Gravitas

Gravitas Gravitas Gravitas By Maeve Maddox The Latin word gravitas to mean â€Å"the dignity of leadership† came into use as an English word in 1924; since the mid-1980s it has soared in popularity. The literal meaning of the Latin word gravitas is â€Å"weight, heaviness.† Our word gravity derives from that sense. The OnlineEtymologyDictionary observes that gravitas became useful to describe human seriousness when the word gravity acquired a mainly scientific meaning. For the ancient Romans gravitas was the highest of the fourteen virtues. A man who possessed gravitas recognized the importance of the matter at hand. He had a strong sense of responsibility and was not given to frivolous behavior or excessive levity. Even after Christian theology replaced pagan practice, gravitas was still cherished in leaders. Ambrose (c.339-397), a fourth century bishop of Milan, saw gravitas as a quality of mind, but felt that â€Å"the set of a man’s mind can be read in how he carries his body.† He refused to accept priests if he disliked the way they walked: â€Å"their mincing walk revealed their flighty character.† Traditionally, gravitas is a masculine virtue, so it’s not surprising that it is often mentioned as a quality lacking in women seeking high office or other leadership status: Miers Lacks the Necessary Gravitas [for the Supreme Court] [Katy Couric] was perceived as lacking gravitas. [Hillary] Clintonlacks gravitas and integrity, Yellenlacks the â€Å"gravitas† necessary to carry the economy through another financial mess. Karl Rove said that Sarah Palin lacks gravitas. Male politicians have also been criticized for lacking gravitas: Rubio lacks gravitas and seriousness. [Bill] Clinton lacks oriental self-control and maturity, the gravitas and substance one expects in the defining figures of history. Bushsuffers from lack of gravitas hes a likable fellow, casual and friendly, but not the most serious player on the national scene. Pipes says Christie lacks the gravitas and integrity to serve as US Vice President. In 1904 a political commentator opined that Teddy Roosevelt lacked gravitas and provided a list of what gravitas should include: â€Å"honesty, intelligence, energy, willingness to discard untenable views, wisdom, breadth of vision, depth of insight, and that nameless something that enables a man to keep all his faculties in thorough control.† Strong words like gravitas that start out with clear definitions tend to suffer a dilution of meaning once they gain media popularity. From being an expressive term for dignity and strength of character, gravitas is on its way to becoming a throwaway word with any number of vague meanings: Despite an engaging, nuanced performance from Robert De Niro as Frank GoodeEverybody’s Fine inevitably suffers from a lack of real emotional gravitas.   Before the Fall [a play] lacks the gravitas that the subject deserves. As the Academy voters see it, Gravity [a movie] lacks gravitas. While the story [Walking with Dinosaurs] is educational, and obviously geared for children, it lacks any gravitas StarTrek actress lends her gravitas to film promoting ideas that sun revolves around Earth. Gravitas is now so overused that it has become a target for humorists: Suddenly gravitas is what is needed, gravitas is what makes a country strongOh if only we could bottle it, think of the killing we could make! Australian blogger Greg Jericho In the world of popular entertainment–and that includes political commentary–the notion of gravitas has become something of a laughing stock. In another context–the world of corporate advancement–gravitas is taken very seriously. I’ll discuss the business world definition of gravitas in another article. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" 40 Synonyms for â€Å"Lie†5 Erroneously Constructed â€Å"Not Only . . . But Also† Sentences

