PART IV.

EXHIBITORS’ DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE.

INDEX TO ADVERTISEMENTS.

GROUND FLOOR:--SOUTH-WEST SIDE: Page STATIONERY COURT.--COURT OF INVENTIONS 179 HARDWARE COURT 180 BIRMINGHAM COURT 181 SHEFFIELD COURT.--MINERAL MANUFACTURES COURT.--HEATH’S BATH WHEEL CHAIR DEPARTMENT 182

GROUND FLOOR:--SOUTH-EAST SIDE: FOREIGN GLASS MANUFACTURES COURT 182

FRENCH COURT:--CARRIAGE DEPARTMENT 183

EAST GALLERY:--CENTRAL TRANSEPT 184

SOUTH-EAST GALLERY 185

SOUTH GALLERY:--PICTURE GALLERY 186

WEST GALLERY:--CENTRAL TRANSEPT 187

NORTH TRANSEPT:--TROPICAL DEPARTMENT 189

BASEMENT: MACHINERY 189 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS 190

EXHIBITORS’ DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE

Stationery Court.

SPECIMENS of ORNAMENTAL DESIGN for BOOK-BINDING, &c. Exhibited by JOHN LEIGHTON, F.S.A.

GEORGE ROWNEY & Co., 51, Rathbone Place, London.--Specimens of Drawing and Painting Materials. Specimens of Chromo-Lithography.

NATURE PRINTING.--The specimens exhibited of this new process for obtaining life-like or physiotypic impressions of plants are mostly of FERNS and MOSSES, but the process is still further peculiarly applicable to the representation of the GRASSES, the LICHENS, and the SEA-WEEDS. These results are obtained by placing the specimen to be copied upon a plate of soft lead, with a highly-polished surface, and passing it, at a high pressure, between hard steel rollers. The specimen leaves its impression upon the lead, and gives not only its outline, but also the most delicate elevations and depressions of its surface with that sharpness and fidelity as to present a _perfect fac-simile_ of the original specimen in its natural size. The lead plate thus impressed--not being practically available for printing purposes--is copied by the electrotype process, by which a copper plate (the image on which is perfectly identical with the original impressed lead plate) is obtained, which can be printed from at an ordinary copper-plate press.

NATURE PRINTING was introduced into England by Mr. HENRY BRADBURY, in 1853; the first application of the process has been most successfully exemplified by him in the magnificent folio Edition of “THE FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,” NATURE PRINTED. Descriptions by THOMAS MOORE, F.L.S.; Edited by Dr. LINDLEY. Imperial folio, with 51 Nature-Printed plates. Price £6 6_s._

J. JONES & CO.,

21, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

First Class Pianofortes from Twenty-four Guineas.

EXHIBITORS IN LONDON AND PARIS EXHIBITIONS.

JARRETT’S IMPROVED EMBOSSING, COPYING, and PATENT ENDORSING PRESSES.

Chief Depôt, 37, Poultry, City.

WATERLOW & SONS, London Wall, Birchin Lane, and Parliament Street, London, Stationers, Account Book and Envelope Manufacturers.

Court of Inventions.

BRYAN CORCORAN & CO., 36, MARK LANE,

OBTAINED Prize Medal at the London Universal Exhibition, 1851, for finest Specimen of METALLIC CLOTH; and in Paris Industrial Exhibition of 1855, MODEL of IMPROVED DRYING KILN for Malt and all other Grain, on a scale of one inch to the foot. The improvements are economy of fuel, regularity of heat, and prevention of condensation of steam.

Specimens of Paper Machine Wires of all widths to 108 inches. Woven Brass Wire, No. 150 X 160, 24,000 holes to the square inch, half yard wide. Twilled Copper and Brass, 1,120 shoots in one inch, the finish woven. Iron Woven Wire, 1,000 holes in one inch. Copper Wire or Thread, 3,000 yards to one ounce. Brass Wire or Thread, 1,300 yards to one ounce. Iron Wire or Thread, 542 yards to one ounce. Improved Wire Work for Screens, Sieves, &c. Strong Woven Wire for Malt Kilns, Smut Machines, &c. Swiss Silk for dressing flour. French Millstone for grinding wheat.

AWARDED A PRIZE MEDAL UNDER CLASS XIX.

TO THE CARPET TRADE.--ROYAL VICTORIA FELT CARPETING.

The Patent Woollen Cloth. Company beg to inform the trade that their NEW PATTERNS in CARPETS and TABLE COVERS for the present season are now out, and will be found far superior to any they have hitherto produced, both in style and variety. The public can be supplied at all respectable Carpet Houses in London and the country.

The Company deem it necessary to caution the public against parties who are selling an inferior description of goods as Felted Carpets, which will not bear comparison with their manufacture, either in style or durability; and that the genuineness of the goods can always be tested by purchasers, as the Company’s carpets are all stamped at both ends of the piece, “Royal Victoria Carpeting, London,” with the Royal arms in the centre.

The Company’s Manufactories are at Elmwood Mills, Leeds, and Borough Road, London. Wholesale Warehouses at

8, LOVE LANE, WOOD STREET, CHEAPSIDE.

Hardware Court.

A FIRST-CLASS SILVER MEDAL has been awarded to NYE and Co., at the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855, for their Improved

Patent Sausage-making and General Mincing Machine,

For private families, hotel-keepers, &c. Price £1 10s., £2 2s., and £3 3s. Also a small Mincer for the dinner table, to assist digestion, loss of teeth, &c., price from 30s. A Patent Coffee Mill, price 10s.

Testimonials sent free.

79, WARDOUR STREET, SOHO.

FLAVEL’S PRIZE KITCHENER.--The only Kitchen Range which obtained a Prize Medal and Special Approbation at the Great Exhibition. Sole Agents, BENHAM & SONS, 19, WIGMORE STREET, LONDON.

BENHAM & SONS, Manufacturers of Drawing Room and other Stoves, Fenders, Fire Irons, Gas and Hot Water Apparatus, Baths, Kitchen Ranges, and Dinner Lifts. 19, WIGMORE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, LONDON.

THE PAXTON FLOWER BASKETS.--W. COGGER, Manufacturer, and Ornamental Wire Worker to the Crystal Palace Company. Garden Arches, Aviaries, Rose Temples, Flower Stands, Trainers, &c. Address, Westow Hill, Upper Norwood, Surrey, S.

JAMES RUSSELL & SONS, Crown Tube Works, Wednesbury, and 81, Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, S. Patent Lap-Welded Tubes for Gas, Steam, and other purposes.

GEORGE JENNINGS, Engineering, Building, and Sanitary Appliances, 5, HOLLAND STREET, BLACKFRIARS ROAD, LONDON.

PATENT COOKERY STOVES, which obtained a Prize Medal from England and France. DALEY & SONS, NORTHAMPTON.

BY HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL LETTERS PATENT.

THE LOVERS’ LAMPS, price Five Shillings each. No dressing or trimming required.

EDMUND SPILLER, 98, HOLBORN HILL, LONDON.

BACHELORS’ KETTLES, from 3s. each. Self-acting Cooking Apparatus to Fit the above, 1s. 6d. each.

EDMUND SPILLER, 98, HOLBORN HILL, LONDON.

PIERCE’S IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-LUMP GRATES.

PIERCE’S CELEBRATED

FRESH AIR WARMING AND VENTILATING

FIRE LUMP GRATES,

FOR the production of HEALTHFUL WARMTH and CONTINUOUS VENTILATION--for which the PRIZE MEDAL of the GREAT EXHIBITION of 1851 was awarded to PIERCE, the INVENTOR and SOLE MANUFACTURER--at prices from 50s. to 150s. upwards.

PIERCE’S PYRO-PNEUMATIC

Warming and Ventilating STOVE GRATES,

WHICH received the SOCIETY of ARTS’ LARGE BRONZE MEDAL in 1859, is now in universal use, warming CHURCHES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, HALLS, BANKING-HOUSES, SCHOOLS, WAREHOUSES, SHOPS, &c., &c., &c. Prices, £7 10s. to £25.

Also his IMPROVED COTTAGER’S GRATE, for warming two rooms with only one fire. Price 30s. and 35s. And his ECONOMICAL RADIATING FIRE LUMP DRAWING-ROOM GRATES, made in a VARIETY OF ELEGANT DESIGNS. Prospectuses and Testimonials will be forwarded on application to PIERCE, at his Manufactory and Warehouse,

5, JERMYN STREET, REGENT STREET.

TWO Prize Medals were Awarded, at the Paris Exhibition, for LYON’S SAUSAGE CUTTING and MAKING MACHINE, Manufactured in Four Sizes, price £1 10s. to £6 6s. Also his Small Machines for the Dinner Table, used to assist digestion, Loss of Teeth, &c. These are made to keep the cooked food hot while being cut up.

An Improved Chopping Knife, for chopping suet, parsley, &c., fitted to a strong board. Also an Improved Cucumber or Potato Slicer.

Prepared Skins for Sausages, warranted to keep in any climate. A much-approved Seasoning Mixture for Sausages, &c.

A. LYON, Patentee and Manufacturer, 32, WINDMILL STREET, FINSBURY, LONDON.

Circular, with Plates, Price, and Testimonials, sent post free.

Birmingham Court.

JOSIAH WOOLDRIDGE, Manufacturer of Cabinet Brass Foundry, Brass Fittings, Brass Toy Cannons, Mortars, Anchors, Bells, and a variety of other Brass Toys. 38, St. Paul’s Square, Birmingham.

G. B. LLOYD & Co., Manufacturers of Lapwelded Iron Tubes for Steam Boilers, Gas and Steam Tubing, &c., Berkeley Tube Works, Gas Street, Birmingham.

JOHN C. ONIONS, Manufacturer of Smiths’ Bellows for Anchor Smiths, Machinists, and others, Patent Circular, House, Library, and every description of Fancy Bellows, Patent Water and other Tue Irons, Anvils, Vices, and Hammers, Improved Blowing Machines, &c., Bradford Street, Birmingham.

CHARLES ALLDRIDGE & SON, Cabinet and Stationery Case Manufacturers, Regent Parade, Caroline Street, Birmingham.

THE PATENT CRYSTAL WINDOW BARS, adapted for Domestic Windows, Shop Fronts, Conservatories, Skylights, Verandahs, Exhibition and Counter Cases, Aquariums, Fern Cases, &c., &c., combining perfect transmission of light, durability against rust or decay, and economy in the facility with which they are kept clean.

Aquariums with Slate or Marble Bottoms of various sizes, with or without Fountains, also of glass.

Manufactured by LLOYD & SUMMERFIELD, Park Glass-Works, Birmingham.

All kinds of Flint Glass, cut and plain, Coloured Window Sheet, Optical Sheet, Coloured Lenses, &c., &c.

GEORGE HAINES PARKES, General Coach, and Harness Furniture Manufacturer, for Home and Exportation, 10 and 11, St. Mary’s Row, Birmingham.

MESSRS. ELKINGTON, MASON, & Co., Exhibit Specimens of their Electro-Plate and Fine Art Manufactures, between the Sheffield and Birmingham Courts, in the Nave.

Sheffield Court.

ÆOLIAN PITCH-PIPES, TUNING FORKS, CHROMATIC FORKS, PORTABLE METRONOMES, TUNING HAMMERS, REED METAL. EDWARD GREAVES, 76, Milton Street, Sheffield.

Mineral Manufactures Court.

TO GOLD, SILVER, ANTIMONY, STEEL, AND BRASS MELTERS AND REFINERS.

THE PATENT PLUMBAGO CRUCIBLE COMPANY, BATTERSEA WORKS, LONDON, S.W.,

MANUFACTURERS to the ROYAL MINTS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, RUSSIA, PRUSSIA, HOLLAND, BELGIUM, AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, AUSTRALIA, &c., and every Gold and Silver Refiner in London, direct attention to the great superiority of their Patent Plumbago and other Melting Pots and Crucibles.

PRICE LISTS AND TESTIMONIALS ON APPLICATION.

Heath’s Bath Wheel Chair Department.

J. HEATH, 4, Broad Street, Bath, Maker to the Sovereigns of England, France, Spain, &c. &c., Manufacturer of the Chair presented by Her Majesty to the Empress of the French.

Foreign Glass Manufactures Court.

FRANCIS STEIGERWALD, Bohemian and Bavarian Coloured Glass Manufacturer, Munich.--Large Assortment constantly exhibited at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.

French Court.

=JEWELLERY.=--Bracelets, Brooches, Chains, Lockets, Charms, Keys, Seals, Ear-rings, Studs, Sleeve Links, Gem and Signet Rings, &c., in Gold, Silver, Pebble, Tortoiseshell, Ivory, Jet. Also in Electro-plating and Gilding.

=FANS.=--Bone, Ivory, Pearl, Enamelled, and Sandal Wood (with Spangles or Painting), in Paper, Linen, Battiste, Kid, Silk, &c. Pocket Opera Glass, Shade, Bouquet, and other novelties.

=LEATHER GOODS.=--Reticules, Etwees, Housewifes, Bags (fitted or unfitted), Dressing Cases, Desks, Blotters, Papeteries, Envelope, Stationery, and Etui Cases, Pocket Books, Porte Monnaies, City Purses, Season Ticket and Sermon Cases, Music Rolls, Needle Books, Cigar and Card Cases, &c. PAPIER MACHE of every variety, in Plain, Inlaid, and Mediæval Work.

=CABINET WARE= of all descriptions, in Mahogany, Walnut, Ebony, Oak, Rosewood, Amboyna, Cedar, Coromandel, and other Woods.

=SUNDRIES.=--Pearl, Ivory, Scotchwood, and other works, in variety too numerous to particularise.

CUTLERY, PERFUMERY, BONBONS, PRINTS, &c., &c., CLOCKS, BRONZES, MODERATEUR LAMPS, &c., &c.

RUMSEY’S IMPROVED PLATE POWDER.

MANUFACTORIES--LONDON, BIRMINGHAM, SHEFFIELD, WHITBY, PARIS, FRANKFORT, DIEPPE, AND BERLIN.

ROBERT HOLT,

PROPRIETOR.

Carriage Department.

CARRIAGES BY THE AID OF MACHINERY.

KINDER & M^{c}NAUGHT,

MANUFACTURERS,

WORCESTER,

BEG respectfully to invite the attention of all purchasers to the many Improvements recently introduced by them into modern Carriages. The style and excellence of their work is rarely equalled by the most expensive builders in London, and has the advantage of being produced at a moderate price,--a result mainly arrived at by an extensive adaptation of machinery, such as no other house in the trade possesses.

A communication by letter, or the favour of a call at their Works,--where, in addition to employing upwards of 100 hands, they have erected engines of 25-horse power, which, with the above, and several newly patented adjustments, may be seen in full operation,--is respectfully solicited.

SWAINE AND ADENEY, Whip Manufacturers to the Queen and Royal Family, Prize Medal awarded at the Exhibition of 1851.--No. 185, Piccadilly, London.

ROCK AND SON, Patentees of the Dioropha and other improved Carriages. Manufactory at Hastings. Export orders carefully packed.

BLACKWELL’S

PATENT SADDLERY AND HARNESS MANUFACTORY, &c.,

359, OXFORD STREET, NEAR THE MARBLE ARCH, LONDON.

AWARDED THE PRIZE MEDAL, LONDON. and THE ONLY 1st CLASS SILVER MEDAL FOR SADDLERY, PARIS.

“GUTTA PERCHA JOCKEYS,” for Breaking Horses Temperate and Easy-mouthed, with vulcanized Rubber Spring Reins of varied strengths, 54s. to 60s. Above a thousand in use; Hire, 2s. per week.

SAFETY SPRINGS FOR RIDING AND DRIVING REINS TO BOTH BITS, one Rein in hand 4s. to 6s.

STRAPS TO PREVENT CRIB-BITING, LINED WITH CLOTH, 18s. Three sorts of crib-muzzles, 18s.

VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER SPRINGS FOR SADDLE STRAPS, GIRTHS, ROLLERS, BELTS, ETC., 2s.

BRASS, IRON, AND GERMAN SILVER (VULCANISED RUBBER SPRING) HOOKS FOR BRIDLES, REINS, WHIPS, CHAINS, ETC., Waterproof Kersey Knee Wrappers, Driving Aprons, Loin Cloths, and Horse Clothing. Web Fetlock, Speedy, Splint, Leg, Strengthening, and Knee Boots, with Rubber Knee Caps, 8s. to 12s.

To be seen, and the utility explained, in the Carriage Department, Crystal Palace.

East Gallery--Central Transept.

GOODYEAR’S “VULCANITE” COURT,

CENTRAL TRANSEPT GALLERY, GARDEN SIDE.

VISITORS to the Crystal Palace should inspect the above beautiful Court, which is built and furnished throughout with “Vulcanite,” or hard India Rubber, and where may be purchased

Combs, Canes, Brooches, Boxes, Opera Glasses, Penholders, Book-marks, Cigar Cases, Pencils, Rings, Brushes, Flasks, Drinking Cups, Paper Knives, Surgical Instruments, &c. &c.

The Patent Woollen-Surfaced Waterproof Coats and Capes, equal to finest cloth--Overshoes--the Percussion Pencil--The Musical Toys--and innumerable other things made of the same material.

This new manufacture of India Rubber excels Ivory and hard wood in beauty of polish, durability, and elasticity. The Council Medal, Great Exhibition, 1851, and Grande Medaille d’Honneur, Exposition Universelle, 1855, were awarded, and are on view as above.

Wholesale Warehouse, 47, Leicester Square, London, W.C.

South-East Gallery.

THE BEST AND CHEAPEST TEAS IN ENGLAND

ARE AT ALL TIMES TO BE OBTAINED OF

PHILLIPS AND COMPANY,

TEA MERCHANTS,

8, KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY, LONDON.

For the convenience of Visitors to the Crystal Palace, SAMPLE PACKETS of PHILLIPS & CO.’S RARE TEAS, COFFEES, and CHOCOLATES may be obtained at their Stand, in the South-East Gallery.

FRENCH CHOCOLATE,

As supplied to HER MAJESTY and the ROYAL FAMILY, may be obtained of PHILLIPS & COMPANY, in the South-East Gallery, and at 8, King William Street, City.

TEAS, COFFEES, AND SPICES SENT CARRIAGE FREE

To any Railway Station or Market Town in England, if to the value of 40s. or upwards.

PHILLIPS & COMPANY, TEA AND COLONIAL MERCHANTS, 8, KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY, LONDON. SUGARS ARE SUPPLIED AT MARKET PRICES.

_A Price Current is published every month, containing all the advantages of the_ LONDON MARKETS, _and is sent free by post on application_.

South Gallery.

PERAMBULATORS, ROCKING HORSES, NURSERY YACHTS, BABY JUMPERS, &c.--MEAD and POWELL, Manufacturers and Patentees of the above articles, invite the attention of Parents and Guardians to the above useful inventions for Children. They have always on hand an extensive stock to select from; with every description of FOREIGN and ENGLISH TOYS. Also, a large assortment of BAGATELLE BOARDS, FANCY GOODS, &c., &c.

Agents for the Sale of Crystal Palace Season Tickets.

SOUTH EASTERN BAZAAR, 6, 7, 9, RAILWAY ARCADE, LONDON BRIDGE.

GLASS SHADES.

CLAUDET AND HOUGHTON,

89, HIGH HOLBORN.

PAINTED, STAINED, AND ORNAMENTAL WINDOW GLASS.

CLAUDET AND HOUGHTON, 89, HIGH HOLBORN.

Picture Gallery.

Having passed through the Picture Gallery, we arrive at the

West Gallery--Central Transept.

JOSEPH MORGAN,

PLATTED CANDLE WICK MANUFACTURER for all descriptions of Hard Material Candles. PATENTEE of SELF-CONSUMING WICK for Tallow, Mould, and Dip Candles. Patent Moulding Machines for making Spermaceti, Stearine, Composite, or Tallow Candles. Pewterer and Manufacturer of all descriptions of Candle Machinery.

DUCIE WORKS, MANCHESTER.

PHILLIPS AND COMPANY’S

CELEBRATED TEAS AND COFFEES,

AS EXHIBITED HERE, MAY BE PURCHASED AT THEIR STAND, IN THE SOUTH-EAST GALLERY, OPPOSITE. SEE CATALOGUE OE S.E. GALLERY.

SAMPLES OF RARE AND CURIOUS TEAS,

EXHIBITED BY

PHILLIPS AND COMPANY,

TEA MERCHANTS,

8, KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY, LONDON.

JONAS BROOK AND BROS.,

MELTHAM MILLS, NEAR HUDDERSFIELD.

THE ONLY PRIZE MEDAL FOR SEWING COTTON, &c., AT THE LONDON EXHIBITION, 1851.

The only First-Class Prize Medal for Sewing Cotton, &c., at the Paris Exhibition, 1855.

WHITE, BLACK, AND COLOURS.

Patent Glacé--6 and 9 Cords--Patent Cord--Sewing Machine Cottons. The Name and Goat’s Head Crest is on every reel.

Embroidering and Crochet Cottons--Upholsterer’s Colours--All lengths are guaranteed.

May be obtained retail of all respectable Haberdashers in London and the Provinces.

WHOLESALE: 20, CANNON STREET WEST, LONDON.

See their Case as it appeared in Paris in this Gallery. Specimens of their Manufacture are on sale by E. SUMNER, SOUTH GALLERY, CRYSTAL PALACE.

PERFUMERY, COMBS, BRUSHES, TURKEY SPONGE, and every requisite for the Toilet, of the very best description, and in great variety, at J. & E. ATKINSON’S, 24, Old Bond Street, London.

J. & E. ATKINSON beg leave to recommend their New Perfumes, the CRYSTAL PALACE and TURKISH BOUQUETS, samples of which, with several others, are always open for inspection.

EAU DE COLOGNE, from J. M. Farina, opposite Julliers Place, Cologne.

THE POCKET SIPHONIA,

Or WATERPROOF OVERCOAT, weight 10 oz.

NOTICE.--Name and Address stamped inside. None other are genuine.

EDMISTON & SON, WATERPROOFERS, 69, STRAND.

RUPTURES--BY ROYAL LETTERS PATENT.

WHITE’S MOC-MAIN LEVER TRUSS is allowed by upwards of 200 Medical Gentlemen to be the most effective invention in the curative treatment of Hernia.

ELASTIC STOCKINGS, KNEE CAPS, &c.

JOHN WHITE, Manufactory, 228, Piccadilly, London.

RICHARD GUNTER, Motcombe and Lowndes Street, Albert Gate.

Bride Cakes.--Wedding Breakfasts furnished complete with Wines and Attendance.

WALTER EVANS & CO., Boar’s Head Cotton Manufactory, DERBY, EXHIBIT:--

SPOOLS IN CROCHET, GLACE THREAD, 3, 6, and 9 Cord SEWING COTTONS.

BALL COTTONS (various sizes).

SEWINGS, TAMBOURS, CORDS, AND BONNET COTTONS, in Skeins.

KNITTINGS, MENDINGS, FRENCH AND ENGLISH EMBROIDERING COTTONS.

COTTONS IN PROCESS.

STAYS SUPERSEDED.--RUMBLE’S IMPROVED ELASTIC BODICE, recommended by eminent Physicians.--This superior and much-improved Elastic Bodice can with confidence be offered to Ladies as surpassing any yet made; it fastens easily in front, retains its firmness and elasticity, and by a peculiar system adopted by Mrs. RUMBLE, a perfect fit is ensured. Prices of Bodices, 12s. 6d., 14s., 16s., 21s. to 42s., and upwards. To be obtained only of the Manufacturer, M. RUMBLE, 2, Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square (opposite the Savings Bank), London.

CORK SOLES.

SAMPLES of various descriptions, chiefly remarkable for thinness and durability, PATENT CORK LININGS, for the upper parts of boots and shoes, for promoting warmth without interrupting perspiration. The Sheet Cork is rendered strong by a preparation, its extreme thinness prevents any perceptible increase in bulk or weight.

W. F. COLES, 61, Paul Street, Finsbury, E.C.

JAMES CARLILE, SONS, AND CO.,

Bank End Mill, Paisley,

MANUFACTURERS of COTTON and LINEN SEWING THREADS, viz.--6, 3, and 2 Cord, Crochet, Patent Glazed, and Wire or Bonnet Threads. Embroidery Flowering. Moravian and Darning Cottons, and Linen Slop or Beat Thread.

COMFORT TO THE FEET.

THE PANNUS CORIUM BOOTS and SHOES are extremely soft and easy, yielding to the action of the feet, without the least pressure or painful effect in walking. A valuable relief to all who suffer from Corns, Bunions, Gout, Chilblains, or any tenderness. The Pannus Corium sold by the yard or piece.

HALL & CO., Patentees, 2, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, leading to Waterloo Bridge.

LIGHT, CHEAP, AND DURABLE ROOFING.

CROGGON’S PATENT ASPHALTE ROOFING FELT effects a saving of half the timber usually required; has been extensively used, and pronounced efficient, and particularly applicable for warm climates.

Price, One Penny per Square Foot.

Samples, Testimonials, and full instructions, on application to Croggon & Co., 2, Dowgate Hill, London.

LADIES, LET YOUR SERVANTS USE

RUMSEY’S IMPROVED PLATE POWDER,

WITHOUT QUICKSILVER--the Largest Quantity for ONE SHILLING, and you will never desire another preparation. Also RUMSEY’S CHEMICAL POLISHING PASTE, in large 6d. and 1s. Pots, for brass, steel, and other white metals; as well as his superior URN POWDER, in 6d. and 1s. Boxes. Sold almost _everywhere_, and by R. HOLT, FRENCH COURT, AND SOUTH-EASTERN GALLERY, CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM. Manufactory, No. 20, CLAPHAM ROAD PLACE, KENNINGTON, London, S., from whence the trade is supplied on exceedingly liberal terms.

WILLIAM TONKS & SONS, Cheapside, Birmingham, General Brass-Founders and Manufacturers of every Description of Brass work.

J. SOLOMON,

WHOLESALE OPTICAL & PHOTOGRAPHIC WAREHOUSE,

22, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON.

CATALOGUES GRATIS.

North Transept--Tropical Department.

A SUNDIAL, like this, is placed on the Terrace of the Crystal Palace; it shows the time at eight different parts of the world at one sight, and also at the spot where it is placed.

Made by H. WEST, Optician and Sundial maker to the Queen, 41, Strand, opposite the Lowther Arcade.

Basement--Machinery.

ALFRED WRIGHT & CO.,

MANUFACTURERS of Smiths’ Bellows, Improved Blowing Machines, Portable Iron Forges, with bellows attached, of all descriptions, to Her Majesty’s Honourable Board of Ordnance, the Honourable East India Company, Retail and for Exportation. Also House and Fancy Bellows.

16, LITTLE ALIE STREET, WHITECHAPEL. LONDON.

REEDS OR SLAYS.

AMONG the various samples of REEDS or SLAYS, the only ones that received Honourable Mention by the Commissioners of the PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION were

A. BROWN’S, of BARNSLEY, YORKSHIRE.

RICHARD JOHNSON & BROTHER, Iron Manufacturers, Wire-Drawers and Galvanizers, 27, Dale-street, Manchester.

I. P. CLARKE, Manufacturer of Sewing Cottons, King-street Mills, Leicester. The interesting process of winding by steam power may be seen in the Machinery department.

C. A. PRELLER, 4, Lant-street, S.E., London, Specimens of Leather Lashing Laces, Twice-Stretched Machine Driving Bands, specially prepared for hot climates; Leather Ropes for grooved pullies, &c.

THORNTON & SONS, Birmingham, and 16, Fish-street Hill, London, Contractors, Merchants, and Manufacturers of all kinds of Railway Stores and General Ironmongery, exhibit Screw and Hydraulic Lifting Jacks, Railway Signals, Lamps, &c.

Agricultural Implements.

RANSOMES AND SIMS,

IPSWICH,

ENGINEERS, IRONFOUNDERS, AND MANUFACTURERS OF AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

MANUFACTURERS of Patent and other Iron Prize Ploughs, for Pony, One, Two, and Four Horse Power; Double Furrow Ploughs, Moulding, Subsoil, and Trenching Ploughs; Horse Hoes; Scarifiers, of two, three, and four horse power; Iron Harrows; Field Rollers; Crosskill’s and Cambridge Clod Crushers; Horse and Hand Drag Rakes; Portable and Fixed Prize Steam Engines; Prize Steam Thrashing Machines; Portable and Fixed, one, two, three, and four horse power Thrashing Machines; Barley Awners; Dressing-Machines; Chaff Cutters, for hand, horse, and steam power; Turnip Cutters and Graters; Bruising and other Mills for linseed, oats, and beans; Flour Mills; Oil Cake Breakers; Malt Mills; Saw Benches; Scotch and other Carts; Horse Gears; Cattle and other Feeding Troughs; Sack Barrows; Carriage Lifting Jacks; Grass Cutters, Hay Makers; Patent Stable Fittings; Copying Presses, &c., &c.

ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUES

MAY BE HAD ON APPLICATION TO THE WORKS, IPSWICH, SHEPPARD RANSOME,

LONDON AGENT,

31, ESSEX STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

OR OF

C. GARROOD,

AGRICULTURAL SUPERINTENDENT, CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM.

Stand 43.--Corn and Seed Crushing Mills, Chaff Cutters, &c.

E., R., and F. TURNER have received the Royal Agricultural Society’s First Prizes for the above Mills at the Annual Exhibitions of 1853, 1854, and 1855 (the last occasion when a prize was offered). Also the 1st Prize and Gold Medal at the Paris Imperial Universal Exhibition of Agriculture, 1856; Large Silver Medal at the Grand Austrian Imperial Exhibition, Vienna, 1857. Illustrated Catalogues sent free on application to

ST. PETER’S IRON WORKS, IPSWICH.

RICHARD GARRETT & SONS, Leiston Works, Saxmundham, Suffolk; Patentees and Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery of all kinds, and of the most approved construction.

Route to the Works: Per Eastern Counties Railway from Bishopgate-street, London, booking direct to Leiston.

MARRIOTT’S Improved Humane Bee-hives, for taking pure Honey without destroying the Bees, to be obtained of E. RIGBY and Co., 80, Gracechurch-street.

EDWARD HAMMOND BENTALL, Ironfounder, Patentee and Manufacturer of Agricultural Implements.

Works: Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex.

Warehouses: Swan Lane, Upper Thames Street, London, E.C., and 48, Rue des Marais, St. Martin, Paris.

THE PORTRAIT GALLERY OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

BY SAMUEL PHILLIPS.

CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; AND BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 1854.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE.

The object of the following pages is to extract from the valuable collection of Statues and Busts, that will be found adorning the vast area of the Crystal Palace, some of the interest and instruction which such works, if properly addressed, are certain to yield. Man looks at his own image with a more feeling curiosity than he regards the architectural remains of a city, however ancient, or of any structure, however beautiful. The broad brow of the poet whose works we have read, or the martial air of the soldier whose deeds we have heard, excite an instant desire for more intimate acquaintance with the men; and such acquaintance can never be formed without lasting advantage to all who are susceptible of instruction.

