ZÉLATEUR, TRICE
ZEALOT
The term zealot can be applied to anyone, man or woman, who devotes himself or herself to a movement, a doctrine, or a party. But the use of this word has become very rare in everyday language: usually, it even carries a shade of mockery towards the person thus described. A zealot is, in the minds of many, an individual whose brain is unbalanced or whose ardor is too untimely. Nevertheless, among the devout, it continues to be used frequently, and in a laudatory sense.
In the brotherhoods and pious associations, which allow papal officials to methodically exploit gullible laypeople, the person responsible for collecting contributions, transmitting slogans, and stirring up the zeal of members in a given parish or region is called a zealot It should be added that women, the most gossipy and the ugliest, have a marked predilection for this role. In this way, they can earn heaven by exercising their need to argue and gossip; their vanity is also satisfied, for in church, in processions, at parish meetings, they officially strut at the head of the flock of bigots. In gaining the trust of women, especially those who are wealthy, the Church has shown itself to be incomparable.
Finally, let us recall that at the time when Vespasian began the Judean War, in the year 67 AD, certain Jews, who fought ardently for the independence of their countries, were called Zealots. They were disciples of Judas of Galilee, and their influence was great for several years. The exactions of the Romans had, in fact, provoked a general revolt of the inhabitants of Palestine; but the excesses of the Zealots had disastrous consequences for the cause they wanted to serve. As always, when misery and distress are great, false messiahs, political prophets, and religious charlatans abounded. In Jerusalem itself, the Zealots pursued a violent struggle against the high priest Ananus. The latter besieged them in the temple which they had transformed into a citadel, but he was finally defeated following the betrayal of John of Gisela, his trusted man, and the intervention of the Idumeans who killed him as well as the other pontiff named Jesus. Having become masters of the city, the zealots were later divided into two factions, one commanded by John of Gisela, the other by Eleazar; a third faction was added later to the other two and recognized the authority of Simon, a formidable bandit leader. Frequent battles bloodied Jerusalem. When Titus besieged the city, a truce came between the factions, which did not prevent John of Gisela from getting rid of Eleazar by trickery. It was on September 8 of the year 70 that the capital of Palestine was taken. Most of the inhabitants were enslaved or killed. John implored the victors for mercy and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Simon was taken to Rome and, after appearing in triumph, was dragged with a rope around his neck, beaten with rods, and executed like a criminal. Thus disappeared the zealots who, even in the face of a common enemy, had not been able to agree to fight effectively.
— L. BARBEDETTE
ZÈLE
ZEAL
nm (from the Greek zelos, ardor, eagerness)
Zeal is the active ardor that one deploys in favor of a cause, an idea, or a person that one particularly loves. If old and foolish religions continue to prosper, if ignoble political parties attract a large clientele, it is because they have enthusiastic recruiters, whose proselytizing spirit is contagious. Because they allow themselves to be guided by feeling, not by reason, most men prove less sensitive to intellectual arguments than to emotional motives.
Certainly, we deplore the fact that the cold and naked truth finds so few lovers, even in our age of scientific progress, and that people continue to prefer fables or misleading myths to the rigid conclusions imposed by impartial observation and logical deduction. Let us hope that one day just causes will triumph by the sheer force of rational evidence. But, to hasten this happy time, a work of individual and collective education is necessary which, on the part of its protagonists, requires a great deal of zeal and disinterestedness. Zeal very different from the incoherent and disorderly agitation, the result of which usually proves negative; zeal which refuses to use coercion as our adversaries so readily do and which always remains respectful of the freedom of others. But methodical, thoughtful, tenacious zeal, which never leaves the field open to the enemies of truth, and whose persistence overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Personal example, kind understanding, and gentleness often win over minds more surely than violent criticism, sudden outbursts of bad humor, and petty and endless discussions. Nevertheless, harshness is sometimes appropriate; and one must know, in certain cases, how to respond sharply. Misunderstood and unseasonable zeal harms a cause much more than it serves it. Alongside opponents of bad faith, there is room for sincere opponents, who should not be put off by the cantankerous bitterness of ill-considered remarks.
