Art thou high or low? / Did thy fortune ebb or flow?
Some men of a secluded and studious life have sent forth from their closet or their cloister, rays of intellectual light that have agitated courts and revolutionized kingdoms; like the moon which, though far removed from the ocean, and shining upon it with a serene and sober light, is the chief cause of all those ebbings and flowings which incessantly disturb that restless world of waters.--_Colton._
Love that can flow, and can admit increase, / Admits as well an ebb, and may grow less.
"Come along, our Matvevna!" he said to himself. "Matvevna" * was the name his fancy gave to the farthest gun of the battery, which was large and of an old pattern. The French swarming round their guns seemed to him like ants. In that world, the handsome drunkard Number One of the second gun's crew was "uncle"; Tushin looked at him more often than at anyone else and took delight in his every movement. The sound of musketry at the foot of the hill, now diminishing, now increasing, seemed like someone's breathing. He listened intently to the ebb and flow of these sounds.
How long did he remain thus? What was the ebb and flow of this tragic meditation? Did he straighten up? Did he remain bowed? Had he been bent to breaking? Could he still rise and regain his footing in his conscience upon something solid? He probably would not have been able to tell himself.
There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John. And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide-rolling watery prairies and Potters' Fields of all four continents, the waves should rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly; for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still; tossing like slumberers in their beds; the ever-rolling waves but made so by their restlessness.
The smallest effort is not lost, Each wavelet on the ocean tost Aids in the ebb-tide or the flow; Each rain-drop makes some floweret blow; Each struggle lessens human woe.
This tide of man's life after it once turneth and declineth ever runneth with a perpetual ebb and falling stream, but never floweth again.--_Sir W. Raleigh._
The first act of a new-born child is to draw a deep breath. In fact, it will never draw a deeper, inasmuch as the passages and chambers of the lungs, once distended with air, do not empty themselves again; it is only a fraction of their contents which passes in and out with the flow and the ebb of the respiratory tide. Mechanically, this act of drawing breath, or inspiration, is of the same nature as that by which the handles of a bellows are separated, in order to fill the bellows with air; and, in like manner, it involves that expenditure of energy which we call exertion, or work, or labour. It is, therefore, no mere metaphor to say that man is destined to a life of toil: the work of respiration which began with his first breath ends only with his last; nor does one born in the purple get off with a lighter task than the child who first sees light under a hedge.
My heart resembles the ocean; has storm, and ebb, and flow; / And many a beautiful pearl / Lies hid in its depths below.
During this interval, even Adele was seldom sent for to his presence, and all my acquaintance with him was confined to an occasional rencontre in the hall, on the stairs, or in the gallery, when he would sometimes pass me haughtily and coldly, just acknowledging my presence by a distant nod or a cool glance, and sometimes bow and smile with gentlemanlike affability. His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected with me.
We believe that he had simply studied in Holland for an inn-keeper. This rascal of composite order was, in all probability, some Fleming from Lille, in Flanders, a Frenchman in Paris, a Belgian at Brussels, being comfortably astride of both frontiers. As for his prowess at Waterloo, the reader is already acquainted with that. It will be perceived that he exaggerated it a trifle. Ebb and flow, wandering, adventure, was the leven of his existence; a tattered conscience entails a fragmentary life, and, apparently at the stormy epoch of June 18, 1815, Thenardier belonged to that variety of marauding sutlers of which we have spoken, beating about the country, selling to some, stealing from others, and travelling like a family man, with wife and children, in a rickety cart, in the rear of troops on the march, with an instinct for always attaching himself to the victorious army. This campaign ended, and having, as he said, "some quibus," he had come to Montfermeil and set up an inn there.
The crowd moved to and fro in the rooms like an ebb and flow of turquoises, rubies, emeralds, opals, and diamonds. As usual, the oldest women were the most decorated, and the ugliest the most conspicuous. If there was a beautiful lily, or a sweet rose, you had to search for it, concealed in some corner behind a mother with a turban, or an aunt with a bird of paradise.
