OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 239

239.—NOT THE GEESE THAT SAVED ROME.
The stories told of Hans von Bülow are legion, but the following is too good to omit:—
Bülow was a master of satire and irony, as the orchestras and choruses which came under his direction could well testify.
On one occasion he rebuked the feminine half of an oratorio chorus which he was rehearsing. While the tenors and basses were singing their parts the sopranos and altos indulged in conversation. They were called to order several times, but paid no attention. Finally von Bülow rapped upon his desk and called out, "Ladies, Rome does not have to be saved to-night," which remark produced the desired effect.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 24

24.—GOOD ENGLISH IN SONG.
In the eyes of many singers and in the minds of much of the public, the words used when singing are of no particular value. This may be true of a goodly number of popular songs that live for a day. But in the strict ​sense of the word, and speaking of good music, the mission of the music is to give the sentiment a proper setting. A perverted idea has, with one class of opera and song writers, brought music to the place of prime importance, it is true, but this is an unnatural arrangement of things. Music, as separate from all else, has its true place in the instrumental field.
When words are set to music they should be good enough to merit a hearing. And the singer who slights his words and leaves you in doubt as to the language he happened to be using, is just that far from being a finished singer.
It is claimed that English is a hard language to sing. So it is, for those that will not give it the necessary study and practice.
It is likewise claimed that Italian is easy to sing. So it is, for an Italian. But an Italian might be as much in doubt about the American student's Italian words as the American auditor is forced to be concerning the student's English words.
It is well known that many a singer covers her inability to sing distinct English by a retreat into poor Italian, which she thinks will be "Greek" (if not Italian) to her audience.
Vocal teachers are coming to realize that the highest vocal art requires one to sing their own language perfectly, and that years of practice in mongrel Italian do not give ability to sing good English. The reason for this is that there are many difficult consonant and vowel combinations appearing frequently in the English that are unknown to the Italian.
That German or Italian are not good preparations for English singing is shown by the remarkable combinations of sounds that foreign singers will use when called on to sing an English song. This is all right if we follow the doctrine that words are of no importance. But that doctrine does not obtain among artists. Why should we have to listen to that grand solo from the ​Messiah tortured into "Ze keens hof ze hurt rees hoop?" Who could be expected to know from hearing this sort of continental English that "The kings of the earth rise up?"
Then, when some celebrated Italian prima donna is called on to sing our national hymn, how patriotic we must feel to hear
"Mi coontray tees oof thee Swet Landa of Leeberta, Oof The Ih seeng; Landa wer mifa ters dida, Landa oof de peelgreem's prida, Froma eefrey mon-tin sida, Leta fretum reeng."
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 238

238.—VIOTTI'S INDEPENDENCE.
There was an incident in the career of Viotti, the great violinist of a hundred years ago, that parallels the little scene that took place in Cardinal Ottoboni's palace when Corelli rebuked the Cardinal for conversing during a musical performance. Viotti was, up to his time, the most polished player of his instrument that had appeared before the public. He was also a man of great independence and originality.
Marie Antoinette had commanded him to play at the royal palace at Versailles. He was in the midst of one of his finest compositions when the Count d'Artois was announced with great noise and bustle. When that haughty scion of royalty had entered, he paid no attention to the player, but disturbed the audience by his loud talking and rude behavior. Viotti's independent spirit could stand this no longer; so he took up his music, placed his violin in its case, and unceremoniously withdrew. This display of justifiable pride drew on him the displeasure of the court. This and his open expression of his democratic opinions made advisable his departure from France, and he shortly afterward appeared in London, where he gained great renown.
But here again his eccentric and independent nature ​asserted itself, and he received notice from the Government that his absence from England was desired, and the quicker it came about the better for M. Viotti. So he took up his residence in Holland for some years, until this edict was revoked, when he returned to England. There he forsook art for commerce for a time and entered into the wine business. It could hardly be said of him, however, as it was of Michael Kelly, that he should be labeled, "composer of wine and importer of music." It is not surprising that an artist should be unsuccessful as a business man, and soon Viotti again turned to his art to retrieve what he had lost in business.
Going again to Paris, he became director of the Grand Opera, and was later retired to private life with a pension granted by the French Government. He then returned to London and spent his remaining days in that city, where he died in 1824.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 244

244.—ROTHSCHILD'S MUSIC.
The difference between artistic and financial self-respect is well illustrated in Spohr's meeting with Rothschild, the wealthy banker, in London. Spohr had called to present a letter of credit. Rothschild took it, and after glancing it over said, "I have just read that you manage your business very efficiently, but I understand nothing of music. This is my music (slapping his purse); they understand that on the Exchange." As Spohr was leaving, the banker called out, "You can come out and dine at my country house." It need hardly be added that Spohr did not accept this delicately tendered invitation.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 2