The limits of the present small volume have prevented my doing more than record, as briefly as I might, the salient points in the characters of the various personages whose statues and busts constitute the Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace; but I trust sufficient has been done to throw a little light upon the various features which the visitor will contemplate on his pleasant journey, and to indicate, however indistinctly, the universal path which, in life itself, leads to all true greatness. A portrait gallery exhibits the men who have worked their way to eminence. Biography teaches how they travelled the difficult and thorny road.

The collection of Statues and Busts in the Crystal Palace is necessarily imperfect; but it begins with a goodly array. It is the intention of the Directors to extend and, as far as the nature of the subject allows, complete it; and there can be no doubt that we have already the elements of one of the finest portrait galleries in Europe.

I desire in this place to express my thanks to my friend M. Regnier, the eminent French comedian, to whose kindness I am indebted for much information in connexion with the French busts. I am also anxious to acknowledge the services of my assistant, Mr. Shenton, who, under severe pressure, has rendered me great help in the collecting and verifying of our interesting materials.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS.

CRYSTAL PALACE, _June, 1854_.

CONTENTS.

ANTIQUE PORTRAITS.

GREEK COURT. PAGE SOUTH SIDE COURT-- GREEK POETS AND DRAMATISTS 13

NORTH SIDE COURT-- GREEK PHILOSOPHERS, STATESMEN, AND GENERALS 19

ROMAN COURT. ROMAN EMPERORS 29

AVENUE IN FRONT OF ROMAN COURT 41

COURT OF THE ROMAN LADIES 43

COURT OF ROMAN GENERALS AND POETS 46

THE ITALIAN PORTRAITS-- INTRODUCTION 54 ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS 56 POETS AND DRAMATISTS 69 SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN 76 PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS 78 KINGS AND QUEENS 79

THE FRENCH PORTRAITS-- INTRODUCTION 80 ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS 83 POETS AND DRAMATISTS 91 SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS 98 SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN 109 PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS 121 KINGS AND QUEENS 124

THE GERMAN PORTRAITS-- INTRODUCTION 134 ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS 136 POETS AND DRAMATISTS 145 SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS 149 SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN 157 PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS 162 KINGS AND QUEENS 163

THE ENGLISH PORTRAITS-- INTRODUCTION 168 ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS 169 POETS AND DRAMATISTS 179 SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS 188 SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN 202 PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS 218 KINGS AND QUEENS 220

INTRODUCTION.

Portraiture is associated with the earliest attempts at representing living objects, both in sculpture and in painting. Even amongst savages we find resemblances, carved or painted, or both, of the human form, generally grotesque, but always presenting an idea of Art. With the advance of civilization, the demand for portraits increased, as the knowledge of the means available for painting and sculpture improved. Men in authority, or possessed of great wealth, or renowned by deeds of arms and feats of strength, became the first subjects for the art.

That the Egyptians early practised portrait-painting, is evident from the discovery of mural sculpture, at a date anterior to the time of Rameses, representing painters delineating men and animals, and sculptors carving out of granite the very figures reproduced in another material, in the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace. Herodotus records the fact that Amasis sent his portrait painted on wood to Cyrene as a present; and some portraits of this kind were found in the tombs at Thebes. On comparing the heads of Rameses and Amenoph, several of which are to be seen in the Egyptian court, the individuality of each is at once perceived. Rameses has an aquiline nose and thin lips, while Amenoph has the turned-up nose and thick lips of the African.

In Clarac’s “Musée de Sculpture,” are collected many accurate engravings of the portraits of the Egyptians contained in the Louvre, which, according to this authority, are all verified, as many as eighty-six of them having their names attached. In the Imperial Library, at Paris, there is a collection of a hundred Chinese portraits of great antiquity. They were brought from China by the well-known Jesuit missionary, Père Ameot. Pauthier, author of a History of China, refers to these portraits, and considers them to be those of celebrated men and women living at a period long anterior to Confucius.

Croesus, King of Lydia, had the image of his baking woman set up in gold: and Herodotus has preserved the names of two Argive youths, Biton and Cleobis, who for their piety in drawing their mother, the priestess of Juno, to the temple, when the oxen for her car in a great solemnity did not arrive, had their statues placed by their countrymen at Delphi.

To the Greeks, indeed, we owe the finest examples of portraits in Sculpture. Their temples, forums, and other public places, as well as their private dwellings, were ornamented with the busts and statues of heroes, kings, poets, orators, and others distinguished by their achievements. Many of these examples have fortunately been rescued from destruction, and preserved to the present time.

The Romans, although not themselves, either by the gift of Heaven, or by their own tastes, artists, were great patrons of art. Many a rich Roman citizen had the court of his house converted into a kind of forum, which he adorned with his favourite portrait statues. From the precious ruins of Ancient Rome--from her temples, palaces, villas--countless statues and busts have been dug out. Her tombs also were furnished with portraits, busts, and statues, recumbent, or in other postures.

In all times, and in all countries, we note a desire to perpetuate the memory of the dead; and the pious as well as humane intention was carried out in various ways. The Egyptians enclosed their mummies in wooden and stone cases, carved and painted in order to resemble, more or less, the inhabitant within. The tombs of Etruria are usually surmounted by a half recumbent statue, which although but rudely representing the features and attitude of life, clearly reveal the intention to produce a portrait of the deceased person, but never--which became the custom in after ages--as though he were dead.

From the employment of sculptured portraits upon the monuments of the dead, and from the use of other images in the funeral rites, such representations came to be called “busts,” from the Latin word _Bustum_, signifying a tomb, or rather place where the burning of the body took place. Since the majority of persons could not afford a statue, the less expensive memorial, consisting of the head and shoulders, was the more generally adopted; and hence the name now current amongst us.

Portraits played a still more important part in the economy of the ancient Romans. Images, or rather masks, made in wax and representing their ancestors, were kept by the Romans in the vestibules of their houses, placed in cases formed like temples, and there constantly exposed to the notice of the family and of visitors. When a member of the family died, these masks were worn by the friends who assisted at the funeral, as were the dresses and robes of office belonging to the ancestors whom they personated. After the ceremony, the images were faithfully restored to their sanctuaries in the vestibule.

Another use of portraiture was originally peculiar to the Greeks, but it became subsequently adopted by other nations. We refer to the practice of painting upon a metal shield the portraits of a family--often with the father in the centre--and of hanging it up as sacred to the gods. There are similar portraits extant, in _terracotta_, of Demosthenes in exile at Calauria, and of Thales. The ancients also painted portraits on wood in encaustic, and some portraits formed in mosaic still exist.

In proportion to the growth of luxury, and to the development of the arts, do we find the increased employment of portraiture. Every kind of work was decorated with a portrait. This was especially the usage of the Greeks under the successors of Alexander, at Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamus; and with the Romans, towards the close of the Republic, and under the Emperors.

Engraved stones of seals and rings are exceedingly valuable in enabling us to identify antique busts and statues; their hardness having preserved them from injury. Very frequently they give the impression of being most accurate portraits. In the Greek Court is a large collection of casts of these extremely interesting works, which merit careful examination. Many of the heads are wonderfully beautiful--far surpassing in execution any similar work of the present time.

In like manner the portraits upon coins, being connected with writing, have been most useful in contributing to the knowledge and naming of antique busts and statues. Of these illustrations also, the visitor is enabled to study a very complete series from very early times.

The universal taste for portraiture exhibited by the ancients, and the encouragement to art which the vast wealth of many enabled them to afford, soon led to the formation of a gallery of portraits in every house of importance. Such a gallery contained portraits, both sculptured and painted, of great men in art, science, letters, and arms, and was called “The _Pinacotheca_.” The desire to render such a collection as complete as possible, led to the production of an infinite number of copies from those originally taken from the life: just as with us, houses are adorned with plaster-casts of the busts of Wellington, Shakspeare, and Milton.

It will now be understood how it has happened that so large a number of portrait-busts have remained to us from antiquity. Unless they had been multiplied in the manner described, the acts of ignorance and the accidents of time would have effaced all record of the features and aspect of the good and great in ancient story. Most of the works, executed in metal, were melted down and converted into money. One valuable mine, however, was happily discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum, completely preserved, and was removed to the Museum at Naples, where it still exists. Of several, so recovered, we possess fine copies in the Crystal Palace.

During the reign of Hadrian in Rome (A.D. 120), art enjoyed a revival--a Medicean period. A multitude of works of every kind were produced, and portraiture was carried to its height through the very zealous loyalty to which sculptors gave way, in their desire to flatter their imperial and magnificent patron, by representing the members of his family as so many gods and goddesses. The like encouragement was afforded under the dominion of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 140), and his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius; followed, unfortunately, by the destructive propensities of the odious Commodus, who would have limited portraiture to the representation of his own face.

We see the first efforts of portraiture in Christian art, in the representations--sculptured and painted--of saints in the early ages of the faith. Some examples of these will be found in the Byzantine and Mediæval Courts. A certain conventional form was adhered to in all these works, in which we remark especially a general elongation of the face and features, as if the aim had been to impress upon them the natural effects of emaciation from penance and fasting, the body and limbs being also subjected to the same treatment. The eyes are always almond-shaped, half closed, and sloping upwards from the nose. The portraits of Justinian, Theodora, Nicephorus, and Charles the Bald, on the façade of the Byzantine Court, bear evidence of their authenticity.

In forming our idea of an individual portrait painted in the early Christian period, we must never forget to allow for the formalities by which an artist of that time was inexorably directed. Statues and pictures were then produced (as indeed they are to this day by the monks of Mount Athos,) in accordance with rule and system--a sort of holy heraldry. At the time of which we now speak, we trace no general and popular use of portraits, such as we observed amongst the ancients, although they were still to be found in the hands of the most wealthy and cultivated. These were of an expensive kind, in mosaic and in miniature painting, the latter style being frequently employed when a valuable manuscript or missal was copied for presentation, and a portrait of the author or donor was usually painted upon it.

Mediæval portraiture shows a considerable advance upon the Byzantine, but is still inferior to the antique and to the portraiture of our own time. It was confined, almost exclusively, to monumental effigies, in which the artist was constrained to present the lifeless form, in the stiffness of very death--whether sleeping the sleep of eternal peace, or kneeling in the attitude of prayer. Some of the finest examples are to be seen in the Mediæval Court: of these more than one are doubtless portrait-statues of the time. The same may be said of some of the effigies of the Knights Templar, which exhibit great individuality, having been executed in a very hard kind of marble, that has well retained the features originally carved out of it. Busts of this period are exceedingly rare; inasmuch as portraiture of the kind was not in accordance with the religious feeling of the age. We must be content to take the effigies of mediæval art as portraits of the time; treated, of course, after certain conventionalities, but nevertheless truthful and most interesting.

The art of portraiture revived under the creative genius of Giotto and Orcagna, and of the great men of the _Renaissance_--Domenico Ghirlandaio and Giovanni Bellini--until it reached the highest dignity and beauty in the superb works of the mightiest of the mighty Italians--Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian. The most remarkable portraits of this period are paintings, and are therefore not to be found in large numbers in the Crystal Palace. In the beautiful gallery, however, of copies from the old masters, will be found several fine examples. In the Renaissance and Mediæval Courts, will be seen some of the statues from the tombs of Maximilian and Albert of Saxony--the finest portrait-statues of their kind. In the Italian Court, too, there are the immortal monumental statues of the Medici, and a superb bust of Cosmo de’ Medici by the inimitable Cellini.

The antique statues and busts described in the following pages are from

THE VATICAN, AT ROME, THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUM, THE NAPLES MUSEUM, THE FLORENCE GALLERY, THE LOUVRE, THE BERLIN MUSEUM, THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THE PORTRAIT GALLERY.

ANTIQUE PORTRAITS.

GREEK COURT.--SOUTH SIDE-COURT.

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

[28]1. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[Born, probably B.C. 850. Place of birth unknown.]

A majestic antique Bust. The kingly and venerated Patriarch of all Poets, for the western civilization--or, the sound of a Name! The two wonderful poems which bear down this name--whatever signifying--through the lapse and revolutions of time, preserve, as it were, the image of an extinct world: although of a world, perhaps less than half real, and more than half ideal:--for the manners _were_: the persons and events may, or may not have been: and the gods and goddesses of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” were, we know, only a believed-in, waking dream. But, by the potency of the song, the picture lives! The war, imaginary or no, raging between the Hellespont and the foot of Mount Ida, remains, to the educated memory of the nations, like the beginning--if not of the world’s, yet of its western half’s--history. And those heroes and heroines, with their high actions and their deep passions--the unrolling, embroidered web of their fortunes and fates:--the king of men, Agamemnon,--the swift-footed son of the sea-goddess, Achilles,---the sage, long-lived Nestor,--the shrewd, enduring Ulysses,--Ajax, a tower in the fight,--Diomed, favoured of Minerva present beside him in the storm of spears;--and that grey-headed, imperial sire of Troy, with all his falling sons, Priam,--the gallant and good Hector,--the loving and faithful Andromache,--the aged, too fruitful mother, Hecuba;--even the fatal and criminal, but divinely beautiful Helen--Is it not a strange magic that dwells in the creative thought of the poet, and in his modulated words, and that thus, in a language, and with manners, a faith, an age--all so long since dead and gone--can, as if reviving all, render those Shadows, to us--now, here--the earliest objects of a wondering and aspiring enthusiasm:--the first enkindlers in our bosoms of that glowing, intense, comprehensive, and intelligent sympathy, which transports us out of the central self, and beyond the close-drawn horizon of our own particular life, to feel the conditions and to understand the spirits of all our fellow men? Let the theory be true, which denies to these incomparable works an individual author--which supposes them woven together of many songs, first sung in many places, by many singers; let the benignly august, fillet-bound head before us, be--that which only at last it can be--a conjecture of the Grecian chisel;--we see at least here how the consummated art of sculpture has chosen to express, in corporeal form, the one soul of power which animates those immortal twins of poesy. We see in what shape of a human head, crowned with its own irradiations, the fountains of all song might have sprang. We see what the living and wandering minstrel of Greece, beloved and honoured wheresoever, in hall or on green, he and his harp came,--what the individual Homer, for whose birth seven cities contended, and whom in the after-day the land numbered amongst her half-divine and worshipped heroes--WOULD HAVE BEEN:--or, WAS!

[Although modern antiquaries agree with Pliny that busts of Homer are apocryphal, yet there can be no doubt this is the true Greek conventional portrait of that poet. A headless marble was dug up inscribed with his name and shortly afterwards the head itself was found in the same hole, and it fitted precisely to the marble previously discovered. The bust, so found, is now in the Naples Museum. The same head is constantly found in other representations of the ancient poet. The head is bound with the “strophium,” an ornament given by the Greek artists to their gods and heroes. The attitude of the head would seem to express the blindness with which Homer, according to tradition, was afflicted. This bust is from the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum, Rome.]

[28] The objects forming the Portrait Gallery in the Crystal Palace, are numbered in red figures throughout.

2. ARCHILOCHUS. _Greek Poet._

[Born at Paros, about B.C. 700. Killed in battle, about B.C. 635]

A satirical poet of great renown, whose acrid pen spared neither friend nor foe. A writer also of licentious verse. Fragments only of his compositions have come down to us. To him is attributed the invention of the Iambic measure, and he shares with Thaletas and Terpander the honour of establishing lyric poetry in Greece. The victors in the Olympic games were accustomed to sing one of his hymns in their triumphal procession. The countenance of his statue denotes impudent boldness.

[The two early poets united: a mode of portraiture adopted by the Greek artists when two celebrated men were of the same country, and of kindred pursuits, as Herodotus and Thucydides, parallel historians; Metrodorus and Epicurus, philosophers of the same sect (see No. 20). This double terminal or Janus was found at Rome on the Celian Hill: it is now in the Vatican. The ends of the noses are modern, as are some other parts in the Homer. That portraits of Archilochus existed so long after his death is proved by the existence of an inscription in the Analecta of Thucydides written for his portrait.]

2A. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[For life see No. 1.]

3. ÆSOP. _Writer of Fables._

[Born in Phrygia, about B.C. 620. Died about B.C. 560.]

The reputed author of the fables to which his name has been for centuries attached. According to the general account, he was originally a slave, and gained much notice for his wit, and especially for his talent of communicating useful maxims in the form of apologues. His talent procured him favour at the court of Crœsus. He is said to have been thrown from the top of a rock and killed, by the priests of Delphi. His fables, at first preserved by tradition, were at a later period converted into Greek and Latin verse by Babrias and Phædrus. We have them in Greek prose, told naturally and in the utmost simplicity. In stature Æsop is described as small and hump-backed, with a prominent stomach and pointed head, yet the intellectual expression of his countenance is not that usually given to dwarfs.

[From the very remarkable half-figure in marble in the Villa Albani, at Rome; the whole of which is of great antiquity. It has been maintained that Æsop was not deformed, inasmuch as the circumstance is not mentioned by writers, before the time of the Greek monk, Planudes Maximus. There are, however, traditions affirming his deformity, and Plutarch, in his Feast of the Sages, makes him sit upon a low stool at the feet of Solon. The countenance has a thoughtful and elevated expression. Lysippus sculptured the portrait of Æsop to be placed amongst the sages of Greece at Athens. Phædrus refers to this work, and the celebrity of the man is fixed by the fact that the court sculptor of Alexander employed himself upon his statue.]

4. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[From the marble. Once in the Capitoline Museum; now in the Louvre.]

5. EPIMENIDIES. _Poet and Prophet of Crete._

[Flourished about B.C. 596]

St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus (i. 12) is supposed to allude to Epimenides. But little more than his name and existence are known, apart from tradition. About B.C. 596, he was invited to Athens, in order to stay the plague brought upon the city by an impious outrage committed by Cylon, one of the Athenian rulers, on the altars of the Acropolis. Succeeding in arresting the pestilence, he augmented his already great fame--but he refused any other reward beyond the goodwill of the Athenians in favour of the inhabitants of Gnossus, where he dwelt. He was a native of Crete.

[From the marble in the Vatican. One of the conventional portraits of the ancient Greek poets. The closed eyes are to represent the sleep which tradition says he fell into for fifty-seven years.]

6. ÆSCHYLUS. _Tragic Poet._

[Born at Eleusis, in Greece, B.C. 525. Died at Gela, in Sicily, B.C. 456. Aged 69.]

The founder of Greek tragedy as it existed in its greatness. He introduced a second actor upon the scene, and gave dramatic interest to his act, by rendering dialogue the most important element in the play. He improved the masks and dresses of the actors, and raised the character of the choral dances. The scenes painted under his direction were, it is said, the first in which the idea of perspective was maintained. Sublimity and magnificence characterize the style of his tragedies, in which the action and plot, with an unparalleled simplicity of structure, move on, in commanding and stern strength, to their catastrophe; supported by grand imagery, with diction wrested to the height of energy and solemn passion. The characters drawn by Æschylus are as lofty as the language which they speak. We almost yearn for the simple voice of Nature as we listen to the sustained thunder-tone of this great master. His mind seems ever attuned for discourse with the Gods; yet in the “Prometheus,” though dealing with a demigod, he describes with awful power, human suffering and human passion in its saddest and most thrilling aspect. The family of Æschylus were remarkable for their valour, and he himself fought bravely at Marathon and Salamis. He was an actor in his own plays.

[From the marble in Stanza dei Filosofi, of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

7. SOPHOCLES. _Tragic Poet._

[Born at Colonus, in Attica, about B.C. 495. Died probably at Athens, B.C. 405. Aged 90.]

In Sophocles, Æschylus found a rival and a conqueror. When Cimon (B.C. 468) returned from the Isle of Scyros, with the ashes of Theseus, the first play of Sophocles (“Triptolemus”) was preferred to the composition of Æschylus, who in chagrin retired to Sicily. From this time Sophocles stood alone, until he, in his turn, met a successful rival in Euripides. In 440, he produced “Antigone,” for its calm beauty, and the pure picture of heroic, feminine self-devotion, one of the finest antique tragedies extant, and the occasion of his promotion through the favour of Pericles. In the person of Sophocles was represented the ideal of Greek perfection. He was very beautiful; he excelled in gymnastics, music, and dancing; in temperament he was calm and contented; in disposition kind and cheerful; he had a ready wit, a serene piety, and intellectual grandeur. His tragedies have an advantage over those of Æschylus, in being essentially human; they appeal to the feelings of an auditory, and are written in a less magniloquent style than that of the sublime father of Greek tragedy,--to whom, however, Sophocles lay under the obligations of a pupil to his instructor. Both are profound masters of their art.

[This bust is from the Capitoline Museum, and is identified by another in the Vatican--found in 1778--on which all the letters of the name remained, except the SO. It was for a long time called PINDAR,* because of the inscription; Bottari has proved it to be Sophocles, whom it completely resembles. Compare the Lateran statue, No. 325, standing in the great Transept, near the monument of Lysicrates.]

*. PINDAR. _Greek Poet._

[Born probably at Thebes, about B.C. 522. Died there, about B.C. 442. Aged about 80 years.]

The most famous lyric poet of Greece. Sent at an early age to Athens, he became the pupil of Lasus. He sung the victors in the Olympic, Nemæan, Pythian, and Isthmian games,--the great festivals of assembled Greece. Forty-five of these odes of triumph are all that have descended to us; they are characterized by great boldness of style, spirit, and trumpet-toned enthusiasm, but the brilliant diction does not escape obscurity; and the modern student often follows with difficulty the excursive wing of “The Theban Eagle,” through the wide regions of Hellenic mythology. Pindar’s earliest extant work was written in his twentieth year. He is described as a man of strong religious feelings, and a devout worshipper of the gods.

8. ÆSCHINES. _Greek Orator._

[Born in Attica, about B.C. 389. Died in the Isle of Samos, B.C. 314. Aged about 75.]

One of the greatest Greek orators. Was at the battle of Mantineia (B.C. 362), and distinguished himself at the battle of Tamynæ in Eubœa (B.C. 358). Afterwards entered into political life, and became a partizan of Philip of Macedonia. Accompanied Demosthenes on two embassies to Philip, and was accused by Demosthenes of betraying the interests of the state to that monarch. The speech of his accuser and his own admirable defence are extant. His last great public act was the prosecution of Gtesiphon for illegally proposing to present Demosthenes with a golden crown for his services to the state. Demosthenes defended the accused, and the speeches of the two orators delivered on this occasion are also preserved. The prosecution failing, Æschines at once went into exile (B.C. 330). As a popular leader and orator worthy to be called the rival of Demosthenes. He lacked the vehement passion and powerful invective of that consummate master, but his lucid arrangement, his facility and perspicuity, have never been surpassed.

[For an account of this statue, so long called Aristides,* see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 326.]

*. ARISTIDES. _Athenian Patriot._

[Born (uncertain). Died about B.C. 468.]

His unbending integrity procured him the title of “The Just.” Was at the battle of Marathon (B.C. 480), where he fought bravely. Opposed to the extreme democratical party in Athens, headed by Themistocles, by whose influence he was banished (about B.C. 483). He was still in exile at the time of the sea-fight of Salamis (B.C. 482), but he raised a band, and fought for his country in this battle. Recalled by the Athenians from banishment, and commanded their army at the battle of Platæa (B.C. 479). His sense of justice spotless: his self-denial unimpeachable. At his death he was very poor, although he had borne the highest offices of the State. The Athenians became more virtuous from the contemplation of this bright example. It is related that in the representation of one of the tragedies of Æschylus, a sentence was uttered in favour of moral goodness. The eyes of the audience turned involuntarily and at once from the actor to Aristides.

9. EURIPIDES. _Greek Poet._

Born at Salamis, B.C. 480. Died in Macedonia, B.C. 406. Aged 74.]

The father of Euripides, putting his own interpretation upon the oracle which promised that his son should be crowned with “sacred garlands,” had him carefully trained in gymnastic exercises, and whilst yet a boy Euripides won the prize at the Eleusinian and Thesean games. But the lad was soon allured from physical sports, by the fascinations of philosophy and literature. He became the ardent pupil and friend of the philosopher Anaxagoras, and the instruction thus derived is visible in many of his productions. At the age of 18, Euripides wrote his first tragedy. He gained the first prize B.C. 441, and continued to exhibit his plays until within two years of his death. He died in Macedonia, and is said to have been torn in pieces by the dogs of the Macedonian king. Twenty of his plays are extant. Like Anaxagoras, Euripides was of a serious temper, and averse to mirth. He was intimate with Socrates, and the contemporary of Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Pindar, Aristophanes, Æschylus, and Sophocles. To assign him his poetical rank we must look back. In the three great Attic tragedians we trace a natural progress of their theatre. In Æschylus, the stage appears attracted with predominant force to the high mythological ideas which it arose to embody: the muse stalks sublimely above the heads of men. In Sophocles, the art tempers and adjusts, with admirable equipoise, the superhuman and the human element; the spirits and hearts of men are more closely approached by the poet, still overshadowed by the heroic and the divine. In Euripides, although the story which he represents is still drawn from the same source of divine and heroic fable, the sympathy with passions, events, interests, and sufferings, incident to humanity, prevails in excess. With him, amidst strewings of beautiful poetry, and whilst penetrated with strokes of singular pathos, we too much feel that we step on our own daily and common earth. We miss the elevation of an art which should, in reflecting ourselves, lift us above ourselves: as we have experience in our own Shakspeare. Sophocles said that “he himself represented men as they ought to be, but Euripides as they are.”

[This bust is verified by another in the Louvre, and one in the Naples Museum, which has the name of Euripides engraved on the breast. There is also a cameo of exceeding beauty in the Louvre, on which we find the same head. Portraits of Euripides were common at Athens, and even as late as the 5th century his statues were to be seen at Constantinople. A small seated statue of Euripides will be found in the Bas-relief Gallery, No. 215. It is inscribed with his name, and has a list of his plays, upon the slab which supports the statue. See Handbook to Greek Court, No. 215.]

10. ARATUS. _Astronomer._

[Flourished about B.C. 270.]

A fellow-countryman of St. Paul, who quotes one of his works in his address to the Athenians. Called to the Court of Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia. He there pursued physics, grammar, and philosophy. He also versified two astronomical treatises by Eudoxus. There are many errors with much want of precision in the descriptive portions of these works, proving the poet to have been neither a mathematician nor an acute observer. As a poet, Aratus was hardly more eminent. He is wanting in originality and poetic feeling; yet his verses obtained popularity both in Greece and Rome.

[The well known head, representing, as it is supposed, the Poet of the Stars, in the attitude of viewing the heavens. The same head is found on medals, of which the best is preserved in the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons, London.]

GREEK COURT.--NORTH SIDE-COURT.

GREEK PHILOSOPHERS, STATESMEN, AND GENERALS.

11. BIAS. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born at Priene, in Ionia. Flourished, it is believed, about the middle of the Sixth Century B.C.]

One of the Seven Sages; and of the four to whom alone the title was universally conceded: the remaining three being Thales, Pittacus, and Solon. His profession was that of an advocate; his philosophy was practical--the fruit of experience. Many of his sayings and doings have been recorded. He died at a very advanced age.

[From the marble in the Vatican, which bears his name and the motto:--

ΟΙ ΠΛΕΙΣΤΟΙ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΚΑΚΟΙ.

“The majority of men are bad.”

A curious mistake of the engraver is observable in the word ΠΡΗΝΕΥΣ, in which the I is omitted; it should have been ΠΡΙΗΝΕΥΣ, the name of his birth-place. This bust was found at Tivoli, with that of Periander, No. 29.]

12. THUCYDIDES. _Greek Historian._

Born at Athens, B.C. 471. Died (place uncertain) B.C. 395. Aged 76.]

This great historian, holding military command in Thrace, suffered Amphipolis to be surprised and taken by the Spartan general, Brasidas; and for this misfortune was banished by his countrymen during the space of twenty years. It would have been a greater misfortune for the world had Thucydides proved a warier soldier; for it was during his exile, that he collected with infinite care the materials of his immortal history. That history chronicles, in eight books, the events of twenty out of the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian War:--a record of most interesting facts. Where political and moral observations occur, they reveal great knowledge of human character and motives. The style is pregnant, precise, and severely simple. Demosthenes is said to have copied the entire history many times with his own hand as a lesson of composition. The principal actors in the war were the historian’s books of reference. As an historical monument the work is matchless. It has been always believed that Thucydides came to a violent end, but it is not known whether he died at Athens, or in Thrace.

13. SOCRATES. _Philosopher._

Born near Athens, B.C. 468. Died at Athens, B.C. 399. Aged 69.]

One of the greatest names in ethics, philosophy, and religion before the Christian era. It was the belief of Socrates that he was specially charged by the Deity to awaken moral consciousness in men. He had no school, neither did he, like the sophists of his time, deliver public lectures. But he stood in the market-places, or entered the work-shops, or visited the schools, in order to teach the people his ideas respecting the scope and value of human speculation and action. Aristophanes, the comic poet, ridiculed and misrepresented the philosopher, who proceeded, nevertheless, with undaunted perseverance. After the banishment from Athens of the “Thirty Tyrants,” Socrates was impeached for corrupting the youth, and despising the tutelary deities of the state. He was condemned, and, preferring death to acknowledging, by a supplication for pardon, that he deserved punishment, he swallowed poison. Whilst the cruel draught was performing its work, he developed the grounds of his immovable conviction of the immortality of the soul, and with his very last breath pointed to a future state, as the true recovery from impurity and disease. He left no writings behind him. We derive our knowledge of his doctrines and character, mainly from his illustrious disciples, Xenophon and Plato. He effected a grand revolution in philosophy, for he first connected with Supreme intelligence, the attributes of goodness, justice and wisdom, and the idea of direct interposition in human affairs, and recalled Reason from vain disquisitions, to the questions which come home to the business and bosoms of men. In person, Socrates was said to resemble the god Silenus. His looks were as repulsive as his life was irreproachable and perfect. His peculiar method of teaching, since called the Socratic, was, by a series of artfully contrived questions, to draw out from the mind of his colloquist the truths which lay unconsciously embosomed there, or to entangle proud and false reasoning in self-confutation.

[A countenance so little expressive of wisdom and goodness, that it might be mistaken for that of a Silenus, whom he also equalled in the almost deformed rotundity of his figure. But this bust, which is from that in the Louvre, and an exceedingly fine work, has been proved to be a portrait of him by its close resemblance to the other busts of the same subject, and to that in particular in the Farnese Collection which bears his name, and the motto which Plato gives him (_Criton_). Busts and cameos of Socrates are numerous. No. 13A is from the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum; it is inferior to the first described.]

13A. SOCRATES. _Philosopher._

14. HIPPOCRATES. _Physician._

[Born at Cos, in the Ægean Sea, about B.C. 460. Died about 357. Aged 104.]

The great fame acquired by Hippocrates, would seem to have been won by a steadfast adherence to the sagacity of common sense. He had no chemical knowledge, and his acquaintance with anatomy appears to have been scanty and uncertain; yet, knowing how to turn a rare experience to account, and confining his operations mainly to the watching and assisting of Nature, he succeeded in obtaining credit for superhuman skill. His nephew, who is reputed to have possessed almost equal merit with his uncle, was murdered in a fit of jealousy, by Hippocrates, who shortly afterwards fell a sacrifice to the torments of remorse. A great number of works are extant under his name, but most of them were written by his disciples.

