Section 7. The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing. The Single Tax This idea was first formulated by Mr. Henry George in 1879, and has grown steadily in favor. Single tax men assert as a fundamental principle that all men are equally entitled to the use of the earth, therefore no one should be allowed to hold valuable land without paying to the community the value of the privilege. They hold that this is the only rightful source of public revenue, and they would therefore abolish all taxation, local, state, and national, except a tax upon the rental value of land exclusive of its improvements. The revenue thus raised to be divided among local, state, and general governments, as the revenue from certain direct taxes is now divided between local and state governments. The single tax would not fall on all land, but only on valuable land, and on that in proportion to its value. It would thus be a tax not on use or improvements, but on ownership of land, taking what would otherwise go to the landlord as owner, in accordance with the principle that all men are equally entitled to the use of the earth. They would solve the transportation problem by public ownership and control of all highways, including the roadbeds of railroads, leaving their use equally free to all. The single tax system would, they claim, dispense with a horde of tax-gatherers, simplify government, and greatly reduce its cost. Give us with all the world that absolute free trade which now exists between the states of the Union. Abolish all taxes on private issues of money, take the weight of taxation from agricultural districts where land has little or no value apart from improvements, and put it upon valuable land such as city lots and mineral deposits. It would call upon men to contribute for public expenses in proportion to the natural opportunities they monopolize, and make it unprofitable for speculators to hold land unused or only partly used, thus opening to labor unlimited fields of employment solving the labor problem and abolishing involuntary poverty. The Mysteries of Hypnotism A compend of the general claims made by professional hypnotists. Animal magnetism is the nerve force of all human and animal bodies, and is common to every person in a greater or less degree. It may be transmitted from one person to another. The transmitting force is the concentrated effort of willpower, which sends the magnetic current through the nerves of the operator to the different parts of the body of his subject. It may be transmitted by and through the eyes as well as the fingertips and the application of the whole open hands to different regions of the bodies of the subject as well as to the mind. The effect of this force upon the subject will depend very much upon the health, mental capacity, and general character of the operator. This action in general should be soothing and quieting upon the nervous system, stimulating to the circulation of the blood, the brain, and other vital organs of the body of the subject. It is the use and application of this power or force that constitutes hypnotism. Magnetism is a quality that inheres in every human being, and it may be cultivated like any other physical or mental force of which men and women are constituted. In the intelligent operator using it to overcome disease, a patient experiences a soothing influence that causes a relaxation of the muscles followed by a pleasant drowsy feeling which soon terminates in refreshing sleep. Unwaking, the patient feels rested, all his troubles have vanished from consciousness, and he is as if he had a new lease on life. In the true hypnotic condition when a patient voluntarily submits to the operator, any attempt to make suggestions against the interests of the patient can invariably be frustrated by the patient. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and some of the best known operators who have recorded their experiments assert that suggestions not in accord with the best interest of the patient could not be carried out. No one was ever induced to commit any crime under hypnosis that could not have been induced to do the same thing much easier without hypnosis. The hypnotic state is a condition of mind that extends from a comparatively wakeful state with slight drowsiness to complete some nambulism, no two subjects as a rule ever presenting the same characteristics. The operator, to be successful, must have control of his own mind, be in perfect health, and have the ability to keep his mind concentrated upon the object he desires to accomplish with his subject. How to Care for a Piano by William H. Damon The most important thing in the preservation of a piano is to avoid atmospheric changes and extremes and sudden changes of temperature. Where the summer condition of the atmosphere is damp, all precautions possible should be taken to avoid an entirely dry condition in winter, such as that given by steam or furnace heat. In all cases should the air in the home contain moisture enough to permit a heavy frost on the windows in zero weather. The absence of frost under such conditions is positive proof of an entirely dry atmosphere, and this is the piano's most dangerous enemy, causing the sounding board to crack, shrinking up the bridges, and consequently putting the piano seriously out of tune. Also causing an undue dryness in all the action parts and often a loosening of the glue joints, thus producing clicks and rattles. To aviate this difficulty is by no means an easy task and will require considerable attention. Avoid all the fresh air possible during the winter, being careful to keep the piano out of cold drafts, as this will cause sudden contraction of the varnish and cause it to check and crack. Plants in the room are desirable, and vessels of water of any kind will be of assistance. The most potent means of avoiding extreme dryness is to place a single loaf bread pan half full of water in the lower part of the piano, taking out the lower panel and placing it on either side of the petals inside. This should be refilled about once a month during the artificial heat, care being taken to remove the vessel as soon as the heat is discontinued in the spring. In cases where a stove heat is used these precautions are not necessary. The action of a piano, like any other delicate piece of machinery, should be carefully examined and if necessary adjusted each time it is tuned. The hammers need occasional and careful attention to preserve original tone quality and elasticity. Never allow the piano to be beaten or played hard upon. This is ruinous to both the action and tuning. When not in use the music rack and top should be closed to exclude dust. The keyboard need never be closed as the ivory needs both light and ventilation and will eventually turn yellow unless left open. The case demands careful treatment to preserve its beauty and polish. Never use anything other than a soft piece of cotton cloth or cheese cloth to dust it with. Never wipe it with a dry chamois skin or silk cloth. Silk is not as soft as cotton and will scratch. A dry chamois skin picks up the dust and grit and gradually scours off the fine finish. In dusting never use a feather duster nor rub the piano hard with anything. The dust should be whipped off and not rubbed into the varnish. If the piano is dingy, smoky or dirty looking it should be washed carefully with lukewarm water with a little ammonia in it to soften it. Never use soap.  Wipe over a small part at a time with the sponge following quickly with the wet chamois skin rung out of the same water. This will dry it immediately and leave it as beautiful and clean as new. Never use patent polishes. If your piano needs polishing, employ a competent polisher to give it a hand-rubbing friction polish. The highest mountain on the globe is not, as is generally supposed, Mount Everest. That honour belongs to a lofty peak named Mount Hercules on the Isle of Papua New Guinea, discovered by Captain Lawson in 1881. According to Lawson, this monster is 32,763 feet in height, being 3,781 feet higher than Mount Everest, which is only 29,002 feet above the level of the Indian Ocean. Transcriber's note, the highest point in New Guinea is Puncak Jaya, Mount Karstens or the Karstens Pyramid at 16,023 feet. Salt Rising Bread The real formula for making salt rising bread as sat down by the daughter of Governor Stubbs of Kansas and by him communicated to Theodore Roosevelt is as follows according to the Saturday Evening Post. On the night before you contemplate this masterpiece of baking, take a half a cup full of cornmeal and a pinch of salt and sugar. Scald this with new milk heated to the boiling point and mixed to the thickness of mush. This can be made in a cup. Wrap in a clean cloth and put in a warm place overnight. In the morning, when all is ready, take a one-gallon stone jar and into this put one scant cupful of new milk. Add a level teaspoonful of salt and one of sugar. Use this with three cupfuls of water heated to the boiling point. Reduce to a temperature of 108 degrees with cold water. Using a milk thermometer to enable you to get exactly the right temperature. Then add flour and mix to a good batter. After the batter is made, mix in with your starter that was made the night before. Cover the stone jar with a plate and put the jar into a large kettle of water and keep this water at a temperature of 108 degrees until the sponge rises. It should rise at least an inch and a half. When it has raised, mix to a stiff dough. Make into loaves and put into pans. Do not let the heat get out of the dough while working. Grease the loaves well on top and set your bread where it will be warm and rise. After the loaves rise, bake in a medium oven for one hour and ten minutes. When you take the loaves from the oven, wrap them in a bread cloth. A cure