Rate yourself on the nerd-o-matic scale. (1 point for each YES answer) 0-2 -- You are really hip, a real cool cat, a hoopy frood. 3-5 -- There is hope for you yet. 6-7 -- Uh-oh, trouble in River City. 8-10 -- Your immortal soul is in peril. 11+ -- Does suicide seem attractive?
As when within some rapid river's mouth The billows and stream clash, on either shore Loud sounds the roar of waves ejected wide, Such seem'd the clamors of the Trojan host. But the Achaians, one in heart, around Patroclus stood, bulwark'd with shields of brass And over all their glittering helmets Jove Darkness diffused, for he had loved Patroclus While yet he lived friend of Æacides, And now, abhorring that the dogs of Troy Should eat him, urged the Greeks to his defence, The host of Troy first shook the Grecian host; The body left, they fled; yet of them all, The Trojan powers, determined as they were, Slew none, but dragg'd the body. Neither stood The Greeks long time aloof, soon as repulsed Again led on by Ajax, who in form And in exploits all others far excell'd. Peerless Æacides alone except. Right through the foremost combatants he rush'd, In force resembling most some savage boar That in the mountains bursting through the brakes, The swains disperses and their hounds with ease; Like him, illustrious Ajax, mighty son Of Telamon, at his assault dispersed With ease the close imbattled ranks who fought Around Patroclus' body, strong in hope To achieve it, and to make the glory theirs. Hippothoüs, a youth of high renown, Son of Pelasgian Lethus, by a noose Around his ancle cast dragg'd through the fight Patroclus, so to gratify the host Of Ilium and their Chief; but evil him Reached suddenly, by none of all his friends (Though numerous wish'd to save him) turn'd aside. For swift advancing on him through the crowd The son of Telamon pierced, spear in hand, His helmet brazen-cheek'd; the crested casque, So smitten, open'd wide, for huge the hand And ponderous was the spear that gave the blow And all around its neck, mingled with blood Gush'd forth the brain. There, lifeless, down he sank, Let fall the hero's foot, and fell himself Prone on the dead, never to see again? Deep-soil'd Larissa, never to require Their kind solicitudes who gave him birth, In bloom of life by dauntless Ajax slain. Then Hector hurl'd at Ajax his bright spear, But he, forewarn'd of its approach, escaped Narrowly, and it pierced Schedius instead, Brave son of Iphitus; he, noblest Chief Of the Phocensians, over many reign'd, Dwelling in Panopeus the far-renown'd. Entering beneath the clavicle the point Right through his shoulder's summit pass'd behind, And on his loud-resounding arms he fell. But Ajax at his waist wounded the son Of Phoenops, valiant Phorcys, while he stood Guarding Hippothöus; through his hollow mail Enforced the weapon drank his inmost life, And in his palm, supine, he clench'd the dust. Then, Hector with the foremost Chiefs of Troy Fell back; the Argives sent a shout to heaven, And dragging Phorcys and Hippothöus thence Stripp'd both. In that bright moment Ilium's host Fear-quell'd before Achaia's warlike sons Had Troy re-enter'd, and the host of Greece By matchless might and fortitude their own Had snatch'd a victory from the grasp of fate, But that, himself, the King of radiant shafts Æneas roused; Epytis' son he seem'd Periphas, ancient in the service grown Of old Anchises whom he dearly loved; His form assumed, Apollo thus began.
