 The Birth Time of the Gods by Frank Reinder Coffee Break Collection 22 Days Gone By This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Avae in August 2019 The Birth Time of the Gods Before a time was, and while yet the world was uncreated, chaos reigned. The earth and the waters, the light and the darkness, the stars and the firmament were intermingled in a vaporied liquid. All things were formless and confused. No creature existed. Phantom shapes moved as clouds on the ruffled surface of a sea. It was the birth time of the Gods. The first deities sprang from an immense bulrush bud, which rose, spear-like, in the midst of the boundless disorder. Other Gods were born, but three generations passed before the actual separation of the atmosphere from the more solid earth. Finally, where the tip of the bulrush points upward, the heavenly spirits appeared. From this time their kingdom was divided from the lower world where chaos still prevailed. To the fourth pair of Gods it was given to create the earth. These two beings were the powerful God of the air, Izanagi, and the fair Goddess of the clouds, Izanami. From them sprang all life. Now Izanagi and Izanami wandered on the floating bridge of heaven. This bridge spanned the gulf between heaven and the unformed world. It was upheld in the air, and it stood secure. The God of the air spoke to the Goddess of the clouds, There must needs be a kingdom beneath us. Let us visit it. When he had so said, he plunged his jeweled spear into the seething mass below. The drops that fell from the point of the spear congealed and became the island of Onogoro. Thereupon the earthmakers descended and called up a high mountain peak on whose summit could rest one end of the heavenly bridge and around which the whole world should revolve. The wisdom of the heavenly spirit had decreed that Izanagi should be a man and Izanami a woman, and these two deities decided to wait and dwell together on the earth. But, as befitted their August birth, the wooing must be solemn. Izanagi skirted the base of the mountain to the right, Izanami turned to the left. When the Goddess of the clouds saw the God of the air approaching afar off, she cried, enraptured, Ah, what a fair and lovely youth! Then Izanagi exclaimed, Ah, what a fair and lovely maiden! As they met, they clasped hands and the marriage was accomplished. But for some unknown cause the union did not prove as happy as the God and Goddess had hoped. They continued their work of creation, but Awaji, the island that rose from the deep, was little more than a barren waste, and their firstborn son, Hiruko, was a weakling. The earth-makers placed him in a little boat woven of reeds and left him to the mercy of wind and tide. In deep grief Izanagi and Izanami recrossed the floating bridge and came to the place where the heavenly spirits hold eternal audience. From them they learned that Izanagi should have been the first to speak when the Gods met round the base of the pillar of earth. On their return to earth Izanagi, as before, went to the right and Izanami to the left of the mountain. But now, when they met, Izanagi exclaimed, Ah, what a fair and lovely maiden! And Izanami joyfully responded, Ah, what a fair and lovely youth! They clasped hands once more and their happiness began. They created the eight large islands of the Kingdom of Japan. First, the luxuriant island of the dragonfly, the great Yamato, then Tsukush, the white sun youth, Iyuu, the lovely princess, and many more. The rocky islands of the archipelago were formed by the foam of the rolling breakers as they dashed on the coastlines of the islands already created. Thus China and the remaining lands and continents of the world came into existence. Now we're born to Izanagi and Izanami, the ruler of the rivers, the deity of the mountains, and later the god of the trees and the goddess to whom was entrusted the care of tender plants and herbs. Then Izanagi and Izanami said, We have created the mighty Kingdom of the eight islands with mountains, rivers and trees, yet another divinity there must be who shall guard and rule this fair world. As they spoke, a daughter was born to them. Her beauty was dazzling and her regal bearing be tokened that her throne should be set high above the clouds. She was none other than Amaterasu, the heaven-illuminating spirit. Izanagi and Izanami rejoiced greatly when they beheld her face and exclaimed, Our daughter shall dwell in the blue plain of high heaven and from there she shall direct the universe. So they led her to the summit of the mountain and over the wondrous bridge. The heavenly spirits were joyful when they saw Amaterasu and said, You shall mount into the soft blue of the sky, Your brilliancy shall illumine and Your sweet smile shall gladden The eternal land and all the world. Fleecy clouds shall be Your handmaidens and sparkling dew drops Your messengers of peace. The next child of Izanagi and Izanami was a son and as he also was beautiful with the dreamlike beauty of the evening he placed him in the heavens as co-ruler with his sister Amaterasu. His name was Tsukuyomi, the moon-god. The god Susannou is another son of the two deities who would and wed around the base of the pillar of earth. Unlike his brother and sister he was fond of the shadow and the gloom. When he wept the grass on the mountainside withered the flowers were blighted and men died. Izanagi had little joy in this son nevertheless he made him ruler of the ocean. Now that the world was created the happy life of the god of the air and the goddess of the clouds was over. The consumer, the god of fire was born and Izanami died. She vanished into the deep solitudes of the kingdom of the trees in the country of Ki and disappeared thence into the lower regions. Izanagi was sorely troubled because Izanami had been taken from him and he descended in pursuit of her to the portals of the shadowy kingdom where sunshine is unknown. Izanami would faint have left that place to rejoin Izanagi on the beautiful earth. Her spirit came to meet him and in urgent and tender words besought him not to seek her in those cavernous regions. But the bold god would not be warned. He pressed forward and by the light struck from his comb he sought for his loved one long and earnestly. Grimm forms rose to confront him but he passed him by with kingly disdain. Sounds as if the wailing of lost souls struck his ear but still he persisted. After endless search he found his Izanami lying in an attitude of untold despair but so changed was she that he gazed intently into her eyes if he could recognize her. Izanami was angry that Izanagi had not listened to her commands for she knew how fruitless would be his efforts. Without a sanction of the ruler of the underworld she could not return to earth and this consent she had tried in vain to obtain. Izanagi, hard pressed by the eight monsters who guard the land of gloom had to flee for his life. He defended himself valiantly with his sword then he threw down his headdress and it was transformed into bunches of purple grapes. He also cast behind him the comb by means of which he had obtained light and from it sprang tender shoots of bamboo. While the monsters eagerly devoured the luscious grapes and tender shoots Izanagi gained the broad flight of steps which led back to earth. At the top he paused and cried to Izanami all hope of our reunion is now at an end. Our separation must be eternal. Stretching far beyond Izanagi Lady Ocean and on its surface was reflected the face of his well-beloved daughter Amaterasu. She seemed to speak and besiege him to purify himself in the great waters of the sea. As he bathed his wounds were healed and a sense of infinite peace stole over him. The lifework of the earthmaker was done. He bestowed the world upon his children and afterwards crossed for the last time the many-coloured bridge of heaven. The God of the air now spends his days with the heaven-illuminating spirit in her sun-glorious palace. End of THE BIRTHTIME OF THE GOATS by Frank Rinder The Sad Story of a Boy King by George Cary Eggleston Coffee Break Collection, 22 Days Gone By This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Sad Story of a Boy King London took a holiday on the 16th of July, 1377. There were processions of merry-makers in the streets and the windows were crowded with gaily dressed men, women and children. The great lords, glittering in armour and mounted upon splendid steel-clad horses marched through the town. The bishops and clergymen in gorgeous robes made a more solemn but not less attractive show. The trade-guilds were out in their best clothing bearing the tools of their trades instead of arms. Clowns in motley, merry-makers of all kinds, great city dignitaries, lords and commons. Everybody, in short, made a maddened merry holiday. And at night the houses were illuminated and great bonfires were lighted in the streets. All England was wild with joy, but the happiest person in the land was Richard Plantagenet, a boy eleven years of age. Indeed it was for this boy's sake and in his honour that all this feasting and merry-making went on, for on that day young Richard was crowned King of England and in those times a King of England was a much more important person than now because the people had not then learned to govern themselves and the King had powers which Englishmen would not allow any man to have in our time. Richard was too young to govern wisely and so a council was appointed to help him until he should grow up, but in the meantime he was a real King, boy as he was, and it is safe to say that he was the happiest boy in England on that July day when all London took a holiday in his honour. But if he had known what this crowning was to lead to, young Richard might have been very glad to change places with any bakers or butchers boy in London. The boy King had some uncles and cousins who were very great people and who gave him no little trouble after a while. He had wars on his hands too and needed a great deal more money than the people were willing to give him and so when he grew older and took the government into his own hands he found troubles all around him. The Irish people rebelled frequently. The Scots were hostile. There was trouble with Spain because Richard's uncle wanted to