Part 264 (1/2)
JINGO, a name, of uncertain derivation, given to a political party favourable to an aggressive, menacing policy in foreign affairs, and first applied in 1877 to that political section in Great Britain which provoked the Turco-Russian war.
JINN, in the Arabian mythology one of a cla.s.s of genii born of fire, some of them good spirits and some of them evil, with the power of a.s.suming visible forms, hideous or bewitching, corresponding to their character.
JOAB, the nephew and a general of David's; put to death by order of Solomon 1014 B.C.
JOACHIM, JOSEPH, a distinguished violinist, born near Presburg, in Hungary; famous as a youthful prodigy; was encouraged by Mendelssohn; has visited London every year since 1844, and has been princ.i.p.al leader in the Monday and Sat.u.r.day Popular Concerts from the first, and became head of the Academy of Music at Berlin in 1869; the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance was celebrated on March 17, 1889, when his admirers presented him with a magnificent violin; _b_. 1831.
JOACHIM, ST., the husband of St. Anne, and the father of the Virgin Mary.
JOAN, POPE, a woman who, in the guise of a man with male accomplishments, is said for two years five months and four days to have been Pope of Rome between Leo IV. and Benedict III. about 853-855, and whose s.e.x was discovered by the premature birth of a child during some public procession. She is said to have been of English parentage, and to have borne the name of Gilberte. However, it is but fair to say that the story is of doubtful authenticity.
JOAN OF ARC, OR MAID OF ORLEANS, a French heroine, born at Domremy, of poor parents, but nursed in an atmosphere of religious enthusiasm, and subject, in consequence, to fits of religious ecstasy, in one of which she seemed to hear voices calling to her from heaven to devote herself to the deliverance of France, which was then being laid desolate by an English invasion, occupied at the time in besieging Orleans; inspired with the pa.s.sion thus awakened she sought access to Charles VII., then Dauphin, and offered to raise the siege referred to, and thereafter conduct him to Reims to be crowned; whereupon, permission being granted, she marched from Blois at the head of 10,000 men, whom she had inspired with faith in her divine mission; drove the English from their entrenchments, sent them careering to a distance, and thereafter conducted Charles to Reims to be crowned, standing beside him till the coronation ceremony was ended; with this act she considered her mission ended, but she was tempted afterwards to a.s.sist in raising the siege of Compiegne, and on the occasion of a sally was taken prisoner by the besieging English, and after an imprisonment of four months tried for sorcery, and condemned to be burned alive; she met her fate in the market-place of Rouen with fort.i.tude in the twenty-ninth year of her age (1412-1431).
JOANNUS DAMASCENUS, theologian and hymn-writer, born at Damascus; was a zealous defender of image-wors.h.i.+p; was said to have had his right hand chopped off by the machinations of his foes, which was afterwards restored to him by the Virgin; _d_. 754, at the age of 70.
JOB, BOOK OF p.r.o.nounced by Carlyle ”one of the grandest things ever written with pen; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconcilement”; one perceives in it ”the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart, true eyesight and vision for all things; sublime sorrow and sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind; so soft and great as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars”; the whole giving evidence ”of a literary merit unsurpa.s.sed by anything written in Bible or out of it; not a Jew's book merely, but all men's book.” It is partly didactic and partly biographic; that is to say, the object of the author is to solve a problem in part speculatively, or in the intelligence, and in part spiritually, or in the life; the speculative solution being, that sufferings are to prove and purify the righteous; and the spiritual, consisting in accepting them not as of merely Divine appointment, but manifestations of G.o.d Himself, which is accomplished in the experience of Job when he exclaims at last, ”Now mine eye seeth Thee.” It is very idle to ask if the story is a real one, since its interest and value do not depend on its historic, but its universal and eternal truth; nor is the question of the authors.h.i.+p of any more consequence, even if there were any clue to it, which there is not, as the book offers no difficulty to the interpreter which any knowledge of the author would the least contribute to remove. In such a case the challenge of Goethe is _apropos_, ”What have I to do with names when it is a work of the spirit I am considering?” The book of Job was for long believed to be one of the oldest books in the world, and to have had its origin among a patriarchal people, such as the Arabs, but is now pretty confidently referred to a period between that of David and the return from the captivity, the character of it bespeaking a knowledge and experience peculiarly Jewish.
JOCASTE, the wife of Laius, king of Thebes, and mother of Oedipus; she afterwards married him not knowing that he was her son, and on discovery of the crime put an end to herself, though not till after she had become the mother of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene.
