 animals at play by royal Dixon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Belona Times animals at play by royal Dixon from the human side of animals about them frisking played all beasts of the earth since wild and of all chase and wood or wilderness forest or den sporting the lion romped and in his paw dandled the kid bears tigers ounces pards gambled before them the unwieldy elephant to make them mirth use all his might and read his light per Boscus paradise lost that one touch of nature makes the whole world Ken is shown in no clearer way than by the games and play of animals recreation is as common among them as it is among our own children and they seem always to be artistic and even skilled in their play young goats and lambs skip jump run races throw flips in the air and gamble calves have interesting frolics young colts and mules have biting and kicking games bears wrestle and tumble puppies delight in biting and tussling while kittens chase everything from spools of thread to their own tails but animal children grow up and stop playing to a certain extent as age advances precisely as human children do each settles down into a more practical condition of life they dislike to have their games and play disturbed and if the mother dog growls because her playful son has continuously tumbled over her while she was sleeping or the cat mother slaps her kitten because he plays with her tail it is a display of the same kind of emotion that prompts a human mother to revoke her child in the nursery for making too much noise or for throwing toys out of the window animals like ourselves feel every sensation of joy happiness surprise disappointment love hope ambition and through their youthful games an entire index of their future lives may be obtained the play has much to do with the physical and mental development of the animals and it is strange indeed that so few writers have considered the subject of play in the animal world most of those who have noticed the subject at all drop it with a few remarks to the effect that it is highly amusing or very funny or unbelievable or so like the play of children without even a word of explanation of the wise and wherefores of it all animals have some kinds of play Plutarch speaks of a trained elephant that often practiced her steps when she thought no one was looking no one who has ever visited a zoological park and seen the crowded monkey and baboon cages can have failed to note the wonderful play of these animals seals seem never to tire of chasing one another through the water while even the clumsy hippopotamuses have diving games kittens begin to tumble and play before they are two weeks old they will roll and toss a ball hunting it from the dark corners lanes silent wait for each other and suddenly spring upon an unsuspecting fellow cat babies back just as they will do later in life when seeking their prey I have seen them play with catnip mouse for hours at a time just as the mother cat plays with a real mouse Brem says that this is noticed in their earliest kitten hood and that the mother cat encourages it in all ways possible even to becoming a child with her children from love of them as a human mother does in the nursery with her child the mother cat begins the play by slowly moving her tail Gessner considered her tail as the indicator of her moods the kittens while they may not understand what this means are greatly excited by the movement their eyes sparkle their ears stand erect and slowly one after another clutches after the moving tail suddenly one springs over the mother's back another grabs at her feet while a third playfully slips her in the face with his tiny soft cushion paw she patiently and mother like lovingly submits to all this treatment as it is only play many scientists have claimed that the so-called instinct should not be classed as real play however such an authority as Darwin thought it was play and Shitlin said that the cat let the mouse loose many times in order that she might have the experience of catching it each time no mercy is shown the helpless mouse which is the same to her as the toy ball in the same way a real beetle and a toy beetle are the same to a small child evidently the cat does not play with a mouse for the delight in torturing it but purely for practice that she may become skilled in the art of catching it the cat also exercises in springing movements and by studying the mouse's probable movements learns to acquire a knowledge and skill in mouse ways otherwise impossible the same cruel practice is found among leopards panthers and wild cats brem verifies the observation that many members of the cat family practice torturing their victims in a horrible manner pretending to liberate them until the poor creatures at last die from their wounds linds tells of a Martin that would play with its prey for hours when not hungry especially was this true when Marmot's chance to be his victims and around these he would leap and spring dealing them terrific blows first with one paw and then with the other when hungry however he proceeded differently devouring them at once from teeth to tail all the cat family it seems are fond of human companionship and take almost as much delight in playing with human beings as with their own kind this is especially true of the puma brem tells of a tame one that delighted in hiding at the approach of his master and springing out unexpectedly just as the lion does Hudson claim that the puma with the exception of the monkey was possibly the most playful of all animals travelers tell many interesting tales of the play of these animals especially on the Pampas of South America gross relates the experience of an Englishman who was compelled to spend the night outdoors on the Pampas of the La Plata at about nine o'clock on a bright moonlight night he saw four Pumas coming toward him two adult animals and two young ones he well knew that these animals would not attack him so he quietly waited in a short time they approached him chasing one another and playing hide and seek like little kittens and finally leaping directly over the man's several times the mother cat would run ahead calling to the little ones to follow her but she never disturbed him at times an animal at play with another uses the same tactics and methods employed on its prey of course the value of such a practice for the tasks of later life is evident dogs play hide and seek tag and various chasing games for hours without resting among the Negroes of the south it is not uncommon to see a hound playing hide and seek with the little picatinny's I've seen a hound peeping in and out among a pile of brush to discover where the little ones were hiding and at the first sight of a little black face he would lay low in anticipation of a playful spring or a sudden dash away with the expectation of being chased by his friends at times he would suddenly disappear toward his home and slightly slip around and approach the playground from an opposite direction everyone who is on fox terriers knows how they will crouch and the open grass and remain motionless with quivering expectation for the other play fellow to arrive and when the one in ambush sees the other coming he springs toward him as though he were going to destroy him and when the two come together they attempt to seize each other by the next as they would do in a real conflict a wrestle and tussle ensues and when utterly exhausted from this play the tired dogs like two fatigued children run to their homes dogs are fond of playing ball and will readily bring a ball or stick to their master when he has thrown it they will also go into the water to bring out sticks that may have been tossed in for amusement Eugene Zimmerman had a young fox terrier that would set a ball in motion when there was no one to pitch it for him by seizing it in his mouth and tossing it up in the air monkeys and jaguars will also play ball and tame bears take great delight in wrestling playing ball and fighting mock battles Beckmann wonderfully describes the play of a badger whose only playmate was an exceptionally clever dog who from his earliest youth have been taught to live with different kinds of animals together they went through a series of gymnastic exercises on pleasant afternoons and their four footed friends came from far and near to witness the performance the essentials of the game were that the badger roaring and shaking his head like a wild boar should charge upon the dog as it stood about 15 paces off and strike him in the side with its head the dog leaping dexterously entirely over the badger awaited a second and third attack and then made his antagonist chase him all around the garden if the badger managed to snap the dog's hind quarters and angry tussle ensued but never resulted in a real fight if Casper the badger lost his temper he drew off without turning round and got up snorting and shaking and with bristling hair and strutted about like an inflated turkey cock after a few moments his hair would smooth down and with some head shaking and good-natured grunts the mad play would begin again young animals are strikingly like children and they're craving for amusement a young bear will lie on his back and play with his feet and toes by the hour while a young pup can have a great game with only a dry bone or by chasing his shadow on the wall rabbits come out in evenings on the sand hills to play hide and seek with their young and squirrels never worry of this universally popular game I know of a young fox that used to come from a nearby woods every evening to play with the young fox terrier they became great friends and were often seen in the woods together a friend who owns a ranch in Texas once raised two young wolves that romped and played with the neighbor's dogs just as if they were dogs themselves there are other animals like the weasels that will also play with strange friends but they prefer their own kind as playmates they take the greatest delight in playing with their parents and nothing is more beautiful or strange than to see several of them playing in a valley on a sunny day out pops one little head with twinkling eyes glancing from side to side and then as if from nowhere the little brothers and sisters began to appear chasing each other as though they were playing tag these exercises give them much agility which they will need in later life I once owned a tame raccoon and often kept him chained in the backyard when he could not find a young chicken or duck to torment he devised all kinds of schemes to relieve the monotonous hours he would pile up a number of small stones and carefully await his chance to fling one into a group of young chickens he seemed to understand that he was more apt to make a hit when he threw into a crowd than when aiming at a single chick at other times he would lie on his back madly waving his tail as though he were signaling for someone to come near if we chance to pass by without speaking he would growl or whine in some way to attract attention after hours of self amusement he would lie down as if his life were useless and wait until something or somebody came along to amuse him his greatest delight was in fishing things out of a pan of water and he would wash every pebble or play thing that he owned and carefully lay it out to dry one day he pounced upon a rooster who insulted him by drinking from his water vessel and plucked a long feather from his tail so quickly that we could hardly realize what had taken place he then had great fun in attempting to stick the feather in his head or by planting it upright in the ground another day in winter he broke his chain and made straight for the kitchen where he found a snug warm place in old Aunt Moriah's kitchen oven the old negrus came to cook dinner and when the raccoon suddenly sprang out of her oven she vowed I was never going to cook in this yet kitchen again this blazes hoodooed for life once we gave him a pail of hot milk and it was evidently hotter than we realize he started to drink it and suddenly stopped and an anger grabbed at a very young puppy that was following us and before we could stop him dip the puppy's head into the hot milk fortunately however the milk was not hot enough to enter the puppy but the raccoon