become King of that country and there was a standing war with France. But this was not all. In order to carry on these wars the King was obliged to have money and when he ordered taxes to be collected the common people, led by what Tyler, rose in rebellion. They marched into London, seized the tower and put to death the treasurer of the kingdom, the Archbishop of Canterbury and many other persons high in the government. Tyler was so insolent one day that the Lord Mayor of London killed him. But the boy King, who was only 16 years old seeing that the rebels were too strong for him put himself at their head and marched with them out of the city. And so the King, against whom the rebellion was made became the leader of the rebels. As soon as matters grew quiet however he broke all the promises he had made and punished the chief rebels very harshly. Not long after this one of the King's uncles made himself master of the kingdom by force and it was several years before Richard could put him out of power. But the greatest of all Richard's troubles were yet to come. His cousin, Henry Bolingbroke the son of old John of Gaunt had misbehaved and Richard had sent him out of England not to return for ten years. But while Richard was in Ireland putting down a rebellion there Henry came back to England raised an army and by many of the most powerful men in the kingdom. When Richard came back from Ireland Henry made him a prisoner and not long afterwards the great men made up their minds to set up Henry as the King instead of Richard. They made Richard sign a paper giving up his right to the crown and then to make the matter sure Parliament passed a law that Richard should be King no longer. Richard was only 33 years old when all this was done but after so many troubles he might well have been glad to give up his kingship if that had been the end of the matter. But a king who has been set aside is always a dangerous man to have in the kingdom and it would not do to let Richard go free. He might gather his friends around him and give trouble. So it was decided that the unfortunate man should be shut up in a prison for the rest of his life. But even this was not the worst of the matter. Richard had a wife, Queen Isabella whom he loved very dearly and if the two could have gone away together into some quiet place to live they might still have been happy in spite of being under guard all the time. But the new king would not have it so. He gave orders that Richard should be shut up closely in a prison and that Isabella should go back to France where Richard had married her. This was a terrible thing for the young man and his younger wife who might have had a long life of happiness still before them if Richard had never been a king. But Richard had been king of England and so he had to give up both his freedom and his wife. In his play of King Richard II Shakespeare makes a very touching scene of their parting. In the play their farewell takes place in the street as shown in our picture. Isabella anxious to see her husband once more before they part forever waits at a point which she knows he must pass on his way to prison. There they meet and talk together for the last time on earth. The words which Shakespeare puts into their mouths are terribly sad but very beautiful. You will find the scene at the beginning of Act V of the play. The picture shows the two at the moment when Richard moves away to his prison leaving Isabella to mourn for him in a nunnery for the rest of her life. It is not certainly known what became of Richard after he was taken to prison. It is believed that he was murdered there. Perhaps starved to death. But there is a story that he got away and lived in Scotland dying there in 1419. It is not at all likely that the story is true, however, and the common belief has always been that he died or was killed in Pontifract Castle where he was imprisoned. However that may be Richard's life was a terribly unhappy one and all his sorrows grew out of the fact that he was a king. If he could have looked forward on that July day when the people were making Mary in his honour and could have known all that was to happen to him instead of being the happiest boy in England on his coronation day he would have been the most wretched end of the sad story of a boy king. A Day at Strawberry Hill To the rigorous exactitudes of modern realism it may seem an almost hopeless task to revive the details of a day in a Twickenham villa when George III was king and yet with the aid of Horace Walpole's letters of the Wapoleana of Pinkerton and above all of the catalogue of Strawberry Hill printed by its owner in 1774 there is no insurmountable difficulty in deciding what must probably have been the customary course of events. Nothing is needed at the outset but to assume that you had arrived late on the previous night at the embattled Gothic building on the Teddington Road and that the fatigues of your journey had left you little more than a vague notion of your host and a fixed idea that the breakfast hour was nine. Then after carrying with you into the chintz curtains of the red bed chamber an indistinct recollection of Richardson's drawings of Pope and his mother and of Birmingham's owl-cutten paper which you dimly make out with your candle on the walls you would be waked at eight the next morning by Colombe, the Swiss valet as great a tyrant over his master as his compatriot Canton in the clandestine marriage and in due time would repair to the blue-papered and blue-furnished breakfast room looking pleasantly on the Thames. Here, coasting leisurely around the apartment, you would probably pause before Monsieur de Carmantel's double picture of your host's dead friend, Madame du Diffond and her relative, Duchesse de Choiselle or you would peer curiously at the view of Madame de Sevigny's hotel in the rue cultured Saint-Catherine. Presently would come a patter of tiny feet and a fat and not very sociable little dog which had once belonged to the said Madame du Diffond would proceed its master, whom you would hear walking, with the stiff tread of an infirm person from his bedroom on the floor above. Shortly afterwards would enter a tall, slim, frail-looking figure in a morning gown with a high pallid forehead dark, brilliant eyes under drooping lids and a friendly, but forced and rather unprepossessing smile. Tonton, as little dog was called after being cajoled into a semblance of reality, would be lifted upon a small sofa at his master's side. The tea kettle and heater would arrive and tea would be served in cups of fine old white embossed Japanese china. And then the customary salutations exchanged and over would gradually begin in a slightly affected fashion to which you speedily grow accustomed that wonderful flow of talk which, like Prades vickers slipped from politics to puns and passed from Mohammed to Moses. That endless stream of admirably told stories of recollections, graphic and humorous, of salles and bon malts, of which Horace Walpole's extraordinary correspondence is the cooled expression but of the vivacity and variety of which, enhanced as they were by the changes in the speaker's voice and look, and emphasized by his semi-French gesticulation, it is impossible to give any adequate idea. A glance across the river would suggest an anecdote of her grace, the Duchess of Queensbury, a falling spoon, a malt by Lady Townshend. Upon yesterday's execution at Tyburn would follow a vivid picture of the deaths of Balmarino and Kilmarnock, or a reference to your ride from London of the night before would usher in a full and particular account how the valuable and fascinating gentleman before you with the great chalk stones in his fingers was once all but shot through the head by the highwayman James McLean. Breakfast over, and a liberal bowl of bread and milk tossed out of the window to the troops of squirrels that come flocking in from the high trees round the lawn, your host would invite you to make the tour of the grounds, adding, if it were May, that his favourite lilacs were well worth the effort. He would astonish you by going out in his slippers and without a hat and in reply to your ill-concealed astonishment would laughingly compare himself to the Indian in the spectator who said that he was all face. Passing by the abbot's garden with its bright parterres, he would lead you to the pretty cottage he had built on the site of the old residence of his deceased tenant Richard Franklin, once printer of that scarless craftsman in which Pultany and Bollingbroke had so persistently assailed his father. In its sunny print-hung tea-room with the little library at the side he would show you the picture of his friend Lady Hervey, once the beautiful Molly Lapel of Pultany in Chesterfield's ballad, and would tell you that the frame was carved by the same grinling gibbons to whom we owe the bronze statue of King James II in the privy garden at Whitehall. Thence you would pass to the chapel in the wood with its stained glass pictures of Henry III and his queen from Bexel Church and its shrine from Santa Maria Majoria at Rome and he would explain that the roof was designed by that unimpeachable Saint Gothic, Mr. Chute of the Vine in Hampshire, that George Augustus Selwyn had given him the great earthen pot at the door and that the carved bench in the anti-chapel had been contrived by no less a person than the son of the famous Ricardus Aristarchus, master of trinity, the mighty Scoliest whose unwirried pains made Horace Dull and humbled Milton's strains, as he would quote from the duncead of the late lamented Richard Bentley the Younger he would remind you had also drawn some excellent illustrations to Gray the originals of which he will show you later in the library and meanwhile he invites your attention at the end of the winding walk to another masterpiece from the same ingenious brain a huge oaken seat shaped like a shell in which once sat together three of the handsomest women in England, the Duchess of Hamilton the Duchess of Richmond and the Countess of Aylesbury if you were still intelligently interested and your host still unfatigued, for he is capricious and easily tired, you would pass from the garden to the private printing press the officina Arbutiana as he christens it next the