Datasets:
ThingAI
/
OmniBook

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
54
17.5k
Franklin drew himself up in the strength and resolution of young manhood, and made the following answer, which we give, as we think, almost in his very words:"I am sorry to say, sir, that I think the article is scurrilous and defamatory. But I have been at a loss, on account of my poverty, whether to reject it or not. ...
"But is not this the right place?""What, Philadelphia?""Yes, it is growing.""That shows how people are deceived. Haven't you any eyes?""Yes, yes.""But what were they made for? Can't you see what is coming?""A great prosperity, sir.""Oh, my young man, how you are deceived, and how feather-headed people have deceived you...
Now began a struggle between Benjamin Franklin the natural man and Benjamin Franklin the spiritual man that lasted for life. It became his purpose to gain the spiritual mastery, and to obey the laws of regeneration and eternal life.Here are his first resolutions:"Those who write of the art of poetry teach us that, if w...
In 1650 Otto von Guericke, the inventor of the air-pump, made a machine which looked like a little grindstone--a wheel of sulphur mounted on a turning axle, which being used with friction produced powerful electrical sparks and lights. He found by experiments with this machine that bodies thus exerted by friction may i...
The wonderful Leyden vial became Franklin's companion. He liked ever to be experimenting in what the new force would do. What next? what next? How like lightning was this electricity! How could he increase electrical force?He says at the end of a long narrative:"We made what we called an _electrical battery_, consistin...
The boy touches the key. He, too, is given the evidence that has been given to his father.The two looked at each other."Lightning is electricity," said Silence Dogood. "It can be drawn away from points of danger; no one need be struck by lightning if he will protect himself.""God himself," once said a writer, "could no...
While Franklin was learning wisdom from life, and expressing it through Poor Richard, he was studying French, Italian, and Spanish, and making himself the master of philosophy. "He who would thrive must rise at five," he makes Poor Richard say. He himself rose at five in the morning, and began the day with a bath and a...
Jamie the Scotchman read, and while he did so Abiah, wrinkled and old, looked often toward the stranger out of her dim eyes, while she listened to her son's always popular story of The Old Auctioneer."That is a very good piece," said Abiah Franklin; "and now, stranger, let me say that your voice sounds familiar, and I ...
"This is a fine spring morning," said old Humphrey, as he saw the portly form of Franklin enter the door. "I have been thinking of you much of late. I do not seem to be able to have put you out of my mind; and why should I, a fine gentleman like you, and uncommonly civil. I have something that I have been allotting on ...
IN his usual serene manner--for he very rarely became excited, notwithstanding that his conduct and his absentmindedness had surprised old Humphrey--Mr. Franklin made his way again to the bookstore in the alley.Old Humphrey welcomed him with--"Well, I am glad to see you again, my American patron. Did you find the volum...
"If you will order pen and ink and paper, I will give you a picture of the times in fable. A fable comes to me now."The lord ordered the writing material.What new animals or birds had taken possession of Franklin's fancy? No new animals or birds, but old ones in new relations.Franklin wrote out his fable and proceeded ...
Poor old Mr. Calamity must have viewed this growth and prosperity with eyes askance. His cane tapped more rapidly yearly as it passed the great newspaper office, notwithstanding that it bore more and more the weight of years.Benjamin Franklin was a magnanimous man. He never wasted time in seeking the injury of any who ...
"Old Mr. Calamity is coming," said a Philadelphia schoolboy to another, one new school day in autumn. "See, he is watching Franklin, and is trying to avoid meeting him."Their teacher came along the street."Why, boys, are you watching the old gentleman?""He is trying to avoid meeting Mr. Franklin, sir.""Calamity comes t...
"That strengthens me," he said. "What am I to do? The things that I see daily tear me all to pieces. It broke my heart to see that child run away. I can not cross the sea, and if they were to tear down the king's arms from the State House I would die. I would tremble until I grew cold and my breath left me. You do pity...