had taken his revenge out on the little animal and was evidently satisfied it is interesting to note that all animals seem to play games and to take exercises that will be especially helpful to them in later life badgers for example delight in turning somersaults deer like to jump and leap foxes and raccoons practice stealing upon one unnotice tapers and crocodiles play in the water as night approaches mountain goats sheep horses and mules run leap jump and play follow leader animals that live in the high mountains practice all kinds of high jumps which would be unnecessary if they lived on level ground but are highly essential in mountainous countries brem claims that in summer the chamois climb up to the everlasting snow and take much delight in playing in it they will drop into a crouching position on the top of a very steep mountain work their four legs with a swimming motion and slide down on the surface of the snow for 150 meters as they slide down the snow flies over them like a fine powder as soon as they reach the bottom they jump to their feet and slowly climb up the mountain side again while many of their comrades silently stand by and watch their coasting approvingly first one and then another joining in the sport like human coasters would do it is not uncommon for a number of them to tumble together at the bottom like romping children this coasting is very remarkable and through skill in it no doubt the lives of many chamois are saved from frightful accidents later in life alex tells us that dogs of mountainous countries are also often skilled in the art of coasting our tame fawn used to delight in playing with our old rabbit dog nimrod they were the best of friends and the fawn would begin the chase by approaching nimrod as though he were going to stamp him into the earth and then suddenly leaping quickly and safely over the dog he would run away at this signal for a game if nimrod was in the mood he chased the fawn who would delight in jumping over fences and hedges and waiting for poor nimrod to get over or under just in time to see his playmate leap to the other side wolves have taken when quite young have a most unique way of showing their affection at the appearance of their master they will spring into the air tumbling over with winning cries of delight falling to the ground they'd pretend to bite and snap at everything until their friend finally comes very near them prairie dogs are fond of all kinds of races and jumping games they will each appear at the entrance to their underground homes and will play a simple form of prisoner's base for long periods of time with defiant calls at each other one finally approaches the home of the other which is a signal for the third to attempt to slip into the entrance to the second one's home before he can return many join in the game and it usually ends in a regular roll and tumble for their respective homes perhaps the strangest of all forms of play is that in which young duckbills indulge they are slightly like puppies in their methods of roll and tumble but the way in which they grab one another with their strange bills as they strike with their four paws is quite original they seem to have an unusually good disposition and if one little playfellow falls in the game and desires to scratch himself before arising the other patiently waits until he arises when the mock battle begins anew antelopes have chase and marching games which are beautiful they seem rapidly to follow an invisible leader over the planes suddenly forming themselves into pairs fours eights sixteens until the entire herd thus form one line like an army of soldiers marching while this game is progressing certain of their number stand as sentinels and spectators and the slightest approach of an enemy is the signal for all played to cease and for them to disappear over the planes when we witness these abundant evidences of the need and prevalence of recreation in the animal world we are confronted with one more argument for the existence of real mental and moral faculties among our four-footed friends end of animals at play by royal dixon baseball by morris r cohen this is a liber box recording all liber box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberbox.org reading by the loner times baseball by morris r cohen from the dial volume 67 july 26 1919 in the world's history baseball is a new game hence new to song and story and uncelebrated and the fine arts of painting sculpture and music now as russkin has pointed out people generally do not see beauty or majesty except when it has been first revealed to them in pictures or other works of art this is the gill yearly true of the people who call themselves educated no one who prides himself on being familiar with greek and roman architecture and the classic masters of painting would for a moment admit that there could be any beauty and a modern skyscraper yet there can be no doubt that when 2000 years hence some antarctic scholar comes to describe our civilization he will mention as our distinctive contribution to art our beautiful office buildings and perhaps offer in support of his thesis colored plates of some of the ruins of those couples of commerce and when he comes to speak of america's contribution to religion will he not mention baseball do not be shocked gentle or learned reader i know full well that baseball is a boys game and a professional sport and that a properly cultured serious person always feels like apologizing for attending a baseball game instead of a straws concert or a lecture on the customs of the fiji islanders but i still maintain that by all the cannons of our modern books on comparative religion baseball is a religion and the only one that is not sectarian but national the essence of religious experience we are told is the redemption from the limitations of our petty individual lives and the mystic unity with a larger life of which we are a part and it's not this precisely what the baseball devotee or fanatic if you please experiences when he watches the team representing his city battling with another is there any other experience in modern life in which multitudes of men so completely and intensely lives their individual selves in the larger life which they call their city careful students of greek civilization do not hesitate to speak of the religious value of the greek drama when the auditor identifies himself with the action on the stage Aristotle tells us his feelings of fear and pity undergo a kind of purification catharsis but in baseball the identification has even more of the religious quality since we are absorbed not only in the action of the visible actors but more deeply in the fate of the mystic unities which we call the contending cities to be sure there may be people who go to a baseball game to see some particular star just as there are people who go to church to hear a particular minister preach but these are phenomena and the circumference of the religious life there are also blasé persons who do not care who wins so long as they can see what they call a good game just as there are people who go to mass because they admire the vestments or intonations of the priest but this only illustrates the pathology of the religious life the truly religious devoté has his soul directed to the final outcome and every one of the extraordinarily rich multiplicity of movements of the baseball game acquires its significance because of its bearing on that outcome instead of purifying only fear and pity baseball exercises and purifies all of our emotions cultivating hope and courage when we are behind resignation when we are beaten fairness for the other team when we are ahead charity for the umpire and above all the zest for combat and conquest when my revered friend and teacher william james wrote an essay on the moral equivalent of war i suggested to him that baseball already embodied all the moral value of war so far as war had any moral value he listened sympathetically and was amused but he did not take me seriously enough all great men had their limitations and william james's were due to the fact that he lived in cambridge a city which in spite of the fact that it has a population of 100 000 souls including the professors is not represented in any baseball league that can be detected without a microscope imagine what will happen to the martial spirit in germany if baseball is introduced there if any social democrat can ask any care wants somebody what's the score suppose that in an exciting ninth inning rally when the home teams ties the score captain schmidt punches captain miller or breaks his helmet will the latter challenge him to a duel he will not rather will he hug him frenziedly or pummel him joyfully at the next moment when the winning run comes across the home plate and after the game what need a further strife when johnson philadelphia meets brown of new york there may be a slight touch condescension on one side or a hidden strain of envy on the other side but they take each other's arm in fraternal fashion where they have settled their differences in an open regulated combat on a fair field and if one of us has some sore regrets over an unfortunate error which lost the game there is always the consolation that we have had our ending and though we have lost there is another game or season coming and what more can a reasonable man expect in this imperfect world than an open chance to do his best in a free and fair fight every religion has its martyrs and the greatest of all martyrdoms is to make oneself ridiculous and to be laughed at by the heathen but whatever the danger i am ready to urge the claims of international baseball as capable of arousing far more national religious verber than the more monotonous game of armaments and war those who fare the deadly monotony of a universal reign of peace can convince themselves of the thrilling and exciting character of baseball by watching the behavior of crowds not only at the games but also the baseball scoreboards miles away national rivalries and aspirations could find their intensest expression in a close international panic race and yet such rivalry would not be incompatible with the establishment of the true church universal in which all men would feel their brotherhood in the infinite game. End of baseball by Morris R. Cohen. Epicurus by Charles Bradlaw. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Greg Marguerite. Epicurus by Charles Bradlaw. Epicurian. One who holds the principles of Epicurus. Luxurious. Contributing to luxury. Epicurism. The principles of Epicurus. Luxury. Sensual enjoyment. Gross pleasure. The words with which this page is headed may be found in the current and established dictionaries of the present day and it shall be our task to show that never was slander more foul, columny more base, or libel more cowardly than when it associated the words luxury and sensuality with the memory of the Athenian Epicurus. The much-worn anecdote of the brief endorsed the defendant has no cause, abuse the plaintiff's solicitor, will well apply here. The religionists had no case. The Epicurian philosophy was impregnable as far as theological attacks were concerned, and the theologians have therefore constantly and vehemently abused its founder, so that, at last, children have caught the cry as though it were the enunciation of a fact, and have grown into men believing that Epicurus was a sort of discriminating hog who wallowed in the filth which some have miscalled pleasure. Epicurus was born in the early part of the year 344 B.C., the third year of the 109th Olympiad at Gargetus in the neighborhood of Athens. His father Neocles was of the Aegean tribe, some allege that Epicurus was born in the island of Samos, but according to others he was taken there when very young by his parents who formed a portion of a colony of Athenian citizens sent to colonize Samos after its subjugation by Pericles. The father and mother of Epicurus were in very humble circumstances. His father was a schoolmaster, and his mother, Carestrata, acted as a kind of priestess curing diseases, exercising ghosts, and exercising other fabulous powers. Epicurus had been charged with sorcery because he wrote several songs for his mother's solemn rites. Until 