neighboring farmyard here you would be introduced to the superintendent and occasional secretary Mr. Thomas Curgate who if so minded would exhibit to you a proof of Miss Hannah Moore's poem of Bishop Bonner's ghost which his patron is kindly setting up for her or then in there strike you off a piping hot pull of the latest quatrain to those charming Miss Berries who are now inhabiting little strawberry hard buy once teneted by red faced good-humored Mrs. Clive as you return it last to the house your guide would almost certainly pause in the little cloister at the entrance beside the blue and white china tub for goldfish in which was drowned that favorite cat whose fate was despised by gray and lifting the label he would read the poet's words twas on this lofty vases side where china's gayest art has died the azure flowers that blow demurest of the tabby kind the pensive salema reclined gazed on the lake below footnote there is one of these labels in the dice collection at south kensington and a footnote once more under bentley's japan's tin lantern in the gloomy little hall your host pending the scribbling of half a dozen pressing letters to lady asary mr. pinkerton or one or other of his many correspondence would beg you to await him in the picture gallery here long before you had exhausted your admiration of the emperor vespasian in basalt or the incomparable greek eagle from the baths of caracalla he would resume his post of chichirone leading you almost at once to the portraits of his three beautiful nieces edward wallpole's daughters one of whom painted by reynolds had been fortunate enough to marry king george's own brother william henry duke of glosster a fact of which her uncle horris is ill disguisedly proud from the gallery you would pass to the round drawing room whose chief glory was visari's bianca capello and thence to the adjoining tribune a curious yellow lit chamber with semi-circular recesses in which were accumulated most of the choices treasures of strawberry miniatures by cooper and the oliver's enamels by pettitote and zinc gems from italy barrel leafs and ivory coins and seal rings and reliquaries and filigree work in the disperse perfusion of which you would afterwards dimly recall such items as a silver bell carved with masks and insects by benvenuto cellini a missile attributed to rafael a bronze caligula with silver eyes and a white snuff box with a portrait purporting to be a gift from madame de savigne in the elysian fields but sent in reality by the faithful madame du defend each object would bring its train of associations and traditions and the fading of the all-golden afternoon would find your companion still promising fresh marvels in the yet unexplored rooms beyond where are the speculum of canal coal once used by the notorious starmonger dr. john d the red hat of his eminence cardinal wolsey and the very spurs worn by king william the third of a mortal memory at the ever glorious battle of the boine with four o'clock would come dinner eaten probably in the refectory a room consecrated chiefly to the family portraits conspicuous among which in blue velvet was your host by richardson the repast was of attic taste but with very little wine as wallpole himself drank nothing but iced water and coffee upstairs was ordered with such promptitude as to afford the visitor but scanty leisure for lingering over the bottle about five you migrated to the round drawing room where your entertainer after recommending you to replenish your box with fryburg snuff from a canister of which the hiding place was an ancient marble urn in the window seat would take up his station with a costable flood of memories and reflections always bright often striking and never weary some once perhaps he would rise to exhibit the closet he had built for lady die both clerks seven drawings in soot water to his own tragedy of the mysterious mother or he would adjourn for an hour to the library to turn over his unrivaled collection of hogarth's prince or to show you lady mary wartley monoguse Milton or the identical Iliad and odyssey from which pope made his translations or the long row of books printed at the officina Arbotiana but he would gravitate sooner or later to his old vantage ground on the sofa whence unhasting unresting he would discourse at most excellent anecdote into the small hours when the chins curtains of the red bed chamber would again receive his bewitched and bewildered but still unsatiated visitor and so would end your day at Horace Catholic castle of strawberry hill end of a day at strawberry hill recording by Colleen McMahon the earliest egyptian remains by Charles francis horn coffee break collection 22 days gone by this is a Libra vox recording all Libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libra vox org recording by Betty B the earliest egyptian remains if we sweep aside the dust of the many accumulated ages the earliest egyptian writings that have come down to us are the bare names of kings carved on ancient tombs later on we find these names inscribed on other monuments and accompanied by lists of kingly titles thus for example in the ancient copper mines of Sinai the desert land wherein King Nefru and his followers in later ages wandered for 40 years a land outside of Egypt altogether there is an inscription carved on the rock apparently as a record of empire by King Nefru the ruler who preceded Khufu the builder of the great pyramid 3000 BC this carving like earlier similar ones on the rocky wall shows an egyptian pharaoh with upraised war club about to slay a crouching Arab of the desert that is Egypt holds warlike mastery over Sinai King Nefru's picture however is the first to have a long added inscription it reads king of upper and lower Egypt favorite of the two goddesses lord of truth golden sun god Nefru Nefru great god who has given power stability life health joy of heart forever subduer of the barbarians if such an inscription is too elementary to be called literature we find a distinctly literary form soon afterward in the tomb biographies high officials of the kingdom followed the lead of their rulers by building splendid tombs and they painted on the inner chambers of these some record of the owner's proud career the earliest such boastful yet discovered is that of methan the master of the hunt under king Nefru methan does not seem to have been a specially important man he was methodical, busy successful in a small way but it is the very maddest vagary of chance that out of all the millions of early egyptians he should be the one to have his little boast of success survive until now and now through Egyptologists served per chance until the end of time so methan's boastful record of his life faded now and difficult to read obscure of wording and interpretation is given here as Egypt's earliest surviving life scene then comes the palermo stone this begins for us egyptian history as methan begins biography the palermo stone is a broken fragment from a large tablet which is set up somewhere as a sort of permanent historical record during the fifth egyptian dynasty 2750 bc the original stone contained a list of all the preceding kings arranged in chronological order and with brief notes of the chief events of each reign sometimes of each year of each reign the remaining fragment is unreadable in part and gives us only vague visions of large events whose details the imagination must fill out as best it may of Egypt before the close of the fifth dynasty we possess only such records as these shadowy hints of life pictures fascinating to pour over and meditate upon with their wistful evidence that human hearts yearned then for much the same things that they yearn for now mother's schemed for their sons themselves on building finer houses than their neighbors foreign regions were harried and their people hacked and plundered without remorse and then the conquerors returned in pleasant pride to dream amid their vines and fig trees and of the earliest egyptian remains the first americans by cotton mather from magnolia christie americana published in 1702 coffee break collection 22 days gone by this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org perhaps my reader would gladly be informed how america came first to be peopled and if orneuses discourses they orignate gentium americanarum do not satisfy him i hope shortly the most ingenious doctor woodward in his natural history of the earth will do it in the meantime to stay thy stomach reader accept the account of a very sensible russian who had been an officer of prime note in Siberia gave unto father avril said he quote beyond the obi a great river called koena at the mouth whereof discharging itself into the frozen sea there stands a spacious island very well peopled and no less considerable for hunting an animal whose teeth are in great esteem the inhabitants go frequently upon the side of the frozen sea to hunt this monster and because it requires great labor with assiduity they carry their families usually along with them now it many times happens that being surprised by a thaw they are carried away i know not wither upon huge pieces of ice that break one off from another for my part i am persuaded that several of those hunters have been carried upon those floating pieces of ice to the most northern parts of america which is not far from that part of asia which juts out into the sea of tartary and that which confirms me in this opinion is this that the americans who habit that country which advances farthest toward that sea have the same physiognomy as those islanders thus the viody of smotensko end of the first americans by cotton mather the first saxon settlement from the history of london by walter basant coffee break collection 22 days gone by this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org the first saxon settlement 150 years passed away between the landing of the east saxons and their recorded occupation of the city this long period made a great difference in the fierce savage who followed the standard of the white horse and landed on the coast of essics he became more peaceful he settled down contentedly to periods of tranquility certain arts he acquired and he learned to live in towns as yet he was not a christian this means that the influence