Those who spend their lives criticizing others, without ever doing anything themselves, are doing negative work that is not without utility. However, when assessments reek of malice or bias, they do not enhance the person who expresses them. Let us not discourage enterprising and bold men who devote themselves to a fruitful and beautiful work, even if we personally consider it preferable to fold our arms.
— L. BARBEDETTE
ZODIAQUE
ZODIAC
nm (from the Greek zodiakos)
Great circle of the celestial sphere divided into twelve lines.
The path that the Sun appears to take in the sky, through its annual movement around the Earth, is called the ecliptic. In reality, it is our globe that revolves around the Sun, but by an effect of perspective the Sun appears to go around the sky in one year and the path of this apparent movement is therefore the ecliptic. The ancients called the Zodiac an area of 8 1/2 degrees on either side of the Ecliptic and divided it into 12 equal parts. This area offers two interesting features: it contains the apparent path of the Sun and the planets of the solar system, including the majority of asteroids constantly circulating within this area. The ancients grouped the stars of the Zodiac into 12 constellations that the Sun passes through successively during its positions in the sky, starting in spring with that of Aries. The zodiacal constellations are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
Two thousand years ago, at the time of the spring equinox, the Sun was in the constellation of Aries; currently, at the same time, it is in Pisces and soon, at the spring equinox, it will be in Aquarius. This backward movement is due to the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes which causes the Gamma point (vernal point) to retrograde by 50 arc seconds per year so that it completes its orbit around the sky in 25,765 years. This movement makes the tropical year or return of the Sun at the spring equinox a little shorter than the sidereal year. This is why, at present, the signs of the Zodiac no longer correspond to the constellations whose names they bear.
— Charles ALEXANDER.
ZOOLOGIE
ZOOLOGY
nf (from the Greek zoon, animal, logos, speech) Zoology is usually defined as the study of animals. And this definition is enough to give an idea of the importance and scope of this branch of natural science. In the broad sense, it even encompasses everything related to knowledge of the human body.
When it comes to inferior animals, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from plants. Generally speaking, animals manifest their sensitivity through movements or cries; they move at will and introduce into their mouths the food they have been able to grasp, thanks to movements that are usually quite complicated. Conversely, plants do not show any sensitivity; immobile and fixed to the ground, they only manage to feed themselves with the help of their roots and leaves. But these superficial and even arbitrary characteristics do not allow us to clearly differentiate the animal kingdom from the plant kingdom. Some plants are endowed with manifest sensitivity; and, according to very serious scientists, all plants, even the most apparently inert, have a sensitivity that delicate experiments can detect. The movements of the Sensitive Plant, the Sundew, the Venus Flytrap, the Bladderwort, etc., are noted in even elementary botany manuals. In the most common plants, pressure, light and gravity determine movements that are now perfectly understood.
In the world of the infinitely small, it becomes almost impossible to know, in certain cases, whether we are in the presence of animals or plants, because the latter move as easily as the former. It is thanks to the presence of certain elements, chlorophyll for example, that we make a distinction that necessarily remains questionable and arbitrary.
The number of animal species existing on the globe is prodigious. To study them more easily, they are reduced to hierarchical and increasingly general groups, which allow us to identify the essential characteristics of the different beings, to coordinate them and to establish relationships between them in accordance with those that actually exist in nature. We thus arrive at a classification, which is in no way arbitrary, since it is based on the deep and permanent characteristics of the species studied.
The most general division of animals consists of classifying them into Vertebrates and Invertebrates. Vertebrates will themselves be subdivided into Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Batrachians, Fish. Invertebrates will include Articulates, Sponges, and Protozoa. Each of these groups will be the subject of numerous divisions and subdivisions, which are discussed at length in zoology books. Anatomy and physiology occupy an increasingly important place in the natural sciences; the purely descriptive part is no longer considered the essential element. Since man himself is only a more perfected animal, we can and must compare what we know about the constitution and functioning of his organism with what zoology reveals to us concerning the anatomy and physiology of other animals. From these comparisons emerges valuable information that is used in general biology and even medicine.