"What he said was true, but that was not all he said.""He told you to be true to your country--to live for the things that live.""Jenny, that is why I am here. He told you to be true to your home. You have been that, Jenny. You took care of father when he was sick for the last time, and you anticipated all his wants. I...
It was 1776. Franklin was now seventy years old and was in America. The colonies had resolved to be free. A committee had been chosen by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to prepare a draft for a formal Declaration of Independence, a paper whose principles were destined to emancipate not only the united colonies...
On the 26th of September, 1776, Congress elected three ambassadors to represent the American cause in the court of France; they were Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, and Benjamin Franklin. Before leaving the country Franklin collected all the money that he could command, some four thousand pounds, and lent it to Congress. Taki...
The departure of these two officers for America filled all France with delight. Lafayette had seen that it would be so; that his going would awaken an enthusiasm in the circles of the court and among the people favorable to America; that it would aid the American envoys in their mission. It was the mountain grenadiers ...
"One day he spoke like this: 'Marquis, I stood one winter night upon a rocking boat and crossed the Delaware. It was a bitter night; no stars were in the sky; the lanterns' rays scarce fell upon the waters; the oars rose and fell, though they were frozen, for they were plied by strong and grizzly fishermen; the snow fe...
Who was that hurrying up from the broad path of the Common toward the Hancock mansion? Jane rose up and looked. It was Samuel Adams, the so-called "last of the Puritans," a man who had almost forgotten his own existence in his efforts to unite the colonies for the struggle for liberty, and who had said to an agent of G...
The king was shaken in mind and becoming blind. He was opposed to any negotiations for peace, and threatened to abdicate. He sank into a pitiable state of insanity some years after, was confined in a padded room, and even knew not when the battle of Waterloo was fought, and when his own son died he was not called to th...
"I was not more astonished at the brilliancy of his lightning than astounded by the thunder that accompanied it. As he stood, the cushion lay on the council table before him; his station was between the seats of two of the members, on the side of the right hand of the lord president. I would not, for double the greates...
He was a poet in old age. When past eighty he fulfilled one of the hopes of Uncle Ben. When the Constitution had been adopted by a majority of the States, the event was celebrated by a grand festival in Philadelphia. There were a long procession of the trades, an oration, the booming of cannon, and the ringing of bells...
A servant's voice said outside, "There is a woman, master, that asks to see you.""I can not see any one," answered the tortured old man."She is an old woman.""I could not see the queen."He heard an echo of the servant's voice in the hall."He says that he could not see the queen.""Well, tell him that I am something more...
Virtue to virtue, intelligence to intelligence, benevolence to benevolence, faith to faith! So ascend the feet of worth on the ladder of life; so reaches a high purpose a place beyond the derision of the world.The bells of the nation tolled when he died. "He was true to his country!" said all men; but aged Jenny, "He w...
"So, what signifies wishing and hoping for better times? We make these times better if we bestir ourselves. Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains; then help, hands, for I have no lands; or, if I have, they are smartly taxed. He that hath a trade hath an ...
It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says, Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy. And, after all, of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, so much is suffered? It can not promote health,...
"The story of Louisbourg, which because of its position and the consequences of its fall is justly held one of the most notable of the world's dead cities. The story is admirably told."--_Detroit Free Press.__WE ALL._ A Story of Outdoor Life and Adventure in Arkansas. By OCTAVE T...
Produced by Donald LainsonGEORGE CRUIKSHANKBy William Makepeace Thackeray* Reprinted from the Westminster Review for June, 1840. (No 66.)Accusations of ingratitude, and just accusations no doubt, are made against every inhabitant of this wicked world, and the fact is, that a man who is ceaselessly engaged in its troubl...
Knight's, in Sweeting's Alley; Fairburn's, in a court off Ludgate Hill; Hone's, in Fleet Street--bright, enchanted palaces, which George Cruikshank used to people with grinning, fantastical imps, and merry, harmless sprites,--where are they? Fairburn's shop knows him no more; not only has Knight disappeared from Sweeti...
