Hilde had just begun the chapter on the Renaissance2 when she heard her mother come in the front door. She looked at the clock. It was four in the afternoon.
Her mother ran upstairs and opened Hilde's door.
"Didn't you go to the church?"
"Yes, I did."
"But... what did you wear?"
"What I'm wearing now."
"Your nightgown?"
"It's an old stone church from the Middle Ages."
"Hilde!"
She let the ring binder3 fall into her lap and looked up at her mother.
"I forgot the time, Mom. I'm sorry, but I'm reading something terribly exciting."
Her mother could not help smiling.
"It's a magic book," added Hilde.
"Okay. Happy birthday once again, Hilde!"
"Hey, I don't know if I can take that phrase any more."
"But I haven't... I'm just going to rest for a while, then I'll start fixing a great dinner. I managed to get hold of some strawberries."
"Okay, I'll go on reading."
Her mother left and Hilde read on.
Sophie is following Hermes through the town. In Alberto's hall she finds another card from Lebanon. This, too, is dated June 15.
Hilde was just beginning to understand the system of the dates. The cards dated before June 15 are copies of cards Hilde had already received from her dad. But those with today's date are reaching her for the first time via the ring binder.
Dear Hilde, Now Sophie is coming to the philosopher's house. She will soon be fifteen, but you were fifteen yesterday. Or is it today, Hilde? If it is today, it must be late, then. But our watches do not always agree . . .
Hilde read how Alberto told Sophie about the Renaissance and the new science, the seventeenth-century rationalists and British empiricism.
She jumped at every new card and birthday greeting that her father had stuck into the story. He got them to fall out of an exercise book, turn up inside a banana skin, and hide inside a computer program. Without the slightest effort, he could get Alberto to make a slip of the tongue and call Sophie Hilde. On top of everything else, he got Hermes to say "Happy birthday, Hilde!"
Hilde agreed with Alberto that he was going a bit too far, comparing himself with God and Providence4. But whom was she actually agreeing with? Wasn't it her father who put those reproachful--or self-reproachful--words in Alberto's mouth? She decided5 that the comparison with God was not so crazy after all. Her father really was like an almighty6 God for Sophie's world.
When Alberto got to Berkeley, Hilde was at least as enthralled7 as Sophie had been. What would happen now? There had been all kinds of hints that something special was going to happen as soon as they got to that philosopher--who had denied the existence of a material world outside human consciousness.
The chapter begins with Alberto and Sophie standing8 at the window, seeing the little plane with the long Happy Birthday streamer waving behind it. At the same time dark clouds begin to gather over the town.
"So 'to be or not to be' is not the whole question. The question is also who we are. Are we really human beings of flesh and blood? Does our world consist of real things--or are we encircled by the mind?"
Not so surprising that Sophie starts biting her nails. Nail-biting had never been one of Hilde's bad habits but she didn't feel particularly pleased with herself right now. Then finally it was all out in the open: "For us-- for you and me--this 'will or spirit' that is the 'cause of everything in everything' could be Hilde's father."
"Are you saying he's been a kind of God for us?" "To be perfectly9 candid10, yes.He should be ashamed of himself!" "What about Hilde herself?" "She is an angel, Sophie." "An angel?" "Hilde is the one this 'spirit' turns to."
With that, Sophie tears herself away from Alberto and runs out into the storm. Could it be the same storm that raged over Bjerkely last night--a few hours after Sophie ran through the town?
As she ran, one thought kept going round and round in her mind: "Tomorrow is my birthday*. Isn't it extra bitter to realize that life is only a dream on the day before your fifteenth birthday? It's like dreaming you won a million and then just as you're getting the money you wake up."
Sophie ran across the squelching11 playing field. Minutes later she saw someone come running toward her. It was her mother. The sky was pierced again and again by angry darts12 of lightning.
When they reached each other Sophie's mother put her arm around her.
"What's happening to us, little one?"
"I don't know," Sophie sobbed13. "It's like a bad dream."