[From the marble in the Louvre, which has been verified by a medal bearing the name of Hippocrates, and showing a perfect resemblance to the head. There are several busts of Hippocrates in existence--one in the Capitoline Museum, another at Florence, and two in the Louvre.]

15. ISOCRATES. _Rhetorician._

Born at Athens, B.C. 436. Died B.C. 338. Aged 98.]

It is said that Isocrates was the first man to describe the true value and objects of oratory. His language is the purest Attic; his style, which he elaborated with great pains, elegant and polished. As teacher of rhetoric, he became the instructor of the chief youths of his time. He composed several discourses on great political occasions, and amassed considerable wealth. He had throughout life a constitutional timidity, and a weakness of voice that prevented him from speaking in the assemblies of the people. Socrates had been one of his masters. His character appears to have been spotless.

[From the bust in the Villa Albani at Rome, bearing the name of Isocrates. A statue of him was sculptured by Leochares for the temple of Eleusis, and another is described by Pausanias as in the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which statue is spoken of by Christodorus, as being at Constantinople in his time.]

16. PLATO. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 430. Died B.C. 347. Aged 83.]

The most illustrious amongst the disciples of Socrates. The doctrines of the great teacher have descended to us chiefly through the writings of this eloquent hearer. Whence, a singular and inextricable conflict. The sturdy, keen, practical plain sense of the master, and the soaring, brilliant imagination, and subtly-dividing wit of the pupil, have come down to us mingled ever in the same composition. In these extraordinary dialogues, which display the spoken Greek of Athens in its utmost purity, beauty, and melody, how much is Plato’s?--how much is of Socrates? The two busts may go as far as any other authorities, in affording the almost discretionary reply. The lip on which, whilst in the cradle, tradition says that the bee settled--signifying the sweetness of the speech which should flow from it--is before us, in part of the answer. Plato was, in his earlier life, a poet, but gave his poetical compositions, amongst which are mentioned an epic poem and a tragedy, to the flames. He excelled in bodily exercises, being distinguished as a wrestler. He travelled much in the quest of knowledge. Like his illustrious preceptor, he taught that wisdom, under which we must comprise goodness, is the attribute of the Godhead,--that philosophy is an intellectual necessity, and, as the fountain of virtue, which it thus includes, the most estimable of all the goods within the reach of man. Abstruse and sublime, seeking to rest science and morals on an immutable basis, Plato trains the intellect more than he teaches. In reading his writings, we enter the Socratic school as hearers, as disputants. The Socrates, who constantly leads the discussion, is rather the presiding Spirit, than the Man. We come out, whatsoever else, worshipping students of the True, of the Fair, of the Good.

[From the very beautiful little bust in the Florence Gallery. He wears the “strophium” as a mark of his great honours. This bust possesses a great claim to authenticity, on account of the name being deeply cut upon it in Greek letters of the antique form. There is a similar bust in the Naples Museum, of the same size, and inscribed with the name of Plato.]

17. ANTISTHENES. _Philosopher._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Athens. Aged 70.]

He is the founder of the Cynic philosophy and flourished about B.C. 375. He taught the love of poverty and labour, the renunciation of all the pleasures and conveniences of life, and contempt for everything but virtue, in which only he allowed true happiness to consist. It is said that Antisthenes left more books than scholars. But Socrates was his friend and Diogenes his pupil. His countenance did credit to his creed: it was severe, and looked the more terrible from his dishevelled hair and hanging beard. He taught in the Gymnasium at Athens, called Cynosarges; and hence the name of his school--the Cynic.

[From the marble in the Vatican. It was found in the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, and is of great beauty. It resembles another bust in the Vatican, which was found in the villa of Cassius at Tivoli, but which is of less merit, except that it bears his name. The portrait agrees precisely with the descriptions given of Antisthenes by the ancients.]

18. DIOGENES. _Philosopher._

[Born at Sinope, in Asia Minor, about B.C. 412. Died at Corinth, B.C. 323 or 324. Aged 90.]

Having been detected with his father, a banker, in some dishonest transaction, Diogenes went to Athens, where he became the pupil of Antisthenes, and adopted the Cynic philosophy. He carried his contempt for riches and the usages of society to an extravagant excess. He subsisted on charity, and slept where he could. Some doubt is thrown upon the story of his living in a tub. He said that all the vicissitudes of fortune which constitute tragedy, had been realized in him, but that patience had raised him above them all. When advanced in years he was taken by pirates to Crete, and there sold as a slave. Regaining his freedom, he revisited Athens and Corinth, and in the last-named city had his memorable interview with Alexander the Great. He inculcated morality, but despised intellectual pursuits. His disposition was kind and humorous, though his statue has an acute and caustic countenance.

[From the marble in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican. It is verified by its close resemblance to the head of a little statue in the Villa Albani at Rome, representing the Cynic perfectly nude, and accompanied by his dog. It is said that he sometimes appeared in the streets in this state, after having anointed his body, a piece of eccentricity that gave rise to the joke of Juvenal, that the Stoics differed from the Cynics only in the shirt, “_tunicâ tantum_.” There is in the Villa Albani an antique bas-relief representing Alexander the Great standing before the Cynic in his tub.]

19. DEMOSTHENES. _Greek Orator._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 381. Died in the isle of Calauria, opposite Argolis, B.C. 322. Aged 59.]

A chief, if not the chief of--

“Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce Democracie, Shook th’ Arsenal, and fulmin’d over Greece, To Macedon and Artaxerxes’ throne.”[29]

This eloquence in Demosthenes--to the modern mind, the one unrivalled exemplar of the ancient Greek oratory---was like a trained athlete, living nerve and bone. When Athens lay daunted under the successes of Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes, by the sole power of speech, roused the people to energetic warfare. His style was fit for sustaining argument on the destinies of great nations. It was simple, severe, lofty, vehement, and of irresistible power. He acquired this consummate mastery, having, by an invincible perseverance, vanquished seemingly invincible natural obstacles. At one period of his life Demosthenes was accused of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, a Macedonian General, who fled to Athens, to escape the vengeance of Alexander. He quitted Athens. Upon the death of Alexander he returned to the city; but the Athenian arms proving unsuccessful against Antipater, the ruler of Macedonia, the life of the orator was demanded by the conqueror. Demosthenes fled again--this time to the isle of Calauria--where he took poison to save himself from the swords of the soldiery. Looking upon the deep, contemplative, sad brow, figured in stone, we might well fancy that we see, gleaming there, a too real consciousness of the requital awaiting even the greatest Athenian, for services which no reward could measure.

[From the marble in the Louvre. Several busts in various collections had been called Terence, Pythagoras, Plato, and other names, when there were dug up in Herculaneum two bronze heads, on one of which was the name of Demosthenes; it was at once perceived that the busts above referred to had been wrongly named; for they one and all represented the great orator. A very beautiful carved medallion in amethyst exists also at Rome, which is an undoubted likeness of him. For an account of the statues of Demosthenes see Nos. 308 and 321 in the Handbook to the Roman Court and Nave.]

[29] _Paradise Regained._

20. EPICURUS. _Philosopher._

[Born probably at Samos, in Greece, B.C. 342. Died at Athens, B.C. 270. Aged 72.]

The system of Epicurus has been much misrepresented. He did not teach mere refined animal enjoyment. He considered indeed human happiness as the end of philosophy, and he defined happiness as pleasure,--pleasure itself being defined as perfect independence, self-reliance, and contentment. The great aim of his ethics was to point out the way to the attainment of such happiness. The habits of Epicurus were temperate and frugal. During the later years of his life, he was afflicted with much physical suffering, and he bore it with fortitude and patience. He held his celebrated school, which founded the sect bearing his name, in a garden purchased by him at Athens.

20A. METRODORUS. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born either at Lampsacus or Athens, B.C. 329. Died B.C. 277. Aged 52.]

A devoted follower of Epicurus, between whom and his disciple the closest friendship subsisted. Upon the death of Metrodorus, Epicurus provided for his children. But Metrodorus failed to do justice to the philosophy of his master; and was the first to attach to the Epicurean idea the sensual notions that have ever since, more or less, been identified with it.

[The master and his intimate friend and disciple united. Busts of Epicurus are common. Such was the enthusiasm of his followers, that his portrait was multiplied in every way, and even the furniture of rooms engraved with his name. This double terminal is from the Capitoline Museum, at Rome, and bears the names of the two philosophers. It was dug up at Rome in 1742, when the foundations were making for Sta. Maria Maggiore. Epicurus is identified also by a beautiful and perfect little bronze found at Herculaneum amongst the remains of a library of a disciple of Epicurus; which bronze is now in the Naples Museum.]

21. ZENO. _Founder of the Stoic Philosophy._

[Born at Citium, in the Isle of Cyprus, about B.C. 362. Year of death uncertain.]

The son of a merchant, and himself a trader. Whilst pursuing his vocation, he obtained some works on the Socratic philosophy; read them with eagerness, and resolved to abandon trade for philosophy. Became a disciple of the Cynics; then a pupil of Stilpo of Megara; then lent an ear to the expositors of Plato. After twenty years’ study and inquiry, he turned aside from all existing schools, and created one for himself. The place chosen by him for his instructions was a portico, adorned on the wall with paintings by Polygnotus, hence called “The Variegated Porch” (_Stoa Poicilē_). Thus he and his pupils were called Stoics. They placed happiness in virtue. Virtue is--to live, by the rule of right reason, a life consistent with itself and with universal nature: and lifts above _all_ consideration of pleasures and pains. The absolute moral rectitude of volition and action is the steering star. But that secured--the humanities, courtesies, and customs of life are not, after the fashion of the Cynics, to be slighted and trampled upon. Zeno commands our respect by the purity of his life. He lived to a great age, though of weakly constitution, by dint of regularity and moderation. He had a serious and thoughtful countenance, corresponding to the severity of the doctrines he taught. In his 98th year, quitting his school, he fell to the ground and broke his finger. “Why am I thus importuned?” he exclaimed. “Earth, I obey thy summons.” He went home, and strangled himself.

[From the marble in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican. It was identified by the stooping attitude of the neck, a slight deformity which is referred to by the contemporaries of Zeno. For an account of the statue of this philosopher, see No. 327, Handbook to Roman Court and Nave.]

22. ALEXANDER THE THIRD, surnamed THE GREAT. _King of Macedonia_, B.C. 336-323.

[Born at Pella, in Macedonia, B.C. 356. Died at Babylon, B.C. 323. Aged 32.]

The pupil of Aristotle, and the conqueror of the world. He ascended the throne of Macedon in the twentieth year of his age. Shortly afterwards he reduced the chief cities of Greece, and rased Thebes sparing only the house of the poet Pindar. In his twenty-second year, he crossed the Hellespont, and turned his arms against the Persian king, Darius, whom he defeated. He conquered Phœnicia, Damascus, and Tyre. Taking Gaza, he passed into Egypt, subdued it, and founded the city of Alexandria. Here, in the madness of his ambition, he claimed divine honours. In 331, B.C., he again attacked Darius, and destroyed the Persian monarchy. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, next paid homage to his arms. A change now came over the victor, hitherto temperate and forgiving. He gave rein to his passions, and committed acts of cruelty and excess. But his activity was still incessant. He advanced victoriously to the Indus, and marched back in triumphal procession to Babylon, where, still full of mighty plans of conquest, he fell a victim to intemperance, took fever and died in the thirteenth year of his reign. There was no mediocrity in the character of Alexander. His vices were great, and his virtues magnificent. His heart and mind led him to the extremes of good and evil. His lust of dominion amounted to insane passion. In accordance with his wish, his body, enclosed in a golden coffin, was conveyed to Alexandria, and there deposited in a richly adorned sarcophagus,--now supposed to be in the British Museum. The military skill of Alexander was of a high order. His movements were rapid, decided, and well-directed:--he made great use of his cavalry. His conquests rendered eastern Asia accessible to European enterprise. He retained his affection for his early instructor, Aristotle, to the last, sending, from the scenes of his Eastern conquest, strange animals for the study of the great naturalist. In Asia, to this hour, the exploits of “Iskander,” are told by the people to their children.

[From the marble in the Louvre, inscribed with his name. It was dug up near Tivoli in 1779, and afterwards presented to Napoleon by the discoverer, the Chevalier d’Azara. It was by this bust, aided by the evidence of the coins, that all the portraits of Alexander were verified. Notwithstanding the numerous statues, busts, and pictures of this renowned conqueror which are mentioned by ancient writers, only few now remain. One of the characteristics of the head is the curling up of the hair at the back, as though a circlet had given the hair that form, and it is said he was the first to wear a diadem. The peculiar rising up of the hair in front is also a characteristic of Alexander. A very beautiful little equestrian bronze was found at Herculaneum in 1751, conjectured at the time to be a copy of the statue of Alexander, by Lysippus. No. 22A, the inscription on which is evidently modern, is from the Berlin Museum.]

22A. ALEXANDER THE THIRD, surnamed THE GREAT.

23. PHOCION. _Athenian Statesman and General._

[Born in Attica, B.C. 402. Died at Athens, B.C. 317. Aged 85.]

He rose from the ranks of the people, and soon obtained military distinction; exhibiting, whenever tried, great bravery and foresight. He was forty-five times named general. He was opposed to the Macedonians, over whom, by his moderation, valour, and prudence, he obtained signal advantages. When, in his age, Athens--placed through the rejection of his sagacious counsels at the mercy of the Macedonians--was occupied by a foreign garrison, Phocion, whose integrity was invulnerable, was suspected by his countrymen of treachery, and forced to swallow hemlock. His body was denied burial, and cast beyond the confines of Attica; yet, according to the spirit of those singular times, in which the wildest barbarity co-existed with the purest heroism, and towering ingratitude seemed to be enacted only to make way for splendid remorse, his ashes were subsequently brought back to Athens, his accusers put to death, and a statue was raised to his honour. Phocion was surnamed “the Good.” Alexander, surnamed “the Great,” endeavouring to win him from his loyalty, offered him riches and the choice of four cities in Asia. The answer of Phocion bespoke the spotless character of the man. “If Alexander really esteems me,” he said, “let him leave me my honesty.”

[From the statue, No. 324, for account of which see Handbook of Roman Court and Nave.]

24. ALCIBIADES. _Athenian General._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 450. Died in Phrygia, B.C. 404. Aged 45.]

The nephew of Pericles, in whose house he was brought up. He was beautiful in his youth, and he maintained his beauty throughout life,--a personal advantage of which he was not a little conscious. He was the pupil of Socrates, towards whom he entertained a sincere regard and friendship to the last. He entered early into the service of the Republic, and soon distinguished himself by his eloquence and feats of arms. Accused of irreligion, he quitted Athens and took refuge in Sparta, where he betrayed the designs of his country, and also abused the hospitality of the Spartan king. Returning to Athens he gained several victories at the head of her armies, and recovered his position, but only to lose it again in consequence of his ill-success in an expedition against Andros. By order of the “Thirty Tyrants,” established by Lysander in Athens, he was at length assassinated. Alcibiades was remarkable for activity, eloquence, and address. He was very plausible, very versatile, very unscrupulous, and a great dissembler. His unabashed audacity was matchless, but it was relieved, as well as heightened, by good nature, and good humour. He was also selfish, and ambitious, and inordinately vain. He had a slight defect in his speech, and could not pronounce the letter R.

[From the marble in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican. It has upon it the first four letters of Alcibiades’ name. By an inferior artist, and probably of a late date. It conveys no idea of the beauty of this fiery-hearted soldier. No. 24A is a much finer head, but is not entitled to the same confidence as a portrait. Alcibiades is said to have been the model for Cupids and Mercuries in his youth. He received all the honours of portraiture from the Athenians, who made several statues of him in bronze, and the Romans placed his statue in the Forum by the side of one of Pythagoras.]

24A. ALCIBIADES. _Athenian General._

25. MILTIADES. _Athenian General._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died B.C. 489.]

An Athenian. Succeeded his father Cimon as “Tyrant” of the Thracian Chersonesus. He accompanied Darius on his expedition into Scythia. He was subsequently driven out of the Chersonesus by the Persians, and fled to Athens, where he resumed his rights as an Athenian citizen. He was one of the ten generals chosen by the Athenians to resist the Persian invasion, but by the consent of his colleagues he was invested with sole command. He defeated the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes, at Marathon (B. C. 490), and saved Greece. The victory, as well for the import of its consequences as for the disproportion between the numbers engaged, is one of the most memorable recorded in history. Afterwards intrusted with the command of a fleet, with which he attacked the Island of Paros, to gratify a private enmity. This expedition proving unsuccessful, Miltiades was impeached, condemned to a fine, and thrown into prison, where he died of his wounds.

[The hero of Marathon received all portrait honours from the Athenians. Pliny relates that Panænus, the brother of Phidias, painted a picture of the battle with portraits of the generals; and the great sculptor himself made a statue of the conqueror, the cost of which was appropriately paid out of the spoils of the Persians. It was placed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The bust, No. 25A, is in the Louvre; it was found on the Celian Hill at Rome. The back part of the helmet has sculptured upon it the furious bull of Marathon which Theseus killed, and which Miltiades wears as a trophy of valour. This portrait has been identified by a bust engraved with the name, described by Fulvius Ursinus, but which is unfortunately lost.]

25A. MILTIADES. _Athenian General._

26. ASPASIA.

[Born at Miletus, in Asia Minor. Date of birth and death unknown; but in the fifth century B.C.]

A woman of great beauty and intellectual power, and the contemporary of Pericles, who was her lover, and over whom she gained unbounded sway. Her house was the resort of the greatest and most learned men in Athens, and Socrates, Plato, and Alcibiades were her frequent guests. She is the first of her sex whose portrait has been handed down from hoary antiquity unto the present time. It is related that Pericles learnt political wisdom from her instruction, and took eloquence from her lips. Pericles rewarded his instructress by saving her life through his eloquence and tears, when, like Socrates, Aspasia was arraigned on the charge of impiety. After the death of Pericles, Aspasia attached herself to an obscure man of the name of Lysicles, whom she advanced by her instructions to high office in the Athenian republic.

[From the marble in the Vatican, which is inscribed with her name. This form of bust is rare for women; but it is thought to have been chosen purposely, to show the superiority of one who gave counsel to Pericles and taught, they say, Socrates eloquence. Her great celebrity is guaranteed by this monument, which is the earliest antique Greek portrait of a lady.]

27. PERICLES. _Athenian Statesman._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 494. Died B.C. 429. Aged 65.]

For forty years at the head of the administration in Athens; twenty-five years in conjunction with others, and fifteen years alone. He was the pupil of Anaxagoras, from whom he derived philosophic equanimity and lofty principle. The eloquence of Pericles was a grand characteristic of the man, but not the grandest. When dying, he affirmed that his greatest honour had been, “that no Athenian, through his means, had ever put on mourning.” He promised the Athenians immortality; he secured it by means of the memorials of beauty which he left on the Athenian soil, now upwards of two thousand years ago. His oratory was rapid, penetrating, condensed, energetic, persuasive, graceful, and fertile in resources. His boundless influence was never degraded to unworthy purposes. Architecture, sculpture, and literature, reached their highest point under his protecting hand. Phidias was his director of public works; Sophocles and Euripides were his favoured friends. He governed with moderation and justice, and eschewing all aggression for the mere sake of conquest, endeavoured by every means to consolidate the dominion and to confirm the maritime power of Athens. His eloquence was the golden sceptre of his rule. He died in the great plague of Athens.

[Pliny mentions a painted portrait of him by Aristolaus, and Christodorus states that his statue in bronze existed at Constantinople. Phidias, it is said, sculptured the portrait of his illustrious patron on the shield of the great Minerva, and the busts of him are taken from this figure. This bust is from the British Museum. There is also a bust of Pericles in the Vatican, which has the name on the breast. He wears the Corinthian helmet.]

28. PISISTRATUS. _“Tyrant” of Athens._[30]

[Born about B.C. 612. Died at Athens, B.C. 527.]

A prince who made his way to power by questionable means, but who made of power a noble and an exemplary use. When Solon established his constitution, and quitted Athens, Pisistratus headed one of the rival factions that instantly rose up. He seized the citadel of Athens (B.C. 560), but was subsequently driven from the city by the united efforts of his foes. After six years’ absence he regained Athens by a stratagem, but, again expelled, suffered another exile for the space of ten years. He returned for a second time, and vanquished those who opposed him, assumed power, and maintained his position until his death. His rule was moderate, just, and productive of great benefit to the Athenian people. He encouraged literature and the drama, protected religion, and regarded the interests of the poor. To him we owe the first written text of the whole of the poems of Homer. He is also said to have been the first in Greece to collect a library for public use. He gave Athens repose, during which she nourished the elements of her future strength and power.

[From the marble, which has hitherto been called a Pericles, in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome.]

[30] The title “Tyrant” in the old republics, meant only “absolute monarch.”

29. PERIANDER. _“Tyrant” of Corinth._

[Born at Corinth, about B.C. 670. Died about B.C. 585.]

One of the “Seven Wise Men of Greece,” and the son of Cypselus, “Tyrant” of Corinth, whom he succeeded B.C. 625. The first years of his government were distinguished by moderation and wisdom, but afterwards he exercised great cruelty towards his family and people. He reigned many years.

[From the marble in the Vatican, which is remarkably well preserved. It bears his name in Greek letters. It was found in 1780, near Tivoli, in the house of Cassius, with the heads of Bias, Solon, Thales, Pittacus, and Cleobulus, and probably formed part of the Gallery of Cassius, the letters being of the Roman time. In the British Museum there is another original marble of this philosopher, which formerly was in the Palace of Sixtus V. at Rome.]

30. LYCURGUS. _Lawgiver._

[Date and place of birth and death unknown.]

Lycurgus holds an ambiguous place between tradition and history. Nothing authentic is known of him, and a touch of the fabulous pervades his story. He is said to have been of the line of Spartan kings, and, after having travelled in nearly all countries of the world, to have brought back his laws to Sparta, whose constitution he remodelled. Quitting Sparta, he exacted a promise from the Spartans that they would not alter his laws until his return. He never returned. He was honoured with a temple and a yearly sacrifice. He inculcated, according to the tradition, rigid discipline, unquestioning obedience, and military ardour.

[From the head of the statue in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican, Rome. It is another example of conventional or traditional portraiture, but possesses one very remarkable confirmation of an accident related in his life. In one of the disturbances of the populace, he was struck in the eye; and it will be observed that one eye of the bust has the peculiar appearance of being useless. Visconti, who noticed this peculiarity, first named the statue Lycurgus. There is a head in the Naples Museum which corresponds with this, and both are confirmed by the medals which bear his name. The drill holes about the beard are interesting, as they prove that the ancient sculptors worked on the same plan as the moderns.]

31. POSIDIPPUS. _Comic Poet._

[Born at Cassandreia, in Macedonia. Date of birth and death unknown.]

Nothing is known of his life or death. He was an Athenian comic poet, of “The New Comedy,” and his first dramas appeared B.C. 289. He was the last, in order of time, of the six who are mentioned by the anonymous writer on comedy, as the most celebrated poets of the New Comedy. He is said to have written forty plays, of which little more than the titles of eighteen are preserved. No accurate judgment can be formed of his style; some of his subjects, judging from the titles, must have been licentious.

[For account of this statue, see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 291.]

32. MENANDER. _Comic Poet._

[Born at Cephissia, near Athens, B.C. 342. Died probably at Athens, B.C. 290. Aged 52.]

The model writer of “The New Comedy,” which substituted for the personalities of the “Ancient Comedy,” a more faithful portraiture of the vices and follies of men. A few fragments only remain of his numerous works. His plays are said to have presented a most true and lively reflexion of the manners and morals of his age. He had many imitators amongst the Greeks and Romans, and Plautus and Terence profited by his writings. Only eight of his plays were crowned. He was probably in advance of his time and audience.

[For account of this statue, see Handbook to Greek Court, No. 290.]

33. POSIDONIUS. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born at Apameia in Syria, about 135 years B.C. Died, probably at Rome, about 51 B.C.]

A writer on History, Astronomy, Astrology, Cosmography, and Grammar, but none of his works remain; a great scholar and traveller. A Stoic in philosophy, yet desirous of bringing all systems of philosophy into harmony. He suffered much from illness. Pompey visited him during a sharp attack of gout, but during his agony he sustained an argument with the orator Hermagoras to prove that pain is no evil. “Torment me if you will, oh Pain!” he exclaimed, “I shall not admit pain to be an evil, a bit the more for that.”

[For account of this statue, see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 307.]

ROMAN COURT.

ENTERING BY THE CENTRE ARCH FROM THE NAVE.

(_Numbers commencing on the right._)

ROMAN EMPERORS.

34. NUMA POMPILIUS. _Second King of Rome._

[Born at Cures, in the country of the Sabines.]

The life of Numa Pompilius belongs to the realm of fable. “His name,” says Dr. Smith, “represents the rule of law and order, and to him are ascribed all those ecclesiastical institutions which formed the basis of the ceremonial religion of the Romans.” The legend attached to Numa describes him as the mildest, wisest, and most virtuous of men. After his election to the throne, vacated by Romulus, his first care was to ameliorate the condition of his people, and to legislate on behalf of religion. He reigned thirty-nine years in uninterrupted peace. It is suggested that as Numa was reputed chosen from amongst the Sabines, the Romans, in all probability, drew their religious institutions from that nation, rather than from the Etruscans.

[From the bust in the Vatican at Rome.]

35. AUGUSTUS. _Roman Emperor_, B.C. 30-A.D. 14.

[Born at Rome, B.C. 63. Died at Nola, in Campania, A.D. 14. Aged 76.]

The first Roman Emperor. Trained for his public career by his great-uncle, Julius Cæsar. After the death of Cæsar (B.C. 44), he formed with Antony and Lepidus the league known as the triumvirate. But subsequently quarrelling with Antony, and overcoming him, he annexed Egypt to Rome, and became sole master of the State. His reign was tranquil, and he conciliated the people. His disposition appears to have been cold; he lived simply, and despised pomp and pageantry.

[Suetonius mentions the handsome features of Augustus as well preserved in his old age. He is described with eyebrows meeting and thick, the ears small and well formed, the nose finely chiselled. There are several busts of him taken at different periods. This Bust is from the Statue Gallery of the Vatican. It represents him in old age wearing a fillet and a medal bearing the effigy of his wife Livia. No. 35A is a portrait at a younger period: it is from the Museo Chiaramonti of the Vatican. There is a noble statue of him in the “toga” in the Bas-relief gallery, see No. 80, Handbook of Greek Court.]

35A. AUGUSTUS. _Roman Emperor._

36. NERO--CLAUDIUS CÆSAR DRUSUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 54-68.

[Born at Antium, in Latium, A.D. 37. Died near Rome, 68. Aged 31.]

When we desire to express in a word the height of sanguinary cruelty and atrocious tyranny, the name of Nero at once occurs to us. He was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus, and of the infamous Agrippina, through whose intrigues he was adopted by Claudius, to the exclusion of his own son, as successor to the throne. Nero’s government, at first moderate and prudent, soon degenerated into fearful licentiousness. He poisoned Britannicus, the son of Claudius; he assassinated his mother; he divorced and murdered his wife Octavia, the daughter of Claudius, in order to marry the beautiful and depraved Poppæa; he set fire to Rome, and put many Christians to death, on the pretence that they had caused the conflagration; he killed Poppæa by a brutal kick, and he ordered executions and perpetrated wrongs of all kinds, and without number. The Roman world was at length tired of this monster; an insurrection broke out in Gaul; and Galba, the governor of Spain, was proclaimed Emperor. Rome followed the example of the provinces, and rose in insurrection. Nero took to flight, and gave himself a mortal wound, when he heard the trampling of the horses on which his pursuers were mounted. It is said that in his youth he was instructed in many branches of knowledge--that he wrote poetry, and had some skill in music. His criminal career may possibly have been the result of furious insanity--we think, at least of a lunatic, when we read that Nero appeared on the Roman stage as an actor, and played the fiddle whilst the city was burning.

[From the marble in the Louvre. The circlet round his head was worn by him to imitate the rays of the sun; the holes for the rays are observable. No. 36A, the bust crowned with laurel, is from the Statue Gallery of the Vatican.]

36A. NERO--CLAUDIUS CÆSAR DRUSUS. _Roman Emperor._

37 (_outside_). TIBERIUS--CLAUDIUS NERO CÆSAR. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 14-37.

[Born, B.C. 42. Died at Misenum, A.D. 37. Aged 79.]

Son of Titus Claudius Nero, and of Livia, whose second husband was Augustus. The successor of his stepfather and the husband of Julia the daughter of Augustus. During his earlier years of rule he governed with moderation and justice; but, growing suspicious of those around him, he patronized a detestable class of men who acquired infamy in the state under the title of “Delatores,” or “Informers,” and by establishing in its utmost extent the law of _læsa majestas_ (high treason) obtained opportunity to the shedding of some base, and of much honourable blood. He also became a religious persecutor, unfilial, hateful of the rising glory of other men, and sensual. He quitted Rome, A.D. 26, and never returned to the city. He took up his residence in the delicious island of Capreæ, lying off the Campanian coast. Mean, timid, irresolute, insincere: yet wise in his generation, with some penetration and political skill. He wrote a brief commentary of his life. His youthful name has been immortalized by Horace. In the reign of Tiberius and in the year 33, Jesus Christ suffered crucifixion in Judea, under the condemnation of Pontius Pilate.

38 (_outside_). CLAUDIUS I.--TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO GERMANICUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 41-54.

[Born at Lyons, in Gaul, B.C. 10. Died A.D. 54. Aged 64.]

Fourth in the series of Roman Emperors. Called to the throne in his fiftieth year, upon the murder of his nephew Caligula. Branded as a tyrant, but ought rather to be pitied for his weakness, timidity, vacillation, and utter helplessness. He was the sport of the wicked, and the victim of his own wretched feebleness. Unfortunate in every relation of life. His third wife was the notorious Valeria Messalina; his fourth, his own niece, the shameless Agrippina, who prevailed upon the half-witted Emperor to disinherit his offspring in favour of her son Nero, and who afterwards caused the unhappy Claudius to be poisoned. The rule of this Emperor, when left to himself, is described as mild and popular; but he had seldom the advantage of independent action, and in the hands of others he was robbed of moral will. Fond of building, Claudius raised the Claudian aqueduct. He wrote Greek as well as Latin, and composed some works on history, besides memoirs of his own life.

39. GALBA--SERVIUS SULPICIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 68-69.

[Born at Terracina, in Italy, B.C. 3. Died at Rome, A.D. 69. Aged 73.]

The successor of Nero; and governor of Spain when he was raised to the supreme dignity. A strict military disciplinarian, and remarkable for care and prudence. But when Emperor, his prudence became avarice, and he practised sordid measures, under the plea of imitating the frugality of the ancients. His niggardliness gave offence to the military and to the citizens, who had been used to festivals under Nero; and in his old age, Galba was cut down in the streets of Rome. He reigned 7 months.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

39*. VESPASIAN--TITUS FLAVIUS SABINUS VESPASIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 69-70.