_History._--The Teutonic peoples, who in the time of Tacitus occupied the region now known as Mecklenburg, were succeeded in the 6th century by some Slavonic tribes, one of these being the Obotrites, whose chief fortress was Michilenburg, the modern Mecklenburg, near Wismar; hence the name of the country. Though partly subdued by Charlemagne towards the close of the 8th century, they soon regained their independence, and until the 10th century no serious effort was made by their Christian neighbours to subject them. Then the German king, Henry the Fowler, reduced the Slavs of Mecklenburg to obedience and introduced Christianity among them. During the period of weakness through which the German kingdom passed under the later Ottos, however, they wrenched themselves free from this bondage; the 11th and the early part of the 12th century saw the ebb and flow of the tide of conquest, and then came the effective subjugation of Mecklenburg by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. The Obotrite prince Niklot was killed in battle in 1160 whilst resisting the Saxons, but his son Pribislaus (d. 1178) submitted to Henry the Lion, married his daughter to the son of the duke, embraced Christianity, and was permitted to retain his office. His descendants and successors, the present grand dukes of Mecklenburg, are the only ruling princes of Slavonic origin in Germany. Henry the Lion introduced German settlers and restored the bishoprics of Ratzeburg and Schwerin; in 1170 the emperor Frederick I. made Pribislaus a prince of the empire. From 1214 to 1227 Mecklenburg was under the supremacy of Denmark; then, in 1229, after it had been regained by the Germans, there took place the first of the many divisions of territory which with subsequent reunions constitute much of its complicated history. At this time the country was divided between four princes, grandsons of duke Henry Borwin, who had died two years previously. But in less than a century the families of two of these princes became extinct, and after dividing into three branches a third family suffered the same fate in 1436. There then remained only the line ruling in Mecklenburg proper, and the princes of this family, in addition to inheriting the lands of their dead kinsmen, made many additions to their territory, including the counties of Schwerin and of Strelitz. In 1352 the two princes of this family made a division of their lands, Stargard being separated from the rest of the country to form a principality for John (d. 1393), but on the extinction of his line in 1471 the whole of Mecklenburg was again united under a single ruler. One member of this family, Albert (c. 1338-1412), was king of Sweden from 1364 to 1389. In 1348 the emperor Charles IV. had raised Mecklenburg to the rank of a duchy, and in 1418 the university of Rostock was founded. Entry: MECKLENBURG
Part IV. (pp. 57-255) contains an elaborate treatise on mathematics, "the alphabet of philosophy," maintaining that all the sciences rest ultimately on mathematics, and progress only when their facts can be subsumed under mathematical principles. This fruitful thought he illustrates by showing how geometry is applied to the action of natural bodies, and demonstrating by geometrical figures certain laws of physical forces. He also shows how his method may be used to determine some curious and long-discussed problems, such as the light of the stars, the ebb and flow of the tide, the motion of the balance. He then proceeds to adduce elaborate and sometimes slightly grotesque reasons tending to prove that mathematical knowledge is essential in theology, and closes this section of his work with two comprehensive sketches of geography and astronomy. That on geography is particularly good, and is interesting as having been read by Columbus, who lighted on it in Petrus de Alliaco's _Imago Mundi_, and was strongly influenced by its reasoning. Entry: BACON
_History._--Cadiz represents the Sem. _Agadir_, _Gadir_, or _Gaddir_ ("stronghold") of the Carthaginians, the Gr. _Gadeira_, and the Lat. _Gades_. Tradition ascribes its foundation to Phoenician merchants from Tyre, as early as 1100 B.C.; and in the 7th century it had already become the great mart of the west for amber and tin from the Cassiterides (_q.v._). About 501 B.C. it was occupied by the Carthaginians, who made it their base for the conquest of southern Iberia, and in the 3rd century for the equipment of the armaments with which Hannibal undertook to destroy the power of Rome. But the loyalty of Gades, already weakened by trade rivalry with Carthage, gave way after the second Punic War. Its citizens welcomed the victorious Romans, and assisted them in turn to fit out an expedition against Carthage. Thenceforward, its rapidly-growing trade in dried fish and