Hilde felt the tears start. "To be or not to be--that is the question." She threw the ring binder to the end of the bed and stood up. She walked back and forth14 across the floor. At last she stopped in front of the brass15 mirror, where she remained until her mother came to say dinner was ready. When Hilde heard the knock on the door, she had no idea how long she had been standing there.
But she was sure, she was perfectly sure, that her reflection had winked16 with both eyes.
She tried to be the grateful birthday girl all through dinner. But her thoughts were with Sophie and Alberto all the time.
How would things go for them now that they knew it was Hilda's father who decided everything? Although "knew" was perhaps an exaggeration. It was nonsense to think they knew anything at all. Wasn't it only her father who let them know things?
Still, the problem was the same however you looked at it. As soon as Sophie and Alberto "knew" how everything hung together, they were in a way at the end of the road.
She almost choked on a mouthful of food as she suddenly realized that the same problem possibly applied17 to her own world too. People had progressed steadily18 in their understanding of natural laws. Could history simply continue to all eternity19 once the last piece of the jigsaw20 puzzle of philosophy and science had fallen into place? Wasn't there a connection between the development of ideas and science on the one hand, and the greenhouse effect and deforestation on the other? Maybe it was not so crazy to call man's thirst for knowledge a fall from grace?
The question was so huge and so terrifying that Hilde tried to forget it again. She would probably understand much more as she read further in her father's birthday book.
"Happy birthday to you ...," sang her mother when they were done with their ice cream and Italian strawberries. "Now we'll do whatever you choose."
"I know it sounds a bit crazy, but all I want to do is read my present from Dad."
"Well, as long as he doesn't make you completely delirious21."
"No way."
"We could share a pizza while we watch that mystery on TV."
"Yes, if you like."
Hilde suddenly thought of the way Sophie spoke22 to her mother. Dad had hopefully not written any of Hilde's mother into the character of the other mother? Just to make sure, she decided not to mention the white rabbit being pulled out of the top hat. Not today, at least.
"By the way," she said as she was leaving the table.
"What?"
"I can't find my gold crucifix anywhere."
Her mother looked at her with an enigmatic expression.
"I found it down by the dock weeks ago. You must have dropped it, you untidy scamp."
"Did you mention it to Dad?"
"Let me think ... yes, I believe I may have."
"Where is it then?"
Her mother got up and went to get her own jewelry24 case. Hilde heard a little cry of surprise from the bedroom. She came quickly back into the living room.
"Right now I can't seem to find it."
"I thought as much."
She gave her mother a hug and ran upstairs to her room. At last--now she could read on about Sophie and Alberto. She sat up on the bed as before with the heavy ring binder resting against her knees and began the next chapter.
Sophie woke up the next morning when her mother came into the room carrying a tray loaded with birthday presents. She had stuck a flag in an empty soda25 bottle.
"Happy birthday, Sophie!"
Sophie rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She tried to remember what had happened the night before. But it was all like jumbled26 pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. One of the pieces was Alberto, another was Hilde and the major. A third was Berkeley, a fourth Bjerkely. The blackest piece of all was the violent storm. She had practically been in shock. Her mother had rubbed her dry with a towel and simply put her to bed with a cup of hot milk and honey. She had fallen asleep immediately.
"I think I'm still alive," she said weakly.
"Of course you're alive! And today you are fifteen years old."
"Are you quite sure?"
"Quite sure. Shouldn't a mother know when her only child was born? June 15, 1975 ... and half-past one, Sophie. It was the happiest moment of my life."
"Are you sure it isn't all only a dream?"
"It must be a good dream to wake up to rolls and soda and birthday presents."
She put the tray of presents on a chair and disappeared out of the room for a second. When she came back she was carrying another tray with rolls and soda. She put it on the end of the bed.
It was the signal for the traditional birthday morning ritual, with the unpacking27 of presents and her mother's sentimental28 flights back to her first contractions29 fifteen years ago. Her mother's present was a tennis racket. Sophie had never played tennis, but there were some open-air courts a few minutes from Clover Close. Her father had sent her a mini-TV and FM radio. The screen was no bigger than an ordinary photograph. There were also presents from old aunts and friends of the family.
Presently her mother said, "Do you think I should stay home from work today?"