for love. Take 12 ounces of dislike, one pound of resolution, two grains of common sense, two ounces of experience, a large sprig of thyme, and three quarts of cooling water of consideration. Set them over a gentle fire of love. Sweeten it with sugar of forgetfulness, skim it with the spoon of melancholy, put it in the bottom of your heart, cork it with the cork of clean conscience. Let it remain and you will quickly find ease and be restored to your senses again. These things can be had of the apothecary at the House of Understanding, next door to Reason, on Prudence Street. End of Section 7. Section 8 of the Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by David Dunnebier. The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing by Joseph Trinans, published in 1911. Section 8. Doing business with a bank. In opening your account with a bank, it is proper that you should first be introduced to the cashier or some other official. If you are engaged in business, that officer will inquire as to your particular business or calling, your address, etc. And unless he is already satisfied on this point, he may make inquiries as to your business standing. This being satisfactory, he will hand you a passbook and some deposit tickets, whereupon you make your first deposit, entering the amount on the ticket. You will then be asked to write your signature in a book provided for that purpose or upon a card to be filed away for reference. This signature. This signature should be just as you intend to use it on all your dealings with the bank. If, for instance, your name is John Henry Smith, you may write it as J. H. Smith, J. Henry Smith, John H. Smith, or John Henry Smith. But whatever form you adopt should be used all the time. Once having adopted the form, it should be maintained in exactly that way. The only excuse for variation from your usual signature is when presenting checks or other paper made payable to you. In that case, supposing you had adopted the form J. Henry Smith for your regular signature, and the check is made payable to J. H. Smith, you should first write on the back of that check J. H. Smith, and immediately under this you should place your regular signature. Depositing Money When making a deposit, always use the deposit ticket provided by the bank filling it out yourself in ink. From this ticket, which is first checked up by the receiving teller, the amount of your deposit is placed to your credit. Do not ask the teller to fill out your deposit ticket. No doubt he would be glad to accommodate you, but to do so would violate a rule which protects both the bank and the depositor. Deposit tickets are preserved by the bank, and often serve to correct mistakes. How to Avoid Mistakes Consider for a moment the vast aggregate of bank transactions, and you will see that perfect system on the part of the bank and bank officials is required to ensure accuracy and avoid mistakes. Sometimes the requirements of the banks may seem arbitrary and troublesome, but reflection will show that they safeguard the depositor as well as the bank. The simple rules here laid down will enable anyone who has business with a bank to do so with the least trouble and with absolute safety. How to Make Out a Check Checks are the most satisfactory and the most convenient method of paying a debt or making any ordinary remittance. The stub of your checkbook will furnish a permanent memorandum, and when the check is cancelled and returned to you by the bank, it is an indisputable evidence that that has been paid or that the remittance has been made. The making of a check is a simple matter, but even the best businessmen make mistakes sometimes which are as difficult to remedy as they are to avoid. The hints here given and the facsimiles of checks printed in illustration will repay careful study. Illustration A check properly drawn. The name and amount are against the left side of their fields. The first facsimile shows a check properly made. It will be seen in the first place that this check is written very plainly, and that there is no room for the insertion of extra figures or words. The writing of the amount commences as nearly as possible to the extreme left of the check. The figures are written close together, and there is no space between the first figure and the dollar mark. All erasures in checks should be avoided. If you have made a mistake, tear a blank check from the back of your checkbook and use that in place of the one spoiled. Some businessmen allow their clerks to fill out checks on the typewriter. This is ill-advised for two reasons. First it is much easier to alter a typewritten check than one filled in with a pen. In the second place, a teller, in passing on the genuineness of a check, takes into consideration the character of the handwriting in the body of the check as well as in the signature. The typewritten characters offer no clue to individuality. Never mail a check drawn to bearer. Remember that if your check is made payable to bearer or to John Smith or bearer, it may be cashed by anybody who happens to have it. Unless it is for a large amount, the paying teller of your bank will look only to see whether your signature is correct and, that being right, the bank cannot be held responsible if this check should have come into the wrong hands. A check drawn to order can be cashed only when the person to whose order it has been drawn has endorsed it by writing his or her name on the back and the bank will be responsible for the correctness of the endorsement. If you make your check payable, say, to William Armstrong or Order, nobody but William Armstrong or someone to whom he endorses the check can collect the amount. And if through fraud or otherwise someone not entitled to it gets the money which the check calls for, the responsibility is not yours, but the banks. It is for that reason that bankers and businessmen use such great care in accepting checks. Illustration A check carelessly drawn. The text and numbers for the amount is in the center of their fields, leaving of space for extra text. Illustration The same check raised. The amount has been changed from 100, 100.00 to 8100, 8100.00. For the same reason you should never accept a check from anybody whom you do not know as responsible and you should not be surprised or angered if someone else should hesitate to take a check from you. Checks or drafts received by you should be deposited as soon as possible. Should you receive a check for a considerable amount and have no convenient bank account, you should go to the bank on which the check is drawn and have the cashier certify it by stamping accepted or certified across the face over his signature. That formality makes the paper as good as money so long as the bank accepting it is solvent. It sometimes happens that a check drawn in good faith by a responsible party is withheld so long by the person receiving it that there is no money to the account when the check is finally presented. Make your notes and accepted drafts payable to the bank where you do business whether it or other banks hold them for collection they will be presented to your bank when due. Pay your notes etc. on the day they fall due and early in the day if convenient or leave a check for the amount with your bank on the day before the paper matures. Banks will not pay notes or drafts without instructions. Keep a careful account of the days of maturity of all your paper. Banks usually notify all payers a few days beforehand when their paper matures but this is only a courtesy on their part and not an obligation. Exchange Exchange means funds in other cities made available by bankers drafts on such places. These drafts afford the safest and cheapest means for remitting money. Drafts on New York are worth their face value practically all over the United States in settlement of accounts. Collections A draft is sometimes the most convenient form for collecting an account. The prevalence of the custom is due to the fact that most men will wait to be asked to pay a debt. If a draft is a time draft it is accepted by the person on whom it is drawn by writing his name and date across the face. This makes it practically a note to be paid at maturity. Notes or drafts that you desire to have collected for you by your bank should be left at the bank several days before they are due so as to give ample time to notify the payers. Borrowing Banks are always willing to loan their funds to responsible persons within reasonable limits. That is what they exist for. There is, of course, a limit to the amount a bank may loan, even on the best known security, but the customer of the bank is entitled to and will receive the first consideration. The customer should not hesitate when occasion requires to offer to the bank for a discount. Such paper as may come into his hands in the course of business if, in his opinion, the paper is good. At the same time he should not be offended if his bank refuses to take it, even without giving reasons. Endorsing checks, etc. When depositing checks, drafts, etc., see that they are dated properly and that the written amounts and figures correspond. The proper way to endorse a check or draft, this also applies to notes and other negotiable paper, is to write your name upon the back about one inch from the top. The proper end may be determined in this way. As you read the check, hold one end in each hand, draw the right hand toward you, and turn the check over. The end which is then farthest from you is the top. If however the check, draft, or note has already been endorsed by another person, you should write your name directly under the other endorsement, even if that is on the wrong end. If your own name on the face of the check, draft, or note is misspelled or has the wrong initials, but if the paper is clearly intended for you, you should