18 he remained at Samos and the neighboring isle of Teos. From whence he removed to Athens where he resided until the death of Alexander. When disturbances arising he fled to Caliphon. This place, Mytaleed and Lamsakis formed the philosopher's residence until he was thirty-six years of age, at which time he founded a school in the neighborhood of Athens. He purchased a pleasant garden where he taught his disciples until the time of his death. We are told by Laertius that those disciples who were regularly admitted into the school of Epicurus lived together, not in the manner of the Pythagoreans who cast their possessions into a common stock, for this, in his opinion, implied mutual distrust rather than friendship, but upon such a footing of friendly attachment that each individual cheerfully supplied the necessities of his brother. The habits of the philosopher and his followers were temperate and exceedingly frugal, and formed a strong contrast to the luxurious, although refined, manners of the Athenians. At the entrance of the garden the visitor of Epicurus found the following inscription. The hospitable keeper of this mansion where you will find pleasure, the highest good, will present you with barley cakes and water from the spring. These gardens will not provoke your appetite by artificial daintities, but satisfy it with natural supplies. Will you not then be well entertained? And yet the owner of the garden over the gate of which these words were placed has been called a glutton and a stomach worshiper. From the age of thirty-six until his decease he does not seem to have quitted Athens except temporarily. When Demetrius besieged Athens the Epicurians were driven into great difficulties for want of food, and it is said that Epicurus and his friends subsisted on a small quantity of beans which he possessed and which he shared equally with them. The better to prosecute his studies, Epicurus lived a life of celibacy, temperate and continent himself. He taught his followers to be so likewise, both by example and precept. He died in 273 B.C. in the seventy-third year of his age, and at that time his warmest opponents seemed to have paid the highest compliments to his personal character. And on reading his life and the detailed accounts of his teachings it seems difficult to imagine what has induced the calamity which has been heaped upon his memory. We cannot quote from his own works in his own words, because although he wrote very much, only a summary of his writings has come to us uninjured. But his doctrines have been so fully investigated and treaded on by both his opponents and his disciples, that there is no difficulty or doubt as to the principles inculcated in the school of Epicurus. The sum of his doctrine concerning philosophy in general is this. Philosophy is the exercise of reason in the pursuit and attainment of a happy life, whence it follows that those studies which conduced neither to the acquisition nor the enjoyment of happiness are to be dismissed as of no value. The end of all speculation ought to be to enable men to judge with certainty what is to be chosen and what is to be avoided, to preserve themselves free from pain and to secure health of body and tranquility of mind. True philosophy is so useful to every man that the young should apply to it without delay, and the old should never be wary of the pursuit, for it no man is either too young or too old to correct and improve his mind, and to study the art of happiness. Happy are they who possess by nature a free and vigorous intellect, and who are born in a country where they can prosecute their inquiries without restraint. For it is philosophy alone which raises a man above vain fears and base passions, and gives him the perfect command of himself. As nothing ought to be dearer to a philosopher than truth, he should pursue it by the most direct means, devising no actions himself, nor suffering himself to be imposed upon by the fictions of others. Neither poets or orators nor logicians making no other use of the rules of rhetoric or grammar than to enable him to speak or write with accuracy and perspicuity, and always preferring a plain and simple to an ornamental style. Whilst some doubt of everything, and others profess to acknowledge everything, a wise man will embrace such tenets and only such as are built upon experience or upon certain indisputable axioms. The following is a summary of his moral philosophy. The end of living or the ultimate good which is to be sought for its own sake according to the universal opinion of mankind is happiness. Yet men for the most part fail in the pursuit of this end, either because they do not form a right idea of the nature of happiness, or because they do not make use of proper means to attain it. Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of his life, it is the wisdom of everyone to employ philosophy in the search of felicity without delay, and there cannot be a greater folly than to be always beginning to live. The happiness which belongs to man is that state in which he enjoys as many of the good things and suffers as few of the evils incident to human nature as possible. Passing his days in a smooth course of permanent tranquility. A wise man, though deprived of sight or hearing, may experience happiness in the enjoyment of the good things which yet remain. And when suffering torture or laboring under some painful disease can mitigate the anguish by patience and can enjoy in bis afflictions the consciousness of bis own constancy. But it is impossible that perfect happiness can be possessed without the pleasure which attends freedom from pain and the enjoyment of the good things of life. Pleasure is in its nature good, as pain is in its nature evil. The one is therefore to be pursued and the other to be avoided, for its own sake. Pleasure or pain is not only good or evil in itself, but the measure of what is good or evil in every object of desire or aversion for the ultimate reason why we pursue one thing and avoid another is because we expect pleasure from the former and apprehend pain from the other. If we sometimes decline a present pleasure it is not because we are averse to pleasure itself but because we conceive that in the present instance it will be necessarily connected with a greater pain. In like manner if we sometimes voluntarily submit to a present pain it is because we judge that it is necessarily connected with a greater pleasure. Although all pleasure is essentially good and all pain is essentially evil it doth not thence necessarily follow that in every single instance the one ought to be pursued and the other to be avoided. But reason is to be employed in distinguishing and comparing the nature and degrees of each, that the result may be a wise choice of that which shall appear to be upon the whole good. That pleasure is the first good appears from the inclination which every animal from its first birth discovers to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, and is confirmed by the universal experience of mankind who are incited to action by no other principle than the desire of avoiding pain or obtaining pleasure. There are two kinds of pleasure, one consisting in a state of rest in which both body and mind are undisturbed by any kind of pain. The other arising from an agreeable agitation of the senses, producing a correspondent emotion in the soul. It is upon the former of these that the enjoyment of life chiefly depends. Happiness may therefore be said to consist in bodily ease and mental tranquility. When pleasure is asserted to be the end of living we are not then to understand that violent kind of delight or joy which arises from the gratification of the senses and passions, but merely that placid state of mind which results from the absence of every cause of pain or uneasiness. Those pleasures which arise from agitation are not to be pursued as in themselves the end of living, but as means of arriving at that stable tranquility in which true happiness consists. It is the office of reason to confine the pursuit of pleasure within the limits of nature in order to the attainment of that happy state in which the body is free from every kind of pain and the mind from all perturbation. This state must not, however, be conceived to be perfect in proportion as it is inactive and torpid, but in proportion as all the functions of life are quietly and pleasantly performed. A happy life neither resembles a rapid torrent nor a standing pool, but is like a gentle stream that glides smoothly and silently along. This happy state can only be obtained by a prudent care of the body and a steady government of the mind. The diseases of the body are to be prevented by temperance or cured by medicine nor rendered tolerable by patience. Against the diseases of the mind philosophy provides sufficient antidotes. The instruments which it employs for this purpose are the virtues, the root of which, whence all the rest proceed, is prudence. This virtue comprehends the whole art of living discreetly, justly, and honorably, and is, in fact, the same thing with wisdom. It instructs men to free their understandings from the clouds of prejudice, to exert temperance and fortitude in the government of themselves, and to practice justice towards others. Although pleasure or happiness, which is the end of living, be superior to virtue, which is only the means, it is everyone's interest to practice all the virtues, for in a happy life pleasure can never be separated from virtue. A prudent man, in order to secure his tranquility, will consult his natural disposition in the choice of his plan for life. If, for example, he be persuaded that he should be happier in a state of marriage than in celibacy, he ought to marry. But if he be convinced that matrimony would be an impediment to his happiness, he ought to remain single. In like manner, such persons as are naturally active, enterprising, and ambitious, or such as, by the condition of their birth, are placed in the way of civil offices, should accommodate themselves to their nature and situation, by engaging in public affairs. While such as are from natural temper, fond of leisure and retirement, or from experience or observation, are convinced that a life of public business would be inconsistent with their happiness, are unquestionably at liberty, except where particular circumstances call them to the service of their country, to pass their lives in obscure repose. Temperance is that discrete regulation of the desires and passions by which we are enabled to enjoy pleasures without suffering any consequent inconvenience. They who maintain such a constant self-command as never to be enticed by the prospect of present indulgence, to do that which will be productive of evil, obtain the truest pleasure by declining pleasure. Since of desires some are natural and necessary, others natural but not necessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, but the offspring of false judgment, it must be the office of temperance to gratify the first class as far as nature requires, to restrain the second within the bounds of moderation, and as to the third resolutely to oppose, and if possible entirely repress them. Sobriety, as opposed to inebriity and gluttony, is of admirable use in teaching men that nature is satisfied with a little, and enabling them to content themselves with simple and frugal fare. Such a manner of living is conductive to the preservation of health, renders a man alert and active in all the offices of life, affords him an exquisite relish of the occasional varieties of a plentiful board, and prepares him to meet every reverse of fortune without the fear of want. Continence is a branch of temperance which prevents the disease's infamy, remorse, and punishment, to which those are exposed to indulge themselves in unlawful amours. Music and poetry, which are often employed as incentives to licentious pleasure, are to be cautiously and sparingly used. Gentleness, as opposed to an irascible temper, greatly contributes to the tranquility and happiness of life, by preserving the mind from perturbation and arming it against the assaults of Calumni and Malus, a wise man who puts himself under the government of reason, will be able to receive an injury with calm knees, and to treat the person who committed it with lenity, for he will rank injuries among the casual events of life, and will prudently reflect that he can no more stop the natural current of human passions than he can curb the stormy winds, refractory servants in a family should be chastised, and disorderly members of a state punished without wrath. Moderation in the pursuit of honours or riches is the only security against disappointment and vexation. A wise man, therefore, will prefer the simplicity of rustic life to the magnificence of courts. Future events a wise man will consider as uncertain, and will therefore neither suffer himself to be elated with confident expectation, nor to be depressed by doubt and despair, for both are equally destructive of tranquility. It will contribute to the enjoyment of life to consider death as the perfect termination of a happy life, which it becomes us to close like satisfied guests, neither regretting the past, nor anxious for the future. Fortitude, the virtue which enables us to endure pain and to banish fear, is of great use in producing tranquility. Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of their superior nature. It, moreover, enables us to conquer the fear of death by teaching us that it is no proper object of terror, since whilst we are, death is not, and when death arrives, we are not, so that it neither concerns the living nor the dead. The only evils to be apprehended are bodily pain and distress of mind. Bodily pain it becomes a wise man to endure with patience and firmness, because if it be slight it may be easily borne, and if it be intense it cannot last long. Mental distress commonly arises not from nature, but from opinion. A wise man will therefore arm himself against this kind of suffering, by reflecting that the gifts of fortune, the loss of which he may be inclined to deplore, were never his own, but depended upon circumstances which he could not command. If therefore they happen to leave him, he will endeavor as soon as possible to obliterate the remembrance of them by occupying his mind in pleasant contemplation, and engaging in agreeable avocations. Justice respects man as living in society, and is the common bond without which no society can subsist. This virtue, like the rest, derives its value from its tendency to promote the happiness of life. Not only is it never injurious to the man who practices it, but nourishes in his mind calm reflections and pleasant hopes. Whereas it is impossible that the mind in which injustice dwells should not be full of disquietude, since it is impossible that the iniquitous actions should promote the enjoyment of life as much as remorse of conscience, legal penalties, and public disgrace must increase its troubles. Everyone who follows the dictates of sound reason will practice the virtues of justice, equity, and fidelity. In society, the necessity of the mutual exercise of justice in order to the common enjoyment of the gifts of nature is the ground of those laws by which it is prescribed. It is the interest of every individual in a state to conform to the laws of justice. For by injuring no one and rendering to every man his due, he contributes his part toward the preservation of that society, upon the perpetuity of which his own safety depends. Nor ought anyone to think that he is at liberty to violate the rights of his fellow citizens, provided he can do it securely, for he who has committed an unjust action can never be certain that it will not be discovered. And however successfully he may conceal it from others, this will avail him little, since he cannot conceal it from himself. In different communities different laws may be instituted according to the circumstances of the people who compose them. Whatever is thus prescribed is to be considered as a rule of justice, so long as the society shall judge the observance of it to be for the benefit of the whole. But whenever any rule of conduct is found upon experience not to be conductive to the public good, being no longer useful it should no longer be prescribed. Nearly allied to justice are the virtues of beneficence, compassion, gratitude, piety, and friendship. He who confers benefits upon others procures to himself the satisfaction of seeing the stream of plenty spreading around him from the fountain of his beneficence. At the same time he enjoys the pleasure of being esteemed by others, the exercise of gratitude and filial affection and reverence for the gods is necessary in order to avoid the hatred and contempt of all men. Friendships are contracted for the sake of mutual benefit, but by degrees they ripen into such disinterested attachment that they are continued without any prospect of advantage. Between friends there is a kind of league that each will love the other as himself. A true friend will partake of the wants and sorrows of his friend as if they were his own. If he be in want he will relieve him. If he be in prison he will visit him. If he be sick he will come to him. Nays situations may occur in which he would not scruple to die for him. It cannot then be doubted that friendship is one of the most useful means of procuring a secure, tranquil, and happy life. No man will, we think, find anything in the foregoing summary to justify the foul language used against Epicurus and his moral philosophy. The secret is in the physical doctrines, and this secret is that Epicurus was actually, if not intentionally, an atheist. The following is a summary of his physical doctrine. Nothing can ever spring from nothing, nor can anything ever return to nothing. The universe always existed and will always remain, for there is nothing into which it can be changed. There is nothing in nature nor can anything be conceived besides body and space. Body is that which possesses the properties of bulk, figure, resistance, and gravity. It is this alone which can touch or be touched. Space is the region which is or may be occupied by the body and which affords it an opportunity of moving freely. That there are bodies in the universe is attested by the senses. That there is also space is evident, since otherwise bodies would have no place in which to move or exist. And of their existence and motion we have the certain proof of perception. Besides these no third nature can be conceived for such a nature must either have bulk and solidity or want them. That is, it must either be body or space. This does not, however, preclude the existence of qualities which have no subsistence but in the body to which they belong. The universe, consisting of body and space, is infinite, for it has no limits. Bodies are infinite in multitude. Space is infinite in magnitude. The term above or beneath, high or low, cannot be properly applied to infinite space. The universe is to be conceived as immovable, since beyond it there is no place into which it can move, and as eternal and immutable, since it is neither liable to increase nor decrease to production nor decay. Nevertheless, the parts of universe are in motioned and are subject to change. All bodies consist of parts of which they are composed and into which they may be resolved, and these parts are either themselves simple principles or may be resolved into such. These first principles, or simple atoms, are divisible by no force, and therefore must be immutable. This may also be inferred from the uniformity of nature which could not be preserved if its principles were not certain and consistent. The existence of such atoms is evident, since it is impossible that anything which exists should be reduced to nothing. A finite body cannot consist of parts infinite, either in magnitude or number. Divisibility of bodies at infinitum is therefore conceivable. All atoms are of the same nature, or differ in no essential qualities, from their different effects upon the senses. It appears, however, that they differ in magnitude, figure, and weight. Atoms exist in every possible variety of figure, round, oval, conical, cubicle, sharp, hooked, etc., but in every shape they are on account of their solidity, infrangible, or incapable of actual division. Gravity must be an essential property of atoms, for since they are perpetually in motion or making an effort to move, they must be moved by an internal impulse, which may be called gravity. The principle of gravity, that internal energy which is the cause of all motion, whether simple or complex, being essential to the primary corpuscles or atoms, they must have been incessantly and from eternity in actual motion. Epicurus, who boasts that he was an inquirer and philosopher in his thirteenth year, was scarcely likely to bow his mind to the mythology of his country. The man who, when he was but a schoolboy, insisted upon an answer to the question, whence came chaos? Could hardly be expected to receive as admitted facts the fabulous legends as to Jupiter and the other gods. His theology is, however, in some respects obscure and unintelligible, for while he zealously opposed the popular fables which men misnamed god ideas, he at the same time admitted the existence of material gods whom he placed in the intervals between the infinite worlds, where they passed a life undisturbed by ought and enjoyed a happiness which does not admit of augmentation. These inactive gods play a strange part in the system of Epicurus, and it is asserted by many that these extraordinary conceptions of deity were put forward by the philosopher to screen him from the consequences attaching to a charge of atheism. Dr. Heinrich Ritter, who does not seem very friendly, disposed towards Epicurus or his philosophy, repudiates this notion and argues Epicurus was not in truth an atheist, and alleges that it was a mere pretense on his part and that from his very theory of knowledge the existence of gods could be deduced. This has much been litigated. See Electric Review for 1806, page 606. It is quite evident that Epicurus neither regarded the gods in the capacity of creators, controllers, or rulers, so that his theism, if it be atheism, was not of a very superstitious character. The god who neither created man nor exercised any influence whatever over his actions or thinkings could have but little to do with man at all. If we attempt to review the whole of the teachings of Epicurus, we and they are defective and imperfect in many respects, and necessarily so. We say necessarily so because the imperfect science of the day limited the array of facts presented to the philosopher and narrowed the base upon which he was to erect his system. We must expect, therefore, to find the structure weak in many points because it was too large for the foundation. But we are not, therefore, to pass it on one side and without further notice. It should rather be our task to lay good, wide, and sure foundations on which to build up a system and develop a method, really having for its end the happiness of mankind. We live two thousand years later than the Athenian philosopher. In those two thousand years many facts have been dragged out of the circle of the unknown and unused. Astronomy, geology, physiology, psychology, all except theology are better understood. Men pretend they are searching after happiness. And where do they try and find it? Not here amongst the known, but in the possibly hereafter, amongst the unknowable. How do they try and find it? Not by the aid of the known, not by the light of facts gathered in years of toil and sanctified by the blood of some of the noblest of truth's noble martyrs. No. But in the darkness of the unknown and unknowable, in the next world. Question the men who fly to theology for happiness and they will tell you that the most learned of the theologians sum up their knowledge in the word incomprehensible. Is it wonderful that their happiness is somewhat marred here by quarrels as to the true definition of hereafter? G. H. Lewis says of the Epicurean philosophy that the attempt failed because the basis was not broad enough. The Epicureans are therefore to be regarded as men who ventured on a great problem and failed because they only saw part of the truth. And we might add that Christianity and every other religious anity fails because the professors expect to obtain happiness in the next life