General Kilpatrick Biography
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MARCH 19, 1864.] HARPER'S WEEKLY. 187 story is extracted from "Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe :" "Among the cultivators of Platonic philosophy whom the times had left, there was a beautiful young women, Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, who not only distinguished herself by her expositions of the Neo-Platonic and Peripatetic doctrines, but was also honored by the ability with which she commented on the writing, of Apollonius and other geometers. Every day before her door stood a long train of chariots; the lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and fashion of Alexandria. Her aristocratic audiences were more than a rival to those attending upon the preaching of the archbishop, and perhaps contemptuous comparisons were instituted between the philosophical lectures of Hypatia and the incomprehensible sermons of Cyril. It was not to be borne that a heathen sorceress should thus divide such a metropolis with a prelate ; it was not to be borne that the rich and noble and young should be carried off by the black arts of a diabolical enchantress. Alexandria was too fair a prize to he lightly surrendered "Cyril at length determined to remove this great reproach, and overturn what now appeared to be the only obstacle in his way to uncontrolled authority in the city. As Hypatia comes forth to her academy she is assaulted by Cyril's mob—an Alexandrian mob of many monks. Amidst the fearful yelling of these bare-legged and blackcowled fiends she is dragged from her chariot, end, in the public street, stripped naked. In her mortal terror she is haled into an adjacent church, and in that sacred edifice is killed by the club of Peter the Reader. With the blow given by Peter the aim of Cyril was reached, but his merciless adherents had not glutted their vengeance. They dismembered the corpse, and, incredible to be said, finished their infernal crime by scraping the flesh from the bones with oyster-shells, and casting the remnants into the fire: Though in his privacy Cyril and his friends might laugh at the end of his antagonist, his memory must bear the weight of the righteous indignation of posterity." DIAGRAM FOR FINDING THE MOUNTAINS ON THE MOON.a sight-seeing traveler, guide-book in hand, examines the decaying tombs in Pere la Chaise, when he does Paris, so we too will take a turn through this celestial church-yard, and examine some of the grave-stones, although hundreds must pass unnoticed. Our starting-point shall be Tycho (2), to great cavity, 55 miles across and 17,000 feet deep, with a high cone in the centre. This is dedicated to Tycho Brahe, the Dane, the builder of Uraniberg, one of the oldest observatories in Europe, which cost $200,000; one half of it he paid out of his own purse. He was not always so peaceful as he has been for the last 250 years, since it is related of him that he fought a duel with a nobleman, who cut. off his nose. He, however, replaced it so skillfully with one made of colored wax that the loss was not perceived. He kept in his family a madman, whom every day at dinner he made a footstool of, in the belief that the remarks made in that position were prophetic. From the edge of Tycho there is a deep groove extending many hundred miles to the northeast. Let us look to the south before we move. (1) away at the pole is named after Newton, and affords another instance of the unfairness we have alluded to. He, the Prince of Astronomers, deserves the most conspicuous place, although modern disparagers would have us believe that he became insane before he wrote on the prophecies, imputing it to his sitting up many days and nights in succession, trying to turn other metals into gold by the aid of a furnace. To the southwest (3) is called Bacon. There are two claimants for this monument—Roger Bacon, the discoverer of spectacles, gunpowder, gases, whose writings were centuries in advance of his time, and who was imprisoned ten years for the sake of science, and endured it without complaint. The other, Francis Lord Bacon, who never made a discovery in his life, who inveighed against mathematics and the use of instruments, and who abused his power as a judge to torture men. He is now being found out. Which has the best right we leave to the reader to determine. If the latter is to have a place, let it he on the other side of the moon, out of the sight of scientific men, or in Milton's Limbo. In the same vicinity is (4) Cuvier, whose discovery of fossil bones in the ground has taught us what animals roamed on the earth in long ages past, and how the tiger, elephant, and rhinoceros lived in England, under the shade of palm-trees growing in that (then torrid) climate. Close by (5) is Maurolycus, which exhibits a high central cone casting a long shadow to the right. Other more recent craters have broken here and there through its walls. Toward the east (6) belongs to Fernel, who measured the earth by his carriage wheel revolutions; and (7) to Nonius, whose true name was Peter Nunez, and who invented a scale for measuring minute parts. North of Nonius is a group of four, one of which (8) commemorates Werner, who thought that the face of the earth was made irregular entirely by the action of water. If, he has since looked about him on the moon, and observed how pockmarked the surface is, and yet how devoid of water, he must have changed his opinion. A little to the northwest (9) is Geber. Dr. Johnson says that gibberish is derived from his name, because he talked so obscurely. Westward (10) is Tacitus, the great historian, distinguished for the very opposite quality, the pithiness of his sentences. Speaking of Roman conquests, he said, " They make a solitude, and call it peace." Between the two is interred the great caliph Almaimon (11), who did so much for Arabic literature, and in the seventh century measured the size of the earth on the shore of the Red Sea, and ascertained its