first write your name as it appears on the face and under it, your regular signature. You should endorse every check you deposit, even though it be payable to bearer. Mistakes in Banking Mr. Samuel Woods, a member of the American Institute of Bank Clerks, recently contributed to Muncie's magazine an interesting article on the subject of Mistakes in Banking. From this we are permitted by the courtesy of the publishers of Muncie's to reproduce two of the facsimiles shown. One wrong word or figure or letter, the right thing in the wrong way or the wrong place, the scratch of an eraser or the alteration of a word, or any one of these things in the making or caching of a check is liable to become as expensive as a racing automobile. The paying teller of a bank says Mr. Woods must keep his eyes open for new dangers as well as old ones. The cleverest crooks in the country are pitting their brains against his. After he has learned the proper guard for all the well-known tricks and forgeries, it is still possible that an entirely new combination may leave him minus cash and plus experience. But it is not the unique and novel swindle that is most dangerous either to a bank or an individual. It is the simple ordinary mistake or the time-worn trick that makes continuous trouble. Apparently, every new generation contains a number of dishonest people who lay the same traps and a number of careless people who fall into these traps in the same old way. Check-raising made easy. One of the first lessons, for instance, that a depositor should learn before he is qualified to own a checkbook is to commence writing the amount as near as possible to the extreme left of the check. Those who forget this are often reminded of it in a costly way. Someone raises their checks by writing another figure in front of the proper amount. Five hundred might be raised to twenty-five hundred in this way, even by an unskilled forger. The highest court has recently decided that a bank cannot be held responsible when it pays a raised check, if the maker of the check failed in the first place to write it out correctly. The treasurer of the Bath Electric Company of Bath, Maine, had written a check for one hundred dollars, which was raised to eighty-one hundred dollars and cashed. The court held that the company, not the bank, should lose the eight thousand dollars because of the gross carelessness in drawing up the check, facsimiles showing the check as originally written and as it looked when paid are here reproduced. Altered Words and Figures The altered check is the bane of the paying teller's profession, and it is the general practice in conservative banks to accept no checks or other paper which shows signs of erasure or alteration in either words or figures. End of Section Eight Section Nine of the Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mike Roup. The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing by Joseph Trinan's published in 1911. Section Nine, The Names of the States Alabama, Indian, meaning here we rest. Arkansas, Kansas, the Indian name for Smokey Water with the French prefix arc, bow or bend in the principal river. California, Caliente for Nala, Spanish for Hot Furnace, an allusion to the climate. Colorado, Spanish, meaning colored, from the red color of the Colorado River. Connecticut, Indian, meaning long river. Delaware, named in honor of Lord Delaware. Florida, named by Ponce de Leon, who discovered it in 1512 on Easter Day, the Spanish Pascua de Flores or Feast of Flowers. Georgia, in honor of George II of England. Illinois, from the Indian Elini men and the French suffix wah, together signifying tribe of men. Indiana, Indian land. Iowa, Indian, meaning beautiful land. Kansas, Indian, meaning smokey water. Kentucky, Indian for at the head of the river or the dark and bloody ground. Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV of France. Maine, from the province of Maine in France. Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I of England. Massachusetts, the place of the Great Hills. The Blue Hill, Southwest of Boston. Michigan, the Indian name for a fish weir. The lake was so called from the fancied resemblance of the lake to a fish trap. Minnesota, Indian, meaning sky tinted water. Mississippi, Indian, meaning great father of waters. Missouri, Indian, meaning muddy. Nebraska, Indian, meaning water valley. Nevada, Spanish, meaning snow covered alluding to the mountains. New Hampshire, from Hampshire County, England. New Jersey, in honor of Sir George Cartier, one of the original grantees who had previously been governor of Jersey Island. New York, in honor of the Duke of York. North and South Carolina, originally called Carolina in honor of Charles IX of France. Ohio, Indian, meaning beautiful river. Oregon, from the Spanish oregano. Wild marjoram, which grows abundantly on the coast. Pennsylvania, Latin, meaning pens woody land. Rhode Island, from a fancied resemblance to the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Tennessee, Indian, meaning river with a great bend. Texas, origin of this name is unknown. Vermont, French, meaning green mountain. Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth the Virgin Queen. Wisconsin, Indian, meaning gathering of the waters or wild rushing channel. Matoes of the States. Arkansas, Regnant's Populi, the people's rule. California, Eureka, I have found it. Colorado, Nielsenay, Numenay, nothing without the divinity. Connecticut, qui trans to Litz-Soustenet. He who has transferred sustains. Delaware, liberty and independence. Florida, and God is our trust. Georgia, wisdom, justice, moderation. Illinois, state sovereignty and national union. Iowa, our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. Kansas, add Astra per Aspera to the stars through rugged ways. Kentucky, United we stand, divided we fall. Louisiana, union and confidence. Maine, the regal I direct. Maryland, Crescite et multiplicarmonie. Increase and multiply. Massachusetts, and spettit plassadium sub libertate quietom. By her sword, she seeks under liberty a calm repose. Michigan, si cual eres penicelum a mononum circum spice. If thou seekest a beautiful peninsula, look around. Minnesota, le toile dinar, the star of the North. Missouri, salus populi suprema, lex esto, let the welfare of the people be the supreme law. Nebraska, popular sovereignty. Nevada, volens et potens, willing and able. New Jersey, liberty and independence. New York, excelsior, higher. Ohio, imperium and imperio, an empire within an empire. Oregon, alis volat propriaes. She flies with her own wings. Pennsylvania, virtue, liberty, independence. Rhode Island, hope. South Carolina, onimis opibus sve parapti. Ready with our lives and property. Tennessee, agriculture, commerce. Vermont, freedom and unity. Virginia, six semper tyrannous. So be it ever to tyrants. West Virginia, montani semper liberi. The mountaineers are always free. Wisconsin, forward. United States, i pleuribus unum from many one. Anu et coiptis, God has favored the undertaking. Woeus ordo seclorum, a new order of the ages. The first named on one side of the great seal, the other two on the reverse. Geographical nicknames, states and territories. Alabama, cotton state. Arkansas, toothpick and bear state. California, Eureka and golden state. Colorado, centennial state. Connecticut, land of steady habits. Freestone state and nutmeg state. Dakota, sous state. Delaware, uncle Sam's pocket handkerchief and blue hen state. Florida, everglade and flowery state. Georgia, empire state of the south. Idaho, gem of the mountains. Illinois, prairie and sucker state. Indiana, Hoosier state. Iowa, Hawkeye state. Kansas, Jayhawker state. Kentucky, corncracker state. Louisiana, Creole state. Maine, timber and pine tree state. Maryland, monumental state. Massachusetts, old bay state. Michigan, Wolverine and peninsula state. Minnesota, gopher and north star state. Mississippi, eagle state. Missouri, puke state. Nebraska, antelope state. Nevada, sage state. New Hampshire, old granite state. New Jersey, blue state and new Spain. New Mexico, vermin state. New York, empire state. North Carolina, ripped van winkle, old north and turpentine state. Ohio, buckeye state. Oregon, Pacific state. Pennsylvania, keystone, iron and oil state. Rhode Island, plantation state and little roadie. South Carolina, palmetto state. Tennessee, lion's den state. Texas, lone star state. Utah, Mormon state. Vermont, green mountain state. Virginia, old dominion. Wisconsin, badger and copper state. Natives of states and territories. Alabama, lizards. Arkansas, toothpicks. California, gold hunters. Colorado, rovers. Connecticut, wooden nutmegs. Dakota, squatters. Delaware, muskrats. Florida, fly up the creeks. Georgia, buzzards. Idaho, fortune seekers. Illinois, suckers. Indiana, Hoosiers. Iowa, hawkeyes. Kansas, jay hawkers. Kentucky, corn crackers. Louisiana, creoles. Maine, foxes. Maryland, clam humpers. Massachusetts, Yankees. Michigan, wolverines. Minnesota, gophers. Mississippi, tadpoles. Missouri, pukes. Nebraska, bug eaters. Nevada, sage hens. New Hampshire, granite boys. New Jersey, blues or clam catchers. New Mexico, Spanish Indians. New York, knickerbockers. North Carolina, tar heels. Ohio, buckeyes. Oregon, hard cases. Pennsylvania, penamites or leatherheads. Rhode Island, gun flints. South Carolina, weasels. Tennessee, quelps. Texas, beefheads. Utah, polygamous. Vermont, green mountain boys. Virginia, beagles. Wisconsin, badgers. Nicknames of cities. Atlanta, gate city of the south. Baltimore, monumental city. Bangor, lumber city. Boston, modern Athens. Literary Emporium, city of notions and hub of the universe. Brooklyn, city of churches. Buffalo, queen of the lakes. Burlington, Iowa, orchard city. Charleston, Palmetto city. Chicago, prairie or garden city. Cincinnati, queen of the west. And, porkopolis. Cleveland, forest city. Denver, city of the plains. Detroit, city of the straits. Hartford, insurance city. Indianapolis, railroad city. Keoghook, gate city. Lafayette, star city. Leavenworth, cottonwood city. Louisville, falls city. Lowell, spindle city. McGregor, pocket city. Madison, lake city. Milwaukee, cream city. Nashville, rock city. New Haven, elm city. New Orleans, crescent city. New York, empire city. Commercial Emporium, Gotham and Metropolis of America. Philadelphia, city of brotherly love. City of Penn, Quaker city and Centennial city. Pittsburgh, iron city and smoky city. Portland, Maine, hills city. Providence, Roger William city and Perry Davis pain killer. Raleigh, oak city. Richmond, Virginia, Cockade city. Richmond, Indiana, Quaker city of the west. Rochester, Aqueduct city. Salt Lake city, Mormon city. San Francisco, Golden gate. Savannah, forest city of the south. Sheboygan, evergreen city. St. Louis, mound city. St. Paul, north star city. Vicksburg, Key city. Washington, city of magnificent distances and federal city. End of section nine. Section 10 of the handy cyclopedia of things worth knowing. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Caitlin Sticko. The handy cyclopedia of things worth knowing by Joseph Trinance, published in 1911, section 10. Theosophy. Much is said nowadays about theosophy, which is really but another name for mysticism. It is not a philosophy, for it will have nothing to do with philosophical methods. It might be called a religion, though it has never had a following large enough to make a very strong impression on the world's religious history. The name is from the Greek word theosophy, divine wisdom, and the object of theosophical study is professibly to understand the nature of divine things. It differs, however, from both philosophy and theology, even when these have the same object of investigation. Four, in seeking to learn the divine nature and attributes, philosophy employs the methods and principles of natural reasoning. Theology uses these, adding to them certain principles derived from revelation. Theosophy, on the other hand, professes to exclude all reasoning processes as imperfect and to derive its knowledge from direct communication with God himself. It does not, therefore, accept the truths of recorded revelation as immutable, but as subject to modification by later and personal revelations. The theosophical idea has had followers from its earliest times. Since the Christian era, we may class among theosophists such as Neoplatonists, the Hesychasts of the Greek Church, the Mystics of Medieval Times, and, in later times, the Disciples of Paracelsus, Thalhauser, Bohm, Swedenborg, and others. Recently a small sect has arisen, which has taken the name of theosophists. Its leader was an English gentleman who became fascinated with the doctrine of Buddhism. Taking a few of his followers to India, they have been prosecuting their studies there, certain individuals attracting considerable attention by a claim to miraculous powers. It need hardly be said that the revelations they have claimed to receive have been, thus far, without element of benefit to the human race. The Evolution Theory The evolution or development theory declares the universe as it now exists to be the result of a long series of changes which were so far related to each other as to form a series of growths analogous to the evolving of the parts of a growing organism. Herbert Spencer defines evolution as a progress from the homogenous to the heterogeneous, from general to special, from the simple to the complex elements of life, and it is believed that this process can be traced in the formation of worlds in space, in the multiplication of types and species among animals and plants, in the origin and changes of languages and literature and the arts, and also into all the changes of human institutions and society. Asserting the general fact of progress in nature, the Evolution Theory shows that the method of this progress has been, one, by the multiplication of organs and functions, two, according to a defined unity of plan, although with three, intervention of transitional forms, and four, with modifications dependent upon surrounding conditions. Ancient writers occasionally seem to have a glimmering knowledge of the fact of progress in nature, but as a theory, evolution belongs to the Enlightenment of the 19th century. Leibniz, in the latter part of the 17th century, first uttered the opinion that the earth was once in a fluid condition, and Kant, about the middle of the 18th century, definitely propounded the nebula hypothesis, which was enlarged as a theory by the Herschels. The first writer to suggest the transmutation of species among animals was Buffon, about 1750, and other writers followed out the idea. The eccentric Lord Montbardeau was the first to suggest the possible descent of man from the ape, about 1774. In 1813, Dr. W. C. Wells first proposed to apply the principle of natural selection to the natural history of man. And in 1822, Professor Herbert first asserted the probable transmutation of species of plants. In 1814, a book appeared called Vestiges of Creation, which, though evidently not written by a scientific student, yet attracted great attention by its bold and ingenious theories. The authorship of this book was never revealed until after the death of Robert Chambers. A few years since, it became known that this publisher, whom no one would ever have suspected of holding such heterodox theories, had actually written it. But the two great apostles of the evolution theory were Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The latter began his great work, The First Principles of Philosophy, showing the application of evolution in facts of life. In 1852, in 1859, appeared Darwin's origin of species. The hypothesis of the latter was that different species originated in spontaneous variation, and the survival of the fittest through natural selection and the struggle for existence. This theory was further elaborated and applied by Spencer, Darwin, Huxley, other writers in Europe and in America, though today, by no means all the ideas upheld by these early advocates of the theory are still accepted. Evolution, as a principle, is now acknowledged by nearly all scientists. It is taken to be an established fact in nature, a valid induction from man's knowledge of natural order. The English Sparrow The first English sparrow was brought to the United States in 1850, but it was not until 1870 that the species can be said to have firmly established itself. Since then, it has taken possession of the country. Its fecundity is amazing. In the latitude of New York and southward, it hatches as a rule five or six broods in a season, with from four to six young in a brood. Assuming the average annual product of a pair to be twenty-four young, of which half are females and half males, and assuming further for the sake of computation that all live, together with their offspring it will be seen that in ten years progeny of a single pair would be two hundred seventy-five billion, seven hundred sixteen million, nine hundred eighty-three thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight. Feminine height and weight It is often asked how stout a woman ought to be in proportion to her height. A very young girl may becomingly be thinner than a matron, but the following table gives a fair indication of proper proportions. Height to pounds about five feet one hundred five feet one inch one hundred and six five feet one inch five feet one inch one hundred and six five feet two inches one hundred and thirteen five feet three inches one hundred nineteen five feet four inches one hundred thirty five feet five inches one hundred thirty-eight five feet six inches one hundred forty-four five feet seven inches one hundred fifty five feet eight inches 5 feet 8 inches, 155, 5 feet 9 inches, 163, 5 feet 10 inches, 169, 5 feet 11 inches, 176, 6 feet 180, 6 feet 1 inch, 186. When a man becomes of age. The question sometimes arises whether a man is entitled to vote at an election held on the day preceding the twenty-first anniversary of his birth. Blackstone, in his commentaries, Book 1, page 463, says, quote, Full age in male or female is twenty-one years, which age is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth, who till that time is an infant and so styled in law, end quote. The late Chief Justice Sharswood, in his edition of Blackstone's commentaries, quotes Christian's note on the above as follows, quote, If he is born on the sixteenth day of February, 1608, he is of age to do any legal act on the morning of the fifteenth of February, 1629, though he may not have lived twenty-one years by nearly forty-eight hours. The reason assigned is that in law there is no fraction of a day, and if the birth were on the last second of one day, and the act on the first second of the preceding day twenty-one years after, then twenty-one years would be complete, and in the law it is the same whether a thing is done upon one moment of the day or another. End of Section 10. Section 11. