 The First and Second Phases of Christ's Life From Preparation for a Christian Life by Soren Kierkegaard Published in 1850, translated by Lee M. Hollander in 1923 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The First Phase of His Life And now let us speak about Him in a homely fashion, just as His contemporary spoke about Him, and as one speaks about some contemporary. Let Him be a man of the same kind as we are, whom one meets on the street in passing, and knows where He lives, and in what story, what His business is, who His parents are, His family, how He looks and how He dresses, with whom He associates. And there is nothing extraordinary about Him. He looks as men generally look. In short, let us speak of Him as one speaks of some contemporary, about whom one does not make a great adieu. For in living life together with these thousands upon thousands of real people, there is no room for a fine distinction like this. Possibly this man will be remembered in centuries to come, and at the same time he is really only a clerk in some shop, who is no witt better than his fellows. Therefore let us speak about Him as contemporaries speak about some contemporary. I know very well what I am doing, and I want you to believe that the cantering and indolent world-historic habit we have of always reverently speaking about Christ, since one has learned all about it from history, and has heard so much about His having been something very extraordinary, indeed, or something of that kind, that reverent habit, I assure you, is not worth a row of pins, but is rather sheer thoughtlessness, hypocrisy, and as such blasphemy. For it is blasphemy to reverence thoughtlessly in whom one is either to believe in, or to be offended in. It is the lowly Jesus Christ, a humble man born of a maiden of low degree, whose father is a carpenter. To be sure, his appearance is made under conditions which are bound to attract attention to him. The small nation among whom he appears, God's chosen people, as they call themselves, live in anticipation of a Messiah, who is to bring a golden period to land and people. You must grant that the form in which he appears is as different as possible from what most people would have expected. On the other hand, his appearance corresponds more to the ancient prophecies with which the people are thought to have been familiar. Thus he presents himself. A predecessor has called attention to him, and he himself fastens attention very decidedly on himself by signs and wonders which are noise to broad in all the land. And he is the hero of the hour, surrounded by unnumbered multitudes of people wherever he fares. The sensation aroused by him is enormous. Everyone's eyes are fastened on him. Everyone who can go about, I, even those who can only crawl, must see the wonder. And everyone must have some opinion about him so that the purveyors of ready-made opinions are put to it because the demand is so furious and the contradiction so confusing. And yet he, the worker of miracles, ever remains the humble man who literally hath not where to lay his head. And let us not forget, signs and wonders as contemporary events have a markedly greater elasticity in repelling or attracting than the tame stories generally rehashed by the priests, and the still tamer stories about signs and wonders that happened eighteen hundred years ago. Signs and wonders as contemporary events are something plagi and important, something which in a highly embarrassing manner almost compels one to have an opinion. Something which, if one does not happen to be disposed to believe, may exasperate one excessively by thus forcing one to be contemporaneous with it. Indeed, it renders existence too complicated, and the more so, the more thoughtful, developed, and cultured one is. It is a peculiarly ticklish matter that it is having to assume that a man who is contemporaneous with one really performs signs and wonders. But when he is at some distance from one, when the consequences of his life stimulate the imagination a bit, then it is not so hard to imagine, in a fashion, that one believes it. As I said then, the people are carried away with him, they follow him jubilantly signs and wonders, both those which he performs and those which he does not perform. And they are glad in their hope that the Golden Age will begin once he is king. But the crowd rarely have a clear reason for their opinions. They think one thing today and another tomorrow. Therefore the wise and critical will not at once participate. Let us see now what the wise and critical must think so soon as the first impression of astonishment and surprise has subsided. The shrewd and critical man would probably say, even assuming that this person is what he claims to be, that is, something extraordinary, for as to his affirming himself to be God, I can, of course, not consider that as anything but an exaggeration for which I willingly make allowances and pardon him, if I really consider him to be something extraordinary, for I am not a pedant. Assuming then, which I hesitate to do, for it is a matter on which I shall at any rate suspend my judgment. Assuming then that he is really performing miracles, is it not an inexplicable mystery that this person can be so foolish, so weak-minded, so altogether devoid of worldly wisdom, so feeble, or so good-naturedly vain, or whatever else you please to call it, that he behaves in this fashion and almost forces his benefactions on men, instead of proudly and commandingly keeping people away from himself at a distance, marked by their profoundest submission, whenever he does, allow himself to be seen at rare occasions. Instead of doing so, think of his being accessible to everyone, or rather, himself going to everyone, of having intercourse with everybody, almost as if being the extraordinary person consisted in his being everybody's servant, as if the extraordinary person he claims to be, remarked by his being concerned, only lest men should fail to be benefited by him, in short, as if being an extraordinary person consisted in being the most solicitous of all persons. The whole business is inexplicable to me. What he wants, what his purpose is, what end he has in mind, what he expects to accomplish, in a word, what the meaning of it all is. He who, by so many a wise saying, reveals so profound an insight into the human heart, he must certainly know what I, using but half of my wit, can predict for him. Namely, that in such fashion one gets nowhere in the world, unless indeed despising prudence, one consistently aims to make a fool of oneself, or perchance, goes so far in sincerity as to prefer being put to death. But anyone desiring that must certainly be crazy. Having such profound knowledge of the human heart, he certainly ought to know that the thing to do is to deceive people, and then to give one's deception the appearance of being a benefaction conferred on the whole race. By doing so one reaps all advantages, even the one whose enjoyment is the sweetest of all, which is to be called by one's contemporaries a benefactor of the human race. For once in your grave you may snap your fingers at what posterity may have to say about you, but to surrender oneself altogether as he does, and not to think the least of oneself. In fact, almost to beg people to accept these benefactions, no, I would not dream of joining his company, and of course neither does he invite me. For indeed he invites only them that labor and are heavy laden. Or he would reason as follows. His life is simply a fantastic dream. In fact, that is the mildest expression one can use about it. For when judging him in this fashion, one is good-natured enough to forget altogether the evidence of sheer madness in his claim to be God. This is wildly fantastical. One may possibly live a few years of one's youth in such fashion, but he is now past thirty years, and he is literally nothing. Still further, in a very short time, he will necessarily lose all the respect and reputation he has gained among the people. The only thing you may say he has gained for himself. One who wishes to keep in the good graces of the people the riskiest chance imaginable, I will admit he must act differently. Not many months will pass before the crowd will grow tired of one who is altogether at their service. He will be regarded as a ruined person, a kind of outcast, who ought to be glad to end his days in a corner, the world forgetting by the world for God, provided he does not, by continuing his previous behavior, prefer to maintain his present attitude, and be fantastic enough to wish to be put to death, which is the unavoidable consequence of persevering in that course. What has he done for his future? Nothing. Has he any assured position? No. What expectations has he? None. Even this trifling matter. What will he do to pass the time when he grows older, the long winter nights? What will he do to make them pass? Why, he cannot even play cards. He is now enjoying a bit of popular favor, in truth, of all movable property, the most movable, which in a trice, may turn into an enormous popular hatred of him. Join his company? No, thank you. I am still, thank God, in my right mind. Or he may reason as follows, that there is something extraordinary about this person, even if one reserves the right, both one's own, and that of common sense, to refrain from venturing any opinion of his claim of being God, about that there is really little doubt. Rather, one might be indignant at providences, having entrusted such a person with these powers, a person who does the very opposite of what he himself bids us do, that we shall not cast our pearls before the swine, for which reason he will, as he himself predicts, come to grief by their turning about and trampling him under their feet. One may always expect this of swine, but on the other hand one would not expect that he who had himself called attention to this likelihood, himself would do precisely what he knows one should not do, if only there were some means of cleverly stealing his wisdom. For I shall gladly leave him an indisputed possession of that very peculiar thought of his that he is God, if one could but rob his wisdom without at the same time becoming his disciple, if one could only steal up to him at night and lure it from him. For I am more than equal to editing and publishing it, and better than he, if you please. I undertake to astonish the whole world by getting something altogether different out of it. For I clearly see there is something wondrously profound in what he says, and the misfortune is only that he is the man he is. But perhaps, who knows? Perhaps it is feasible anyway to fool him out of it. Perhaps in that respect, too, he is good-natured and simple enough to communicate it quite freely to me. It is not impossible, for it seems to me that the wisdom he unquestionably possesses evidently has been entrusted to a fool, seeing there is so much contradiction in his life. But as to joining his company and becoming his disciple, no, indeed, that would be the same as becoming a fool oneself. Or he might reason as follows. If this person does indeed mean to further what is good and true, and not venture to decide this, he is helpful at least in this respect to youths and inexperienced people, for they will be benefited in this serious life of ours by learning the sooner the better, and