Aucient Egyptian treading the Conquered under Feet.
sion in the East for triumphing over a fallen foe. In the numerous battle-scenes depicted on the monuments of ancient Egypt and Assyria, we see the monarchs fre- quently represented treading on the necks of their ene- mies; and a similar practice obtained among the He- brews. When Joshua had conquered the five kings, he " said unto the captains of the men of war which went
Darius trampling upon a Captive. (From the rock of Behistuu [q. v.].)
with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And thej' came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them" (Josh, x, 24; comp. 2 Sam. xxii, 41). In India, when people are disputing, should one be a lit- tle pressed, and the other begin to triumph, the former will say, "I will tread upon thy neck, and after that beat thee." A low caste man insulting one who is high is sure to hear some one say to the offended individual, "Put your feet on his neck." Nor was this custom peculiar to the East; Quintus Curtius, relating the par- ticulars of a single combat between Dioxippus, an Athe- nian, and Horratus, a Macedonian, says that, in the end, the former, closing with the latter, struck up his heels, and threw him with great violence on the ground ; then, after taking his sword from him, he set his foot upon Ms neck, and was about to dash out his brains, when the king (Alexander) interposed his authority to prevent him. See Triumph.
Necker, Jacques, an eminent financier and relig- ious statesman, father of the noted French female writ- er, Madame de Stael, was born of distinguished parent- age in 1732. He was sent to Paris in his youth, and was employed in the house of Thcllusson, the great bank- er, who, after a time, took him into partncrsliip. Necker realized a very large fortune, and retired from business at forty years of age. He now be- gan to aspire to official situations, and wrote sev- eral works on financial affairs, which made him favorably known. One of these works, a memoir upon the French finances, suggesting the means of making up the deficiency in the revenue, and forwarded to the minister Maurepas, the presi- dent of the council of finances, so delighted this French statesman that he obtained for the author, from Louis XYI, after some hesitation, as Necker was an alien and a Protestant, the appointment of director of the treasury in 1776. Necker was appointed director -general of finances in June, 1777, but without a seat in the council; being averse to imposing new taxes, he endeavored to make up the national income by economy and loans. In 1781 he published his Compte Rendu, which disclosed for the first time the state of the revenue and expenditure of France, and made him numerous enemies, and he resigned in May, 1781. He withdrew to Switzerland, where he purchased an estate at Copet, on the banks of the Leman Lake, and there he wrote liis work Ski- V Administration des Finances, 1784. In 1787 Necker returned to Paris, where he wrote against Calonne', who had just been dismissed from his office of comptroller-general of the finances, and he was in consequence banished from the capital, but was soon after recalled. In the following year (August, 1788), on the resignation of Brienne, and at the suggestion of that minister, Louis XVI appointed Necker director-general of finances, as the only man capable of restoring order
NECKER
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in the administration. The king had already promised the convocation of the states-general, and Necker urged him to keep his promise. But lie failed as a statesman in not arranging heforehand a plan for the sittings of those states, so as to prevent the collision that took place on their first meeting. In fact Necker was a finan- cier, but not a statesman; he was a philosopher and a man of letters, but not a jurist or a legislator, and he was thus considered by a man well qualified to judge of these matters. His second ministry was short. Un- able to check or direct the popular storm, and not en- joying the confidence of the court, Necker, unwilling to become the reproach of the agitators, quitted his place and the kingdom. On the 11th of July, 17«it, he set off for Switzerland. After the taking of the IJastille, the National Assembly demanded the recall of Necker, and Louis complied. Necker was received in triumph, but his popularity was short-lived. lie did not go far enough to please the movement-men. In December of the following year, 1790, he gave in his resignation to the National Assembly, which received it with cool in- difference. He spent the remainder of his life in Swit- zerland, in retirement and study, and wrote several political tracts. He had written, several years before, a work, De V Importance des Opinions liclif/icuses (trans- lated into l'",nglish under the title Of the I mpoi-tunce of Ji<-li;/iiiii.f Opinions [London, 1788, 8vo]). This work is eminently able and serviceable to Christianity. In 1800 he published his last and greatest work on the re- ligious view of morality. This work is highly es- teemed, and secured a prominent rank for Necker as a moralist. He died in April, 1804. His works were col- lected and published by his accomplished daughter in 15 vols. 8vo (1821). See Madame de Stael, Vie privee (h M. Jacques Necker (1804-1821); Lanjuinais, Etudes biorjrijph. sur Antoine Arnauld, P. Xicole, et .1. Necker (1823) ; Sainte-Beuve, Causei-ies du Lnndi, vii, 329 sq. ; Kdinh. Rev. Jan. 1803 : Engl. Cyclop, s. v. ; Darling, Cycl. Biblio;;. ii, 21GG.