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lisa Cho. The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing by Joseph Trinans, published in 1911. Dreams and Their Meaning. The Bible speaks of dreams as being sometimes prophetic or suggestive of future events. This belief has prevailed in all ages and countries, and they are numerous modern examples, apparently authenticated, which would appear to favor this hypothesis. The interpretation of dreams was a part of the business of the soothsayers at the royal courts of Egypt, Babylon, and other ancient nations. Dreams and visions have attracted the attention of mankind of every age and nation. It has been claimed by all nations, both enlightened and heathen, that dreams are spiritual revelations to men, so much so that their modes of worship have been founded upon the interpretation of dreams and visions. Why should we discard the interpretation of dreams, while our mode of worship, faith, and knowledge of deity are founded upon the interpretation of the dreams and visions of the prophets and seers of old? Dreams vividly impressed upon the mind are sure to be followed by some event. We read in the Holy Scripture the revelation of the deity to his chosen people through the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass, afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Hippocrates says that when the body is asleep, the soul is awake, and transports itself everywhere the body would be able to go, knows and sees all that the body could see or know were it awake, that it touches all that the body could touch. In a word, it performs all the actions that the body of a sleeping man could do were he awake. A dream, to have a significance, must occur to the sleeper while in healthy and tranquil sleep. Those dreams of which we have not a vivid conception or clear remembrance have no significance. Those of which we have a clear remembrance must have formed in the mind in the latter part of the night, for up to that time the faculties of the body have been employed in digesting the events of the day. Note, if you do not find the word you want, look for a word of identical or closely similar meaning. A. Abundance, deceitful security, accident, unexpected meeting, acorn, irreparable fault, account of possessions, bankruptcy, adultery that you commit, scandal, misfortune, and disgrace, air, clear and serene, reconciliation, air, dark and gloomy, sadness and sickness, almonds, peace, happiness, almond tree, success in business, altar, prosperity, speedy marriage, alms giving, mediocrity, alms receiving, privations, anchor, safe enterprise, angry that you are, many powerful enemies, ape, enemies, deceit, apples, gain, profit, apples to be eating, disappointment, apricots, health, contentment, apple tree, good news, apple tree if dead, ill news, artichokes, embarrassment, pain, argument, justice done, arm, right arm cut off, death of a female relative, both arms cut off, captivity and sickness, arm broken or withered, sorrows, losses and widowhood, arms swollen, sudden fortune coming to a dear friend, ashes, misfortune, asparagus, success, profit, ass, quarrel between friends, ass when sleeping, security, ass when braying, dishonor, ass ears of one, scandal, ass one laden, profit, aunt, wealth and friends, angel, good news, ants, time spent to no purpose, authority to have, easy times, bee, babe, happy marriage, baker, gain, balloon, literary note, barley, good fortune, basket, increase, baboon, affronts, ball for dancing, jealousy, rage, then harmony, bank, never to be rich except by saving, barber, a long story, discontent, barn full, wealthy marriage, bath, marriage, bath too cold, grief, bath too hot, separation, bath in running water, disappointment, bath in stagnant water, misfortune, beggar, help when not expected, bells, alarm, misfortune, bear, danger, misfortune, beans, quarrels, bed, botheration, unrest, beer, fatigue to no purpose, bees, profit, bees to catch, success, bees stung by, to be overworked, blind person, false friends, blows to give, forgiveness, blows to receive, advantage, boots, new, success in love and business, boots, old, quarreling and failure, bonnet, new, flirtation, bonnet, old or torn, rivalry, boat on clear water, happiness, boat in muddy water, disgrace, bones, large acquisition by small degrees, book, information, bow and arrows, love affairs, bottles, a feast, bottles broken, sickness, bottles empty, melancholy, bouquet to carry, marriage, bouquet to destroy, separation, bouquet to throw away, displeasure, brandy, depravity, brook clear, lasting friendship, brook troubled, domestic quarrel, briars disputes, betrothal, brief pleasures, birds, new pleasures, birds singing, love, good fortune, bite, mistrust in gratitude, billiards, hazards, dissipation, biscuit, rejoicings, jolly feasting, blessing or benediction, a forced marriage, blackbird, scandal, deceit, bridge to pass one, success through industry, bridge to fall from, loss of business and disappointment in love, bread, profit, bread, white, lasting affection, bread, black, inconstancy, bugs, enemies seeking to do injury, bull, peaceful, gain, bull onset of apprehension, butcher, death of a friend, butterfly, inconstancy, butter, surprises, butter to make, a legacy, sea, cabbage, health and long life, cage with bird, liberty, cage without bird, imprisonment, cakes, meeting with friends, cakes to make or eat, prosperity, calf, assured success, camel, riches, candle, favors, praise, candy, ardent love, cane, correction, cards, married life, carpenter, arrangement of affairs, cart, sickness and disgrace, cave, quarrel, loss, carving, business prosperity, cat to see, treason, cat to kill, family quarrels, cellar full, passing renown, cellar empty, health, cemetery to see, future prosperity, cemetery to be in, news of a death, chain, union, chain broken, rupture, challenge, rupture, illusion, cherries, health, cherries to gather, deception by a woman, cherries to eat, love, chicken, cooking, good news, cheese, vexation and after success, chestnuts, home troubles, child pretty, pleasure, child ugly, danger, child running, business difficulty, church, heritage, church to pray in, deceit, church to speak aloud in, domestic quarrels, chess, affairs embarrassed, cider, distant heritage, dispute, clams, small possessions, stingily kept, clock, marriage, clock striking, a competency, coal, persecution, cock, pride, power, success, cock when crowing, sudden trouble, cock to fighting, expensive follies, colic, bickering, estrangement, corkscrew, vexatious inquiries, corpse, long life, news of the living, corks one disinterred, infidelity, cow, prosperity, abundance, cobbler, long toil, ill-paid, coffee, misfortune, coffin, speedy marriage, cooking, a wedding, corn, riches, corn to grind, abundance, crabs, ill results of endeavor, cradle or crib, increase in the family, cricket, hospitality, home comfort, crocodile, a catastrophe, cross to see, disquiet, cross to bear, tranquility, crow, disappointed expectations, humiliations, crow to hear, disgrace, crowd, many matters, much to hear, crutches to use, gambling losses, crutches to break or leave, recovery, cucumber, serious illness, currents red, friendship, currents white, satisfaction, currents black, infidelity, cypress, despair, death of one cherished, d, dancing to engage in, successful endeavor, dancing to see, weariness, debts denied, business safety, debts admitted, distress, dr, robustness, dr to be one, enjoyment, dog, friendly services, dog to play with, suffering through extravagance, desertion, good news, permanence, devil, temptations, diamonds, brief, elusive happiness, diamonds to find, loss, diamonds to sell, peril, dice, doubt, risks, dirt, sickness, detraction, dispute, friendly, see argument, dispute, not friendly, see quarrel, dishes, possessions, dishes breaking, family quarrels, ditch, bankruptcy, door open, opportunities, door closed, unfruitful adventure, door to force, reproof, dove, home happiness, a lover, drafts to play at, disappointment, drawing, a proposal for rejection, drowning, happiness, drum, small difficulties, trifling loss, duck, profit and pleasure, duck to kill one, misfortune, duel, rivalries, dissension, dumb oneself, quarrels, dumb another, peace, dwarf, feeble foes, dire, embarrassed affairs, e, eagle, worthy ambition, eagle kill one, gratified wishes, eating, botheration, eclipse the sun, loss, eclipse the moon, profit, eels alive, vexation, eels dead, vengeance satisfied, eggs a few, riches, eggs many, misadventure, elephant, power, elephant feed one, gain of a service, embroidery, love, ambition, epitaph, indiscretion, eyes, bad luck, f, face smiling, joy, face pale, trouble, fares, sudden loss, falling, dangerous elevation, falling in a whole, calamity, disappointment, fan, pride, rivalry, farmer, full good living, fatigue, successful enterprise, father-in-law, unlucky, feast, trouble ahead, feathers white, great joy, friendship, feathers black, hindrances, fields, joy, good health, domestic happiness, fingers scalded, envy, fingers cut, grief, fingers to see more than five on one hand, new relatives, figs dried, festivity, figs green, hope, figs to eat, transient pleasures, flowers happiness, flowers to gather, benefit, flowers to cast away, quarrels, flute, news of a birth, fire, anger, danger, firearms to see, anger, firearms blaze of, spite, firearms to hear, havoc, fish, success, joy, fish to catch, deceit of friends, flag, contention, flag to bear, fame, honor, flame, luminous, good news, fleas, unhappiness, fleas to kill, triumph over enemies, flies that someone is jealous of us, flood, misfortunes, calamity, fog, deception, forest, loss, shame, fountain, abundance, health, life, fox to be duped, fox to kill, to triumph over enemies, frogs distrust, frogs hopping, fixation, annoyance, fruits, joy, prosperity, gain, fruits to eat, be deceived by a woman, fruits throw away, trouble through others envy, funeral, inheritance, news of a birth or marriage, fur on the body, health and long life, chi, gallows, dignities and honors, proportionate to height, gambling, deception, game, live, adventure, garden, bright future days, garden well kept, increase of fortune, garden disorderly, business losses and failure, garlic deceived by a woman, garden, garments, annoyance, garments white, innocence, comfort, garments black, death of a friend, garments torn or soiled, sadness, misfortune, garter, happy marriage, gauze, affected modesty, ghost white, consolation, ghost black, temptation, gift from