very thoroughly he opens the eyes even of the blindest to this, that all this pretense of wishing to live only for goodness and truth contains a considerable admixture of the ridiculous. He proves how right the poets of our times are when they let truth and goodness be represented by some half-witted fellow, one who is so stupid that you can knock down a wall with him. The idea of exerting oneself as this man does, of renouncing everything but pains and trouble, to be at back-end, call all day long, more eager than the busiest family physician, and pray why? Because he makes a living by it? No, not in the least. It has never occurred to him, as far as I can see, to want something in return. Does he earn any money by it? No, not a red cent. He is not a red cent to his name, and if he did he would forthwith give it away. Does he then aspire to a position of honor and dignity in the state? On the contrary, he loas all worldly honor. And he who, as I said, condemns all worldly honor and practices the art of living on nothing, he who, if anyone seems best-fitted to pass his life in a most comfortable, dulce-fire niante, which is not such a bad thing. He lives under a greater strain than any government official who is rewarded by honor and dignity, lives under a greater strain than any businessman who earns money like sand. Why does he exert himself thus? Or why this question about a matter not open to question? Why should anyone exert himself thus, in order to attain to the happiness of being ridiculed, mocked, and so forth? To be sure, a peculiar kind of pleasure that one should push one's way through a crowd to reach the spot where money, honor, and glory are distributed. Why that is perfectly understandable. But to push forward to be whipped, how exalted, how Christian, how stupid, or he will reason as follows. One hears so many rash opinions about this person from people who understand nothing and worship him, and so many severe condemnations of him by those who, perhaps, misunderstand him after all. As for me, I am not going to allow myself to be accused of venturing a hasty opinion. I shall keep entirely cool and calm. In fact, which counts for still more, I am conscious of being as reasonable and moderate with him as is possible. Grant now, which, to be sure, I do only to a certain extent, grant even that one's reason is impressed by this person. What then is my opinion about him? My opinion is that for the present I can form no opinion about him. I do not mean about his claim of being God. For about that I can never in all eternity have an opinion. No, I mean about him as a man. Only by the consequences of his life shall we be able to decide whether he was an extraordinary person, or whether deceived by his imagination he applied too high a standard, not only to himself, but also to humanity in general. More I cannot do for him, try as I may. If he were my only friend, my only child, I could not judge him more leniently, nor differently either. It follows from this to be sure that in all probability, and for good reasons, I shall not ever be able to have any opinion about him. For in order to be able to form an opinion I must first see the consequences of his life, including his very last moments. That is, he must be dead. Then, and perhaps not even then, may I form an opinion of him. And even granting this, it is not really an opinion about him, for he is then no more. No more is needed to say why it is impossible for me to join him while he is living. The authority he is said to show in his teaching can have no decisive influence in my case, for it is surely easy to see that his thought moves in a circle. He quotes as authority that which he is to prove, which in its turn can be proved only by the consequences of his life, provided, of course, it is not connected with that fixed idea of his about being God. Because if it is therefore he has this authority because he is God, the answer must be yes, if. So much, however, I may admit that if I could imagine myself living in some later age, and if the consequences of his life as shown in history had made it plain that he was the extraordinary person he in a former age claimed to be, then it might very well be. In fact, I might come very near becoming his disciple. Any ecclesiastic would reason as follows. For an imposter and demigod he has, to say the truth, a remarkable air of honesty about him, for which reason he cannot be so absolutely dangerous either, even though the situation looks dangerous enough while the squall is at its height, and even though the situation looks dangerous enough with his enormous popularity until the squall has passed over and the people, yes, precisely the people, overthrow him again. The honest thing about him is his claim to be the Messiah when he resembles him so little as he does. That is honest. Just as if someone in preparing bogus paper money made the bill so poorly that everyone who knows the least about it cannot fail to detect the fraud. True enough, we all look forward to a Messiah, but surely no one with any sense expects God himself to come, and every religious person shudders at the blasphemous attitude of this person. We look forward to a Messiah. We are all agreed on that. But the governance of the world does not go forward tumultuously by leaps and bounds. The development of the world, as is indicated by the very fact that it is a development, proceeds by evolution, not by revolution. The true Messiah will therefore look quite different, and will arrive as the most glorious flower and the highest development of that which already exists. Thus will the true Messiah come, and he will proceed in an entirely different fashion. He will recognize the existing order as the basis of things. He will summon all the clergy to counsel and present to them the results accomplished by him, as well as his credentials. And then, if he obtained the majority of the votes when the ballot is cast, he will be received and saluted as the extraordinary person, as the one he is, the Messiah. However, there is a duplicity in this man's behavior. He assumes too much the role of judge. It seems as if he wished to be at one and the same time, both the judge who passes sentence on the existing order of things and the Messiah. If he does not wish to play the role of the judge, then why his absolute isolation, his keeping at a distance from all which has to do with the existing order of things? And if he does not wish to be the judge, then why his fantastic flight from reality to join the ignorant crowd? Then why, with the haughtiness of a revolutionary, does he despise all the intelligence and efficiency to be found in the existing order of things? And why does he begin afresh altogether and absolutely from the bottom up by the help of fishermen and artisans? May not the fact that he is an illegitimate child fitly characterize his entire relation to the existing order of things? On the other hand, if he wishes to be only the Messiah, why then his warning about putting a piece of new cloth onto an old garment? For these words are precisely the watch words of every revolution, since they are expressive of a person's discontent with the existing order and of his wish to destroy it. That is, these words reveal his desire to remove existing conditions rather than to build on them and better them if one is a reformer or to develop them to their highest possibility if one is indeed the Messiah. This is duplicity. In fact, it is not feasible to be both judge and Messiah. Such duplicity will surely result in his downfall. The climax in the life of a judge is his death by violence, and so the poet pictures it correctly, but the climax in the life of the Messiah cannot possibly be his death, or else, by that very fact, he would not be the Messiah. That is, he whom the existing order expects in order to deify him. This duplicity has not as yet been recognized by the people who see in him their Messiah, but the existing order of things cannot by any manner of means recognize him as such. The people, the idol, and loafing crowd can do so only because they represent nothing less than the existing order of things. But as soon as the duplicity becomes evident to them, his doom is sealed. Why, in this respect, his predecessor has a far more definitely marked personality, for he was but one thing, the judge. But what confusion and thoughtlessness to wish to be both? And what still worse confusion to acknowledge his predecessor as the judge? That is, in other words, precisely to make the existing order of things receptive and ripe for the Messiah to come after the judge, and yet not wish to associate himself with the existing order of things. And the philosopher would reason as follows, such dreadful or rather insane vanity, that a single individual claims to be God is a thing hitherto unheard of. Never before have we been witness to such an excess of pure subjectivity and sheer negation. He has no doctrines, no system of philosophy. He knows really nothing. He simply keeps on repeating and making variations on some unconnected aphoristic sentences, some few maxims and a couple of parables by which he dazzles the crowd, for whom he also performs signs and wonders, so that they, instead of learning something or being improved, come to believe in one who in a most brazen way constantly forces his subjective views on us. There is nothing objective or positive whatever in him, and in what he says. Indeed, from a philosophical point of view, he does not need to fear destruction for he has perished already, since it is inherent in the nature of subjectivity to perish. One may in all fairness admit that his subjectivity is remarkable, and that, be it as it may, with the other miracles, he constantly repeats his miracle with his five small loaves, namely, by means of a few lyric utterances and some aphorisms, he rouses the whole country. But even if one were inclined to overlook his insane notion of affirming himself to be God, it is an incomprehensible mistake which, to be sure, demonstrates a lack of philosophic training to believe that God could reveal himself in the form of an individual. The race, the universal, that total is God, but the race surely is not an individual. Generally speaking, that is the impudent assumption of subjectivity, which claims that the individual is something extraordinary, but sheer insanity is shown in the claim of an individual to be God. Because if the insane thing were possible, namely, that an individual might be God, why then this individual would have to be worshiped, and a more beastly philosophic stupidity is not conceivable. The astute statesman would reason as follows, that at present this person wields great power as undeniable, entirely disregarding, of course, this notion of his that he is God. Foyples like these, being idiosyncrasies, do not count against a man and concern no one, least of all a statesman. A statesman is concerned only with what power a man wields and that he does wield great power, cannot, as I have remarked, be denied. But what he intends to do, what his aim is, I cannot make out at all. If this be calculation, it must be of an entirely new and peculiar order, not so altogether unlike what is otherwise called madness. He possesses points of considerable strength, but he seems to defeat it. He expends it without himself getting any returns. I