Chapter II.—The Lofty Mind and Constancy of the Sacred Virgins; The Introduction of Virgins into the Blessed Abodes Before Others.
Those who take a downward flight, and fall into pleasures, do not desist from grief and labours until, through their passionate desires, they fulfil the want of their intemperance, and, being degraded and shut out from the sanctuary, they are removed from the scene of truth, and, instead of procreating children with modesty and temperance, they rave in the wild pleasures of unlawful amours. But those who, on light wing, ascend into the supramundane life, and see from afar what other men do not see, the very pastures of immortality, bearing in abundance flowers of inconceivable beauty, are ever turning themselves again to the spectacles there; and, for this reason, those things are thought small which are here considered noble—such as wealth, and glory, and birth, and marriage; and they think no more of those things. But yet if any of them should choose to give up their bodies to wild beasts or to fire, and be punished, they are ready to have no care for pains, for the desire of them or the fear of them; so that they seem, while in the world, not to be in the world, but to have already reached, in thought and in the tendency of their desires, the assembly of those who are in heaven.
Now it is not right that the wing of virginity should, by its own nature, be weighed down upon the earth, but that it should soar upwards to heaven, to a pure atmosphere, and to the life which is akin to that of angels. Whence also they, first of all, after their call and departure hence, who have rightly and faithfully contended as virgins for Christ, bear away the prize of victory, being crowned by Him with the flowers of immortality. For, as soon as their souls have left the world, it is said that the angels meet them with much rejoicing, and conduct them to the very pastures already spoken of, to which also they were longing to come, contemplating them in imagination from afar, when, while they were yet dwelling in their bodies, they appeared to them divine.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Than of the most ordinary things of life.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 15

Chapter XV.—Arguments from the Novelty of Fate and Generation; That Golden Age, Early Men; Solid Arguments Against the Mathematicians.
If it were better, O wretched ones, that man should be subject to the star of his birth, than that he should not, why was not his generation and birth from the very time when the race of man began to be? And if it was, what is the need of those which had lately been placed among the stars, of the Lion, the Crab, the Twins, the Virgin, the Bull, the Balance, the Scorpion, the Ram, the Archer, the Fishes, the Goat, the Watercarrier, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Pegasus, Hydra, the Raven, the Cup, the Lyre, the Dragon, and others, from which you introduce, by your instructions, many to the knowledge of mathematics, or, rather, to a knowledge which is anathema? Well, then, either there was generation among those before, and the removal of these creatures above was absurd; or else there was not, and God changed human life into a better state and government than that of those who before that lived an inferior life. But the ancients were better than those of the present time; whence theirs was called the golden age. There was then no natal destiny.
If the sun, driving through the circles and passing along the signs of the Zodiac in his annual periods, accomplishes the changes and turnings of the seasons, how did those who were born before the signs of the Zodiac were placed among the stars, and the heaven was adorned with them, continue to exist, when summer, autumn, winter, and spring, were not as yet separated from each other, by means of which the body is increased and strengthened? But they did exist, and were longer lived and stronger than those who live now, since God then disposed the seasons in the same manner. The heaven was not then diversified by such shapes.
If the sun and the moon and the other stars were made for the division and protection of the members of the time, and for the adornment of the heaven, and the changes of the seasons, they are divine, and better than men; for these must needs pass a better life, and a blessed and peaceful one, and one which far exceeds our own life in righteousness and virtue, observing a motion which is well-ordered and happy. But if they are the causes of the calamities and mischief of mortals, and busy themselves in working the lasciviousness, and the changes and vicissitudes of life, then they are more miserable than men, looking upon the earth, and their weak and lawless actions, and doing nothing better than men, if at least our life depends upon their revolutions and movements.