Does it not seem impossible to make a picture out of this? And yet George Cruikshank has produced a charming design, in which the uncles and nephews are so prettily portrayed that one is reconciled to their existence, with all their moralities. Many more of the mirths in this little book are excellent, especially a gre...
A curious book, called "Life in Paris," published in 1822, contains a number of the artist's plates in the aquatint style; and though we believe he had never been in that capital, the designs have a great deal of life in them, and pass muster very well. A villanous race of shoulder-shrugging mortals are his Frenchmen i...
"My bonnie lass, I work in brass, A tinker is my station; I've travell'd round all Christian ground In this my occupation. I've ta'en the gold, I've been enroll'd In many a noble squadron; But vain they search'd when off I march'd To go an' c...
The render will examine the work called "My Sketch-Book" with not a little amusement, and may gather from it, as we fancy, a good deal of information regarding the character of the individual man, George Cruikshank: what points strike his eye as a painter; what move his anger or admiration as a moralist; what classes h...
That regiment of heroes is "marching to divine service," to the tune of the "British Grenadiers." There they march in state, and a pretty contempt our artist shows for all their gimcracks and trumpery. He has drawn a perfectly English scene--the little blackguard boys are playing pranks round about the men, and shoutin...
He in return has complimented the French by illustrating a couple of Lives of Napoleon, and the "Life in Paris" before mentioned. He has also made designs for Victor Hugo's "Hans of Iceland." Strange, wild etchings were those, on a strange, mad subject; not so good in our notion as the designs for the German books, the...
And now the French gentleman, M. Desonge, hearing of his friend's escape, became anxious to be free from his own rash engagements. He employed the same counsel who had been successful in the former instance, but the Gentleman in Black was a great deal wiser by this time, and whether M. Desonge escaped, or whether he is...
Besides the twelve plates, this almanac contains a prophetic woodcut, accompanying an awful Blarneyhum Astrologicum that appears in this and other almanacs. There is one that hints in pretty clear terms that with the Reform of Municipal Corporations the ruin of the great Lord Mayor of London is at hand. His lordship is...
The author requires many pages to describe the fury of the storm, which Mr. Cruikshank has represented in one. First, he has to prepare you with the something inexpressibly melancholy in sailing on a dark night upon the Thames: "the ripple of the water," "the darkling current," "the indistinctively seen craft," "the so...
"Jack sitting for his picture" is a very pleasing group, and savors of the manner of Hogarth, who is introduced in the company. The "Murder of Trenchard" must be noticed too as remarkable for the effect and terrible vigor which the artist has given to the scene. The "Willesden Churchyard" has ...
Produced by David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)THE ROMANCE OF MATHEMATICS.The Romance of Mathematics:BEING T...
'A uniform rod' (it is a marvellous act of mercy that the examiner invented it _uniform_; it is strange that its thickness did not vary in some complicated manner, and become a veritable birch-rod!) 'of length _2c_, rests in stable equilibrium' (stable! another act of leniency!), 'with its lower end at the vertex of a ...
Thank you, gentle critic. I will, in turn, ask you one favour. Leave for once the 'Mysteries of Footlight Fancy;' seek to know no more 'ghastly secrets,' and increase _your gravity_--your mental weight; and hence your attraction in the eyes of all who are worth attracting will be marvellously increased, by understandin...
The development of this theory of brain waves may be of great practical utility to the world. It shows that great care ought to be exercised in the domain of thought, as well as that of speech. For example: A man has made a startling discovery, from which he expects to receive considerable worldly advantage. He would b...
Mathematically speaking, our plane no longer passes through the apex. The point represented the single family; but keeping the plane horizontal, we move it along the axis, the sections will become _circles_, which represent mathematically the next simplest form of society, where the centre is the seat of government, wh...