consider him a phenomenon, with which has ought to be one's rule with all phenomena, a wise man should not have anything to do, since it is impossible to calculate him, or the catastrophe threatening his life. It is possible that he will be made king. It is possible, I say, that it is not impossible, or rather it is just as possible that he may end on the gallows. He lacks earnestness in all his endeavors, with all his enormous stretch of wings he only hovers and gets nowhere. He does not seem to have any definite plan of procedure, but just hovers. Is it for his nationality he is fighting, or does he aim at a revolution? Does he wish to establish a republic, or a kingdom? With which party does he affiliate himself to combat which party, or does he wish to fight all parties? I have anything to do with him. No, that would be the very last thing to enter my mind. In fact, I take all possible precaution to avoid him. I keep quiet, undertake nothing, act as if I did not exist, for one cannot even calculate how he might interfere with one's undertakings, be they ever so unimportant, or at any rate, how one might become involved in the vortex of his activities. Dangerous, in a certain sense, enormously dangerous is this man. But I calculate that I may ensnare him precisely by doing nothing, for the throne he must be. And this is done most safely by letting him do it himself, by letting him stumble over himself. I have at least at this moment not sufficient power to bring about his fall. In fact, I know no one who has. To undertake the least thing against him now means to be crushed oneself. No, my plan is constantly to exert only negative resistance to him. That is, to do nothing. And he will probably involve himself in the enormous consequences he draws after him, till in the end he will tread on his own train, as it were, and thus fall. And the steady citizen would reason as follows, which would then become the opinion of his family. Now let us be human. Everything is good when done in moderation, too little, and too much. Spoil everything. And as a French saying has it, which I once heard a traveling salesman use, every power which exceeds itself comes to a fall. And as to this person, his fall is certainly sure enough. I have earnestly spoken to my son, and warned and admonished him not to drift into evil ways and join that person. And why? Because all people are running after him. That is to say, what sort of people? Idlers and loafers, street walkers, and tramps, who run after everything. But mighty few of the men who have house and property, and nobody who is wise and respected, none after whom I set my clock, neither Chancellor Johnson, nor Senator Anderson, nor the wealthy broker Nelson. Oh, no. They know what's what. And as to the ministry who ought to know most about such matters, ha, they will have none of him. What was it Pastor Green said in the club the other evening? That man will yet come to a terrible end, he said. And Green, he can do more than preach. You oughtn't to hear him Sundays in church, so much as Mondays in the club. I just wished I had half his knowledge of affairs. He said quite correctly, and as if spoken out of his own heart, only idlers and loafers are running after that man. And why do they run after him? Because he performs some miracles. But who is sure they are miracles, for that he can confer the same power on his disciples. And in any case, a miracle is something mighty uncertain, whereas the certain is the certain. Every serious father who has grown up children must be truly alarmed lest his sons be seduced, and join that man together with the desperate characters who follow him. Desperate characters who have nothing to lose. And even these, how does he help them? Why, one must be mad to wish to be helped in this fashion. Even the poorest beggar is brought to a worse estate, than his former one is brought to a pass he could have escaped by remaining what he was. That is a beggar and no more. And the mocker, not the one hated on account of his malice, but the one who is admired for his wit and for his good nature, he would reason as follows. It is, after all, a rich idea which is going to prove useful to all of us, that an individual who is a no wise different from us claims to be God. If that is not being a benefactor of the race then I don't know what charity and beneficence are. If we assume that the characteristic of being God, well, who in all the world would have hit on that idea how true that such an idea could not have entered into the heart of man. But if we assume that it consists in looking in no wise different from the rest of us, and in nothing else, why, then we are all gods. QED. Three cheers for him. The inventor of a discovery so extraordinarily important for mankind. QED. Tomorrow I, the undersigned, shall proclaim that I am God, and the discoverer at least will not be able to contradict me without contradicting himself. At night all cats are gray, and if to be God consists in looking like the rest of us, absolutely, and all together like the rest of mankind, why then it is night, and we all are, or what is it I wanted to say? We are all God, every one of us, and no one has a right to say he isn't as well off as his neighbor. This is the most ridiculous situation imaginable, the contradiction here being the greatest imaginable and the contradiction always making for a comical effect. But this is in no wise my discovery, but solely that of the discoverer. This idea that a man of exactly the same appearance as the rest of us, only not half so well dressed as the average man, that is, a poorly dressed person who, rather than being God, seems to invite the attention of the society for the relief of the poor that he is God. I am only sorry for the director of the charitable society that he will not get a raise from his general advancement of the human race, but that he will, rather, lose his job on account of this, etc. Ah, my friend, I know well what I am doing. I know my responsibility, and my soul is altogether assured of the correctness of my procedure. Now then, imagine yourself a contemporary of him who invites. Imagine yourself to be a sufferer, well, to what you expose yourself in becoming his disciple and following him. You expose yourself to losing practically everything in the eyes of all wise and sensible and respected men. He who invites demands of you that you surrender all, give up everything. But the common sense of your own times and of your contemporaries will not give you up, judge that to join him is madness, and mockery will descend cruelly upon you. For while it will almost spare him out of compassion, you will be thought matter than a march here for becoming his disciple. People will say that he is a wrong headed enthusiast that can't be helped, well and good, but to become in all seriousness his disciple that is the greatest piece of madness imaginable. There surely is but one possibility of being matter than a madman which is the higher madness of joining a madman in all seriousness and regarding him as a sage. Do not say that the whole presentation above is exaggerated. Ah, you know, but possibly have not fully realized it, that among all the respectable men, among all the enlightened and sensible men, there was but one, though it is easily possible that one or the other of them, impelled by curiosity, entered into conversation with him, that there was but one among them who sought him in all seriousness. And he came to him in the night, and as you know in the night one unforbidden paths, one chooses the night to go to places of which one does not like to be known as a frequenter. Consider the opinion of the Inviter implied in this. It was a disgrace to visit him, something no man of honor could afford to do, as little as to pay a nightly visit to, but no, I do not care to say in so many words what would follow as little as come hither to me now, oh ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The second phase of his life. His and was what all the wise and the sensible, the statesman, and the citizens, and the markers, etc., predicted it would be. And as was later spoken to him in a moment when it would seem the most hardened ought to have been moved to sympathy and the very stones to tears, he saved others, let him save himself. And as it has been repeated thousands upon thousands of times by thousands upon thousands, what was it he spoke of before saying his hour has not yet come? Is it now come, perchance? Here it has been repeated, alas, the while the single individual, the believer, shudders whenever considering, while yet unable to refrain from gazing into the depth of what to men is a meaningless absurdity. Shudders when considering that God in human guise that his divine teaching that these signs and wonders which might have made a very Sodom and Gomorrah reform its ways, in reality produced the exact opposite and caused the teacher to be shunned, hated, and despised. Who he is one can recognize more easily now when the powerful ones and the respected ones and all the precautionary measures of those upholding the existing order have corrected any wrong conception one might have at first. Now when the people have lost their patience to wait for a Messiah seeing that his life instead of rising in dignity lapsed into ever greater degradation, who pray does not recognize that a man is judged according to the society in which he moves and now think of his society. Indeed his society one might designate as equivalent to being expelled from human society, for his society are the lowest class of the people, with sinners and publicans among them, people whom everybody with the slightest self-respect shuns for the sake of his good name and reputation, and a good name and reputation surely are about the least one can wish to preserve. In his company there are furthermore lepers whom everyone flees, mad men who can only inspire terror, invalids and riches, squalor and misery. Who then is this person that, though followed by such a company, still is the object of the persecution of the mighty ones? He is one despised as a seducer of men, an imposter, a blasphemer, and if anyone enjoying a good reputation, refrains from expressing contempt for him, it is really only a kind of compassion, for to fear him is, to be sure, something different. Such then is his appearance, for take care not to be influenced by anything that you may have learned after the event, as how his exalted spirit with an almost divine majesty never was so markedly manifest as just them. My friend, if you were the contemporary of one who is not only himself excluded from the synagogue, but as you will remember whose very help meant being excluded from the synagogue, I say, if you were the contemporary of an outcast who in every respect answers to that term for everything has two sides, then you will scarcely be the man to explain all this in terms directly contrary to appearances, or which is the same thing, you will not be the single individual which, as you well know, no one wants to be, and to be which is regarded as a ridiculous oddity, perhaps even as a crime. And now, for they are his society chiefly as to his apostles. What absurdity, though not what new absurdity, for it is quite in keeping with the rest. His apostles are some fishermen, ignorant people who but the other day followed their trade. And