So saying, the Telamonian Chief withdrew With whom went Teucer, son of the same sire, Pandion also, bearing Teucer's bow. Arriving at the turret given in charge To the bold Chief Menestheus, and the wall Entering, they found their friends all sharply tried. Black as a storm the senators renown'd And leaders of the Lycian host assail'd Buttress and tower, while opposite the Greeks Withstood them, and the battle-shout began. First, Ajax, son of Telamon, a friend And fellow-warrior of Sarpedon slew, Epicles. With a marble fragment huge That crown'd the battlement's interior side, He smote him. No man of our puny race, Although in prime of youth, had with both hands That weight sustain'd; but he the cumberous mass Uplifted high, and hurl'd it on his head. It burst his helmet, and his batter'd skull Dash'd from all form. He from the lofty tower Dropp'd downright, with a diver's plunge, and died. But Teucer wounded Glaucus with a shaft Son of Hippolochus; he, climbing, bared His arm, which Teucer, marking, from the wall Transfix'd it, and his onset fierce repress'd; For with a backward leap Glaucus withdrew Sudden and silent, cautious lest the Greeks Seeing him wounded should insult his pain. Grief seized, at sight of his retiring friend, Sarpedon, who forgat not yet the fight, But piercing with his lance Alcmaon, son Of Thestor, suddenly reversed the beam, Which following, Alcmaon to the earth Fell prone, with clangor of his brazen arms. Sarpedon, then, strenuous with both hands Tugg'd, and down fell the battlement entire; The wall, dismantled at the summit, stood A ruin, and wide chasm was open'd through. Then Ajax him and Teucer at one time Struck both; an arrow struck from Teucer's bow The belt that cross'd his bosom, by which hung His ample shield; yet lest his son should fall Among the ships, Jove turn'd the death aside. But Ajax, springing to his thrust, a spear Drove through his shield. Sarpedon at the shock With backward step short interval recoil'd, But not retired, for in his bosom lived The hope of glory still, and, looking back On all his godlike Lycians, he exclaim'd,
So they vociferating to the Greeks, Stirr'd them to battle. As the feathery snows Fall frequent, on some wintry day, when Jove Hath risen to shed them on the race of man, And show his arrowy stores; he lulls the winds, Then shakes them down continual, covering thick Mountain tops, promontories, flowery meads, And cultured valleys rich; the ports and shores Receive it also of the hoary deep, But there the waves bound it, while all beside Lies whelm'd beneath Jove's fast-descending shower, So thick, from side to side, by Trojans hurl'd Against the Greeks, and by the Greeks return'd The stony vollies flew; resounding loud Through all its length the battered rampart roar'd. Nor yet had Hector and his host prevail'd To burst the gates, and break the massy bar, Had not all-seeing Jove Sarpedon moved His son, against the Greeks, furious as falls The lion on some horned herd of beeves. At once his polish'd buckler he advanced With leafy brass o'erlaid; for with smooth brass The forger of that shield its oval disk Had plated, and with thickest hides throughout Had lined it, stitch'd with circling wires of gold. That shield he bore before him; firmly grasp'd He shook two spears, and with determined strides March'd forward. As the lion mountain-bred, After long fast, by impulse of his heart Undaunted urged, seeks resolute the flock Even in the shelter of their guarded home; He finds, perchance, the shepherds arm'd with spears, And all their dogs awake, yet can not leave Untried the fence, but either leaps it light, And entering tears the prey, or in the attempt Pierced by some dexterous peasant, bleeds himself; So high his courage to the assault impell'd Godlike Sarpedon, and him fired with hope To break the barrier; when to Glaucus thus, Son of Hippolochus, his speech he turn'd.
Alas! will no one come to the succor of the human soul in that darkness? Is it her destiny there to await forever the mind, the liberator, the immense rider of Pegasi and hippo-griffs, the combatant of heroes of the dawn who shall descend from the azure between two wings, the radiant knight of the future? Will she forever summon in vain to her assistance the lance of light of the ideal? Is she condemned to hear the fearful approach of Evil through the density of the gulf, and to catch glimpses, nearer and nearer at hand, beneath the hideous water of that dragon's head, that maw streaked with foam, and that writhing undulation of claws, swellings, and rings? Must it remain there, without a gleam of light, without hope, given over to that terrible approach, vaguely scented out by the monster, shuddering, dishevelled, wringing its arms, forever chained to the rock of night, a sombre Andromeda white and naked amid the shadows!
