 BOMBARDIMENT OF THE DARDENELLS First Allied Attack, described by an onlooker. From the New York Times, March 8, 1915, Athens, Saturday, March 6, dispatch to the London Daily Chronicle. The bombardment of the Dardanelles forts, according to the latest news, proceeds with success and cautious thoroughness. It is now anticipated that before another two weeks are over, the Allied fleet will be in the Sea of Marmora, and Constantinople will quickly fall to the victorious Allies. Two features of the operations make extreme caution necessary for the attacking battleships. In the first place, the number of mines laid in the Strait have been found to be enormous. They must all be picked up, and the work takes considerable time, seeing that it must be done thoroughly. In the second place, the larger batteries, against whom the Allied fleet is contending, are very skillfully hidden. I have had an interesting talk with a gentleman who has just arrived from Tinnitus, where, from the height of Mount Ilios, he witnessed the bombardment. He tells me, quote, the sight was most magnificent. At first the fleet was arranged in a semi-circle, some miles out to sea, from the entrance to the Strait. It afforded an inspiring spectacle, as the ships came along and took up position, and the picture became most awe-inspiring when the guns began to boom. The bombardment at first was slow, shells from the various ships screaming through the air at the rate of about one every two minutes. Their practice was excellent, and with strong glasses I could see huge masses of earth and stonework thrown high up into the air. The den, even at a distance, was terrific, and when the larger ship, with the biggest guns in the world, joined in the martial chorus, the air was rent with air-splitting noise. The Turkish batteries, however, were not being drawn, and, seeing this, the British Admiral sent one British ship and one French ship close inshore toward the Sed Elbar forts. It was a pretty sight to see the two battleships swing rapidly away toward the northern cape, spitting fire and smoke as they rode. They obscured the pure atmosphere, with clouds of smoke from their funnels and guns, yet through it all I could see they were getting home, with the shots they fired. As they went in they sped right under the guns of the shore batteries, which could no longer resist the temptation to see what they could do. Puffs of white smoke dotted the landscape on the far shore, and dull booms echoed over the placid water. Around the ships, fountains of water sprang up into the air. The enemy had been drawn, but his marksmanship was obviously very bad. I think I am right in saying that not a single shot directed against the ships came within a hundred yards of either. End of Bombardment of the Dardanelles, no author named. The Boudic Consciousness by C. W. Edbeter. All students are theoretically acquainted with the idea of the Boudic Plain and its wonderful characteristic of unity of consciousness, but most of them probably regard the possibility of obtaining any personal experience of that consciousness, as belonging to the far distant future. The full development of the Boudic vehicle is, for most of us, still remote. Poor belongs to the stage of the fourth, or arhat, initiation. But it is perhaps not entirely impossible, for those who are as yet far from that level, to gain some touch of that higher type of consciousness in quite another way. I was myself brought along, what I should describe as the ordinary and commonplace line of occult development, and I had to fight my way laboriously upward, conquering one sub-plane after another, first in the astral world, then in the mental, and then in the Boudic, which means that I had a full use of my astral, mental, and causal vehicles, before anything came to me that I could define certainly as a real Boudic experience. This method is slow and toilsome, though I think it has its advantages in developing accuracy and observation, in making sure of each step before the next is taken. I have no doubt whatever, that it was the best for a person of my temperament. Indeed, it was probably the only way possible for me, but it does not follow that other people may not have quite other opportunities. It has happened to me in the course of my work, to come into contact with a number of those who are undergoing occult training, and perhaps the fact which emerges most prominently from my experience in that direction, in the marvelous variety of method employed by our masters. So closely adapted is the training to the individual, that in no two cases it is the same. Not only has every master his own plan, but the same master adopts a different scheme for each pupil, so each person has brought along exactly that line which is most suitable for him. A remarkable instance of this variability of method came under my notice not long ago, and I think that an explanation of it may perhaps be useful to some of our students. Let me first remind them of the curious inverted way in which the ego is reflected in the personality, the higher manas, or intellect, images itself in the mental body, the intuition, or buddha, reflects itself in the astral body, and the spirit, or atma, itself somehow corresponds to the physical. These correspondences show themselves in the three methods of individualization, and they play their part in certain inner developments, but until lately it had not occurred to me that they could be turned to practical account at a much earlier stage by the aspirant for the occult progress. A certain student of deeply affectionate nature developed, as it was quite right and proper that he should. An intense love for the teacher who had been appointed by his master to assist him in the preliminary training. He made it a daily practice to form a strong mental image of that teacher, and then pour out his love upon him with all his force, thereby flooding his own astral body with crimson, and temporarily increasing its size enormously. He used to call the process, enlarging his aura. He showed such remarkable aptitude in this exercise, and it was so obviously beneficial to him, that an additional effort along the same line was suggested to him. He was recommended, while holding the image clearly before him, and sending out the love force as strongly as ever, to try to raise his consciousness to a higher level, and unify it with that of his teacher. His first attempt to do this was amazingly successful. He described a sensation as of actually rising through space. He found what he supposed to be the sky, like a roof barring his way, but the force of his will seemed to form a sort of cone in it, which presently became a tube through which he found himself rushing. He emerged into a region of blinding light, which was at the same time a sea of bliss so overwhelming that he could find no words to describe it. It was not in the least like anything that he had ever felt before. It grasped him as definitely, and instantaneously, as a giant hand might have done, and permeated his whole nature in a moment like a flood of electricity. It was more real than any physical object that he had ever seen, and yet at the same time so utterly spiritual. It was as though God had taken me into himself, and I felt his life running through me, he said. He gradually recovered himself, and was able to examine his condition, and as he did so, he began to realize that his consciousness was no longer limited as it had hitherto been, that he was somehow simultaneously present at every point of that marvelous sea of light, indeed, that in some inexplicable way he was himself at sea, even though apparently at the same time he was a point floating in it. It seemed to us who heard that he was groping after words to express the consciousness which, as Madame Blavatsky so well puts it, has its center everywhere, and circumference nowhere. Further realization revealed to him that he had succeeded in his effort to become one with the consciousness of his teacher. He found himself thoroughly comprehending, and sharing that teacher's feelings, and possessing a far wider and higher outlook on life, than he had ever had before. One thing that impressed him immensely was the image of himself as seen through the teacher's eyes. It filled him with a sense of unworthiness, and yet of high resolve as he whimsically put it. I found myself loving myself through my teacher's intense love for me, and I knew that I could, and would, make myself worthy of it. He sensed also a depth of devotion and reverence, which he had never before reached, and he knew that in becoming one with his earthly teacher, he had also entered the shrine of his true master, with whom that teacher, in turn, was one, and he dimly felt himself in touch with the consciousness of unrealizable splendor. But here his strength failed him. He seemed to slide down to his tube again, and opened his eyes upon the physical plane. Consulted as to this transcendent experience, I inquired minutely into it, and easily satisfied myself that it was unquestionably an entry into the Buddhic world, not by some toilsome progress through the various stages of mental, but by a direct course along the ray of reflection from the highest astral subplane to the lowest of that intuitional world. I asked as to physical efforts, and found that there were absolutely none. The student was in radiant health. So I recommended that he should repeat the effort, and that he should, without most reverence, try to press higher still, and to raise himself, if it might be, into that other astral consciousness. For I saw that here was a case of that combination of golden love and iron will, that is so rare on this our sorrowful star, and I knew that a love which is utterly unselfish, and a will which recognizes no obstacles, may carry their possessor to the very feet of God himself. The student repeated his experiment, and again he succeeded beyond all hope or expectation. He was able to enter that wider consciousness, and he pressed outward and upward into it, as though he were swimming out into some vast lake. Much of what he brought back with him could not be comprehended. Shreds of ineffable glories, fragments of conception so vast and so glorious that no mere human mind can grasp them in their totality. But he gained a new idea of what love and devotion could be, an ideal after which to strive for the rest of his life. Day after day he continued his efforts. We found that once a day was as often as he could be wisely attempted. Further and further he penetrated into that great lake of love, and yet found no end to it. But gradually he became aware of something far greater still. He somehow knew that this indescribable splendor was permeated by a subtler glory, yet more inconceivably splendid, and he tried to raise himself into that. And when he succeeded, he knew by its characteristics that it was the consciousness of the great world teacher himself. In becoming one with his own earthly teacher, he had inevitably joined himself to the consciousness of his master, with whom