tomorrow, to pile one absurdity on the other, they are to go out into the wide world and transform its aspect. And it is he who claims to be God, and these are his duly appointed apostles. Now, is he to make his apostles respected or are perhaps the apostles to make him respected? Is he the Inviter? Is he an absurd dreamer? Indeed, his procession would make it seem so. No poet could have hit on a better idea. A teacher, a sage, or whatever you please to call him, a kind of great genius who affirms himself to be God, surrounded by a jubilant mob himself accompanied by some publicans, criminals, and lepers, nearest to him a chosen few, his apostles. And these judges so excellently content as to what truth is, these fishermen, tailors, and shoemakers, they do not only admire him, their teacher, and master, whose every word is wisdom and truth, they do not only see what no one else can see, his exaltedness and holiness nay, but they see God in him, and worship him. Certainly no poet could invent a better situation, and it is doubtful if the poet would not forget the additional item that this same person is feared by the mighty ones and that they are to destroy him. His death alone can reassure and satisfy them. They have set an ignominious punishment on joining his company, on merely accepting aid from him, and yet they do not feel secure and cannot feel altogether reassured that the whole thing is mere wrong headed enthusiasm and absurdity. Thus the mighty ones, the populace who had idolized him, the populace have pretty nearly given him up. Only in moments does their old conception of him blaze forth again. In all his existence there is not a shred, the most envious of the envious, might envy him to have. Nor do the mighty ones envy his life. They demand his death for safety's sake, so that they may have peace again, when all has returned to the accustomed ways. Peace having been made still more secure by the warning example of his death. These are the two phases of his life. It began with the people idolizing him, whereas all who were identified with the existing order of things, all who had power and influence, ventfuly but in a cowardly and hidden manner, laid their snares for him, in which he was caught then. Yes, but he perceived it well. Finally the people discovered that they had been deceived in him, that the fulfillment he would bring them answered least of all to their expectations of wonders and mountains of gold. So the people deserted him, and the mighty ones drew the snares about him, in which he was caught then. Yes, but he perceived it together about him, and there upon the people who then saw themselves completely deceived turned against him in hatred and rage. And to include that too compassion would say, or among the compassionate ones, for compassion is sociable and likes to assemble together, and you will find spitefulness and envy keeping company with whining soft-headedness, since as a heathen philosopher observed long ago, no one is so ready to sympathize as an envious person among the compassionate ones the verdict would be. It is really too bad that this good-hearted fellow is to come to such an end. For he was really a good sort of fellow, granting it was an exaggeration to claim to be God, he really was good to the poor and the needy, even in an odd manner, by becoming one of them and going about in a company of beggars. But there is something touching in it all, and one can't help but feel sorry for the poor fellow who is to suffer such a miserable death. For you may say what you will, and condemn him as strongly as you will, I cannot help feeling pity for him. I am not so hard-hearted as not to feel compassion. We have arrived at the last phase, not of sacred history, as handed down by the apostles and disciples who believed in Christ, but of profane history, its counterpart. Come hither now, all ye that labor, and our heavy laden, that is, if you feel the need, even if you are of all sufferers the most miserable, if you feel the need of being helped in this fashion, that is, to fall into still greater suffering, then come hither. He will help you. End of the first and second phases of Christ's life. From Preparation for a Christian Life by Soren Kierkegaard, published in 1850, translated by Lee M. Hollander in 1923. Government. An essay by 1800s French economist Frédéric Basja. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Government. I wish someone would offer a prize, not of a hundred francs, but of a million, with crowns, medals, and ribbons, for a good, intelligible definition of the word government. What an immense service it would confer on society. The government? What is it? Where is it? What does it do? What ought it to do? All we know is that it is a mysterious personage, and assuredly it is the most solicited, the most tormented, the most overwhelmed, the most admired, the most accused, the most invoked, the most provoked of any personage in the world. I have not the pleasure of knowing my reader, but I would stake ten to one that for six months he has been making utopias, and if so, that he is looking to government for the realization of them. And should the reader happen to be a lady, I have no doubt that she is sincerely desirous of seeing all the evils of suffering humanity remedied, and that she thinks this might easily be done if government would only undertake it. But alas, that poor unfortunate personage like Figaro knows not to whom to listen, nor where to turn. The hundred thousand mouths of the press and of the platform cry out all at once, organize labor and workmen, do away with egotism, repress insolence and the tyranny of capital, make experiments upon manure and eggs, cover the country with railways, irrigate the plains, plant the hills, make model farms, found social workshops, colonize Algeria, suckle children, instruct the youth, assist the aged, send the inhabitants of towns into the country, equalize the profits of all trades, lend money without interest to all who wish to borrow, emancipate Italy, Poland and Hungary, rear and perfect the saddle horse, encourage the arts and provide us with musicians and dancers, restrict commerce and at the same time create a merchant navy, discover truth and put a grain of reason into our heads. The mission of government is to enlighten and to develop, to extend, to fortify, to spiritualize and to sanctify the soul of the people. Do have a little patience, gentlemen, says government in a beseeching tone. I will do what I can to satisfy you, but for this I must have resources. I have been preparing plans for five or six taxes, which are quite new and not at all oppressive. You will see how willingly people will pay them. Then comes the great exclamation, no, indeed. Where is the merit of doing a thing with resources? Why it does not deserve the name of a government. So far from loading us with fresh taxes we would have you withdraw the old ones. You ought to suppress the salt tax, the tax on liquors, the tax on letters, custom house duties, patents. In the midst of this tumult, and now that the country has two or three times changed its government for not having satisfied all its demands, I wanted to show that they were contradictory. But what could I have been thinking about? Could I not keep this unfortunate observation to myself? I have lost my character forever. I am looked upon as a man without heart and without feeling, a dry philosopher, an individualist, a plebeian, in a word an economist of the English or American school. But pardon me sublime writers who stop at nothing, not even at contradictions. I am wrong without a doubt, and I would willingly retract. I should be glad enough you may be sure if you had really discovered a beneficent and inexhaustible being, calling itself the government, which had bred for all mouths, work for all hands, capital for all enterprises, credit for all projects, oil for all wounds, balm for all sufferings, advice for all perplexities, solutions for all doubts, truths for all intellects, diversions for all who want them, milk for infancy and wine for old age, which can provide for all our wants, satisfy all our curiosity, correct all our errors, repair all our faults and exempt us henceforth from the necessity of foresight, prudence, judgment, sagacity, experience, order, economy, temperance, and activity. What reason could I have for not desiring to see such a discovery made? Indeed, the more I reflect upon it, the more do I see that nothing could be more convenient than that we should all of us have within our reach an inexhaustible source of wealth and enlightenment, a universal physician, an unlimited treasury, and an infallible counselor, such as you describe government to be. Therefore, it is that I want to have it pointed out and defined and that a prize should be offered to the first discoverer of the Phoenix. For no one would think of asserting that this precious discovery has yet been made since up to this time everything presenting itself under the name of government is immediately overturned by the people precisely because it does not fulfill the rather contradictory conditions of the program. I will venture to say that I fear we are in disrespect the dupes of one of the strangest illusions which has ever taken possession of the human mind. Man recalls from trouble, from suffering, and yet he is condemned by nature to the suffering of privation if he does not take the trouble to work. He has to choose then between these two evils. What means can he adopt to avoid both? There remains now and there will remain only one way which is to enjoy the labor of others. Such a course of conduct prevents the trouble and the satisfaction from preserving their natural proportion and causes all the trouble to become the lot of one set of persons and all the satisfaction that of another. This is the origin of slavery and of plunder whatever its forms may be, whether that of wars, impositions, violence, restrictions, frauds, etc. Monstrous abuses but consistent with the thought which has given them birth. Oppression should be detested and resisted, it can hardly be called absurd. Slavery is subsiding thank heaven and on the other hand our disposition to defend our property prevents direct and open plunder from being easy. One thing however remains, it is the original inclination which exists in all men to divide the lot of life into two parts throwing the trouble upon others and keeping the satisfaction for themselves. It remains to be shown under what new form this sad tendency is manifesting itself. The oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own powers upon his victim no our conscience has become too sensitive for that the tyrant and his victim are still present but there is an intermediate person between them which is the government that is the law itself. What can be better calculated to silence our scruples and which is perhaps better appreciated to overcome all resistance. We all therefore put in our claim under some pretext or other and apply to government. We say to it I am dissatisfied at the proportion between my labor and my enjoyment. I should like for the sake of restoring the desired equilibrium to take a part of the possessions of others but this would be dangerous could not you facilitate the thing for me could you not find me a good place or check the industry of my competitors