In the first subfamily, _Rhinolophinae_, the first toe has two, and the other toes three phalanges each; and the ilio-pectineal spine is not connected by bone with the antero-inferior surface of the ilium. In the horseshoe bats, _Rhinolophus_, the dentition is i. 1/2, c. 1/1, p. 2/3, m. 3/8, the nose-leaf has a central process behind and between the nasal orifices, with the posterior extremity lanceolate, and the antitragus large. Among the numerous forms _R. luctus_ is the largest, and inhabits elevated hill-tracts in India and Malaysia; _R. hipposiderus_ of Europe, extending into south England and Ireland, is one of the smallest; and _R. ferrum-equinum_ represents the average size of the species, which are mainly distinguished from one another by the form of the nose-leaf. The last-named species extends from England to Japan, and southward to the Cape of Good Hope, but is represented by a number of local races. When sleeping, the horseshoe bats, at least in some instances, suspend themselves head downwards, with the wings wrapped round the body after the manner of fruit bats. The posture of ordinary bats is quite different, and while the lesser horseshoe (_R. hipposiderus_) alights from the air in an inverted position, other bats, on first coming to rest, do so with the head upwards, and then reverse their position. Entry: CHIROPTERA
Probably the earliest value for the ratio was 3. It was so among the Jews (1 Kings vii. 23, 26), the Babylonians (Oppert, _Journ. asiatique_, August 1872, October 1874), the Chinese (Biot, _Journ. asiatique_, June 1841), and probably also the Greeks. Among the ancient Egyptians, as would appear from a calculation in the Rhind papyrus, the number (4/3)
The English East India Company was founded at the end of the 16th century in order to compete with the Dutch merchants, who had obtained a practical monopoly of the trade with the Spice Islands, and had raised the price of pepper from 3s. to 8s. per lb. Queen Elizabeth incorporated it by royal charter, dated December 31, 1600, under the title of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading into the East Indies." This charter conferred the sole right of trading with the East Indies, i.e. with all countries lying beyond the Cape of Good Hope or the Straits of Magellan, upon the company for a term of 15 years. Unauthorized interlopers were liable to forfeiture of ships and cargo. There were 125 shareholders in the original East India Company, with a capital of £72,000: the first governor was Sir Thomas Smythe. The early voyages of the company, from 1601 to 1612, are distinguished as the "separate voyages," because the subscribers individually bore the cost of each voyage and reaped the whole profits, which seldom fell below 100%. After 1612 the voyages were conducted on the joint stock system for the benefit of the company as a whole. These early voyages, whose own narratives may be read in Purchas, pushed as far as Japan, and established friendly relations at the court of the Great Mogul. In 1610-1611 Captain Hippon planted the first English factories on the mainland of India, at Masulipatam and at Pettapoli in the Bay of Bengal. The profitable nature of the company's trade had induced James I. to grant subsidiary licences to private traders; but in 1609 he renewed the company's charter "for ever," though with a proviso that it might be revoked on three years' notice if the trade should not prove profitable to the realm. Entry: EAST
A bright vision; but where was the power whose spell was first to unite discordant Greece, and, having united it, to direct its strength against Asia? That was the problem. The first attempt of Isocrates to solve it is set forth in his splendid _Panegyricus_ (380 B.C.). Let Athens and Sparta lay aside their jealousies. Let them assume, jointly, a leadership which might be difficult for either, but which would be assured to both. That eloquent pleading failed. The next hope was to find some one man equal to the task. Jason of Pherae, Dionysius I. of Syracuse, Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus--each in turn rose as a possible leader of Greece before the imagination of the old man who was still young in his enthusiastic hope, and one after another they failed him. But now a greater than any of these was appearing on the Hellenic horizon, and to this new luminary the eyes of Isocrates were turned with eager anticipation. Who could lead united Greece against Asia so fitly as the veritable representative of the Heracleidae, the royal descendant of the Argive line--a king of half-barbarians it is true, but by race, as in spirit, a pure Hellene--Philip of Macedon? We can still read the words in which this fond faith clothed itself; the ardent appeal of Isocrates to Philip is extant; and another letter shows that the belief of Isocrates in Philip lasted at any rate down to the eve of Chaeronea.[8] Whether it survived that event is a doubtful point. The popular account of the orator's death ascribed it to the mental shock which he received from the news of Philip's victory. He was at Athens, in the palaestra of Hippocrates, when the tidings came. He repeated three verses in which Euripides names three foreign Conquerors of Greece--Danaus, Pelops, Cadmus--and four days later he died of voluntary starvation. Milton (perhaps thinking of Eli) seems to conceive the death of Isocrates as instantaneous:-- Entry: A