JOCELIN DE BRAKELONDA, an old 12th-century St. Edmundsbury monk, who left behind him a ”Chronical” of the Abbey from 1173 to 1202, and which, published in 1840 by the Camden Society, gave occasion to the ”Past and Present” of Thomas Carlyle; he had been chaplain to the Abbot Samson, the hero of his book, living beside him night and day for the s.p.a.ce of six years, ”an ingenious and ingenuous, a cheery-hearted, innocent, yet withal shrewd, noticing, quick-witted man”; _d_. 1211.
JODHPUR (2,522), largest Rajputana State, under British protection since 1818; is backward in government, education, agriculture, and manufactures; tin, lead, and iron are found; salt is made at Sambhar Lake. The state revolted at the Mutiny. JODHPUR (62), the capital, is 350 m. SW. of Delhi, and is connected by rail with Jeypore and Bombay.
JOE MILLER, an English actor, the author of a book of jests (1684-1738).
JOEL, a Hebrew prophet, author of a book of the Old Testament that bears his name, and which is of uncertain date, but is written on the great broad lines of all Hebrew prophecy, and reads us the same moral lesson, that from the judgments of G.o.d there is no outlet for the sinner except in repentance, and that in repentance lies the pledge of deliverance from all evil and of the enjoyment of all good.
JOHANNESBURG (40), the largest town in the Transvaal, 30 m. S. of Pretoria, and 800 m. NE. of Cape Town; is the centre of Wit.w.a.tersrand gold-mining fields. Until recently an ill-equipped town, it has made rapid progress. Since 1892 railways connect it with Delagoa Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. Magnificent buildings and residential suburbs are springing up. The water-supply is bad, and dust-storms are frequent, otherwise the climate is very healthy. Johannesburg was the seat of the dissatisfaction among the Uitlanders in 1895, which led to Dr. Jameson's raid.
JOHN, king of England from 1199 to 1216, was clever and vivacious, but the most vicious, profane, false, short-sighted, tyrannical, and unscrupulous of English monarchs; the son of Henry II., he married Hawisa of Gloucester, and succeeded his brother Richard I., being Richard's nominee, and the tacitly elect of the people; his nephew, Arthur, claimed the French dominions, and was supported by the French king, Philip; in 1200 he divorced Hawisa, and married Isabel of Angouleme, a child-heiress; this provoked the French barons; in the war that ensued Arthur was captured, and subsequently murdered either by John himself or by his orders; Philip invaded Normandy, and with the fall of the Chateau-Gaillard in 1204, most of the French possessions were lost to the English crown; then followed John's quarrel with Pope Innocent III. over the election of an archbishop of Canterbury; the Pope consecrated Stephen Langton; John refused to receive him; in 1208 the kingdom was placed under an interdict, and next year the king was excommunicated; John on his side confiscated Church property, exiled the bishops, exacted homage of William of Scotland, and put down risings in Ireland and Wales; but a bull, deposing him and absolving his va.s.sals from allegiance, forced him to submit, and he resigned his crown to the Pope's envoy in 1213; this exaction on Innocent's part initiated the opposition to Rome which culminated in the English Reformation; the rest of the reign was a struggle between the king, relying on his suzerain the Pope, and the people, barons, and clergy, for the first time on one side; war broke out; the king was forced to sign Magna Charta at Runnymede in 1215, but the Pope annulled the Charter; the barons appealed for help to the Dauphin, and were prosecuting the war when John died at Newark (1167-1216).
JOHN, the name of no fewer than 23 popes. J. I., Pope from 523 to 526, was canonised; J. II., pope from 532 to 535; J. III., Pope from 560 to 578; J. IV., pope from 640 to 642; J. V., Pope from 686 to 687; J. VI., pope from 701 to 705; J. VII., Pope from 705 to 707; J. VIII., pope from 872 to 882; J. IX., Pope from 898 to 900; J. X., pope from 914 to 928; J. XI., Pope from 931 to 936; J. XII., Pope from 956 to 964--was only 18 when elected, led a licentious life; J. XIII., pope from 965 to 972; J. XIV., Pope from 984 to 985; J. XV., pope in 985; J. XVI., Pope from 985 to 996; J. XVII., pope in 1003; J. XVIII., Pope from 1003 to 1009; J. XIX., pope from 1024 to 1033; J. XX., Anti-Pope from 1043 to 1046; J. XXI., Pope from 1276 to 1277; J. XXII., Pope from 1316 to 1334--a learned man, a steadfast, and a courageous; J.
XXIII., Pope in 1410, deposed in 1415--was an able man, but an unscrupulous.