Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/211

 CONCORD &c. The only building fired was the court house, which was not much damaged. Some indignities were offered to individuals, and there was a little pillaging. About noon the retreat commenced, and the enemy were fol- lowed along the road to Lexington by the pro- vincials, who inflicted much injury upon them. Concord had five men wounded in the action. So far as the deliberate purpose of the Ameri- cans was concerned, the revolution was begun by the determination of the militia officers to march upon the North bridge ; and the first order to fire upon the royal troops came from Major Buttrick. In 1835 a granite obelisk, 28 ft. high, including the base, which is 5 ft. broad, was erected on the spot where the first British soldiers fell, with a suitable inscrip- tion. The grave in which two British soldiers were buried, supposed to have been the first who fell in the war, is near the monument. The spot is one of great rural beauty. The road along which the troops marched has been many years closed, and the bridge over which the first volleys of the revolution were exchanged has long since disappeared. Du- ring the war Concord contributed largely of men and money to the common cause, and sent great quantities of fuel, hay, provisions, and clothing to the army. Though the population was but 1,300, it had 174 men in the army of 1775 ; and at later periods of the war its con- duct was equally spirited. The money to pay the soldiers was raised by the town. Harvard college was removed to Concord in 1775, when the college buildings at Cambridge were oc- cupied by a portion of the American army then besieging Boston. It returned to Cambridge in June, 1776. Concord is distinguished by its quiet beauty. The sluggish character of Con- cord river, which falls into the Merrimack at Lowell, 15 m. distant, after a total course of about 40 m., has prevented it from being turned to manufacturing purposes, and its natural beau- ties have been preserved. There are, however, a cotton mill and a pail and tub factory. There are good schools, two or three churches, a bank, and an insurance company. The Assa- bet, which falls into the Concord, not far from the scene of the battle, is a stream of singular beauty, and both have been made familiar to the world by the writings of Thoreau and Haw- thorne. The quiet and repose of the place have made it a favorite with men of letters. Ralph Waldo Emerson, grandson of the Rev. "William Emerson, who was pastor there in the revolution, and an eminent patriot, resides there ; and Hawthorne and Thoreau were also residents of the village. The "Mosses from an Old Manse," one of Hawthorne's finest works, takes its name from the fact that it was partial- ly written, and entirely arranged, in the par- sonage house of the Rev. Dr. Ezra Ripley, who was pastor at Concord from 1778 to 1842. A public library building, presented to the town by Mr. AY. 0. Munroe, was opened Oct. 1, 1873, the library containing 10,267 volumes. 219 VOL. v. 14 CONCORDAT 207 CONCORDANCE, a book which contains all or the principal words that occur in the Bible, ar- ranged in alphabetical order, with references to the book, chapter, and verse in which each occurs, designed to assist the inquirer to find any passage of Scripture of which he may re- member one or more words. Concordances of the Hebrew and Greek texts have been made, and of the principal modern translations. The earliest concordances were of the Latin Vulgate, in the 13th century, the first being that of Antonius of Padua, and the second that of Cardinal Hugo de St. Cher. Euthalius of Rhodes made one of the Greek text about the year 1300, which was however lost; and the task was performed again for the New Testament, in the middle of the 16th century, by Betuleius, and for the Septuagint, at the beginning of the 17th, by Konrad Kircher. The latter work was improved by Trommius about 1690, and the former by Henry Stephens about 1600, and still further by Schmidt in 1638. The most recent Greek concordance is that of Bruder (Leipsic, 1843). The first He- brew concordance was completed by Rabbi Isaac ben Calonymos Nathan about 1438, was printed at Venice in 1523, and again in 1564, and has been improved by Calasio (Rome, 1621), Buxtorf (Basel, 1632), and Ftirst (Leip- sic, 1837 et seq.). All the concordances, ex- cept the Hebrew, prior to the editions of the Bible by Robert Stephens (about 1550), which first contained the Greek and Lathi texts di- vided into verses, made references only to chap- ters, and then indicated whether the passage was near the beginning, middle, or end of the chapter, by the letters a, 5, c, &c. The first English concordance was of the New Testa- ment, by Thomas Gybson, prior to 1540. The earliest English concordance of the entire Bible is that of Marbeck (1550). Cruden's "Com- plete Concordance " (1737, and often since) is the basis of every English concordance since published. The best edition is that of the society for the promotion of Christian knowl- edge (London, 1859). This, however, is far from complete, many important words being wholly omitted. An "Exhaustive Concor- dance," by James Strong, is announced (1873) as nearly ready for publication. In " The English- man's Hebrew Concordance" (London, 1843), and " The Englishman's Greek Concordance " (London and New York, 1848), the words in the original tongues are given in their alpha- betical order, but the passages are quoted from the English version. Similar alphabetical vo- cabularies of other books than the Bible are termed concordances, as the concordance to Shakespeare, by Mary Cowden Clarke. CONCORDAT, a treaty or agreement entered into by the see of Rome with a secular prince or government, touching one or more points of ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman Catholic church is governed by her own laws and observ- ances in all matters not definitely settled by Christ or his apostles. (See CAXON LAW.)