LALO, EDOUARD (1823-1892), French composer, was born at Lille, on the 27th of January 1823. He began his musical studies at the conservatoire at Lille, and in Paris attended the violin classes of Habeneck. For several years Lalo led a modest and retired existence, playing the viola in the quartet party organized by Armingaud and Jacquard, and in composing chamber music. His early works include two trios, a quartet, and several pieces for violin and pianoforte. In 1867 he took part in an operatic competition, an opera from his pen, entitled _Fiesque_, obtaining the third place out of forty-three. This work was accepted for production at the Paris Opéra, but delays occurred, and nothing was done. _Fiesque_ was next offered to the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, and was about to be produced there when the manager became bankrupt. Thus, when nearly fifty years of age, Lalo found himself in difficulties. _Fiesque_ was never performed, but the composer published the pianoforte score, and eventually employed some of the music in other works. After the Franco-German war French composers found their opportunity in the concert-room. Lalo was one of these, and during the succeeding ten years several interesting works from his pen were produced, among them a sonata for violoncello, a "divertissement" for orchestra, a violin concerto and the _Symphonie Espagnole_ for violin and orchestra, one of his best-known compositions. In the meanwhile he had written a second opera, _Le Roi d'Ys_, which he hoped would be produced at the Opéra. The administration offered him the "scenario" of a ballet instead. Lalo was obliged to be content with this, and set to work with so much energy that he fell ill, the last scenes of the ballet being orchestrated by Gounod. _Namouna_, the ballet in question, was produced at the Opéra in 1882. Six years later, on the 7th of May 1888, _Le Roi d'Ys_ was brought out at the Opéra Comique, and Lalo was at last enabled to taste the sweets of success. Unfortunately, fame came to him too late in life. A pianoforte concerto and the music to _Néron_, a pantomimic piece played at the Hippodrome in 1891, were his last two works. He had begun a new opera, but had only written the first act when, on the 23rd of April 1892, he died. This opera, _La Jacquerie_, was finished by Arthur Coquard, and was produced in 1895 at Monte Carlo, Aix-les-Bains and finally in Paris. Lalo had distinct originality, discernible in his employment of curious rhythmic devices. His music is ever ingenious and brilliantly effective. Entry: LALO
1. CLEISTHENES, the Athenian statesman, was the son of Megacles and Agariste, daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. He thus belonged, through his father, to the noble family of the Alcmaeonidae (q.v.), who bore upon them the curse of the Cylonian massacre, and had been in exile during the rule of the Peisistratids. In the hope of washing out the stigma, which damaged their prestige, they spent the latter part of their exile in carrying out with great splendour the contract given out by the Amphictyons for the rebuilding of the temple at Delphi (destroyed by fire in 548 B.C.). By building the pronaos of Parian marble instead of limestone as specified in the contract, they acquired a high reputation for piety; the curse was consigned to oblivion, and their reinstatement was imposed by the oracle itself upon the Spartan king, Cleomenes (q.v.). Cleisthenes, to whom this far-seeing atonement must probably be attributed, had also on his side (1) the malcontents in Athens who were disgusted with the growing severity of Hippias, and (2) the oligarchs of Sparta, partly on religious grounds, and partly owing to their hatred of tyranny. Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_, however, treats the alliance of the Peisistratids with Argos, the rival of Sparta in the Peloponnese, as the chief ground for the action of Sparta (_c._ 19). In _c._ 513 B.C. Cleisthenes invaded Attica, but was defeated by the tyrant's mercenaries at Leipsydrium (S. of Mt. Parnes). Sparta then, in tardy obedience to the oracle, threw off her alliance with the Peisistratids, and, after one failure, expelled Hippias in 511-510 B.C., leaving Athens once again at the mercy of the powerful families. Entry: 1
GUDE (GUDIUS), MARQUARD (1635-1689), German archaeologist and classical scholar, was born at Rendsburg in Holstein on the 1st of February 1635. He was originally intended for the law, but from an early age showed a decided preference for classical studies. In 1658 he went to Holland in the hope of finding work as a teacher of classics, and in the following year, through the influence of J. F. Gronovius, he obtained the post of tutor and travelling companion to a wealthy young Dutchman, Samuel Schars. During his travels Gude seized the opportunity of copying inscriptions and MSS. At the earnest request of his pupil, who had become greatly attached to him, Gude refused more than one professional appointment, and it was not until 1671 that he accepted the post of librarian to Duke Christian Albert of Holstein-Gottorp. Schars, who had accompanied Gude, died in 1675, and left him the greater part of his property. In 1678 Gude, having quarrelled with the duke, retired into private life; but in 1682 he entered the service of Christian V. of Denmark as counsellor of the Schleswig-Holstein chancellery, and remained in it almost to the time of his death on the 26th of November 1689. Gude's great life-work, the collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions, was not published till 1731. Mention may also be made of his _editio princeps_ (1661) of the treatise of Hippolytus the Martyr on Antichrist, and of his notes on Phaedrus (with four new fables discovered by him) published in P. Burmann's edition (1698). Entry: GUDE