To give an overview of the main groups constituting the animal diet would take us too far and would hardly fit in with the spirit of this Encyclopedia. But, when it comes to animals, a plea is necessary, we believe, in favor of these habitual victims of human cruelty. In theory, if not in practice, the charity of Westerners is willing to extend to our species in its different varieties; it does not go beyond this restricted domain where the love of self retains a preponderant place. The Orient, so despised, had to show the way; and recently it has been permitted, among us, to be kind to certain animals without covering oneself with ridicule. To men the free disposal of the goods of this world, and survival in the next: for them pain has a price, tears call for a reward, for justice is due to them at least beyond the grave. The blows, the fatigue, with the meager joys of a poor pittance, the annihilation at the end, that is enough, think our Catholics, for the rest of the earthlings. Interested, ungenerous reasoning, where contradictions abound, because, in the eyes of the universe, the pains and pleasures of man must be very close to those of the animal. They prove a love of existence, legitimate certainly, but exclusive, which accommodates injustice when it is profitable.
A broadening of our pity is necessary, an extension of our benevolence to the humble forms of life, to all that suffers and dies. By forgetting to prescribe it, Western morals and religions have allowed, for centuries, the silent pains of our innocent and sometimes so faithful brothers to multiply. In the profusion of species sown by nature, some animals are harmful, others useful. We destroy the former out of self-interest; the fate of the latter is rarely better, for it is for their flesh that we usually feed them. By common consent, prolonging their agony, multiplying their pains would be criminal. Certainly, nature gives us the example of cruelty. Without pity as without scruples, it delivers the weak as prey to the strong; it sometimes makes the love of carnage, the thirst for blood, necessary conditions of existence. As much as a mother, it is a tomb; it readily associates joy with pain, and the plant itself is not exempt, perhaps, from imprecise sufferings.
But man has passed this stage, thanks to his conscience and his reason; he is no longer the slave of a blind nature. It is up to him, therefore, to soften, at the very least, the death of the beast; and let an end be put to the atrocious vivisections, practiced without prior anesthesia by heartless medical students. Science, let us hope, will one day discover new and happy possibilities, which will safeguard the lives of our silent servants; the destruction of germs will ensure the painless disappearance of dangerous species. From today, let us put an end to the martyrdom of the eternal children that are animals. Children in whom strange virtualities slumber: as proof, those who think and calculate like humans. May they be companions and friends for us, not scapegoats!
Let us also understand that in the universe everything is linked and held together, that close relationships connect us to the animal and the plant. In the heart of nature, when the swell of greens with infinite shades is studded with brilliant flowers, when the corollas pour out their perfumes in torrents, and the thousand sounds of life rise in harmonious concert, the self can melt, vibrating in unison with a sovereign rhythm. And before the eternal torment of the agitated sea, and before the haughty peaks with virginal robes, the limited horizon of our person also expands, in a divine flight. Tremblings of a soul sensitive to the shivers of the earth; intimate communion of men and things; total fraternity in the universality of what lives.
Poetry, one might say. Poetry, no doubt, but one that has the merit of merging with the truth; poetry whose roots are plunged, not into fiction, but into a knowledge that is not obscured by any prejudice. For it is evident today, the fundamental identity of what thinks and what lives, of what lives and what is. Minerals, plants, animals, humans, like the branches in the tree, the greenery and the flowers, are only the stages of the same living becoming. Starting from common seeds, they come together in a similar destiny; beneath the diversity of forms and transitory individualities is revealed the perpetuity of primordial elements. Death can only affect the ephemeral synthesis of persons; everything moves, everything lives in the cosmos, and inorganic matter itself conceals muted aspirations. Pity is therefore not deceptive which inclines us towards the wounded bird or the dying rose; and it is a work of redemption to teach men that it is time to love one another. The interdependence of earthlings is a fact that positive research has made more certain. And, since the potentialities of love and thought, dormant in plants, blossom in magnificent blooms in man, it is up to him to establish the era of sovereign peace, to him to submit the world to the empire of reason.
— L. BARBEDETTE