The great examples of Bacon, of Milton, of Newton, of Locke, and of others, happen to be directly opposed to the popular inference that eccentricity and thoughtlessness of conduct are the necessary accompaniments of talent, and the sure indications of genius. I am indebted to Lacon for that reflection. You may point to...
In all conics there is a straight line called the 'directrix,' which represents in social or polemical science the laws of the nation, and plays a prominent part in the mutual relations of the individual particles. For instance, in the case of the parabola, the distance of any particle from the directrix is equal to it...
3. The same opinions are often held by individuals in quite different walks and classes of life. Let these individuals be represented by points on an ellipse. Join these, and we have a system of parallel chords. Draw a straight line through the middle points of these chords, and lo! it will always pass through the cent...
4. Is it not possible that the differences in the policy of the various nations of Europe; the difficulties which beset the carrying out of international law; the jealousies, quarrels, and rivalries of States might disappear, if the same form of government (_i.e._, elliptical) were adopted in each?If you will kindly fa...
In this lecture I propose to examine some of the forces which exist in our social system, and shall endeavour to estimate them by methods of mathematical procedure and analogical reasoning. We will begin with the old definition of Force as _that which puts matter into motion, or which stops, or changes, a motion once c...
These settlements correspond to the circular masses situated on the plane surface; they were quite separate from each other, each having its own laws, its own headman or ruler, its own assembly or parish council. But as time elapsed, the force of mutual attraction set in; by degrees these separate settlements were draw...
The close connection which exists between social forces and material forces is plainly shown by the doctrine of the conservation of energy. 'This doctrine,' says Dr. Tyndall, 'recognises in the material universe a constant sum of power made up of items among which the most Protean fluctuations are incessantly going on....
Since the last time I had the honour of addressing you on polemical matters, I have met with a passage in the writings of M. Auguste Comte which afforded me much pleasure. It seemed to be the one word for which I had been waiting, and confirmed many of my own impressions and speculations. He lays down two propositions:...
These are some of the principal laws of motion which I have observed at work in various States and nations. Inasmuch as political science embraces, in addition to the physical sciences, all those branches which are contained in ethics, economics, jurisprudence, sociology and others, the laws of each are generally appli...
I have stated that marriage is an important political factor; and, therefore, women have always occupied a primary, though obscure, part in political affairs. The cohesion of the State has been produced by the secret influence of family life. But it may be asked, What kind of marriage is most conducive to national cohe...
Such good news! The wrangler list is just out, and my hard-working pupil is _bracketed twelfth!_ This is really delightful, and abundantly repays us for all our hard toil. But really I have not found working with him distasteful; he is such an excellent pupil, so painstaking and eager, that I have quite looked forward ...
Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net[The spelling of the original has been retained.]OBSERVATIONSON THEFlorid Song;OR,SENTIMENTSON THE_Ancient_ and _Modern_ SINGERS,Written in _Italian_By PIER. FRANCESCO TOSI,Of the _Phil-Harmonic_ Academyat _Bologna_.Translated in...
I Should be afraid of leaving the World under the Imputation of Ingratitude, should I any longer defer publishing the very many Favours, which _Your Lordship_ so generously has bestow'd on me in _Italy_, in _Germany_, in _Flanders_, in _England_; and principally at your delightful Seat at _Parson's-Green_, where _Your ...
Sec. 10. If any should say, I might be dispensed with for not publishing Things already known to every Professor, he might perhaps deceive himself; for among these Observations there are many, which as I have never heard them made by anybody else, I shall look upon as my own; and such probably they are, from their not ...
Sec. 15. He ought to make him hit the Semitones according to the true Rules. Every one knows not that there is a Semitone Major and Minor,[10] because the Difference cannot be known by an Organ or Harpsichord, if the Keys of the Instrument are not split. A Tone, that gradually passes to another, is divided into nine al...
