RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



548 



pope is believed by Roman Catholics to be. 

 The first idea of an animal tribute appears to 

 have come from England. It is ascribed by 

 some to Ina (A. D. 721), King of the West 

 Saxons, who went as a pilgrim to Rome, and 

 there founded a hospice for Anglo-Saxon pil- 

 grims, to be maintained by an annual contri- 

 bution from England ; by others, to Offa and 

 Ethelwulf , at least in the sense of their having 

 extended it to the entire Saxon territory. The 

 tribute consisted in the payment of a silver 

 penny by every family possessing land or cattle 

 of the yearly value of thirty pence, and it was 

 collected during the five weeks between St. 

 Peter's and St. Paul's day, and August 1. 

 Since the total annexation of the Papal states 

 to the kingdom of Italy the tribute has been 

 largely increased in France, Belgium, England, 

 and Ireland. 



Public Schools. The origin of the pub- 

 lic school system of America dates back to the 

 time of the settlement of Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut. In the very beginning of their 

 history these colonists made provision for the 

 establishment of schools in every town, and 

 parents were required to send their children to 

 them or educate them otherwise. At first 

 these schools were not entirely free ; that is, 

 those who could pay were required to do so ; 

 but the evil of separating the children into 

 paupers and rate-payers in time became appar- 

 ent, and shortly after the colonies became 

 states the school taxes were increased and the 

 schools were made free. The example of 

 these colonists was quickly followed by other 

 New England colonies ; but in other sections 

 of the country schools were either private or 

 parochial for many years, except in cases 

 where a free school was established and sup- 

 ported by private beneficence. When the vast 

 territories west of the Allegheny mountains 

 came into the possession of the United States, 

 every sixteenth section in each Congressional 

 township was set aside by the government a 

 a nucleus of a public school fund ; later, this 

 was increased to two sections for the benefit of 

 the newer states. The Southern states were 

 the last to embrace the free school system in 

 its entirety, having done so only since the 

 close of the civil war. Maine, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, 

 New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Nevada, Wis- 

 consin, Ohio, Michigan, California, Arizona, 

 Wyoming, and Washington Territory have 

 compulsory educational laws. The average 

 age up to which school attendance is required 

 is, in the United States, fourteen and one half 

 years, which is older than that in any other 

 country. 



Colossus of Memnou. The celebrated 



vocal statue of Memnon, on th plain of Thebes, 

 was originally sixty feet high, and is of a 

 coarse, hard gritstone or breccia. The peculiar 

 characteristic of this statue was its giving out 

 at various times a sound resembling the break- 

 ing of a harp string or a metallic ring. Con- 

 siderable difference of opinion has prevailed as 

 to the reason of this sound, which has been 

 heard in modern times, it being ascribed to 

 the artifice of the priests,, who struck the 

 sonorous stone of which the statue is com- 

 posed, the passage of light draughts of air 

 through the cracks, or the sudden expansion 

 of aqueous particles under the influence of the 

 sun's rays. This remarkable quality of the 

 statue is first mentioned by Strabo, who visited 

 it in company with ^Elius Gall us, about 18 B. 

 C. ; and upwards of 100 inscriptions of Greek 

 and Roman visitors, incised upon its legs, 

 record the visits of ancient travelers to witness 

 the phenomenon, from the ninth year of Nero, 

 A. D. 63, to the reign of the Emperor Severus, 

 when it became silent. 



Colossus of Rhodes. The gigantic 

 Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of Apollo, so 

 placed as to bestride the entrance to the har- 

 bor. It is said to have been commenced by 

 Chares of Lindus, a famous pupil of Lysippus, 

 and was completed by Laches. It was formed 

 of metal which was cast in separate pieces, a 

 process which lasted for twelve years, and was 

 finished in 280 B. C. The Colossus was over 

 100 feet high, and its thumb was so large that 

 a man could not clasp it with his arms. It 

 cost 300 talents, and sixty years after its erec- 

 tion it was thrown down by an earthquake. 

 When, after lying on the ground for centuries, 

 it was removed, the metal that composed it 

 loaded 900 camels. The Colossus of Rhodes 

 ranks as one of the Seven Wonders of the 

 World. 



Sanhedrim, as the supreme national tri- 

 bunal of be Jews was called, was established 

 at the time of the Maccabees, and was the 

 court before which Christ was tried for high 

 treason against the Roman Emperor. It was 

 presided over by the Nasi (Prince), at whose 

 side was the Ab-Beth-Din (Father of the 

 Tribunal). Its members, of which there were 

 'seventy-one, belonged to the different classes 

 of society ; there were priests, elders that is, 

 men of age and experience scribes, or doc- 

 tors of law, and others exalted by eminent 

 learning, which was the sole condition for 

 admission. The limits of its jurisdiction are 

 not clearly known, but it is believed that the 

 supreme decision over life or death was ex- 

 clusively in its hands. The regulation of the 

 sacred times and seasons was vested in it. It 

 fixed the beginnings of the new moons ; in- 