"No, why should you?"
"You were very upset yesterday. If it goes on, I think we should make an appointment to see a psychiatrist30."
"That won't be necessary."
"Was it the storm--or was it Alberto?"
"What about you? You said: What's happening to us, little one?"
"I was thinking of you running around town to meet some mysterious person ... Maybe it's my fault." "It's not anybody's 'fault' that I'm taking a course in philosophy in my leisure time. Just go to work. School doesn't start till ten, and we're only getting our grades and sitting around."
"Do you know what you're going to get?" "More than I got last semester at any rate."
Not long after her mother had gone the telephone rang.
"Sophie Amundsen."
"This is Alberto."
"Ah."
"The major didn't spare any ammunition31 last night."
"What do you mean."
"The thunderstorm, Sophie."
"I don't know what to think."
"That is the finest virtue32 a genuine philosopher can have. I am proud of how much you have learned in such a short time."
"I am scared that nothing is real."
"That's called existential angst, or dread33, and is as a rule only a stage on the way to new consciousness."
"I think I need a break from the course."
"Are there that many frogs in the garden at the moment?"
Sophie started to laugh. Alberto continued: "I think it would be better to persevere34. Happy birthday, by the way. We must complete the course by Midsummer Eve. It's our last chance."
"Our last chance for what?"
"Are you sitting comfortably? We're going to have to spend some time on this, you understand."
"I'm sitting down."
"You remember Descartes?"
"I think, therefore I am?"
"With regard to our own methodical doubt, we are right now starting from scratch. We don't even know whether we think. It may turn out that we are thoughts, and that is quite different from thinking. We have good reason to believe that we have merely been invented by Hilde's father as a kind of birthday diversion for the major's daughter from Lillesand. Do you see?"
"Yes . . ."
"But therein also lies a built-in contradiction. If we are fictive, we have no right to 'believe' anything at all. In which case this whole telephone conversation is purely35 imaginary."
"And we haven't the tiniest bit of free will because it's the major who plans everything we say and do. So we can just as well hang up now."
"No, now you're oversimplifying things."
"Explain it, then."
"Would you claim that people plan everything they dream? It may be that Hilde's father knows everything we do. It may be just as difficult to escape his omniscience36 as it is to run away from your own shadow. However-- and this is where I have begun to devise a plan--it is not certain that the major has already decided on everything that is to happen. He may not decide before the very last minute--that is to say, in the moment of creation. Precisely37 at such moments we may possibly have an initiative of our own which guides what we say and do. Such an initiative would naturally constitute extremely weak impulses compared to the major's heavy artillery38. We are very likely defenseless against intrusive39 external forces such as talking dogs, messages in bananas, and thunderstorms booked in advance. But we cannot rule out our stubbornness, however weak it may be."
"How could that be possible?"
"The major naturally knows everything about our little world, but that doesn't mean he is all powerful. At any rate we must try to live as if he is not."
"I think I see where you're going with this."
"The trick would be if we could manage to do something all on our own--something the major would not be able to discover."
"How can we do that if we don't even exist?"
"Who said we don't exist? The question is not whether we are, but what we are and who we are. Even if it turns out that we are merely impulses in the major's dual40 personality, that need not take our little bit of existence away from us."
"Or our free will?"
"I'm working on it, Sophie."
"But Hilde's father must be fully23 aware that you are working on it."
"Decidedly so. But he doesn't know what the actual plan is. I am attempting to find an Archimedian point."
"An Archimedian point?"
"Archimedes was a Greek scientist who said 'Give me a firm point on which to stand and I will move the earth.' That's the kind of point we must find to move ourselves out of the major's inner universe."
"That would be quite a feat41."
"But we won't manage to slip away before we have finished the philosophy course. While that lasts he has much too firm a grip on us. He has clearly decided that I am to guide you through the centuries right up to our own time. But we only have a few days left before he boards a plane somewhere down in the Middle East. If we haven't succeeded in detaching ourselves from his gluey imagination before he arrives at Bjerkely, we are done for."
"You're frightening me!"
