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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
The worship of a fetich, an object superstitiously invested with divine or demonic power, and as such regarded with awe and worshipped.
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The younger son of the Duke of Leinster, born at Carlton Castle, near Dublin; spent his early years in France; joined the English army and served with distinction in the American War; in 1784 he was elected to the Irish Parliament, and opposed the English Government; was attracted to France by the Revolution, but returned to Ireland and joined the United Irishmen in 1796, and began plotting the rising of 1798; his scheme was betrayed, and he was arrested in Dublin after a determined resistance, during which he received wounds of which he died in prison (1763-1798).
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Translator of Tasso, born at Denton, Yorkshire, where he spent a quiet and studious life; his stately translation of Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata" was published in 1600, and holds rank as one of the best poetical translations in the language; he wrote also a "Discourse" on witchcraft (about 1572-1632).
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Two rocky promontories on the E. coast of Kent, which lie 16 m. apart; have the Downs and Goodwin Sands between them; they are well marked with lighthouses.
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Tyrant of Syracuse from 484 to 478 B.C.; rose from the ranks, gained a victory in 480 B.C. on the day of the battle of Salamis over a large host of Carthaginians who had invaded Sicily; d. 478 B.C., leaving behind him an honored memory.
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V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in 1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America, and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler, whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were, however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a characteristic expression in the institution of the notorious Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years after (1452-1516).
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Was the NW. portion of ancient Hellas, Dodona its capital, and Acheron one of its rivers; in 1466 became part of the Ottoman empire, but in 1881 a portion was ceded to Greece.
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Were cities which enjoyed sovereign rights within their own walls, independent representation in the Diet, and owned allegiance solely to the emperor. Their internal government was sometimes democratic, sometimes the opposite. Their peculiar privileges were obtained either by force of arms, by purchase, or by gift of the emperors, who found in them a convenient means of checking the power of their feudal lords. Most of them lost their privileges in 1803, and since 1866 only Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg remain in the category of free cities.
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Wife of Chilpéric I. of Neustria; a woman of low birth, but of great beauty and insatiable ambition, who scrupled at no crime to attain her end; made away with Galswintha, Chilpéric's second wife, and superseded her on the throne; slew Siegbert, who had been sent to avenge Galswintha's death, and imprisoned Brunhilda, her sister, of Austrasia, and finally assassinated her husband and governed Neustria in the name of her son, Clotaire II. (543-597).
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