P. 86.—“Cicero,” etc. The “De Republica” was a dialogue on what is the best form of the state; the “City of God” treats of the body of Christians in distinction from the City of the World, or those out of the church. St. Augustine wrote this book after the sack of Rome by Alaric to answer the assertion that the destruction of the country was a punishment for the desertion of the pagan deities; “Utopia” is the story of an imaginary land supposed to have been discovered by a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, where the laws were perfect; the “New Atlantis” was an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where Bacon represents himself to have been shipwrecked, and where he found societies for cultivating art and the sciences.
P. 96.—“Dæmon.” “This demon or genius of Socrates, which was not personified by himself, was regarded by Plutarch as an intermediate being between gods and men, by the fathers of the church as an evil spirit, by Le Clerc as one of the fallen angels, by Ficino and Dacier as a good angel, and by later writers as a personification of conscience or practical instinct, or individual tact.”
P. 98.—“Origen.” (185?-254?) This eminent writer of the early church fathers made an effort to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, and in his commentaries on the Scriptures used the allegorical method almost entirely. “The literal sense is always secondary; and the critic never fails where it is possible to find in the simplest fact or the plainest exhortation some hidden meaning.”
P. 99.—“Lemma.” When in demonstrating a proposition a second proposition is introduced and assumed as true, or demonstrated for immediate use, it is called a lemma.
P. 100.—“Oneida Community.” A society founded at Oneida, New York State, by one John Humphrey Noyes, a perfectionist. He introduced into this community his peculiar views, persuading them to practice a community of women and of goods, to allow women equal business and social privileges with the men, and to live in a “unitary home.”
P. 104.—“Silenus.” An attendant of Bacchus. He is represented as a very ugly old man, fat, with a bald head and pug nose, and always intoxicated. Generally he rode an ass or was carried by the satyrs. Silenus was also represented as an inspired prophet. When drunk and asleep he was in the power of mortals who could compel him to sing and prophesy by surrounding him with chains of flowers.
P. 105.—“Marsyas.” See C. L. S. C. Notes, page 57 of The Chautauquan for October.
“Corybantian reveler.” So called from the Corybantes, the priests of Cybele in Phrygia. They celebrated her worship in the wildest, most frenzied dances. The drum and cymbal accompanied this dance.
P. 107.—“Brasidas.” The most famous of the Spartan leaders in the Peloponnesian War. After taking many Athenian cities in Macedonia he was killed at Amphipolis, where he defeated Cleon. He was honored by the inhabitants as a hero.
“Nestor.” An aged Greek hero of the Trojan war, whose wisdom and advice were considered equal to the gods. “Antenor” held a position among the Trojans similar to that of Nestor among the Greeks. His advice, however, was not followed by his countrymen, and he offered to deliver the city to the Greeks. Upon the capture of Troy he was spared by the victors.