that teacher was already united. And in this further marvelous experience he was but proving the close union which exists between that master and the Bodhisattva, one who in turn had taught him. Into that sureless sea of love and compassion he plunges daily in his meditation, with such uplifting and strengthening for himself as may readily be imagined, but he can never reach its limits, for no mortal man can fathom such an ocean as that. Striving ever to penetrate more deeply into this wondrous new realm which had so suddenly opened before him, he succeeded one day in reaching a yet further development, a bliss so much more intense, a feeling so much more profound, that it seemed to him at first as much higher than his first Buddhic touch as that had been above his earlier astro-experiences. He remarked, If I did not know that it is impossible for me to attain it yet, I should say that this must be nirvana. In reality it was only the next sub-plane of the Buddhic, the second from the bottom, and the sixth from the top, but his impression is significant as showing that not only does consciousness widen as we rise, but the rate at which it widens increases rapidly. Not only is progress accelerated, but the rate of such acceleration grows by geometrical progression. Now this student reaches that higher sub-plane daily and as a matter of course, and is working vigorously and perseveringly in the hopes of advancing still farther, and the power, the balance, and the certainty which this introduces into his daily physical life is amazing and beautiful to see. Another phenomenon which he observes as accompanying this is that an intense bliss of that higher plane now persists beyond the time of meditation, and is becoming more and more a part of his whole life. At first this persistence was for some twenty minutes after each meditation, then it reached an hour, then two hours, and he is confidently looking toward a time when it will be his as a permanent possession, a part of himself. A remarkable feature of the case is that this prodigious daily exaltation is not followed by any sign of the slightest reaction or depression, but instead produces an ever-augmenting radiance and sonniness. Becoming gradually more accustomed to functioning in this higher and more glorious world, he began to look about him to some extent, and was presently able to identify himself with many other less exalted consciousnesses. He found these existing as points within his extended self, and he discovered that by focusing himself at any of these points he could at once realize the highest qualities and spiritual aspirations of the person whom is represented. Seeking for a more detailed sympathy with whom he knew and loved, he discerned that these points of consciousness were also, as he puts it, holes through which he could pour himself down into their lower vehicles, and thus he came into touch with those parts of their lives and dispositions which could find no expression on the booted plane. This gave him a sympathy with their characters, a comprehension of their weaknesses, which was truly remarkable, and could probably have been attained in no other way, a most valuable quality for the work of a disciple in the future. The wondrous unity of that intuitional world manifested itself to him in unsuspected examples. Holding in his hand one day what he regarded as a specially beautiful little object, part of which was white, he fell into a sort of ecstasy of admiration of its graceful form and harmonious coloring. Suddenly, through the object, as he gazed at it, he saw unfolded before him a landscape, just as though the object had become a tiny window, or perhaps a crystal. The landscape is one that he knows and loves well, but there was no obvious reason why the little object should bring thus before him. A curious feature was that the white part of the object was represented in the sky of his picture. Impressed by this wholly unexpected phenomenon, he tried the experiment of raising his consciousness while he reveled in the beauty of the prospect. He had the sensation of passing through some resisting medium into a higher plane, and found that the view before him had changed to one which was strange to him, but even more beautiful than that which he knew so well. The piles of white cloud had become towering snow-covered mountain, with its long lines sweeping down to a sea of color richer than any that in this incarnation he had seen. The rocky bays, the buildings, the vegetation, were all foreign to him, though well known to me, and by a little careful questioning, I soon ascertained without room for doubt that the scene upon which he was looking was that which I suspected, a real physical view, but one many thousands of miles from the spot where he sat gazing at it. Since that hallowed spot is often in my mind, though I assuredly was not thinking of it that moment, what the students saw may have been a thought-form of mine. I imagine that up to this point what had happened may be quite simply described. I presumed that the students' emotion was excited by his admiration, and that the heightened vibrations which were caused in this way brought into operation his astral senses, and this enabled him to see a view which was not physically visible, but well within astral reach. The endeavor to press on further temporarily opened the mental sense, and by it he was able to see my thought-form if that second view was a thought-form of mine. But the student did not rest satisfied with that. He repeated his attempt to push on still higher, or as he put it, still deeper into the real meaning of it all. Once more he had the experience of breaking through into some exalted and more refined state of matter, and this time it was no earthly scene that rewarded his effort. For the foreground burgeoned forth within a limitable universe filled with masses of splendid color, pulsating with glorious life, and the snow-covered mountain became a great white throne faster than any mountain veiled in dazzling gold light. A strange fact connected with this vision is that the student to whom the experience came is entirely unacquainted with the Christian scripture, and was unaware that any text existing therein had any bearing upon what he saw. I asked him whether he could repeat this experience at will. He did not know. But later on he tried the experiment, and succeeded in again passing through those stages in the same order, giving some additional details of the foreign landscape, which proved to me that this was not merely a feat of memory, and this time the awestruck and seer whispered that amidst the coruscations of that light he once had a passing glimpse of the outline of a mighty figure who sat upon the throne. This also, you may say, might be a thought form, built by some Christian of vivid imagination. Perhaps. But when a few days later an opportunity occurred, and I asked a wise one what signification we might attach to such a vision, he replied, Do you not see that, as there is but one love, so there is but one beauty? Whatever is beautiful on any plane is so because it is pushed back far enough, its connection will become manifest. All beauty is of God, as all love is of God. And through these, his qualities, the pure in heart, may always reach him. Our students would do well to weigh these words, and follow out the idea contained in them. All beauty, whether it be a form or of color, whether it be in nature or in the human frame, in high achievements of art, or in the humblest household utensil, is but an expression of the one beauty, and therefore, in even the loliest thing that is beautiful, all beauty is implicitly contained. And so through it all beauty may be realized, and he who himself is beauty may be reached. To understand this fully needs a booted consciousness, by which our student arrived at its realization, but even at much lower levels the idea may be useful and fruitful. I fully admit that the student whose experience is I have been relating is exceptional, that he possesses a strength of will, a power of love, a purity of heart, and utter unselfishness, which are, unfortunately, far from common. Nevertheless, what he has done with such marked success may surely be copied to some extent by others less gifted. He has unfolded his consciousness upon a plane, which is not normally reached by aspirants. He is rapidly building for himself a capable and most valuable vehicle there. For that is the meaning of the ever-increasing persistence of sense of bliss and power. That this is a definite line of progress, and not a mere isolated example, is shown by the fact that even already the abnormal Buddhic development is producing its effect upon the apparently neglected causal and mental bodies, stimulating them into action from above instead of leaving them to be laboriously influenced from below as usual. All this success is the result of steady effort along the line which I have described. Go thou and do likewise. No harm can come to any man from an earnest endeavor to increase his power of love, his power of devotion, and his power to appreciate beauty, and by such endeavor it is at least possible that he may attain a progress of which he had not dreamed. Only be it remembered that, in this path as in every other, growth is achieved only by him who desires it, not for his own sake, but for the sake of service. Forgetfulness of self and an eager desire to help others are the most prominent characteristics of the student whose inner story I have here told. These characteristics must be equally prominent in any who aspire to follow his example. Without them no such consummation is possible. The Theosophist August 1915 End of the Buddhic Consciousness by C. W. Leadbeater Read by Andrea Fiore. The Code of Honour by John Lydd Wilson. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Timothy Ferguson. The Code of Honour or Rules for the Government of Principles and Seconds in Dueling by John Lydd Wilson The man who adds in any way to the sum of human happiness is strictly in the discharge of a moral duty. When Howard visited the victims of crime and licentiousness to reform their habits and ameliorate their condition, the question was never asked whether he had been guilty of like-excessors or not. The only question the philanthropist would propound should be has the deed been done in the true spirit of Christian benevolence and those who know me can well attest the motive which has caused the publication of the following sheets to which they for a long time urged me in vain. Those who do not know me have no right to impute a wrong motive and if they do, I had rather be the object than the authors of condemnation. To publish a Code of Honour, to govern in cases of individual combat might seem to imply that the publisher was an advocate of dueling and wish to introduce it as a proper mode of deciding all personal difficulties and misunderstandings. Such an implication would do me great injustice. But if the question be directly put to me, whether there are not cases where jewels are right and proper, I would unhesitatingly answer there are. If an oppressed nation has a right to appeal to arms and the defence of liberty and the happiness of its people, there can be no argument used in support of such an appeal which will not apply in equal force to individuals. How many cases are there that might be enumerated where there is no tribunal to do justice to the oppressed and deeply wronged individual? If he be subjected to a tame submission to insult and disgrace where no power can shield him from its effects, then indeed it would seem that the first law of nature, self-preservation, points out the only remedy for his wrongs. The history of all animated nature exhibits a determined resistance to the encroachment upon natural rights. Nay, I might add, in animate nature, for it also exhibits a continual warfare for supremacy. Plants of the same kind, as well as trees, do not stop their vigorous growth because they overshadow their kind, but on the contrary, flourish with greater vigour as the more weak and delicate decline and die. Those of different species are at perpetual warfare. The sweetest rose-tree will sicken and waste on the near-approach of the noxious bramble, and the most promising fields of wheat yield a miserable harvest if choked up with tears and thistles. The elements themselves war together, and the angels of heaven have met in fierce encounter. The principle of self-preservation is co-extensive with creation, and when, by education, we make character and moral worth a part of ourselves, we guard these possessions with more watchful zeal than life itself, and would go farther for their protection, when one finds himself avoided in society, his friend shunning his approach, his substance wasting, his wife and children in want around him, and traces all his misfortunes and misery to the slanderous tongue of a calaminator who, by his secret whisper or artful innuendo, has sapped and undermined his reputation, he must be more or less than a man to submit in silence. The indiscriminate and frequent appeal to arms to settle trivial disputes and misunderstandings cannot be too severely censured and deprecated. I am no advocate of such dueling. But in cases where the laws of the country give no redress for injuries received, where public opinion not only authorizes but enjoins resistance, it is needless and a waste of time to denounce the practice. It will be persisted in as long as manly independence and a lofty personal pride in all that dignifies and ennobles the human character shall continue to exist. If a man be smote on one cheek in public, and he turns the other, which is also smitten, and he offers no resistance, but blesses him that so despitefully used him, I am aware that he is in the exercise of great Christian forbearance, highly recommended and enjoined by many very good men. But utterly repugnant to those feelings which nature and education have implanted in the human character, if it was possible to enact laws so severe and impossible to be evaded as to enforce such rule of behavior, all that is honourable in the community would quit the country and inhabit the wilderness with the Indians. If such a course of conduct was infused by education into the minds of our youth, and it became praiseworthy and honourable to a man to submit to insult and indignity, then indeed the forbearance might be born without disgrace. Those therefore who condemn all who do not denounce dueling in every case, should establish schools were a passive submission to force would be the exercise of a commendable virtue. I have not the least doubt that if I had been educated in such a school and lived in such a society, I would have proved a very good member of it, but I much doubt if a seminary of learning was established where this Christian forbearance was inculcated and enforced, whether there would be many scholars. I would not wish to be understood to say that I do not desire to see dueling to cease to exist entirely in society, but my plan for doing it away is essentially different from the one which teaches a passive forbearance to insults and indignity. I would inculcate in the rising generation a spirit of lofty independence. I would have them taught that nothing was more derogatory to the honour of a gentleman than to wound the feelings of anyone, however humble. That if wrong were to be done to another, it was more an act of heroism and bravery to repair the injury than to persist in error and enter into mortal combat with the injured party. This would be an aggravation of that which was already odious and would put him without the pale of all decent society and honourable men. I would strongly inculcate to the propriety of being tender of the feelings, as well as of the failings of those around him. I would teach immutable integrity and uniform urbanity of manners, scrupulously to guard individual honour by a high personal self-respect and the practice of every commendable virtue. Once let such a system of education be universal, and we should sell them here, if ever, of any more dueling. The severest penal enactments cannot restrain the practice of dueling, and their extreme severity in this state the more effectively shields the offenders. The teaching and preaching of our eloquent clergy may do some service, but it is wholly inadequate to suppress it. Under these circumstances the following rules are given to the public, and if I can save the life of one useful member of society I will be compensated. I have restored to the bosoms of many their sons by my timely interference who are ignorant of the misery I have averted from them. I believe that nine jewels out of ten, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred, originate in the want of experience in the seconds. A book of authority to which they can refer in matters where they are uninformed will therefore be a disdarratum. How far this code will be that book, the public will decide. The author. Chapter one, the person insulted before challenge sent. One, whenever you believe that you are insulted, if the insult be in public, and by words or behaviour, never resent it there, if you have self-command enough to avoid noticing it. If resented there, you offer an indignity to the company, which you should not. Two, if the insult be by blows or any personal indignity, it may be resented at the moment, for the insult to the company did not originate with you. But although resented at the moment, you are bound still to have satisfaction and must therefore make the demand. Three, when you believe yourself aggrieved, be silent on the subject, speak to no one about the matter, and see your friend, who is to act for you as soon as possible. Four, never send a challenge in the first instance, for that precludes all negotiation. Let your note be in the language of a gentleman, and let the subject matter of complaint be truly and fairly set forth, cautiously avoiding attributing to the adverse party any improper motive. Five, when your second is in full possession of the facts, leave the whole matter to his judgment, and avoid any consultation with him unless he seeks it. He has the custody of your honour, and by obeying him you cannot be compromitted. Six, let the time of demand upon your adversary after the insult be as short as possible, for he is the right to double that time in replying to you unless you give him some good reason for your delay. Each party is entitled to reasonable time to make the necessary domestic arrangements, by will or otherwise, before fighting. Seven, to a written communication you are entitled to a written reply, and it is the business of your friend to require it. Seconds duty before challenge sent. One, whenever you are applied to by a friend to act as his second, before you agree to do so, state distinctly to your principle that you will be governed only by your own judgment, that he will not be consulted after you are in full possession of the facts, unless it becomes necessary to make or accept the amend honourable or send a challenge. You are supposed to be cool and collected, and your friend's feelings are more or less irritated. Use every effort to soothe and tranquilise your principle. Do not see things in the same aggrieved light in which he views them, extenuate the conduct of his adversary whenever you see the clear opportunity to do so, without doing violence to your friend's irritated mind. Endeavour to persuade him that there must have been some misunderstanding in the matter? Check him if he uses a probious epiphet towards his adversary, and never permit improper or insulting words in the note you carry. Three, to the note you carry in writing to the party complained of, you are entitled to a written answer, which will be directed to your principle and will be delivered to you by his adversary's friend. If this be not written in the style of a gentleman, refuse to receive it, and assign your reason for such refusal. If there be a question made as to the character of the note, require the second presenting it to you, who considers it respectful, to endorse it upon these words. I consider the note of my friend respectful, and would not have been the bearer of it if I believed otherwise. Four, if the party called on refuses to receive the note you bear, you are entitled to demand a reason for such refusal. If he refuses to give you any reason and persists in such refusal, he treats not only your friend, but yourself with indignity, and you must make yourself the actor by sending a respectful note, requiring a proper explanation of the course he is pursued towards you and your friend, and if he still adheres to his determination, you are to challenge or post him. Five, if the person to whom you deliver the note of your friend declines meeting him on the ground of inequality, you are bound to tend yourself in his stead by a note directed to him from yourself, and if he refuses to meet you, you are to post him. Six, in all cases of the substitution of the second for the principle, the second should interpose and adjust the matter, if the party substituting avows he does not make the quarrel of the principle his own. The true reason for substitution is the supposed insult of imputing to you the like inequality which if charged upon your friend, and when the contrary is declared, there should be no fight, for individuals may well differ in their estimate of an individual's character and standing in society. In case of substitution and a satisfactory arrangement, you are to inform your friend of all the facts whose duty it will be to post in person. Seven, if the party to whom you present a note, employ a son, father or brother as second, you may decline acting with either on the ground of consanguinity. Eight, if a minor wishes you to take a note to an adult, decline doing so on the ground of his minority. But if the adult complained of had made a companion of the minor in society, you may bear the note. Nine, when an accommodation is tended, never require too much, and if the party offering the amend honourable wishes to give a reason