[Born at Nursia, in the country of the Sabines, A.D. 9. Died at Cutiliæ, in the country of the Sabines, A.D. 79. Aged 69.]

Of low origin. Went to Britain and subdued the Isle of Wight. Afterwards sent to the East by Nero against the Jews, and was proclaimed Emperor by his troops at Alexandria. On the death of Vitellius proceeded to Rome, where, as Emperor, he restored order, reformed abuses, and improved the condition of the empire. He commenced the Coliseum. A great Emperor, popular with his army, upright, conscientious, simple in his living, and affable in his manners.

[For account of the colossal Bust of Vespasian, see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 338.]

40. CALIGULA. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 37-41.

[Born at Antium, in Latium, A.D. 12. Died at Rome, A.D. 41. Aged 29.]

Son of Germanicus and Agrippina. His real name was Caius Cæsar, but called Caligula by the soldiers, from his wearing in his boyhood small caligæ or soldier’s boots. Passed his boyhood in his father’s camp in Germany. On the death of Tiberius he became Emperor, and for a time ruled wisely. On recovering, however, from a severe illness, he perpetrated acts of horror characteristic of a madman. He murdered the innocent for his amusement, and married and dissolved his marriages in the most shameless manner. His favourite horse he raised to the Consulship, and he deified himself. After passing three years in raving crime and folly, he was struck down by the conspirator’s sword.

[From the marble in the Gallery of the Emperors, of the Capitoline Museum. Busts of Caligula are very rare, because, like those of Commodus, they were as far as possible destroyed, on account of his atrocities. He is said to have had a complexion of repulsive paleness. Suetonius alludes to his thin lips and expression of confirmed dissimulation.]

41. VITELLIUS--AULUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 69.

[Born on the Island of Capreæ, A.D. 15. Died at Rome, A.D. 69. Aged 54.]

A royal glutton. He commanded in Lower Germany, where his popularity with the troops led to his being proclaimed Emperor by the soldiers at Cologne. Vitellius succeeded Otho, and reigned eight months after the death of the latter, when he was murdered. Avaricious of money for the sake of what it would purchase for the stomach. The life of Vitellius is told when we state that it was devoted to eating, drinking, and acts of cruelty. It was his boast that the infamous Nero was his chosen model.

[From the Louvre. Full of the character of the man--bloated and debased. He is said to have spent nine millions of sesterces in suppers.]

42. NERVA--MARCUS COCCEIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 96-98.

[Born at Narnia, in Umbria, A.D. 32. Died at Rome, A.D. 98. Aged 64.]

Pliny says that the commencement of the reign of Nerva was the era of returning freedom; and Tacitus praises the same Emperor, for reconciling supreme authority with the liberty of the citizen. He succeeded the Emperor Domitian, who was murdered, and his first care was to restore tranquillity, and to repair the effects of his predecessor’s tyranny. He put an end to the persecution of the Christians, attended to the wants of the poor, and exercised a rigid economy. Gentleness and goodness were marked features in his character.

[From the gallery of the Emperors in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

43. TITUS--FLAVIUS SABINUS VESPASIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 79-81.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 40. Died at Cutiliæ, in the country of the Sabines, A.D. 81. Aged 41.]

Elder son of the Emperor Vespasian, and one of the best of the Roman emperors. It was he who besieged and destroyed Jerusalem (A.D. 70); he also completed the Coliseum at Rome, and during his reign Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (A.D. 79). As a soldier and general, his conduct marked by great humanity and bravery. As Emperor, administered the laws justly and improved the condition of his people by whom he was beloved. “The being beloved,” to use the words of Voltaire, constituted his greatest glory. Possessed great intellectual refinement and delicacy of feeling. It is said that he was poisoned by his brother Domitian, who was impatient to succeed to the empire.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. Busts of Titus are not common: yet his statues were in every house, on account of his popularity. For an engraving of one, see Handbook of Roman Court and Nave.]

44. DOMITIAN--TITUS FLAVIUS SABINUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 81-96.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 51. Died there, A.D. 96. Aged 45.]

Son of the Emperor Vespasian, and brother of Titus. He was bloody and cowardly throughout his career. Suetonius says his very virtues were turned into vices. Before the death of his brother Titus he made many attempts upon his life, and, during his own reign, he frequently compelled individuals to undergo the terrors of death, sparing their lives, in order to enjoy the sight of their sufferings. His government was disastrous for Rome, though he boasted annually of great victories, and assumed the title of God. Pliny used to say that the triumphs of Domitian were certain “proofs that the enemy had gained an advantage.” Neither talent nor virtue was safe from his persecutions, yet, although the last three years of his life form one of the most frightful epochs in history, Domitian had talent and a cultivated mind. He promoted architecture and beautified Rome; he rebuilt the libraries which had been burnt in the preceding reign, and sent literary men to the famous Alexandrine library to make copies of books there. He was the victim of a conspiracy, and the last of the twelve Cæsars.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

45. TRAJAN--M. ULPIUS TRAJANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 98-117.

[Born at Italica, in Spain, A.D. 52. Died at Selinus, in Cilicia, 117. Aged 65.]

Trajan endeavoured to emulate the glory of Alexander by extending the Roman Empire in the East, but with imperfect success. He improved the social and physical condition of his subjects, was easy of access, possessed good sense, a profound judgment and knowledge of the world. Not a man of letters himself, he was the friend of Pliny the younger, Tacitus, Plutarch, and Epictetus. He was tall, majestic, robust, and his hair perfectly white.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum. Busts of Trajan are not uncommon. The seated statue of Trajan is described under No. 343, in Handbook to Roman Court and Nave.]

46. HADRIAN--PUBLIUS ÆLIUS HADRIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 117-138.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 76. Died there, A.D. 138. Aged 63.]

In his youth wedded to literature, especially that of Greece. He was the adopted son of Trajan, whom he succeeded as Emperor, in A.D. 117. Travelling was with him a passion. In A.D. 119, he set forth on a journey which lasted for the space of 17 years. He visited Gaul, Britain (where he erected the famous wall between the Solway and the Tyne), Spain, Africa, and part of Asia. On a second visit to the East he lost his favourite page Antinous, and his grief for this youth has since resounded through the world. Shortly after his return to Rome in 132, the Jewish war broke out. It ended in the subjugation and slavery of the chosen people. He was a wise Emperor, a cultivator of the arts, and a lover of peace, though stained with vices of his age.

[Busts of Hadrian are common. This is from the Rotunda of the Vatican. No. 123 is from a very perfect one in the Naples Museum. For engraving of the fine statue in the British Museum, see Handbook of Roman Court and Nave, p. 13.]

47. ANTONINUS PIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 138-161.

[Born near Lanuvium, A.D. 86. Died at Lorium, A.D. 161. Aged 74.]

The successor of Hadrian, and one of the most distinguished of the Roman Emperors. Improved the condition of his people, and consolidated the power of the empire by enlightened and conciliatory measures. He was respected and beloved. Of commanding aspect and dignified demeanour. A deep-toned melodious voice heightened his native eloquence. One of the most virtuous princes that ever sat upon a throne.

[From the marble in the Berlin Museum. There is in the Louvre a bust of Antoninus Pius, having the head covered with a fold of the toga, and crowned with ears of wheat, a copy of which is described under No. 381, Handbook of Roman Court and Nave.]

48. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 161-180.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 121. Died at Sirmium, in Pannonia, A.D. 180. Aged 59.]

Surnamed “The Philosopher.” One of the best and greatest princes of antiquity. He succeeded his adoptive father Antoninus Pius in A.D. 161, and from that time until his death, his public and private acts conduced to the welfare of his people and to the true glory of the empire. His sole misfortune was to be father of the brutal Commodus, who succeeded him on the Imperial throne. He was clement, charitable, generous, and forgiving. His bodily health, always weakly, gave way beneath excessive labour of mind and body, and his death created universal sorrow. After the lapse of a hundred years his memory was still held in veneration by the people. He was of a thoughtful nature. At an early period he admired the precepts and adopted the costume of the Stoic philosophers. Later in life he was wont to repeat with great satisfaction the saying of Plato--“How happy would the people be, if philosophers were kings, and kings philosophers.” His “Meditations”--a work in the Greek language--is one of the noblest productions of Pagan philosophy.

[From the marble in the Berlin Museum. No. 48A is called the young M. Aurelius. The colossal head from the Louvre is described under No. 344, Handbook to Roman Court and Nave. The Senate decreed that a bust of M. Aurelius should be in every house.]

48A. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. _Roman Emperor._

49. PERTINAX--PUBLIUS HELVIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 193.

[Born at Villa Martis, in Liguria, A.D. 126. Assassinated at Rome, A.D. 193. Aged 67.]

The son of a charcoal-burner. First a schoolmaster in Liguria, then a soldier. Rising to important command, he served in Great Britain and Africa. Upon the murder of Commodus, the Prætorians prevailed upon him to assume the purple. He accepted the honour in difficult times, when virtue met with as little mercy as vice. He stipulated that the dignity should not extend beyond himself, to his wife or son; he proclaimed that no man should be prosecuted for treason; he at once set about useful reforms in the state; but in less than three months after his accession, he was murdered by the same Prætorians, simply because he was too upright and too good a man. He had a venerable aspect, and was mild and winning in his address.

[From the marble in the Rotunda of the Vatican.]

50. VERUS---LUCIUS AURELIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 161-169.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 130. Died at Altinum, in the country of the Veneti, A.D. 169. Aged 39.]

Licentious and dissolute; the colleague of Marcus Aurelius in the empire, and the husband of Lucilla, daughter of the latter. During a four years’ war against the Parthians, Lucius held command of the Roman army: but, a drunkard and a gamester, his sole part in the war was to reap the glory of the victories won by his generals. In his youth, he is described as well made in person; frank, simple, and gentle of disposition.

[A colossal Bust of him will be found described under Nos. 331 and 333, in the Handbook to the Roman Court and Nave. It was found in the same place as the colossal Marcus Aurelius.]

51. ÆLIUS VERUS. _Adopted Emperor._

[Born (uncertain). Died at Rome, A.D. 138.]

Of a noble Etrurian family. His beauty and literary accomplishments drew the favour of the Emperor Hadrian, who changing his name, adopted him for his successor. Twice Consul. Governor, for a short time, of Pannonia. Died suddenly. Of a luxurious character.

[From the marble in the gallery of the Emperors of the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

52. ANNIUS VERUS. _Roman Prince._

[Born A.D. 162. Died at Præneste A.D. 170. Aged 7.]

The son of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina, and the brother of Commodus, with whom he was raised to the rank of Cæsar, A.D. 166.

[From the marble in the Louvre. Taken when young. A graceful little Bust, remarkable for having the pupil of the eye so firmly indicated.]

53. MARCUS GALERIUS ANTONINUS. _Roman Prince._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Flourished A.D. 140.]

Son of Antoninus Pius and Annia Galeria Faustina. Nothing is known of his life or death. His effigy is extant with that of his mother upon a rare Greek coin; but he is not styled Cæsar in the inscription. Marcus Galerius, no doubt, died before his father became Emperor.

[From the marble in the Gallery of the Emperors of the Capitoline Museum.]

54. SEVERUS--LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 193-211.

[Born at Leptis, in Africa, A.D. 146. Died at Eboracum (York), A.D. 211. Aged 65.]

His family was of equestrian rank, and originally came from Gaul. In A.D. 185, he was commander-in-chief of the army in Pannonia and Illyricum; and on the murder of Pertinax was elected Emperor. He disbanded and banished the Prætorian guards, re-constituted the army, whose fidelity he secured, and marched against his two rivals, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus, the first of whom had been declared Emperor in the East, and the last, in Gaul. Defeating them both, he passed three years in the East, warring against the Parthians, whom he subdued. In A.D. 208, he went to Britain, in order to punish the Caledonians. But before his design could be carried out, he fell himself a victim--it is said to grief, to the dissensions of his sons--in the city of York. He had many kingly qualities, but was without clemency. A rigid disciplinarian, simple and sober in his tastes.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

55. GORDIANUS--MARCUS ANTONIUS, surnamed AFRICANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 238.

[Born at Rome, A.D. 157. Died at Carthage, in Africa, A.D. 238. Aged 80.]

Born of an honourable family, claiming high descent, and possessing great wealth. When Ædile, his public spectacles were pre-eminently magnificent. At one of them 1000 gladiators fought at once. When appointed Pro-Consul in Africa, he was called “The New Scipio,” on account of his popular manners. When eighty years of age he was forced to become Emperor by the people of Carthage, who would not submit to the ferocious Maximinus. After a few months’ reign, however, he was attacked by Capellianus, the Procurator of Numidia, and hearing of the fall of his son, strangled himself with his own belt. A man of extraordinary self-command and sobriety, and very studious. In his youth he composed a poem in thirty books; and, to his latest hour, he passed some portion of the day in the study of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Virgil. In temper gentle and affectionate.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

56. COMMODUS--LUCIUS AURELIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 180-192.

[Born at Lanuvium, in Italy, A.D. 161. Died at Rome, A.D. 192. Aged 31.]

Son of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior. It is said that he was handsome in form and feature. If history can be believed, he was a monster in human form. He was cruel in hot and cold blood, vain, cowardly, impious. He appeared many times in the Circus as gladiator, and condescended to become a buffoon for the amusement of the lowest of his people; but he is chiefly famous for his human butcheries. He was poisoned at last by his mistress, Marcia, who was only just in time to save her own life, which had been already doomed by her sanguinary paramour. His death gave occasion to almost frantic joy in Rome.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

57. MACRINUS--MARCUS OPILIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 217-218.

[Born at Cæsarea, in Numidia, A.D. 164. Died near Archelaïs, in Cappadocia, A.D. 218. Aged 54.]

An Emperor of obscure birth. He is said to have been, in his youth, a gladiator. When Præfect of the Prætorian guards, he contrived the murder of Caracalla, then at Antioch, in order to fulfil the prophecy of a soothsayer, who had predicted his accession to the throne. Elected Emperor by the soldiers, he was himself dethroned and assassinated in Cappadocia, after a brief reign of fourteen months. He is represented as haughty, bloodthirsty, cruel, and cowardly.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

58. PUPIENUS--MARCUS CLAUDIUS PUPIENUS MAXIMUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 238.

[Born A.D. 164. Died at Rome, A.D. 238. Aged 74.]

Called “the Sad” from the melancholy expression of his countenance. He was of an obscure family, but a distinguished soldier. After the death of the two Gordiani, he was elected with Balbinus, by the senate, to the empire, in order to oppose Maximinus; but that tyrant was soon after murdered by his own soldiers. The Prætorians, however, regretting Maximinus, assassinated the two Emperors when they were preparing to depart on separate expeditions.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

59. MAXIMINUS--CAIUS JULIUS VERUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 235-238.

[Born on the confines of Thrace, A.D. 173. Died before Aquileia, A.D. 238. Aged 65.]

An Emperor of Gothic origin, who was originally a shepherd, and owed his elevation entirely to his physical power and stature. He stood eight feet high, and was muscular in proportion. Serving with Alexander Severus on the Rhine, he excited a mutiny in the troops, in which Alexander and his mother were assassinated, and he himself declared Emperor by the soldiers. His reign was marked by mad severity, cruelty, and rapacity, and was fiercely closed by a band of Prætorians, who broke into his tent and slew him, having first put an end to his son before his eyes. He was a rare monster. It is related that his thumb was of the girth of a woman’s wrist; he could wear his wife’s bracelet as a ring: his eyes were inordinately large; with a kick, he could break the leg of a horse; and his appetite corresponded with his muscular development.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

60. CARACALLA. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 211-217.

[Born at Lyons in France, A.D. 188. Died in Mesopotamia, A.D. 217. Aged 29.]

In early life remarkable for gentle and pleasing address; but on the death of his father, Septimius Severus, he assassinated his brother Geta, who was left, with himself, joint heir to the throne. Other crimes were added, and, conscience-stricken, he soon gave rein to the passions of a madman. He oppressed his citizens by extortionate taxation, and plundered the world for the means of paying for his soldiers and his amusements. He, however, erected some great monuments in Rome. He was assassinated in Mesopotamia by order of Macrinus, his chief officer.

[All busts of him show the peculiar deformed turn of the neck with which he was afflicted.]

61. GETA--PUBLIUS SEPTIMIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 211-212.

[Born at Milan, A.D. 189. Died A.D. 212. Aged 23.]

The second son of Septimius Severus. During his second Consulship proceeded to Britain (208) and obtained the surname of Britannicus. Upon the death of his father, he and his brother Caracalla were declared joint successors to the Imperial crown; but Geta, at the instigation of Caracalla, was assassinated in the very arms of his mother, to whom he had fled for refuge. Caracalla caused his brother’s statues to be destroyed, and his inscriptions to be obliterated. Geta was depraved in his habits, and unpolished, but not without some good qualities.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

62. GORDIANUS II.--MARCUS ANTONIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 238.

[Born, A.D. 192. Died at Carthage, in Africa, A.D. 238. Aged 46.]

Eldest son of Gordianus Africanus, with whom he was proclaimed Emperor, in Africa, in opposition to Maximinus. He was defeated and slain by Capellianus, the Procurator of Numidia, who remained faithful to Maximinus. His instructor, Serenus Sammonicus, left him heir to a large library. Gordianus II. had a good knowledge of law, and cultivated literature.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

63. DECIUS--CAIUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 249-251.

[Born at Bubalia, in Lower Pannonia, A.D. 201. Died near Abricium, A.D. 251. Aged 50.]

The first of a long line of monarchs who traced an Illyrian ancestry. In A.D. 245, he was entrusted with an important command on the Danube. Shortly afterwards he was ordered by the Emperor Philippus to calm the rebellious soldiery of Mœsia; but, on attempting to pacify them, he was offered, with a sword to his breast, the alternative of instant death or the purple. Choosing the purple, he was opposed in the field by Philippus, who fell. After reigning thirty months, he met his death in battle against the Goths. During his short rule, the Christians were bitterly persecuted. It is difficult to form a just estimate of this Emperor’s character. He has been described as “most amiable, highly accomplished, mild, affable, and brave.” He has also been stigmatized as a monster of iniquity.

[From the gallery of the Emperors in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

64. ALEXANDER SEVERUS--MARCUS AURELIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 222-235.

[Born at Arce, in Phœnicia, A.D. 205-208. Died in Gaul, A.D. 235.]

Elected Emperor on the death of Elagabalus, in A.D. 222. His reign was marked by a gradual improvement in religion, morality, and politics. In A.D. 232, he drove the Persians under Artaxerxes, in defeat across the Tigris. He was about to advance against the Germans, then ravaging Gaul, when he was murdered, together with his mother Julia Mamæa, by a band of mutinous soldiers, instigated by the ferocious Maximinus, who seized the crown. His life was simple and pure; his government considerate and just. His death caused general regret.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

65. HELIOGABALUS or ELAGABALUS--VARIUS AVITUS BASSIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 218-222.

[Born at Antioch, A.D. 204. Assassinated A.D. 222. Aged 18.]

From his earliest years a priest of the Sun in the Temple of Emesa, in Syria: but by the intrigues of his grandmother, Julia Mæsa, declared Emperor of Rome, in place of Macrinus, whom he defeated in battle, and put to death. Elagabalus--so called from his sun-worship--the priest taking the name of the God--introduced into Rome the superstitions in which he had been nurtured. By way of strengthening his power, his grandmother induced him to associate with himself, in the government, his cousin Alexander Severus. Repenting of this act, he was about to undo it, when a revolt of the Prætorians decided the question of rule by assassinating him and throwing his body into the Tiber. A more worthless carcase had never floated down the polluted river. His vices were as gross as his superstitions. He left behind him a smirched and hated name.

[All Busts of him were ordered to be destroyed by the Senate: they are consequently rare. This is from the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

66. GALLIENUS--PUBLIUS LICINIUS VALERIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 253-268.

[Born A.D. 218. Died before Milan, A.D. 268. Aged 50.]

Son of Valerian. When associated with his father in the empire, he commanded with success against the barbarians on the Rhine and Danube. In 260, Valerian was made captive by the Persians, and during the eight years of his imprisonment, his son made no effort to release him. Rome, whilst Gallienus reigned, was a prey to pestilence, internal rebellion, and the ravages of foreign nations. In A.D. 268, he laid siege to Milan, whither Aureolus, an invader of his empire, had fled for refuge. During the siege Gallienus fell--it is said by the hands of his own soldiers. His character was very bad. He was cruel, treacherous, and indolent, apathetic to public disaster, self-indulgent, frivolous, and a glutton.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

67. GORDIANUS III. or PIUS--MARCUS ANTONIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 238-244.

[Born A.D. 224. Died near Castrum Circesium, in Mesopotamia, A.D. 244. Aged 20.]

An emperor, endowed with many good qualities. He was son of the Consul Junius Balbus and Metia Faustina, daughter of Gordianus Africanus. When sixteen years old he married the beautiful and virtuous daughter of Misitheus, a wise and eloquent man, whom he appointed Prefect of the Prætorians, and by whose prudent advice he was successfully guided. Upon the death of this able minister, Philip the Arabian contrived to associate himself in the government with Gordianus, who shortly afterwards fell a victim, it is supposed, to the conspiracies of his colleague.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

68. CAIUS JULIUS VERUS MAXIMUS. _Roman Prince._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Aquileia, A.D. 238. Aged 18 or 21.]

Son of the Emperor Maximinus, who, on his accession to the purple in 235, raised him to the rank of Cæsar. Well educated, vain of his personal beauty, and haughty of demeanour, but not evil disposed. He was massacred with his father at Aquileia by the rebel Prætorians.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

69. PHILIP THE YOUNGER.--MARCUS JULIUS PHILIPPUS II. _Roman Prince._

[Born (place unknown), A.D. 237. Died A.D. 249. Aged 12.]

Son of Philip I., Emperor of Rome. When seven years old dignified with the title of Cæsar. When ten years old chosen Consul, and shared the empire under the title of Augustus. A child of singularly serious temperament. He could never be induced to laugh, and would turn away his head when his father indulged in merriment.

[From the Statue Gallery of the Vatican.]

70. CARINUS--MARCUS AURELIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 283-285.

[Born probably at Rome, A.D. 249. Died in Moesia, A.D. 285. Aged 36.]

Eldest son of the Emperor Carus. Was appointed to the command of the Western Provinces, A.D. 282. In A.D. 283, on the death of his father, was associated in the government with his brother Numerianus, who was assassinated when Diocletian was proclaimed Emperor by the army in Asia. Carinus marched against Diocletian, but in the moment of triumph he was slain by one of his own officers, whose domestic happiness he had destroyed. Carinus was a brave and skilful general, but a profligate and vicious man. He was sensual and ferocious.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

71. JULIAN THE APOSTATE--FLAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 361-363.

[Born at Constantinople, A.D. 331. Died in Persia, A.D. 363. Aged 32.]

Unquestionably a ruler of extraordinary capacity and power. He was the nephew of Constantine the Great, and was brought up in strict seclusion by the Christians, in order to save him from Constantius II., who, upon his accession, had murdered the male members of Julian’s family. He withdrew for a time to Athens; was thence recalled by the relenting Constantius, and invested with command in Gaul. He resided chiefly in Paris, and it is worthy of note that at a time of scarcity in that city, Julian drew his supplies of corn from England. During his stay in Gaul, the soldiers proclaimed him Emperor. He marched against Constantinople, but before he reached the city Constantius had died. Julian, created Emperor, renounced Christianity for the Paganism of Greece; hence the name which he has carried as a brand ever since. The Heathens extol this prince, the Christians blame him. His life at least was pure, and his rule sagacious; and, although he naturally hated his former co-religionists, he was no religious persecutor. After his accession to the throne he carried war into Persia, where he was slain in battle. He was a prince of profound knowledge, of great eloquence, and remarkable for philosophic calm. He professed Stoicism. He was also a writer, and many of his works, displaying reflexion and inquiring thought, have come down to us.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. A very interesting statue of Julian will be found described under No. 92, Handbook of Greek Court.]

72. DIOCLETIAN--CAIUS VALERIUS AURELIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 284-305.

[Born in Dalmatia, A.D. 245. Died A.D. 313. Aged 68.]

At first a simple soldier, he rose by his own merit to the rank of Captain of the Palace Guard, an office which he held until the death of Numerianus, when he was declared his successor. He associated Maximianus with him in the empire, and appointed Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, Cæsars. At the instigation of Galerius he barbarously persecuted the Christians. In A.D. 305, he resigned the empire in consequence of growing infirmities, and withdrew to Salona, where he cultivated his own garden and lived in philosophical retirement. Whilst he held power, he thought less of the freedom and dignity of Rome, than of maintaining the power of the sovereign, and of securing a regular succession. His cruelty to the Christians has caused his reign to be described as “The Age of Martyrs.”

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum.]

73. CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS--FLAVIUS VALERIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 305-306.

[Born A.D. 250. Died at York, in England, A.D. 306. Aged 55.]

The father of Constantine, surnamed “the Great,” who was founder of Constantinople. Constantius governed, as colleague of Diocletian, beyond the Alps, and his dominion extended over Gaul, Britain, and Spain. He died in England whilst preparing for an expedition against the Scots. He was the best of the later Roman Emperors, having a regard to the welfare of his people, and exhibiting no rapacity in his administration. In religious matters he was mild and tolerant, showing great humanity towards the Christians. He had excellent talents, and was surnamed “Chlorus,” or “the pale,” from the pallor of his countenance.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

74. HOSTILIANUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 251 or 252.

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died A.D. 251 or 252.]

Generally regarded as the second son of the Emperor Decius, whom he survived. Declared Cæsar in A.D. 249, and was afterwards adopted by Trebonianus Gallus as his colleague in the empire. Died either of poison or the plague.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

75. VOLUSIANUS--CAIUS VIBIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 252-254.

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Interamna, in Italy, A.D. 253 or 254.]

Son of the Emperor Gallus, with whom he reigned, being elected Augustus in A.D. 252. Little is known of his life or character. When Æmilianus was chosen Emperor, he went with Gallus to oppose him; but, before a battle could be fought, father and son were slain by their own troops.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]

76*. MAGNUS DECENTIUS. _Roman Prince._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Sens, in Gaul, A.D. 353.]

A brother or cousin of the Emperor Flavius Magnentius. Nominated Cæsar, A.D. 351, he went into Gaul, and suffered defeat in defending that country against the Germans. He strangled himself upon hearing of the defeat and deposition of his brother by Constantius, who succeeded to the throne of Magnentius.

[For an account of a curious head of this Prince, placed in the Bas-relief gallery, see Handbook to Greek Court, No. 217.]

AVENUE IN FRONT OF ROMAN COURT.

(_Numbers continuing at the end next to the Greek Court._)

77. TRAJAN. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 45.

78. TRAJAN. _Roman Emperor._

79. ANTINOUS. _Bithynian youth._

[Died in Egypt, A.D. 132.]

Celebrated for his beauty. He was the page and companion of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, whom he accompanied to Egypt. He was drowned in the Nile, and the Emperor was inconsolable for his loss. On the spot where he died, the city of Antinœa was raised; temples and statues in Egypt and Greece were erected to his memory; and in Greece, coins were struck in his honour. The numerous representations of his beauty gave a fresh impulse to the Fine Arts, and may be compared with the works of the best periods of Grecian Sculpture.

[From the marble in the Louvre; the head bound with a fillet of vine. For account of the many beautiful statues of Antinous see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave.]

81.} } 82.} } _Four duplicate busts removed._ 83.} } 84.}

85. ANTONINUS PIUS. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 47.

[From the marble in the Naples Museum.]

86. AUGUSTUS. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 35.

[This very beautiful Bust is from the Florence Gallery.]

87. TIBERIUS. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 37.

[This Bust is from the Berlin Museum.]

88. CLAUDIUS. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 38.

89. HERENNIUS. _Roman Emperor_, A.D. 251.

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died near Abricium, in Thrace, A.D. 251.]

Little interest is connected with the history of this emperor. In 249, he was declared Cæsar, and in 251, Augustus, as the colleague of his father Decius. In a battle fought near Abricium, between the Emperor Decius and the Goths, both he and his father were slain.

[From the Capitoline Museum.]

90. SCIPIO AFRICANUS. _Roman General._

For life, see No. 109.

91. JULIA MÆSA. _Roman Empress._

[Born at Emesa, in Syria, (date unknown). Died, probably at Rome, A.D. 223.]

Daughter to a Priest of the Sun. When her sister, Julia Domna, as wife of Septimius Severus, became Empress, Julia Mæsa resided at the Imperial Court. Her bold political intrigues placed her grandson Elagabalus on the throne. Against law, she was made a member of the Senate. She bore the title of Augusta to her death, and was afterwards deified. A woman of powerful mind, unscrupulously ambitious, but using power well.

[From the marble in the Gallery of the Emperors, in the Capitol, at Rome.]

92. SABINA.

[Died probably A.D. 137.]

Wife of the Emperor Hadrian, and grandniece of Trajan. Ill treated by her husband, by whom, it is said, she was poisoned. Others assert that in despair she put an end to her life. She was deified after her decease.

[From the original in alabaster in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

COURT OF THE ROMAN LADIES.

(_Numbers commencing on the right._)

93. LIVIA DRUSILLA. _Roman Empress._

[Born B.C. 56-54. Died A.D. 29.]

Married to Tiberius Claudius Nero, a Roman general; but her beauty captivating the Triumvir Octavian, afterwards Augustus, her divorce was effected, and she became the Triumvir’s wife. A consummate actress, full of craft and dissimulation, possessing great knowledge of the world, and, by an affected purity of life, maintaining to the last her influence over the mind of Augustus. She successfully intrigued for the succession in favour of Tiberius, her son by her first marriage, and, it is said, removed by poison the grandsons of Augustus, who stood in the way of her own offspring. Tiberius became Emperor, and repaid the service by base ingratitude. He removed his mother from all share in the government, declined all intercourse with her, refused to see her when she was dying, and rejoiced, in open show, at her death.

94*. DOMNA--JULIA (PIA FELIX AUGUSTA). _Roman Empress._

[Born at Emesa, in Syria, about A.D. 170. Died A.D. 217.]

A woman of humble origin, but beautiful, ambitious and crafty. She became the wife of Septimius Severus, then of the rank of general, and acquired boundless influence over his mind, persuading him that a prophecy had destined her to become the wife of an Emperor, and inciting him to labour to that end. After the death of her husband, her son Geta was murdered in her arms by his brother Caracalla; and after the successful revolt of Macrinus, being suspected of treason, she, possibly to avoid punishment, starved herself to death.

[From the marble in the Rotunda of the Vatican. This colossal head will be found No. 334, Roman Court.]

95*. JULIA, daughter of AUGUSTUS.

[Born at Rome, B.C. 39. Died at Rhegium, A.D. 14. Aged 53.]