Cause and Effect Essay

Cause and Effect Essay Cause and effect essay writing gives reasons and explanations for events, conditions, or behavior. Cause and effect essay is a type of essays that centers on why things occur (causes) and the outcomes of the happenings (effects). Cause-and-effect writing gives reasons and explanations for events, conditions, or behavior. It answers the need most of us have to understand the world around us. If you are looking for cause and effect essay examples here is a great one CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY EXAMPLE: GREAT DEPRESSION Cause and effect essays are popular ways of helping students understand the relationship between various events. They’re extremely popular in history classes, although students are certainly going to encounter them in English and writing classes as well. English and writing classes are often geared towards helping students be better at critical thinking in general, and cause and effect essays can serve as excellent critical thinking exercises in general. Cause and effect essays are starting to become more popular than the five-paragraph essays that many people have had to learn over the years, for various reasons. The traditional five paragraph essay format is highly formulaic. It doesn’t truly prepare students for the sort of advanced writing skills that they are really going to need. It encourages people to write in a manner that is highly artificial. In many cases, students do not provide enough evidence for their points. The cause and effect essay is much better when it comes to promoting critical thinking skills in the minds of students, which has helped make it the new star of academic writing today. CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY OUTLINE Writing a Cause and Effect Essay Often times, a cause and effect essay is going to involve people selecting an event that had a given list of defined consequences. Certain events are going to make for richer essays than others. The cause and effect relationship between the events and the consequences needs to be strong enough, or the essay is going to feel unfocused and vague. One popular example of an event to write about in a cause and effect essay in classrooms in the United States is the American Civil War. Students will then list the causes of the American Civil War when they are in the planning stages of the cause and effect essay. From there, they will formulate thesis statements and build the rest of their essays. Another popular essay topic for students who can write about more recent history might be the crime wave that lasted between 1975 and 1995. Students might look at what caused this crime wave. They also might look at what eventually led to the end of the crime wave. This sort of cause and effect relationship is ripe for analysis, especially since there are a lot of specific trends that have helped mark the beginning and end of the infamous period in late-twentieth-century American history. A student might say: the late-twentieth century crime wave ended as a result of improved forensic techniques, improved social welfare programs, increases in surveillance, and increased awareness. With regards to the Civil War, and student might say: the Civil War was caused by increasing tensions between the Northern and Southern regions of the United States and the South’s desire to expand slavery throughout the country, as well as the South’s fear that slavery would eventually be eliminated if the spread was curtailed. Compose a  thesis statement  that clearly states your topic. Because cause-and-effect essays need a readily identifiable structure, you will almost always write the essay in chronological order. Sometimes, however, you will use reverse chronological order. For example, you might begin with an effect or a series of effects and trace them back to their original cause. Whatever organization you use, write paragraphs with strong, clear topic sentences and relevant supporting details.  The thesis statement for an essay that was about the American Civil War could be more general, with something along the lines of two halves of a nation that have very different economies and ideas of how to run a society are going to face strong conflicts with one another. A student would then go into detail about how the conflicts between the North and the South had been brewing for a long time before the Civil War finally erupted, and the Civil War was the culmination of all of those tensions. Diffe rent pieces of evidence are going to belong in the cause section, and different pieces of evidence are going to belong in the effects section. Naturally, it is also important to illustrate the effects in question. The American Civil War was so substantial in terms of its consequences for the American people that some of the effects are still being felt today since the South never truly reconstructed and both halves of the United States still face political conflicts with one another to this day. The reader should walk away with that impression, at least after reading the effects section and the section of the essay that describes the cause and effect relationship. HOW TO WRITE A CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY Cause and Effect Essay Writing Tips TIP 1. People who are having a hard time identifying a clear consequence of the given events should choose a new topic, if possible. There are lots of examples out there, and no one needs to waste any time trying to argue in favor of a point that is going to be too difficult to properly state in an essay that is really about logical understanding more than anything else. TIP 2. It is a good idea to have at least two or three pieces of evidence in support of why a given effect logically followed from the cause in question. The entire essay should not hinge on a few data points. TIP 3. Smooth transitions between paragraphs are just as important in cause and effect essays as they are in five paragraph essays, even though the ideas between them are not going to be anywhere near as clear cut. TIP 4. There are no hard and solid rules on the length of cause and effect essays, which is not the case with the five-paragraph essays that people will either love or loathe. Those essays will usually have to be one page long. Unless there are any specific requirements, cause and effect essays can be a couple of pages long or longer than that, and they are still going to be just as good. TIP 5. It is important not to include a lot of meandering details in cause and effect essays that do not specifically relate to the point or reinforce the point. Cause and effect essays can be longer than five-paragraph essays, but they are not the sorts of essays that are going to need filler content. Being clear and straightforward is going to matter more. The details are going to need to relate to reinforcing the cause and effect relationship that is at the heart of the cause and effect essay. 50 WINNING CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY TOPICS Signal Words in Cause-and-Effect Writing Cause and Effect as a result because consequently due to ifthen leads to therefore thus Degrees of Certainty certainly may necessarily perhaps possibly probably undoubtedly unquestionably Levels of Importance above all equally important finally first initially last primarily second We have successfully completed hundreds of cause and effect essays and know how to craft a superb paper. Achieve great academic success   order an essay  at !

