Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.
Thanks to the Revolution, social conditions have changed. Feudal and monarchical maladies no longer run in our blood. There is no more of the Middle Ages in our constitution. We no longer live in the days when terrible swarms within made irruptions, when one heard beneath his feet the obscure course of a dull rumble, when indescribable elevations from mole-like tunnels appeared on the surface of civilization, where the soil cracked open, where the roofs of caverns yawned, and where one suddenly beheld monstrous heads emerging from the earth.
"Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?"
It seemed that this garden, created in olden days to conceal wanton mysteries, had been transformed and become fitted to shelter chaste mysteries. There were no longer either arbors, or bowling greens, or tunnels, or grottos; there was a magnificent, dishevelled obscurity falling like a veil over all. Paphos had been made over into Eden. It is impossible to say what element of repentance had rendered this retreat wholesome. This flower-girl now offered her blossom to the soul. This coquettish garden, formerly decidedly compromised, had returned to virginity and modesty. A justice assisted by a gardener, a goodman who thought that he was a continuation of Lamoignon, and another goodman who thought that he was a continuation of Lenotre, had turned it about, cut, ruffled, decked, moulded it to gallantry; nature had taken possession of it once more, had filled it with shade, and had arranged it for love.
Assuredly, we must conclude so, if we are to credit the accounts of such gentlemen as Pliny, and the ancient naturalists generally. For Pliny tells us of Whales that embraced acres of living bulk, and Aldrovandus of others which measured eight hundred feet in length--Rope Walks and Thames Tunnels of Whales! And even in the days of Banks and Solander, Cooke's naturalists, we find a Danish member of the Academy of Sciences setting down certain Iceland Whales (reydan-siskur, or Wrinkled Bellies) at one hundred and twenty yards; that is, three hundred and sixty feet. And Lacepede, the French naturalist, in his elaborate history of whales, in the very beginning of his work (page 3), sets down the Right Whale at one hundred metres, three hundred and twenty-eight feet. And this work was published so late as A.D. 1825.
Sacred to Vulcan's name, an isle there lay, Betwixt Sicilia's coasts and Lipare, Rais'd high on smoking rocks; and, deep below, In hollow caves the fires of Aetna glow. The Cyclops here their heavy hammers deal; Loud strokes, and hissings of tormented steel, Are heard around; the boiling waters roar, And smoky flames thro' fuming tunnels soar. Hether the Father of the Fire, by night, Thro' the brown air precipitates his flight. On their eternal anvils here he found The brethren beating, and the blows go round. A load of pointless thunder now there lies Before their hands, to ripen for the skies: These darts, for angry Jove, they daily cast; Consum'd on mortals with prodigious waste. Three rays of writhen rain, of fire three more, Of winged southern winds and cloudy store As many parts, the dreadful mixture frame; And fears are added, and avenging flame. Inferior ministers, for Mars, repair His broken axletrees and blunted war, And send him forth again with furbish'd arms, To wake the lazy war with trumpets' loud alarms. The rest refresh the scaly snakes that fold The shield of Pallas, and renew their gold. Full on the crest the Gorgon's head they place, With eyes that roll in death, and with distorted face.