The daughter of the Roman Emperor by his third wife Scribonia. Strictly brought up, she was married at fourteen to Marcellus. Left a widow at sixteen, she was forced by her father to marry the veteran Agrippa, by whom she had three sons and two daughters. Her conduct dissolute and unrestrained. Agrippa dying, she married again Tiberius Nero (afterwards emperor) who left her in disgust. She was banished by her father until the accession of Tiberius, when she suffered still harsher exile. Consumption killed her. In spite of her vices, the people of Rome loved her for her frank and lively manner, and frequently solicited Augustus to recall her.

[For further account of this graceful Statue of Julia, see No. 229, of Handbook to Roman Court, and Nave.]

96. AGRIPPINA--THE ELDER.

[Born B.C. 15. Died A.D. 33. Aged 48.]

Daughter of Vipsanius Agrippa, and wife of Cæsar Germanicus, to whom she bore nine children. Accompanied her husband in all his campaigns, and aided him by her cool foresight and energetic will: once, on the Rhine, in his absence, by her heroic resistance to the timid counsels of those about her, saving the relics of an army. On his death in Asia, she returned to Rome, whence she was banished by Tiberius, jealous of her popularity. After three years’ persecution and suffering, she died--possibly by her own hand. She had all the lofty qualities of a Roman matron--nobility of soul, purity, and a devoted love for her husband and children. Tacitus says of her, that “the cares which belong to men supplanted, in her mind, the vices common to her sex.”

[From the seated Statue, for account of which, see No. 281, of Hand-book to Roman Court, and Nave.]

97. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER. _Roman Empress._

[Born at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne), A.D. 14-17. Died at Rome, A.D. 60.]

The ruthless and dissolute daughter of noble parents--of Germanicus and Agrippina the elder. The unenviable mother of the madman, Nero. Upon the death of her second husband, whom she was accused of poisoning, she married her uncle Claudius, whom she induced to nominate Nero for his successor, excluding his own son. She poisoned her uncle-husband, and received her reward from her son, the matricide,--dying by hands commissioned by him to the murder. Tacitus speaks of some interesting memoirs of her time, written by Agrippina, to which he had access in writing his history. She was beautiful, but ambitious, and as wicked as she proved unfortunate.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

98. VALERIA MESSALINA. _Roman Empress._

[Born, uncertain. Died at Rome, A.D. 48.]

The third wife of the Emperor Claudius I. Her name has become a bye-word for profligacy. A murderess. Herself pierced through the breast by the sword of a tribune entrusted with the execution of one of her victims. The slave of lust, avarice, and ambition. Difficult to find in history a woman more blackened by crime than Valeria Messalina.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

99. PLOTINA--POMPEIA. _Roman Empress._

[Date, and place of birth and death unknown.]

The wife of the Emperor Trajan. A woman of clear, strong mind, and an exemplary purity of life and consistency of character. Childless herself, she prevailed upon her husband to adopt Hadrian, in whose reign she died. Hadrian built a temple in her honour, and composed hymns in her praise.

[From the marble in the Rotunda of the Vatican.]

100. MATIDIA.

[Date and place of birth unknown.]

The niece of Trajan. Declared Augusta, A.D. 113, and after death, deified.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

101. CRISPINA.

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Capreæ, A.D. 183.]

Was married to the Roman Emperor Commodus, A.D. 177, but divorced for infidelity, banished, and put to death in her exile. She was very beautiful and ambitious.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

102. MAMÆA--JULIA. _Roman Empress._

[Born at Emesa, in Syria (date unknown). Died in Gaul, A.D. 235.]

The mother of Alexander Severus, for whom she governed wisely during his minority. With many virtues, she possessed what, in the eyes of the Roman soldiers, was invariably considered as a great vice--she was an economist in her expenditure; and, disgusting the army by recommending retrenchments, she gave occasion to a mutiny, to which she and her son Alexander both fell victims. It is said that, whilst at Antioch, she received instruction from Origen in the Christian faith.

[From the very beautiful Bust in the Florence Gallery.]

102A. MAMÆA--JULIA. _Roman Empress._

[The same as preceding, in advanced age.]

103. SALONINA--CORNELIA. _Roman Empress._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died before Milan, A.D. 268.]

Supposed to have been of Greek origin. Was the wife of the Emperor Gallienus, and dignified with the title of Augusta upon his ascending the throne. She cultivated literature and philosophy, and was the protector of Plotinus the philosopher. She is described as a woman of great good sense, and exceeding benevolence. She roused him to repel the barbarians, and accompanied his army that she might attend to the wants of the soldiers. She was massacred with her husband and youngest son before Milan.

[From the marble in the Capitol at Rome.]

104. MARINIANA.

[Date and place of birth and death unknown.]

Little is known respecting this Princess, who was either wife, sister, or daughter of the Emperor Valerian, and died at least four years before his Persian expedition. Some coins, having on the obverse her name and a veiled head, were struck, A.D. 254.

105. FAUSTINA JUNIOR--ANNIA FAUSTINA.

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died A.D. 175.]

The daughter of Antoninus Pius, and wife of Marcus Aurelius, whom she accompanied into Asia, and there died suddenly. One of the most abandoned and dissolute of the Roman Empresses, yet her virtuous husband preserved his first affection for her to the last; and, on the spot where she died, erected to her honour the city of Faustinopolis.

[From the Capitoline Museum, at Rome. The original is in the marble called “Paonazzetto” (peacock-stone).]

105A. FAUSTINA.

[This bust, which is from the Florence Collection, bears the name of “Faustina, Junior.” It is a beautiful bust, well preserved, but bears little resemblance to the preceding portrait. If it really represent the same person, the work has been executed by a more flattering hand.]

106. SABINA--POPPÆA. _Roman Empress._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died A.D. 65.]

“She possessed,” says Tacitus, “everything but a virtuous mind.” She became the wife of the Emperor Nero, after having been his mistress; at her instigation Nero’s mother was killed by him, and his former wife, Octavia, divorced and put to death. She was herself destroyed by a brutal blow from Nero, who pronounced her eulogium at the tomb. “As he could not,” says Tacitus, “speak of her virtues, he enlarged upon her beauty.” She was deified, and honoured with a temple. Her luxurious tastes were extravagant. It is related that her mules were shod with gold; and that when she travelled, she was followed by five hundred asses, whose milk furnished a bath to preserve her complexion.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

COURT OF ROMAN GENERALS AND POETS.

ADJOINING THE COURT OF ROMAN LADIES.

(_Numbers commencing on the right._)

107. LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. _Roman Consul._

[Date and place of birth unknown.]

The first Consul, and one of the Founders, of the Roman Republic. Before he was elected to the Consulate in B.C. 509, he had been the main cause of the expulsion of royalty from Rome in the persons of Tarquin and his sons. He fell in battle whilst defending, as Consul, the infant Republic against the royal exiles fighting for their restoration. These are admitted facts in the life of Lucius Junius Brutus. His assumption of idiotcy during the reign of the Tarquins, in order to carry on with greater safety his patriotic designs, and his connexion with the affecting history of the devoted Lucretia, are events which in recent years have passed from the grave volume of history to the more fascinating pages of poetry. Philosophical historians permit us to sing, but no longer to believe in, the once cherished narratives of earliest Rome. The act, whether historical or merely traditionary, which the most memorably distinguishes his name, is that of ordering the execution of his two sons, convicted of conspiring for the restoration of the Tarquins.

[From the bronze in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Capitol at Rome.]

108. MARCELLUS--M. CLAUDIUS. _Roman General._

[Born about B.C. 268. Died in Apulia, B.C. 208. Aged about 60.]

A Roman of high fame. At his hands Hannibal received the first check that he experienced in Italy. He subsequently besieged Syracuse, but was forced to convert the siege into a blockade in consequence of the genius displayed in the defence of the city by the great Archimedes, who rendered of no avail every engine brought against Syracuse, and inspired dread by his own instruments of war. At length Marcellus triumphed, the city was given over to pillage, and its defender perished, whilst pondering over a geometrical problem, by the hand of a common soldier. He again turned his victorious arms against Hannibal, winning fresh laurels and new honours from the state. It was whilst fighting against the Carthaginian hero that he fell, slain by a spear of the enemy. Hannibal sympathized with his fall, and paid honour to his remains. A plain, stern, unlettered soldier, brave to recklessness, rude and unpolished in manners, unyielding in temper.

[This Bust bears the name of Marcellus in the Capitoline Museum. It may be the nephew of Augustus when a child.]

109. SCIPIO--PUBLIUS CORNELIUS AFRICANUS MAJOR. _Roman General._

[Born probably at Rome, B.C. 234. Died at Liternum, in Campania, B.C. 183. Aged 51.]

Son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, whose life he saved in the battle of the Ticinus. One of the few Roman generals who survived the fatal battle of Cannæ, and chosen with Appius Claudius to command the remains of the army. Went as Prætor or Pro-Consul to Spain at the age of 24, where he took Carthagena, gained the battle of Bœcula, and recovered the whole country. Forcing Hannibal, the victorious Carthaginian general, to carry the theatre of war to Africa, he gained the celebrated victory of Zama, which decided the long conflict between Rome and Carthage for dominion. Received the surname of Africanus in consequence, but, vexed with the ingratitude of his countrymen he withdrew to Liternum, where he died. Like Mahomet and Cromwell, he believed himself the special instrument of Heaven. He was undoubtedly the greatest man of his age, and one of the first of the Roman worthies. The affectionate friend of the poet Ennius, and the patron of literature. The Spaniards, for his virtues, would have made him king.

[From the Capitol at Rome. Many busts of this great general are in existence. They all represent him with the head and face close shaved, according to the fashion of his day, when men shaved closely after the age of forty. The authentic busts have the scar on the left side of the head, and some have a scar on each side, and some on the wrong side. No. 127 is from the bust in basalt belonging to the Rospigliosi Palace. No. 125 is from the bronze found in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, and now in the Naples Museum.]

110. CATO--MARCUS PORCIUS. _Roman Patriot and General._

[Born B.C. 95. Died at Utica, in Africa, B.C. 46. Aged 49.]

One of the classical undying forms reared in antiquity to symbolize high moral purity, unquenchable love of liberty, and the sternest virtue. Cato answers to the idea of Roman patriotism, as Julius Cæsar to that of Roman conquest. Before this one we stand, wondering at human power; before that, subdued by the might of the highest moral excellence. Cato as a child was grave, pains-taking, resolute, tenacious; as he grew, he became strong in the love of virtue, and in his hatred of oppression. Attached to the philosophy of the Stoics, he aimed at happiness through its teaching. He had served with honour many offices in Rome when Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus found it necessary to remove him to Cyprus, in order that his patriotism might offer no obstacle to their ambitious schemes. Returning to Rome, he was made Prætor, the highest office he ever held. At the breaking out of the civil war he was entrusted by the senate with the defence of Sicily: he afterwards joined Pompey. Subsequently to the battle of Pharsalia, at which he was not present, he sailed to Africa in search of Pompey. Suffering defeat at Thapsus, he committed self-destruction. Before the fatal act he read Plato’s Phædon several times through. His death caused great grief. It was mourned by great Cæsar himself, who grudged Cato his death, since Cato grudged him the glory of sparing his life.

[Double bust representing Cato and his daughter Porcia; it is from the Capitoline Museum, but possesses no especial authenticity.]

111. JULIUS CÆSAR. _Roman Dictator._

[Born at Rome, B.C. 100. Died there, B.C. 44. Aged 56.]

The mightiest amongst the mighty of men. At the outset of his career he served in Asia, where he won a civic wreath. Subsequently made Consul in Rome (B.C. 59); and, at the close of his term of office, appointed to the government of Gaul--which country in nine years he wholly subjugated to Roman rule. His invasion of Britain is amongst the earliest recollections of the English schoolboy. The renowned Commentaries of Julius Cæsar graphically narrate these deeds. Rousing the jealousy of Pompey, in Rome, by his splendid achievements, he marched into Italy--afterwards into Spain, in order to crush the adherents of Pompey, and then returned to Rome in triumph, to be created Dictator. As Dictator he overcame his rival in the battle of Pharsalia, in Thessaly. He performed fresh service to the state in Egypt, and going back to Rome in order to advance the social and material prosperity of his country, he fell a victim to a conspiracy, of which Brutus and Cassius were at the head. Twice had the crown been offered to him, and twice had he refused it. No Roman before his time had ever won such honour as was heaped upon his head. He suffered from epilepsy, and was very abstemious. He was tall, fair and slight--very careful of his person, concealing his baldness by a laurel crown. His was indeed a head inwreathed with palms. He was a great captain, a great statesman, a great orator--a great writer. He had innate personal intrepidity, instantaneous decision, answering celerity of action, resources to meet every emergency, consummate military skill, an unshaken presence of mind, a trust--whether in his fortune, as he said, or in himself--which still augured and still conquered success. He had also the most implicit confidence in his troops, whom he treated ever as companions and brothers in arms. Intellectual action in him was without labour. It was subtle, comprehensive, rapid, luminous, self-possessed. He dictated to five secretaries at once, on different subjects: his strokes of eloquence in the Senate, as his strokes of action in the field, were quick and irresistible. In the terrible civil war of the dissolving Republic--a war wasteful of Roman blood in the field,--thirstier for the flow of the same drear beverage by the axe and the dagger,--there, where the sole sad policy of the victor hitherto was revenge, Cæsar tried the novel art of forgiveness: although in his Gaulish conquests--when the barbarian stands before him--he looks to us, by his own reporting, sanguinary and merciless. By toil and spare diet, he hardened a feeble health for any work. A civilian, with but a taste, in youth, of war, he, at forty, stepped into command, at once a supreme commander. Recklessly licentious, yet no intellect could be keener, healthier, and more vigorous. His writings, with the simplicity of a soldier, have the clearness and precision of a grammarian. And why not, since we know that in the versatility of his genius, he wrote two books on grammar. In the history of the world, Julius Cæsar was a power. In the records of psychology a wonder.

[From the bronze in the Florence Gallery. He wore the front of his head shaven. It resembles the bronze medals of Cæsar, but is suspected to be modern. He is said to have been sensitive on account of his baldness, and this bust shows the hair combed forward to hide it. No. 111B possesses much individuality; it is from the head in basalt in the Berlin Museum, and stood constantly on the study table of Frederic the Great. No. 111A is the bust from the Poniatowsky Collection, and remarkable for having the diadem round the head. No. 125 is from the marble in the Gallery of the Emperors, in the Capitol at Rome.]

111A.} } JULIUS CÆSAR. _Roman Dictator._ 111B.}

112. MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. _Roman General._

[Born B.C. 85. Died B.C. 42. Aged 43.]

The friend of Cicero--the fellow conspirator of Cassius--one of those who shared in the deed memorable to all time--questionable in its own--of killing Julius Cæsar. From his earliest youth, and through life, absorbed in study and self-contemplation, to the detriment of his powers as a man of action. He was much attached to Cato, whom he accompanied to Cyprus, when it was found necessary to remove the republican leaders from Rome. We are accustomed to think of Brutus--Shakspeare being greatly answerable for the thought--as standing aloof from the vulgar ambition and desires of his fellow-men; yet we find him in Cilicia (B.C. 53), growing rich by letting out money at usurious interest. In the civil war of Pompey and Cæsar he took part with Pompey; Cæsar, however, gave orders that at the battle of Pharsalia his person should be sacred. Grateful for the consideration, Brutus, upon the defeat of Pompey, asked pardon from Cæsar, which was generously accorded. In B.C. 48, appointed by Cæsar governor of Cisalpine Gaul: the inhabitants of which, delighted with his mild treatment of them, and his justice, honoured him with public monuments. Four years later he joined the conspiracy against his patron, and burdened his hand with the death of that great soldier. Then took up arms against Antony; but suffering defeat at Philippi, fell by his own sword. His reading and varied knowledge were immense: he was speculative, superstitious, and highly imaginative. His aspirations pure and noble, but his practical ability small, and his judgment imperfect and too easily led. He wrote much, his chief productions being his orations.

[From the Capitol at Rome, where it stands in the same gallery as the Dying Gladiator (No. 309) in the Nave.]

113. M. VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA. _Roman General._

[Born B.C. 63. Died in Campania, B.C. 12. Aged 51.]

His victories mainly contributed to make the Emperor Augustus, whose daughter he married, master of the Roman Empire: and he was the chief support of the rising monarchical institution in Rome. He spent much money on public works, erected several public buildings, including the Pantheon and the Julian aqueduct; was a patron of the fine Arts, and dying, bequeathed his goods and his gardens to the people of Rome.

[From a Bust in the Louvre.]

114. NERO CLAUDIUS DRUSUS. _Roman General._

[Born at Rome, B.C. 38. Died B.C. 9. Aged 29.]

A son of Livia who married the Emperor Augustus, and brother of Tiberius. Victorious in Gaul and Germany. Unflinchingly firm and severe towards all who resisted him, but generous to those who trusted and submitted to him. He married Antonia, the daughter of Marc Antony. His known desire to see the commonwealth restored endeared him to the Roman people. Died in Germany, from an injury sustained in a fall from his horse.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome. See also a statue of him, No. 222, Roman Court.]

115. GERMANICUS CÆSAR. _Roman General._

[Born B.C. 15. Died at Antioch, in Syria, A.D. 19. Aged 34.]

Son of Nero Claudius Drusus, and his wife Antonia; was adopted by Tiberius, at the request of Augustus. Occupied for a time in an exterminating war against the eastern Germans. Afterwards appointed by Tiberius supreme ruler of the eastern provinces. Died at Antioch, where, it is supposed, he was poisoned by the governor of the place. A man of sensitive feeling, temperate, and virtuous. Remarkable for the dignity of his person, for captivating eloquence, munificence, and unaffected courtesy; but credulous, nervous, and a believer in magic. Idolized by his soldiers, and popular with the multitude.

[From the marble in the Capitol, at Rome. The statue generally called by his name is described under No. 312 in the Hand-book to Roman Court and Nave.]

116. CORBULO--CNEIUS DOMITIUS. _Roman General._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Cenchreæ, in Greece, A.D. 67.]

One of the most celebrated generals of his age, and brother-in-law of Caligula. He composed some military memoirs after the manner of Cæsar’s Commentaries, but they have not been preserved. He was a good disciplinarian, and cautious as well as brave. He commanded against the Parthians, and was victorious in every engagement. After Nero’s accession, he continued faithful to his new master, who summoned him to Greece, and for his fidelity greeted him with an order for execution on his landing at Cenchreæ. He stabbed himself with his own sword. His daughter Domitia Longina, celebrated for her beauty and vices, was the wife of the Emperor Domitian.

[From the marble in the Gallery of Philosophers, of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

117. DECIMUS CLODIUS CEIONIUS SEPTIMIUS ALBINUS. _Roman General._

[Born at Adrumetum, in Africa. Date not known. Died at Lugdunum (Lyons), in Gaul, A.D. 197.]

Entered the army at an early age, and served with distinction under Marcus Aurelius. Held a command in Gaul, and afterwards in Britain, under Commodus. After the murder of Pertinax, the successor of Commodus, Clodius was proclaimed Emperor in Britain by the British legions, and shared the purple with Septimius Severus. Subsequently discarded by Severus, he put himself at the head of his legions, and met his colleague in battle at Lugdunum, in Gaul, where he fell. He was of great beauty and strength, and was called by his father “Albinus,” on account of the great whiteness of his skin. A skilful general, but severe: styled by some, the “Catiline” of his time.

[From the gallery of the Emperors, in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

118. TERENCE--PUBLIUS TERENTIUS. _Latin Comic Poet._

[Born at Carthage, B.C. 195. Died (place uncertain), B.C. 159. Aged 36.]

The second and last of the Latin comic poets--Plautus being the first--whose plays have descended to our time. He was the slave of a Roman senator, who, having regard to his talents and handsome person, gave him his liberty: on which occasion the freedman assumed his patron’s name--Terentius. In person, he was thin and of the middle height, with an olive complexion. Terence is the one Latin writer in whom the stateliness and the lofty strength, seemingly inherent in the language of Rome, at once ceases: and the tongue which we had deemed fit only to be spoken by the Kings of the world,---by the Fathers convened in the temple of Capitoline Jove,--gently condescends to the hearts and the hearths of men. In the six preserved comedies of his--both by the delineation of the characters, and by the strain of their speaking--we feel ourselves in the familiar presence of known humanity. Not but that the manner implies delicate choice and thoughtful art; but its easy, natural air deceives the belief in the actual study. The words rise up from the heart, to drop from the lip. In the dialogue of Terence, the barrier that hitherto has stood inflexibly between the modern and the antique world has fallen. We are at home in the Roman theatre. To great purity, grace, tenderness, the style adds, even in description, or narrative, or continuous argument, that utter simplicity and obviousness of the sense, which is found in the most trivial uses of speech.

[From the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitol, at Rome. On the right shoulder is sculptured the histrionic mask, a curious fancy of the artist, which may have been suggested by the custom in Egyptian portraiture, of carving the name in a small “cartouche” on the shoulder, a practice alluded to in the scriptures.]

119. QUINTUS HORTENSIUS. _Roman Orator._

[Born B.C. 113. Died B.C. 49. Aged 64.]

He employed his great oratorical powers in the defence of Sylla, and of the aristocratic party to which he had attached himself. Cicero styled him “rex judiciorum.” He defended Verres against Cicero: and the triumph of Cicero on that occasion threw Hortensius ever after into the second rank. He acquired great wealth, and lived luxuriously. His oratory was of the florid kind, and greatly aided by gesticulation; he had a retentive memory, and a sweetly sonorous voice.

[From the marble in the Villa Albani, Rome. The Bust is inscribed with his name. It was found together with the bust of Isocrates (No. 15).]

120. CICERO--MARCUS TULLIUS. _Roman Orator._

[Born at Arpinum, B.C. 106. Died at Formiae, B.C. 43. Aged 63.]

The acknowledged greatest name in Roman eloquence. A man diligent in accomplishing himself by various study, and wonderfully gifted with the power of clothing thought in copious and musical words. He is less distinguished as an original thinker. He frequented the schools of the philosophers, but seemed in heart more dedicated to the worldly ambition of power and fame than to the studious zeal of truth. He courted popularity, and lived in anticipated immortality. He was an ambiguous partisan, waiting to be directed by victory to the side which he should embrace. He loved to throw an air of philosophical reflexion over questions of human affairs; and his expression of these reflexions is felt even to this day as singularly felicitous. We quote his words, because we can find no apter expression yet for the permanent thoughts. His writings show him undisguisedly vain. After the assassination of the great Julius (B.C. 44), he became the leader of the republican party, and in his celebrated “Philippics” denounced Antony as the foe of his country. This was his ruin. On the formation of the Triumvirate of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, he was included in the proscriptions; his head was cut off, and fixed upon the Rostra which had so frequently resounded with his eloquence. His greatest political achievement was the detection and sudden overthrow of the revolutionary conspiracy headed by Catiline (B.C. 63), his brilliant denunciations of whom we listen to in our boyhood. Kind and pure in his life, but without true greatness of character, and with many moral weaknesses.

[From the marble in the Vatican. Considered to be the most faithful portrait of this renowned orator. No. 120A is from the Gallery of Philosophers of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

120A. CICERO--MARCUS TULLIUS. _Roman Orator._

121. VIRGIL--PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO. _Latin Poet._

[Born at Andes, near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul, B.C. 70. Died at Brundusium, in Italy, B.C. 19. Aged 51.]

The district in which Virgil was born not being then included in Italy, he did not enjoy the native rights of a Roman citizen; and when Augustus divided the lands in Cisalpine Gaul amongst his victorious veteran soldiers, Virgil was ejected from his small patrimonial farm. Upon his petitioning the emperor, however, the farm was restored to him. He was the friend of Horace, whom he introduced to Mæcenas. Besides poetry, he cultivated medicine and agriculture. He was tall, dark, rustic in appearance, and feeble in body. He was drawn by the power of genius from the obscure shade of a peasant’s life, to be the favoured poet and friend of an emperor. In his verse the native majesty of the language appears more perfectly tempered, than in any other, with grace and sweetness. Virgil is the most pathetic of the Roman poets: the heart speaks in his verse. He has the soul of the beautiful, like an earlier Raffaelle in song. His poem on Husbandry--the most finished work of his muse--is written with a cleaving of soul to the native theme. The purport of the poem was to recall the luxurious Romans to the simple and vigorous way of life of their ancestors, who lived cultivating the earth. If the rural earth and free nature could have been endeared to the voluptuous masters of the world by the charm of musical words, the Georgics might have done this. We ourselves feel the pouring of a purer atmosphere into the corrupted city. The epic poem of Virgil, “The Æneid,” relating the transplantation of a Trojan colony from the flames of falling Troy, to found (in Italy) future Rome, derives a high poetical cast from the prophetic spirit that overshadows it. Both “The Georgics” and the “Æneid” express love in the soul of the poet--love for the scenes and vocation, in which he was born--love of Rome, which he will purify or will glorify.

[From the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitol, at Rome. The portraits of Virgil have been verified by Bellori. The tomb of Virgil is a well-known object of interest near Naples. It is now an ivy-grown, but venerated ruin, although so late as 1326 it was nearly perfect.]

122. SENECA--LUCIUS ANNÆUS. _Philosopher._

[Born at Corduba (Cordova), in Spain, about A.D. 2. Died at Rome, A.D. 68. Aged 66.]

The tutor of young Domitius, afterwards the Emperor Nero, by whom he was condemned and sentenced to self-destruction---probably that Nero might secure his great possessions. Seneca underwent his punishment with great firmness and philosophic calm. He was a writer of many works, and Quintilian says that he corrupted the taste of his age by an affected though elegant style. Many of his epistles and moral and physical treatises are extant. His philosophy was Stoical, with modifications; his manner of writing is antithetical, and apparently laboured. He rejected the superstitions of his country, and was a monotheist.

[From the marble in the Berlin Museum. In the Florence collection there are three Busts of him. The portrait of Seneca was identified as early as the sixteenth century by a medallion engraved with his name, possessed by Cardinal Mattei. A Bust in bronze was found at Herculaneum.]

122*. LIVY--TITUS LIVIUS. _Roman Historian._

[Born at Petavium (Padua), B.C. 59. Died A.D. 17. Aged 76.]

Little is known of the life of this famous historian, save that he enjoyed the patronage and friendship of Augustus, and established a wide and instantaneous fame in his own time. The great and only extant work of Livy is his History of Rome. It originally consisted of 142 books: 35 only have come down to us--of the remainder we have merely short summaries. Livy is an admirable weaver together, without sifting criticism, of received records and traditions. His reader glides on the stream of his flowing narration. His style is lucid, animated, picturesque. But in the annals of the warlike republic--that setter up and putter down of kings--that mistress of the nations--we look for and desire, more stern and majestic strength;--a profounder disclosure of the heroic political wisdom, which steadily advanced in building up the most memorable empire in the world.

[Bust yet to come.]

(_Leaving the Court of Roman Generals, we proceed to the Nave. The numbers of the Portrait Gallery continue into the Nave from left to right_.)

123. HADRIAN. _Roman Emperor._

For life, see No. 46.

124. LIVIA DRUSILLA. _Roman Empress._

For life, see No. 93.

[A fine statue of Livia will be seen in the vestibule adjoining the Court of the Generals, No. 237.]

125. JULIUS CÆSAR. _Roman Dictator._

For life, see No. 111.

126. SCIPIO AFRICANUS. _Roman General._

For life, see No. 109.

127. SCIPIO AFRICANUS. _Roman General._

For life, see No. 109.

128. DECIMUS CŒLIUS BALBINUS. _Roman Statesman and Emperor_, A.D. 238.

[Date, and place of birth unknown.]

A man of Consular dignity, who had governed in nearly all the peaceful provinces of the Empire, and was esteemed and beloved by all ranks; when, upon the death of the Gordiani in Africa, he was selected as one of the Emperors to oppose the ferocious Maximinus--Pupienus being the other. Soon after the death of Maximinus, both Balbinus and Pupienus were murdered by the Prætorians, who remembered to their disadvantage the prodigal liberality of their lately-slain tyrant. They reigned only four months. Balbinus was celebrated for his oratory and poetry.

[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

THE ITALIAN PORTRAITS.

INTRODUCTION.

Our Italian collection is formed, chiefly, from the busts of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome, where Pius VII., in 1820, founded a portrait gallery of celebrated Italians, to which he gave the name of the Protomoteca. This gallery contains about 70 busts, and though dedicated especially to the honour of Italians, still finds room for some of the distinguished foreigners who derived much of their eminence from studying at Rome. These are Nicolas Poussin of France, Raffaelle Mengs the Bohemian, Winckelmann the German antiquary, Angelica Kauffman, the most accomplished painter of her sex, and Giuseppe Suée, a French painter. The busts of living men are not admitted, and the honour of joining the famous company is awarded by the Academy of Rome, assisted by men learned or skilled in any special science or art.

The series is a very complete one, and begins as early as the XIIIth century. It is to be regretted that so few of these busts have been done from the life; although it must be understood that none is the work of mere imagination, some authenticated portrait having in every case furnished a model. Most of these busts are the work of sculptors of the time of Canova, and many of them were executed at his expense, and presented to the collection. In general, it will be remarked that a certain grandeur prevails in the treatment of the heads, an element that seems to belong, naturally, to the works of the best Italian artists, whether in painting or sculpture. Even where existing casts from the face prove to us that in these busts there has been a certain departure from the real features, we see it has been done only to afford a more exalted idea of the person, and to give the stamp of that nobleness and dignity which characterize the finest efforts of portraiture. A comparison of the busts of Galileo, Nos. 185 and 185A, and of Michael Angelo, Nos. 143 and 143A, will illustrate this point.

There is also in the Capitoline Museum, a large collection of antique portrait busts, embracing many of the ancient philosophers, poets, and Roman Emperors, a selection from which, as we have already stated, is found in the Greek and Roman Courts.

In the Vatican (the palace of the Pope, at Rome), a splendid edifice, which has, from time to time, been constructed and enlarged by various eminent architects, and decorated by the greatest painters of the world, are preserved many _chefs d’œuvre_ of art that are to be seen in no other place. The collection of the Vatican includes many portraits of every kind; but one portion of the vast structure is exclusively devoted to portrait-statues and busts. This is a spacious and magnificent apartment called the Rotonda, paved with antique mosaics, and surrounded with antique statues and busts on pedestals of the rarest marbles. Adjoining this saloon is another noble gallery, built by Pius VII. which contains many statues of the Greek sages, and of other illustrious men.

In the Florence gallery there is a most interesting series of portraits of painters by their own hands--a unique and unrivalled collection, begun by the Cardinal Leopold, the brother of Ferdinand II., and increased by the addition of the portraits from the collection of the Abbé Pazzi, purchased by the Grand Duke Leopold in 1765. Besides these paintings, there is a collection of more than 4,000 engraved gems and cameos, amongst which are many antique portraits. There are also about 100 antique portrait busts, of which the rarest and best preserved are Cicero, Marc Antony, Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Caligula, Galba, and Otho. As the visitor will observe, several of these are in our portrait gallery.

The Naples collection, besides many fine works of antiquity of every kind, has contributed in the most important manner to the subject of antique portraiture. It contains the invaluable relics found at Herculaneum and Pompeii: and amongst these have, from time to time, appeared portrait busts, statues, and even pictures with names upon them, by which busts elsewhere have been recognised. There are in this Museum, about 200 portraits in marble and bronze, from which our collection has been enriched.