or perhaps lend me intuitively some capital which you may take from its possessor could you not bring up my children at the public expense or grant me some prizes or secure me a competence when I have attained my 50th year by this means I shall gain my end with an easy conscience for the law will have acted for me and I shall have all the advantages of plunder without its risk or its disgrace. As it is certain on the one hand that we are all making some similar request of the government and as on the other it is proved that government cannot satisfy one party without adding to the labor of the others until I can obtain another definition of the word government I feel authorized to give my own who knows but that I may obtain the prize here it is government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else for now as formerly everyone is more or less for profiting by the labors of others no one would dare to profess such a sentiment he even hides it from himself and then what is done a media mist thought of government is applied to and every class in its turn comes to it and says you who can take justifiably and honestly take from the public and we will partake. Alas government is only too much disposed to follow this diabolical advice for it is composed of ministers and officials of men in short who like all other men desire in their hearts and always sees every opportunity with eagerness to increase their wealth and influence government is not slow to perceive the advantages it may derive from the part which is entrusted to it by the public it is glad to be the judge and the master of the destinies of all it will take much for then a large share will remain for itself it will multiply the number of its agents it will enlarge the circle of its privileges it will end by appropriating a ruinous proportion but the most remarkable part of it is the astonishing blindness of the public through it all when successful soldiers used to reduce the vanquished to slavery they were barbarous but they were not absurd their object like ours was to live at other people's expense and they did not fail to do so what are we to think of a people who never seemed to suspect that reciprocal plunder is no less plunder because it is reciprocal that it is no less criminal because it is executed legally and with order that it adds nothing to the public good that it diminishes it just in proportion to the cost of the expensive medium which we call the government and it is this great chimera which we have placed for the edification of the people as the frontispiece to our constitution the following is the beginning of the introductory discourse quote France has constituted itself a republic for the purpose of raising all the citizens to an ever increasing degree of morality enlightenment and well-being end quote thus it is France or an abstraction which is to raise the French or realities to morality well-being etc is it not by yielding to this strange delusion that we are led to expect everything from an energy not our own is it not giving out that there is independently of the French a virtuous enlightened and rich being who can and will bestow upon them its benefits is not this supposing and certainly very gratuitously that there are between France and the French between the simple abridged and abstract denomination of all the individualities and these individualities themselves relations as a father to son, tutor to his pupil, professor to his scholar I know it is often said metaphorically the country is a tender mother but to show the inanity of the constitutional proposition it is only needed to show that it may be reversed not only without inconvenience but even with advantage would it be less exact to say the French have constituted themselves a republic to raise France to an ever increasing degree of morality, enlightenment and well-being now where is the value of an axiom where the subject and the attribute may change places without inconvenience everybody understands what is meant by this the mother will feed the child but it would be ridiculous to say the child will feed the mother the Americans formed another idea of the relations of the citizens with the government when they placed words at the head of their constitution we the people of the United States for the purpose of forming a more perfect union of establishing justice of securing interior tranquility of providing for our common defense of increasing the general well-being and of securing the benefits of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity decree etc here there is no chimerical creation no abstraction from which the citizens may demand everything they expect nothing except from themselves and their own energy if I may be permitted to criticize the first words of our constitution I would remark that what I complain of is something more than a mere metaphysical subtlety as might seem at first sight I contend that this personification of government has been in past times and will be here after a fertile source of calamities and revolutions there is the public on one side government on the other considered as two distinct beings the latter bound to bestow upon the former and the former having the right to claim from the latter all imaginable human benefits what will be the consequence in fact government is not maimed cannot be so it has two hands one to receive and the other to give in other words it has a rough hand and a smooth one the activity of the second is necessarily subordinate to the activity of the first strictly government may take and not restore this is evident and may be explained by the porous and absorbing nature of its hands which always retain apart and sometimes the whole of what they touch but the thing that never was seen and never will be seen or conceived is that government can restore more to the public than it has taken from it it is therefore ridiculous for us to appear before it in the humble attitude of beggars it is radically impossible for it to confer a particular benefit upon any one of the individualities which constitute the community without inflicting a greater injury upon the community as a whole our requisitions therefore place it in a dilemma if it refuses to grant the requests made to it it is accused of weakness, ill-will and incapacity if it endeavors to grant them it is obliged to load the people with fresh taxes to do more harm than good and to bring upon itself from another quarter the general displeasure thus the public has two hopes and the government makes two promises many benefits and no taxes hopes and promises which being contradictory can never be realized now is not this the cause of all our revolutions for between the government which lavishes promises which it is impossible to perform and the public which has conceived hopes which can never be realized two classes of men interpose the ambitious and the utopians it is circumstances which give these their cue it is enough if these vassals of popularity cry out to the people the authorities are deceiving you if we were in their place we would load you with benefits and exempt you from taxes and the people believe and the people hope and the people make a revolution no sooner are their friends at the head of affairs than they are called upon to redeem their pledge give us work, bread, assistance credit, instruction colonies say the people and with all deliver us as you promised from the talons of the exchequer the new government is no less embarrassed than the former one for it soon finds that it is much more easy to promise than to perform it tries to gain time for this is necessary for maturing its vast projects at first it makes a few timid attempts on one hand it institutes a little elementary instruction on the other it makes a little reduction in the liquor tax 1850 but the contradiction is forever starting up before it if it would be philanthropic it must attend to its exchequer if it neglects its exchequer it must abstain from being philanthropic these two promises are forever clashing with each other it cannot be otherwise to live upon credit which is the same as exhausting the future is certainly a present means of reconciling them an attempt is made to do a little good now at the expense of a great deal of harm in future but such proceedings call forth the specter of bankruptcy which puts an end to credit what is to be done then why then the new government takes a bold step it unites all its forces in order to maintain itself its mother's opinion has recourse to arbitrary measures ridicules its former maxims declares that it is impossible to conduct the administration except at the risk of being unpopular in short it proclaims itself governmental and it is here that other candidates for popularity are waiting for it they exhibit the same illusion passed by the same way obtained the same success and are soon swallowed up in the same gulf we had arrived at this point in February 1849 at this time the illusion which is the subject of this article had made more way than at any former period in the ideas of the people in connection with socialist doctrines they expected more firmly than ever that government under a republican form would open in grand style the source of benefits and close that of taxation we have often been deceived said the people but we will see to it ourselves this time and take care not to be deceived again what could the provisional government do? alas just that which always is done in similar circumstances make promises and gain time it did so of course and to give its promises more weight it announced them publicly thus increase of prosperity diminution of labour assistance credit gratuitous instruction agricultural colonies cultivation of waste land and at the same time reduction of the tax on salt liquor letters meet all this shall be granted when the national assembly meets the national assembly meets and as it is impossible to realize two contradictory things its task, its sad task is to withdraw as gently as possible one after the other all the decrees of the provisional government however in order somewhat to mitigate the cruelty of the deception it is found necessary to negotiate a little certain engagements are fulfilled others are in a measure begun and therefore the new administration is compelled to contrive some new taxes now I transport myself in thought to a period a few months hence and ask myself with sorrowful forebodings what will come to pass when the agents of the new government go into the country to collect new taxes upon legacies, revenues and the profits of agricultural traffic it is to be hoped that my presentiments may not be verified but I foresee a difficult part for the candidates for popularity to play read the last manifesto of the Montagnards that which they issued on the occasion of the election of the president it is rather long but at length it concludes with these words government ought to give a great deal to the people and take little from them it is always the same tactics or rather the same mistake government is bound to give gratuitous instruction and education to all the citizens it is bound to give a general and appropriate professional education as much as possible adapted to the wants, the callings and the capacities of each citizen it is bound to teach every citizen his duty to God, to man and to himself