a man, danger, gift from a woman, spite, gloves, friendly advances, goat white, prosperity, goat black, sickness, gold, profit, fortune, goose, same as duck, goose catch one, ensnarement, grandparents, occasion for repentance, grapes, enjoyment rejoicing, grapes scant or poor, deprivations, grass green, long life, grasshopper, lost harvest or savings, grave open, loss of a friend, grave filled up, good fortune, guitar, deception, ill conduct, gypsy, small troubles, h, hail, trouble, sadness, hair, orderly, comfort, complacency, hair tangled, perplexities, hair falling out, anxieties, ham, happiness, harp, a handsome partner, harvest, wealth in the country, hay, abundance, heart, pain or troubles, sickness, danger, heaven, some joyful event will happen, hell, you lead a bad life and should reform before it is too late, hen, profit, hen hear one, consolation, hen one laying, joy, herbs, prosperity, herbs to eat, grief, hermit, treacherous friend, hill up one, success, hill down, misadventure, whole obstacles, sea falling, holly, annoyance, honey, success in business, horse, sea white one, unexpected good fortune, horse, sea black one, partial success, horse, mount or ride, success in enterprise, horse, curry one, a speedy journey, hotel, see one, wandering, hotel, be in, discomfort, house, new or strange, consolation, house many, bewilderment, hunger, profitable employment, hunt, snares, accusations, husband, if a wife dreams that her husband is married to another, it betokens separation, eye, ice, treachery, misadventure, imps, occasion for caution, infants, cannubial felicity, ink, reconciliation, ink upset, separation, insanity, bright ideas, wise thought, iron, cruel experience, island, solitude, loneliness, itch, small foes, ivory, profitable enterprise, intoxication oneself, pleasures, intoxication another, scandal, ivy, children many and handsome, jail, jail to enter, safety, jail leaving one, single blessedness, jaw, riches in the family, Jew, trickery, joy, bad news, judge, punishment, jug, lost through awkwardness or neglect, K, keys, explanations, progress and knowledge, keys to lose, perplexity, killing to see, security, killing oneself, love quarrels, killing another, jealousy, kids, consolation, king, satisfaction, progress and affairs, kiss in the light, true love, kiss in the dark, risks, kiss a stranger, a new lover, kiss a rival, treason, kiss married woman kissed by a stranger, a new baby and a jealous husband, kitchen, arrivals, kite, vain glory, knife in constancy, dissension, knitting, mischievous talk, malice, knots, embarrassments, difficulties, L, labor, conjugal happiness, increase of fortune, ladder to go up, brief glory, ladder to go down, debasement, lady, humiliation, lady many, gossip, lambs to see, peace, lambs to have, profit, lambs to carry, success, lambs to buy, great surprise, lambs to kill, secret grief, lame person, business misfortune, lambs unlit, neglect, lamps lighted, love troubles, landscape, unexpected gain, lantern lighted, safe adventure, lantern unlit, blunder, larks, riches, elevation, laughter, troubled happiness, botheration, leg, if sound and supple, successful enterprise, prosperous journey, letter to see, discovery, letter to receive, good news from afar, lice, wealth, lightning, a love quarrel, lily faded, vain hopes, lily fine, innocence, happiness, linen, fortune, abundance, lion, future dignity, liver, losses, discomforts, lizard, snares of dubious origin, laurel, honor, gain, lawyer, marriage of a friend, lead, accusations in gratitude, leaves, transient in disposition, leech, aid in trouble, leech many of them, extortion, usury, leaks, labor, lettuce, poverty, locksmith, robbery, lottery tickets, number distinct, success in affairs, lottery tickets, number indistinct, foolish expenditure, love, an all-round good indication, lovers, troubles and joys mixed, M, macaroni, distress, man handsome, love, man ugly, wrangles, mantel, victimizing, manure, depravity, shame, maps, a journey, marble, estrangements, markets, a busy one, joyous events, markets empty, deprivations, march, unfruitful endeavors, masks, hypocrisy, measles, wealth coupled with disgrace, meat, roast, kind reception, meat, boiled, melancholy, melon, hope, success, mice, annoyances, milestone, desires accomplished, milk, love affairs, mills, legacy from a relative, mire, mistakes, privations, mirror, to look in, misunderstanding, mirror, broken, misadventure, money, losses in business, money to find, tardy discoveries, money, lender, persecution, monkey, harmless mischief, moon, love, moon bright, continual pleasure, moon clouded, sickness, danger to one beloved, moon full, wealth, moon new, awakening affection, moon failing, deceit, moon red, renown, morning, impending happiness, invitation to a ball or wedding, mouth closed so that cannot eat, sudden death, mouth wider than usual, riches, mud, riches, mule difficulty, music, ease, pleasure, mustard, troubles, myrtle, love declaration, n, nails broken, misadventure, nails very long, emoluments, nakedness, threatened danger, navigating, approaching journey, necklace, jealousy, annoyance, needles, disappointment in love, negro, vexation, annoyance, nest, good luck, profit, newspaper, botheration, gossip, night, walking, uneasiness, melancholy, nightingale, happy marriage, knows that yours is large, prosperity and acquaintance with rich people, nurse, long life, nuts, peace and satisfaction after trouble and difficulty, oh, oak green, health, strength, oak dead or fallen, heavy losses, oars, safe enterprise, oars to break or lose, dependence, offer of marriage, new lovers, office turn out of, death or loss of property, oil, good harvest, old person man, prudence, wisdom, old person woman, scandal, olives, honors and dignities, onions, aggravation, dispute with inferiors, opera, pleasure followed by pain, orange blossom, a marriage, oranges, amusement, pleasure, oranges sour, chagrin, injury, orchard, much of nothing, ostrich, misadventure through vanity, oven, ease, riches, oven hot, feasting, owl, secrets revealed, oysters, satiety, pee, pain, trouble and recovery, painter that everything will be lovely, palm tree, honor, power, victory, paper, tidings, paper colored, deceit, paper painted, brief happiness, parent, good news, parrot, a bad neighbor, tail bearing, pastry to eat, annoyance, pastry to make, good times, paths straight, happiness, paths crooked, ill to the willful, pawnbroker, little result of big endeavor, peacock, peril through pride, ambition or unwarriness, peaches, contentment, pleasure, pearls, tears, distress, pairs, treachery, pairs to eat, tidings of death, pairs to gather, festivities, peas, good fortune, pens, tidings, peddler, your mistaken your estimate of a friend, pepper, affliction, vexation, pheasant, good fortune, pheasant to kill one, peril, pheasant to carry one, honor, piano, disputes, pig, pork, few, avarice, pig, pork, many, profits, pigeon, reconciliation, pillow, disturbance, pills, trouble, pine tree, danger, pins, contradiction, pirates, fortunate adventure, pitch, evil companions, pitchfork, punishment, playing, entertainment, plums, pleasure, happiness, policemen, trouble, pomegranate, power, postman, news from the absent, poverty, thrift advantage, preserves, loss of time and money, priest, reconciliation, procession, happy love, pump if water, marriage and fortune, pump if dry, flirtation, purchase on credit, depravations, purchase for cash, possessions, purse, empty, something to get, purse full, pride, disquiet, puzzle, favors, pleasure, cue, quail, family responsibilities, quarrel, constancy, friendship, queen, prosperity, questions, wisdom, quill, particular information, coits, rivalries, are rabbit, white, friendship, rabbit, black, trouble, rabbit, many, extensive pleasures, racing, success in life, radishes, that you will discover secrets, raft, new views, rain, legacy or gift, rainbow, separation, rat, secret enemies, rat, white, triumph over enemies, raven, misfortune, raven hear one, grief, reading, venturesomeness, reaper, a picnic party, revenge, repentance, ribbons, prodigality, rice, talking, ride with men, it is a good sign, ride with women, a bad sign, ring, approaching marriage, riot, scarcity through mischief, rival, quarrels, river, success in enterprise, river to fall in, attempts of enemies, river to throw oneself in, confusion in affairs, robber, fear, rock, annoyance, rock to surmount, difficulties overcome, roof, adventure abroad, roses, always a happy omen, roses full blown, health, joy, abundance, roses faded, success with some drawbacks, roses white, innocence, roses red, satisfaction, roses yellow, jealousy, ruffles, honors, profitable occupation, ruins, pleasant surprises, rust, idle times, decay, failure, s, sailor, tidings from abroad, salad, embarrassments, salt, wisdom, satin or silk, gain, sausage, affliction, sickness, saw, satisfactory conclusion in affairs, scissors, enemies, hatred, scratches, inconveniences, annoyances, screech owl, death of near relative, sculptor, profit, sea, long journey, large affairs, sea beach, tranquilly, secretary, fortune, serenade, news of a marriage, sermon, weariness, sleeplessness, servant, man, abuse of confidence, servant made, suspicion, sowing, plots, shawl, a fine one, honors, shawl, thin or old, shame, shawl, torn, detraction, sheep, great gain, shawl filled, success, shawl empty, ill omen, shepherd, malice, ship, wishes fulfilled, ship in danger, unexpected good fortune, shoes, advantageous speculation, shoes much worn, a speedy journey, shop to be in, pleasure denied, shop to conduct, dues withheld, shroud, death, singing, vexation, skating to sea, hindrances, crosses, skating to do, success, skeleton, disgust, sky clear, happiness, peace, sky clouded, misfortune, sleep, elusive security, slippers, comfort, satisfaction, smoke, extravagant