Sec. 31. Next, let him study on the three open Vowels, particularly on the first, but not always upon the same, as is practised now-a-days; in order, that from this frequent Exercise he may not confound one with the other, and that from hence he may the easier come to the use of the Words.Sec. 32. The Scholar having no...
Sec. 3. Whoever has a fine _Shake_, tho' wanting in every other Grace, always enjoys the Advantage of conducting himself without giving Distaste to the End or Cadence, where for the most part it is very essential; and who wants it, or has it imperfectly, will never be a great Singer, let his Knowledge be ever so great....
Sec. 6. The _mark'd Divisions_, being more frequently used than the others, require more Practice.Sec. 7. The Use of the _Slur_ is pretty much limited in Singing, and is confined within such few Notes ascending or descending, that it cannot go beyond a fourth without displeasing. It seems to me to be more grateful to t...
Sec. 28. Let him accustom the Scholar to sing often in presence of Persons of Distinction, whether from Birth, Quality, or Eminence in the Profession, that by gradually losing his Fear, he may acquire an Assurance, but not a Boldness. Assurance leads to a Fortune, and in a Singer becomes a Merit. On the contrary, the F...
Sec. 11. A Master, that disregards _Recitative_, probably does not understand the Words, and then, how can he ever instruct a Scholar in Expression, which is the Soul of vocal Performance, and without which it is impossible to sing well? Poor _Gentlemen Masters_ who direct and instruct Beginners, without reflecting on ...
Sec. 7. With the Study of Musick, let him learn also at least the Grammar, to understand the Words he is to sing in Churches, and to give the proper Force to the Expression in both Languages. I believe I may be so bold to say, that divers Professors do not even understand their own Tongue, much less the _Latin_.[52]Sec...
Sec. 3. A Singer is under the greatest Obligation to the Study of the _Airs_; for by them he gains or loses his Reputation. To the acquiring this valuable, Art, a few verbal Lessons cannot suffice; nor would it be of any great Profit to the Scholar, to have a great Number of _Airs_, in which a Thousand of the most exqu...
Sec. 19. The Presumption of some Singers is not to be borne with, who expect that an whole _Orchestre_ should stop in the midst of a well-regulated Movement, to wait for their ill-grounded Caprices, learned by Heart, carried from one Theatre to another, and perhaps stolen from some applauded female Singer, who had bett...
Sec. 24. It may also possibly be, that the extravagant Ideas in the present Compositions, have deprived the abovementioned Singers of the Opportunity of shewing their Ability in the _Cantabile_; in as much as the _Airs_ at present in vogue go Whip and Spur with such violent Motions, as take away their Breath, far from ...
Sec. 28. That our delicious Stile has been invented to hide with the fine Name of _Modern_ the too difficult Rules of the _Counterpoint_, cannot be denied.Sec. 29. That there is an inviolable Rule amongst us, to banish for ever the _Pathetick_, is very true; because we will have no Melancholy.Sec. 30. But, that we shou...
Sec. 5. Every _Air_ has (at least) three _Cadences_, that are all three final. Generally speaking, the Study of the Singers of the present Times consists in terminating the _Cadence_ of the first Part with an overflowing of _Passages_ and _Divisions_ at Pleasure, and the _Orchestre_ waits; in that of the second[82] the...
Sec. 14. If among all the _Cadences_ in the _Airs_, the last allows a moderate Liberty to the Singer, to distinguish the end of them, the Abuse of it is insufferable. But it grows abomable, when the Singer persists with his tiresome Warbling, nauseating the Judicious, who suffer the more, because they know that the Com...
Sec. 14. A discreet Person will never use such affected Expressions as, _I cannot sing To-day;--I've got a deadly Cold;_ and, in making his Excuse, falls a Coughing. I can truly say, that I have never in my Life heard a Singer own the Truth, and say, _I'm very well to-day_: They reserve the unseasonable Confession to t...