to develop his sentiments his tendencies and his faculties to teach him in short the scientific part of his labor to make him understand his own interests and to give him a knowledge of his rights it is bound to place within the reach of all literature and the arts the patrimony of thought the treasures of the mind and all those intellectual enjoyments which elevate and strengthen the soul it is bound to give compensation for every accident from fire inundation etc. experienced by a citizen the etc. means more than it says it is bound to attend to the relations of capital with the labor and to become the regulator of credit it is bound to afford important encouragement and efficient protection to agriculture it is bound to purchase railroads canals and mines and doubtless to transact affairs with that industrial capacity which characterizes it it is bound to encourage useful experiments to promote and assist them by every means likely to make them successful as a regulator of credit it will exercise such extensive influence over industrial and agricultural associations as shall ensure them success government is bound to do all this in addition to the services to which it is already pledged and further it is always to maintain a menacing attitude towards foreigners according to those who signed the program bound together by this holy union and by the precedents of the French Republic we carry our wishes and hopes beyond the boundaries which despotism has placed between nations the rights which we desire for ourselves we desire for all those who are oppressed by the yoke of tyranny we desire that our glorious army should still if necessary be the army of liberty you see that gentle hand of government that good hand which gives and distributes will be very busy under the government of the Montagnards you think perhaps that it will be the same with the rough hand that hand which dives into our pockets do not deceive yourselves the aspirants after popularity would not know their trade if they had not the art when they show the gentle hand to conceal the rough one their reign will assuredly be the jubilee of the taxpayers it is superfluities not necessaries they say which ought to be taxed truly it will be a good time when the exchequer for the sake of loading us with benefits will content itself with curtailing our superfluities this is not all the Montagnards intend that taxation shall lose its oppressive character and be only an act of fraternity good heavens I know it is the fashion to thrust fraternity in everywhere but I did not imagine it would ever be put into the hands of the tax-gatherer to come to the details those who signed the program say we desire the immediate abolition of those taxes which affect the absolute necessaries of life as salt, liquors etc etc the reform of the tax on landed property customs and patents gratuitous justice that is the simplification of its forms and the reduction of its expenses this no doubt has reference to stamps thus the tax on landed property customs, patents, stamps salt, liquors, postage are all included these gentlemen have found out the secret of giving an excessive activity to the gentle hand of government while they entirely paralyze its rough hand well I ask the impartial reader is it not childishness and more than that dangerous childishness is it not inevitable that we shall have revolution after revolution if there is a determination never to stop till this contradiction is realized to give nothing to government and to receive much from it if the Montagnards were to come into power would they not become the victims of the means which they employed to take possession of it citizens in all times two political systems have been in existence and each may be maintained by good reasons according to one of them government ought to do much but then it ought to take much according to the other this two-fold activity ought to be little felt we have to choose between these two systems but as regards the third system which partakes of both the others and which consists in exacting everything from government without giving it anything it is chemical, absurd childish, contradictory and dangerous those who parade it for the sake of the pleasure of accusing all governments of weakness and thus exposing them to your attacks are only flattering and deceiving you while they are deceiving themselves for ourselves we consider that government is and ought to be nothing whatever but common force organized not to be an instrument of oppression and a mutual plunder among citizens but on the contrary to secure to everyone his own and to cause justice and security reign End of Government by Frederick Bastiat read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in July 2019 Chapter 2 Historical of Cycling by William Norrie Robertson this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 2 Historical Now Heaven in all her glory shone and rolled her motions as the great first maker's hand first wheeled her course Milton Bicycle Latin prefix by Tu and Greek Kyclos a wheel a vehicle consisting of two wheels one behind the other containing a seat the machine being propelled by the feet of the rider many enthusiastic cyclists imagine that they can find traces of the entity of the cycle at a very early period a few believe they can recognize it in the cartouches of Egyptian hieroglyphics and even find allusions to their fascinating pastime in the Latin poets again Shakespeare probably anticipated the military cycle when he saw in imagination Achilles mounted on a cycle as he shouts come hear about me you my mermid cyclists mark what I say attend me where I wheel it is decreed Hector the Great must die although we have record of vehicles somewhat similar to our cycles of the present time having been in use some hundreds of years ago it is only during the past twenty three years that they have obtained a state of perfection equal to that of any other department of mechanical science in 1808 a machine having two wheels connected by a bar carved like unto a horse made its appearance in Paris hobby horse in 1818 a German named Baron von Dreis of Savorbrunn near Frankfurt on the main machine anything like our ninety-four cycle it was called the dry scene after him it was simple in construction two wheels connected by a curved bar of wood there were no driving cranks upon this machine but the driver progressed by striking the ground alternately with his feet taking long strides and maintaining the balance down hill this vehicle ran at a great pace which is clearly indicated in the caricatures of the period wherein the artist is never tired of showing the unfortunate riders of these contrivances plunging down hill at top speed and smashing up at the bottom McMillan of Dumfrieshire Scotland first adapted crank driving to the hobby horse about the year 1840 and it is said he frequently rode it fourteen miles to market keeping pace with farmers in gigs within its wooden body being hollow he stored an extra suit of clothes as the grecian leaders stored their worriers in the wooden horse at the siege of Troy Lalamont a mechanic in a shop of a Parisian perambulator maker first applied cranks to the front wheel of a hobby horse and produced the vehicle known as Bone Shaker he came to America and introduced it here about in 1865 returning to France he set up in business for himself these machines soon appeared in many forms in different countries and were the observed of all observers the first American Indian who saw a cycle said see lazy man walk sitting down the phantom was the next cycle to appear having wooden rims and rubber tires that unlike 94 patterns nailed on and wire spokes Starly next invented the aerial having a large front and small rear wheel and backbone something like the ordinary of 1876 in 1873 the Coventry Machinists company produced the gentleman's bicycle and Sparrow of London was the first to make a road record going from London to Royal Grotes in 15 days the singer firm of Coventry produced the Challenge Ordinary in 1876 well known to this day then was popularized the Kangaroo made by Messers Hillman Herbert and Cooper in 1884 famous for a time then it gave way to the rover type bought out by Messers Starly & Co this machine had a large wheel in front what resembled the ordinary in appearance in 1885 the Humber Company built a safety with small steering wheel in front minus the upright stay the Raleigh Cycle Company claimed to have devised the upright stay for diamond frames otherwise it was the nearest approach to the modern safety however it remained for Messers Starly & Co to produce the model of the rover type of safety in use at the present day and Mr. J. K. Starly has been presented with a memorial plate an honor conferred for having set the pattern of safety cycles to the world solid rubber tires were then fitted to it in 1889 the pneumatic tire was invented McCready of Dublin was among the first to bring it before the public and that year won the English championship the original Dunlap secured a start of all others and ever since nearly all the best men have ridden it A. A. Zimmerman world's champion uses it last year the Dunlap Tire Company bought the Comet patent hence the Comet Tire and Dunlap Tire amalgamated therefore the product now is better than ever the La Force Tire is an excellent round article the Palmer came like a meteor to the front rank last year the GNJ corrugated non-slipping tread adopted by the enterprising Gould Bicycle Company Branford are favorites with all who have tried them the perfect pneumatic tire is not yet the ordinary is without question the experts cycle as the combined driving and steering with the front wheel causes it to be primarily difficult to learn but when fairly mastered it is much more under control as the feet and hands jointly share the steering and the machine being driven by the front wheel the rear wheel becomes actually a trailer which of necessity ensures straight running if the steering be reasonably good and just as it is easier to drag the front wheel under such conditions so it becomes more easy to steer a front driven one as soon as the complication introduced through propulsion by the feet direct on the steer is overcome all these remarks also apply to the geared ordinary when built as it should be on conventional ordinary lines as it then behaves exactly in the same way as the ordinary and is as steady as handy as that type of machine in the ordinary and geared ordinary the rider is lifted somewhat higher above ground and out of the mud and if the machine be properly fitted with saddle flaps and a rear wheel mudguard it is cleaner than any other type of cycle and if a geared machine is not geared too high it may safely be said to be the best form of cycle for all around use the safety indeed offers great attractions to beginners and is likely to always hold its place amongst that class as it will always be the most popular type of cycle for it is safe whilst presenting as it does a relatively small surface windage is less apparent when riding than in higher wheeled types probably the greatest objection to the present diamond frame safety is its mud and dust throwing capacity however as the years roll by there will be lighter and more efficient protection in this direction a hundred years hence a rider in a daily paper says the cycle of 1993 will be