and neglect to work for it in the present one. Epicurean says no life can be pleasant except a virtuous life, and he charges you to avoid whatever may be calculated to create disquiet in the mind or give pain to the body. The Reverend H. Bakuk Smylenot of Little Bethel says that all pleasure here is vanity and vexation in the hereafter. And he charges you to continually worry and harass your mind with fears that you may be condemned to hell and doubts whether you will be permitted to enter heaven, which is best. The philosophy of Epicurus or the theology of Smylenot. G. H. Lewis says Epicurean is a mechanism in leading man to a correct appreciation of the moral end of his existence in showing him how to be truly happy, has to combat with many obstructions which hide from him the real road of life. These obstructions are his illusions, his prejudices, his errors, his ignorance. This ignorance is of two kinds as Victor Cousin points out. Ignorance of the laws of the external world, which creates absurd superstitions and troubles the mind with false fears and false hopes, hence the necessity of some knowledge of physics. We can scarcely blame Epicurus that he was not in advance of his time as far as the physical sciences are concerned and therefore imparted an imperfect system of physics. We must, with our improved knowledge, ourselves, remove the obstruction. The second kind of ignorance is that of the nature of man. Socrates had taught men to regard their own nature as the great object of investigation, and this lesson Epicurus willingly gave ear to. But man does not interrogate his own nature out of simple curiosity or simple erudition. He studies his nature in order that he may improve it. He learns the extent of his capacities in order that he may properly direct them. The aim, therefore, of all such inquiries must be happiness. We may add that the result of all such inquiries will be happiness, if the inquirer will but base his investigation and experiments upon facts. Let him understand that as he improves the circumstances which surround him, so will he advance himself, becoming happier and making his fellows happy also. Remember the words of Epicurus and seek that pleasure for yourself which appears the most durable, and attend with the greatest pleasure to your fellow men. End of Epicurus by Charles Bradlaw. Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptist. The final letter as sent by Thomas Jefferson. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Tuman Sears, Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist Association in the state of Connecticut. Gentlemen, the affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation, which you are so good as to express towards me on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing. Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thus building a wall of separation between church and state. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights. Convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves in your religious association assurances of my high respect and esteem. Thomas Jefferson, January 1st, 1802. End of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. Read by Craig Campbell in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2009. The Letter of Columbus on the Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The Discovered Islands. Letter of Christopher Columbus to whom our age owes much concerning the islands recently discovered in the Indian Sea. For the search of which eight months before he was sent under the Ospecies and at the cost of the most invincible Ferdinand king of Spain. Addressed to the magnificent Lord Raphael Sanchez, treasurer of the same most illustrious king and which the noble and learned man Leander de Kosco has translated from the Spanish language into Latin on the third of the calends of May 1493 the first year of the pontificate of Alexander the Sixth. Because my undertakings have attained success I know that it will be pleasing to you. These I have determined to relate so that you may be made acquainted with everything done and discovered in this our voyage. On the 33rd day after I departed from Cadiz I came to the Indian Sea where I found many islands inhabited by men without number of all which I took possession for our most fortunate king with proclaiming heralds and flying standards no one objecting. To the first of these I gave the name of the blessed savior on whose aid relying I had reached this as well as the other islands but the Indians call it Guanahani. I also called each one of the others by a new name for I ordered one island to be called Santa Maria of the Conception another Ferdinanda another Isabella another Juana and so on with the rest. As soon as we had arrived at that island which I have just now said was called Juana I proceeded along its coast towards the west for some distance. I found it so large and without perceptible end that I believed it to be not an island but the continental country of Cathay. Seeing however no towns or cities situated on the sea coast but only some villages and rude farms with whose inhabitants I was unable to converse because as soon as they saw us they took flight. I proceeded farther thinking that I would discover some city or large residences at length perceiving that we had gone far enough that nothing new appeared and that this way was leading us to the north which I wished to avoid because it was winter on the land and it was my intention to go to the south moreover the winds were becoming violent. I therefore determined that no other plans were practicable and so going back I returned to a certain bay that I had noticed from which I sent two of our men to the land that they might find out whether there was a king in this country or any cities. These men traveled for three days and they found people and houses without number but they were small and without any government therefore they returned. Now in the meantime I had learned from certain Indians whom I had seized there that this country was indeed an island and therefore I proceeded towards the east keeping all the time near the coast for 322 miles to the extreme ends of this island. From this place I saw another island to the east distant from this Juana 54 miles which I called forthwith Hispania and I sailed to it and I steered along the northern coast as at Juana towards the east 564 miles and the said Juana and the other islands there appear very fertile. This island is surrounded by many very safe and wide harbors not excelled by any others that I have ever seen. Many great and salubrious rivers flow through it. There are also many very high mountains there. All these islands are very beautiful and distinguished by various qualities. They are accessible and full of a great variety of trees stretching up to the stars the leaves of which I believe are never shed for I saw them as green and flourishing as they are usually in Spain in the month of May. Some of them were blossoming, some were bearing fruit, some were in other conditions. Each one was thriving in its own way. The nightingale and various other birds without number were singing in the month of November when I was exploring them. There are besides in the said island Juana seven or eight kinds of palm trees which far excel ours in heightened beauty just as all the other trees herbs and fruits do. There are also excellent pine trees vast plains and meadows a variety of birds a variety of honey and a variety of metals excepting iron. In the one which was called Hispania as we said above there are great and beautiful mountains vast fields groves fertile plains very suitable for planting and cultivating and for the building of houses. The convenience of the harbors in this island and the remarkable number of rivers contributing to the healthfulness of men exceed belief unless one has seen them. The trees, pasture and fruits of this island differ greatly from those of Juana. This Hispania moreover abounds in different kinds of spices in gold and in metals. On this island indeed and on all the others which I have seen and of which I have knowledge the inhabitants of both sexes go always naked just as they came into the world except some of the women who use a covering of a leaf or some foliage or a cotton cloth which they make themselves for that purpose. All these people lack as I said above every kind of iron they are also without weapons which indeed are unknown nor are they competent to use them not an account of deformity of body for they are well formed but because they are timid and full of fear. They carry for weapons however reeds baked in the sun on the lower ends of which they fast and some shafts of dry wood rubbed down to a point and indeed they do not venture to use these always for it frequently happened when I sent two or three of my men to some of the villages that they might speak with the natives a compact troop of the Indians would march out and as soon as they saw our men approaching they would quickly take flight children being pushed aside by their fathers and fathers by their children and this was not because any hurt or injury had been inflicted on any one of them for to everyone whom I visited and with whom I was able to converse I distributed whatever I had cloth and many other things no return being made to me but they are by nature fearful and timid yet when they perceive that they are safe putting aside all fear they are of simple manners and trustworthy and very liberal with everything they have refusing no one who asked for anything they may possess and even themselves inviting us to ask for things they show greater love for all others than for themselves they give valuable things for trifles being satisfied even with a very small return or with nothing however I forbade that things so small and of no value should be given to them such as pieces of plates dishes and glass likewise keys and shoe straps although if they were able to obtain these it seemed to them like getting the most beautiful jewels in the world it happened indeed that a certain sailor obtained in exchange for a shoe strap as much worth of gold as would equal three golden coins and likewise other things for articles of very little value especially for new silver coins and for some gold coins to obtain which they gave whatever the seller desired as for instance an ounce and a half and two ounces of gold or 30 and 40 pounds of cotton with which they were already acquainted they also traded cotton and gold for pieces of bows bottles jugs and jars like persons without reason which I forbade because it was very wrong and I gave to them many beautiful and pleasing things that I had brought with me no value being taken in exchange in order that I might the more easily make them friendly to me that they might be made worshipers of Christ and that they might be full of love towards our king queen and prince and the whole Spanish nation also that they might be zealous to search out and collect and deliver to us those things of which they had plenty and which we greatly needed these people practice no kind of idolatry on the contrary they firmly believe that all strength and power and in fact all good things are in heaven and that I had come down from vents with these ships and sailors and in this belief I was received thereafter they had put aside fear nor are they slower unskilled but of excellent and acute understanding and the man who have navigated that sea given account of everything in an admirable manner but they never saw people closed nor these kind of ships as soon as I reached that sea I seized my force several Indians on the first island in order that they might learn from us and in like manner tell us about those things in these lands of which they themselves had knowledge and the plan succeeded for in a short time we understood them and they us sometimes by gestures and signs sometimes by words and it was a great advantage to us they are coming with me now yet always believing that I descended from heaven although they have been living with us for a long time and are living with us today and these men were the first who announced it wherever we landed continually proclaiming to the others in a loud voice come come and you