for his conduct in the matter, do not, unless offensive to your friend, refuse to receive it. By doing so, you heal the breach more effectually. Ten, if a stranger wishes you to bear a note for him, be well satisfied before you do so that he is on equality with you, and in presenting the note, state to the party the relationship you stand toward him, and what you know and believe about him, for strangers are entitled to redress for wrongs as well as others, and the rules of honour and hospitality should protect him. Chapter Two, the party receiving a note before challenge. One, when a note is presented to you by an equal, receive it and read it, although you may suppose it to be from one you do not intend to meet, because its requisites may be of a character which may readily be complied with, but if the requirements of a note cannot be acceded to, return it through the medium of your friend to the person who handed it to you with your reason for returning it. Two, if the note received be in abusive terms, object to its reception and return it for that reason, but if it be respectful, return an answer of the same character, in which respond correctly and openly to all interrogatories fairly propounded and handed to your friend who it is presumed you have consulted and who has advised the answer, direct to the opposite party and let it be delivered to his friend. Three, you may refuse to receive a note from a minor if you have not made an associate of him, one that has been posted, one that has been publicly disgraced without resenting it, one whose occupation is unlawful, a man in his dotage, and a lunatic. There may be other cases, but the character of those enumerated will lead to a correct decision upon those admitted. If you receive a note from a stranger, you have a right to a reasonable time to ascertain his standing in society, unless he is fully vouched for by his friend. Four, if a party delay is calling on you for a week or more after the supposed insult and assigns no course to the delay, if you require it, you may double the time before you respond to him, for the wrong cannot be considered aggravated if born patiently for some days, and the time may have been used in preparation and practice. Second, duty of the party receiving a note before challenge sent. One, when consulted by your friend who has received a note requiring explanation, inform him distinctly that he must be governed wholly by you in the progress of the dispute. If he refuses, decline to act on that ground. Two, use your utmost efforts to allay all excitement which your principal may labour under, search diligently into the origin of the misunderstanding. For gentlemen, sell them insult each other, unless they labour under some misapprehension or mistake, and when you have discovered the original ground or error, follow each movement to the time of the sending of the note, and harmony will be restored. Three, when your principal refuses to do what you require of him, decline further acting on that ground and inform the opposing second of your withdrawal from the negotiation. Chapter 3, duty of challenger and his second before fighting. One, after all efforts for reconciliation are over, the party aggrieved sends a challenge to his adversary, which will be delivered to his second. Two, upon the acceptance of the challenge the seconds make the necessary arrangements for the meeting in which each party is entitled to a perfect equality. The old notion that the party challenged was authorised to name the time, place, distance and weapon has long since exploded, nor would a man of chivalric honour use such a right if he possessed it. The time must be as soon as practicable, the place such as had ordinarily been used where the parties are, the distance usual and the weapon that which is most generally used, which in this state is the pistol. Three, if the challenger insists upon what is not usual in time, place, distance and weapon do not yield the point and tender in writing what is usual in each, and if he refuses to give satisfaction then your friend may post him. Four, if your friend be determined to fight and not post, you have the right to withdraw, but if you continue to act and have the right to tender a still more deadly distance and weapon, and he must accept. Five, the usual distance is from ten to twenty paces as may be agreed on, and the seconds in measuring the ground usually step three feet. Six, after all the arrangements are made the seconds determine the giving of the word and position by lot, and he who gains as the choice of the one or the other selects whether it be the word or the position, but he cannot have both. Chapter Four, Duty of Challengy and Second after Challenge Sent One, the challengee has no option when negotiation has ceased but to accept the challenge. Two, the second makes the necessary arrangements with the second of the person challenging. The arrangements are detailed in the preceding chapter. Chapter Five, Duty of Principles and Seconds on the Ground One, the principles are to be respectful in meeting and neither by look or expression irritate each other, they are to be wholly passive, being entirely under the guidance of their seconds. Two, when once posted they are not to quit their positions under any circumstances without leave or direction of their seconds. Three, when the parties are posted the second giving the word must tell them to stand firm until he repeats the giving of the word in the manner it will be given when the parties are at liberty to fire. Four, each second has a loaded pistol in order to enforce a fair combat according to the rules agreed on, and if a principle fires before the word or time agreed on, he is at liberty to fire at him, and if such a second's principle fall, it is his duty to do so. Five, if after a fire, either party be touched, the duel is to end, and no second is excusable who permits a wounded friend to fight, and no second who knows his duty will permit his friend to fight a man already hit. I am aware there have been many instances where a contest has continued, not only after slight but severe wounds had been received. In all such cases, I think the seconds are blameable. Six, if after the exchange of shots neither party be hit, it is the duty of the second of the challengee to approach the second of the challenger and say, our friends have exchanged shots, are you satisfied, or is there any cause where the contest should be continued? If the meeting be of no serious cause of complaint where the party complaining had in no way been deeply injured or grossly insulted, the second of the party challenging should reply, the point of honour being settled that can, I can see, be no objection to a reconciliation, and I propose that our principals meet in the middle of the ground, shake hands, and be friends. If this be acceded to by the second of the challenger, the second of the party challenging says, we have agreed that the present duel shall cease, the honour of each of you is preserved, and you will meet on the middle ground, shake hands, and be reconciled. Seven, if the insult be of a serious character, it will be the duty of the second of the challenger to say in reply to the second of the challenger, we have been deeply wronged, and if you are not disposed to repair the injury, the contest must continue, and if the challenger offers nothing by way of reparation, the fight continues until one or the other of the principals is hit. Eight, if in cases where the contest is ended by the seconds, as mentioned in the sixth rule of this chapter, the parties refuse to meet and be reconciled, it is the duty of the seconds to withdraw from the field in forming their principals that the contest must be continued under the superintendents of other friends. But if one agrees to this arrangement of the seconds and the other does not, the second of the disagreeing principal only withdraws. Nine, if either principal on the ground refuses to fight or continue the fight when required, it is the duty of his second to say to the other second, I have come up on the ground with a coward and to tender you my apology for an ignorance of his character. You are at liberty to post him. The second, by such conduct, stands excused to the opposite party. Ten, when the duel is ended by a party being hit, it is the duty of the second to the party so hit to announce the fact to the second of the party hitting, who will forthwith tender any assistance seek in command to the disabled principal. If the party challenging hit the challenger, it is his duty to say he is satisfied and will leave the ground. If the challenger be hit, upon the challenger being informed of it, he should ask through his second whether he is at liberty to leave the ground which should be assented to. Chapter 6, who should be on the ground? One, the principles, seconds, one surgeon and one assistant surgeon to each principal, but the assistant surgeon may be dispensed with. Two, any number of friends that the seconds agree on may be present, provided they do not come within the degrees of consanguity mentioned in the seventh rule of Chapter 1. Three, persons admitted on the ground are careful to abstain by word or behaviour from any act that might be the least exceptional, nor should they stand near the principles or seconds or hold conversations with them. Chapter 7, arms and manner of loading and presenting them. One, the arms used should be small bore pistols, not exceeding nine inches in length with flint and steel. Percussion pistols may be mutually used if agreed on, but to object on that account is lawful. Two, each second informs the other when he is about to load and invites his presence, but seconds rarely attend on such invitation, as gentlemen may be safely trusted in the matter. Three, the second in presenting the pistol to his friend should never put it in his pistol hand, but should place it in the other, which is grasped, midway the barrel, with muzzle pointing in the contrary way to that which he is to fire, informing him that the pistol is loaded and ready for use, before the word is given the principle grasps the butt firmly in his pistol hand and brings it round with muzzle downward to the fighting position. Four, the fighting position is with the muzzle down and the barrel from you, for although it may be agreed that you hold your pistol with the muzzle up, it may be objected to as you can fire sooner from that position and consequently have a decided advantage which ought not to be claimed and should not be granted. Chapter 8, degrees of insult and how compromised. One, the prevailing rule is that words used in retort, although more violent and disrespectful than those first used will not satisfy. Words bring no satisfaction for words. Two, when words are used and a blow given in return the insult is avenged and if redressed be sought it must be from the person receiving the blow. Three, when blows are given in the first instance and not returned and the person striking be he badly beaten or otherwise the first party struck is to