* * * * *

(_The portraits of Italians begin immediately behind the Statue of Rubens, in the great Transept, on the east side of the Nave._)

ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS.

129. NICCOLA PISANO. _Sculptor and Architect._

[Born at Pisa, in Italy, 1205-7. Died at Sienna, in Italy, about 1290.]

The early reviver of Sculpture in Italy; memorable for being the first Italian artist who quitted the dry, stiff, traditional forms which had long prevailed, and founded a school based upon Truth and Nature. His finest productions preceded those of Cimabue; and it was said of him that “he was the first to see the light and to follow it.” His great work is the marble pulpit, with bas-reliefs from Scripture, in the Baptistery at Pisa.

[By Alessandro d’Este. Vasari mentions a Bust of him by his son Giovanni, from which this may have been taken.]

130. ANDREA DI CIONE, better known by his surname ORCAGNA or ORGAGNA. _Painter, Sculptor, Architect._

[14th century.]

Precise time of his birth unknown; it appears that he died about 1370. Executed several works in his three vocations. The dignified grandeur and admirable grouping of the figures in his paintings were at a later period copied or adopted, even by Michael Angelo and Raffaelle. Orcagna was a good as well as a great man. His chief works still exist, though in a half-ruined state, in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and in the Strozzi Chapel, and the Or-San-Michele at Florence.

[This Bust is by the Cav. Massimiliano Laboureur. There is, however, a mezzo-relievo, by his own hand, behind the altar in Or-San-Michele, at Florence, which contains his portrait. He is there represented as an Apostle, shaven, and wearing a hood.]

131. FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI. _Sculptor and Architect._

[Born at Florence, 1377. Died there, 1446. Aged 69.]

The self-taught constructor of the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore, at Florence, which, though smaller than that of St. Peter’s at Rome, surpasses it in elegance and lightness. A builder of churches, palaces, and fortifications. Michael Angelo declared that it was difficult to imitate and impossible to excel him. Small and insignificant in person, but of commanding genius. With many competitors, his goodness and prudence preserved him from enmity.

[His tomb is next to that of Giotto, in the Cathedral at Florence, and bears an epitaph by Aretino. This bust was done by Alessandro d’Este. It is no doubt taken from that in the Church of Sta. Maria del Fiore, at Florence, which was done from the life, in marble, by his pupil, Il Buggiano. In 1830, statues of him and Arnolfo, his fellow architect, were placed in the new chapter-house: they are by Luigi Pompaloni, a Florentine.]

132. LORENZO GHIBERTI, or LORENZO DI CIONE. _Sculptor._

[Born at Florence, 1378. Died, 1455. Aged 77.]

One of the most memorable of the great Italian artists of the fifteenth century. At the age of 23, he competed with Brunelleschi and Donatello for the execution of the side doors of San Giovanni at Florence. His two rivals confessed themselves vanquished and retired in his favour. These gates were twenty-one years in course of completion, and are divided into 20 panels, each containing a bas-relief cast in bronze, from a subject in the New Testament. Another twenty years were spent in producing the central doors of the same Baptistery, representing in ten compartments the principal events of the Old Testament. Of these, Michael Angelo said they were beautiful enough to stand at the entrance of Paradise. A reproduction of these gates occupies the centre of the south end of the Renaissance Court. Ghiberti modelled and cast statues, worked in gold, painted on glass, and wrote a MS. history of Ancient and Modern Artists.

[Buried in Sta. Croce, Florence; his tomb is now lost. This Bust is by Carlo Finelli. There is an interesting portrait of him by his own hand, amongst the heads on his celebrated gates in the Renaissance Court. The two heads in the centre, between the upper corners of the second panels from the ground, are portraits of Ghiberti and Bartoluccio, the caster; the right-hand one, with the bald head, being Ghiberti. In the original gates his name is inscribed near the head, with the words,--

“Laurentii Cionis de Ghibertis mirâ arte fabricatum.”]

133. DONATO DI NICCOLO DI BETTO BARDI; called by his contemporaries DONATELLO. _Sculptor._

[Born at Florence, 1386. Died there, 1468. Aged 83.]

He was the generous competitor and friend of Lorenzo Ghiberti. Employed and patronized by Cosmo de’ Medici. Was one of the first Italian sculptors who gave to their figures freedom of movement and force of expression. A very fine work of this artist is the equestrian statue of Gattamelata, in the city of Padua. A cast from it will be found in the Gothic and Renaissance Sculpture Court. The character of Donatello was remarkable for simplicity and generosity; he took no thought for himself, and was devoted wholly to his art.

[This Bust is by Giovanni Ceccarini.]

134. FRA ANGELICO DA FIESOLE; called also FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE, and IL BEATO. _Painter._

[Born at Vicchio, in Tuscany, 1387. Died at Rome, 1455. Aged 67.]

This charming painter of the early Florentine school became, when a youth, a friar of the Dominican order. Began by illuminating missals; afterwards enlarged his style, and executed frescos. The finest of these are in the church of San. Marco, and in the chapel of Nicholas V. at Rome. His works are distinguished by simple grace, tenderness of colour, and the most profound religious feeling. He excelled particularly in painting angels.

[This Bust is by Leandro Biglioschi; but there is a life-size bust of him upon his tomb, in Minerva di Roma.]

135. TOMMASO GUIDI, also called MASSACCIO. _Painter._

[Born at San-Giovanni, in the Val d’ Arno, 1402. Died at Florence, 1443. Aged 41.]

Massaccio-Tomasaccio (big or heavy Tom) was a nickname given to him when a boy. A devoted student of the works of Brunelleschi and Donatello. He lived for the most part in Rome and Florence, and died in the last-named city. Time has destroyed the greater number of his works. His frescos, which still remain in the Brancacci chapel of the Carmelite church in Florence, representing the history of St. Peter, are remarkable for their freedom, and for the absence of the conventionalities of the early mediæval painters. Some of his noble figures became models for the later Florentines, and were imitated by Raffaelle himself. He excelled his contemporaries in the nude form, and gave to his draperies a style unknown before, adapting them naturally and gracefully to the human shape.

[By Carlo Finelli.]

136. ANDREA MANTEGNA. _Painter and Engraver._

[Born at Padua, in Italy, 1430. Died at Mantua, in Italy, 1506. Aged 76.]

This painter is celebrated among the early artists of Italy, and belongs to the Paduan school of art. His _chef-d’œuvre_, the _Madonna della Vittoria_, in the Louvre, is grandly treated, and remarkable for its admirable finish. His cartoons of the triumphs of Cæsar are at Hampton Court; the composition is grand and spirited, and knowledge of the antique is blended with a feeling for nature. To Mantegna is attributed the art of engraving with the burin, and also the invention of the art of foreshortening figures, especially on ceilings. Distinguished for his good and amiable qualities.

[He was buried in the Church of S. Agnese, in Mantua. His tomb is in one of the chapels, and bears his statue, in bronze. This bust is by Rainaldo Rinaldi.]

137. LUCA SIGNORELLI. _Painter._

[Born at Cortona, in Tuscany, 1440. Died 1521. Aged 81.]

An ancestor of Vasari, the author of “Lives of the Painters,” and a distinguished painter of the early Tuscan school. Assisted in the works of the Sistine Chapel at Rome; and his pictures there, according to Vasari, are superior to those of his contemporaries. His great frescos in the Cathedral of Orvieto, representing the Day of Judgment and the History of Antichrist, are his principal works. His productions show too great anxiety to mark the form with anatomical correctness. In this he was the precursor of Michael Angelo; and Fuseli has frequently imitated him. As a man he was upright, sincere, and kind-hearted. He lived and decorated himself with great splendour.

[By Pietro Pierantoni.]

138. FRANCESCO LAZZARI BRAMANTE. _Architect, Painter, Poet._

[Born at Castel Durante, in Italy, 1444. Died at Rome, 1514. Aged 70.]

Memorable as the architect employed by Julius II. and Leo X. to rebuild the church of St. Peter’s, at Rome, and to construct the famous Loggie of the Vatican, afterwards completed and adorned by Raffaelle. Bramante was a bold and original genius, but vain, impetuous, and impatient. As a consequence of his recklessness, most of his works have speedily decayed.

[By Alessandro d’Este. Bramante was buried in the crypt of S. Peter’s, at Rome, called the “Grotte Vaticane.”]

139. PIETRO PERUGINO, or PIETRO VANUCCI DELLA PIEVE. _Painter._

[Born at Pieve, in Italy, 1446. Died there or at Perugia, 1524. Aged 78.]

Immortal as the instructor of Raffaelle, and himself a celebrated painter of the Umbrian school. He was opposed to the more modern style of which Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and his own great pupil Raffaelle, are the renowned masters. His pictures are religious, earnest, and graceful, but wanting in variety of character. In his best pictures, his colouring is excellent, and the expression of his heads very beautiful, but his numerous works are of very unequal value and merit. Vasari has branded this painter as avaricious, eccentric, sordid, and irreligious. Modern writers have attempted to rescue him from the harsh verdict pronounced by his early biographer.

[By Raimondo Trentanove.]

140. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAIO. _Painter._

[Born at Florence, 1449--51. Died sometime between 1490 and 1498.]

The son of a goldsmith who adopted the name Ghirlandaio (the garland-maker) on account of his skill in making the gold and silver ornaments worn by Florentine girls. The first work of Domenico was a portrait of Amerigo Vespucci who had the honour of giving his name to America. Devoted to his art, preferring honour and glory to riches. Painted in fresco, in tempera, and in mosaic, but excelled in the first. In his sacred historical pictures, he introduced portraits of remarkable persons as spectators, which gives them a peculiar value. He was the early instructor of Michael Angelo, and his finest works are in the churches of Florence.

[By Massimiliano Laboureur. His portrait, by his own hand, is in one of the pictures of the Choir of S. Maria Novella, at Florence.]

141. LEONARDO DA VINCI. _Painter._

[Born at Vinci, in Tuscany, 1452. Died at Amboise, in France, 1519. Aged 67.]

One of the greatest names of the fifteenth century. His genius was all but universal, and his faculty of acquiring knowledge of all kinds, prodigious. He is most generally known and appreciated as a painter; but he was also a distinguished writer, a man of general science, an architect, an engineer, an accomplished musician, and a discoverer in Natural Philosophy. As painter he was the pupil of Andrea Verrochio, and the founder of the Milan school. It was at Milan that he painted his great and universally known picture, of the “Last Supper.” From 1504 to 1515, he travelled through Italy as architect and engineer to Cæsar Borgia, Duke of Valentino. He is the undoubted head of the highest development of art, in which the most elevated subjects were represented in the noblest Form. Every branch and attribute of Fine Art was intimately known to him. In the expression of the passions, his eye and mind were quick and eager; and he investigated every phase of life to its minutest modifications. He was familiar with the spirit of the humblest ranks, and could stamp divine subjects with a beauty and sentiment which only the very highest genius is competent to attain. There was great rivalry between Leonardo and Michael Angelo.--A Titanic emulation! The faculties of both were mighty and analogous; their grasp similarly broad and powerful. Leonardo passed his last years in France, protected by Francis I., who showered favours upon this gifted man. A story is current that the painter died in the arms of the monarch, but there appears no good foundation for the statement.

[From the marble, by Filippo Albaccini. The bust resembles the painted portraits, of which there are several of undoubted accuracy and truth, painted by himself, at Florence, Venice, Paris, and Milan. The works of Leonardo on Anatomy and Painting are still invaluable to students in art. His treatise on Painting was first printed at Paris in 1651. The MS. was in a curious hand-writing, and written backwards with the left hand.]

142. FRA BARTOLOMEO, or BACCIO DELLA PORTA. _Painter._

[Born at Savignano, in Italy, 1469. Died 1517. Aged 49.]

At an early age he carefully studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and the effect of the study is visible in his own productions. Whilst his fame was growing, he became deeply influenced by the preaching of Savonarola, at whose instigation he publicly burnt some of his finest studies of the undraped figure. In 1500, Bartolomeo assumed the habit of a Dominican friar, and forsook painting. But after the lapse of four years he resumed his art, made the acquaintance of Raffaelle at Florence, and the influence of these two eminent painters on each other was mutually advantageous. Among the finest works of Fra Bartolomeo are, the large picture of St. Mark, esteemed in painting equal to the “Moses” of Michael Angelo in sculpture, and the “Madonna della Misericordia.” He was the inventor of the lay figure, which he was the first to employ. His style is characterized by calm seriousness, unaffected dignity, and grace. The religious expression of his holy figures reveals conscious elevation, not mere sentimentality; and in his Madonnas holiness is always exquisitely blended with beauty. But Bartolomeo lacked inward power. Sometimes he is cold and formal; at others, impetuous and wanting in repose. The colouring of flesh is peculiarly soft in his pictures, and his draperies are excellent.

[By Domenico Manera. In the last work of Bartolomeo, which is now in the Uffizzi, at Florence, representing the patron saints of Florence, and others, he has introduced his own portrait.]

143. MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI. _Sculptor, Painter, Architect._

[Born at Caprese, in Tuscany, 1474. Died at Rome, 1563. Aged 89.]

A demigod in art. All learning and all knowledge came to Michael Angelo, perhaps even more than to Leonardo da Vinci, his mighty contemporary, as a rightful inheritance, to be magnificently accepted and sumptuously enjoyed. Poet, musician, sculptor, architect, engineer, painter, anatomist, man of science--his titles to renown are inexhaustible. His genius was universal, his grasp boundless. All his works, of whatever kind, bear the broad, deep stamp of his haughty, masculine spirit, and constitute the immortal expression of strength, energy, and sublimest passion. The feeling of Michael Angelo was strong, intense, grand, penetrating; his thought as clear as it was profound. His life is a series of conquests in the world of intellect. Domenico Ghirlandaio has the honour of claiming Buonarotti for his pupil. By Ghirlandaio the stripling was introduced to Lorenzo de’ Medici, who, as well as his successor, became the steady friend of the great artist. Upon the expulsion of the Medici, he went to Bologna, thence to Florence, and thence again, upon the invitation of the Pope, to Rome. In 1503, commissioned to paint one end of the great Hall of Council, Leonardo da Vinci being intrusted with the other. Never before had two such spirits met to contend for glory. His statue of Moses, and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, were produced under Pope Julius II. Under Leo X., and Adrian, works of equal power issued from his inspired brain. In 1546, he was commanded by the Pope to undertake the direction of the works at St. Peter’s. He consented only upon condition that he received no salary, and laboured “for the love of God alone.” For seventeen years he prosecuted the pious service, and raised the sacred edifice as far as the base of the cupola. The undying memorials of his chisel and pencil speak the intellectual supremacy of the man beyond all words of praise. They will command wonder, delight, admiration, respect, and awe, whilst the world lasts. There is nothing factitious, no studied allurement, no imposture in his work. It is all true, simple, sublime. Michael Angelo, in 1530, directed in person the defence of Florence, and erected its fortifications--which yet exist--when that city was besieged, and, after a year of heroic defence, taken by the army of Charles V. The fall of Florence, at this time, witnessed the last breath of Italian independence. Look on his face! You see many furrowed lines there, and a potent brow. The features and expression betray irascibility of temper, jealous self-consciousness, towering sense of power. Michael Angelo had all these. He was a lion aware of his strength. What if he used it as a lion, at times vehemently, and regardless of the pain inflicted upon others! He was also a staunch friend, disinterested, liberal, temperate, upright, conscientious. The ancients had their Titans. Michael Angelo too is the son of Heaven and Earth.

[This Bust is from the marble by Alessandro d’Este, and one of those contributed to the Capitoline Museum, at the expense of Canova, when he was President of the Academy of Saint Luke, at Rome. It conveys an idea of coarseness which would hardly seem to belong to Michael Angelo’s natural expression, marked as it is with power and energy. It will be remembered how his nose was broken by a blow from his fellow-student, Torrigiano. He was buried in Sta. Croce, at Florence, his noble monument there being designed and executed under the superintendence of Vasari, the historian of the painters. It consists of a sarcophagus, supported by three figures, representing Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and surmounted by his bust (of which No. 143A is a cast) and three crowns, with the motto “tergeminis tollit honoribus.” This tomb and the bust were executed by three sculptors, Domenico Lorenzi, a pupil of Bandinelli, Valerio Cioli, and Giovanni dell’ Opera. There is, in the Capitoline Museum a bust of Michael Angelo, said to be by his own hand; the head is of bronze, and the rest of marble; and in the same place a painted portrait of him, by Andrea del Sarto. Vasari mentions an alto-relievo of him in bronze, by Danielo Ricciarelli, and a medal (“a very close resemblance”) by Cav. Lioni, which was abundantly copied and distributed in his honour.]

143A. MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI. _Sculptor, Painter, Architect._

144. TITIAN, or, TIZIANO VECELLIO. _Painter._

[Born at Pieve di Cadore, in Lombardy, 1477. Died at Venice, 1576. Aged 99.]

In the works of Titian, Venetian art reached its culminating point. He was the pupil of Bellini; but the disciple soon surpassed his master. Titian first instituted the custom of painting full-length portraits, and his pictures of this kind, of which he painted many, have never been surpassed. In the representation of undraped female forms he also displayed the hand of a master. In softness, transparency, and delicacy of colouring, he stands alone. All his figures seem to express a high consciousness and enjoyment of existence. He was followed, throughout his career, with great honours. Charles V., whose portrait he painted, made him Count Palatine, and he received invitations from other crowned heads. He died of the plague in Venice, and was buried with great ceremony, at a time when raging pestilence had suspended the ordinary rites of burial. Towards the close of his life his subjects were chiefly religious.

[He was buried at the Chiesa delle Frazi, at Venice. This Bust is by Alessandro d’Este. There is in the Church of St. John and St. Paul, at Venice, a fine bust of Titian, which stands by the side of that of Palma Vecchio; it was placed there forty-five years after his death, by Palma il Giovine. There is little doubt that this and its companion of Palma were the work of Jacops Albarelli, the intimate friend of Palma Giovine, whose bust he also executed. Ridolfi mentions a Bust of the great painter, by his friend Jacopo Sansovino. There is, in the Vienna Gallery, a superb portrait of him, by his own hand.]

145. BENVENUTO TISIO, commonly called GAROFALO. _Painter._

[Born at Garofalo, 1481. Died at Ferrara, in Italy, 1559. Aged 78.]

A distinguished painter of the Ferrarese school. The sight of Raffaelle’s works, in the Sistine Chapel, determined him to follow art, and he became a friend of the great artist himself, though in style most unlike him--brilliant but mannered. On festival days it was his custom to work without payment at a convent in Ferrara, “for the love of God.” Blind for the last few years of his life--cheerful in disposition, and resigned under affliction.

[By Massimiliano Laboureur. In the Louvre are two portraits said to be of Garofalo, but they are of doubtful authenticity. This bust is probably done from a picture.]

146. RAFFAELLE SANZIO, commonly called RAFFAELLE. _Painter._

[Born at Urbino, in Italy, 1483. Died at Rome, 1520. Aged 37.]

The founder of the Roman school of painting. He was the son of a painter, and the pupil of Perugino, whom his first style resembles, and whom he quickly surpassed. He was already eminent in his art at the age of seventeen. In 1506, he first saw Michael Angelo’s great and celebrated “Cartoon of Pisa,” and a closer study of anatomy and form is manifest in his works after this time. In 1508, in the pontificate of Julius II., he was invited to Rome, where he continued until his death, painting his exquisite frescos in the Vatican. Whilst executing these works, Michael Angelo was completing the Sistine chapel, and a rivalry arose between these two consummate artists, which was never extinguished. Raffaelle was a sculptor and architect as well as painter. In 1514, he directed the works at St. Peter’s, and was subsequently very zealous in superintending the exhumation of the remains of antique art, and in designing a restoration of ancient Rome. In the midst of his fine labours, he contracted a fever and died. In his works, beauty of Form is the expression of the utmost elevation of mind and perfect purity of soul. Some of Raffaelle’s cartoons on scriptural subjects are at Hampton Court Palace. Several of his pictures are in France, obtained by Francis I., who tried in vain to allure Raffaelle to his capital. His “Transfiguration,” in the Vatican, left unfinished at his death, and carried in his own funeral procession, is considered by some the finest picture in the world. It was finished by his pupil, Giulio Romano. Little or nothing is known of his private life, save that his nature was sweet and gracious, and that all men loved him. He was of a slender frame, and five feet seven inches high. His skull was beautifully formed.

[Raffaelle was buried in the Pantheon at Rome, now called Sta. Maria Ritonda. His tomb was ordered by himself, and executed by Lorenzo Lotti, who, it is said, restored one of the ancient tabernacles there at Raffaelle’s request, and added an altar, with a figure of the Virgin. Upon this monument there is a bust of him by Paolo Naldini, a sculptor who lived in the early part of the 17th century. The tomb was opened in 1833, and the remains were found entire, so that the skull long exhibited in the Academy of S. Luke as that of Raffaelle was proved to be a fabulous relic. Portraits of Raffaelle are to be found in several celebrated pictures; in the Duomo and Sacristy of Siena, in the Borghese Gallery at Rome, and one by his own hand in the picture of St. Luke; but the most authentic one, and that which alone possesses the beautiful expression of his remarkable countenance, is the picture by himself in the Gallery of Portraits of Painters by their own hands at Florence. This bust is from one probably by Carlo Maratta, a great admirer and copier of Raffaelle’s works, and who presented it to the Capitoline Museum. There was in 1791, in the Spada Palace at Rome, a portrait of Raffaelle when 12 years old, by himself. (See “Martyn’s Tour in Italy,” p. 242.)]

147. MICHELE SANMICHELI. _Architect._

[Born at Verona, in Italy, 1484. Died there, 1559. Aged 75.]

His works were chiefly fortifications. At the age of seventeen, he went to Rome to study the remains of its ancient architecture, and there gained the friendship of Buonarotti, Bramante, Sansovino, and Sangallo. For Pope Clement VII. he fortified, with Sangallo, the cities of Parma and Placentia. In 1527, entered the service of the Venetians, and for them, at Verona, first employed angular bastions, which he invented. The principle being generally adopted, Sanmicheli was employed to fortify many of the Italian cities, as well as the islands of Candia and Corfu. He then strengthened his native city with fortifications, and adorned it with palaces and other works. One of these, the Capella di Guareschi, is a masterpiece of architecture.

[Bust by Domenico Manera.]

148. FRA SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, sometimes called SEBASTIANO VENEZIANO. _Painter._

[Born at Venice, 1485. Died at Rome, 1547. Aged 62.]

The pupil of Bellini and Giorgione. At Rome he competed with Raffaelle, and gained the friendship and approval of Michael Angelo, some of whose designs he executed,--amongst others that of the “Raising of Lazarus”--a picture now in our National Gallery. Besides painting in oils and fresco, he invented a method of painting on stone, which was much admired. His portraits are celebrated, and he excelled in beauty of colouring. It is said that he was slow of execution, and not a lover of his art, which he deserted for other pleasures when he attained competency. His principal works are in Venice and Rome. He was called _Fra del Piombo_ (Monk of the Signet), from the office of sealer of briefs, which he held in the Pope’s Chancery.

[By Massimiliano Laboureur.]

149. GIOVANNI DA UDINE, or GIOVANNI DI NANI. _Painter._

[Born at Udine, in Italy, 1487. Died at Rome, 1564. Aged 77.]

A pupil of Raffaelle, whose style he so thoroughly imitated that it is difficult to distinguish his work from that of his master, whenever he acted as his assistant. In this capacity he was the chief painter of the Loggie of the Vatican. Some ancient grottos having been discovered near Rome, he detected the composition of their stucco ornaments; and so successfully imitated the material, that he may be called the inventor of modern stucco work. Excelled in painting birds, fruits, and animals.

[By Massimiliano Laboureur.]

150. ANDREA DEL SARTO, or ANDREA VANNUCHI. _Painter._

[Born at Florence, 1488. Died there, 1530. Aged 42.]

Called Del Sarto, from the trade of his father, who was a tailor. Long trouble followed his early and unfortunate marriage. Visited France, where he painted pictures for Francis I., who loaded him with gifts, and commissioned him to buy works of art in Florence. Spent the money entrusted to him, and bought neither pictures nor statues for his illustrious patron. Disgraced, neglected, and poor, he died deserted by his wife. This painter--whose works are admirable in design and colour, and remarkable for the elegance and majesty of the figures, is deficient in elevation and refinement of expression. His own character was morally weak and degraded.

[By Antonio D’Este. A monument was erected to him by Raffaelle da Monti Lupo at the expense of Domenico Conti, the heir of Andrea, in the Church of the Servites. It was removed by the authorities, but in 1606 a Prior had another tomb erected in the cloister, between the Madonna del Sacco and another of his frescos. A life-size bust in marble, by Giovanni Caccini, surmounts this tomb.]

151. MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. _Engraver._

[Born at Bologna, in Italy, about 1489. Died there, about 1537.]

The most celebrated of all the early engravers. The first impression from any engraved metal plate is dated 1454. Within sixty years, Marcantonio had carried the art to perfection. At Rome he was patronized for some years by Raffaelle, who employed him to engrave some of his most exquisite designs. The finest works of Marcantonio now bear a very high value for their beauty and rarity. Unhappily he was a bad man. He began his career as an artist by using his skill to pirate some of the works of Albert Durer. After Raffaelle’s death, he was banished from Rome by Clement VII. for gross immorality, fled to Bologna, fell into poverty, and is supposed to have died assassinated.

[By Massimiliano Laboureur. The best specimens of Marcantonio’s engraving are in the Imperial collection at Vienna.]

152. CORREGGIO, or ANTONIO ALLEGRI. _Painter._

[Born at Correggio, in Italy, 1493 or 1494. Died there, 1534. Aged 40 or 41.]

Of his private life and character little is known, but his works are justly admired throughout the civilized world, while his frescos in the cupola of the Cathedral at Parma have earned for him undying fame. He painted in oil and fresco. In our National Gallery we have several of his admirable productions. As an artist, remarkable for exquisite sensibility. “In his compositions,” says Kugler, “all is life and motion. All his pictures express the overflowing consciousness of life; the impulse of love and pleasure.” Delicate in perception, with great quickness, subtlety, and depth of feeling. His forms not always beautiful, but his treatment of light and shade masterly, and almost unique.

[There is no bust of Correggio from the life; this is by Philippo Albacini, and no doubt from some authentic painted portrait.]

153. POLIDORO CALDARE DA CARAVAGGIO. _Painter._

[Born at Caravaggio, in Lombardy, 1495. Died at Messina, 1543. Aged 48.]

Was employed by Raffaelle to assist him in the Vatican, having been originally a mason. Afterwards became distinguished as an ornamental painter. He was assassinated by his servant for the sake of his money.

[He was buried in the Cathedral at Messina. The Bust is by Massimiliano Laboureur.]

154. GIULIO ROMANO, or GIULIO PIPPI DE’ GIANNUZZI. _Architect and Painter._

[Born at Rome, 1499. Died at Mantua, 1546. Aged 47.]

A pupil of Raffaelle, by whom he was employed on works at the Vatican. Invited by the Marquis of Mantua to the city of that name, where he was raised to the rank of nobility, provided with a house, a salary of 500 gold ducats, board for himself and his pupils, a horse, and some yards of silk velvet and cloth for clothing. Built many palaces in Mantua, and painted much in fresco. His later works are wanting in grace and purity, and display wildness and even coarseness. Yet he has a memorable name as one of the Roman school of art.

[This bust is by Alessandro d’Este.]

155. ANDREA PALLADIO. _Architect._

[Born at Vicenza, in Italy, 1518. Died there, 1580. Aged 62.]

He largely and accurately studied and described the Roman style of architecture, and adapted it to modern purposes with admirable success. Inigo Jones may be called his disciple; and the Banquetting House at Whitehall is a good example of the style called _Palladian_. He was small in stature, and agreeable in countenance. His most celebrated buildings are at Venice, Verona, and Vicenza.

[This bust is by Leandro Biglioschi.]

156. PAOLO CAGLIARI, called VERONESE. _Painter._

[Born at Verona, 1528. Died at Venice, 1588. Aged 60.]

One of the great masters of the Venetian school of painting, whose principle was the study and imitation of nature, but whose peculiar excellence was colour, which the leaders of the school carried to the highest point of perfection. The works of Veronese are remarkable for splendour of colour, for the clear and transparent treatment of shadows, and for comprehensive keeping and harmony. He represented festivals and banquets suggested by Sacred History. The “Marriage at Cana,” now in the Louvre at Paris, is a magnificent example of his style. He was a man of courteous manners and generous disposition, and left a family of sons and brothers, who pursued the same calling.

[By Domenico Manera.]

157. GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI, surnamed DI PALESTRINA. _Musical Composer._

[Born 1524. Died 1594. Aged 70.]

Palestrina is justly described in his epitaph as “Musicæ Princeps.” He was the greatest musician of his time, and the creator of Church music. Before his day the music of profane, and even immoral songs, had been allied with church masses. He reformed the custom by the production of a sacred composition that ravished every hearer. In 1555, he was Musical Director to the Church of St. John Lateran. Ten years afterwards, he was named Composer to the Pontifical Chapel. But he was in straitened circumstances throughout his career. His music continues a model at this hour. He had a singular capacity for apprehending the poetic character of his subject.

158. ANNIBALE CARRACCI. _Painter._

[Born at Bologna, 1560. Died at Rome, 1609. Aged 49.]

One of the three Carracci who founded a new school of painting (the Bolognese school), the fundamental principles of which were the study of nature, and a close imitation of the great masters. At Rome, painted the gallery of the Farnese palace with mythological frescos, which display masterly drawing, excellent arrangement of draperies, and an agreeable, clear colouring. Produced landscapes as well as historical works. His facility in drawing marvellous. Amongst the pupils of the Carracci school were Domenichino, Guercino, and Guido Reni.

[The author of this bust is not known. It was executed at the expense of Carlo Maratta.]

159. DOMENICHINO, also called DOMENICO ZAMPIERI. _Painter._

[Born at Bologna, 1581. Died at Naples, 1641. Aged 60.]

A famous painter of the Bolognese school. A pupil of the Carracci. At Rome, painted some frescos, and other pictures, but was poorly paid. His life one series of misfortunes. His fame and skill excited the jealousy of the Roman and Neapolitan artists, who destroyed his paintings, mixed deleterious compounds with his colours, and--it is believed--at last poisoned him. His works occasionally reveal artlessness, and a clear conception of nature, but he never escapes from the trammels of the imitative school of the Carracci. His great work, the “Communion of St. Jerome,” pronounced by Poussin only inferior to the Transfiguration of Raffaelle. Yet for this picture, Domenichino received fifty scudi--about ten guineas. In person, stout and short--hence his name, Domenichino (little Dominic). Passionately fond of music, and devoted to study and tranquillity. Whilst he painted, he would have his house as quiet and as noiseless as a monastery.

[By Alessandro d’Este. There is another bust of him in the Louvre by Mlle. Charpentier.]