meat, and in all the produce of the fertile Baetis (Guadalquivir) valley, attracted many Greek settlers; while men of learning, such as Pytheas in the 4th century B.C., Polybius and Artemidorus of Ephesus in the 2nd, and Posidonius in the 1st, came to study the ebb and flow of its tides, unparalleled in the Mediterranean. C. Julius Caesar conferred the _civitas_ of Rome on all its citizens in 49 B.C.; and, not long after L. Cornelius Balbus Minor built what was called the "New City," constructed the harbour which is now known as Puerto Real, and spanned the strait of Santi Petri with the bridge which unites the Isla de Leon with the mainland, and is now known as the Puente de Zuazo, after Juan Sanchez de Zuazo, who restored it in the 15th century. Under Augustus, when it was the residence of no fewer than 500 _equites_, a total only surpassed in Rome and Padua, Gades was made a _municipium_ with the name of _Augusta Urbs Gaditana_, and its citizens ranked next to those of Rome. In the 1st century A.D. it was the birthplace or home of several famous authors, including Lucius Columella, poet and writer on husbandry; but it was more renowned for gaiety and luxury than for learning. Juvenal and Martial write of _Jocosae Gades_, "Cadiz the Joyous," as naturally as the modern Andalusian speaks of _Cadiz la Joyosa_; and throughout the Roman world its cookery and its dancing-girls were famous. In the 5th century, however, the overthrow of Roman dominion in Spain by the Visigoths involved Cadiz in destruction. A few fragments of masonry, submerged under the sea, are almost all that remains of the original city. Moorish rule over the port, which was renamed _Jezirat-Kadis_, lasted from 711 until 1262, when Cadiz was captured, rebuilt and repeopled by Alphonso X. of Castile. Its renewed prosperity dates from the discovery of America in 1492. As the headquarters of the Spanish treasure fleets, it soon recovered its position as the wealthiest port of western Europe, and consequently it was a favourite point of attack for the enemies of Spain. During the 16th century it repelled a series of raids by the Barbary corsairs; in 1587 all the shipping in its harbour was burned by the English squadron under Sir Francis Drake; in 1596 the fleet of the earl of Essex and Lord Charles Howard sacked the city, and destroyed forty merchant vessels and thirteen warships. This disaster necessitated the rebuilding of Cadiz on a new plan. Its recovered wealth tempted the duke of Buckingham to promote the fruitless expedition to Cadiz of 1626; thirty years later Admiral Blake blockaded the harbour in an endeavour to intercept the treasure fleet; and in 1702 another attack was made by the British under Sir George Rooke and the duke of Ormonde. During the 18th century the wealth of Cadiz became greater than ever; from 1720 to 1765, when it enjoyed a monopoly of the trade with Spanish America, the city annually imported gold and silver to the value of about £5,000,000. With the closing years of the century, however, it entered upon a period of misfortune. From February 1797 to April 1798 it was blockaded by the British fleet, after the battle of Cape St Vincent; and in 1800 it was bombarded by Nelson. In 1808 the citizens captured a French squadron which was imprisoned by the British fleet in the inner bay. From February 1810 until the duke of Wellington raised the siege in August 1812, Cadiz resisted the French forces sent to capture it; and during these two years it served as the capital of all Spain which could escape annexation by Napoleon. Here, too, the Cortes met and promulgated the famous Liberal constitution of March 1812. To secure a renewal of this constitution, the citizens revolted in 1820; the revolution spread throughout Spain; the king, Ferdinand VII., was imprisoned at Cadiz, which again became the seat of the Cortes; and foreign intervention alone checked the movement towards reform. A French army, under the duc d'Angoulême, seized Cadiz in 1823, secured the release of Ferdinand and suppressed Liberalism. In 1868 the city was the centre of the revolution which effected the dethronement of Queen Isabella. Entry: CADIZ