Sec. 42. The stealing of Time, in the _Pathetick_, is an honourable Theft in one that sings better than others, provided he makes a Restitution with Ingenuity.Sec. 43. An Exercise, no less necessary than this, is That of agreeably _putting forth_ of the Voice, without which all Application is vain. Whosoever pretends t...
Sec. 65. What will he not say of him who has found out the prodigious Art of Singing like a _Cricket_? Who could have ever imagin'd, before the Introduction of the _Mode_, that ten or a dozen Quavers in a Row could be trundled along one after the other, with a Sort of _Tremor_, of the Voice, which for some time past ha...
Sec. 11. That They be performed with an equal regard to the Expression of the Words, and the Beauty of the Art.Sec. 12. That They be _gliding_ or _dragging_ in the _Pathetick_, for They have a better Effect than those that are mark'd.Sec. 13. That They do not appear studied, in order to be the more regarded.Sec. 14. Th...
Sec. 36. Abhor the Example of those who hate Correction; for like Lightning to those who walk in the Dark, tho' it frightens them, it gives them Light.Sec. 37. Learn from the Errors of others: O great Lesson! it costs little, and instructs much. Of every one something is to be learned, and the most Ignorant is sometime...
[8] It is necessary to understand the _Sol-Fa_-ing, and its Rules, which shew where the two Semitones lie in each Octave, Pl. I. Numb. 3. Where Flats or Sharps are marked at the Cliff, the Rule is, if one Flat, That is _Fa_; if more Flats, the last. If one Sharp, That is _Mi_; if more Sharps, the last.[9] His meaning i...
[46] _Madrigals_ are Pieces in several Parts; the last in Practice were about threescore Years ago; then the Opera's began to be in Vogue, and good Musick and the Knowledge of it began to decline.[47] _Musica di Camera._ Chamber, or private, Musick; where the Multitude is not courted for Applause, but only the true Jud...
[70] _Alessandro Stradella_ lived about _Pier. Simone's_ Time, or very little after. He was a most excellent Composer, superior in all Respects to the foregoing, and endowed with distinguishing personal Qualifications. It is reported, that his favourite Instrument was the Harp, with which he sometimes accompanied his V...
[94] There have been such, who valued themselves for shaking a Room, breaking the Windows, and stunning the Auditors with their Voice.[95] The renowned Abbot _Steffani_, so famous for his _Duetto's_, would never suffer such luxuriant Singers to perform any of them, unless they kept themselves within Bounds.[96] _Nicoli...
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Helene de Mink and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netTranscriber's note: Minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been harmonised. Obvious printer errors have been repaired.Accents: In French sentences, most of them italicised, accents hav...
For French art, Felibien's _Entretiens_; the writings of Lady Dilke; _French Painting in the Sixteenth Century_, by L. Dimier; _Histoire de l'Art, Peinture, Ecole Francaise_, by Cazes d'Aix and J. Berard; the compendious _History of Modern Painting_, by R. Muther; _The Great French Painters_, by C. Mauclair; _La Sculpt...
_Tower and Courtyard of Hotel Cluny_ 325_Arches in the Courtyard of the Hotel Cluny_ 329_Interior of St. Etienne du Mont_ 332_Diana and the Stag_ (_Jean Goujon_) " 342_St. George and the Dragon_ (_M. Colombe_) " 344_Triptych of Moulins_ (_Maitre...
Those writers who are pleased to trace the permanency of racial traits through the life of a people dwell with satisfaction on passages in ancient authors who describe the Gauls as quick to champion the cause of the oppressed, prone to war, elated by victory, impatient of defeat, easily amenable to the arts of peace, r...
The mediaeval scribe in the fulness of a divinely-revealed cosmogony is wont to begin his story at the creation of the world or at the confusion of tongues, to trace the building of Troy by the descendants of Japheth, and the foundation of his own native city by one of the Trojan princes made a fugitive in Europe by pr...