will see the celestial people whereupon both women and men both children and adults both young men and old men laying aside the fear caused a little before visited us eagerly filling the road with a great crowd some bringing food and some drink with great love and extraordinary goodwill on every island there are many canoes of a single piece of wood and though narrow yet in length and shape similar to our rowboats but swifter in movement they steer only by oars some of these boats are large some small some of medium size yet they row many of the larger rowboats with 18 cross benches with which they cross to all those islands which are innumerable and with these boats they perform their trading and carry on commerce among them I saw some of these rowboats or canoes which were carrying 70 and 80 rowers in all these islands there is no difference in the appearance of the people nor in the manners and language but all understand each other mutually a fact that is very important for the end which has supposed to be earnestly desired by our most illustrious king that is their conversion to the holy religion of christ to which in truth as far as I can perceive they are very ready and favorably inclined I said before how I proceeded along the island juana in a straight line from west to east 322 miles according to which course and the length of the way I am able to say that this juana is larger than england and scotland together for besides the said 322 000 paces there are two more provinces in that part which lies towards the west which I did not visit one of these the indians call anan whose inhabitants are born with tails they extend to 180 miles in length as I have learned from those indians I have with me who are all acquainted with these islands but a circumference of hispania is greater than old spain from colonia to fontarabia this is easily proved because its fourth side which I myself passed along in a straight line from west to east extends 540 miles this island is to be desired and is very desirable and not to be despised in which although as I have said I solemnly took possession of all the others for our most invincible king and their government is entirely committed to the said king yet I especially took possession of a certain large town in a very convenient location and adapted to all kinds of gain and commerce to which we give the name of our lord of the nativity and I commanded a fort to be built there forthwith which must be completed by this time in which I left as many men as seemed necessary with all kinds of arms and plenty of food for more than a year likewise one caravall and for the construction of others men skilled in this trade and in other professions and also the extraordinary goodwill and friendship of the king of this island toward us for those people are very amiable and kind to such degree that the said king gloried in calling me his brother and if they should change their minds and should wish to hurt those who remained in the fort they would not be able because they lack weapons they go naked and are too cowardly for that reason those who hold the said fort are at least able to resist easily this whole island without any imminent danger to themselves so long as they do not transgress the regulations and command which we gave in all these islands as I have understood each man is content with only one wife except the princes or kings who are permitted to have 20 the women appeared to work more than the men I was not able to find out surely whether they have individual property for I saw that one man had the duty of distributing to the others especially refreshments food and things of that kind I found no monstrosities among them as very many supposed but men of great reverence and friendly nor are they black like the Ethiopians they have straight hair hanging down they do not remain where the solar rays send out the heat for the strength of the sun is very great here because it is distant from the equinoctial line as it seems only 26 degrees on the tops of the mountains too the cold is severe but the Indians however moderated partly by being accustomed to the place and partly by the help of very hot victuals of which they eat frequently and immoderately and so I did not see any monstrosity nor did I have knowledge of them anywhere except the certain island named Charis which is the second in passing from Hispania to India this island is inhabited by a certain people who are considered very warlike by their neighbors these eat human flesh the sad people have many kinds of robots in which they cross over to all the other Indian islands and sees and carry away everything that they can they differ in no way from the others only that they wear long hair like the women they use bows and darts made of reeds with sharp and shafts fastened to the larger end as we have described on this account they are considered warlike where for the other Indians are afflicted with continual fear but I regard them as of no more account than the others these are the people who visit certain women who alone inhabit the island Mateunin which is the first in passing from Hispania to India these women moreover perform no kind of work of their sex for they use bows and darts like those I have described of their husbands they protect themselves with sheets of copper of which there is great abundance among them they tell me of another island greater than their force at Hispania whose inhabitants are without hair and which abounds in gold above all the others I am bringing with me men of this island and of the others that I have seen who give proof of the things that I have described finally that I may compress in few words the brief account of our departure and quick return and again I promise this that if I am supported by our most invincible sovereigns with a little of their help as much gold can be supplied as they will need indeed as much of spices of cotton of chewing gum which is only found in chios also as much of aloe's wood and as many slaves for the navy as their majesties will wish to demand likewise rhubarb and other kinds of spices which I suppose these men whom I left in the said fort have already found and will continue to find since I remained in no place longer than the winds forced me except in the town of the nativity while I provided for the building of the fort and for the safety of all which things although they are very great and remarkable yet they would have been much greater if I had been aided by as many ships as the occasion required truly great and wonderful is this and not corresponding to our merits but to the holy christian religion and to the piety and religion of our sovereigns because what the human understanding could not attain that the divine will has granted to human efforts for god is want to listen to his servants who love his precepts even in impossibilities as has happened to us on the present occasion who have attained that which hitherto mortal men have never reached for if anyone has written or said anything about these islands it was all with obscurities and conjectures no one claims that he had seen them from which they seemed like fables therefore let the king and queen the princes and their most fortunate kingdoms and all other countries of christendom give thanks to our lord and savior jesus christ who has bestowed upon us so great a victory and gift let religious processions be solemnized let sacred festivals be given let the churches be covered with festive garlands let christ rejoice on earth as he rejoices in heaven when he foresees coming to salvation so many souls of people hitherto lost let us be glad also as well on account of the exaltation of our faith as on account of the increase of our temporal affairs of which not only spain but universal christendom will be partaker these things that have been done are thus briefly related farewell lisbon the day before the eads of march christopher columbus admiral of the ocean fleet epigram of ar el de corbadia bishop of montepeloso to the most invincible king of spain no region now can add to spain's great deeds to such men all the world is yet too small an orient land found far beyond the waves will add great betica to thy renown then to columbus the true finder gives you thanks but greater still to god on high who makes new kingdoms for himself and thee both firm and pious let thy conduct be end of the letter of columbus on the discovery of america by christopher columbus read by avai in december 2009 the logic of persecution by george w foot this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org reading by greg margaret the logic of persecution by george w foot neither the cruelty of tyrants nor the ambition of conquerors has wrought so much mischief and suffering as the principle of persecution the crimes of a nero the ravages of an atilla afflict the world for a season and then cease and are forgotten or only linger in the memory of history but persecution operates incessantly like a natural force with the universality of light it radiates in every direction the palace is not too proud for its entrance nor is the cottage too humble it affects every relationship of life its action is exhibited in public through imprisonment torture and bloodshed and in private through the tears of misery and the groans of despair but worse remains bodies starve and hearts break but at last there comes the poppied sleep the end of all grief is buried in the grave nature covers it with a mantle of grass and flowers and the feet of joy trip merrily over the paths once trodden by heavy-footed care yet the more subtle effects of persecution remain with the living they are not screwed down in the coffin and buried with the dead they become part of the pestilential atmosphere of cowardice and hypocrisy which saps the intellectual manhood of society so that bright-eyed inquiry sinks into bleary-eyed faith and the rich vitality of active honest thought falls into the decrepitude of timid and slothful acquiescence what is this principle of persecution and how is it generated and developed in the human mind now that it is falling into discredit there is a tendency on the part of christian apologists to describe it to our natural hatred of contradiction men argue and quarrel and if intellectual differences excite hostility in an age like this how easily was it for them to excite the bitterest animosity in more ignorant and barbarous ages such is the plea now frequently advanced no doubt it wears a certain plausibility but a little investigation will show its fallacy men and women are so various in their minds characters circumstances and interests that if left to themselves they inevitably form a multiplicity of ever-shifting parties sex fashions and opinions and while each might resent the impertinence of disagreement from its own standard the very multiformity of the whole mass must preserve a general balance of fair play since every single sect with an itch for persecuting would be confronted by an overwhelming majority of dissidents it is obvious therefore that persecution can only be indulged in when some particular form of opinion is in the ascendant and if this form is artificially developed if it is the result not of knowledge and reflection but of custom and training if in short it is rather a superstition than a belief you have a condition of things highly favorable to the forcible suppression of heresy now throughout history there is one great form of opinion which has been artificially developed which has been accepted through faith and not through study which has always been concerned with alleged occurrences in the remote past or the inaccessible future and which has also been systematically maintained in its pristine purity by an army of teachers who have pledged themselves to inculcate the ancient faith without any admixture of their own intelligence that form of opinion is religion accordingly we should expect to find its career always attended with persecution and the expectation is amply justified by a cursory glance at the history of every faith there is indeed one great exception but to use a popular though inaccurate phrase it is an exception which proves the rule buddhism has never persecuted but buddhism is rather a philosophy