The _Thirlmere Aqueduct_ is capable of conveying 50,000,000 gallons a day from Thirlmere, in the English lake district, to Manchester. The total length of 96 m. is made up of 14 m. of tunnels, 37 m. of cut-and-cover, and 45 m. of cast-iron pipes, five rows of the latter being required. The tunnels where lined, and the cut-and-cover, are formed of concrete, and are 7 ft. in height and width, the usual thickness of the concrete being 15 in. The inclination is 20 in. per mile. The floor is flat from side to side, and the side-walls are 5 ft. high to the springing of the arch, which has a rise of 2 ft. The water from the lake is received in a circular well 65 ft. deep and 40 ft. in diameter, at the bottom of which there is a ring of wire-gauze strainers. Wherever the concrete aqueduct is intersected by valleys, cast-iron pipes are laid; in the first instance only two of the five rows 40 in. in diameter were laid, the city not requiring its supply to be augmented by more than 20,000,000 gallons a day, but in 1907 it was decided to lay a third line. All the elaborate arrangements described above for stopping the water in case of a burst have been employed, and have perfectly fulfilled their duties in the few cases in which they have been called into action. The water is received in a service reservoir at Prestwich, near Manchester, from which it is supplied to the city. The supply from this source was begun in 1894. The total cost of the complete scheme may be taken at about £5,000,000, of which rather under £3,000,000 had been spent up to the date of the opening, at which time only one line of pipes had been laid. Entry: III
CALAH (so in the Bible; _Kalah_ in the Assyrian inscriptions), an ancient city situated in the angle formed by the Tigris and [v.04 p.0965] the upper Zab, 19 m. S. of Nineveh, and one of the capitals of Assyria. According to the inscriptions, it was built by Shalmaneser I. about 1300 B.C., as a residence city in place of the older Assur. After that it seems to have fallen into decay or been destroyed, but was restored by Assur-nasir-pal, about 880 B.C., and from that time to the overthrow of the Assyrian power it remained a residence city of the Assyrian kings. It shared the fate of Nineveh, was captured and destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians toward the close of the 7th century, and from that time has remained a ruin. The site was discovered by Sir A.H. Layard, in 1845, in the _tel_ of Nimrud. Hebrew tradition (in the J narrative, Genesis x. 11, 12) mentions Calah as built by Nimrod. Modern Arabic tradition likewise ascribes the ruins, like those of Birs Nimrud, near Babylon, to Nimrod, because they are the most prominent ruins of that region. Similarly the ancient dike in the river Tigris at this point is ascribed to Nimrod. The ruin mounds of Nimrud consist of an oblong enclosure, formed by the walls of the ancient city, of which fifty-eight towers have been traced on the N. and about fifty on the E. In the S.W. corner of this oblong is an elevated platform in the form of a rectangular parallelogram, some 600 yds. from N. to S. and 400 yds. from E. to W., raised on an average about 40 ft. above the plain, with a lofty cone 140 ft. high in the N.W. corner. This is the remains of the raised platform of unbaked brick, faced with baked bricks and stone, on which stood the principal palaces and temples of the city, the cone at the N.W. representing the _ziggurat_, or stage-tower, of the principal temple. Originally on the banks of the Tigris, this platform now stands some distance E. of the river. Here Layard conducted excavations from 1845 to 1847, and again from 1849 to 1851. The means at his disposal were inadequate, his excavations were incomplete and also unscientific in that his prime object was the discovery of inscriptions and museum objects; but he was wonderfully successful in achieving the results at which he aimed, and the numerous statues, monuments, inscribed stones, bronze objects and the like found by him in the ruins of Calah are among the most precious possessions of the British Museum. Excavations were also conducted by Hormuzd Rassan in 1852-1854, and again in 1878, and by George Smith in 1873. But while supplementing in some important respects Layard's excavations, this later work added relatively little to his discoveries whether of objects or of facts. The principal buildings discovered at Calah are:--(_a_) the North-West palace, south of the _ziggurat_, one of the most complete and perfect Assyrian buildings known, about 350 ft. square, consisting of a central court, 129 ft. by 90 ft., surrounded by a number of halls and chambers. This palace was originally constructed by Assur-nasir-pal I. (885-860 B.C.), and restored and reoccupied by Sargon (722-705 B.C.). In it were found the winged lions, now in the British Museum, the fine series of sculptured bas-reliefs glorifying the deeds of Assur-nasir-pal in war and peace, and the large collection of bronze vessels and implements, numbering over 200 pieces; (_b_) the Central palace, in the interior of the mound, toward its southern end, erected by Shalmaneser II. (860-825 B.C.) and rebuilt by Tiglath-pileser III. (745-727 B.C.). Here were found