of roam with its religion its learning and its arts had not yet touched him but he had begun to live in towns and he lived in london perhaps the first of the new settlers were the foreign merchants returning as soon as more settled times allowed with their cargos london has always been a place of trade but for trade no one would have settled in it therefore either the men of essics invited the foreign merchants to return or the foreign merchants returned and invited the men of essics to the city and to bring with them what they had to exchange in the year 597 augustin prior of a roman monastery was sent by Pope Gregory the Great with 40 monks to convert the english ethelbert king of kent and most powerful of the english kinglets was married to bertha a christian princess she had brought with her a chaplain and it was probably at her invitation or through her influence they had it than it they obtained permission to meet the king in the open air they appeared wearing their robes carrying crucifix and chanting psalms it is probable that the conversion of the king had been arranged beforehand for without any difficulty or delay the king and all his court and following the king's example all the people were baptized augustin returned to Rome where he was consecrated archbishop of the english nation and the work of preaching the faith went on vigorously the east saxons made no more hesitation at being baptized than the men of kent ethelbert indeed could command obedience he was overlord of all the nations south of the humber he it was according to bead who built the first church of saint paul in london a fact which proves his authority and influence in london and his sincere desire for the nations they did in a way but when king sebert died they relapsed and drove their bishop into exile then bead says that they were punished for this sin the east saxons fell into trouble they went to war with the men of wessex and were defeated by them after this we find london in the hands of the northumbrians and the mercians that is to say these nations one after the other obtained the supremacy as in the year 616 or thereabouts the bishop maletus had to leave his diocese 40 years later another conversion of london took place under bishop said consecrated at lindisfarne the new faith was not strong enough to stand against a plague and the east saxons of london went back once more to their old gods after another 30 years before the close of the 7th century london was again converted and this time for good in the 8th century london passed again out of the hands of the east saxon kings into those of the mercians the earliest extant document concerning london is one dated 734 in which king ethobald grants to the bishop of rochester leave to send one ship without tax in or out of london port a wittan i.e. a national council was held in london in 811 it is then spoken of as an illustrious place and royal city the supremacy of mercia passed to that of wessex london went with the supremacy in 833 eggbert king of wessex held a wittan in london when eggbert died the supremacy of wessex fell with him then the danish troubles fell thick and disastrous upon the country when alfred succeeded to the crown the danes held the iow of fannet which commanded the river they had conquered the north country from the tweed to the humbur they had overrun all the eastern counties twice viz in 839 and in 852 they had pillaged london which they presently occupied making it their headquarters with this danish occupation ends the first sex and settlement of the city end of the first sex and settlement recording by collie mcman the first things giving by cotton mather from magnalia christie americana published in 1720 coffee break collection 22 days gone by this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org from page 54 of volume 1 in one of the first summers after their sitting down at Plymouth a terrible drought threatened the ruin of all their summers husbandry from about the middle of may to the middle of july an extreme hot sun beat down upon their fields without any rain so that all their corn began to wither and languish and some of it was irrecoverably parched up in this distress they set apart a day for fasting and prayer to deprecate the calamity that might bring them to fasting through famine in the morning of which day there was no sign of any rain but before the evening the sky was overcast with clouds which went not away without such easy gentle and yet plentiful showers as revived a great part of their decayed corn for a comfortable harvest the Indians themselves took notice of this answer given from heaven to the supplication of this devout people and one of them said now I see that the Englishman's God is a good God for he hath heard you and sent you rain and that without such tempest and thunder as we used to have with our rain which after our pow-wowing for it break down the corn whereas your corn stands whole and good still surely your God is a good God the harvest which God thus gave to this pious people caused them to set apart another day for solemn thanksgiving to the glorious hearer of prayers end of The First Thanksgiving by Cotton Mather The Foundation of Rome by John Frost Coffee Break Collection 22 Days Gone By This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Betty B The Foundations of Rome BC 753 There are many different accounts of the events attending The Foundation of Rome as once to be mistress of the world. But such statements as appear most probable are here selected to make up a story which while it pleases shall also convey instruction. The Romans generally believed that they were descended from Aeneas and his followers who after the sacking of Troy by the Greeks in the year BC 1184 fled from Thence in ships and ended their voyage in Latium. Latinas was king and when he saw that Aeneas was peaceably disposed and only wished a place of refuge he admitted him into his favor and gave him his daughter Lavinia in marriage. He engaged in the affairs of his father-in-law who was much pleased with him and his followers. When Latinas died Aeneas ascended the throne and was after his death succeeded by his descendants down to the time of Numator who was thrown by his brother Amulius. Amulius murdered his son and his daughter was compelled to become a Vestal so that she might have no children to revenge themselves on the tyrant. But his measures were vain for Rea Silvia the Vestal had twin sons who were thrown into the river Tiber and she was condemned to be buried alive. The place where the children were thrown being shallow they soon grounded were according to the account suckled by a she-wolf until Faustalus the king shepherd struck with the strange sight took them up and treated them as his own children. They increased in strength and became shepherds but not liking this occupation they went to the chase and there obtained a superiority over their fellows by the exhibition of a little daring and valor they seemed born to command and discovered abilities above the meanness of their supposed origin. The companions of Amulius and Remus, the two twins increased in numbers daily and were strong enough to attack the robbers who infested that neighborhood. Some persons who envied Remus resolved to rid themselves of his rival ship by taking him before Numitor who dared do nothing till the sanction of his brother was received. Compassion made Numitor defer the sentence. He asked Remus concerning his birth. The young man replied that he was ignorant of the place of his nativity but only knew that Faustalus had said that Romulus and he were twins and were found exposed on the brink of the river. Numitor immediately perceived in Remus and his brother the twins exposed by Amulius. Meantime Faustalus disclosed to Romulus his noble birth and immediately nothing was thought of but the destruction of the tyrant. He was beset on all sides. Romulus marched through the avenues of the palace and restored his grandfather to the throne. Not long after Romulus and Remus formed a settlement. A fatal desire of reigning seized them both. Numitor advised them to let the decision of their quarrels rest with the gods. Accordingly each stationed himself on a hill and waited for the appearance of vultures which was then the foolish method used for finding the will of the gods. Romulus sent to Remus a message saying that he had seen some of these birds. Just then Remus saw six and running to Romulus to discover the truth of what he had heard he found that he was deceived but Romulus at that instant saw twelve vultures. Remus said he was victorious because the birds first appeared to him and Romulus insisted that as he had seen the greatest number he was the conqueror. From the dispute they came to blows and Remus was slain by his brother who being provoked at his leaping contemptuously over the walls struck him dead at his feet. Romulus was therefore the sole commander of the city soon after he was elected their king and thus we see that in the infancy of society men were chosen as rulers who had distinguished themselves in the service and protection of their country. He established a senate of 100 men and divided the people into patricians and plebeians. At first the city was nearly square built of mud and governed the country only for eight miles round yet the city was one day to give laws to all the world. End of The Foundation of Rome 14th century prayers by various authors coffee break collection 22 days gone by this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chad Horner from LibriPol Times of Anxiety May Jesus Christ the King of Glory help us to make the right use of all the suffering that God sends and to offer to him the true incense of our hearts for his name's sake Amen Grant most gracious God that we may love and seek thee always and everywhere above all things and for thy sake in the life present and may at length find thee and for ever hold thee fast in the life to come. Grant this for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen I am a memorial of the resurrection O Lord Jesus Christ by thy glorious resurrection in which thou dost appear alive and immortal to thy disciples and faithful followers by thy forty days abiding and sweet converse in which by many