built on much the same lines as the safety of 1893 that is with two small wheels nearly the same size the front being slightly smaller this was the plan of the first machine built in 1817 and now after a lapse of 76 years we have come back to the original design a machine on this plan can be built stronger and lighter than on any other mode with the weight between the two wheels there is less vibration than when it is over either one of them as in passing over an obstruction the weight is lifted one half the distance in the former case in the latter then by the use of some alloy of greater tensile strength weight for weight then steel and by filling the tires and the tubes in the framing with hydrogen instead of air the weight of a road machine will be reduced to 10 pounds or less while racing machines will not weigh half that much the machine will also be made so that it can be folded up and carried about or stowed away in a trunk by improvements in the construction of the bearings of moving parts friction will be almost wholly eliminated and the method of applying power will be so perfected that there will be absolutely no such thing as lost power the roads will be prepared especially for cycles the grades being very slight and in fact sufficient to provide proper drainage the surface will be hard and smooth the outer edge of all curves being raised as on a track the roads will be kept clean as by that time the horse will be found only in zoological gardens the improvement in the rider will be equally marked from the continued and increasing use of the wheel a race of people will be evolved that will take to cycling as readily as a foreign immigrant does to politics taking all these things into consideration we may expect an average speed of 30 miles an hour on the road and 60 miles on the track the use of the machine will be universal children will be taught to ride as they are now taught to walk the suburbs of our great cities will extend from 60 to 100 miles in every direction all patents will have expired and such large quantities of bicycles will be manufactured that the cost will be nominal and within the reach of all there will be no more crowded tenement houses the artisan who will work only four hours a day will live with his family in a cozy little home in the suburbs where he can see the sunshine and breathe the fresh air the use of the wheel will have so improved the stamina and physique of the race that the only cause of death is accidents railroads will be used for the transportation of freight only every individual will own a bicycle those intended for long distance travel will be run by small but powerful storage batteries which may be charged at automatic electric stations by connecting the battery to a dynamo and dropping a coin of small value in a slot with machines of this character and a speed of 150 miles an hour and to overcome the wind pressure they will be fitted with wedge shaped windshields made of some tough yet transparent substance the bicycle will not be used in war for the simple reason that as dyspepsia will be unknown everybody will feel so well and be so good humored and disinclined to quarrel that there will be no one to go to war end quote end of chapter 2 historical from cycling by William Norrie Robertson recording by Tricia G in the land of the wild yak by Sven Hedden this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org we broke up our camp on the morning of October 29th after a night of 49 degrees of frost at an early hour so as to find water for our thirsty animals as soon as possible a small lake and two springs we passed were frozen as hard as rock beside one lay the skull of a yak which had evidently had its throat cut with a knife we also saw two fireplaces on the way and at camp number 50 a path which however might have been warned by wild yaks we therefore were no doubt coming near to other men and we were always on the lookout for tents next day the storm increased in strength and it was only with the greatest effort of will that I could use my hands for map sketching we seemed paralyzed and could no longer think clearly we were like the field mice which run from one hole to another seeking to find shelter from the wind and cold on arriving at a spring I slipped down weirdly from my horse and thought I should be frozen before the fire was kindled Muhammad Isa also and four other men were ill and could not assist in setting up the tents when my tent was ready I crept into bed in my clothes boots and all while Robert and Tzering were covering me up with warm wraps I was seized with violent ague my teeth shattered my head ached terribly Robert who had been trained in nursing in Dr. Arthur Davey's school now proved an excellent doctor and took every care of me as soon as we were under cover he plunged into the study of burrows and welcomes medical instructions the tabloid brand medicine chest stood open as frequently happened in my tent Stanley Ayman Pasha Jackson, Scott and many other travelers have prized this ideal traveling dispensary as highly as myself my case a present from the English firm had been filled with a special regard to the climate of Tibet at ten o'clock at night Robert and Tzering undressed me there were 47.9 degrees of frost in the night and the storm howled dreadfully Robert took my temperature every two hours and it rose to 106.5 degrees high fever mark as he told me after he pondered whatever he was to do if I remained for good at camp number 51 I could not sleep and Robert and Tzering watched beside my bed in turn glowing lumps of fuel were brought in all through the night and a burning candle was placed behind a box where it was protected from wind and draft I was constantly delirious and the men were much concerned they had never seen me ill before next day the fever had slightly abated when Muhammad Isa slipped gently into my tent to inquire how the Sahib was he informed us that the wounded yak was dead and that in cutting it up two Tibetan bullets had been found also at three places hearths had been seen which could not be more than two months old for ashes still lay among the stones so hunters had been here in autumn and he was quite convinced that we should soon meet with the first nomads it was still as the grave only the storm howled and moaned all the men in the camp were afraid of disturbing me but I gave orders in the evening that they should sing as usual I could not lift an arm without help and I lay hour after hour watching the curious lights in the tent within the steering candle there appeared a dull light and the yellowish red blaze of the fire and the blueish moonlight penetrated from without the singing sounded melancholy and wistful and was accompanied by the howling of the storm on November 2 the storm still raged having now continued to the sixth day I had slept a few hours though the cold sank to 52 degrees below freezing point I was getting a little better but I was still extremely weak Robert who was troubled because his horse had died in the night read to me one of the novels we had stolen from DC's depot Tsering and Rahim Ali massaged me in the Asiatic manner to restore my strength and so we arrived at the fourth evening I had been confined to my bed for four and eighty hours the soil of Tibet seemed determined to keep me and perhaps I should be allowed only to dream of the forbidden land at a distance surely on November 3 the god of the winds must have said to the westerly storm six days shalt thou labor on the seventh thou shalt become a hurricane dust and sand penetrated the thin canvas and covered everything in the tent the men who led the animals to water had rings of dust around their eyes and their faces were ashy gray for my part I felt like one of our poor worn out brutes which does not know whether he will reach the next camp then I decided to remain here with some of the men and some provisions while Robert and Muhammad Esa went in search of natives whom they might send to fetch me but no I would try to hold myself in the saddle for I did not wish to remain in this miserable fever camp I wore a whole wardrobe of winter clothes several trousers my leather jersey the Ulster fur coat cap and bashlich it was a heavy weight for my weak tottering legs as I walked to my horse and was lifted into the saddle we followed the shore of the small lake near our camp but I soon perceived after nearly falling again and again that the exertion was too much for me so we halted and lighted a fire after a short rest we rode on and were delighted when at length we saw the smoke of our caravan rising behind a hill where it had camped by a source and had found fireplaces erected last summer with skulls and horns of tame sheep around them yak dung was very plentiful the source was therefore a watering place of wild yaks a third of the men were really ill most of them suffered from headache and all were more or less indisposed Robert alone was in good health and he nursed us the tracks of men became more frequent a yaks skeleton lay beside a heart and the ashes piled up among the stones could not have been cold longer than the day before we climbed up some troublesome hills and then descended into a gully leading down to a large valley begirt with fiery red heights a number of excavations each with a heap of sand beside it attracted our attention the sand contained gold ordinary known meds but gold seekers had been here probably every summer to dig for gold in the lower part of the valley warm springs burst forth with a temperature of 57 degrees so that the water seems quite hot a few yards farther however it forms a large sheet of ice in the next valley a hollow between precipitous terrace slopes a huge wild yak laid dead on the ground standing round it Tundup Sonam had surprised the whole herd which had come down into the valley to drink the other animals had torn up the valley in headlong flight but this one struck by a bullet had made for the hunter and Tundup clamored up the edge of a terrace only just in time the yak remained at the foot uncertain what to do and received a second shot in the heart I photographed him from several points of view before he was skinned it was not easy to raise him into suitable posture the twelve men had to put forth all their strength the raven black coat of the beast formed a strong contrast to the red soil his long side fringes served him as a mattress when he lies down on November 7 we skirted a lake to the right we had steep mountains with disagreeable cones of sharp edge debris two troops the fine amon sheep numbering nine and five respectively skipped with bold leaps over the smooth abrupt rocks large numbers of hairs were seen and frequently the holes of marmots where the inmates were still hibernating two Tibetan cairns proved to us that we were on the right way that is the one the gold diggers use now we leave this part of the mountains on the right and proceed along the southern and extensive plain by the lake shore their graze the herd of perhaps fifty yaks twenty anelopes probably frightened by the caravan scampered away with elastic springs like the shadow of clouds moving over the earth soon the tents and all the details of camp number 56 could clearly be distinguished and we had only a few minutes march more when even this short distance would have been too far for one of us to see the great head so willed