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly Thesis

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand other things well Hugh Walpole - Thesis Example While there are many such people in the market, only few of them succeed. Google set a new milestone in online searching, Microsoft paved the way for home computing and the Body shop by Anita Roddick succeeded only because it focused on eco-friendly beauty products. History speaks volumes about the above quoted words too. Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor and businessman succeeded in giving the world the light bulb only because he was interested in one thing profoundly. He was keen on experimenting and continued to do it with great passion. Records stated that when Edison failed for a thousand times, he did not say he failed. He said that he knew of a thousand ways not to make a light bulb. Had it not been profound interest for one thing, Edison would have given up his experiments and considered his life a failure. We would not have benefited so soon from a light bulb and would not have remembered him with the great reverence that we do today. Even great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi could help India gain freedom only through constant interest in working towards it. Had these men been diverted with various interests, they would never have been able to put their heart and mind into huge successes. The quoted words hold good in our personal lives too. Success is achieved when one does not spread oneself too thin, staying focused on work helps accomplish it and the secret of living life to the fullest and to the happiest comes only from being the king of one's empire. Antithesis While the above statements portray the goodness in Hugh Walpole's statements, the same is not always true. In today's changing times, where there is throat cutting competition and one has to be ahead of the other in the mad race of life, statements like the one made by Hugh Walpole have their own shortcomings. If we were to be profoundly interested in one thing with a general interest in other things we would not get ahead in life. If a businessman, for example, just takes deep passion for selling cell phones, he would do well. However in order to succeed, he would need to take an equal interest in understanding the needs of the market (business researching), new product launches (technology), caring for employees (organizational behavior), caring for customers etc. Unless all these aspects are not looked after, with equal interest and enthusiasm, the organization and the businessman are doomed to lesser degree of success. Thus while the above examples of Google, Microsoft and the Bo dy shop did take into consideration their core areas, they gave equal importance to a million other issues. That is also the reason all large organizations have different departments (like HR, research, marketing, product development, customer care) and equal importance is given to all of them. History also leads us to believe this to be true. Thomas Alva Edison could give the world great inventions because he had profound interest in one thing. But let us not forget that even during his times, when there was not much competitiveness, he had profound interest in business too, which led him to form the General Electric. Had he not been able to let the world know of his inventions and market them through the organization, it would have possible that someone else would have taken the credit for

Marketing News Journal #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing News Journal #2 - Essay Example Who would not like to arrive in a store and not have to queue to make orders and then have to wait in the same queue to pick up the order after a hard day of work or study. I know I would be thrilled to arrive and have my order ready to go. This is what Taco Bell’s new order ahead app is all about. Customers download the app and when they want food from Taco Bell, they simply make their orders in their nearest chain store and go pick it up. In order to avoid getting cold food or having to wait for long before the food is prepared, the app allows the customer to inform the store as they arrive in order to have their order prepared and ready to go. The other good news is that the customer does not even have to leave their car to go pick up their order, it is brought to them. This is another positive addition in their customer service and it is a welcome relief to many. Those are not the only good news concerning the app, here is the better news. The app provides more food option on their menu that is not present in the physical store menu. This will provide a wide range of selection of the food, making special order of what is to be increased, reduced or completely eliminated from the menu. Those who are keen on their calorie intake are also mot left behind as they have a calorie counter on each food order and hence one can be able to monitor their calorie intake. This Taco Bell app is therefore welcome by even nutritionists and medical health professionals that have been trying to get the American people to reduce their calorie intake and eat healthier foods to reduce the high rate if obesity in the nation. People will be able to follow this and try eating healthy in the future as long as they continue making their order online. Taco Bell serves Mexican food of tacos and burritos which is a way to promote the Mexican culture in the

Neoclassic vs Baroque Essay -- Essays Papers

Neoclassic vs Baroque The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David is Neoclassic art style. The painting shows Socrates, condemned to death, calm and at peace, discussing the immortality of the soul. Surrounded by his grieving friends and students, he is teaching and philosophizing. His wife was dismissed to the hallway to grieve due to her weakness. Plato is depicted as an old man seated at the foot of the bed. Socrates has the body of a young athlete, as well as others in the painting. Each one of the twelve subjects surrounding him is meticulously drawn in detail. The dramatic use of light and dark (chiaroscuro) is seen in the focus, or emphasis, towards Socrates. There are definitive lines on the walls. These create shadows in the room and in the hallway. The texture of the floor and walls seem smooth and hard. The cloaks worn are colorful and seem soft to the touch. The painting has a high degree of communicative value do to the variety of colors used. In Neoclassical art, the emphasis is on form, simplicity, proportion and restrained emotion. The aesthetic attitudes and principles were based on the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome in antiquity. It invokes characteristics such as harmony, clarity, restraint, universality and idealism. The artists of this period concerned themselves with human affairs ruled by reason, the outgrowth of the Enlightenment. There was a regard for tradition and reverence for the classics, with an...