infallible proofs speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God thou dost comfort them and assure them of thine actual resurrection removing all doubt from their hearts we beseech thee O Lord grant that we may be numbered among those who were foreordained by God to be witnesses of thy resurrection not only by word of mouth but in reality of good works with thine honour and glory be with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and readest ever one God world without end Amen for heavenly mindedness almost blessed Lord Dain to help us and of thy great mercy abolish our sins detach our minds from earthly things and raise them to the love of heavenly riches most merciful O God who dost favour all true love do thou so aid and direct us that we may love thee above all things and recognising infinite finite benefits may keep them in memory and gift the everlasting thanks for them finally grant that ours may be the blessed life which shall enjoy thy love forever through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Self-Renunciation If a man may attain thereon too may he unto God as his hand is unto man let him be therewith content and not seek further that we may thus deny ourselves some forsake and renounce all things for God's sake and give up our own wills and die unto ourselves and live unto God alone unto his will may he help us who gave up his will to his heavenly Father Jesus Christ our Lord to him be blessing forever and ever Amen Theologia Germanica the God we love now and he who will hold to God loves all things in the one which is one and all and the one in all because all is in the one and he who loves somewhat this or that otherwise than in the one and for the sake of the one loves not God for he loves somewhat which is not God therefore he loves it more than God but he who loves somewhat more than God or equally with God loves not God for God must be and will be alone loved and in truth nothing ought to be loved but God alone and when the true light and the true divine love dwell in a man he loves nothing else but God alone for he loves God as the good and for the sake of the good and all goods is one and one is all for verily all is one and one is all in God Amen Theologia Germanica end of 14th century prayers from prayers of the Middle Ages light from a thousand years by various authors from recollections of a busy life being the reminiscences of a Liverpool merchant 1840-1910 by William B. Forward Coffee Break Collection 22 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Chad Horner from Ballycler in County Antrim, Northern Ireland situated in the north east of the island of Ireland Intellectual Life Liverpool has always been too much absorbed in her commerce to take any prominent position in the world of literature and education until recent years when we have atoned, in some degree for our remissness in the past by the founding of our university Professor Ramsey Mur in a recent speech, however claims that he had a renaissance in Liverpool in the early years of the 19th century When a group of thinkers, scholars and writers finding its centre in William Roscoe gave to Liverpool a position and a name in the literary world and she became a real seat of literary activity To that remarkable man, William Roscoe we owe the Athenium the Literary and Philosophical Society on the Roscoe collection of pictures now in the Walker Art Gallery This intellectual effort quickly lost its vitality and for long years the literary and philosophical society struggled alone to keep burning the light of higher culture and literary activity Elementary education was almost entirely in the hands of the church middle class education depended upon the Liverpool Collegiate the Mechanics Institute afterwards the Liverpool Institute and the Royal Institute The fashion of sending boys to our great public schools did not set in until the 70s Such was the condition of intellectual life when in 1880 the Liverpool University College was established mainly through the efforts of the late Earl of Derby William Rathbone, Christopher Buschel E.K. Muspratt, David Jardine Sir Edward Lawrence Robert Gladstone, Mr. Muspratt Sir John Brunner John Rankin and William Johnson The first principal, Dr. Randall rendered excellent service in these early struggling years which were happily followed by still better and even more successful efforts under Vice Chancellor Dale resulting in the granting of a Royal Charter in 1903 on the founding of a university. The Earl of Derby became Chancellor and Dr. Dale Vice Chancellor. The university has been nobly and generously supported by Liverpool men. Indeed a reference to the calendar fills me with surprise that so much could have been accomplished within such a brief period its work is making itself felt general uplifting of the level of education while the presence in Liverpool has such a distinguished body of professors has had considerable influence in giving a higher and more intellectual tone to society and in opening up new avenues of thought and activity we must not omit to record the excellent work done by the school board when first established in 1873 the election of members provoked such sectarian animosity but in the course of time through the exertions of Mr Christopher Bushel and Mr Sam Rothbone this hindrance to its success was overcome and the excellence of its organisation was greatly recognised its functions have during the past few years been transferred to the City Council one of the results of the school board was the founding of the Council of Education which provided in the shape of scholarships the means by which boys could advance from the elementary school to the higher grade schools and the universities Mr Sam Rothbone, Mr Gilmore and Mr Bushel were very active in promoting this association end of intellectual life from recollections of a busy life being the reminiscences of a Liverpool merchant 1840 to 1910 by William B. Forwood Marrying a God by Saxo Grammaticus 1160 to 1220 from the Danish history Coffee Break Coffee Break Collection 22 Days Gone By This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org While this was passing in Hologoland Baldur entered the country of Gihwar armed in order to sue for Nanna Gihwar to make him learn Nanna's own mind so he approached the maiden with the most choice and cajoling words and when he could win no hearing from his prayers he persisted in asking the reason of his refusal she replied that a God could not wed with a mortal because the vast difference of their natures prevented any bond of intercourse also the God sometimes used to break their pledges and the bond contracted between unequals was apt to snap suddenly there was no firm tie between those of differing estate for beside the great the fortunes of the lowly were always dimmed also lack and plenty dwelt in diverse tents nor was there any fast bond of intercourse between Gihwar's wealth and obscure poverty in fine the things of earth would not mate with those of heaven being sundered by a great original gulf through a difference in nature in as much as mortal man was infinitely far from the glory of the Divine Majesty with this shuffling answer she alluded to suit of Baldur and shrewdly wove excuses to refuse his hand when Huthar heard this from Gihwar he complained long to Helgi of Baldur's insolence both were in doubt as to what should be done and beat their brains over diverse plans for converse with a friend in the day of trouble though it removeeth not the peril yet maketh the heart less sick amid all the desires of their souls the national valor prevailed and a naval battle was fought with Baldur one would have thotted a contest of men against gods for Odin and Thor and the whole array of the gods fought for Baldur there one could have beheld the war in which divine and human might were mingled but Huthar was clad in his steel-defined tunic and charged with the closest bands of the gods assailing them as vehemently as a son of earth could assail the powers above however Thor was swinging his club with marvelous might and shattered all interposing shields calling as loudly on his foes to attack him as upon his friends to back him up no kind of armor withstood his onset no man could receive his stroke whatsoever his blow fended off it crushed neither shield nor helm endured the weight of its dent no greatness of body or of strength could serve thus the victory would have passed to the gods but that Huthar, though his line had already fallen back darted up, cued off the club at the half and made it useless and the gods when they had lost this weapon fled incontinently but that antiquity vultures for it it were quite against common belief to think that men prevailed against gods we call them gods in a suppositious rather than a real sense for to such we give the tide to lift deity by the custom of nations not because of their nature end of Marrying a God by Saxo Grammaticus Old Salem Shops by Eleanor Putnam Coffee Break Collection 22 Days Gone By this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Anita Sloma Martinez Old Salem Shops I wonder how many people have memories as vivid as mine of the quaint shops which a score of years ago stood placidly along the quiet streets of Salem in the Salem of today there are few innovations not many modern buildings have replaced the time honored landmarks yet twenty years ago Salem in certain aspects was far more like an old colonial town than it is now when the proprietor of an old shop died it was seldom that a new master entered nobody knew ever came to Salem and everybody then living there had already his legitimate occupation the old shop slacking tenants went to sleep their green shutters were closed and they laid up in ordinary without comment from anyone I remember one shop of the variety known in Salem as Button Stores it was kept by two quaint old sisters whose family name I never knew we always called them Miss Martha Miss Martha was the older and sported a magnificent turban of wonderful construction Miss Sybil wore caps and little wintry curls both had short waisted gowns much sheared toward the belts and odd little housewives of green leather which hung from their apron bindings by green ribbons their wares were few and faded they