the famous black obelisk of Shalmaneser, now in the British Museum, in the inscription on which the tribute of Jehu, son of Omri, is mentioned, the great winged bulls, and also a fine series of slabs representing the battles and sieges of Tiglath-pileser; (_c_) the South-West palace, in the S.W. corner of the platform, an uncompleted building of Esarhaddon (681-668 B.C.), who robbed the North-West and Central palaces, effacing the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser, to obtain material for his construction; (_d_) the smaller West palace, between the South-West and the North-West palaces, a construction of Hadad-nirari or Adadnirari III. (812-783 B.C.); (_e_) the South-East palace, built by Assur-etil-ilani, after 626 B.C., for his harem, in the S.E. corner of the platform, above the remains of an older similar palace of Shalmaneser; (_f_) two small temples of Assur-nasir-pal, in connexion with the _ziggurat_ in the N.W. corner; and (_g_) a temple called E-Zida, and dedicated to Nebo, near the South-East palace. From the number of colossal figures of Nebo discovered here it would appear that the cult of Nebo was a favourite one, at least during the later period. The other buildings on the E. side of the platform had been ruined by the post-Assyrian use of the mound for a cemetery, and for tunnels for the storage and concealment of grain. While the ruins of Calah were remarkably rich in monumental material, enamelled bricks, bronze and ivory objects and the like, they yielded few of the inscribed clay tablets found in such great numbers at Nineveh and various Babylonian sites. Not a few of the astrological and omen tablets in the Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum, however, although found at Nineveh, were executed, according to their own testimony, at Calah for the _rab-dup-[vs]arr[=e]_ or principal librarian during the reigns of Sargon and Sennacherib (716-684 B.C.). From this it would appear that there was at that time at Calah a library or a collection of archives which was later removed to Nineveh. In the prestige of antiquity and religious renown, Calah was inferior to the older capital, Assur, while in population and general importance it was much inferior to the neighbouring Nineveh. There is no proper ground for regarding it, as some Biblical scholars of a former generation did, through a false interpretation of the book of Jonah, as a part or suburb of Nineveh. Entry: CALAH
_Water Supply._--The original supply of water was from wells in the sandstone rock, but in 1847 an act was passed, under which extensive works were constructed at Rivington, about 25 m. distant, and a much larger supply was obtained. The vast increase of population led to further requirements, and in 1880 another act gave power to impound the waters of the Vyrnwy, one of the affluents of the Severn. These works were completed in 1892, a temporary supply having been obtained a year earlier. The corporation had also, however, obtained power to impound the waters of the Conwy and Marchnant rivers, and to bring them into Lake Vyrnwy, the main reservoir, by means of tunnels. This work was completed and opened by the prince of Wales (George V.) in March 1910. Entry: LIVERPOOL
The scene of native mining was now transferred from the open pit to underground tunnels; the vast network of wire ropes (Plate II. fig. 12) with their ascending and descending buckets disappeared, and with it the cosmopolitan crowd of busy miners working like ants at the bottom of the pit. In place of all this, the visitor to Kimberley encounters at the edge of the town only a huge crater, silent and apparently deserted, with no visible sign of the great mining operations which are conducted nearly half a mile below the surface. The aspect of the Kimberley pit in 1906 is shown in fig. 13 of Plate II., which may be compared with the section of fig. 8. Entry: PLATE
In a very few years, however, the open pit mining was rendered impossible by the mud rushes, by the falls of the masses of barren rock known as "reef," which were left standing in the mine, and by landslips from the sides, so that in 1883, when the pit had reached a depth of about 400 ft., mining in the Kimberley crater had become almost impossible. By 1889, in the whole group of mines, Kimberley, Dutoitspan, De Beers and Bultfontein, open pit working was practically abandoned. Meanwhile mining below the bottom of the pits by means of shafts and underground tunnels had been commenced; but the full development of modern methods dates from the year 1889 when Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit, who had already secured control of the De Beers mine, acquired also the control of the Kimberley mine, and shortly afterwards consolidated the entire group in the hands of the De Beers Company. (See KIMBERLEY.) Entry: PLATE