than a religion or if a religion it is not a theology and that is the sense attached to religion in this article all such religions have persecuted do persecute and will persecute while they exist let it not be supposed however that they punish heretics on the open ground that the majority must be right and the minority must be wrong or that some people have a right to think while others have only the right to acquiesce no that is too shameless and a vowel nor would it indeed be the real truth there is a principle in religions which has always been the sanction of persecution and if it be true persecution is more than right it is duty that principle is salvation by faith if a certain belief is necessary to salvation if too rejected is to merit damnation and to undermine it is to imperil the eternal welfare of others there is only one course open to its adherents they must treat the heretic as they would treat a viper he is a poisonous creature to be swiftly extinguished but not too swiftly for he has a soul that may still be saved accordingly he is sequestered to prevent further harm and effort is made to convert him then he is punished and the rest is left with God that his conversion is attempted by torture either physical or mental is not an absurdity it is a consonant to the doctrine of salvation by faith for if God punishes or rewards us according to our possession or lack of faith it follows that faith is within the power of will accordingly the heretic to use doctor martin o's expression is reminded not of arguments but of motives not of evidence but of fear not of proofs but of perils not of reasons but of ruin when we recognize that the understanding acts independently of volition and that the threat of punishment while it may produce silence or hypocrisy cannot alter belief this method of procedure strikes us as a monstrous imbecility but given a belief in the doctrine of salvation by faith it must necessarily appear both logical and just if the heretic will not believe he is clearly wicked for he rejects the truth and insults God he has deliberately chosen the path to hell and does it matter whether he travels slowly or swiftly to his destination but does it not matter whether he go alone or drag down others with him to perdition such was the logic of the inquisitors and although their cruelties must be detested their consistency must be allowed catholics have an infallible church and the protestants an infallible bible yet as the teaching of the bible becomes a question of interpretation the infallibility of each church resolves itself into the infallibility of its priesthood each asserts that some belief is necessary to salvation religious liberty therefore was never entered into the imagination of either the protestants who revolted against the papacy openly avowed the principle of persecution luther bazaar calvin melanchthon were probably more intolerant than any pope of their age and if the protestant persecutions were not on the whole so sanguinary as those of the roman catholic church it was simply due to the fact that catholicism passed through a dark and ferocious period of history while protestantism emerged in an age of greater light and humanity persecution can not always be bloody but it always inflicts on heretics as much suffering as the sentiment of the community will tolerate the doctrine of salvation by faith has been more mischievous than all other delusions of theology combined how true are the words of pascal jame una fe luma si ple moe si kemo cucon ton ne fait pas conscience fortunately a nobler day is breaking the light of truth succeeds the darkness of error right belief is infinitely important but it cannot be forced belief is independent of will but character is not and therefore the philosopher approves or condemns actions instead of censuring beliefs theology however consistently clings to its old habits infidels must not be argued with but threatened not convinced but libeled and when these weapons are futile there ensues the persecution of silence that serves for a time but only for a time it may obstruct but it cannot prevent the spread of unbelief it is like a veil against the light it may obscure the dawn to the dull-eyed and the uninquisitive but presently the blindest sluggards in the penfolds of faith will see that the sun has risen and of the logic of persecution by george w foot on the faults of the constitution by benjamin franklin this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org i confess that i do not entirely approve of this constitution at present but sir i am not sure i shall never approve of it for having lived long i have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration to change opinions even on important subjects which i once thought right but found to be otherwise it is therefore that the older i grow the more apt i am to doubt my own judgment of others most men indeed as well as most sects in religion think themselves in possession of all truth and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error steel a protestant in a dedication tells the pope that the only difference between our two churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrine is the romish church is infallible and the church of england is never in the wrong but though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect few express it so naturally as a certain french lady who in a little dispute with her sister said but i meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right in these sentiments sir i agree to this constitution with all its faults if they are such because i think a general government necessary for us and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered and i believe further that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years and can only end in despotism as other forms have done before it when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government being incapable of any other i doubt too whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitution for when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices their passions their errors of opinion their local interests and their selfish views from such an assembly can a perfect production be expected it therefore astonishes me sir to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does and i think it will astonish our enemies who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the builders of babel and that our states are on the point of separation only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats thus i can send sir to this constitution because i expect no better and because i am not sure that it is not the best the opinions i have had of its errors i sacrifice to the public good i have never whispered a syllable of them abroad within these walls they were born and here they shall die if every one of us in returning to our constituents were to report the objections he has had to it and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them we might prevent its being generally received and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign nations as well as among ourselves from our real or apparent unanimity much of the strength and efficiency of any government in procuring and securing happiness to the people depends on opinion on the general opinion of the goodness of that government as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors i hope therefore for our own sakes as a part of the people and for the sake of our posterity that we shall act heartily and unanimously and recommending this constitution wherever our influence may extend and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered on the whole sir i cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility and to make manifest our unanimity put his name to this instrument end of on the faults of the constitution by benjamin franklin read by abigail bartels poisonous cheese from a treatise on adulterations of food and culinary poisons by frederick akham this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org several instances have come under my notice in which glosster cheese has been contaminated with red lead and has produced serious consequences on being taken into the stomach in one poisonous sample which it fell to my lot to investigate the evil had been caused by the sophistication of the annata employed for coloring cheese this substance was found to contain a portion of red lead a method of sophistication which has lately been confirmed by the following fact communicated to the public by mr j w right of cambridge quote as a striking example of the extent to which adulterated articles of food may be unconsciously diffused and of the consequent difficulty of detecting the real fabricators of them it may not be uninteresting to relate to your readers the various steps by which the fraud of a poisonous adulteration of cheese was traced to its source your readers ought here to be told that several instances are on record that glosster and other cheeses have been found contaminated with red lead and that this contamination has produced serious consequences in the instance now alluded to and probably in all other cases the deleterious mixture had been caused ignorantly by the adulteration of the annata employed for coloring the cheese this substance in the instance i shall relate was found to contain a portion of red lead a species of adulteration which subsequent experiments have shown to be by no means uncommon before i proceed further to trace this fraud to its source i shall briefly relate the circumstance which gave rise to its detection a gentleman who had occasion to reside for some time in a city to the west of england was one night seized with a distressing but indescribable pain in the region of the abdomen and of the stomach accompanied with a feeling of tension which occasioned much restlessness anxiety and repugnance to food he began to apprehend the access of an inflammatory disorder but in 24 hours the symptoms entirely subsided in four days afterwards he experienced an attack precisely similar and he then recollected that having on both occasions arrived from the country late in the evening he had ordered a plate of toasted Gloucester cheese of which he had partaken heartily a dish which went at home regularly served him for supper he attributed his illness to the cheese the circumstance was mentioned to the mistress of the inn who expressed great surprise as the cheese in question was not purchased from a county dealer but from a highly respectable shop in london he therefore ascribed the before mentioned effects to some peculiarity in his constitution a few days afterwards he partook of the same cheese and he had scarcely retired to rest when a most violent colleague seized him which lasted the whole night and part of the ensuing day the cook was now directed henceforth not to serve up any toasted cheese and he never again experienced these distressing symptoms whilst this matter was a subject of conversation in the house a servant made mention that a kitten had been violently sick after having eaten the rind cut off from the cheese prepared for the gentleman's supper the landlady in consequence of this statement ordered the cheese to be examined by a chemist in the vicinity who returned for answer that the cheese was contaminated with lead so unexpected an answer arrested general attention and more particularly as the suspected cheese had been served up with several other customers application was therefore made by the london dealer to the farmer who manufactured the cheese he declared that he had bought the annata of a mercantile traveler who had supplied him and his neighbors for years with that commodity without giving occasion to a single complaint on subsequent inquiries through a circuitous channel unnecessary to be detailed here at length on the part of the manufacturer of the cheese it was found that as the supplies of annata had been defective and of inferior quality recourse had been had to the expedient of coloring the commodity with vermilion even this admixture could not be considered deleterious but on further application being made to the druggist who sold the article the answer was that the vermilion had been