## Footnotes

* ↑ We cannot preserve the play upon words of the original. There it is—μαθηματικὴν and καταθεματικήν .—Tr.
* ↑ Gen. i. 14, etc.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 12

Chapter XII.—Virgins are Called to the Imitation of the Church in the Wilderness Overcoming the Dragon.
The Church, then, coming hither into this wilderness, a place unproductive of evils, is nourished, flying on the heavenward wings of virginity, which the Word called the “wings of great eagle,” having conquered the serpent, and driven away from her full moon the wintry clouds. It is for the sake of these things, meanwhile, that all these discourses are held, teaching us, O fair virgins, to imitate according to our strength our mother, and not to be troubled by the pains and changes and afflictions of life, that you may enter in exulting with her into the bride-chamber, showing your lamps. Do not, therefore, lose courage on account of the schemes and slanders of the beast, but bravely prepare for the battle, armed with the helmet of salvation, and the breastplate, and the greaves. For you will bring upon him an immense consternation when you attack him with great advantage and courage; nor will he at all resist, seeing his adversaries set in array by One more powerful; but the many-headed and many-faced beast will immediately allow you to carry off the spoils of the seven contests:—
“Lion in front, but dragon all behind,
And in the midst a she-goat breathing forth
Profuse the violence of flaming fire.
Her slew Bellerophon in truth. And this
Slew Christ the King; for many she destroyed,
Nor could they bear the fetid foam which burst
From out the fountain of her horrid jaws;”
unless Christ had first weakened and overcome her, making her powerless and contemptible before us.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Ezek. xvii. 3.
* ↑ Eph. vi. 17.
* ↑ Hom., Il., vi. 181.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 17

Chapter XVII.—The Lust of the Flesh and Spirit: Vice and Virtue.
But why do I draw out my discourse to such length, spending the time with arguments, having set forth the things which are most necessary for persuasion, and to gain approval for that which is expedient; and having made manifest to all, by a few words, the inconsistency of their trick, so that it is now possible even for a child to see and perceive their error; and that to do good or evil is in our own power, and not decided by the stars. For there are two motions in us, the lust of the flesh and that of the soul, differing from each other, whence they have received two names, that of virtue and that of vice. And we ought to obey the most noble and most useful leading of virtue, choosing the best in preference to the base. But enough on these points. I must come to the end of my discourse; for I fear, and am ashamed, after these discourses on chastity, that I should be obliged to introduce the opinions of men who study the heavens, or rather who study nonsense, who waste their life with mere conceits, passing it in nothing but fabulous figments. And now may these offerings of ours, composed from the words which are spoken by God, be acceptable to thee, O Arete, my mistress.
Euboulios. How bravely and magnificently, O Gregorion, has Thekla debated!
Gregorion. What, then, would you have said, if you had listened to herself, speaking fluently, and with easy expression, with much grace and pleasure? So that she was admired by every one who attended, her language blossoming with words, as she set forth intelligently, and in fact picturesquely, the subjects on which she spoke, her countenance suffused with the blush of modesty; for she is altogether brilliant in body and soul.
Euboulios. Rightly do you say this, Gregorion, and none of these things is false; for I knew her wisdom also from other noble actions, and what sort of things she succeeded in speaking, giving proof of supreme love to Christ; and how glorious she often appeared in meeting the chief conflicts of the martyrs, procuring for herself a zeal equal to her courage, and a strength of body equal to the wisdom of her counsels.
Gregorion. Most truly do you also speak. But let us not waste time; for we shall often be able to discuss these and other subjects. But I must now first relate to you the discourses of the other virgins which followed, as I promised; and chiefly those of Tusiane and Domnina; for these still remain. When, then, Thekla ceased speaking these things, Theopatra said that Arete directed Tusiane to speak; and that she, smiling, passed before her and said.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Gal. v. 17.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 3

Chapter III.—The Lot and Inheritance of Virginity.
Furthermore, when they have come hither, they see wonderful and glorious and blessed things of beauty, and such as cannot be spoken to men. They see there righteousness itself and prudence, and love itself, and truth and temperance, and other flowers and plants of wisdom, equally splendid, of which we here behold only the shadows and apparitions, as in dreams, and think that they consist of the actions of men, because there is no clear image of them here, but only dim copies, which themselves we see often when making dark copies of them. For never has any one seen with his eyes the greatness or the form or the beauty of righteousness itself, or of understanding, or of peace; but there, in Him whose name is I AM, they are seen perfect and clear, as they are. For there is a tree of temperance itself, and of love, and of understanding, as there are plants of the fruits which grow here—as of grapes, the pomegranate, and of apples; and so, too, the fruits of those trees are gathered and eaten, and do not perish and wither, but those who gather them grow to immortality and a likeness to God. Just as he from whom all are descended, before the fall and the blinding of his eyes, being in paradise, enjoyed its fruits, God appointing man to dress and to keep the plants of wisdom. For it was entrusted to the first Adam to cultivate those fruits. Now Jeremiah saw that these things exist specially in a certain place, removed to a great distance from our world, where, compassionating those who have fallen from that good state, he says: “Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace. Who hath found out her place? or who hath come into her treasures?” The virgins having entered into the treasures of these things, gather the reasonable fruits of the virtues, sprinkled with manifold and well-ordered lights, which, like a fountain, God throws up over them, irradiating that state with unquenchable lights. And they sing harmoniously, giving glory to God. For a pure atmosphere is shed over them, and one which is not oppressed by the sun.