The superficial processes of geology, being much less striking than those of subterranean energy, naturally attracted less attention in antiquity. The operations of rivers, however, which so intimately affect a human population, were watched with more or less care. Herodotus, struck by the amount of alluvial silt brought down annually by the Nile and spread over the flat inundated land, inferred that "Egypt is the gift of the river." Aristotle, in discussing some of the features of rivers, displays considerable acquaintance with the various drainage-systems on the north side of the Mediterranean basin. He refers to the mountains as condensers of the atmospheric moisture, and shows that the largest rivers rise among the loftiest high grounds. He shows how sensibly the alluvial deposits carried down to the sea increase the breadth of the land, and cites some parts of the shores of the Black Sea, where, in sixty years, the rivers had brought down such a quantity of material that the vessels then in use required to be of much smaller draught than previously, the water shallowing so much that the marshy ground would, in course of time, become dry land. Strabo supplies further interesting information as to the work of rivers in making their alluvial plains and in pushing their deltas seaward. He remarks that these deltas are prevented from advancing farther outward by the ebb and flow of the tides. Entry: 1
The Federal and Confederate forces controlled at this time different parts of the state; there was some ebb and flow of military fortune in 1864, and for a short time two rival governments. Chaotic conditions followed the war. The fifteenth legislature (April 1864 to April 1865) ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and passed laws against "bush-whacking," a term used in the Civil War for guerilla warfare, especially as carried on by pretended neutrals. Local militia, protecting none who refused to join in the common defence, and all serving "not as soldiers but as farmers mutually pledged to protect each other from the depredations of outlaws who infest the state," strove to secure such public order as was necessary to the gathering of crops, so as "to prevent the starvation of the citizens" (governor's circular, 1865). Struggling in these difficulties, the government of the state was upset by the first Reconstruction Act. The governor in these years (1865-1868) was a Republican, the caster of the single Union vote in the convention of 1861; but the sixteenth legislature (1866-1867) was largely Democratic. It undertook to determine the rights of persons of African descent, and regrettable conflicts followed. The first Reconstruction Act having declared that "no legal state government or adequate protection for life or property" existed in the "rebel states," Arkansas was included in one of the military districts established by Congress. A registration of voters, predominantly whites, was at once carried through, and delegates were chosen for another constitutional convention, which met at Little Rock in January 1868. The secessionist element was voluntarily or perforce excluded. This convention ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and framed the third constitution of the state, which was adopted by a small majority at a popular election, marred by various irregularities, in March 1868. By its provisions negroes secured full political rights, and all whites who had been excluded from registration for the election of delegates to the convention were now practically stripped of political privileges. The organization of Arkansas being now acceptable to Congress, a bill admitting it to the Union was passed over President Johnson's veto, and on the 22nd of June 1868 the admission was consummated. Entry: ARKANSAS
The N. side of the island was largely built by deposits along the front of the continental glacier, and its peculiar surface is due to such deposits. At Astoria the dark gneiss bed rock is visible. The S. half of the island is mostly built of a light sandy or loamy soil and is low, except for the hills (140-195 ft.) of Montauk peninsula, which are a part of the "back-bone" of the island elsewhere running through the centre from E. to W. and reaching its highest point in its western extremity, Oakley's High Hill (384 ft.) and Hempstead Harbor Hill, W. of which are the flat and fertile Hempstead Plains. North of the back-bone or central ridge the country is hilly with glacial drift and many boulders along the coast and with soil stonier and more fertile than that of the "South Side." There is good clay at Whitestone and at Lloyd's Point on the north side. This north shore is comparatively well wooded; the middle of the island is covered with stunted oaks and scrubby pines; the south side is a floral mean between the other divisions. It is cut in its middle part by a few creeks and tidal rivers[1] flowing into the Great South Bay. Another "river," the Peconic, about 15 m. long, runs E. into Peconic Bay. On the north side there are few waterways save Nissequoge river, partly tidal, which runs N. into Smithtown Bay. Near the centre of the island is Lake Ronkonkoma, which is well below the level of the surrounding country, and whose deep cold waters with their unexplained ebb and flow are said to have been so feared by the Indians that they would not fish there. There are salt marshes (probably 100 sq. m. in all) on the shore of the Sound and of the Great South Bay. Entry: LONG