mixed with a portion of red lead and the deception was held to be perfectly innocent as frequently practiced on the supposition that the vermilion would be used only as a pigment for house painting thus the druggist sold his vermilion in the regular way of trade adulterated with red lead to increase his profit without any suspicion of the use to which it would be applied and the purchaser who had delirated the annata presuming that the vermilion was genuine had no hesitation in heightening the color of his spurious annata with so harmless ananchock thus through the circuitous and diversified operations of commerce a portion of deadly poison may find admission into the necessaries of life in a way which can attach no criminality to the parties through which whose hands it has successively passed this dangerous sophistication may be detected by macerating a portion of the suspected cheese in water impregnated with sulfurated hydrogen as simulated with muriatic acid which will instantly cause the cheese to assume a brown or black color if the minutest portion of lead be present end of poisonous cheese from a treatise on adulterations of food and culinary poisons by frederick akon red by harry coffield queen best feast by ben hack this is a livervox recording all livervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livervox.org reading by bologna times queen best feast by ben hack elizabeth wenslow who was a short fat woman with an amazing gift of profanity and known to the police as queen best is dead according to the coroner's report queen best died suddenly in a wabash avenue rooming house at the age of 70 25 years ago queen best rented rooms and sold drinks according to the easygoing ideas of that day but there was something untouched by the sordidness of her calling about this ample revelation woman there was a noise about queen best lacking in her harpy contemporaries big hearted best the coppers used to call her and queen was the name her employees had for her but to customers she was always queen best in the district where queen best functioned the gossip of the day always prophesized dismally concerning her she didn't save her money queen best didn't and the time would come when she'd realize what that meant and the idea of queen best blowing in $5,000 for a tally hoe layout to ride to the races in six horses and two drivers in yellow and blue livery and girls all dressed like sore thumbs and the bereaved and painted coach bouncing down the boulevard to washington park a lot of good that would do her in her old age but queen best went her way throwing her tainted money back to the town as fast as the town threw it into her purse roaring swearing laughing a thumping sentimentalist a clownish samaritan a madame aprodite by rube goldberg there are many sturs that used to go the rounds but when i read the coroner's report there was one tale in particular that started up in my head again a mockish tale perhaps and if i write it with two model in a slant i know who will wince the worst queen best of course who will sit up in her grave and fastening a blazing eye on me cursed me out for every variety of fathead and imbecile known to her exhaustive calendar of epithets nevertheless in memory of the set of oscar wild works presented to my roommate 12 years ago one christmas morning by queen best and in memory of the six world famous oaths this great lady invented here goes let best roar in her grave there's one thing she can't do and that's call me a liar it was a thanksgiving day and years ago and my roommate net and i were staring glumly over the roofs of the town i've got an invitation for thanksgiving dinner for both of us said net but i feel kind of dumpful about going i inquired what kind of invitation an engraved invitation from net here it is i'll rate it to you he read from a white card you are cordially invited to attend a thanksgiving dinner at the home of queen best blank street and wabash avenue at three o'clock you may bring one gentleman front why not go i asked i'm a new englander at heart smiled net and thanksgiving is a sort of meaningful holiday particularly when you're alone in the great and wicked city i've inquired of some of the fellows about queen best's dinner it seems that she gives one everything's giving and that they're quite a tradition or institution i can't find out what sort they are though i suspect some sort of an orgy on the order of the black mass at two o'clock we left our room and headed for the house of queen best a huge and ornamental chamber known as the ballroom or the parlor had been converted into a dining room ned and i were early six or seven men had arrived they stood around ill at ease looking at the flamboyant paintings on the wall as if they were inspecting the tissue room of some museum ned who knew the town pointed out two of the six as men of means one was manager of a store one was a billiard champion in a michigan avenue club gradually the room filled up a dozen more men arrived each was admitted by invitation as we had been sally the colored mommy of the house took charge and made us be seated some 20 men took their places about the long rectangular table and then a pianist entered i think it was professor schultz he played the piano in the ballrooms of the district he came in in a brand-new frock coat and patent leather shoes and sat down at the ivories there was a pause and then the professor struck up dollaroso pianissimo the tune of home sweet home as the first notes carrying the almost audible words mid-pleasures and palaces arose from the piano the folding doors at the end of the ballroom parted and there appeared queen best followed by 15 of the girls who sold drinks for her queen best was dressed in black her white hair cuffured like a hospital superintendent's her girls were dressed in simple afternoon frocks neither rouge nor beads were to be seen on them and as the professor played home sweet home queen best marched her companions solemnly down the length of the ballroom and seated them at the table i remember that before the numerous servitors started functioning queen best made a speech she stood up at the head of the table her red face beaming under her white hair and her black eyes commanding the attention of the men and women before her all of you know who i am blankety blank said queen best and blankety blank what a reputation i got all of you know but i've invited you to this blankety blank dinner hoping you will humor me for the afternoon and pretend you forget i would like to see you enjoy yourselves at the banquet board eat and drink what wine there is and laugh and be thankful but without pulling any blankety blank rough stuff i would like to see you enjoy yourselves as if you were in your own homes which i take it none of you gentlemen have got seeing you are sitting here at the board of queen best now gentlemen she concluded if it's asking too much of you to forget the fault is mine and not yours and nobody will be penalized or bawled out blankety blank him for being unable to forget but if you can forget and if you can let us enjoy ourselves for an afternoon and a blankety blank decent and god-fearing way god love you and queen best sat down we ate and drank and laughed till seven o'clock that evening and i remember that not one of the 20 men present used a profane word during this time not one of them did or said anything that wouldn't have passed muster in his own home if he had one and that no one got drunk except queen best yes queen best and her black dress got very drunk and swore like a trooper and laughed like a crazy child and when the party was over queen best stood at the door and we passed out shaking hands with her and giving her our thanks she stood steadying herself against the door beam and saying to each of us as she shook our hands god love you god love you for bringing happiness to a blankety blank blank like old queen best end of queen best's feast by ben hack the siege of troi by mb singe this is a livervox recording all livervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livervox.org recording by chris karan far on the ringing plains of windy troi by tenison here's another story of these old heroic days before the dawn of history in Greece and yet there is some truth in it as there is in all these old stories the city of stroi stood in the northwest corner of the land we now know as asia minor it was therefore quite close to Greece this siege of troi is supposed to have taken place about the time that the children of israel were settling down under the first king sol long long ago then so the story runs there was a king of troi called briam he had 19 children of whom paris was the second when paris was old enough he built a ship and sailed away to visit the great kings he made great friends with the king of sparta but he repaid his kindness by stealing away his wife the beautiful helen as soon as the king of sparta found how his hospitality had been misused he called upon all the greek heroes to help him to recover his wife and to avenge himself on paris everyone replied to the call and for many years the greeks collected their forces together at last they were ready and the king of sparta's brother a gemnon took command of them all with over a thousand ships and a hundred thousand men the greeks landed on the trohan coast they hauled their ships on shore fastened them with ropes to large stones which served as anchors and surrounded the fleet with fortifications to protect it against the enemy they fought the trohans with swords and spears the chiefs generally went to battle in chariot which was an open car drawn by two horses and driven by some trusty friend who held the horses while the chief stood up and spent spear after spear among the enemy the greeks soon showed themselves to be superior to the trohans who shut themselves up within the huge walls of their city having an opening on one side only from which they might receive corn cattle and the other supplies nine summers and nine winters went by and still the siege of troi went on the greek heroes lost many of their finest men but neither side would give in the great hero among the greeks was achilles among the men of troi hector the eldest son of the old priam both these were killed at last and not very long after paris himself was slain still the king of sparta could not get hellen back priam used to make her come and sit beside him on the battlements over the gateway at troi to tell him the names of all the greek chiefs but the king of sparta grew desperate at last and a means was devised for getting into troi together with a number of greek heroes he lit himself in a monstrous wooden horse which was found on the seashore someone told the trohans if they would drag this wooden horse into troi their luck would turn and it would bring them good fortune so the trohans harnessed themselves to the horse and began to drag it into troi little thinking it was full of the enemy night came on and suddenly at a given signal the wooden horse was opened and out tumbled the king of sparta and his men while outside the other greeks had seen the signal and rushed in troi was set on fire the king of sparta rescued his beautiful wife and carried her down to his ship old priam tried to put on his armor and defend his wife and daughters but he was killed in the court of his palace and all the rest of the men of troi were either killed or made slaves only one great man of troi escaped that was anius who ascending all was lost took his old father on his back and leading his little son by the hand while his wife followed escaped from the burning city he found a ship on the coast and sailed away in safety after long years and marvelous adventures he arrived on the shores of italy landing near the spot where roam now stands it is said that on the side of one of the mountains he built a city known as the long white city and here for 300 years the descendants of troi reigned so ended the great siege of troi it was first sung of by the great poet homer in his wonderful poem called the islead but the acts of the heroes have inspired many and many a poet since that time until it has become one of the best known scenes of the world's great history end of the siege of troi by mb singe