had a sparse collection of cruels old fashioned laces little crimped cakes of white wax and emery balls in futile imitation of strawberries they sold handkerchiefs antiquated gauze and brocaded ribbons and an embroidery stamping for ladies with much care and deliberation I remember being one sent to take to these ladies an article which was to be stamped with a single letter Miss Martha consulted at some length with a sister and then with an air of gentle importance said to me tell your mother dear that sister Sybil will have it ready in one week certainly on another occasion Miss Sybil had chance to give me a penny too much in change discovering which before I was well away I returned to the shop and told her of the mistake Miss Sybil dropped the penny to these old gentle women that I believe even a penny was of importance to them and in her gentle voice she asked what is your name dear and when I told her she replied approvingly well you are an honest child and you may go home and tell your mother that Miss Sybil said so to this commendation she added the gift of a bit of pink gauze ribbon brocaded with little yellow and lavender leaves I returned to my family in a condition of such conscious virtue that I am convinced that I must have been quite insufferable for some days following the only article in which these ladies dealt which specially concerned us children was a sort of gay colored beads such as were used in making bags and reticules that fine old bead embroidery which some people show nowadays as the work of their great grandmothers these beads were highly valued by Salem children and were sold for a penny a thimble full they were measured out in a small mustard spoon of yellow wood and it took three ladlefuls to fill the thimble I cannot forget the air of plastic and judicial gravity with which dear Miss Martha measured out a sense worth of beads one winter day Miss Sybil died the green shutters of the shop were bowed with black ribbons a bit of rusty black crepe fluttered from the knob of the half glass door inside of which the curtains were drawn as for a Sunday for a whole week the shop was decorously closed when it was reopened only Miss Martha a little older and greyer and more gently serious stood behind the scantily filled showcase my mother went in with me that day and bought some laces Miss Martha folded each piece about a card and secured the ends with pins after her usual careful fashion and made out to the quaint little receded bill with which she always insisted on furnishing customers as she handed the parcel across the counter she answered a look in my mother's eyes I did not think she would go first she said simply Sybil was very young to die in the following autumn came Miss Martha's turn to go then the shutters were closed forever nobody took the store the winter snows drifted unchecked into the narrow doorway and the bit of black crepe affixed to the latch by friendly hands waved forlornly in the chilly winds and shivered in the air a thing to affect a child weirdly and to be hastened past with the creepy sensation of certain greyness of a winter twilight another well-remembered Salem shop was a little establishment of a certain Mrs. Birmingham this store was really a more joyous and favorite resort for children than the aristocratic precincts of Miss Martha and Miss Sybil one reason for this was that while two gentler souls never lived these ladies belonged to a generation when children were kept in their places and were to be seen and not heard this fact flavored their kindly treatment of young people and we felt it then two save for the beads their wares were not attractive to little folk and lastly there was a constraint in the prim neatness the mystic half-perceived odor of some old Indian perfume and the general air of decay gentility that hung about the shop of the two old gentle women which pertained not at all to the thoroughly vulgar but alluring domain of Mrs. Birmingham this shop was not on Essex street the street of shops but upon a quiet byway devoted to respectable dwelling houses and for this reason we were free to visit Mrs. Birmingham's whenever we chose it was a tiny house and I believe it had beside it a very shabby and seedy garden there were two windows with green wooden shutters and a green door with the upper half of glass this was once the fashionable manner of stores in Salem inside the door was a step down which one always fell incontinently for even if one remembered its existence it was so narrow and the door closed on its spring so suddenly behind one that there was no choice but to fall the very name of Birmingham brings up the curious odor of that shop there was above all a close and musty and attic like perfume mingling with this were a perception of cellar mold a hint of cheese a dash of tobacco and cabbage a scent of camphor a suspicion of snuff and a strong undercurrent of warm black gown scorched by being too near an airtight stove Mrs. Birmingham's stock equalled butter cups in variety along the floor in front of the left hand counter was always a row of lusty green cabbages and a basket of apples a small glass showcase held bread and buns and brick-shaped sheets of livid gingerbread if one came to buy milk Mrs. Birmingham dipped it from a never empty pan on the right hand counter wherein sundry hapless flies went like Ophelia to a moist death then there were ribbons and cotton laces needles, pins perfumed soaps and pomatoms there were a few jars of red and white peppermint and cinnamon sticks a box of pink corn cake which Mrs. Birmingham conscientiously refused to sell to children for fear the coloring matter might be poisonous and in season and out on a line above the right hand counter hung a row of those dismal creations the Valentine's known as comic all these articles so shabby and shop-worn enough probably possessed for us children a species of fascination there was a glamour in the very smell before referred to and the height of our worldly ambition was to have a shop just like Mrs. Birmingham's the things for which we sought Mrs. Birmingham's were, however chiefly of two sorts the first was a kind of small jointed wooden doll the second was this high in the face these generally looked like Mrs. Birmingham and they had little red boots painted on their stubby feet these ugly little puppets cost a cent apiece and were much prized as servant dolls nurses particularly because their arms would crook and they could be made to hold baby dolls in a rigid but highly satisfactory manner this flexibility of limb had also by the by my brother Tom had a vicious habit if ever the baby house were left unguarded of bending the dolls joints and leaving the poor little mannequins in all manner of ungainly and in decorous attitudes another thing which could be bought for one cent the limit of our purses when we went shopping and it required six or seven of us to spend this some was a string of curious little beads made of red ceiling wax they were somehow molded on the string while warm and could not be slipped off we really did not like them very well yet we were always buying them and despite our experience trying to slip them from the string there was a bell fastened to the top of Mrs. Birmingham's shop door which jangled as one precipitately entered and summoned Mrs. Birmingham from an inner room Mrs. Birmingham was a stout Irish woman with black eyes fat hands and a remarkably fiery nose she wore a rusty black gown the same probably which was always scorching before the stove in the back room and a false front dark as the ravens wing I believe she must have worn some sort of cap because without recalling just where she had them I never think of her without a distinct impression of dark purple ribbons she was by no means an inserving us she had a way of casting our pennies contemptuously into the till which was humiliating in the extreme she had likewise a habit of never believing that we had a commission right and persisted in sending us home to make sure that we were sent for ten and not a five cent loaf or for one and not two dozen of eggs this was painful and crushing to our pride but the bravest never rebelled against Mrs. Birmingham my brother used indeed to lurk around the corner a few minutes and then return to the shop without having gone home but I always feared Mrs. Birmingham's sharp black eyes and felt that a Diaz array would certainly come for Tom when all would be discovered in addition to the shop Mrs. Birmingham conducted an intelligence office in the back room I never saw one of the girls nor knew of any persons going to Mrs. Birmingham to seek intelligence but sometimes we heard laughter and very often Mrs. Birmingham's deep bass voice exclaimed Mike be off with your drunken now let alone tellin' stories to the girls Mike was Mr. Birmingham a one-legged man whom I never saw we knew that he was one-legged because Tom had seen him and we secretly believed this to be the reason of Mrs. Birmingham stressing in mourning children had asked and been told the nature and purpose of an intelligence office and yet there was ever a sort of uncanny mystery about that back room where unseen girls laughed and Mr. Birmingham was always being told to be off with his drunken but Tempura Mutantour alas for Mike he is off with all joking now for good alas too for Mrs. Birmingham I cannot believe that she died she was so invincible but she is gone the rusty black gown the purple ribbons and the ruddy nose have passed somewhere into the shadows of oblivion one more shop there was in which at a certain season the souls of the children rejoiced it was not much of a shop at ordinary times indeed it was but a small and unnoticeable building just around a corner of Essex Street it was only at holiday time that it blossomed out of insignificance this was before the days of any extent of holiday decoration and very little in the way of Christmas trimming was done by Salem tradesmen the season was celebrated with decorous merriment in our homes but almost no church adornment was seen and most of the shops relaxed not from their customary Salem air of eminent and grave respectability no butchers sent from a spray of holly with the goose and no Christmas cards dropped as now from the packages of baker or candlestick