make the demand for blows do not satisfy a blow. Four, insults at a wine table where the company are overexcited must be answered for and if the party insulting have no recollection of the insult it is his duty to say so in writing and negative the insult. For instance, if a man say you are a liar and no gentleman he must in addition to the plea of want of recollection say I believe the party insulted to be a man of the strictest veracity and a gentleman. Five, intoxication is not a full excuse for insult but it will greatly palliate. If it was a full excuse it might well be counterfeited to wound feelings or destroy character. Six, in all cases of intoxication the seconds must use a sound discretion under the above general rules. Seven, can every insult be compromised? It is a mootad and vexed question. On this subject no rules can be given that will be satisfactory. The old opinion that a blow must require blood is not of force. Blows may be compromised in many cases. What those are much depend on the seconds. Appendix, since the above code was in press a friend has favoured me with the Irish code of honour which I had never seen and it is published as an appendix to it. One thing must be apparent to every reader vis the marked amelioration of the rules that govern dueling at the present time. I am unable to say what code exists now in Ireland but I very much doubt whether it be of the same character which it bore in 1777. The American Quarterly Review for September 1824 in a notice of Sir Jonah Barrington's history of his own times has published this code and followed it up with some remarks which I have thought proper to insert also. The Grave reviewer has spoken of certain states in terms so unlike a gentleman that I would advise him to look at home and say whether he does not think that the manners of his own countrymen do not require great amendment. I am very sure that the citizens of the states so disrespectfully spoken of would feel a deep humiliation to be compelled to exchange their obanity of deportment for the uncouth insubility of the people of Massachusetts. Look at their public journals and you will find them very generally teaming with abuse of private character which would not be countenanced here. The idea of New England becoming a school for manners is almost as fanciful as Bollingbroke's idea of a patriot king. I like their fortier in re but utterly a shoe their suavitier in modo. The practice of dueling and points of honour settled in Clomwell of Summer as easy as 1777 by the gentlemen delegates of Tipperary, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon and prescribed for general adoption throughout Ireland. Rule 1, the first offence requires the apology although the retort may have been more offensive than the insult. Example A tells B he is impertinent and such, B retorts that he lies yet A must make the first apology because he gave the first offence and then after one fire B may explain away the retort by subsequent apology. Rule 2, but if the parties would rather fight on then after two shots each but in no case before B may explain first and A apologises afterwards. Rule 3, if a dad exists who gave the first offence the decision rests with the seconds. If they won't decide or can't agree the matter must proceed to two shots or a hit if the challenger requires it. Rule 4, when the lie direct is the first offence the aggressor must either big pardon and express terms, exchange towel shots, exchange two shots previous to an apology or three shots followed up by an explanation or fire on till a severe hit be received by one party or the other. Rule 5, as a blow is strictly prohibited under any circumstances among gentlemen no verbal apology can be received for such an insult. The alternatives therefore are the offender handing a cane to the injured party to be used on his own back at the same time begging pardon, firing on until one or both is disabled or exchanging three shots and then asking pardon without the proffer of the cane. If swords are used the parties engage till one is well bloodied disabled or disarmed or until after receiving a wound and blood being drawn the aggressor begs pardon not a bene disarm is considered the same as a disabled the disarm may strictly break his adversary's sword but if it be the challenger who is disarmed it is considered ungenerous to do so. In case the challenger be disarmed and refuses to ask pardon or atone he must not be killed as formally but the challenger may lay his sword on the aggressor's shoulder then break the aggressor's sword and say I spare your life the challenger can never revive the quarrel the challenger may. Rule 6 if A give B the lie and B retorts by a blow being the two greatest offensers no reconciliation can take place till after two discharges each or a severe hit after which B may beg A's pardon for the blow and then A may explain simply for the lie because a blow is never allowable and the offence of the lie therefore merges in it. C preceding rule not a bene challenges for individual cases may be reconciled on the ground after one shot an explanation or the slightest hit should be sufficient in such cases because no personal offence transpired. Rule 7 but no apology can be received in any case after the parties have actually taken their ground without exchange of fires. Rule 8 in the above case no challenger is obliged to divulge the cause of his challenge if private and less required by the challenge to do so before their meeting. Rule 9 all imputations of cheating at play, races and such are considered equivalent to a blow but may be reconciled after one shot on admitting their falsehood and begging pardon publicly. Rule 10 any insult to a lady under a gentleman's care or protection to be considered as by one degree a greater offence than if given to the gentleman personally and to be regulated accordingly. Rule 11 offences originating or accruing from the support of a lady's reputation to be considered as less unjustifiable than any other of the same class and as admitting of lighter apologies by the transgressor this to be determined by the circumstances of the case but always favourably to the lady. Rule 12 in simple unprimeditated recontras with the small sword or contorted chasse the rule is first draw first sheath and less blood be drawn then both sheath and proceed to investigation. Rule 13 no dumb shooting or firing in the air admissible in any case. The challenger ought not to have challenged without receiving offence and the challenged ought if he gave offence to have made an apology before he came to the ground therefore children's play must be dishonourable on one side or the other and is accordingly prohibited. Rule 14 seconds to be of equal rank in society with principles they attend in as much as a second may choose or chance to become a principal and equality is indispensable. Rule 15 challenges are never to be delivered at night unless the party to be challenged intend leaving the place of offence before morning for it is desirable to avoid all hot-headed proceedings. Rule 16 the challenged has the right to choose his own weapon unless the challenger gives his honour that he is no swordsman after which however he cannot decline any second species of weapon proposed by the challenged. Rule 17 the challenged chooses his ground the challenger chooses his distance the seconds fix the time and terms of firing. Rule 18 the seconds load in the presence of each other unless they give their mutual honours that they have charged smooth and single which should be held sufficient. Rule 18 firing may be regulated first by signal secondly by word of command or thirdly at pleasure as may be agreeable to the parties. In the latter case the parties may fire at their reasonable leisure but second presence and rests are strictly prohibited. Rule 20 in all cases a misfire is equivalent to a shot and a snap or a non-cock is to be considered as a misfire. Rule 21 seconds are bound to attempt a reconciliation before the meeting takes place or after a sufficient firing or hits as specified. Rule 22 any wound sufficient to agitate the nerves and necessarily make the handshake must end the business for that day. Rule 23 if the cause of meeting be of such a nature that no apology or explanation can or will be received the challenged takes his ground and calls on the challenger to proceed as he chooses In such cases firing at pleasure is the usual practice but may be varied by agreement. Rule 24 in slight cases the second hands his principle but one pistol but in gross cases two holding another case ready charged in reserve. Rule 25 when seconds disagree and resolve to exchange shots themselves it must be at the same time and at right angles with their principles. If with swords side by side at five paces interval not a bene or matters and doubts not herein mentioned will be explained and cleared up by application to the committee who meet alternately at Clomwell and Galway at their quarter sessions for the purpose. Crow Ryan President James Keyogue Ambebodkin Secretaries Additional Galway Articles Rule 1 no party can be allowed to bend his knee or cover his side with his left hand but may present at any level from the hip to the eye. Rule 2 one can neither advance nor retreat if the ground be measured if the ground be unmeasured either party may advance at pleasure even to touch muzzle but neither can advance on his adversary after the fire until his adversary step forward on him. The second stand responsible for this last rule being strictly observed bad cases have accrued from neglecting it. This precise and enlightened digest was rented necessary by the multitude of corals that arose without sufficient dignified provocation. The point of honor men required a uniform government and the code thus formed was disseminated throughout the island with directions that it should be strictly observed by all gentlemen and kept in their pistol cases. The rules and some others were commonly styled the 36 commandments and according to the author have been much acted upon down to the present day. Tipperary and Galway were the chief schools of dueling. We remember to have heard in travelling to the town of the former name in a stagecoach a dispute between two Irish companions on the point which was the most gentlemanly country in all island, Tipperary or Galway and both laid great stress upon the relative dueling merits of those counties. By the same criterion, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina would bear away the palm of gentility among the states of the Union. End of Code of Honor by John Lide Wilson Read by Timothy Ferguson, Gold Coast, Australia Woman and the New Race by Margaret Sanger Chapter 10 Contraceptives or Abortion This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Society has not yet learned the significance of the each long effort of the feminine spirit to free itself of the burden of excessive childbearing. It has been singularly blind to the real forces underlying the cause of infanticide, child abandonment and abortion. It