DECOY, a contrivance for the capture or enticing of duck and other wild fowl within range of a gun, hence any trap or enticement into a place or situation of danger. Decoys are usually made on the following plan: long tunnels leading from the sea, channel or estuary into a pool or pond are covered with an arched net, which gradually narrows in width; the ducks are enticed into this by a tame trained bird, also known as a "decoy" or "decoy-duck." In America the "decoy" is an artificial bird, placed in the water as if it were feeding, which attracts the wild fowl within range of the concealed sportsman. The word "decoy" has, etymologically, a complicated history. It appears in English first in the 17th century in these senses as "coy" and "coy-duck," from the Dutch _kooi_, a word which is ultimately connected with Latin _cavea_, hollow place, "cage."[1] The _de_-, with which the word begins, is either a corruption of "duck-coy," the Dutch article _de_, or a corruption of the Dutch _eende-kooi_, _eende_, duck. The _New English Dictionary_ points out that the word "decoy" is found in the particular sense of a sharper or swindler as a slang term slightly earlier than "coy" or "decoy" in the ordinary sense, and, as the name of a game of cards, as early as 1550, apparently with no connexion in meaning. It is suggested that "coy" may have been adapted to this word. Entry: DECOY
The principal approach to the convent is from St Laurent du Pont, a village situated on the Guiers Mort, and largely built by the monks--it is connected by steam tramways with Voiron (for Grenoble) and St Béron (for Chambéry). Among the other routes may be mentioned those from Grenoble by Le Sappey, or by the Col de la Charmette, or from Chambéry by the Col de Couz and the village of Les Échelles. St Laurent is about 5½ m. from the convent. The road mounts along the Guiers Mort and soon reaches the hamlet of Fourvoirie, so called from _forata via_, as about 1510 the road was first pierced hence towards the convent. Here are iron forges, and here was formerly the chief centre of the manufacture of the famed Chartreuse liqueur. Beyond, the road enters the "Désert" and passes through most delightful scenery. Some way farther the Guiers Mort is crossed by the modern bridge of St Bruno, the older bridge of Parant being still visible higher up the stream. Here begins the splendid carriage road, constructed by M.E. Viaud between 1854 and 1856. It soon passes beneath the bold pinnacle of the Oeillette or Aiguillette, beyond which formerly women were not allowed to penetrate. After passing through four tunnels the road bends north (leaving the Guiers Mort which flows past St Pierre de Chartreuse), and the valley soon opens to form the upland hollow in which are the buildings of the convent. These are not very striking, the high roofs of dark slate, the cross-surmounted turrets and the lofty clock-tower being the chief features. But the situation is one of ideal peace and repose. Women were formerly lodged in the old infirmary, close to the main gate, which is now a hôtel. Within the conventual buildings are four halls formerly used for the reception of the priors of the various branch houses in France, Italy, Burgundy and Germany. The very plain and unadorned chapel dates from the 15th century, but the cloisters, around which cluster the thirty-six small houses for the fully professed monks, are of later date. The library contained before the Revolution a very fine collection of books and MSS., now mostly in the town library at Grenoble. Entry: CHARTREUSE
1. _Figure and Size._--To primitive man the Earth was a flat disk with its surface diversified by mountains, rivers and seas. In many cosmogonies this disk was encircled by waters, unmeasurable by man and extending to a junction with the sky; and the disk stood as an island rising up through the waters from the floor of the universe, or was borne as an immovable ship on the surface. Of such a nature was the cosmogony of the Babylonians and Hebrews; Homer states the same idea, naming the encircling waters [Greek: Ôkeanos]; and Hesiod regarded it as a disk midway between the sky and the infernal regions. The theory that the Earth extended downwards to the limit of the universe was subjected to modification when it was seen that the same sun and stars reappeared in the east after their setting in the west. But man slowly realized that the earth was isolated in space, floating freely as a balloon, and much speculation was associated about that which supported the Earth. Tunnels in the foundations to permit the passage of the sun and stars were suggested; the Greeks considered twelve columns to support the heavens, and in their mythology the god Atlas appears condemned to support the columns; while the Egyptians had the Earth supported by four elephants, which themselves stood on a tortoise swimming on a sea. Earthquakes were regarded as due to a movement of these foundations; in Japan this was considered to be due to the motion of a great spider, an animal subsequently replaced by a cat-fish; in Mongolia it is a hog; in India, a mole; in some parts of South America, a whale; and among some of the North American Indians, a giant tortoise. Entry: 1