true dimensions within a few miles. Astronomers have not been as much disposed to deny the Arabians their rights as historians have; for within a little distance Abulfeda (12) and Albategnius (13) lie. The latter more than nine hundred years ago determined the length of the year within two minutes. To the east are also Arzachael (14) and Alpetragius (15), distinguished Moorish astronomers; and close by the latter (16) Alphonso, the celebrated astronomical king of Castile, who said that if the heavens were indeed arranged as awkwardly as his contemporaries affirmed, he thought he could have fixed them better himself. On the shores of the Sea of Nectar (F) are the volcanoes for Descartes (17), the rival of Newton, and (18) for Kant, the metaphysician. To the northeast are the monuments to Hipparchus (20), the father of astronomy, who first numbered the stars, and Ptolemy (21), whose book on the heavens was the great authority for fifteen hundred years. A crater (22), insignificant in size, commemorates Herschel, but., considering the great achievements of father and son, a double one should have been selected for them. On the brink of the Sea of Vapors (Z) are Julius Caesar (23) and Sosigenes (24), who rearranged the calendar just previous to the birth of Christ. Caesar, who was a good astronomer, found that autumn fell where winter used to, and winter where spring. He brought Sosigenes from Athens to Rome, to assist him in rectifying this confusion. They gave fourteen months to the next succeeding year, and invented leap year, to avoid the difficulty in the future. On the opposite shore of that sea is Marco Polo (25), the Venetian traveler, whose statement that he saw black stones (that is, coal) used for fuel in China was so disbelieved in Europe in the thirteenth century. North of him are the Apennines (26), and on their eastern verge (27) Eratosthenes, called the universe measurer. Still farther to the east is (28) Copernicus, who is fitly placed, for he is the restorer of the ancient doctrine that the earth revolves around the sun, for which he was put in jail at Rome, and forced to recant on pain of death. Kepler (29) too, still farther to the east, deserves his conspicuous place, for he discovered the three great astronomical laws. From the top of Kepler, and on the far edge of the moon, is (30) Grimaldi, who proved that light added to light may produce darkness. Aristarchus (31), to the north, occupies the brightest spot on the moon. He is properly located above Copernicus, for he originated the doctrine that the latter developed. The Apennine range, where it turns to the northwest, merges into the Alps, on the western side of which are Eudoxus (32) and Aristotle (33). Few men have exerted a greater intellectual influence than this latter, who, after spending his patrimony in scientific pursuits, kept a druggist's shop in Athens. Subsequently, however, Alexander the Great gave him a million of dollars, and the services of several thousand men to make experiments and write a history of animals. In the midst of the Sea of Showers (D), and surrounded by the cenotaphs of Timocharis (34), who first determined the motions of the planet Venus, of Cassini (35), the first Director of the French Royal Observatory, of Autolycus (36) and Aristillus (37), old Greek astronomers, stands (38) the volcano of Archimedes, the great geometer and mechanician of Syracuse. In the present age of big ships his doings are of the highest interest. Athenxus, in his Deipnosophists, relates how "Hiero, king of the Syracusans, was very earnest in ship building, having built many vessels to carry corn, the construction of one of' which is described. For the wood he caused to be cut down such a number of trees as would have been sufficient for sixety ordinary triremes. She was half finished in six months, and plated with lead held on by brass nails, three hundred master workmen besides very many journeymen being employed. Archimedes, the famous mathematician, was the engineer-in-chief; having undertaken the superintendence when the other architect had failed in the launch. He invented the screw, and so drew her into the water. It took six months more to complete the outside. The vessel was propelled by rowers and sails, and had 20 banks of' oars. The length was more than 420 feet, and the height out of the water more than 60 feet. Inside there were the most luxurious fittings—gardens and fish ponds, temples with beautiful mosaic floors, tents, and stables for 20 horses. On the deck were 8 turrets, and an engine that threw bolts 18 feet long a distance of 200 yards. The three masts were hollow, and served to convey darts and stories to the men and engines at the mast heads and on the yards. The prow was furnished with more than one ram. When the ship was done Hiero found that no harbor in Sicily could contain it safely, and therefore sent it as a present to the king of Egypt." We may boast in this age of progress of' the things we are doing, but find that more than 2000 years ago there was an Ericsson alive who also could build formidable turreted metal - clad ships, and could launch them when they stuck fast. On the northern shore of the Sea of Showers (D) is Plato (39). Every one knows how greatly his works were prized by antiquity, but every one does not know that when put up at auction and sold for a slave he only brought 420 dollars. Not far from Plato rests poor Captain Scoresby (40), whom many of us have seen in the flesh--a good whale-fisherman, a writer on magnetism, and Arctic navigator. He appropriately reposes near the north pole of the moon. We might extend our journey back again toward Tycho, and examine hundreds more of these souvenirs; but as we have already come 3000 miles the reader must be fatigued, and will be ready to rest when he understands that Beer and Madler, who were the undertakers of this funereal work, spent twenty years in accomplishing it.
GENERALS KILPATRICK AND
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