_Physical Geography._--The islands are of coral formation and low-lying. The rock on the surface is as hard as flint, but underneath it gradually softens and furnishes an admirable stone for building which can be sawn into blocks of any size, hardening on exposure to the atmosphere. The highest hill in the whole range of the islands (in Cat Island) is only 400 ft. high. It is a remarkable fact that, except in the island of Andros, no streams of running water are to be found in the whole group. The inhabitants derive their water supply from wells. As a result of the porosity of the rock, many of the wells feel the influence of the sea and exhibit an ebb and flow. There is an extensive swampy lagoon in Eleuthera, the water of which is fresh or nearly so; and brackish lagoons also occur, as in Watling Island. An artificial lake in New Providence, constructed for the use of the turtle-catchers, is noted as exhibiting an extraordinary degree of phosphorescence. A remarkable natural phenomenon is that of the so-called "banana holes," which frequently occur in the limestone. Their formation has been attributed to the effect of rotting vegetation on the rock, but without certainty. These holes are of various depths up to about 40 ft., and of curiously regular form. The Mermaid's Pool in New Providence, which is deeper still, is partly filled with water. Entry: BAHAMAS
Of course in this great mart a large variety of types is to be found and the members fall into some kind of rough grouping. Export buyers, attended by salesmen, are commonly more or less stationary and prominent; Burnley manufacturers abound in one locality and spinners of Egyptian yarns in another. The importance of the Exchange as a bargaining centre is fairly maintained, though buyers are assiduously cultivated in their own offices, and the telephone has done a good deal to abbreviate negotiation. As to the amount of business transacted on the Exchange there is no record. The market reporters make some attempt to materialize the current gossip, and doubtless catch well enough the great movements in the ebb and flow of demand, but the sum of countless obscure transactions cannot be estimated. Some few years ago an attempt was made to mark more clearly the course of business in Manchester, and a scheme was prepared for the recording of daily transactions. This could only have been a somewhat rough affair, but its originator maintained reasonably that it would be of interest if some indication of the daily movements could be obtained. For some time a memorandum of the total of daily sales reported was posted on 'Change, but the indifference of traders, together with the distrust that makes any innovation difficult, caused the scheme to be abandoned. Entry: 1903
The old town lies low, and it is traversed by a great number of narrow canals or "fleets" (_Fleeten_)--for the same word which has left its trace in London nomenclature is used in the Low German city--which add considerably to the picturesqueness of the meaner quarters, and serve as convenient channels for the transport of goods. They generally form what may be called the back streets, and they are bordered by warehouses, cellars and the lower class of dwelling-houses. As they are subject to the ebb and flow of the Elbe, at certain times they run almost dry. As soon as the telegram at Cuxhaven announces high tide three shots are fired from the harbour to warn the inhabitants of the "fleets"; and if the progress of the tide up the river gives indication of danger, another three shots follow. The "fleets" with their quaint medieval warehouses, which come sheer down to the water, and are navigated by barges, have gained for Hamburg the name of "Northern Venice." They are, however, though antique and interesting, somewhat dismal and unsavoury. In fine contrast to them is the bright appearance of the Binnen Alster, which is enclosed on three sides by handsome rows of buildings, the Alsterdamm in the east, the Alter Jungfernstieg in the south, and the Neuer Jungfernstieg in the west, while it is separated from the Aussen Alster by part of the rampart gardens traversed by the railway uniting Hamburg with Altona and crossing the lakes by a beautiful bridge--the Lombards-Brücke. Around the outer lake are grouped the suburbs Harvestehude and Pösseldorf on the western shore, and Uhlenhorst on the eastern, with park-like promenades and villas surrounded by well-kept gardens. Along the southern end of the Binnen Alster runs the Jungfernstieg with fine shops, hotels and restaurants facing the water. A fleet of shallow-draught screw steamers provides a favourite means of communication between the business centre of the city and the outlying colonies of villas. Entry: HAMBURG