maker it was therefore the more delightful to witness the annual transformation of the little shop around the Essex Street corner the very heart and soul of Christmas tide must have dwelt in the plump body of the man who kept that shop his wooden awning was converted into a perfect arbor under which the front store showed as an enchanted cavern of untold beauty a bower of lusty greenery a glow at night with the starry brilliance of many candles gay with the scarlet berries of holly set off by the mystic mistletoe and rich with the laden treasures of sugary birds and beasts ropes of snowy popped corn bewildering braids twists and baskets of pink and white sugar golden oranges a rare fruit then the now white grapes in luscious clusters and bunches of those lovely cherries of clear red barley candy with yellow broom corn for stems after all though it was not so much that the wearers were more delightful than those kept by other folk probably the very same things could have been bought at any fruit store it was simply that this tiny shop and its plump red cheeked owner were overflowing with the subtle and joyous spirit of keeping holiday we children used always to call his place the Christmas shop and I well remember the thrill of joy which ran over me when returning from school one afternoon I saw my own parents entering the jovial precincts I spent home on winged feet to tell the other children that my father and father were in the Christmas shop and we all sat about the fire in the twilight and guessed what they were buying and revelled in the dear delights which were to result from a visit to that treasure house where is he now that childlike man who loved the holidays the merry white was twenty years before his time but it warms one's heart to think of him today alas a visit to Salem last year showed his wooden awning torn away and in his dismantled bower a dry and wizened stationer among log books and school room furnishings what a direful change from the hacian days of old I wonder that the chubby ghost of the former owner does not walk a nights to bemoan the times that are no more the shop of Miss Martha and Miss Sybil too seemed to be entirely done away with and Mrs. Birmingham's although still standing was but a wreck I would gladly have bought there for old time's sake a jointed doll or a string of ceiling wax beads but the green wooden shutters were closed the green door sunk sadly on its hinges its glass half grossly boarded the grass grew high before the door stone the mossy roof was concave the chimney was almost tottering the little shop was drawing itself together asking no sympathy of the beholder but meeting its appointed fate with that grey and silent resignation which alone is considered the proper thing in Salem society and of old Salem shops 14. Egyptian Poetical Compositions of the Literature of the Ancient Egyptians by Sir Ernest Alford Thomas and Wallace Budget Coffee Wreck Collection 22 Day's Gone By All LibriVox Recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Chad Horner from Ballyclair in County Hunter Northern Ireland situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland Chapter 14 Egyptian Poetical Compositions The Poetry of the Egyptians is wholly unlike that of western nations but closely resembles the rhythmical compositions of the Hebrews with their parallelism of members with which we are all familiar in the Book of Psalms, the Song of Solomon etc The most important collection of Egyptian songs known to us is contained in the famous papyrus in the British Museum number 10,060 more commonly known as Harris 500 This papyrus was probably written in the 13th century BC but many of the songs belong to a far earlier date though dealing with a variety of subjects there is no doubt that all of them must be classed under the heading of love songs In them the lover compares the lady of his choice to many beautiful flowers and plants and describes at considerable length the pain and grief which her absence causes him The lines of the strophes are short and the construction is simple and it seems certain that the words owed their effect chiefly to the voice of the singer who then as now employed many semi tones and birds of tones to the skill with which he played the accompaniment on his harp A papyrus at Leiden which was written a little later than the love songs contains three very curious compositions The first is a sort of lament of a pomegranate tree which in spite of the service which it has rendered to the sister and her brother is not included among trees of the first class In the second a fig tree expresses its gratitude and its readiness to do the will of its mistress and to allow its branches to be cut off to make a bed for her In the third a sycamore tree states the lady of the land on which it stands to come under the shadow of its branches and to enjoy a happy time with her lover and promises her that it will never speak about what it sees More interesting than any of the above songs is the so called song of the harbour of which two copies are known The first is found in the papyrus Harris 500 already mentioned and the second in the papyrus at Leiden Extracts of this poem are also found on the walls of the tomb of Hephaetip at Phoebes The copy in the papyrus reads the poem that is in the hall of the tomb of the king of the south the king of the north, Antiph whose word is true and is cut in front of the harbour O good prince, it is a decree and what have been adorned thereby as well, that the bodies of men shall pass away and disappear whilst others remain Since the time of the oldest ancestors lived in olden time who lie at rest in their sepulchres the masters and also the shining ones who have been buried in their splendid tombs who have built sacrificial halls in their tombs their place is no more consider what hath become of them I have heard the words of Imitep and Heritatoph which are treasured above everything because they uttered them consider what hath become of their tombs their walls have been thrown down their places are no more they are just as if they had never existed not one of them coming from where they are who can describe to us their form or condition who can describe to us their surroundings who can give comfort to our hearts and can act as our guide to the place whereon too they have departed give comfort to thy heart and let thy heart forget these things what is best for thee to do is to follow thy heart's desire as long as I liveest anoint thy head with sin and guience let thine apparel be of vices dipped in costly perfumes in the venerable products of the gods enjoy thyself more than thine has ever done before and let not thine heart pine for lack of pleasure pursue thy heart's desire and thine own happiness order thy surroundings on earth in such a way that they may minister to the desire of thy heart for at length that day of lamentation shall come wherein he whose heart is still not hear the lamentation never shall cries of grief cause to beat again the heart of a man who is in the grave therefore occupy thyself with thy pleasure daily and never cease to enjoy thyself behold a man is not permitted to carry his possessions away with him behold there never was anyone who having departed was able to come back again End of Chapter 14 Egyptian Poetical Compositions Chapter 2 of A Short History of Wales by Owen Edwards Coffee Break Collection 22 Days Gone By This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana in September 2019 Chapter 2 The Wandering Nations By land and by sea race after race has come to make the hills of Wales its home one race would be short with dark eyes and black hair another would be tall with blue eyes and fair hair they came from different countries and along different paths but each race brought some good with it one brought skill in taming animals until it had at last tamed even the pig and the bee another brought iron tools to take the place of stone ones another brought the energy of the chase and war and another a delight in sailing a ship or building a fortress one thing they had in common they wandered and they wandered to the west from the cold wastes and the dark forests of the north and east they were ever pushing west to more sunny lands as far back as we can see the Wandering Nations to the west was going on the islands of Britain were the furthest point they could reach for beyond it at that time no man had dared to sail into the unknown expanse of the ocean of the west in the islands of Britain the mountains of Wales were among the most difficult to win and it was only the bravest and the hardiest that could make their home among them the first races that came were short and dark they had tribal marks the picture of an animal as a rule and they had a strange fancy that this animal was their ancestor it may be that the local nicknames which are still remembered such as the pigs of Anglesey the dogs of Denbech the cats of Ruthen the crows of Harlech the gadflies of Maudry were the proud tribe titles of these early people they were polished stone their hammers and hatchets and adzes their lance heads and their arrow tips were of the hardest igneous rock chipped and ground with patient labour the people who come first have the best chance of staying if only they are willing to learn hardy plants will soon take the place of tender plants if left alone the dark short people are still the main part not only of the Welsh but of the British people it is true that their language has disappeared except a few place names but languages are far more fleeting than races the loss of its language does not show that a race is dead it only shows that it is very anxious to change and learn some languages easily give place to others and we say that the people who speak these languages are good linguists like Danes and Slavs other languages persist those who speak them are unwilling to speak any new language and this is the reason why Spanish and English are so widespread after the short dark race came at all fair-haired people they came in families as well as in tribes they had iron weapons and tools and the short dark people could not keep them at bay with their bone-tipped spears and flint-headed arrows we know nothing about the struggle between them but it may