Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment. Diderot studied philosophy at a Jesuit college considered working in the church clergy before studying law; when he decided to become a writer in 1734, his father disowned him. He lived a bohemian existence for the next decade. In the 1740s he wrote many of his best-known works in both fiction and nonfiction, including the 1748 novel The Indiscreet Jewels. In 1751, Diderot co-created the Encyclopédie with Jean le Rond d'Alembert, it was the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors and the first to describe the mechanical arts. Its secular tone, which included articles skeptical about Biblical miracles, angered both religious and government authorities. Many of the initial contributors to the Encyclopédie left the project as a result of its controversies and some were jailed.
D'Alembert left in 1759. Diderot became the main contributor, writing around 7,000 articles, he continued working on the project until 1765. He was despondent about the Encyclopédie by the end of his involvement in it and felt that the entire project may have been a waste; the Encyclopédie is considered one of the forerunners of the French Revolution. Diderot struggled financially throughout most of his career and received little official recognition of his merit, including being passed over for membership in the Académie française, his fortunes improved in 1766, when Empress Catherine the Great, who heard of his financial troubles, paid him 50,000 francs to serve as her librarian. He remained in this position for the rest of his life, stayed a few months at her court in Saint Petersburg in 1773 and 1774. Diderot's literary reputation during his life rested on his plays and his contributions to the Encyclopédie. Denis Diderot was born in Champagne, his parents were Didier Diderot, a cutler, maître coutelier, Angélique Vigneron.
Three of five siblings survived to adulthood, Denise Diderot and their youngest brother Pierre-Didier Diderot, their sister Angélique Diderot. According to Arthur McCandless Wilson, Denis Diderot admired his sister Denise, sometimes referring to her as "a female Socrates". Diderot began his formal education at a Jesuit college in Langres, earning a Master of Arts degree in philosophy in 1732, he entered the Collège d'Harcourt of the University of Paris. He abandoned the idea of entering the clergy in 1735, instead decided to study at the Paris Law Faculty, his study of law was short-lived however and in the early 1740s, he decided to become a writer and translator. Because of his refusal to enter one of the learned professions, he was disowned by his father, for the next ten years he lived a bohemian existence. In 1742, he befriended Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom he met while watching games of chess and drinking coffee at the Café de la Régence. In 1743, he further alienated his father by marrying a devout Roman Catholic.
The match was considered inappropriate due to Champion's low social standing, poor education, fatherless status, lack of a dowry. She was about three years older than Diderot; the marriage, in October 1743, produced a girl. Her name was Angélique, named after sister; the death of his sister, a nun, in her convent may have affected Diderot's opinion of religion. She is assumed to have been the inspiration for his novel about a nun, La Religieuse, in which he depicts a woman, forced to enter a convent where she suffers at the hands of the other nuns in the community. Diderot had affairs with Mlle. Babuti, Madeleine de Puisieux, Sophie Volland and Mme de Maux, his letters to Sophie Volland are known for their candor and are regarded to be "among the literary treasures of the eighteenth century". Diderot's earliest works included a translation of Temple Stanyan's History of Greece. In 1745, he published a translation of Shaftesbury's Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit, to which he had added his own "reflections".
In 1746, Diderot wrote his first original work: the Philosophical Thoughts. In this book, Diderot argued for a reconciliation of reason with feeling so as to establish harmony. According to Diderot, without feeling there is a detrimental effect on virtue, no possibility of creating sublime work. However, since feeling without discipline can be destructive, reason is necessary to control feeling. At the time Diderot wrote this book. Hence there is a defense of deism in this book, some arguments against atheism; the book contains criticism of Christianity. In 1747, Diderot wrote The Skeptic's Walk in which a deist, an atheist, a pantheist have a dialogue on the nature of divinity; the deist gives the argument from design. The atheist says that the universe is better explained by physics, chemistry and motion; the pantheist says that the cosmic
"Shall We Gather at the River?" or "At the River" are the popular names for the traditional Christian hymn titled "Hanson Place," written by American poet and gospel music composer Robert Lowry. It is now in the public domain; the title "Hanson Place" is a reference to the original Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, where Lowry, as a Baptist minister, sometimes served. The original building now houses a different denomination; the music uses an 8.7.8.7 R meter. An arrangement was composed by Charles Ives, a arrangement is included in Aaron Copland's Old American Songs in addition to being used by American wind band composer David Maslanka in his Symphony No. 9. The song was sung live at the 1980 funeral of American Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas; the song's lyrics refer to the Christian concept of the anticipation of restoration and reward, reference the motifs found at Revelation 22:1-2 - a crystal clear river with water of life, issuing from the throne of heaven, all presented by an angel of God.
Chorus: Yes, we’ll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river. The song was employed in Western soundtracks those of director John Ford and it features in many of Ford's most famous films; the melody is played paradoxically in Stagecoach, in the early scene is which Claire Trevor's character Dallas is run out of town. It appears in Ford's Tobacco Road, My Darling Clementine, Three Godfathers, Wagon Master, twice in The Searchers, 7 Women; the song is heard in Gene Fowler, Jr.'s The Oregon Trail and in Elliot Silverstein's Cat Ballou. It was used in the Sam Peckinpah films Major Dundee and The Wild Bunch where it was employed as ironic counterpoint during an onscreen massacre, it was put to use in such dark, late-period Westerns as 1968's Hang'Em High and 1972's Jeremiah Johnson. The song was used in The Lone Ranger, it features prominently in David Lean's romantic comedy Hobson's Choice and in Richard Brooks's drama Elmer Gantry. A caricatural vocal rendition of the song is used for both a car chase and the end credits of Howard Morris' caper comedy, Who's Minding the Mint?.