Though, however, Socrates was the first to arrive at a proper conception of the problems of conduct, the general idea did not originate with him. The natural reaction against the metaphysical and ethical dogmatism of the early thinkers had reached its climax in the Sophists (q.v.). Gorgias and Protagoras are only representatives of what was really a universal tendency to abandon dogmatic theory and take refuge in practical matters, and especially, as was natural in the Greek city-state, in the civic relations of the citizen. The education given by the Sophists aimed at no general theory of life, but professed to expound the art of getting on in the world and of managing public affairs. In their eulogy of the virtues of the citizen, they pointed out the prudential character of justice and the like as a means of obtaining pleasure and avoiding pain. The Greek conception of society was such that the life of the free-born citizen consisted mainly of his public function, and, therefore, the pseudo-ethical disquisitions of the Sophists satisfied the requirements of the age. None thought of [Greek: aretê] (virtue or excellence) as a unique quality possessed of an intrinsic value, but as the virtue of the citizen, just as good flute-playing was the virtue of the flute-player. We see here, as in other activities of the age, a determination to acquire technical knowledge, and to apply it directly to the practical issue; just as music was being enriched by new technical knowledge, architecture by modern theories of plans and T-squares (sc. Hippodamus), the handling of soldiers by the new technique of "tactics" and "hoplitics," so citizenship must be analysed afresh, systematized and adapted in relation to modern requirements. The Sophists had studied these matters superficially indeed but with thoroughness as far as they went, and it is not remarkable that they should have taken the methods which were successful in rhetoric, and applied them to the "science and art" of civic virtues. Plato's _Protagoras_ claims, not unjustly, that in teaching virtue they simply did systematically what every one else was doing at haphazard. But in the true sense of the word, they had no ethical system at all, nor did they contribute save by contrast to ethical speculation. They merely analysed conventional formulae, much in the manner of certain modern so-called "scientific" moralists. Into this arena of hazy popular common sense Socrates brought a new critical spirit, showing that these popular lecturers, in spite of their fertile eloquence, could not defend their fundamental assumptions, nor even give rational definitions of what they professed to explain. Not only were they thus "ignorant," but they were also perpetually inconsistent with themselves in dealing with particular instances. Thus, by the aid of his famous "dialectic," Socrates arrived first at the negative result that the professed teachers of the people were as ignorant as he himself claimed to be, and in a measure justified the eulogy of Aristotle that he rendered to philosophy the service of "introducing induction and definitions." This description of his work is, however, both too technical and too positive, if we may judge from those earlier dialogues of Plato in which the real Socrates is found least modified. The pre-eminent wisdom which the Delphic oracle attributed to him was held by himself to consist in a unique consciousness of ignorance. Yet it is equally clear from Plato that there was a most important positive element in the teaching of Socrates in virtue of which it is just to say with Alexander Bain, "the first important name in ancient ethical philosophy is Socrates." The union of the negative and the positive elements in his work has caused historians no little perplexity, and we cannot quite save the philosopher's consistency unless we regard some of the doctrines attributed to him by Xenophon as merely tentative and provisional. Still the positions of Socrates that are most important in the history of ethical thought not only are easy to harmonize with his conviction of ignorance, but even render it easier to understand his unwearied cross-examination of common opinion. While he showed clearly the difficulty of acquiring knowledge, he was convinced that knowledge alone could be the source of a coherent system of virtue, as error of evil. Socrates, therefore, first in the history of thought, propounds a positive scientific law of conduct. Virtue is knowledge. This principle involved the paradox that no man, knowing good, would do evil. But it was a paradox derived from his unanswerable truisms, "Every one wishes for his own good, and would get it if he could," and "No one would deny that justice and virtue generally are goods, and of all goods the best." All virtues are, therefore, summed up in knowledge of the good. But this good is not, for Socrates, duty as distinct from interest. The force of the paradox depends upon a blending of duty and interest in the single notion of good, a blending which was dominant in the common thought of the age. This it is which forms the kernel of the positive thought of Socrates according to Xenophon. He could give no satisfactory account of Good in the abstract, and evaded all questions on this point by saying that he knew "no good that was not good _for something in particular_," but that good is consistent with itself. For himself he prized above all things the wisdom that is virtue, and in the task of producing it he endured the hardest penury, maintaining that such life was richer in enjoyment than a life of luxury. This many-sidedness of view is illustrated by the curious blending of noble and merely utilitarian sentiment in his account of friendship: a friend who can be of no service is valueless; yet the highest service that a friend can render is moral improvement. Entry: A