Chidren’s Literature Essay

Children’s literature (also called juvenile literature) consists of the stories (including in books) and poems which are enjoyed by or targeted primarily at children. Modern children’s literature is classified in different ways, including by genre or the intended age of the reader. Children’s literature has its roots in the stories and songs that adults told their children before publishing existed, as part of the wider oral tradition. Because of this it can be difficult to track the development of early stories. Even since widespread printing, many classic tales were originally created for adults and have been adapted for a younger audience. Although originally children’s literature was often a re-writing of other forms, since the 1400s there has been much literature aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. To some extent the nature of children’s fiction, and the divide between older children’s and adult ficti on became blurred as time went by and tales appealing to both adult and child had substantial commercial success. There is no single, widely accepted definition of children’s literature. It can be broadly defined as anything that children read, but a more useful definition may be fiction, poetry, and drama intended for and used by children and young people, a list to which many add non-fiction. Nancy Anderson of the College of Education at the University of South Florida defines children’s literature as all books written for children, â€Å"excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material†. Classifying children’s literature is equally confusing. As the International Companion Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature says, â€Å"The boundaries of genre†¦ are not fixed but blurred.† Sometimes no agreement can be reached even on whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children’s literature, and many books are marketed for both adults and children. J. K. Rowling’s series about Harry Potter was written and marketed for children, but it was so popular among children and adults that The New York Times created a separate bestseller list for children’s books to list them. When people think of children’s literature they probably mean books, or at least print. But narratives existed before printing, and the roots of some best-known children’s tales go back to storytellers of old.Seth Lerer, in the opening of Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, says â€Å"This book presents a history of what children have heard and read†¦ The history I write of is a history of reception†. Classification Children’s literature can be divided a number ways. Two useful divisions are genre and intended age of the reader. By genre A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content, or length. Anderson lists six categories of children’s literature, with some significant subgenres:[8] * Picture books, including concept books (teaching an alphabet or counting for example), pattern books, and wordless books. * Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in past times. This genre can be further broken down into myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales. * Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction, and historical fiction. * Non-fiction. * Biography and autobiography. * Poetry and verse. By age category The criteria for these divisions are vague and books near a borderline may be classified either way. Books for younger children tend to be written in very simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print, and fewer, if any, illustrations. * Picture books, appropriate for pre-readers or ages 0–5. * Early reader books, appropriate for children age 5–7. These books are often designed to help a child build his or her reading skills. * Chapter book, appropriate for children ages 7–12. * Short chapter books, appropriate for children ages 7–9. * Longer chapter books, appropriate for children ages 9–12. * Young-adult fiction appropriate for children age 12–18. Illustration Children’s stories have always been accompanied by pictures. A papyrus from Byzantine Egypt shows illustrations accompanying the story of Hercules’ labors. Today children’s books are illustrated in a way that rarely occurs in adult literature in the 20th or 21st century, except in graphic novels. Generally, artwork plays a greater role in books intended for the youngest readers (especially pre-literate children). Children’s picture books can be an accessible source of high quality art for young children. Even after children learn to read well enough to enjoy a story without illustrations, they continue to appreciate the occasional drawings found in chapter books. According to Joyce Whalley in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, an illustrated book differs from a book with illustrations, in that â€Å"a good illustrated book is one where the pictures enhance or add depth to the text. Using this definition, the first illustrated children’s book is considered Orbis Pictus by the Moravian author Comenius. Orbis Pictus had a picture on every page, followed by the name of the object in Latin and English. It was translated into English the year after it appeared, and was used in homes and schools around Europe and Great Britain for years. Early children’s books like Orbis Pictus were illustrated by woodcut, and many times the same image was repeated in a number of books regardless of how appropriate the illustration was to the story.[7]:322 Newer processes, including copper and steel engraving began being used in the 1830s. One of the first uses of Chromolithography, a way of making multi-colored prints, in a children’s book was Struwwelpeter, published in Germany in 1845. English illustrator Walter Crane refined its use in children’s books in the late 1800s. Walter Crane’s chromolithograph illustration for The Frog Prince, 1874. Another illustration method appearing in children’s books was etching, used by George Cruikshank in the 1850s. By the 1860s top artists in the west were illustrating for children, including Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway and John Tenniel. Most pictures were still black-and-white, and many color pictures were hand colored, often by child labor.[1]:224-226 The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators credits Caldecott with â€Å"the concept of extending the meaning of text beyond literal visualization†. In India Nandalal Bose, whose paintings are considered artistic treasures, illustrated books for children from the late 1800s into the 1900s. The early Twentieth-century brought more highly regarded illustrators to the pages of children’s books. Artists like Kay Nielson, Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham produced illustrations that are still reprinted today.[1]:224-227 The development in printing capabilities found itself reflected in children’s books. After World War II offset lithography became more refined, and by the 1950s painter-style illustrations like Brian Wildsmith’s were common.