As the fathers saw the horror of the gladiatorial shows and their pernicious effect on morals, so in these latter days is caution necessary and salutary.
(88)
Anarchy, Remedy for—See Evil, Self-destructive.
ANCESTOR WORSHIP
The destructive influence of ancestor worship
far outweighs its benefits. It is a ruthless
and voracious land-grabber; the best of
the hills are for the dead. The living may
go to Jericho, or may huddle together down
in the malarial flats, while the ancestral shade
rests in the high places on the hill. The exhilarating
surroundings of the trees and
green sod are for the dead, the living are
left to the dust and heat and smells of the
market-place.
Ancestral piety forbids the digging of the hills for gold or silver or any other treasure. What are the living and what is yellow gold compared with the sweet repose of my father's ghost? Away with all sordid visions and leave the hills in peace!—James S. Gale, "Korea in Transition."
(89)
ANCESTRAL EXAMPLE
It was the custom of the primitive Romans
to preserve in the halls of their houses the
images of all the illustrious men whom
their families had produced. These images
are supposed to have consisted of a mask
exactly representing the countenance of each
deceased individual, accompanied with habiliments
of like fashion with those worn in
his time, and with the armor, badges, and
insignia of his offices and exploits; all so
disposed around the sides of the hall as to
present, in the attitude of living men, the
long succession of the departed; and thus
to set before the Roman citizen, whenever he
entered or left the house, the venerable array
of his ancestors revived in this imposing
similitude. Whenever, by a death in the
family, another distinguished member of it
was gathered to his fathers, a strange and
awful procession was formed. The ancestral
masks, including that of the newly
deceased, were fitted upon the servants of
the family, selected of the size and appearance
of those whom they were intended to
represent, and drawn up in solemn array to
follow the funeral train of the living mourners,
first to the market-place, where the
public eulogium was pronounced, and then
to the tomb. As he thus moved along, with
all the great fathers of his name quickening,
as it were, from their urns, to enkindle his
emulation, the virtuous Roman renewed his
vows of respect to their memory, and his
resolution to imitate their fortitude, frugality,
and patriotism.—Edward Everett.
(90)
Ancestry—See Pedigree.
ANCHOR, AN
Every ship has an anchor, and there
are times when the safety of the ship depends
on its right use of its anchors. When
I was a boy in Constantinople, an American
captain visited our house. He told us that
his ship was anchored in an exposed harbor
in one of the islands of the Ægean, when a
violent storm broke upon them. Both of
the anchors which they had down began to
drag, and it was only a question of time
when they would be cast ashore. They had
one little anchor still unused, and tho they
did not hope much good could come from
dropping it they took the chance. To their
great surprize and equal delight, tho the
two larger anchors would not hold, the
smaller one held, and they rode out the storm
in safety. When they came to weigh the
anchors, the two large ones came up easily,
but the smaller one came with great difficulty.
When at last it appeared above the surface
of the water, lo and behold, the fluke of the
anchor had caught in the ring of a large
man-of-war's anchor that had been lost there
long before! The man-of-war's anchor had
been embedded in the soil, and this accounted
for the fact that the little anchor held.
Every man voyaging on the ocean of
life ought to have an anchor. The
apostle speaks about a good hope, which
he says we have as an anchor sure and
stedfast entering into the unseen, which
is within the veil.—A. F. Schauffler,
The Christian Herald.
(91)
ANCIENT ART
To the student of architecture it may
be surprizing to learn that the arch, until
recently supposed to have been unknown to
the ancients, was frequently employed by the
pre-Babylonians of more than 6,000 years
ago. Such an arch, in a poor state of preservation,
was, a few years ago, discovered in
the lowest stratum, beneath the Babylonian
city of Nippur. More recently an arched
drain was found beneath the old city of