has permitted the highest and most powerful thing in women's nature to be hindered, diverted, repressed and confused. Society has permitted this inner urge of women to be rendered violent by repression, until it has expressed itself in cruel forms of family limitation, which the same society has promptly labeled crimes and sought to punish. It has gone on, blindly forcing women into these crimes, defy like to their entities and to the lessons of history. As we have seen in the second chapter of this book, child abandonment and infanticide are by no means obsolete practices. As for abortion, it has not decreased but increased with the advance of civilization. The reader will recall that one authority says that there are one million abortions in the United States every year, while another estimate doubles that number. Most of the women in the middle and upper classes in America seem secure in their knowledge of contraceptives as a means of birth control. Under present conditions, when the laws in most states regard this knowledge, also ever it be imparted as illicit and the federal statutes prohibit the sending of it through the males, even the women in more fortunate circumstances sometimes have difficulty in getting scientific information. Nevertheless, so strong is their purpose that they do obtain it and use it correctly or incorrectly. The great majority of women, however, belong to the working class. Nearly all of these women will fall into one of two general groups, the ones who are having children against their wills and those who, to escape this evil, find refuge in abortion. Being given their choice by society to continue to be overburdened mothers or to submit to a humiliating, repulsive, painful, and to often gravely dangerous operation, those women in whom the feminine urge to freedom is strongest choose the abortionist. One group goes on bringing children to birth, hoping that they will be born dead or die. The women of the other groups strive consciously by drastic means to protect themselves and the children are ready born. Our examinations, says Dr. Max Hirsch and authority on the subject, have informed us that the largest number of abortions in the United States are performed on married women. This fact brings us to the conclusion that contraceptive measures among the upper class and the practice of abortion among the lower class are the real means employed to regulate the number of offspring. Thus, a high percentage of women in comfortable circumstances escape overbreeding by the use of contraceptives. A similarly high percentage of women not in comfortable circumstances are forced to submit to forced maternity because their only alternative at present is abortion. When accidental conception takes place, some women of both classes resort to abortion if they can obtain the service of an abortionist. When society holds up its hands in horror at the crime of abortion, it forgets at whose door the first and principal responsibility for this practice rests. Does anyone imagine that a woman would submit to abortion if not denied the knowledge of scientific, effective contraceptives? Does anyone believe that physicians and midwives who perform abortions go from door to door soliciting patronage? The abortionist could not continue his practice for 24 hours if it were not for the fact that women come desperately begging for such operations. He could not stay out of jail a day if women did not so generally approve of his services as to hold his identity in open but seldom betrayed secret. The question, then, is not whether family limitations should be practiced. It is being practiced. It has been practiced for ages and will always be practiced. The question that society must answer is this. Shall family limitation be achieved through birth control or abortion? Shall normal, safe, effective contraceptives be employed? Or shall we continue to force women to the abnormal, often dangerous surgical operation? This question, too, the church, the state, and the moralist must answer. The knowledge of contraceptive methods may yet for a time be denied to the woman of the working class, but those who are responsible for denying it to her and she herself should understand clearly the dangers to which she is exposed because of the laws which force her into the hands of the abortionist. To understand more clearly the difference between birth control by contraceptives and family limitation through abortion, it is necessary to know something of the process of conception. Much of these processes will also enable us to comprehend more thoroughly the dangers to which woman is exposed by our antiquated laws, and how much better it would be for her to employ such preventative measures as would keep her out of the hands of the abortionist into which the laws now drive her. In every woman's ovaries are embedded millions of ovules, or eggs. They are in every female at birth, and as the girl develops into womanhood, these ovules develop also. At a certain age, varying slightly with the individual, the ripest ovule leaves the nest, or ovary, and comes down one of the tubes connecting with the womb and passes out of the body. When this takes place it is said that the girl is at the age of puberty. When it reaches the womb the ovule is ready for the process of conception, that is fertilization by the male sperm. At the time the ovule is ripening, the womb is preparing to receive it. This preparation consists of a reinforced blood supply brought to its lining. If fertilization takes place, the fertilized ovule, or ovum, will cling to the lining of the womb and there gather its nourishment. If fertilization does not take place, the ovum passes out of the body and the uterus throws off its surplus, blood supply. This is called the menstrual cycle. It occurs about once a month or every 28 days. In the male organs there are glands called testes, they secrete a fluid called the semen. In the semen is a life-giving principle called the sperm. When intercourse takes place, if no preventative is employed, the semen is depositing the woman's vagina. The ovule is not in the vagina, but is in the womb, further up, or perhaps in the tube on its way to the womb. The steel is attracted to the magnet, the sperm of the male starts on its way to seek the ovum. Several of these sperm cells start, but only one enters the ovum and is absorbed into it. This process is called fertilization, contraception, or impregnation. If no children are desired, the meeting of the male sperm and the ovum must be prevented. When scientific means are employed to prevent this meeting, one is said to practice birth control, the means used is known as a contraceptive. If however a contraceptive is not used and the sperm meets the ovule and development begins, any attempt at removing it or stopping its further growth is called abortion. There is no doubt that women are apt to look upon abortion as of little consequence and to treat it accordingly. An abortion is as important a matter as a confinement and requires as much attention as the birth of a child at its full term. The immediate dangers of abortion, says Dr. J. Clifton Edgar in his book The Practice of Obstetrics, are haemorrhage, retention of an adherent placenta, sepsis, tetanus, perforation of the uterus. They also cause terility, anemia, malignant diseases, displacements, neurosis, and endometritis. In playing everyday language, in an abortion there is always a very serious risk to the health and often to the life of the patient. It is only the women of wealth who can afford the best medical skill, care, and treatment both at the time of the operation and afterwards. In this way they escape the usual serious consequences. The women whose incomes are limited and who must continue at work before they have recovered from the effects of an abortion are the great army of sufferers. It is among such that the deaths due to abortion usually ensue. It is these two who are most often forced to resort to such operations. If death does not result, the woman who has undergone an abortion is not altogether safe from harm. The womb may not return to its natural size, but remain large and heavy, tending to fall away from its natural position. Abortion often leaves the uterus in a condition to conceive gradually again, and unless prevention is strictly followed, another pregnancy will surely occur. Frequent abortions tend to cause barrenness and serious painful pelvic ailments. These and other conditions arising from such operations are very likely to ruin a woman's general health. While there are cases where even the law recognizes an abortion as justifiable, if recommended by a physician, I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization. The effects of such operations upon a woman, serious as they may be, are nothing, as compared to the injury done her general health by drugs taken to produce the same result. Even such drugs as are prescribed by physicians have harmful effects, and nostrums recommended by druggists are often worse still. Even more drastic may be the effect upon the unborn child. For many women fail their systems with poisonous drugs during the first weeks of their pregnancy, only to decide at last when drugs have failed, as they usually do to bring the child to birth. There are no statistics, of course, by which we may compute the amount of suffering to mother and child from the use of such drugs. But we know that the total of physical weakness and disease must be astounding. We know that the woman's own system fills the stream of these drugs, and that the embryo is usually poisoned by them. The child is likely to be rickety, have heart trouble, kidney disorder, or to be generally weak in its powers of resistance. If it does not die before it reaches its first year, it is probable that it will have to struggle against some of these weaknesses until its adolescent period. It needs no assertion of mind to call attention to the grim fact that the laws prohibiting the impartial of information concerning the prevention of conception are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year in this country, and an untold amount of sickness and sorrow. The suffering and the death of these women is squarely upon the heads of the lawmakers and the puritanical, masculine-minded person who insists upon retaining the abominable legal restrictions. Try as they will, they cannot escape the truth, nor hide it under the cloak of stupid hypocrisy. If the laws against imparting knowledge of scientific birth control were repealed, nearly all of the one million or two million women who undergo abortions in the United States each year would escape the agony of the surgeon's instruments and the long trail of disease, suffering, and death, which so often follows. He who would combat abortion, says Dr. Hirsch, and at the same time combat contraceptive measures may be likened to the person who would fight contagious disease and forbid disinfection, for contraceptive measures are important weapons in the fight against abortion. America has a law since 1873 which prohibits by criminal statute the distribution and regulation of contraceptive measures. It follows, therefore, that America stands at the head of all nations in the huge number of abortions. There is the case in a nutshell. Family limitation will always be practiced as it is now being practiced, either by birth control or by abortion. We know that. The one means health and happiness, a stronger, better race. The other means disease, suffering, death. The woman who goes to the abortionist's table is not a criminal, but a martyr. A martyr to the bitter, unthinkable conditions brought about by the blindness of society at large. These conditions give her the choice between the surgeon's instruments and the sacrificing of what is highest and holiest in her, her aspiration to protect freedom, her desire to protect the children already hers. These conditions, not the woman, out face society with this question, contraceptives or abortion. Which shall it be? End of Woman in the New Race by Margaret Sanger Chapter 10, Contraceptives or Abortion Read by Craig Campbell in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2009 Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle by Professor George Howard Parker. From Lectures on the Harvard Classics. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Had Charles Darwin never published more than The Voyage of the Beagle, his reputation as a naturalist of the first rank would have been fully assured. Even before the close of that eventful circumnavigation of the globe, the English geologist Sedgwick, who had probably seen some of the letters sent by the young naturalist of Friends in England, predicted to Dr. Darwin, Charles Darwin's father, that his son would take a place among the leading scientific men of the day. As it afterward proved, The Voyage of the Beagle was the foundation stone on which rested that monument of work and industry, which, as a matter of fact, made Charles Darwin one of the distinguished scientists, not only of his generation, but of all time. The conventional school and university training had very little attraction for Darwin. From boyhood, his real interests were to be found in collecting natural objects. Minerals, plants, insects and birds were the materials that excited his mind to full activity. But it was not until his Cambridge days, when he was supposedly studying for the clergy, that the encouragement of Henslow changed this past time into a serious occupation. The Occasion of the Voyage About 1831, the British Admiralty decided to fit out the Beagle, a 10-gun brig, to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, begun some years before, to survey the shores of Chile, Peru and some of the islands of the Pacific and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements around the world. It seemed important to all concerned that a naturalist should accompany this expedition, and Captain Fitzroy, through the mediation of Professor Henslow, eventually induced Charles Darwin to become his cabin companion and naturalist for the voyage. Henslow recommended Darwin, not as a Finnish naturalist, but as one amply qualified for collecting, observing anything worthy to be noted in natural history. The Beagle, after two unsuccessful attempts to get away, finally set sail from Devonport, England, December 27th, 1831, and after a cruise of almost five years, she returned to Falmouth, England, October 2nd, 1836. Her course had lain across the Atlantic to the Brazilian coast, then southward along the east coast of South America to Tierra del Fuego, when she turned northward, skirting the seaboard of Chile and Peru. Near the equator, a westerly course was taken and she then crossed the Pacific to Australia. When she traversed the Indian Ocean and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, headed across the South Atlantic for Brazil, here she completed the circumnavigation of the globe and picking up her former course, she retraced her way to England. When Darwin left England on the Beagle, he was 22 years old. The five-year voyage, therefore, occupied in his life the period of maturing manhood. What it was to mean to him, he only partly saw. Before leaving England, he declared that the day of sailing would mark the beginning of his second life, a new birthday to him. All through his boyhood, he had dreamed of seeing the tropics, and now his dream was to be realised. His letters and his account of the voyage are full of the exuberance of youth. To his friend Fox, he wrote from Brazil, The mind has been, since leaving England, in a perfect hurricane of delight and astonishment. To hence low, he sent word from Rio as follows, Here I first saw a tropical forest in all its sublime grandeur. Nothing but the reality can give you any idea how wonderful, how magnificent the scene is. And to another correspondent he wrote, When I first entered on and beheld the luxuriant vegetation of Brazil, it was realising the visions of the Arabian knights. The brilliancy of the scenery throws one into a delirium of delight, and a beetle hunter is not likely soon to awaken from it when, whichever way he turns, fresh treasures meet his eye. Such expressions could spring only from the enthusiasm of the born naturalist. The training of a naturalist. But the voyage of the beagle meant more to Darwin than the mere opportunity to see the world. It trained him to be a naturalist. During his five years at sea he learned to work, and to work under conditions that were often almost intolerable. The beagle was small and cramped, and the collections of a naturalist were not always easily cared for. The first lieutenant, who is described by Darwin in terms of the highest admiration, was responsible for the appearance of the ship, and strongly objected to having such a litter on deck as Darwin often made. To this man specimens were damned beastly devilment, and he is said to have added, If I were skipper, I would soon have you and all your damned mess out of the place. Darwin is quoted as saying that the absolute necessity of tidiness in the cramped space of the beagle gave him his methodical habits of work. On the beagle too he learned what he considered the golden rule for saving time, i.e. take care of the minutes, a rule that gives significance to an expression he has somewhere used, that all life is made of a succession of five minute periods. Darwin, however, not only learned on the beagle how to work against time and under conditions of material inconvenience, but he also acquired the habit of carrying on his occupations under considerable physical discomfort. Although he was probably not seriously ill, after the first three weeks of the voyage, he was constantly uncomfortable when the vessel pitched it all heavily, and the sensitiveness to this trouble is well shown in a letter dated June 3, 1836 from the Cape of Good Hope, in which he said, It is lucky for me that the voyage is drawing to a close, for I positively suffer more from seasickness now than three years ago. Yet he always kept busily at work, and not withstanding the more or less continuous nature of this discomfort, he was not inclined to attribute the digestive disturbances of his later life to these early experiences. The return voyage found his spirit somewhat subdued. Writing to his sister from Bahia in Brazil, where the beagle crossed her outward course, he said, It has been almost painful to find how much good enthusiasm has been evaporated in the last four years. I can now walk soberly through a Brazilian forest. Yet years after, in rehearsing the voyage in his autobiography, he declared, The glories of the vegetation of the tropics arise before my mind at the present time more vividly than anything else. Practical results of the voyage Darwin's opinion of the value of the voyage to him can scarcely be expressed better than in his own words. In his later years, he wrote, The voyage of the beagle has been by far the most important event of my life. And again, I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind. I was led to attend closely to several branches of natural history, and thus my powers of observation were improved, though they were always fairly developed. And finally, in a letter to Captain Fitzroy, he said, However others may look back on the beagle's voyage, now that the small disagreeable parts are well-knife forgotten, I think it far the most fortunate circumstance in my life that the chance afforded by your offer of taking a naturalist fell on me. I often have the most vivid and delightful pictures of what I saw on board the beagle passed before my eyes. These recollections and what I learned on natural history I would not exchange for twice ten thousand a year. But the voyage of the beagle was not only training for Darwin. It was the means of gathering together a large and valuable collection of specimens that kept naturalists busy for some years to come and added greatly to our knowledge of these distant lands and seas. In the work of arranging and describing these collections, Darwin was finally obliged to take an active part himself. For to quote from his life and letters, it seemed only gradually to have occurred to him that he would ever be more than a collector of specimens and facts, of which the great men were to make use. And even of the value of his collections, he seems to have had much doubt. For he wrote to Henslow in 1834, I really began to think that my collections were so poor that you were puzzled what to say. The case is now quite on the opposite tack, for you are guilty of exciting or mundane feelings to a most comfortable pitch. If hard work will atone for these thoughts, I vowed shall not be spared. Thus the collections made on the beagle served to confirm Darwin in the occupation of a naturalist and brought him into contact with many of the working scientists of his day. Speculative results of the voyage. Darwin, however, not only brought back as a result of his work on the beagle, large collections of interesting specimens, but he came home with a mind richly stored with new ideas, and one of these he put into shape so rapidly that it forms no small part of the voyage of the beagle. During much of the latter part of the journey, he was occupied with a study of Coral Islands, and his theory of the method of formation of these remarkable deposits was the first to gain general acceptance in the scientific world. In fact, his views gained so firm a foothold that they are today more generally accepted than those of any other naturalist. But Coral Islands were not the only objects of his speculations. Without doubt, he spent much time reflecting on that problem of problems, the origin of species. For though there is not much reference to this subject, either in the voyage itself or in his letters of that period, his dates in his autobiography that in July 1837, less than a year after his return, he opened his first notebook for facts in relation to the origin of species, about which, as he remarks, he had long reflected. Thus, the years spent on the beagle were years rich in