expectations, snail, infidelity, dishonor, snakes, treason, betrayal, sneezing, long life, snow in season, good harvest, snow unseasonable, discouragement, soap, revelations, assistance, soldier, quarrels, soup, return of health or fortune, spectacles, melancholy, obstacles, spider in the dark, gain, spider in the light, contention, spider kill one, pleasure, sponge, greed, avarice, sports, pleasure and after regrets, spot on clothes, sadness, spot on the sun, baseless fears, spy to be one, reprehension, spy to see, rumors, stable, hospitality, welcome, stag, gain, stag, chase one, business failure, stammer, decision, resolution, stars, happiness, stars, pale, affliction, stars, shooting, death of a relative, stalking to pull off, comfort, stalking to pull on, discomfort, stalking new, a visit, stalking a hole in deceitful fortune, stones underfoot, trouble, suffering, stones thrown or falling, malice, storks, loss, robbery, storm, contest, vexation, stove, riches, stranger, return of a lost friend, strange bed, contentment, strange room, a mystery solved, strawberries, unexpected good fortune, straws, poverty, street to walk in, a favorable reception, sugar, privation and want, sun bright, discovery of secrets, sun clouded, bad news, sun rising, success, sun setting, losses, supper, news of a birth, swallow, successful enterprise, swans, private riches, swearing, disagreeables, sweeping, confidence well placed, swimming, enjoyment, swords, misfortune, tea, table, joy, table to set, abundance, tailor, unfaithfulness, tea, confusion, encumbrance, tears, joy, comfort, heart, teeth, handsome, health, goodness, teeth mean or drawn, vexation, loss, 10 pins, undesirable adventures, tent, quarrels, theater, sadness, loss, thicket, evasions, apprehensions, thief to be one, loss, thief to lose by one, good speculations, thimble, work hard to find, thirst, affliction, thistle, disputes, folly, thorns, disappointment, pain, thorns to be pricked by, loss of money, thread, intrigue, thread tangled, confusion of affairs, thread to break, failure, thread to split, a secret betrayed, thunder, danger, thunder to see thunderbolt fall, death of a friend, tiger, fierce enmity, toads, something to disgust, tomb, family matters, nuptials, births, torches, invitation to a wedding, trap door open, a secret divulged, trap door shut, mystery, travel on foot, work, travel on wheels, fortune, treasure that you find one, disappointment, trees in general, green, hope, withered, grief, leafless, deceit, cut down, robbery, to climb, change of employment, trousers, honors and responsibilities, turkey, if you dream of a turkey, you will shortly see a fool, turnips, disappointment, annoyance, twins, honors, riches, you, umbrella to a lady, a new lover, umbrella to a gentleman, a breach of promise suit, uncle, advantageous marriage, undress oneself, rebuke, undress another, scandal, uniform to see, humbling, uniform to wear, flattery, ve, vegetables in general, weary toil, vegetables to gather, quarrels, vegetables to eat, business losses, veil marriage, veil black, death or separation, veins, grief, vermin, enough and to spare, villain, danger of losing property, vine, fruitfulness, abundance, vinegar to drink, wrangles, vinegar spoiled, sickness, violets, success of undertakings, violin in concert, sympathy, consolation, violin alone, bereavement, visitors, loneliness, virgin, joy without regret, virgin pretended one, sorrow, evil, vulture, bitter enmity, vulture kill one, triumph over foes, vulture one feeding, returning fortune, W, wagon loaded, emolument, wagon empty, ease, pleasure, wake, poverty and misery, wall, obstacles, wall to be on, prosperity, war, misunderstandings and contention, wardrobe advantage, wash day, new friends, good resolutions, wasps, annoyance, wasps to be stung, affronts, watch, time well employed, watchmen, trifling loss, water, seabath, drink, water to drink, a marriage or birth, water to fall into reconciliation, water carrier, gain, wax, desirable marriage, weasel to be outwitted, wedding, unexpected danger, troubled happiness, well, draw water from, good fortune, well fall into, peril, wheat, money, wheelbarrow, wheel, disability, infirmity, whirlwind, danger, scandal, widowhood, satisfaction, new belongings, wife, if a man dreams he sees his wife married to another, it betokens a separation, wolf, enmity, wolf to kill one, gain success, woman, deceit, woman fair, love, woman ugly, scandal, woodcutter, labor without profit, woods to rich, loss, woods to poor, profit, work of right hand, prosperity, work of left hand, impicuniosity, worms, secret enemies, ill health, wreck, catastrophes, peril, writing, pleasant and profitable discovery, why, yeast, increase abundance, yoke, responsibilities, particularly of marriage, youth, good time, light responsibilities, end of section 11.


Hello everyone, my name is Rato and today I'm going to talk about simulation sound arguments for learning with errors and applications to key dependent message security against chosen ciphertext attack. And this is joint work with Benoal Iber, Koanguien and Alampas Leg. In this talk I'm going to focus on our main result, which is a generic compiler that works for the same language. And in the simple form, this compiler takes as input the trapdoor sigma protocol and outputs a multi-theorem non-interactive zero-knowledge argument system that achieves statistical zero-knowledge in the common random stream model. We can upgrade this compiler to take as input a trapdoor sigma protocol and to produce an unbounded simulation sound NISIC. A key feature of our transformation is that it works for the same language in the sense that the resulting NISIC works for the same underlying language as the initial trapdoor sigma protocol. And our compiler is direct in the sense that it doesn't have to go through some expensive reduction to some NP-complete language. Moreover, we can make the security proof of the unbounded simulation sound NISIC tight in the sense that the security loss of the reduction is independent of the number of queries that the adversary makes to the simulation oracle. And finally, we can instantiate our compiler under the LWE assumption. And we can do so without contradicting any possibility results from the literature. And this is because our resulting NISIC either achieves non-adaptive soundness or it works for trapdoor languages. Another result that we obtain using our compiler is that we can instantiate the Naur Jung transformation under the learning-with-error assumption in a direct manner. And this gives us the most efficient LWE-based KDM CCA2 security, secure public key encryption that we know so far. Let's start by recalling what non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments are. Assume that we have a prover that wants to convince a verifier of the validity of some statement. We say that the statement X is true if it belongs to some language L. And the prover also knows a witness, W, that certifies the fact that the statement is true. For instance, you can think of the statement X as being a mathematical proof, for instance, and the witness in this case would be the actual proof of the theorem. So the prover wants to convince the verifier that the statement is true and he wants to do so without revealing anything about the witness W, except that the statement is true. And in the non-interactive setting, the prover wants to do so by only sending one message to the verifier and he is not allowed to further interact with the verifier. Therefore formally, such a system has to also satisfy three requirements. The first one is completeness, which states that the verifier must always be convinced of the validity of the statement as long as it interacts with an honest prover. Prover knowledge means it just means that the verifier does not learn anything else about the witness except the fact that the statement X is true. And this intuition is captured by the existence of a simulator, which is able to simulate proofs without the knowledge of the witness. And those proofs, the simulated ones are indistinguishable from honestly generated proofs in the eyes of the adversary. And finally, such a system has to provide soundness, which means that no cheating prover should be able to convince a verifier of the validity of a false statement. So a false statement is just a statement X that does not belong to the language L. Non-interactive zero-knowledge argument systems are really useful in cryptography as they can be used to construct group signatures or ring signatures or public key encryption that is secure against chosen ciphertext attacks. And one way to obtain CCA security for public key encryption is to use Naoryung double encryption transformation, which takes as input a chosen plaintext public key encryption key which is secure against chosen plaintext attack and combines it with a non-interactive zero-knowledge proof system and yields public key encryption scheme which is secure under chosen ciphertext attack. And the transformation is quite simple and it involves two instantiate instances of the in-CPA secure public key encryption scheme. So we generate two key pairs and a non-interactive zero-knowledge argument system for the language which certifies that the same message M has been encrypted with the first public key and the second public key. And to encrypt the message M under the Naoryung transformation, we just encrypt the same message with the different public keys and compute a proof using our Isaac that certifies the fact that the same message M has been encrypted in both ciphertexts. The high showed that if we replace the non-interactive zero-knowledge argument system with an Isaac that achieves simulation soundness, instead of regular soundness, we can improve the result by having CCA2 security and a similar