"First of all I shall give you the most important facts about the French Enlightenment. Then we shall take the main outline of Kant's philosophy so that we can get to Romanticism. Hegel will also be a significant part of the picture for us. And in talking about him we will unavoidably touch on Kierkegaard's indignant clash with Hegelian philosophy. We shall briefly42 talk about Marx, Darwin, and Freud. And if we can manage a few closing comments on Sartre and Existentialism, our plan can be put into operation."
"That's an awful lot for one week."
"That's why we must begin at once. Can you come over right away?"
"I have to go to school. We are having a class get-together43 and then we get our grades."
"drop it. If we are only fictive, it's pure imagination that candy and soda have any taste."
"But my grades ..."
"Sophie, either you are living in a wondrous44 universe on a tiny planet in one of many hundred billion galaxies-- or else you are the result of a few electromagnetic impulses in the major's mind. And you are talking about grades! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
"I'm sorry."
"But you'd better go to school before we meet. It might have a bad influence on Hilde if you cut your last school-day. She probably goes to school even on her birthday. She is an angel, you know."
"So I'll come straight from school."
"We can meet at the major's cabin."
"The major's cabin?"
... Click!
Hilde let the ring binder slide into her lap. Her father had given her conscience a dig there--she did cut her last day at school. How sneaky of him!
She sat for a while wondering what the plan was that Alberto was devising. Should she sneak45 a look at the last page? No, that would be cheating. She'd better hurry up and read it to the end.
But she was convinced Alberto was right on one important point. One thing was that her father had an overview46 of what was going to happen to Sophie and Alberto. But while he was writing, he probably didn't know everything that would happen. He might dash off something in a great hurry, something he might not notice till long after he had written it. In a situation like that Sophie and Alberto would have a certain amount of leeway.
Once again Hilde had an almost transfiguring conviction that Sophie and Alberto really existed. Still waters run deep, she thought to herself.
Why did that idea come to her?
It was certainly not a thought that rippled47 the surface.
At school, Sophie received lots of attention because it was her birthday. Her classmates were already keyed up by thoughts of summer vacation, and grades, and the sodas48 on the last day of school. The minute the teacher dismissed the class with her best wishes for the vacation, Sophie ran home. Joanna tried to slow her down but Sophie called over her shoulder that there was something she just had to do.
In the mailbox she found two cards from Lebanon. They were both birthday cards: HAPPY BIRTHDAY--15 YEARS. One of them was to "Hilde M0ller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen . . ." But the other one was to Sophie herself. Both cards were stamped "UN Battalion--June 15."
Sophie read her own card first:
Dear Sophie Amundsen, Today you are getting a card as well. Happy birthday, Sophie, and many thanks for everything you have done for Hilde. Best regards, Major Albert Knag.
Sophie was not sure how to react, now that Hilde's father had finally written to her too. Hilde's card read:
Dear Hilde, I have no idea what day or time it is in Lillesand. But, as I said, it doesn't make much difference. If I know you, I am not too late for a last, or next to last, greeting from down here. But don't stay up too late! Alberto will soon be telling you about the French Enlightenment. He will concentrate on seven points. They are:
1. Opposition49 to authority
2. Rationalism
3. The enlightenment movement
4. Cultural optimism
5. The return to nature
6. Natural religion
7. Human rights
The major was obviously still keeping his eye on them.
Sophie let herself in and put her report card with all the A's on the kitchen table. Then she slipped through the hedge and ran into the woods.
Soon she was once again rowing across the little lake.
Alberto was sitting on the doorstep when she got to the cabin. He invited her to sit beside him. The weather was fine although a slight mist of damp raw air was coming off the lake. It was as though it had not quite recovered from the storm.
"Let's get going right away," said Alberto.
"After Hume, the next great philosopher was the German, Immanuel Kant. But France also had many important thinkers in the eighteenth century. We could say that the philosophical50 center of gravity h. Europe in the eighteenth century was in England in the first half, in France in the middle, and in Germany toward the end of it."
"A shift from west to east, in other words."
"Precisely. Let me outline some of the ideas that many of the French Enlightenment philosophers had in common. The important names are Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, but there were many, many others. I shall concentrate on seven points."