be that the fairy stories we were told when children come from these far off times if a fairy maiden came from lake or mound to live among men she vanished at once if touched with iron is this learned men have asked a dim memory of the victory of iron over stone the name given to the short dark men is usually Iberian the name given to the tall fair man who followed him is Cout the two learned to live together in the same country the conqueror probably looked upon himself at first as the master of the conquered then as simply belonging to a superior race but gradually the distinction vanished the language remained the language of the Kelt it is called an Aryan tongue a language as noble among languages as the Aryan is among its hills it is still spoken in Wales in Brittany in Ireland and in the Isle of Man it was also spoken in Cornwall till the 18th century and Yorkshire Dalesmen still count their sheep in Welsh English is another Aryan tongue the more mixed the nation is the more rich its life in the greater its future purity of blood is not a thing to boast of and no great and progressive nation comes from one breed of men some races have more imagination than others or a finer feeling for beauty others have more energy and practical wisdom the best nations have both and they have both probably because many races have been blended in their making there is hardly a parish in Wales in which there are not different types of faces and different types of character the wandering of nations has never really stopped the Kelt was followed by his cousins the Angle and the Saxon these again were followed by races closely related to them the Normans and the Danes and the Flemings they have all left their mark on Wales and on the Welsh character the migration is still going on trace the history of an upland Welsh parish and you will find that in a surprisingly short time the old families high and low have given place to newcomers look into the trains which carry immigrants from Hull or London to Liverpool on their way west they have the blue eyes and yellow hair of those who came 2000 years ago but this country is no longer their goal the great continent of America has been discovered beyond fits of longing for wandering come over the Welsh periodically as they came over the Danes caused by scarcity of food and density of population or by a sense of oppression and a yearning for freedom an empty stomach sometimes and sometimes a fiery imagination sent a crowd of adventurers to new lands and it is thus that every living nation is ever renewing its youth End of Chapter 2 of a short history of Wales The Wandering Nations Chapter 1 The Wild West At the beginning of the 20th century there is strictly speaking no frontier to the United States at the beginning of the 19th century the larger part of the country was frontier in any portion of the country today in the remotest villages in Hamlets on the enormous farms of the Dakotas or the vast ranches of California one is certain to find some if not many of the modern appliances of civilization such as were not dreamed of 100 years ago Aladdin himself could not have commanded the glowing terms to write to the prospectus of the closing years of the 19th century so too it requires an extraordinary effort of the imagination to conceive of the condition of things in the opening years of that century The first quarter of the century closed with the year 1825 at that date Lincoln was nearly 17 years old the deepest impressions of life are apt to be received very early and it is certain that the influences which are felt previous to 17 years of age have much to do with the formation of the character if then we go back to the period named we can tell with sufficient accuracy what were the circumstances of Lincoln's early life though we cannot precisely tell what he had we can confidently name many things things which in this day we class as the capacities of life which he had to do without for the simple reason that they had not then been invented or discovered in the first place we must bear in mind that he lived in the woods the west of that day was not wild in the sense of being wicked criminal ruffian morally and possibly intellectually the people of that region would compare with the rest of the country of that day or of this day there was little schooling and no literary but the woodsman has an education of his own the region was wild in the sense that it was almost uninhabited and untilled the forests extending from the mountains in the east to the prairies in the west were almost unbroken and were the abode of wild birds and wild beasts bears, deer, wild cats raccoons, wild turkeys wild pigeons, wild ducks and similar creatures abounded on every hand consider now the sparseness of the population Kentucky has an area of 40,000 square miles one year after Lincoln's birth the total population white and colored was 406,511 or an average of 10 persons say less than two families to the square mile Indiana has an area of 36,350 square miles in 1810 its total population was 24,520 or an average of one person to one and one half square miles in 1820 it contained 147,173 inhabitants or about four to the square mile in 1825 the population was about 245,000 or less than seven to the square mile the capital city Indianapolis which is today of surpassing beauty was not built nor thought of when the boy Lincoln moved into the state Illinois with its more than 56,000 square miles of territory harbored in 1810 only 12,282 people in 1820 only 55,211 or less than one to the square mile while in 1825 its population a triple over 100,000 or less than two to the square mile it will thus be seen that up to his youth Lincoln dwelt only in the wildest of the wild woods where the animals from the chipmunk to the bear were much more numerous and probably more at home than man there were few roads of any kind and certainly none that could be called good for the mud of Indiana and Illinois is very deep and very tenacious and it would saddle horses a sufficient number of oxen and carts that were rude and awkward no locomotives, no bicycles no automobiles the first railway in Indiana was constructed in 1847 and it was to say the least a very primitive affair as to carriages there may have been some but a good carriage would be only a waste on those roads and in that forest the only pen was the goose quill and the ink was homemade paper was scarce, expensive and while of good material, poorly made newspapers were unknown in that virgin forest and books were like angels' visits few and far between there were sides in sickles but of a grade that would not be saleable today at any price there were no self-binding harvesters, no mowing machines there were no sewing or knitting machines though or needles of both kinds in the woods, thorns were used for pins guns were flint locks tinderboxes were used until the manufacture of the friction match artificial light came chiefly from the open fireplace though the tallow dip was known and there were some housewives who had time to make them and the disposition to use them illumination by means of molded candles, oil, gas came later that was long before the days of the telegraph in that locality there were no mills for weaving cotton, linen or woollen fabrics all spinning was done by means of the hand loom and the common fabric of the region was Lindsay Woolsey made of linen and woollen mixed and usually knock died antiseptics were unknown and a severe surgical operation was practically certain death to the patient nor was there ether, chloroform or cocaine for the relief of pain as to food wild game was abundant but the kitchen garden was not developed and there were no importations no oranges lemons, bananas no canned goods crusts of rye bread were browned ground and boiled this was coffee herbs of the woods were dried and steeped this was tea sassafras furnished a different kind of tea a substitute for the India and Ceylon teas now popular slippery elm bark soaked in cold water sufficed for lemonade the milk house when there was one was built over a spring when that was possible and the milk vessels were kept carefully covered to keep out snakes and other creatures that like milk whiskey was almost universally used indeed in spite of the constitutional 16-1 it was locally used as the standard of value the luxury of quinine which came to be in general use throughout that entire region was of later date these details are few and meagre it is not easy for us in the midst of the luxuries, comforts and necessities of a later civilization to realize the conditions of western life previous to 1825 but the situation must be understood if one is to know the life of the boy Lincoln imagine this boy begin at the top and look down him a long look for he was tall and gaunt his cap in winter was of coon skin with the tail of the animal hanging down behind in summer he wore a misshapen straw hat with no hat band his shirt was of Lindsay Woolsey above described and was of no color whatever unless you call it the color of dirt his breeches were of deer skin with the hair outside in dry weather these were what you please but when wet they hugged the skin with a clammy embrace and the victim might sigh in vain for sanitary underwear these breeches were held up by one suspender the hunting shirt was likewise of deer skin there were no stockings there weren't any stockings the shoes were cowhide though moccasins made by his mother were substituted in dry weather there was usually a space of several inches between the breeches and the shoes exposing a tanned and bluish skin for about half the year he went barefoot there were schools primitive and inadequate indeed as we shall presently see but the little red school house the hill with the stars and stripes floating proudly above it was not of that day there were itinerant preachers who went from one locality to another holding revival beatings but church buildings were rare and to say the least not of artistic design there were no regular means of travel and even the star route of the post office department was slow in reaching those secluded communities into such circumstances and conditions Lincoln was born and grew into manhood end of chapter 1 the wild west from the life of Abraham Lincoln