160. PIETRO DI CORTONA, or PIETRO BERETTINI. _Painter._

[Born at Cortona, 1596 or 1609. Died at Rome, probably about 1669.]

A painter of the modern and degenerate school of art, who lived and worked at Florence and Rome. So stupid in his youth, that he was called “Ass’s Head.” Was employed to paint a ceiling in the Barberini palace--perhaps the largest picture ever undertaken by a single artist. At Florence he executed the ceilings of the Pitti palace.

[This bust is by Pietro Pierantoni.]

161. ARCANGELO CORELLI. _Violinist and Composer._

[Born at Fusignano, near Bologna, 1653. Died at Rome, 1713. Aged 60.]

Corelli’s playing was distinguished by the most perfect sweetness and smoothness. Of execution, as now understood, he had none. But he possessed grace, finish, and an exquisite power of expression. His works still keep their ground as an indispensable study for all who would acquire a broad and artist-like style of playing. He was a modest and unaffected man, and enjoyed an equable temper, which not even the rough outbursts of Handel could disconcert. He had also humour. He would lay down his violin if folks talked whilst he was playing, and apologize for interrupting the conversation.

[Corelli was buried in the Pantheon at Rome. The author of this bust is not mentioned; it was executed at the cost of Cardinal Ottoboni, Corelli’s constant friend and patron.]

162. LUDOVICO ANTONIO MURATORI. _Antiquary._

[Born at Vignola, in Italy, 1672. Died at Modena, in Italy, 1750. Aged 78.]

Contributed much valuable material towards the History of Italy in the Middle Ages. Librarian to the Duke of Modena for the space of fifty years.

[By Adamo Tadolino.]

163. BENEDETTO MARCELLO. _Writer and Musician._

[Born at Venice, 1686. Died at Brescia, in Italy, 1739. Aged 53.]

A lawyer and public officer; he was also a distinguished poet, and a musical composer of a high order. His most celebrated work is a Paraphrase of the first fifty Psalms, arranged for one, two, three, or four voices; it is remarkable for great tenderness, united with the religious feeling, and vehemence of style, which have obtained for the author from his fond countrymen the appellation of the Pindar and Michael Angelo of musicians. He also composed sonnets, madrigals, and dramatic pieces.

[By Domenico Manera.]

164. GIAMBATISTA PIRANESI. _Engraver._

[Born at Rome, 1707. Died there, 1778. Aged 71.]

An excellent and laborious artist. Has produced a great work in sixteen volumes upon the antiquities and curiosities of Rome. Has never been surpassed for his skill in representing architectural ruins and restorations. He also displays singular powers of invention, and his fancy subjects show consummate execution. He acquired great and widely extended fame during his life.

[By Antonio d’Este.]

165. GIOVANNI PAISIELLO. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Tarento, in Italy, 1741. Died at Naples, 1816. Aged 75.]

A dramatic composer of extraordinary fertility. His works remarkable for their number, rather than for their eminence. He was the son of a veterinary surgeon. In 1777, he came to St. Petersburgh, upon the invitation of Queen Catharine, and remained there, in great honour, during eight years. In 1802, he answered Napoleon’s summons to Paris, and composed the mass and other music for the coronation, in 1804. Shortly after this event, he retired to Naples, where, in consequence of his many political tergiversations, he fell into disgrace, and closed a brilliant career in neglect and chagrin. His character as a man is not pleasing. He was jealous, unscrupulous, mean, and cringing.

[By Pietro Pierantoni.]

166. NICCOLO ZINGARELLI. _Musician._

[Born at Naples, 1752. Died 1837. Aged 85.]

The author of several operas no longer performed. One, his most celebrated work, “Romeo and Juliet,” still represented in France and Germany, and rendered popular in England by Pasta’s personation of Romeo. The last of the Italian composers for the church. His oratorio of “The Destruction of Jerusalem,” a noble composition, written in the classical style of the old ecclesiastical school. During his later years he led the life of a recluse.

167. DOMENICO CIMAROSA. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Aversa, near Naples, 1755. Died at Venice, 1801. Aged 47.]

A cobbler’s son and a baker’s apprentice. It was the duty of the lad to fetch daily a batch of dough from the house of Aprili, the great singing master of his time: and the musical sounds always ringing through the house touched his spirit and elicited his genius. Aprili caught him listening at the keyholes, and considerately sent him to a free musical school in Naples. At the age of 19, Cimarosa quitted the Conservatorio, and immediately afterwards wrote his first work--the music to a farce called “Baroness Stramba.” From this time forward his compositions for the theatre were incessant, and invariably successful. In 1787, Catharine of Russia invited him to St. Petersburgh, whither he went; but his health failing, he betook him, in 1792, to Vienna, and there entered the service of the Emperor Leopold. In his 38th year, after he had written 70 operas and dramatic works, he composed his masterpiece, “Il Matrimonio Segreto.” The Emperor of Austria was so delighted with the performance, that after supping the composer and the singers, he took the whole of them back to the theatre, and made them sing the opera through again. The operas of Mozart, then dying a few miles off, had fallen at the same theatre upon cold and unfeeling ears. Few compositions of Cimarosa are known at the present day, though his innumerable productions were highly popular whilst he lived. His music exhibits some originality and a prodigal flow and variety of ideas. His scoring is peculiarly brilliant, and his comic powers were great.

[By Canova.]

168. ANTONIO CANOVA. _Sculptor._

[Born at Passagno, in Upper Italy, 1757. Died at Venice, 1822. Aged 65.]

One of the most celebrated of modern sculptors. When five years old, evinced a taste for his art, and at fourteen was a pupil of Tonetto, a sculptor at Venice. From Venice went to Rome, where he executed many works. A favourite of Buonaparte, whose portrait, for the colossal statue of the Emperor (in the possession of the Duke of Wellington) he modelled at Paris, and from which was taken the bust No. . He had no pupils; for he used to say that “the master’s compositions were the best instructors.” His works are very numerous; casts from some of the most celebrated are to be found in the court of modern Italian Sculpture. His imaginative pieces more successful than his portraits, although many of these are master-pieces of art. In execution he was unrivalled; but his taste is not always pure. In person Canova was below the middle height, his eyes full of expression, and the general character of his face indicative of good-nature. He was much beloved at Rome as the generous friend of his brother artists.

[From the colossal marble bust by his own hand, in the Protomoteca of the Capitol at Rome.]

169. GASPARO SPONTINI. _Musician._

[Born at Majolatti, in the Roman States, 1778. Died there, 1851. Aged 73.]

Educated at Naples, and at the early age of seventeen commenced his musical career as the composer of an opera, which was rapidly followed by sixteen more. In 1803, he went to Paris, and continued composing operas. In 1807, appointed musical Director to the Empress Josephine; and in 1808, produced with great success his best work, “La Vestale.” From 1810 to 1820, Director of the Italian Opera in Paris. Then invited to Berlin, where he wrote some more operas, and remained until the death of the late king in 1840. The greater part of the music composed by Spontini is forgotten. He was eclipsed by the genius of Rossini, but he had remarkable ability as a dramatic composer. His instrumentation was original, and his music abounds in melody.

[By Rauch, 1827. From the marble on the Monument to Spontini, at Tesi, in Italy.]

170. NICCOLO PAGANINI. _Violinist._

[Born at Genoa, 1784. Died at Nice, 1840. Aged 56.]

The greatest of modern fiddlers, who performed in the principal cities of Europe, and acquired more fame and money by playing on one string, than any of the brotherhood ever gained on all four. He looked like a magician, and his playing justified his looks.

[By Dantan, 1837.]

171. MARIA FELICITAS MALIBRAN. _Actress._

[Born in Paris, 1808. Died at Manchester, 1836. Aged 28.]

A wonderfully gifted dramatic genius, too soon cut off by death. In France, England, Germany and Italy, she created enthusiastic admiration, as much by her histrionic powers, as by her efforts as a songstress. She was a child of nature, and as benevolent as she was richly endowed with intellectual gifts. She made the noblest uses of the earnings of her industry, and was beloved by her fellow artists for the unaffected goodness of her heart. No actress of her time equalled her for truth and passion. Whatever art was in her, lay concealed. It never came to view. Her acting assailed the feelings of men, and took them prisoner. Escape was its own punishment.

[By Flosi.]

171A. MARIA FELICITAS MALIBRAN. _Actress._

[For account of this statue, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture, No. 108.]

172. GIULIA GRISI. _Italian Singer._

[Born in 1816. Still living.]

Made her first appearance in London during the season of 1834, being then 18 years old. From that time until her retirement from the English stage in 1854, not absent for a single season. Her voice a soprano of great power and of exquisite purity. Her histrionic talents, of the highest order, displayed equally in the artless peasant girl, and in the passionate and revengeful Semiramis. During twenty years she reigned supreme as queen of the lyric drama, finding many rivals, but no equal.

[By Flosi.]

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

173. DANTE ALIGHIERI. _Poet._

[Born at Florence, 1265. Died at Ravenna, 1321. Aged 56.]

The eldest and greatest poet of modern Italy. He was of a noble Florentine family. He came into stormy times, and his life was tempestuous. His native city was then split between the fierce hostile factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the two great parties that distracted Germany and Italy in the middle ages. An _urban_ faction in Florence was that of the Blacks and Whites. Dante was a Ghibelline, and a White: a keen partisan, and a distinguished citizen, he shared the passions and the vicissitudes of his party. Two battles are mentioned in which he gained honour as a soldier. At thirty-five, he was in the supreme magistrature of the city. When Charles of Anjou, in passing through Florence, took the part of the Blacks, Dante was amongst the sufferers. He was condemned to exile, and confiscation of his property: but, on a revision of the sentence, to be burned alive. He wandered long, in France and in Italy, and rested at last, under the shelter of Guido Novelli, at Ravenna. He died there. He was once married, but not happily. A boyish love for Beatrice Portinari lives, as a sort of ethereal idea, throughout his poetry and life. He wandered and sang. His marvellous poem, “The Divine Comedy,” was composed during his long exile. It at once raised the modern Italian to the rank of a classical tongue, and the poetry of modern Italy to a height to which it has never again soared. The poet relates his journey, as a living man, through the three invisible worlds, which receive, as his church teaches, the souls of other men when released from the body: Hell, Purgatory, Heaven. Through Hell and Purgatory he is led by the shade of the poet Virgil--indeed his beloved leader in their common art. Through Paradise, his Beatrice herself, in whom he impersonates Theology, guides him. The ghosts he sees, those under punishment especially, are chiefly his deceased contemporaries, and Italians: so that the other shadowy world is with him almost a reflexion of his own world here. From the first step of his pilgrimage to the last, he sees sights of his own imagining, transcending all experience, almost all conception, yet delineated with such vivid precision, in language so simply real, that a feeling only short of belief accompanies the reader, and remains with him. Italian peasants meeting the poet, pointed out, as they looked with awe on “his pale and visionary brow,” the man who had been down to Hell. Prominent characteristics of his poetry are strength, daring, intensity, grace, absolute self-reliance, and boundless invention: above all, the continual self-presence of the poet as the centre to his own thoughts, and to the worlds which he traverses and describes. He began to write his poem in Latin verse; but Dante was too essentially a poet to write out of his mother-tongue;--a poet expresses _himself_ in his verse, and only the mother-tongue is near enough to him for that.

[This Bust is by Alessandro d’Este, and was placed in the Protomoteca at the expense of Canova. It corresponds in the chief characteristics of the face with the portraits taken from the life, of which there are several. In Florence Cathedral, near the tomb of Giotto, is an authentic portrait. The one lately discovered on a wall in the palace of the Podestà at Florence, is extremely interesting, as being a youthful likeness by the hand of his friend Giotto. The monument to Dante in S. Croce is the work of Stefano Ricci. It was erected in 1829, at the public expense.]

174. FRANCESCO PETRARCA. _Poet._

[Born in Tuscany, 1304. Died at Argua, near Padua, 1374. Aged 70.]

The crown around the brow of Petrarch has many gems. He is poet, diplomatist, scholar, and restorer of ancient letters. To the world, he is the great Italian sonnetteer. This extremely artificial metrical scheme, which seems, however, singularly congenial to his native speech, afforded him the temptation, in the means, to write incessant effusions on one love, really or ideally entertained. He was an ecclesiastic under a law of celibacy. Thus separated from the object of his presumed affections, he allied his soul to hers in verse. His love-strains are studies, without number, of the passion, in its endlessly varying moods and moments--half of them wreaths laid at the feet of the living Laura--half, strewings on her untimely tomb. The flowers, disclosed by the rapidly advancing Spring of the language, breathe the freshness, sweetness, and innocent grace of the season. Ever since, every son of song in Italy strikes this lute of a few chords, but Petrarch remains its Apollo.

[By Carlo Finelli.]

175. GIACOMO SANAZZARO. _Poet._

[Born at Naples, 1458. Died there, 1530. Aged 72.]

A devoted adherent of the House of Arragon, whom he followed in their disastrous campaign in defence of the Church. During his travels he published his poem of “Arcadia,” which gave a new phase to Italian poetry. A great admirer of Virgil and Propertius.

[From his tomb in Santa Maria del Parto at Naples, by Girolamo Santa Croce, a Neapolitan sculptor of the 15th century. His tomb is one of the most beautiful monuments of the time; designed by Santa Croce, and sculptured by Montorsoli. Two weeping angels lean over the bust which bears the name ACTIUS SINCERUS, under which he published many of his works. At the sides of the tomb are statues of Apollo and Minerva, said to be antique, but now called David and Judith.]

176. LUIGI ARIOSTO. _Poet._

[Born at Reggio, in Italy, 1474. Died at Ferrara, 1533. Aged 59.]

A poet from the cradle: constrained by his father to bestow five years on the study of the law: then released to literature. He was Gentleman of the Court to two princes: from both he received scanty pay: from the one 75 crowns (or about £15 a year), from the other 84 crowns. He lived and died poor, having enjoyed great independence of spirit, and the barren respect of Italian princes. His talents for business were remarkable. His great poem the “Orlando Furioso” is of a species which then deluged Italian literature. It is a web of adventures of knight errantry. These turn round the person of Charlemagne, and the invasion of France by the Moors--poetically misdated to his reign. The copious flow and untiring spirit of the narrative is without comparison. The skill with which Ariosto carries on a labyrinth of separate adventures, and brings them to meet, is peculiar to himself. The variety in the invention of the characters, and the flexibility of the pure and musical style to the humorous or the pathetic, the warlike or the tender, the natural and the marvellous, are singularly characteristic of the power of this poet; who grasps his subject meanwhile like a man of business and of the world, and whose tone is, on the whole, rather that of intellectual superiority to his subject than of passionate absorption by it. A vein even of irony breaks through; and the enthusiastic lover of romance suffers a pang of scepticism from the suggested incredulity of his priest. They tell, how, when governor of a wild Appenine province, he fell, on a solitary walk, into the hands of banditti. The captain, on recognising the poet of the Orlando Furioso, apologized for the rudeness of his men, and set his captive at liberty.

[By Carlo Finelli. There is a life-size bust upon his monument in the Benedictine Monastery at Ferrara, where he is buried.]

177. TORQUATO TASSO. _Poet._

[Born at Sorrento, near Naples, 1544. Died at Rome, 1595. Aged 51.]

One of the small cluster of spirits whose uttered thoughts have fastened upon the world’s ear for all time. One of the still smaller group whose personal history, growing out of the poetical temperament, weighs in interest against their consummate work. We discover too little of the life of Shakspeare. We know too much of the story of Torquato Tasso. The Swan of Avon sings, and not a milk-white feather is ruffled in the song. Personal anguish quivers through the high heroic strain of him who, in Italian, with unequalled art, told the inspiriting story of the recovered Holy City. How shall Torquato’s touching and saddening tale be concentrated in a sentence? He was already a scholar when a child--delicately organized in the flesh--wondrously endowed in soul. At eighteen he had given forth a poem--worthy sign of his coming strength. He was at the Court of Alphonso II., Duke of Ferrara, when he commenced his great epic, and dared--he was a poet’s son--to fix his strong affection upon the Princess Leonora, sister of the Duke. In 1575, the “Jerusalem Delivered” was completed. Its beauty was too evident, for it raised a pitiless storm of envy, enmity, and persecution. His passion for the princess was detected, and he was imprisoned as a madman. Breaking loose, he wandered footsore from place to place, but found his way too speedily back to Ferrara. Caught again, he was again confined, suffering new imprisonment for seven long years. He came forth at last, a melancholy man. It availed him little that at Rome, in 1595, he was solemnly crowned with laurel by the pope, and every honour showered upon his illustrious head. He died, worn out with troubles of heart and mind, only a few days after his sublime coronation. The “Jerusalem Delivered” is built upon the essential basis of epic poetry--the profound and associated sympathy of innumerable hearers. In the poem, as out of it, the universal heart of Christendom is arrayed against the misbelieving world. Tasso wrote in an age when the religious passion, which was the soul of the Crusades, survived sufficiently for a hope in the poet that his strain would reanimate the Red-cross warfare. As man, and as poet, enthusiasm was predominant in him. The salient characters of the poem are well-defined, each complete in itself, and all standing well apart from, and relieving one another, although hardly, perhaps, flung forth in desirable plenitude of dramatic life and effect. The subject, as we all know, was the successful first Crusade--which took Jerusalem--under the pious, magnanimous, and truly heroic Godfrey of Bouillon. The structure of the plot is well balanced: the art of the writing exquisite: possibly too much so. It is generally self-conscious and elaborate, rather than inspired and impetuous.

[By Alessandro d’Este, and presented to the Capitoline Museum by Canova. Tasso’s tomb in St. Onuphrius was not erected until some time after his death. There is a portrait in mosaic over it.]

178. PIETRO BONAVENTURA METASTASIO. _Poet._

[Born at Rome, 1698. Died at Vienna, 1782. Aged 84.]

Born of poor parents. When ten years old, improvised in the streets of Rome; then adopted and educated by Gravina, a rich juris-consult, who left the poet all his fortune. Forty editions of Metastasio’s works were published before his death. He wrote many tragic operas, besides numerous smaller compositions. Invited by Charles VI. of Austria, he settled in Vienna, and received the title of Imperial Poet. His style is singularly chaste, harmonious, and elegant. Attracted to, and attracting by, the delineation of characters, morally pure and elevated. Pathetic, but his passion lacks individuality. When we have read a few of his works, we have read all. In person tall and commanding.

[By Ceracchi. There is a fine bust of him by Vinnazar of Vienna. Metastasio was buried in St. Michael’s Church, at Vienna, but the place is not known.]

179. CARLO GOLDONI. _Poet._

[Born at Venice, 1707. Died at Paris, 1793. Aged 86.]

The most celebrated Italian comic poet of the eighteenth century, and the renovator of the comic stage in his country. When eight years old, sketched out a play. After some reverses of fortune, settled in Paris, where he wrote his last work, “Materials for a History of his Life and Theatre.” He wrote 150 pieces for the stage, introducing all classes of men, whom he described with surprising truth. He reformed the Italian drama by extinguishing the fashion of playing in masks, and by doing away with certain conventional characters before introduced into every play. His works are not without the defects of an over-abundant and extraordinarily rapid composition; but he has the great merit of faithfully portraying men in their affections, their habits, follies, and vices.

[By Leandro Biglioschi.]

180. VITTORIO ALFIERI. _Poet._

[Born at Asti, in Piedmont, 1749. Died at Florence, 1803. Aged 54.]

He was of noble origin, and acceded, at the age of 14, to large hereditary estates. His passions were strong, ardent, and irregular: his education was neglected. He travelled much,--rapidly and impatiently, like a man fleeing from himself, or seeking, without finding, objects to satisfy the capacity of a mind, large but unstored. He was first drawn with passion to literature by Plutarch’s Lives; and his first tragedy, “Cleopatra,” was acted at Turin in 1775, when he was 26 years old. Thenceforward he was devoted to the study of his art. The subjects of his tragedies, which follow the simplicity of the Greek model, are chiefly from ancient mythology, or history. They are distinguished by intense absorption of the poet in his dramatic action and persons, by the austere exclusion from the plot of everything accidental or inoperative to the main purpose and catastrophe, and by the rejection of all accessory ornament from his sedulously laboured style. In his hands the flowing and languishing Italian speech becomes abrupt, concentrated, darted, fiery; harsh, often, until it is dilated into harmony by the swelling and emphatic intonations of the actual theatre. He raised at once the prostrate Italian tragedy to the rank of an art, and to a competition with the nations. He was a passionate lover of horses, licentious in his attachments, and an ardent partisan of liberty.

[Alfieri was buried in Santa Croce. Canova, commissioned by the Countess of Albany, sculptured his tomb and the medallion of him which is upon it. This bust is by Domenica Manera, and no doubt is a good likeness, having been executed under Canova’s eye.]

181. ALESSANDRO GAVAZZI. _Monk and Orator._

[Born at Bologna, in Italy, 1809. Still living.]

At the age of 16, entered the religious order of St. Barnabas. Subsequently appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Naples. Upon the accession of Pope Pius IX. to the pontifical chair, Gavazzi warmly upheld the liberal policy then announced by the head of the Catholic Church. He was the “Peter the Hermit” of the crusade in Lombardy against Austria in 1848: and shared the dangers of the troops, whom he animated by his eloquence. Upon the entry of the French under Oudinot into Rome, Gavazzi quitted Italy with the patriots. He has since lived in London, where his extraordinary political discourses have created a marked impression upon his listeners. His oratory is adapted to large masses, his memoir is extraordinary, and his manner exceedingly picturesque and striking. He is not a scholar, and his patriotism is not of the kind that suffers by defeat. Gavazzi makes a good income as a popular preacher. Mazzini lives upon a crust.

[This bust is by Piericcini.]

SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.

182. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. _The Discoverer of the New World._

[Born at Genoa, 1436. Died at Valladolid, in Spain, 1506. Aged 70.]

Lord Bacon says, that he, who unites the faculties of speculation and of action, is like one born, according to the faith of the astrologers, under Saturn and Jupiter in conjunction, and may command the world. Columbus--profound in thought, intense in action--did even more. To one world he gave another. He was essentially an intellectual hero; for he dared to believe, on grounds sufficing to reason, that which the world disbelieves, and scoffs, and scorns. He was essentially a practical hero: witness his persevering urgency of kings and states to undertake the first visiting of a world which his instructed spirit already discerned in the far off seas. Witness also his conduct of his fleet, wearied with vain expectation on the silent main, and rising to mutiny on the apparently confirmed disappointment of its hopes. His services to man no human gratitude could repay, yet he died overwhelmed with affliction, great vexation and bodily infirmity. In 1492, he discovered San Salvador, Cuba, and St. Domingo. In 1493, his eager foot first trod the Antilles. In 1498, America opened to his importunate gaze. His fourth voyage of discovery was delayed by an event that merits record in every history of the world’s progress. He was thrown into prison. Obtaining liberty, his eager and mysteriously informed spirit was brooding again on the wide ocean. He reached the Gulf of Darien. We witness to-day, in the prosperity, might, and civilization of the American people, the latest glorious results of the restless intrepidity and bright intelligence of Christopher Columbus. Before the dazzling spectacle we may yet learn humility, if we will only remember the sorrow of those upon whom the unveiling of America instantly let in the sword and the fire. Columbus was the first observer of the variation and the dip of the needle.

[By Raimondo Trentanove.]

183. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI. _Political Writer and Historian._

[Born at Florence, 1469. Died there, 1527. Aged 58.]

For fourteen years, Machiavelli, born of a noble family, acted as Secretary of the Florentine Republic, and was charged with several important missions. Upon the return of the Medici to Florence in 1512, he was implicated in a conspiracy formed against them, was imprisoned and put to the torture. Subsequently released by Pope Leo X., he was reinstated in his office. It was after his liberation that he wrote his Discourses upon Livy, his books on the Art of War, and his celebrated essay, called “The Prince.” Machiavelli, to our imagination, embodies in his individual person the Idea of Italian political subtlety. His chief work, already mentioned, “The Prince,” expounds the art of Reigning: _i. e._ of acquiring and preserving Power;--of which art perfidy and murder are, in this exposition, two accepted instruments. The prevalent assumption has been that Machiavelli recommends the practice of the art, such as he expounds it. Later vindicators have said that he describes, without approving, the Art of Reigning as exercised by the Italian princes of his day, and that his book is to be regarded as containing a satire, and not a doctrine. The bust before the visitor may furnish materials for the study of this curious question.

[From the bust in the Florence Gallery. A most interesting work of the time, bearing the date 1495. An undoubted likeness of this celebrated man. Full of character, with every indication of having been done from the life, although the author is now unknown. Machiavelli’s tomb is in St^{a}. Croce at Florence. Two centuries after his death, Lord Cowper, in 1787, placed over it a bas-relief portrait which was paid for by public subscription set on foot by Lord Cowper, and was executed by Innocenzo Spinazzi.]

184. ANNIBALE CARO. _Writer._

[Born at Città-Nuova, in Illyria, 1507. Died, 1566. Aged 59.]

His chief work was a free translation of the Æneid in blank verse: the style is pure, and the sense faithful. Also wrote humorous pieces in the purest Tuscan.

[The work of Antonio d’Este, at the expense of Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, the second wife of the late Duke, a lady to whom we are indebted for originating the excavations in the Forum at Rome.]

185. GALILEO GALILEI. _Philosopher._

[Born at Pisa, 1564. Died 1642. Aged 78.]

One of the self-dedicated inquiring spirits, to whom to behold Truth is--to live:--a hierophant of Nature! Whilst Bacon in England was laying down, in form, and theoretically, the laws of experimental philosophy, Galileo in Italy, led by instinct or intuition, was putting them in force. If Bacon stands out as the legislator of our great modern students in physical science, Galileo is assuredly their most illustrious and animating exemplar. We think of the stern and strenuous observer as we do of the prophets, who stand up in the might of invincible truth, solitary against a world. In the very first sentence of the “Novum Organum” it is written that, “Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature, knoweth, and can, so much as, in the fact or in thought, he may have observed, of the order of Nature.” Of all men Galileo was essentially the one who allowed Nature to speak for herself,--and waited patiently, piously, and thoughtfully for her utterances, never imposing upon her his own wilful and imperfect conceptions. His spirit was self-sustaining. Hundreds, or thousands, have in the later time risen, who from the cradle to the grave have watched Nature. But they are the officers of an organized army. He walked like Hercules, with his club and lion’s skin cloak, alone. Because his worship was pure, his punishment was great. Suffering for truth’s sake, he was imprisoned for years; yet his only crime had been, that he had faithfully recorded the revelations that came down to him directly from the skies. To Galileo we owe, amongst other obligations, the discovery of the laws of gravity, the invention of the pendulum, of the hydrostatic balance, of the thermometer. He constructed a telescope, and with it discovered the satellites and rings of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the spots on the sun. Noting down what he saw, he changed the whole system of astronomy, and led men on the right track of observation for all ages to come. Italy, with her many titles to our admiration, gratitude and respect, has no prouder claim than this:--She gave us Galileo. The face before us does not belie the soul. Upon it are stamped the rigid signs of robust and intrepid intellect.

[From the marble, by Domenico Manera, which was placed in the Capitoline Museum at the cost of Canova. About a century after Galileo’s death, in the year 1737, leave was at last granted to erect a monument to his memory in Santa Croce, at Florence; it was placed opposite to that of Michelangelo, and the bones of the great philosopher were removed into it. In the Museum of the Florence Gallery is preserved the small telescope which he used. The bust, No. 185A, is a cast from that on his tomb.]

185A. GALILEO GALILEI. _Philosopher._

SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN.

187. COSMO DE’ MEDICI. _Merchant and Statesman._

[Born 1389. Died, 1464. Aged 75.]

The grandfather of Lorenzo de’ Medici, surnamed the Magnificent: himself illustrious for the services which he rendered to the Florentine Republic, of which he was a member, and for his munificent encouragement of art, science, and literature. Upon his death, the grateful Florentine people inscribed on his tomb the title of “Father of his Country.” A member of the Signory, which legislated for the Florentine Republic, he strove to curb the oligarchy in the State. Accordingly, many of the chief families combined against him, and it was only by the most admirable judgment and consummate prudence that he was enabled to elude their toils, and to advance the popular cause. Possessed of immense wealth, he parted freely with his riches for the glory of his country, and for the promotion of all those arts that add dignity to human nature and beautify the world.

[From the bust in the Florence Gallery, a most characteristic head.]

188. BARTOLOMEO COLEONI. _Soldier of Fortune._

[Born at Bergamo, in Italy, 1400. Died at Venice, 1475. Aged 75.]

Remarkable for his unstable loyalty. Served at first under Sforza and De Montone in the army of Queen Joan of Naples. Then passed into the service of Venice. Fighting against and nearly destroying the army of the ambitious Duke of Milan, he went over to the enemy with 500 soldiers. He now fought against the Venetians; but in 1446, was thrown into prison on a charge of treason. Released by the Milanese, he deserted to the Venetians, whom he again led on against his latest employers. Instead of fighting Sforza, the Milanese general, he deserted to his side, and assisted him to gain the sovereignty of Milan. Immediately afterwards he returned to the Venetians, and, strange to say, continued their generalissimo for twenty-one years. The Senate, upon his death, employed the celebrated Andrea Verrocchio to raise an equestrian statue in bronze to his memory, of which the one before the visitor is a cast. Shortly before his death, Coleoni, not without reason, warned the Venetian Senate not to trust another man with such power as they had confided to him.

[For account of this fine equestrian statue, see Handbook to the Renaissance Court.]

189. STEFANO GATTAMELATA. _Warrior._

[Born at Narni, in Italy. Died at Venice, 1443.]

First served in the army of the Church: but in 1434 passed over to the Venetians, and was made Captain-General of their army. A zealous servant of the State. He was raised to the rank of Venetian noble in 1438; rich pensions were conferred upon him, and a palace was given him in the city. The equestrian statue of which the one in the Crystal Palace is a cast, is by Donatello, and is at Padua.

[For account of this equestrian statue, see Handbook to the Renaissance Court.]

190. GIOVANNI MEDICI, surnamed BANDINERI. _Italian Soldier._

[Born 1498. Died near Borgo-Forte, in Italy, 1526. Aged 28.]

A descendant of Cosmo, “the father of his country,” and the son of the celebrated Catharine Sforza. Passionately fond of arms, he was employed, in 1521, by the Florentines against the Duke of Urbino. In 1524, he entered the service of France, and a year or two afterwards died of a wound. He was ferocious, and mercilessly cruel. After his death his soldiers, who had profited by his instruction and example, styled themselves “The Black Bands”--“Bandineri.” The chief of the butchers is distinguished in history by the unenviable title.

[A very finely-formed head, from the figure in the Piazza San Lorenzo, Florence.]

191. FRANCESCO PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA.

[Died, 1321.]

A gentleman of Modena, at the head of the Ghibelline faction, in fighting whose battles with the Guelphs he passed his life. In 1312, he filled the office of Podestà of Modena, but was expelled from the city the very same year by the Guelph party. Returning, he sold his authority for 50,000 florins to Bonacossi, Lord of Mantua, and retired to his estates at Mirandola, whither Bonacossi followed him, assassinated him and his two sons, and made off with the purchase money.