[1]:233 History According to Aspects and Issues in the History of Children’s Literature from the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, the development of literature for children anywhere in the world follows the same basic path. All children’s literature, whatever its current stage of development, begins with spoken stories, songs and poems. In the beginning the same tales that adults tell and enjoy are adapted for children. Then stories are created specifically for children, to educate, instruct and entertain them. In the final stage literature for children is established as separate from that of adults, having its own genres, divisions, expectations and canon. The development of children’s literature is influenced by the social, educational, political and economic resources of the country or ethnic group. Before 50 BC Every people group has its own mythology, unique fables and other traditional stories told for the instruction and entertainment of adults and children. The earliest written folk-type tales include the Panchatantra from India, composed about 200 AD, it may be â€Å"the world’s oldest collection of stories for children†,though other sources believe it was intended for adults. The Jakatas, stories from India about the birth of Buddha, go back to the second or third centuries BC A few of these stories, particularly those where Buddha took the shape of an animal, would have been enjoyed by children. The source stories for The Arabian Nights, perhaps also originally from India, have also been traced back this far. As an example of oral stories that certainly would have been enjoyed by children, the tale of The Asurik Tree goes back at least 3,000 years in Persia, now Iran. The greatest ancient Greek poet, Homer, lived sometime between 1200 BC and 600 BC. Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer’s work contributed to the development of all Western literature, including that for children. Between 750 and 650 BC Hesiod told stories that became a major source of Greek mythology. Irish folktales can be traced as far back as 400 BC. These stories of witches, fairies and magic spells were preserved by storytellers traveling across the island. For centuries Ireland’s geographic isolation helped preserve them. 50 BC to AD 500 Papyri from the 400s AD tell versions of Aesop’s fables. In Imperial China, children attended public events with their parents, where they would listen to the complicated tales of professional story-tellers. Often rhyming, the stories were accompanied by drums, cymbals and other traditional instruments. Children would also have watched the plays performed at festivals and fairs. Though not specifically intended for children, the elaborate costumes, acrobatics and martial arts would have held even a young child’s interest. Smaller gatherings were accompanied by puppet shows and shadow plays. The stories often explained the background behind the festival, covering folklore, history and politics. Story-telling may have reached its peak during the Song Dynasty from 960-1279 AD. This traditional literature was used for instruction in Chinese schools until the Twentieth-century. Greek and Roman literature from this age is thought to contain â€Å"nothing that could be considered a children’s book in the sense of a book written to give pleasure to a child†.[15] However, children would have enjoyed listening to stories such as the Odyssey and Aesop’s Fables, since Aesop and Homer, along with the Greek playwrights were â€Å"at the heart of early reading and writing†[7]:37 in Greece at this time. 500-1400 The Panchatantra was translated from Sanskrit into Kannada in 1035 AD. The first children’s book in Urdu may be Pahelian by the Indian poet Amir Khusrow, who wrote poems and riddles for children in the 1200s-1300s.[1]:814 Buddhism spread in China during the early part of this period, bringing with it tales later known as Journey to the West. Chinese children would have enjoyed many of these stories of â€Å"fantasy, the supernatural, demons and monsters.†[1]:832 There are two schools of thought about children and European Medieval literature. The first developed from the writings of Philippe Arià ¨s in the 1960s and holds that, because children at this time were not viewed as greatly different from adults, they were not given significantly different treatment. Those holding this point of view see no evidence of children’s fiction as such existing in Europe during the Middle Ages,[17] although they recognize that instructional texts in Latin were written specific ally for children, by clerics like the Venerable Bede, and Ælfric of Eynsham. Those who disagree with Arià ¨s make several arguments, explained by Gillian Adams in her essay Medieval Children’s Literature: Its Possibility and Actuality. One is that just because a culture does not view childhood as modern Western societies do does not mean children’s literature cannot develop there. Another is that modern Western scholars have defined literature for children too narrowly, and fail to acknowledge what does exist. for example, they point to Marie de France’s translation of Aesop’s fables, and the Play of Daniel from the 1100s. Daniel Kline, in Medieval Literature for Children says modern and Medieval literature for children have common goals: â€Å"conveying the values, attitudes, and information necessary for children and youth to survive or even advance within their cultures.† Kline divides children’s literature in Europe during this time into five genres: Didactic and Moral, Conduct-related, Educational, Religious, and Popular. The debate on interpretaion aside, scholars cite this period as the time as when â€Å"many of the genres that continue to feature in writing for children emerge.†[21]:10 Examples of literature children would have enjoyed during this time include Gesta Romanorum, the Roman fables of Avianus, the French Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry and the Welsh Mabinogion. In Ireland many of the thousands of folk stories were being recorded in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries. Written in Old Irish on vellum, they began reaching through Europe, influencing other folk tales with stories of magic, witches and fairies. 1400s During the Byzantine Empire the Bible and Chritian hymns and stories were popular. The takeover of Greece by the Ottomans meant the enslaved Greeks had to rely on songs, lullabies, and other easily shared methosds of cultural preservation. According to Vassilis Anagnostopoulos in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, these verses constitute the first children’s poetry. An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer’s History of the Horn-Book, 1896. Hornbooks appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic information such as the alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer. In 1484 William Caxton published Aesop’s Fables, followed by Le Morte d’Arthur in 1485. These books were intended for adults, but enjoyed by children as well. Geoffrey Chaucer’s writings were retold for children by the late 1400s, and often European printers released versions of Aesop’s Fables in their native languages. 1500s Russia’s earliest children’s books, primers, appeared around this time. An early example is ABC-Book, an alphabet book published by Ivan Fyodorov in 1571. The first Danish children’s book, The Child’s Mirror by Niels Bredal in 1568, was an adaptation of a book of courtesy for children by the Dutch priest Erasmus. Finland had Abckiria, a primer released in 1543, but very few children’s books were published there until the 1850s. A Pretty and Splendid Maiden’s Mirror, and adaptation of a German book for young women, became the first Swedish children’s book upon its 1591 publication. In Italy Giovanni Francesco Straparola released The Facetious Nights of Straparola in the 1550s. Called the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales, it eventually had seventy-five separate stories and was written for an adult audience. Giulio Cesare Croce also borrowed from stories children would have enjoyed for his books. Chapbooks, pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched, were published in Britain and spread to the United States. Illustrated by woodblock printing, these inexpensive booklets reprinted popular ballads, historical retellings and folk tales. Though not specifically published for children at this time, they would have been enjoyed by them. Johanna Bradley in From Chapbooks to Plum Cake says that chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strict Puritan influence of the time.