On their left, where now stands the Lycee St. Louis, would be the theatre of Lutetia, and further on, the imposing and magnificent palace of the Caesars, with its gardens sloping down to the Seine. The turbulent little stream of the Bievre flowed by the foot of Mons Lutetius on the east, entering the main river opposit...
In the great palace of which these baths formed but a part was enacted that scene so vividly described in the pages of Gibbon,[15] when, in 355, Julian, after his victories over the Alemanni and the Franks, was acclaimed Augustus by the rebellious troops of Constantius. He had admonished the sullen legions, angry at be...
At this point of our story we are met by the first of those noble women, heroic and wise, for whom French history is pre-eminent. In the early fifth century "saynt germayn[21] of aucerre and saynt lew of troyes, elect of the prelates of fraunce for to goo quenche an heresye that was in grete brytayne, now called englon...
[Footnote 25: Among the wives of Clothaire was the gentle Radegonde, who turned with horror from the bloody scenes of the palace to live in works of charity with the poor and suffering, and in holy communion with priests and bishops. She was at length consecrated a deaconess by St. Medard, donned the habit of a nun, an...
To St. Germain of Autun, made bishop in 555, Paris owes one of her earliest ecclesiastical foundations. His influence over Childebert, king of Paris, was great. He obtained an order that those who refused to destroy pagan idols in their possession were to answer to the king, and when Childebert and his warriors, seized...
The city of Lutetia had much changed since the messengers of Pope Fabianus entered five centuries before. On that southern hill where formerly stood the Roman camp and cemetery were now the great basilica and abbey of St. Genevieve. The amphitheatre and probably much of the palace of the Caesars were in ruins, all stri...
Towards the end of his reign the old emperor was dining with his court in a seaport town in the south of France, when news came that some strange, black, piratical craft had dared to attack the harbour. They were soon scattered, but the emperor was seen to rise from the table, and go to a window, where he stood gazing ...
[Illustration: ST GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS.]On February 6th, 886, a sudden flood sweeps away the Petit Pont, and its tower, with twelve defenders, is isolated. With shouts of triumph the Northmen cross the river and surround it. The twelve refuse to yield, and fire is brought. The warriors (a touching detail) fearing lest t...
From 936 to the coronation of Hugh Capet at Noyon in 987, the Carlovingians exercised a slowly decaying power. The real rulers at Paris were Hugh the Tall and Hugh Capet,[39] grandson and great-grandson of Robert the Strong. They revolutionized the ideal of kingship and founded the line of kings of France which stretch...
The beautiful and imperious Constance of Aquitaine, her successor, proved a penitential infliction second only in severity to the anathemas of the Church. Troops of vain and frivolous troubadours from her southern home, in all kinds of foreign and fantastic costumes, invaded the court at Paris and shocked the austere p...
In 1097 the Duke of Burgundy learned that Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury was about to pass through his territory with a rich escort on his way to Rome. The usual ambush was laid and the party were held up. As the duke hastened to spoil his victims, crying out--"Where is the archbishop?" he turned and saw Anselm, impas...
[Footnote 46: A modern reproduction may be seen in the church of St. Denis, but the exact shape is doubtful, no less than three different forms being known to antiquarians.]The strenuous reign of Louis was marked by a great expansion of Paris, which became more than ever the ordinary dwelling-place of the king and the ...
The great fortified wall of Philip Augustus began at the north-west water-tower, which stood just above the present Pont des Arts, and passed through the quadrangle of the Louvre, where a line on the paving marks its course, to the Porte St. Honore, near the Oratoire. It continued northwards within the line of the pres...
The king's conception of his office was summed up in two words--_Gouverner bien_. "Fair son," said he one day to Prince Louis, his heir, "I pray thee win the affection of thy people. Verily, I would rather that a Scotchman came from Scotland and ruled the kingdom well and loyally than that thou shouldst govern it ill."...