for close beside the tents near our animals a large black yak appeared Rahim Ali drew our attention to it but we took no further notice of it I took my last bearing of the tent and was in the act of laying down the ground on my map sheet when a shot cracked from Muhammad Issa's tent and the yak evidently hit rushed madly northwards we followed him with our eyes expecting to see him fall but no he turned and came running wildly toward us Rahim Ali's face contorted with frantic fright and he raised his hands to heaven crying out Allah Allah we are lost the brute drew near in a cloud of dust his fringes waved and flew about and he lowered his horns for a rush I did not move for I thought he had not seen us and would turn back again but he held on his way and grew larger to the site Rahim Ali ran screaming to the tents but suddenly turned round and as our horses took fright and galloped off he caught hold of the tail of Robert Steed hoping to follow us at a run the wild chase swept quicker and quicker over the plane and the yak changed his course and made a circuit towards us in a mad rage his breath rose like clouds of steam from his nostrils his muzzle almost raised the ground he was ready to catch his victim on his horns toss him into the air and stamp him to jelly under his four feet nearer and nearer I heard him panting and gasping like a steam saw turning in my saddle I saw him about twenty yards off his small fear size blazing with fury and madness and rolling so as to show the blood stained whites it was a question of a second I rode straight to my right my horse and I would be the first to be caught on the horns of the yak now the horses stretched their legs like bow strings I tore off my red bashlik and waved it behind me to attract the yak and stop him, but he did not look at it then I tore my belt off in order to take off my fur coat and throw it over the yak's eyes and blind him, just when he was on the point of thrusting his horns into the belly of the horse and the muscles of his neck for the toss a second more and the yak would hoist the horse, break my back and trample on my chest I seemed to hear the cracking and breaking of my ribs and I well deserved it, for it was my fault alone that all the animals left behind us had to suffer so much then was heard a heart-rending cry of despair as I turned quickly round I saw Rehamelli with uplifted arms fall senseless to the ground and the yak turned and rushed at him he remained a prostrate a lifeless mass and I saw the yak with lowered horns and his purple tongue hanging far out of his mouth dashed down upon him in a cloud of dust now all the horses made off and I had some difficulty to keep my seat on my grey ladaki when I looked round again a second later the yak was running up the valley with his dust cloud about him I turned back and see if there is still a spark of life in Rehamelli and if he can still be saved I called out Master, it is too dangerous the yak is still near and may come back Muhammad, Isa and the rest are all running out of camp to look after Rehamelli but I had already turned and I rode to the fallen man he laid dead on his face with arms outstretched both Robert and I thought at any rate that he was dead but when we had dismounted beside him he slowly turned his head and with a look of horror waved his hand as much to say do not trouble about me I am dead as a mouse we could not repress a smile when turning him over like a joint at the fire we examined his bones and joints and found that the fellow was still sound though severely bruised the yak had trodden upon the inner side of his left shank the strike showed the mark of his hoof two strong men bore the fallen hero to Muhammad Isa's tent where he was well tended by Robert he seemed stupefied for several days and we feared that his adventure had affected his brain he did not eat or speak and had to travel on horseback and one of his fellow countrymen was told off to attend on him after some time when his head was clear again he was able to tell us his impressions when he saw the yak preparing to attack my horse he turned around and threw himself flat on the ground perhaps irritated by the red and violet chap can floating about in the air the yak left me made an unexpected change of front and rushed with lowered horns on the fallen man he had half unconsciously made a quick movement to one side and the horns had struck the ground instead of entering his body and so close beside his head that Rahim Ali felt the panting breath of the brute in his face then he lost consciousness and did not revive till we came up and then he thought the yak was on him again he had intended to save himself by this maneuver and thereby had become our deliverer after the adventures he had taken part in lately he had an immense horror of Tibetan lakes and wild yaks temperature 16 and one half degrees on the night of November 28 one would expect that the temperatures would fall with the advance of winter but it remains constant owing in great measure to our progress southwards beyond a small pass we came to a longitudinal valley where the country was open towards the southeast game was abundant spores crossed one another in all directions and two bold yaks awakened in us greater respect than before at six places we saw large herds of wild asses and antelopes grazed on the plains we lost a mule here and had now 16 animals of both kinds another day's journey across flat country we were traversing the large white patch of unknown land and were approaching Bauer's route at an acute angle though we were still rather far east of it a wild yak ran across our path and we wondered if it were our enemy of the previous day where we pitched our camp, number 58 we found some hearths which could not be more than a couple of days old our excitement and eagerness increased day by day now the utmost margin of inhabited Tibet could not be far distant as I let my eyes rove over these red or black snow capped or bare crests I could fancy I could perceive a whole host of dancing notes of interrogation some in fantastic draperies mocking us because we had ventured without an escort into the forbidden land others motioning us onwards but all doubtful and speculative step by step day by day with failing strength we approached the solution of all these questions any moment a troop of mounted men might appear on the horizon bringing orders from Devashong that we must immediately evacuate the country and retired northwards I was still convalescent, went to bed at seven o'clock and was not much the better for it for I always felt terribly languid Serring was very despondent because I did so little honor to his cooking how can the sahib regain his strength if he eats so little he used to remind me he was a comical fellow Serring as he marched day after day with a stick in his hand at the head of his detachment self-conscious and pompous as a chant to clear late at night we heard the dismal long drawn howling of wolves close at hand we could tell from the wild complaining note that hunger had made the brutes bolder and that the odor of fresh meat excited them they were on the other side of the source and Tundrup Sonam stole off to scare them away by firing into the troop though there was small chance of hitting one in the darkness the brutes retired but in the night chased our animals which scampered off to the north as though there were a fire behind them but the men followed their trail and found them at dawn a good day's journey from the camp on November 10th we had good ground again and saw to the east southeast a lake which looked like a bright white ring the middle being deep blue near this day's camp at the bottom of the mine were clear traces of a man who had driven five tame yaks to the lake the footprints were at most three days old and excited a great stir in the caravan we were undoubtedly close to human dwellings and I thought with regret of the interval of nearly three months during which we had had no cause to dread hostile tribes we held a council of war should we as long as possible avoid contact with men in the way of their tents so that we need not turn back until further progress became quite impossible or should we seek out the nearest nomads at once and beg them for assistance at this moment Tundup Sonam ran up out of breath he had been scouting to the west and had described a black tent I immediately sent him to it with two other men and gave them a handful of rupees but the news they brought from this first meeting with human beings was particularly interesting the tent was inhabited by a woman and her three children she had come from the district of Gurdza in the southwest and had covered the distance in 25 short days marches she had arrived 17 days before with her two husbands but both had returned a few days ago to Gurdza after they had filled the tent for her with wild-ass meat she was daily expecting her parents who were to keep her company for three months during which time they would live on game yaks, yongs, and antelopes she owned a few yaks and a small flock of sheep which she and the oldest child tended and milked the inside of the tent was very wretched but a warm fire burned in the center she knew that four more tents were standing in a neighboring valley when Tundup Sonam told her that we were a party of Ladakhis on a pilgrimage to the holy places she replied that we had chosen a very bad route and would have done better to take a more southern road of where there were men her geographical knowledge was limited the country in which we were now she called Gomo Selong the gold plasters which we had passed lay in the Lashong country and the lake at camp number 55 she called Lashong Tso my servants who had already been in Tibet held that this information was reliable for they had heard the names before now then the ice was broken after 79 days of complete isolation from the outer world some of our men at least had seen human beings but other connections would soon follow this lonely woman this daughter of the wilderness this real lady of the mountains and again we discussed the line of policy we must adopt the woman dwelt alone and no news of our approach could be conveyed through her instrumentality to the south we could then take the matter for the present quite coolly as here to fore and when we were surrounded on all sides by nomads among whom reports are rapidly dispersed we must then think of hastening our movements we granted the animals a day's rest for the pastureage was good and it was pleasant to spend this day under canvas the storm whistled and hauled through the grass and around the stones everything that was light and loose was blown away and the ground was swept clean the sky was cloudless and the air clear the wild commotion was only in the layer of air close to the ground and the important part played by the wind in the deformation of the surface was evident in such a storm huge masses of material must be removed from their original position in the night the storm ceased all of a sudden and it became so still all at once it was as though we had encamped by a waterfall which in an instant ceased to roar one starts up and wonders what has happened but one soon becomes accustomed to the stillness and finds the absence of the noise and the draught of relief end of In the Land of the Wild Yak by Sven Hedden read by Phil Schempf