"Thanks, that I am painfully aware of."
Sophie handed him the card from Hilde's father. Alberto sighed deeply. "He could have saved himself the trouble ... the first key words, then, are opposition to authority. Many of the French Enlightenment philosophers visited England, which was in many ways more liberal than their home country, and were intrigued51 by the English natural sciences, especially Newton and his universal physics. But they were also inspired by British philosophy, in particular by Locke and his political philos-ophy. Once back in France, they became increasingly opposed to the old authority. They thought it was essential to remain skeptical52 of all inherited truths, the idea being that the individual must find his own answer to every question. The tradition of Descartes was very inspiring in this respect."
"Because he was the one who built everything up from the ground."
"Quite so. The opposition to authority was not least directed against the power of the clergy53, the king, and the nobility. During the eighteenth century, these institu-tions had far more power in France than they had in England."
"Then came the French Revolution."
"Yes, in 1789. But the revolutionary ideas arose much earlier. The next key word is rationalism."
"I thought rationalism went out with Hume."
"Hume himself did not die until 1776. That was about twenty years after Montesquieu and only two years before Voltaire and Rousseau, who both died in 1778. But all three had been to England and were familiar with the philosophy of Locke. You may recall that Locke was not consistent in his empiricism. He believed, for example, that faith in God and certain moral norms were inherent in human reason. This idea is also the core of the French Enlightenment."
"You also said that the French have always been more rational than the British."
"Yes, a difference that goes right back to the Middle Ages. When the British speak of 'common sense,' the French usually speak of 'evident.' The English expression means 'what everybody knows,' the French means 'what is obvious'--to one's reason, that is."
"I see."
"Like the humanists of antiquity--such as Socrates and the Stoics--most of the Enlightenment philosophers had an unshakable faith in human reason. This was so characteristic that the French Enlightenment is often called the Age of Reason. The new natural sciences had revealed that nature was subject to reason. Now the Enlightenment philosophers saw it as their duty to lay a foundation for morals, religion, and ethics54 in accordance with man's immutable55 reason. This led to the enlightenment movement."
"The third point."
"Now was the time to start 'enlightening' the masses. This was to be the basis for a better society. People thought that poverty and oppression were the fault of ig-norance and superstition56. Great attention was therefore focused on the education of children and of the people. It is no accident that the science of pedagogy was founded during the Enlightenment."
"So schools date from the Middle Ages, and pedagogy from the Enlightenment."
"You could say that. The greatest monument to the enlightenment movement was characteristically enough a huge encyclopedia57. I refer to the Encyclopedia in 28 volumes published during the years from 1751 to 1772. All the great philosophers and men of letters contributed to it. 'Everything is to be found here,' it was said, 'from the way needles are made to the way cannons are founded.' " "The next point is cultural optimism," Sophie said.
"Would you oblige me by putting that card away while I am talking?"
"Excuse me."
"The Enlightenment philosophers thought that once reason and knowledge became widespread, humanity would make great progress. It could only be a question of time before irrationalism and ignorance would give way to an 'enlightened' humanity. This thought was dominant59 in Western Europe until the last couple of decades. Today we are no longer so convinced that all 'developments' are to the good.
"But this criticism of 'civilization' was already being voiced by French Enlightenment philosophers."
"Maybe we should have listened to them."
"For some, the new catchphrase was back to nature. But 'nature' to the Enlightenment philosophers meant almost the same as 'reason/ since human reason was a gift of nature rather than of religion or of 'civilization.' It was observed that the so-called primitive60 peoples were frequently both healthier and happier than Europeans, and this, it was said, was because they had not been 'civilized61.' Rousseau proposed the catchphrase, 'We should return to nature.' For nature is good, and man is 'by nature' good; it is civilization which ruins him. Rousseau also believed that the child should be allowed to remain in its 'naturally' innocent state as long as possible. It would not be wrong to say that the idea of the intrinsic value of childhood dates from the Enlightenment. Previously62, childhood had been considered merely a preparation for adult life. But we are all human beings--and we live our life on this earth, even when we are children."