Utilitarianism A Moral Theory - 1885 Words

Utilitarianism can be defined as a moral theory that is generally considered to have been founded by Jeremy Bentham who was a 19th century English philosopher and social reformer whom the panopticon is also attributed to. At the center of utilitarianism is happiness, which is in fact the ultimate goal of all human beings. To be happy and promote happiness. According to classical utilitarianism, when a person wants to act in an ethical way, he or she should strive to bring about the greatest possible amount of happiness for the greatest possible amount of people. This idea is known the greatest happiness principle. A similar idea is that a person should always strive, if incapable of producing happiness, to reduce unhappiness. These ideas†¦show more content†¦In the examples mentioned, your personal relationships are of no importance- it does not matter how close you are to either party. The right thing to do would still be to mow the lawn for your sick family member. In Charles Darwin’s, The Descent of Man, he says that, The moral sense perhaps affords the best and highest distinction between man and the lower animals; but I need say nothing on this head, as I have so lately endeavoured to shew that the social instincts- the prime principle of man’s moral constitution with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, â€Å"As ye would that men should do to you, do ye to them likewise†; and this lies at the foundation of morality. Upon reading this it is apparent that morality is intertwined in every aspect of our lives and nature from the smallest rabbit to the tallest human. The excerpt shows an understanding that morality is not just what is pleasurable, as utilitarianism suggests, but it also has to do with how we treat each other to attain the highest good possible for the greatest number of people possible. In the case of the sick family member, we’d feel good doing it, we’d hope they or someone else would do the same for us, and thus are treating someone the way we want to be treated. Ethics and its subsets intersect upon one another forming a beautiful union to show us that pleasure and happiness are