speculation, as well as in observation and field work. Doubtless the direct results of the voyage of the beagle were acceptable to the British Admiralty and justified in their eyes the necessary expenditure of money and energy. But the great accomplishment of that voyage was not the charting of distant shorelines, nor the carrying of a chain of chronometrical measurements round the world. It was the training and education of Charles Darwin as a naturalist, and no greater tribute can be paid to the voyage than what Darwin himself has said. I feel sure that it was this training which has enabled me to do whatever I have done in science. End of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle by Professor George Howard Parker. Read by Marion Martin. The recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A flowery January in Florida. Mandarin, Florida. January 24th, 1872. Yes, it is done. The winter is over and past, and the time of the singing of the birds is come. They are at it beak and claw, the redbirds and the catbirds, and the chattering jays and the twittering sparrows, busy and funny and bright. Down in the swamp land, fronting our cottage, four calla lily buds are just unfolding themselves. And in the little garden plot, at one side stand rose geraniums and camellias, white and pink, just unfolding. Right opposite to the window, through which the morning sun is pouring, stands a stately orange tree, 30 feet high, with spreading graceful top and varnished green leaves, full of golden fruit. These are the veritable golden apples of the Hesperides, the apples that Atalanta threw in the famous race, and they are good enough to be run after. They fill the New York market, called by courtesy, oranges, pithy, wilted, and sour, have not even a suggestion of what those golden balls are that weigh down the great glossy green branches of yonder tree. At the tree's foot, Aunt Katie does her weekly washing in the open air the winter through. We have been putting our tape measure about it and find it 43 inches in girth, and for shapely beauty it has no equal. It gives one a sort of heart thrill, a possession to say of such beauty, it is mine. No wonder the scripture says, he that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseeth a tree that will not rot. The orange tree is, in our view, the best worthy to represent the tree of life of any that grows on our earth. It is the fairest, the noblest, the most generous, it is the most up-springing and abundant of all trees which the Lord God caused to grow eastward and Eden. Its wood is white and hard and tough, fit to sustain the immense weight of its frutage. Real good ripe oranges are very heavy, and the generosity of the tree inclines it to fruit and clusters. We counted the other day a cluster of 18 hanging low and weighing down the limb. But this large orange tree, and many larger than this, which are parts of one orchard, are comparatively recent growths. In 1835 every one of them was killed even with the ground. Then they started up with the genuine pluck of a true-born orange tree, which never says die, and began to grow again. Nobody pruned them or helped them or cared much about them anyway, and you can see trees that have grown up in four, five, and six trunks, just as the suckers sprung up from the roots. Then, when they had made some progress, came the orange insect and nearly killed them down again. The owners of the land, discouraged, broke down the fences, and moved off. And for a while the land was left in open common, where wild cattle browsed and rubbed themselves on the trees. But still, in spite of all, they have held on their way rejoicing, till now they are the beautiful creatures they are. Truly we may call them trees of the Lord, full of sap and greenness, full of lessons of perseverance to us, who get frosted down and cut off time and time again in our lives. Let us hope in the Lord, and be up and at it again. It is certainly quite necessary to have some such example before our eyes in struggling to found a colony here. We had such a hard time getting our church and schoolhouse, for in these primitive regions one building must do for both. There were infinite negotiations and cases to go through before a site could be bought with a clear title. And the Freedmen's Bureau would put us up a building where school could be taught on weekdays and worship held on Sundays. But at last it was done and a neat, pleasant little place it was. We had a little mason and hamlin missionary organ which we used to carry over on Sundays and a cloth which converted the master's desk of weekdays into the minister's pulpit. And as we had a minister, organist, and choir all in our own family, we were sure of them at all events. And finally a good congregation was being gathered. On weekdays a school for whites and blacks was taught until the mismanagement of the school fund had used up the sum devoted to common schools and left us without a teacher for a year. But this fall our friend Mr. D., who had accepted this situation of county overseer of schools, had just completed arrangements to open again both the white and the black schools. When low, in one night our poor little schoolhouse burned to the ground with our mason and hamlin organ in it. Laterally it had been found inconvenient to carry it backward and forward, and so it had been left locked in a closet and met a fiery doom. We do not suppose any malicious incendiaryism. There appears evidence that some strolling loafers had gotten in to spend the night and probably been careless of their fire. The southern pine is inflammable as so much pitch and will light with the scratch of a match. Well, all we had to do was to imitate the pluck of the orange trees, which we immediately did. Our neighborhood had increased by three or four families and a meeting was immediately held and each one pledged himself to raise a certain sum. We feel the want of it more for the schoolhouse than even for the church. We go on with our Sunday services at each other's houses, but it'll last for the poor children, black and white, growing up so fast, who have been kept out of school now a year and who are losing these best months for study to see people who are willing and anxious to be taught growing up in ignorance is the sorest sight that can afflict one. And we count the days until we shall have our church and schoolhouse again. But meanwhile, Mandarin presents to our eyes a marvelously improved aspect. Two or three large, handsome houses are built up in our immediate neighborhood. Your old collaborator of the Christian Union has a most fascinating place, a short distance from us, commanding a noble sweep of view up and down the river. On our right hand, two gentlemen from Newark have taken each a lot, and the gables of the house of one of them overlook the orange trees bravely from the river. The southern pine, unpainted, makes a rich, soft color for a house. Being merely oiled, it turns a soft golden brown, which harmonizes charmingly with the landscape. How cold is it here? We ask ourselves a dozen times a day, what season is it? We say the spring, this summer, and speak of our northern life as last winter. There are cold nights, and occasionally white frosts, but the degree of cold may be judged from the fact that the Kala, Ethiopia, rose on budding and blossoming out of doors, that Lamarck roses have not lost their leaves, and have long, young shoots on them, and that our handmaiden, a pretty young mulatress, occasionally brings to us a whole dish of roses and buds, which her devoted has brought her from some back cottage in the pine woods. We have also eaten the last fresh tomatoes from the old vines since we came, but a pretty severe frost has nipped them, as well as cut off a promising lot of young peas just coming into pod. But the pea vines will still grow along, and we shall have others soon. We eat radishes out of the ground, and lettuce, now and then, a little nipped by the frost, and we get long sprays of yellow jessamine, just beginning to blossom in the woods. Yes, it is spring, though still it is cold enough to make our good bright fire a rallying point to the family. It is good to keep fire in a country where it is considered a great point to get rid of wood. One piles and heaps up with a genial cheer when one thinks the more you burn, the better. It only costs what you pay for cutting and hauling. We begin to find our usual number of letters wanting to know all this, that, and the other, about Florida. All in good time, friends. Come down here once, and use your own eyes, and you will know more than we can teach you. Till then, at you. End of A Flowery January in Florida by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Read by Bologna Times. Learning the Social Ropes from the New York Tribune January 7, 1900, page 16. From the New Orleans Times Democrat. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. It takes some time to learn the Social Ropes in Central America, remarked a man in the banana tree, and a stranger is apt to put his foot in it. The first time I ever went into the country myself was as the representative of an American machinery house. There was a good field for us in one of the republics, but the tariff was prohibitive, and I concluded to go over to the Capitol and have an interview with the Minister of Agriculture, hoping to persuade him to recommend a reduction. I spoke pretty fair, Olandorf Spanish, but was otherwise green as a gourd, and as soon as I arrived, I made a beeline for the administrative building. While I was cooling my heels in an enter-room, waiting for a chance to speak to somebody in authority, and ascertain how the Minister could be seen, a very black, fat little negro waddled in, wearing what I took to be a species of livery. He had exactly the air of an impudent, overfed house-servant, and he looked me over in a way that made my blood boil. Hi, boy! I said sharply. How long must I wait here? How should I know, he replied in Spanish, if it doesn't suit you, get out? He chuckled as he spoke, and his answer so infuriated me that I lost my head. Jumping up I seized him by the collar and the slack of his absurd embroidered trousers and propelled him turkey fashion through the open door. There, you black scoundrel, I exclaimed, go and send somebody after my card. The little fat darky was so amazed he couldn't utter a word. He simply gasped and disappeared. Half a minute later a squad of soldiers rushed in and placed me under arrest, and then I learned that my friend in the embroidered pantaloons was the minister of public construction. I will leave you to imagine my feelings. It took three hours of solid talk from both the American and British consuls to get me out of this grave. And, incidentally, I made a groveling apology. Of course I didn't dare to introduce the machinery proposition after such a debut, so my trip was a flat failure. As I said before, it takes some time for a stranger to grasp the etiquette of those foreign parts. End of Learning the Social Roles Recorded by Craig Campbell