"I should think so!"
"Religion, they thought, had to be made natural."
"What exactly did they mean by that?"
"They meant that religion also had to be brought into harmony with 'natural' reason. There were many who fought for what one could call a natural religion, and that is the sixth point on the list. At the time there were a lot of confirmed materialists who did not believe in a God, and who professed63 to atheism64. But most of the Enlightenment philosophers thought it was irrational58 to imagine a world without God. The world was far too rational for that. Newton held the same view, for example. It was also considered rational to believe in the immortality65 of the soul. Just as for Descartes, whether or not man has an immortal66 soul was held to be more a question of reason than of faith."
"That I find very strange. To me, it's a typical case of what you believe, not of what you know."
"That's because you don't live in the eighteenth century. According to the Enlightenment philosophers, what religion needed was to be stripped of all the irrational dogmas or doctrines67 that had got attached to the simple teachings of Jesus during the course of ecclesiastical history."
"I see."
"Many people consequently professed to what is known as Deism."
"What is that?"
"By Deism we mean a belief that God created the world ages and ages ago, but has not revealed himself to the world since. Thus God is reduced to the 'Supreme68 Being' who only reveals himself to mankind through nature and natural laws, never in any 'supernatural' way. We find a similar 'philosophical God' in the writings of Aristotle. For him, God was the 'formal cause' or 'first mover.' "
"So now there's only one point left, human rights."
"And yet this is perhaps the most important. On the whole, you could say that the French Enlightenment was more practical than the English philosophy."
"You mean they lived according to their philosophy?"
"Yes, very much so. The French Enlightenment philosophers did not content themselves with theoretical views on man's place in society. They fought actively69 for what they called the 'natural rights' of the citizen. At first, this took the form of a campaign against censorship--for the freedom of the press. But also in matters of religion, morals, and politics, the individual's right to freedom of thought and utterance70 had to be secured. They also fought for the abolition71 of slavery and for a more humane72 treatment of criminals."
"I think I agree with most of that."
"The principle of the 'inviolability of the individual' culminated73 in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen adopted by the French National Assembly in 178V. This Declaration of Human Rights was the basis for our own Norwegian Constitution of 1814."
"But a lot of people still have to fight for these rights."
"Yes, unhappily. But the Enlightenment philosophers wanted to establish certain rights that everybody was entitled to simply by being born. That was what they meant by natural rights.
"We still speak of a 'natural right' which can often be in conflict with the laws of the land. And we constantly find individuals, or even whole nations, that claim this 'natural right' when they rebel against anarchy74, servitude, and oppression."
"What about women's rights?"
"The French Revolution in 1787 established a number of rights for all 'citizens.' But a citizen was nearly always considered to be a man. Yet it was the French Revolution that gave us the first inklings of feminism."
"It was about time!"
"As early as 1787 the Enlightenment philosopher Condorcet published a treatise75 on the rights of women. He held that women had the same 'natural rights' as men. During the Revolution of 1789, women were extremely active in the fight against the old feudal76 regime. For example, it was women who led the demonstrations77 that forced the king away from his palace at Versailles. Women's groups were formed in Paris. In addition to the demand for the same political rights as men, they also demanded changes in the marriage laws and in women's social conditions."
"Did they get equal rights?"
"No. Just as on so many subsequent occasions, the question of women's rights was exploited in the heat of the struggle, but as soon as things fell into place in a new regime, the old male-dominated society was re-introduced."
"Typical!"
"One of those who fought hardest for the rights of women during the French Revolution was Olympe de Gouges78. In 1791--two years after the revolution--she published a declaration on the rights of women. The declaration on the rights of the citizen had not included any article on women's natural rights. Olympe de Gouges now demanded all the same rights for women as for men."
"What happened?"
"She was beheaded in 1793. And all political activity for women was banned."
"How shameful79!"
"It was not until the nineteenth century that feminism really got under way, not only in France but also in the rest of Europe. Little by little this struggle began to bear fruit. But in Norway, for example, women did not get the right to vote until 1913. And women in many parts of the world still have a lot to fight for."
"They can count on my support."
