Good day for overcoming obstacles. Try a steeplechase.
4. Without doubt princes become great when they overcome the difficulties and obstacles by which they are confronted, and therefore fortune, especially when she desires to make a new prince great, who has a greater necessity to earn renown than an hereditary one, causes enemies to arise and form designs against him, in order that he may have the opportunity of overcoming them, and by them to mount higher, as by a ladder which his enemies have raised. For this reason many consider that a wise prince, when he has the opportunity, ought with craft to foster some animosity against himself, so that, having crushed it, his renown may rise higher.
Apart, however, from the disinclination of one or both parties to allow of any outside intervention, we have to consider how far the nature of the questions in dispute may in any particular case put limits to the applicability of conciliation or arbitration as a method of settlement. Since conciliation is only a general term for the action of a third party in overcoming the obstacles to the conclusion of an agreement by the parties themselves, there is no class of questions which admit of settlement by direct negotiation which may not equally be settled by this method, provided of course that there is an adequate supply of sufficiently skilful mediators. As regards arbitration the case is somewhat different, seeing that in this case the parties agree to be bound by the award of a third party. For the success of arbitration, therefore, it is important that the general principles which should govern the settlement of the particular question at issue should be admitted by both sides. Thus in the manufactured iron trade in the north of England, it has throughout been understood that wages should depend on the prices realized, and the only question which an arbitrator has usually had to decide has been how far the state of prices at the time warranted a particular change of wage. On the other hand, there are many questions on which disputes arise (e.g. the employment of non-union labour, the restriction of piece-work, &c.) on which there is frequently no common agreement as to principles, and an arbitrator may be at a loss to know what considerations he is to take into account in determining his award. Generally speaking, employers are averse from submitting to a third party questions involving discipline and the management of their business, while in some trades workmen have shown themselves opposed to allowing an arbitrator to reduce wages beyond a certain point which they wish to regard as a guaranteed "minimum." Entry: ARBITRATION
FLORE AND BLANCHEFLEUR, a 13th-century romance. This tale, generally supposed to be of oriental origin, relates the passionate devotion of two children, and their success in overcoming all the obstacles put in the way of their love. The romance appears in differing versions in French, English, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Hungarian. The various forms of the tale receive a detailed notice in E. Hausknecht's version of the 13th-century Middle English poem of "Floris and Blauncheflur" (_Samml. eng. Denkmäler_, vol. v. Berlin, 1885). Nothing definite can be stated of the origin of the story, but France was in the 12th and 13th centuries the chief market of romance, and the French version of the tale, _Floire et Blanchefleur_, is the most widespread. Floire, the son of a Saracen king of Spain, is brought up in constant companionship with Blanchefleur, the daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth. Floire's parents, hoping to destroy this attachment, send the boy away at fifteen and sell Blanchefleur to foreign slave-merchants. When Floire returns a few days later he is told that his companion is dead, but when he threatens to kill himself, his parents tell him the truth. He traces her to the tower of the maidens destined for the harem of the emir of Babylon, into which he penetrates concealed in a basket of flowers. The lovers are discovered, but their constancy touches the hearts of their judges. They are married, and Floire returns to his kingdom, when he and all his people adopt Christianity. Of the two 12th-century French poems (ed. Édélestand du Méril, Paris, 1856), the one contains the love story with few additions, the other is a romance of chivalry, containing the usual battles, single combats, &c. Two lyrics based on episodes of the story are printed by Paulin Paris in his _Romancero français_ (Paris, 1883). The English poem renders the French version without amplifications, such as are found in other adaptations. Its author has less sentiment than his original, and less taste for detailed description. Among the other forms of the story must be noted the prose romance (c. 1340) of Boccaccio, _Il Filocolo_, and the 14th-century _Leggenda della reina Rosana e di Rosana sua figliuola_ (pr. Leghorn, 1871). The similarity between the story of Floire and Blanchefleur and _Chante-fable of Aucassin et Nicolete_[1] has been repeatedly pointed out, and they have even been credited with a common source. Entry: FLORE