The earliest attempts in Europe to solve the problems of water-supply were made by the Greeks, who perhaps derived their ideas from the Phoenicians. It has generally been held, partly on the strength of a passage in Strabo (v. 3. 8, p. 235), and partly owing to the comparative unimportance of the remains discovered, that the Greek works were altogether inferior to the Roman. Research in the Greek towns of Asia Minor, together with a juster appreciation of the remains as a whole, must be held to modify this view. Among the earliest examples of Greek work are the tunnels or _emissaria_ which drained Lake Copais in Boeotia; these, though not strictly aqueducts, were undoubtedly the precursors of such works, consisting as they did of subterranean tunnels ([Greek: hyponomoi]) with vertical shafts ([Greek: phreatiai]), sixteen of which are still recognizable, the deepest being about 150 ft. They may be compared with that described by Polybius as conveying water from Taurus to Hecatompylos, and with numerous other remains in Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia and Palmyra. Popular legend ascribed them to Cadmus, just as Argos referred the irrigation of its lands to Danaüs. They are undoubtedly of great antiquity. Entry: I
The irregular relief of its site and its long confinement within the limits of fortifications, which it had outgrown, have both contributed to render Genoa a picturesque confusion of narrow streets, lanes and alleys, varied with stairways climbing the steeper slopes and bridges spanning the deeper valleys. Large portions of the town are inaccessible to ordinary carriages, and many of the important streets have very little room for traffic. In modern times, however, a number of fine streets and squares with beautiful gardens have been laid out. The Piazza Ferrari, a large irregular space, is the chief focus of traffic and the centre of the Genoese tramway system; it is embellished with a fine equestrian statue of Garibaldi, unveiled in 1893, which stands in front of the Teatro Carlo Felice. Leading from this piazza is the Via Venti Settembre, a broad, handsome street laid out since 1887, leading south-east to the Ponte Pila, the central bridge over the Bisagno. The street is itself spanned by an elegant bridge carrying the Corso Andrea Podesta, a modern avenue on the heights above. Adjoining the church of the Madonna della Consolazione is the new market, a building of no little beauty. The Via Roma, another important centre of traffic which gives on to the Via Carlo Felice near the Piazza Ferrari, leads to the Piazza Corvetto, in the centre of which stands the colossal equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II. To the left is the Villetta Dinegro, a beautiful park belonging to the city, decorated with cascades and a number of statues and busts of prominent statesmen and citizens. To the right is another park, the Acquasola, laid out in 1837 on the site of the old ramparts. In the west of the city, in front of the principal station, is the Piazza Acquaverde. On the north side, embowered in palm trees, is a great statue of Columbus, at whose feet kneels the figure of America. Opposite is the Palazzo Faraggiana, with scenes from the life of Columbus in relief on its marble pediment. Among other modern thoroughfares, the Via di Circonvallazione a Monte, laid out since 1876 on the hills at the back of the town, leads by many curves from the Piazza Manin along the hill-tops westward, and finally descends into the Piazza Acquaverde; its entire length is traversed by an electric tramway, and it commands magnificent views of the town. A similar road, the Via di Circonvallazione a Mare, was laid out in 1893-1895 on the site of the outer ramparts, and skirts the sea-front from the Piazza Cavour to the mouth of the Bisagno, thence ascending the right bank to the Ponte Pila. Genoa is remarkably well served with electric tramways, which are found in all the wider streets, and run, often through tunnels, into the suburbs and to the surrounding country on the east as far as Nervi and to Pegli oh the west. Three funicular railways from different points of the city give access to the highest parts of the hills behind the town. Entry: A
In many ways man alters the aspect of a country: (1) By changing forest into bare mountain, or clothing bare mountains with forest. (2) By promoting the growth or causing the removal of peat-mosses. (3) By heedlessly uncovering sand-dunes, and thereby setting in motion a process of destruction which may convert hundreds of acres of fertile land into waste sand, or by prudently planting the dunes with sand-loving vegetation and thus arresting their landward progress. (4) By so guiding the course of rivers as to make them aid him in reclaiming waste land, and bringing it under cultivation. (5) By piers and bulwarks, whereby the ravages of the sea are stayed, or by the thoughtless removal from the beach of stones which the waves had themselves thrown up, and which would have served for a time to protect the land. (6) By forming new deposits either designedly or incidentally. The roads, bridges, canals, railways, tunnels, villages and towns with which man has covered the surface of the land will in many cases form a permanent record of his presence. Under his hand the whole surface of civilized countries is very slowly covered with a stratum, either formed wholly by him or due in great measure to his operations and containing many relics of his presence. The soil of ancient towns has been increased to a depth of many feet by their successive destructions and renovations. Entry: C