Alberto sat looking across at the lake. After a minute or two he said:
"That was more or less what I wanted to say about the Enlightenment."
"What do you mean by more or less?"
"I have the feeling there won't be any more."
But as he said this, something began to happen in the middle of the lake. Something was bubbling up from the depths. A huge and hideous80 creature rose from the surface.
"A sea serpent!" cried Sophie.
The dark monster coiled itself back and forth a few times and then disappeared back into the depths. The water was as still as before.
Alberto had turned away.
"Now we'll go inside," he said.
They went into the little hut.
Sophie stood looking at the two pictures of Berkeley and Bjerkely. She pointed81 to the picture of Bjerkely and said:
"I think Hilde lives somewhere inside that picture."
An embroidered82 sampler now hung between the two pictures. It read: LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY.
Sophie turned to Alberto: "Did you hang that there?"
He just shook his head with a disconsolate83 expression.
Then Sophie discovered a small envelope on the mantelpiece. "To Hilde and Sophie," it said. Sophie knew at once who it was from, but it was a new turn of events that he had begun to count on her.
She opened the letter and read aloud:
Dear both of you, Sophie's philosophy teacher ought to have underlined the significance of the French Enlightenment for the ideals and principles the UN is founded on. Two hundred years ago, the slogan "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" helped unite the people of France. Today the same words should unite the whole world. It is more important now than ever before to be one big Family of Man. Our descendants are our own children and grandchildren. What kind of world are they inheriting from us?
Hilde's mother was calling from downstairs that the mystery was starting in ten minutes and that she had put the pizza in the oven. Hilde was quite exhausted84 after all she had read. She had been up since six o'clock this morning.
She decided to spend the rest of the evening celebrating her birthday with her mother. But first she had to look something up in her encyclopedia.
Gouges ... no. De Gouges? No again. Olympe de Gouges? Still a blank. This encyclopedia had not written one single word about the woman who was beheaded for her political commitment. Wasn't that scandalous!
She was surely not just someone her father had thought up?
Hilde ran downstairs to get a bigger encyclopedia.
"I just have to look something up," she said to her astounded85 mother.
She took the FORV to GP volume of the big family encyclopedia and ran up to her room again.
Gouges ... there she was!
Gouges, Marie Olympe (1748-1793), Fr. author, played a prominent role during the French Revolution with numerous brochures on social questions and several plays. One of the few during the Revolution who campaigned for human rights to apply to women. In 1791 published "Declaration on the Rights of Women." Beheaded in 1793 for daring to defend Louis XVI and oppose Robespierre. (Lit: L. Lacour, "Les Origines du feminisme contem-porain," 1900)
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cannons
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| n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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binder
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| n.包扎物，包扎工具；[法]临时契约；粘合剂；装订工 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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enthralled
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| 迷住，吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到非常愉快 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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squelching
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| v.发吧唧声，发扑哧声( squelch的现在分词 )；制止；压制；遏制 | |
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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jigsaw
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| n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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unpacking
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| n.取出货物，拆包[箱]v.从（包裹等）中取出（所装的东西），打开行李取出( unpack的现在分词 )；拆包；解除…的负担；吐露（心事等） | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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contractions
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| n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩 | |
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psychiatrist
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| n.精神病专家；精神病医师 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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persevere
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| v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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omniscience
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| n.全知，全知者，上帝 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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38
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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dual
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| adj.双的；二重的，二元的 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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get-together
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| n.(使)聚集；(使)集合 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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overview
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| n.概观，概述 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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sodas
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| n.苏打( soda的名词复数 )；碱；苏打水；汽水 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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51
intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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52
skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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53
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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54
ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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55
immutable
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| adj.不可改变的，永恒的 | |
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56
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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encyclopedia
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| n.百科全书 | |
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58
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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59
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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60
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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62
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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63
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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64
atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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65
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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66
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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67
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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68
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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71
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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72
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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73
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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76
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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77
demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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gouges
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| n.凿( gouge的名词复数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出…v.凿( gouge的第三人称单数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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79
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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80
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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81
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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82
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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83
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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84
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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85
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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