## Footnotes

* ↑ The influence of Plato is traceable, here and elsewhere, throughout the works of Methodius. It has been fully examined in the able work of Jahn, Methodius Platonizans.—Tr. [Elucidation I.]
* ↑ Exod. iii. 14.
* ↑ Baruch iii. 14, 15. The apocryphal book of Baruch, as bearing the name of the companion of Jeremiah, was usually quoted, in the second and third centuries, as the work of that great prophet.—Tr.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Banquet of the Ten Virgins/Thekla/Part 5

Chapter V.—The Woman Who Brings Forth, to Whom the Dragon is Opposed, the Church; Her Adornment and Grace.
The woman who appeared in heaven clothed with the sun, and crowned with twelve stars, and having the moon for her footstool, and being with child, and travailing in birth, is certainly, according to the accurate interpretation, our mother, O virgins, being a power by herself distinct from her children; whom the prophets, according to the aspect of their subjects, have called sometimes Jerusalem, sometimes a Bride, sometimes Mount Zion, and sometimes the Temple and Tabernacle of God. For she is the power which is desired to give light in the prophet, the Spirit crying to her: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.” It is the Church whose children shall come to her with all speed after the resurrection, running to her from all quarters. She rejoices receiving the light which never goes down, and clothed with the brightness of the Word as with a robe. For with what other more precious or honourable ornament was it becoming that the queen should be adorned, to be led as a Bride to the Lord, when she had received a garment of light, and therefore was called by the Father? Come, then, let us go forward in our discourse, and look upon this marvelous woman as upon virgins prepared for a marriage, pure and undefiled, perfect and radiating a permanent beauty, wanting nothing of the brightness of light; and instead of a dress, clothed with light itself; and instead of precious stones, her head adorned with shining stars. For instead of the clothing which we have, she had light; and for gold and brilliant stones, she had stars; but stars not such as those which are set in the invisible heaven, but better and more resplendent, so that those may rather be considered as their images and likenesses.

## Footnotes

* ↑ [i.e., the Church. See p 337, note 4, infra.]
* ↑ Isa. lx. 1–4.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Parker, John

Edition of 1900.
​PARKER, John, member of the Continental congress, b. in Charleston, S. C., 24 Jan., 1749; d. on his plantation near there, 20 April, 1822. He was educated abroad, and graduated at the Middle Temple, London, in 1775. He returned to South Carolina the next year, settled on his rice-plantation, and engaged in planting. In 1786-'8 he served in the Continental congress. Mr. Parker was the brother-in-law of Arthur Middleton.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Parker, Linus

Edition of 1900.
​PARKER, Linus, M. E. bishop, b. in Rome, N. Y., in 1829; d. in New Orleans, La., 5 March, 1885. He went to the south in his youth, and became a clerk in New Orleans, where he studied Latin and Greek before daylight in the morning and after his return from business in the evening. He soon became a Christian, had great gifts as an exhorter, and before he was twenty-one years of age entered the Louisiana conference. He was kept four years on circuits, during which he was ordained deacon and then elder. His abilities were immediately recognized, and he was transferred to New Orleans, continuing there as pastor of the various chief stations of his church until he was appointed presiding elder of the district that includes that city. He was also editor of the New Orleans “Christian Advocate” for some time. Early in his ministry he was elected a delegate to the general conference, and sat in its quadrennial sessions from 1870 till 1882, inclusive. In the latter year he was elected a bishop. He excelled both as a writer and a speaker.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Parker, Hyde

Edition of 1900.
​PARKER, Sir Hyde, British naval officer, b. in England in 1739; d. in Copenhagen, Denmark, 16 March, 1807. He was the second son of Vice-admiral Hyde Parker, and went to sea under his father at an early age. He became post captain in 1763, served on the “Phoenix,” on the American station, in 1776, and participated in the attack on New York. With a small squadron he conveyed the force that captured Savannah in 1778, for which service he was knighted the next year. He became rear-admiral of the White in 1793, and was at the surrender of Toulon and the reduction of Corsica. He became rear-admiral of the Red in 1799, was in command at Jamaica, W. I., and in 1807 led the attack on Copenhagen, Denmark.