It is included in the film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale. Part of the hymn was sung in Trip to Bountiful; the hymn is a primary musical theme for schlock film Tromeo and Juliet, credited on the soundtrack as Yes, We'll Gather at the River. The title "Shall We Gather at the River" is used as the name of a second season episode of Falling Skies; the hymn opens Richard Rossi's 1920s period piece drama Aimee Semple McPherson. In Sweden, the 1876 hymn to the same melody O, hur saligt att få vandra became one of the most popular songs of the widespread Swedish revivalist movement. A drinking song to the same melody, Jag har aldrig vart på snusen mocking the religious message of the Swedish original, is one of the most popular drinking songs at Swedish universities. In Germany, the melody of the hymn became a well-known christmas carol named Welchen Jubel, welche Freude with the lyrics of Ernst Gebhardt. In 1937, the tune was adopted in Japan to a popular enka song Tabakoya no Musume; this enka song was soon parodied into juvenile song about the testicles of the tanuki, which goes, "Tan-tan-tanuki's testicles: there isn't any wind, but swing swing swing".
The parodied version of the song remain popular among Japanese adults to this day. The University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia uses the same melody in its official song; the British band Groove Armada's single "At the River" features a trombone part derived from "Shall We Gather at the River?", played by band member Andy Cato. Lyrics
Aunt Martha's Sheep is a song written by Terrence White and Arthur Butt of Perry's Cove and re-written by Ellis Coles and performed by Dick Nolan. It was viewed as a slight on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the police force for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada; the song got less after that. Released in 1972 it became one of Dick Nolan's signature songs; the song was written before Confederation and the RCMP and featured the Newfoundland Ranger as the law enforcement. Come gather all around me and I'll sing to you a tale, About the boys in Carmanville who went to jail, it happened on a November's night when all hands were asleep, We crept up over Joe Tulk's hill and stole Aunt Martha's sheep. Now if you pay attention I know I'll make you laugh, They never went to steal the sheep, they went to steal the calf; the old cow she got angry'cause they woke her from her sleep, We couldn't take any chances so we had to steal the sheep. We caught the wooly animal and dragged her from her pen, She says good-bye to the little lamb she'd never see again.
She knew that those dark strangers soon would take her life, In less than half an hour she felt that dreadful knife. Aunt Martha she got angry when she heard about the loss, She said she'd catch the robbers no matter what the cost. Next morning just at sunrise she to the office went, And to the R. C. M. P. A telegram she sent; the Mountie got the message and started in to read, This is from Aunt Martha telling an awful deed. Last night my sheep was stolen by whom I cannot tell, I'd like for you to catch them and take them off to jail. Just a short time about twelve o'clock that night, We had the sheep a'cooking and everyone feeling tight; the smell of mutton and onions no man could ask for more, We were chug-luggin' Dominion when a Mountie walked in the door. Said sorry boys, your party I don't mean to wreck. I smelled the meat a'cookin' and I had to come in and check. You see the sheep was stolen and the thief is on the loose. I said come right in and join us, sir, we're having a piece of moose, he said thanks a lot and he sat right down and I gave him a piece of the sheep.
This is the finest piece of moose I knows I eat. About two o'clock in the morning he bid us all good-day, If we get any clues on the sheep, sir, we'll phone you right away, he said thanks a lot, you're a darn fine bunch, your promise I know you'll keep. And if everyone was as good as you she wouldn't have lost her sheep. After he left we had the piece we had in the oven to roast, We might have stole the sheep, but the Mountie ate the most. Ben Weatherby, who produced "Aunt Martha's Sheep" for Nolan, released an album not long afterwards entitled You Can't Fool A Newfoundlander. On it, Weatherby performed a cover of "Aunt Martha's Sheep," but for a bit of fun, he wrote a continuation of the story where the Mountie gets the last laugh. You Can't Fool A Newfoundlander won Weatherby his first gold record. "You Can't Fool a Newfoundlander" Here's the finish of the story I think that I should tell, About the b'ys in Carmanville who ended up in jail. As they told you in the story, the Mountie joined right in, He had a feed of mutton and he thanked them with a grin.
Now, when he left they thought that they had seen the last of he, They didn't know that in a while back to the house he'd be. Now as they watched him drive away they all began to boast, To think they gave him mutton and he thought that it was moose, they were drinking and were talking'bout the sheep that they had took, When above the songs and laughter they heard another knock. In the doorway stood Aunt Martha who had come to claim her sheep, And the man who stood beside her, he had boots upon his feet. So, now they wish the mutton had come from other means, For now instead of mutton they're eatin' pork and beans. List of Newfoundland songs Newfoundland Heritage, Traditional Songs Dictionary of Newfoundland English