argument shows that if we use key dependent message security which is secure against chosen plaintext attacks with unbounded simulation soundness, we get KDM CCA2 security. In a simulation soundness, no cheating prover should be able to produce valid proof for a false statement despite the fact that he has access to an oracle that simulates proofs. So in this setting, the prover is allowed to make only one oracle query to an input of his choosing to which the oracle replies with a simulated proof for that statement. And even with this extra information that the oracle provides, the prover should not be able to produce any valid proofs on false statements. In the unbounded simulation setting, the prover is allowed to query the oracle predominantly many times. The Fiat-Shamir heuristic is a very well-known technique that can be applied to interactive protocols to obtain non-interactive protocols. For instance, if we start with a three-move interactive protocol in which the prover sends a first message A and the verifier sends a random challenge E to which the prover replies with a response Z. We can make this protocol non-interactive by replacing the random challenge of the verifier with the evaluation of a hash function on the input X and the first message A. And it can be proved that if we start with a sigma protocol, which is a three-move interactive protocol and we model the hash function as a random oracle, we get a non-interactive zero-knowledge Armin system. Sigma protocols are just three-move interactive protocols that satisfy the three requirements of completeness, special zero-knowledge and special soundness. Completeness, as before, is the property that the verifier should always accept honestly generated interactions with the prover and special zero-knowledge refers to the fact that the verifier should not learn anything about the witness W that certifies that the statement is in the language. This is formalized with the help of a simulator which generates with simulates transcripts which are indistinguishable from honestly generated transcripts. And finally the special soundness property states that for any false statement X and any first message A, there is at most one challenge E which is called a bad challenge for which an accepting transcript exists. This property implies the fact that for all challenges except one, a cheating prover should not be able to produce valid transcript because it actually does not exist. So when the challenge is uniformly randomly sampled, a cheating prover should not be able to produce an accepting transcript almost always. Trapdoor Sigma protocols are just Sigma protocols for which the bad challenge function or the bad challenge input E is efficiently computable with the help of some Trapdoor Sigma tau Sigma. The Fiat-Chameleuristic can actually be instantiated without the use of the random oracle model and this has been proved in some recent works of Kaneti et al and Peikert and Shenya and in this work they show that you can start with the Trapdoor Sigma protocol and instead of using random oracles you can just use the class of hash functions called correlation intractable hash functions which yield non-interactive zero-knowledge argument systems without the use of random oracle and in fact Peikert and Shenya showed that we can build correlation intractable hash functions just assuming the LWE problem and one consequence of this fact is that we can get non-interactive zero-knowledge argument systems under the LWE assumption for all NPA languages which is a nice result. We are now ready to discuss our results in a little more detail. Our main result is a generic compiler that takes as input a Trapdoor Sigma protocol for some Trapdoor language L and transforms it into an unbounded simulation sound Nizek for the same underlying language L. Before our work the way to do this was to apply general Nizek techniques to obtain unbounded simulation soundness but these techniques require to go through some expensive reductions to some NP-complete languages. For example we can apply Fiyash Amir to the Trapdoor Sigma protocol to obtain single-theorem Nizek after which we can apply the ORTIC of FLS and the transformation of the Santis et al to actually obtain unbounded simulation soundness for the initial language L. Unfortunately such a transformation would require a reduction to an NP-complete language L' which is different from the language L with which we have started with and this can be expensive. Instead our compiler is a direct one in the sense that it avoids these reductions to NP-complete languages and on top of this our compiler preserves the language in the sense that the resulting language is the same as the language of the initial Sigma protocol that we have started with. We also obtain a tight security for the proof of the unbounded simulation soundness and our compiler can be actually instantiated using standard learning with errors assumption. From a technical point of view our compiler requires the use of correlation intractable hash functions, equivocable lossy encryption, which is a technique that Damgard used in EuroCrypt 2000. We also use admissible hash functions and one-time signatures. As I said before we start with the Trapdoor Sigma protocol for some Trapdoor language L and we start the transformation by encrypting the interactive prover's first message A' using a form of encryption called lossy encryption with equivocable lossy boat. Such an encryption scheme assumes that there are two ways or two modes in which we can generate the keys, an injective mode and a lossy mode. In the injective mode ciphertexts are actually commitments to the messages whereas in the lossy modes ciphertexts are equivocable which means that any ciphertext can be explained as the encryption of any message of our choosing. For instance in this slide given a ciphertext A which is initially thought as the encryption of the message A' can actually be explained as the encryption of another message A' using the open algorithm and this algorithm returns a value r second which is just the which is randomness which we can use to explain A as the encryption of A second. Now in the next step we make the Trapdoor Sigma protocol non-interactive by using the Fiat-Shamir trick and for this we compute the challenge randomness E with correlation intractable hash functions and in the final step we compute the response of the interactive prover just as in the interaction and the prover sends to the verify the initial message A' the final message Z and the randomness r' which was used to encrypt A' notice that the verifier is actually able to compute A by encrypting A' with the randomness r' and the public key and after that you can compute E just by applying the correlation intractable hash functions on top of the statement X and the the cobitment A. The the idea for how the our simulator works is the following. Notice that the simulator does doesn't actually know the witness w and this means that we cannot use the prover to generate the first message of the interactive protocol. Instead we just encrypt a dummy message and we use that to compute the randomness or the challenge randomness by applying the correlation intractable hash function on on top of this and the statement X and again since the simulator does not know the the witness w we cannot use the interactive prover to generate the final message of the interactive protocol. Instead we use the zero null simulator of the trapdoor sigma protocol to generate the first message A' and the final message Z and to make everything consistent we have to explain the initial encryption of the dummy message as the encryption of A' with some randomness r' and finally we send A' Z and r' to the verifier and notice that the using lossy ciphertext in the simulation is crucially exploited in our construction. As I've said before the simulator heavily relies on using the lossy mode of the lossy encryption and in the proof of the simulation soundness we actually switch to injective keys and to prove unbounded simulation soundness we use a flavor of lossy encryption called r lossy encryption with efficient openings and this enables us to use besides injective and lossy keys we use injective and lossy tags to determine if a ciphertext is lossy or injective and by using these additional tags we can actually use the injective mode during the unbounded simulation soundness proof while still being able to run our simulator by using lossy tags. And we also give two flavors of r lossy encryption with efficient opening under learning with errors assumption and the second one which corresponds to the relation induced by an LWE based PRF this version is used to prove the tight variant of our argument. We can use our compiler to get more efficient LWE based public key encryption schemes that are key dependent message secure against chosen ciphertext attacks and we do this by instantiating the now our young transformation under the LWE assumption. First recall that the primal regif cryptosystem that is LWE based is in fact KDMCPA secure and for our second result we give a trapdoor sigma protocol that proves that primal regif encryptions under different public keys encrypt the same message and we can use this trapdoor sigma protocol to get an unbounded simulation under the LWE assumption for the same underlying language. And now we are ready to use the now our young transformation applied to the KDMCPA encryption and this yields a KDMCPA encryption under the LWE assumption and this construction is more efficient because the construction of KDMCPA2 encryption was implied by the result of Picard and Shenyang but to apply their results we are required to go to we are required to do transfer reductions to some NP-complete language so our construction is much more efficient. Thank you.