[From a terracotta in the Berlin Museum. A youthful portrait.]

192. FRANÇOIS EUGÈNE OF SAVOY, called PRINCE EUGÈNE. _Military Commander._

[Born in Paris, 1663. Died at Vienna, 1736. Aged 73.]

One of the world’s great and successful generals. The great-grandson of Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, his mother being niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Refused a regiment by Louis XIV., he offered his services to the flag of Austria, and fought as a volunteer for the Emperor against the Turks. The deeds of the young soldier caused Louis XIV. to repent of his former refusal, but the most tempting offers came in vain to Eugene. He took part with Marlborough in all his great victories in the Low Countries, expelled the French from Italy, and overthrew the Turks, from whom he took the city of Belgrade. His renown at the peace of 1718, when he retired from active service, stood as high as any soldier’s of the age. In retirement Prince Eugene cultivated literature and the arts. His services had extended through the reigns of three Emperors, and he fought with almost unvarying success. He was ambitious of glory, and of nothing else. He was never married. He invented no system of military tactics, and he followed none. He had the faculty of discerning the right thing to do at the right time, and of arranging his plans quickly and ably in conformity with the circumstances by which he was surrounded. His mind once made up, his intrepidity was boundless. He was rigid in disposition; his figure was well made, though not tall; his eye was black and piercing, and his complexion dark.

[A fine portrait statue by Canigia, a Piedmontese sculptor lately dead.]

PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.

193. FRANCISCO XIMENEZ DE CISNEROS. _Cardinal and Regent of Spain._

[Born in Castile, 1437. Died, 1517. Aged 80.]

A learned priest who had withdrawn to a convent, and was in his fifty-sixth year, when Queen Isabella of Spain brought him from his retirement, and appointed him Archbishop of Toledo, and her own Confessor. His power over the queen was used, according to the ideas of his time, in the interests of his country, for the benefit of the Spanish people, and for the advancement of learning and religion. After the death of Isabella, in 1504, he was made Governor of Spain, in the absence of the King, and he managed to steer his political course with consummate skill and prudence. In 1516, he became Governor of Castille for the young Emperor, Charles V. He possessed in an eminent degree the genius of government, and his rule paved the way for the greatness of Charles V.’s reign. He was unbending in authority, and organized with a rigid sense of justice, that amounted to cruelty. As Inquisitor-General, he had suffered, during eleven years of office, 50,000 condemnations to be passed, and 2500 human beings to be consigned to the flames. Shortly before his own death he fell into disgrace, and he closed his eyes in grief. He was a fanatic without passion. Pious with sword in hand; austere in his way of life, sagacious, imperious, and a profound politician.

194. CARLO REZZONICO, afterwards POPE CLEMENT XIII. _Pope._

[Born at Venice, 1693. Died at Rome, 1769. Aged 76.]

Commenced his pontifical reign by an endeavour to improve the morals of his clergy and his people; but, later, he created displeasure in Europe by protecting the Jesuits, who had been expelled from France and Portugal. He consented at last to the suppression of the Order, and expired almost as soon as the consent was given. It is rather surprising that he did not die shortly before. A man of sincere piety, pure intentions, and great charity.

[From the celebrated monument by Canova. Although the bust is of colossal proportions, the features preserve their natural, harmonious expression.]

194*. PADRE VENTURA. _Italian Priest._

[Still living.]

Born at Palermo, towards the close of the last century. At an early age, entered the order of the Teatini: subsequently appointed Professor of the University of Rome. When, in 1821, Naples, Piedmont, and Spain rose for the recovery of freedom, and the hopes of the liberal party were raised to the highest pitch in Italy, Ventura sympathized with the popular voice. He was instantly dismissed from his office, and his writings were denounced. When, in 1831, the Italian liberals were crushed by Austria, the Padre took counsel of his judgment, craved to be reconciled with the clerical party, and was made supreme head of his Order. Deceived by the early policy and promises of Pius IX., Ventura, in 1846, again gave rein to his liberal ideas, and returned to his original sympathies. His oration on the death of O’Connell, delivered at Rome, was bold and pathetic, and so far won for him the regard of his ancient allies, that on the success of the Sicilians, who threw off the Neapolitan yoke, he was named their representative at the court of Rome. Another change came over the spirit of Ventura’s life. The Pope--his friend--was chased from Rome; and he himself prudently awaited, in Cività Vecchia, the result of the French invasion undertaken on the Pope’s behalf. Upon the fall of Rome he repaired to France, and there speedily wrote a formal recantation of all his “errors.” At this hour he preaches in Paris in favour of Ultra-montane doctrines, and is surrounded by admirers. He is learned, polished, courtier-like, and very eloquent: not a popular preacher like Gavazzi, but with a style and manner adapted to a cultivated audience.

[By Rinaldo Rinaldi, of Rome.]

KINGS AND QUEENS.

195. CHARLES ALBERT. _King of Sardinia._

[Born 1798. Died at Oporto, 1849. Aged 51.]

A man of unstable principles. Inclined to liberal views, but unequal to the effort of steadily maintaining them. At the time of his birth, seven male heirs stood between him and the Sardinian throne, but in his thirty-third year he found himself king. Received his education in Paris. In 1821, headed a conspiracy in order to force more liberal measures upon his sovereign; but betrayed the design before it was ripe for execution. In 1823, entered the French service under the Duc d’Angoulême, and attached himself to the cause of despotism in France. From the date of his ascending the throne, 1831, until his death, he continually vacillated between the extremes of absolutism, and downright radicalism. In 1848--the year of revolution--he gave his subjects a constitution, and the eyes of Italy were turned anxiously towards him as to a deliverer and friend. Discontent rose against Austria, and he became the champion of Italy against the foreign intruder. Success at first crowned his arms; but weakness and indecision again visited him at the crisis of his career, and he suffered defeat at Novara, at the hands of the Austrian general, Radetzky. Abdicating in favour of his eldest son, Charles Albert quitted Italy, crossed Spain, and reached Oporto, where he soon died, a disappointed, vexed, and broken-hearted man.

[By Canigia, a Piedmontese sculptor of the time.]

THE FRENCH PORTRAITS.

INTRODUCTION.

France surpasses all modern nations in awarding monumental honours to her illustrious sons. The feeling which prompts the grateful act is more akin to noble patriotism than to the littleness of personal display. The magnificent illustration of the national disposition at Versailles commands our respect by the important historical interest which it creates, and by the instruction and benefit which it confers upon the world.

The buildings of all the great institutions of France are adorned with portrait statues and busts of the men who have earned distinction in connexion with them. “The Institute,” which corresponds to our Royal Society, has its statues of philosophers and scientific men. The Mazarin Library possesses a collection of those most distinguished in literature, generally. The Théâtre Français has an exceedingly interesting gallery of dramatists and theatrical celebrities, which is only feebly reflected in the collection--valuable in some respects--of theatrical portraits at the Garrick Club in London, which we owe chiefly to the late Mr. Charles Mathews, the comedian.

The collection of the Théâtre Français is composed of statues and busts representing the greatest dramatic writers and the most celebrated comedians of the French stage, of pictures of actors or of paintings having reference to the dramatic art. The library is rich in autograph manuscripts, and in the letters of nearly all the authors who have illustrated the French stage. It contains also the registers and account books of the several theatrical administrations, without a single interruption, from the 24th of October, 1658--the date of Molière’s first representation in Paris--down to the present time.

The collection of statues and busts dates from only the last century, when the sculptor Caffieri laid its foundation. He proposed to the actors, in 1773, to present to their green-room the bust of his friend Alexis Piron, the poet (see No. 231 in our collection)--who had died a few months before--on the condition that he should be allowed free entrance to the theatre for the rest of his life. It appears, from the letter of Caffieri, preserved in the library of the theatre, that the usual price of his marble busts was £120, and that the right of entrance to the theatre for life was fixed by the comedians at the same sum. The proposition was accepted, and Caffieri continued for some time to present busts to the theatre upon the same terms--that is to say, for every bust the right of an entreé for one of his relatives or friends. Other sculptors followed the example of Caffieri. The practice still continues, and the collection is yearly augmented, not only by this means, but also by the frequent gifts of the Minister of the Interior, and by the still larger donations of private individuals.

The collection of paintings dates as far back as the death of the tragedian Lekain. His comrades, to honour his memory, decided that his likeness should be hung in their green-room. Later came the portrait of Baron, and afterwards that of Mademoiselle Duclos by Largillière, a celebrated portrait painter of the time of Louis XIV. This portrait of Mdlle. Duclos is a masterpiece. At the present moment, in consequence of the frequent additions to this triple collection, there is not space enough in the interior of the theatre properly to display it; and it is proposed to transport it to a more commodious receptacle, and to give to the _réunion_ of all these treasures of the drama the name of the Molière Museum. The busts, which we are enabled to exhibit in the Crystal Palace, form only a small selection from the gallery of the Théâtre Français.

The Louvre, which in Paris corresponds to our British Museum, National Gallery, and Hampton Court combined, has long been one of the world’s great treasuries of history and art. Resting upon ancient walls, founded certainly as far back as the 9th century--when it was a strong fortress in the midst of a forest--the Louvre has been gradually changing its form and appearance since the time of Philippe Auguste. In 1527, Francis I., with the aid of the architect Pierre Lescot, entirely remodelled it, and gave to it the character of splendour and vastness which has ever since attached to this great national structure. All succeeding kings--Charles, Henri, Louis, whatever the name--have done something to uphold its magnificence. In addition to the other numberless works of art contained in the Louvre there are some 300 antique portrait busts and statues, and an immense collection of rare cameos and medals, amongst which are many valuable portraits of antiquity, and about 200 statues and busts of great men of modern time, half of these being representations of military men, with some admirals, and about 50 portraits of sculptors and painters.

The Palace of Versailles is entirely devoted to the illustration of the glory of France. Here, in addition to many pictures, representing the great military achievements of the French, there are saloons filled with statues and busts of the kings, princes, marshals, and admirals, and portraits of nearly every great man of the country from the time of Clovis the First and Clotilde, a king and queen of the 5th century, down to Louis Philippe of our own time. There are more than 600 statues, busts and medallions, many of them fine works of art, and all possessing the very highest interest. A considerable portion being duplicates of works at the Louvre or Tuileries. In such an extensive series there are, as may be supposed, many arbitrary portraits executed to complete a series, but though not taken from the life, they have for the most part been derived from trustworthy authority. There are also upwards of 600 memorial tablets in bronze, placed in the Gallery of Battles, inscribed with the names of all officers killed or wounded in the service of the country, beginning with Prince Robert le Fort, Comte d’Outre-Maine, killed at the combat of Brissarthe, in 866, and ending with the heroes of Waterloo.

The Historical Gallery at Versailles contains portrait busts and statues by 146 different sculptors of France, commencing with Germain Pilon and Jean Goujon, who flourished in the middle of the 16th century.

From all these great collections our Portrait Gallery has been enriched, as the Catalogue will show.

As works of art the French portraits cannot be placed in the highest rank. The style, as in French works of ideal sculpture, is rather picturesque, than antique and severe; and few of the portraits are free from a certain affectation of attitude or assumed expression of countenance, for which it may readily be conceived, the artist, rather than the subject, is to blame. It is rare to find a French bust treated with the seriousness and intensity of the antique, or with the unaffected naturalness of the best busts of the English school: too many indeed verge upon the common and fatal error of portraiture--caricature.

We must, however, take these portraits as the characteristic works of the country to which they belong; all of them bear the stamp of truthfulness, if some should be found tainted with exaggeration. Many are models in the art of marble portraiture. Those of Madame Dubarry (No. 235), and Marie Antoinette (No. 310), are especially beautiful; that of Gaston de Foix (No. 258) is also a very noble portrait; and the bust of Thomas Corneille (No. 222), is one of the finest productions of the school. The heads are generally rather larger than life: and the visitor cannot fail to remark the exceeding care bestowed upon the wigs and elaborate embroidery of the time.

(_The French Portraits commence immediately behind the Statue of Admiral Duquesne, in the Great Transept._)

ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS.

196. JEAN GOUJON. _Sculptor._

[Born in Paris. Died there, 1572.]

Many of his works were destroyed in the French Revolution, but the Tribune of the “Salle des Cent Suisses,” in the Louvre, the “Diana of Poictiers,” and the “Fountain of the Innocents,” in Paris, are left to attest the artist’s superiority. At Malmaison, in France, is another statue by him of Diana, remarkable for the beauty of the pose, the suppleness of the limbs, and the extraordinary lightness of the drapery. The two caryatides in the Renaissance Court are examples of his style. Killed by a shot from an arquebuse during the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and whilst he was at work on the decoration of the Louvre.

[This is considered to be a bust of the time, and perhaps by his own hand.]

197. SIMON VOUET. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1582. Died there, 1641. Aged 59.]

Is generally regarded as the founder of the French school of painting. He received his first instruction from his father, who was also an artist. When a mere youth, he acquired great fame as a portrait painter. He visited Constantinople, where he painted Achmet I. At Rome he worked for Pope Urban VIII. at St. Peter’s. Recalled to France by Louis XIII. in 1637, he was appointed chief painter to the king. His colouring is fine, and he possesses great boldness of touch; but his drawing is marked by mannerism, and he is not happy in perspective, or in his effects of light and shade. He accomplished, however, for French painting, what Corneille effected for the drama. He created and raised the national taste.

[From a marble in the Louvre.]

198. NICOLAS POUSSIN. PAINTER.

[Born at Andelys, in France, 1594. Died in Rome, 1665. Aged 71.]

The greatest master of the French school of painting. His taste for art was revealed at a very early period. As a child, he drew upon his lesson books and the walls of the school-room. At eighteen, he went to Paris, where he frequented schools from which he learned but little. Genius and self-tuition did more for him. At thirty he painted the “Death of the Virgin” for a chapel at Nôtre-Dame, and so well, that the poet Marino took the painter to Rome, and recommended him to Cardinal Barberini with the energetic words, “You will see a youth who has the spirit of one possessed.”[31] The Italian syllables are yet stronger. In Rome he fell into poverty, and sold his pictures for a mere trifle. He worked against the spirit and taste of the age in both France and Italy: throwing himself, with his faithful comrade in art, the sculptor Fiamingo, entirely into the study of the ancient Greek sculpture. He was recalled to his own country by Richelieu, in 1640, and was created Court Painter. In 1643, he returned to Rome, whence no solicitations could again draw him. He lived twenty-five years in great calm and happiness, married to the sister of Caspar Poussin, without children, without a pupil, without a man-servant--esteeming quiet in the house above everything. He was devoted to his art, a great student in it, and of all science bearing upon it. His genius was altogether antique. He transported himself into an elder world, and lived there. Thus in religious subjects he seems to lean towards the Old Testament; and he revels in the wealth of Greek mythology. His classical spirit ennobled landscape both in its own forms and by the poetical significance and treatment of the figures. His art, like poetry, seemed to open to him an escape from the world about him. A style of severe simplicity, truth, high beauty, harmony.

[31] Vederete un giovane che ha la furia del diavolo.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Blaise.]

199. PIERRE MIGNARD. _Painter._

[Born at Troyes, in France, 1610. Died in Paris, 1695. Aged 85.]

Called “The Roman Mignard,” in contradistinction to his brother Nicolas, also a painter, and styled “Mignard of Avignon.” The works of Pierre are not remarkable for originality of invention or peculiar facility of execution; but they exhibit correct design, beauty of form, and excellence of colouring. The French regard him as the best colourist of the age of Louis XIV. The “Grand Monarque” sat ten times to this painter, who also painted the portraits of the Popes Urban VIII. and Alexander VII. Mignard was first intended for the profession of medicine, but his taste for drawing led him to the arts. He passed twenty-two years in Italy, where he acquired fame. He was recalled to France by his own sovereign, and by him also appointed chief painter to the court.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Antoine Coysevox.]

200. ANDRÉ LE NÔTRE. _Architect and Gardener._

[Born in Paris, 1613. Died there, 1700. Aged 87.]

The designer of the magnificent gardens at Versailles; the projector of its grand fountains, grottos, porticos, and bowers. He also laid out the gardens of St. Cloud, the Tuileries, Meudon, and several others. Louis XIV. heaped favours upon this great gardener, but Le Nôtre could not be spoiled by royal indulgence. He travelled into Italy and was received by Pope Innocent XI. “I care not how soon I die now,” said Le Nôtre to the Pope, “since I have seen the two greatest potentates in the world--your Holiness and the King, my master.” Le Nôtre was simple, honest, and disinterested: possessed a fertile genius and lively imagination; in many respects the prototype of our own Paxton.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Gourdel, which was taken from the one in the Church of St. Roch.]

201. EUSTACHE LE SUEUR. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1617. Died 1655. Aged 38.]

One of the greatest French painters. First taught by his father, a sculptor; then a pupil in the studio of Vouet. His fame established by the pictures, twenty-two in number, which he painted for the Chartreuse in Paris, and which represent the chief events in the life of St. Bruno, the founder of the Order. He took delight in sacred subjects, and in simple religious affection he left Lebrun and Poussin far behind him. He scarcely ever quitted Paris, never France; and his sole studies were the few exemplars from the antique which he could find in his native city. Raffaelle he could worship only through the engravings of Marcantonio. But the love of his art was boundless, his study intense, his industry inexhaustible. He excelled in purity of form, and his pictures reveal a tenderness of feeling and a spiritual grace, wholly wanting in the productions of the majority of his contemporaries. He was himself a man of mild and blameless nature. He died very early, worn out by his labours and by the active jealousy of his brother artists.

[The costume is that of the time of Louis XIII. From a marble by P. L. Laurent, done in 1806. Laurent was a pupil of Pajou, and died in 1816.]

202. CHARLES LEBRUN. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1619. Died 1690. Aged 71.]

One of the most celebrated painters of the French school. The Chancellor, Séguier, struck by his talent when a boy, placed him in the studio of Vouet, and subsequently sent him to Rome, where he maintained him during six years. In 1648, Lebrun was recalled to France, and admitted into the Academy. Mazarin, charmed by his works, presented him to the king, by whom he was favourably received and largely patronized. It is said that Louis XIV. would spend two hours at a time in Lebrun’s studio, whilst the artist was painting his “Battles of Alexander,” Alexander being Louis by allusion. For fourteen years, engaged in painting the great gallery of Versailles. Received many distinguished appointments in connexion with the Fine Arts, and at his instigation Louis XIV. instituted the French Academy at Rome. For many years Lebrun was as absolute in the republic of Art, as his master in the kingdom over which he ruled. He was styled “Dictator,” and his influence is perceptible in the works of his time. He was one of the vainest of men, and the most pompous, artificial, and theatrical of painters; his works, though they might swell the pride of a Court, would hardly flatter the pride of a country. His best picture is “The Stoning of Stephen,” in the Louvre.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by A. Coysevox. Extremely interesting, both on account of its being taken from the life, and having once surmounted the tomb of the great painter which was erected by order of his widow in the Church of St. Nicholas, in Paris, the tomb being also the work of Coysevox. The monument was removed at the time of the Revolution. The bust at Versailles, by Bosio (1837), takes its authority from this.]

203. ANDRÉ FÉLIBIEN, SIEUR DES AVAUX ET DE JAVERCY. _Writer on Art._

[Born at Chartres, in France, 1619. Died in Paris, 1695. Aged 76.]

Held various appointments in connexion with art. Amongst others, those of Historiographer to the King, and Secretary to the Academy of Architecture. His best known work is “Lives of Ancient and Modern Painters,” which is translated into English. Grave and serious in character, but, right-minded and good-hearted, he preferred virtue to the favours of fortune.

204. JEAN MABILLON. _Antiquary._

[Born at Pierre-Mont, in France, 1632. Died in Paris, 1707. Aged 75.]

A Benedictine monk, who employed his life in collecting materials and writing on monastic history and antiquities. Entitled to high rank for his extensive learning and great virtues; his style clear, masculine, and methodical; his mind free from bigotry.

205. JEAN BAPTISTE DE LULLY. _Violinist and Musical Composer._

[Born near Florence, 1633. Died 1687. Aged 54.]

A musical genius; who began life as a scullery-boy, and, in soul, continued a scullery-boy to the last. It was whilst playing the fiddle in the kitchen of Mademoiselle de Montpensier that his musical faculty was detected and rescued. Subsequently playing some airs of his own composition to Louis XIV. he was made, at the age of 19, “Inspecteur Général des Violons.” In 1672, letters-patent were granted him to establish a Royal Academy of Music: that academy was the Opera. He performed marvels at his theatre. He was at once composer, director, ballet-master, leader of the band, and even machinist. Nothing came amiss to him; and his activity, his popularity, his success were enormous. In less than fifteen years he had composed nineteen operas, which continued in high favour until put out of fashion by Gluck a century afterwards. To appreciate the merits of Lully as a composer, we must look at him from the point of view of his own time. So regarded, he is an artist of great spirit and dramatic power. He found France without any dramatic music whatever. He left works which formed the style of later masters, and became the foundation of a national opera. He had wit, energy, versatility, and was a great favourite with the Court. His moral character was detestable. To the great he was grovelling; to his earliest benefactress he was ungrateful; towards his dependants he was overbearing, insolent and brutal.

[From the bust in the Church of Petits Pères.]

206. ANTOINE COYSEVOX. _Sculptor._

[Born at Lyons, in France, 1640. Died in Paris, 1720. Aged 80.]

Of Spanish origin. Employed for four years on the decoration of Cardinal de Furstenburg’s palace, at Saverne, in Alsace. Executed also for Paris, a statue of Louis XIV., and the bronze winged horse placed in the Tuileries gardens. The Revolution destroyed most of his works; but amongst those left is one of the finest--the monument of Colbert. A persevering and painstaking artist.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by himself. The original bears the following inscription:--“Ch: Ant: Coysevox Sculpteur du Roi, Chancelier de l’Académie; par lui-même. Donné à l’Académie par Ch. Pierre Couston architecte du Roi, son petit neveu.”]

207. JULES HARDOUIN MANSART. _Architect._

[Born in Paris, 1645. Died at Marly, in France, 1708. Aged 63.]

The builder of the Palace of Versailles, and of the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris: indebted for his celebrity more to the good-will of his sovereign, Louis XIV., than to his own genius. His works noble and striking, but his style not chaste, and apt to fall into extravagance. A vain man, proud of the favours of the king and jealous of retaining them.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by T. L. Lemoyne, a pupil of Coysevox, who died in 1755; and doubtless from the life. He wears a damask dress with the cordon of St. Michel.]

207*. CLAUDE JOSEPH VERNET. _Painter._

[Born at Avignon in France, 1714. Died 1789. Aged 75.]

He received his first instruction from his father, who was an historical painter. He set out for Italy in his eighteenth year, and continued there for many years, studying and painting for small remuneration. He returned to France in 1753, on the invitation of Louis XV., was elected a member of the French Academy, and commissioned by the government to paint the principal ports of France. He excelled in marine subjects. It is related of him that during a terrible storm at sea, when all on board his ship were trembling for their lives, he caused himself to be lashed to the mast of the vessel, that he might watch the boiling ocean. The Louvre contains several of his pictures, which display a consummate management of light and shade. He had no rival in France whilst he lived, and he died pencil in hand. He was a modest man, and never so happy as when at work.

[Bust to come.]

208. JACQUES GERMAIN SOUFFLOT. _Architect._

[Born at Irancy, in France, 1714. Died in Paris, 1781. Aged 67.]

When the Carthusians rebuilt their church at Lyons, Soufflot’s design for the dome was accepted, and he achieved celebrity in consequence. Then settling in Lyons, built several edifices there, including the theatre (one of the finest in France), and the _Hôtel-Dieu_ (the hospital). Invited to Paris, he became architect to the king. His designs for the Church of Sainte Généviève were adopted; but the cupola exciting much adverse criticism, the architect fell into despondency, languished and died. Blunt in his manners, but of a generous and noble mind. He was called the “benevolent cross-patch.”

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Prévot.]

208*. MARIE-ANNE-BOTOL DANGEVILLE. _French Comic Actress._

[Born 1714. Died 1796. Aged 82.]

Actress at the Théâtre Français, and perhaps one of the most perfect mistresses of her division of the art that have trodden the French stage. The original of this bust, in the Théâtre Français, has not the name of the sculptor, but is a work of singular delicacy of expression, and evidently from the hand of a master.

[Bust to come.]

208**. MADEMOISELLE CLAIRON. _French Tragic Actress._

[Born 1723. Died 1803. Aged 80.]

The most accomplished French tragic actress of her time. Born of poor and illiterate parents. Made her first appearance on the stage in her thirteenth year. At first unsuccessful, she proved eventually a sublime tragedian, and during twenty-two years held possession of the public. Disraeli the elder has a curious story from her life. He relates that as a child she was cruelly treated by a violent mother, and driven all day to manual labour. One day when locked in a room for punishment, she climbed upon a chair to look about her. In the house opposite she saw a celebrated actress amidst her family; one daughter performing her dancing lesson. Clairon noticed with excitement every motion: not one was lost upon her. The lesson over, the rest of the children applauded, and the mother embraced her clever dancer. The scene melted the heart of Clairon, reflecting on her own bitter lot, and she burst into tears. She ascended the chair again, but the vision had vanished. Henceforth she was a new child, and never so happy as when locked in that room: from her chair she watched again and again the happy dancer--imitated her gestures--reflected her grace. She worshipped a divinity. She had never been to a theatre; yet, without knowing what an actress meant, she had herself become an actress. Her ardent studies were soon manifest. Her first victory was over her barbarous mother, whom she softened. Her later conquest was the subjection of all Paris, and in Paris, of all polite France and Europe. The anecdote lives, how Voltaire, when his tragedy of “Oreste” was to be brought out, insisted that his Electra, compelled in the palace of her fathers to the discharge of menial offices, should appear habited as a slave. Mademoiselle Clairon, to whom the character fell, resisted. She shrank from flying in the face of the artificial French taste, and of the traditional stage decorum--both expecting a princess arrayed in proper theatrical splendour. The poet persisted. The piece over, she came to him and said, “Ah! M. de Voltaire, you have ruined me. All my gorgeous wardrobe is no longer worth a sou.” She had been released for once to act up to the truth, nature, and simple reality of her part; and had astonished audience, actors, herself--all save the poet--by her self-excelling success.

[This bust, which is to come, is from a marble by Lemoyne, dated 1761.]

209. JACQUES LOUIS DAVID. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1748. Died at Brussels, 1825. Aged 77.]

The founder of the modern or classical school of French painters. Pupil of Vien, with whom he passed several years in Italy. Returning to France in 1780, opened a school, which attracted many pupils. In 1784, paid a second visit to Italy, and on his return was hailed with the title of Regenerator of Art. Was now admitted into the Academy and lodged in the Louvre, with the appointment of “Painter to the King.” His pictures proved eminently successful. His drawing was perfect, and the correctness of his design revealed the pure antique fount from which he had quaffed his inspiration. For a time David forsook the easel, to take part in the fury of Revolutionary politics. He forgot his apartments in the Louvre, joined hands with Robespierre, to whom he was personally attached, and became one of the loudest clamourers for the blood of Louis XVI. The painter was present at the mock trial of the monarch, whom he grossly insulted as the wretched king passed in front of him. After the fall of Robespierre, David owed the preservation of his own neck solely to his great reputation as an artist. He ceased to be a politician to become a dictator in art. During the Consulate his influence was supreme. He not only immortalized some of its heroic passages, but he designed its official costumes. Buonaparte heaped favours upon his artistic panegyrist, and the painter added grace and dignity to the deeds of the First Consul. The last work of David in Paris was “Leonidas,” painted in 1814. In that year, it is written that Wellington, accompanied by some English officers, visited the artist’s studio, and expressed a wish to be painted. The story adds, that David replied coldly that “he did not paint Englishmen,” and turned his back upon his visitor. Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, David was made Commander of the Legion of Honour. The next year he was banished as a regicide, and took up his residence in Brussels. “Napoleon crossing St. Bernard” and “The Coronation of Napoleon” are amongst his offerings to the triumphs of the Emperor. Classical and correct in design, David fails in colour, and in picturesque expression. His figures, too, have a hard and marble-like appearance. A large swelling at the side of his face was caused by a blow he received, when young. It has been justly said that opinions of David will vary, accordingly as they are expressed by Frenchmen or by foreigners.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Rude, 1831.]

210. CHARLES PERCIER. _Architect._

[Born in Paris, 1764. Died, 1838. Aged 74.]

Known by his works in conjunction with Fontaine. The influence of the labours of both is matter of history in art. To them is due the completion of the Louvre and the erection of the arch in the _Place du Carrousel_ at Paris. Percier wrote several works on art. In his youth sent to Rome to study, where he gained the friendship of Flaxman and Canova. Modest and retiring; and in the pursuit of his art most persevering.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Pradier.]

211. GIRODET-TRIOSON. _Painter._

[Born at Montargis, in France, 1767. Died in Paris, 1824. Aged 57.]

The real name of this artist was Anne-Louis Girodet de Coussy; but he took the name of Trioson from his adopted father and benefactor, a physician, to whom he was indebted for his education. He was the son of the Duke of Orleans’ steward, and intended for the army, but evincing a great taste for painting, was placed in the studio of David. Afterwards proceeding to Rome, he received the first prize for a work of art in that city. At the end of five years returned to Paris, where an apartment was assigned him in the Louvre. In 1806, he gained a prize by his picture of “The Deluge,” competing with his old master, David. Girodet did not produce many works, habitual ill-health disabling his pencil; but he left enough behind him to maintain his reputation. His chief pictures are “Endymion,” “Hippocrates,” “The Revolt in Cairo,” and “Napoleon Receiving the Keys of Vienna.” The colouring of Girodet is cold and earthy; and his figures, whilst revealing the classic form and correct drawing that characterize the labours of all David’s pupils, lose the expression of inward life. In spite of obvious deficiencies in truthful representation, his paintings produce a deep, and occasionally a powerful impression.

[From a marble in the Louvre--the author unknown. One by M. Roman was in the French Exhibition of 1827.]

212. FRANÇOIS GÉRARD. _Painter._

[Born at Rome, 1770. Died in Paris, 1837. Aged 67.]

Studied under Pajou the sculptor, then with Brenet, and finally with David, whom he assisted in several works, until 1794, when he exhibited his own picture of “The Tenth of August” (the day of the storming of the Tuileries in 1792). Under the influence of David, Gérard became one of the jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal--an office from which he subsequently shrunk. He received great honour and distinction at the hands of Napoleon; and the Emperor Alexander, and the Duke of Wellington, became his friends. A man of extensive knowledge, and, as a painter, to be recommended for taste and refinement, rather than for invention or sublimity. His colouring, though harmonious, is not always true. His subjects were chiefly historical, and in these the arrangement of the figures and the selection of costume are always pleasing. He was also successful as a portrait painter.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Pradier, 1838.]

213. ANTOINE JEAN GROS. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1771. Died there, 1835. Aged 64.]

One of the most distinguished of David’s pupils. Appalled by the horrors of the first Revolution, he quitted France, and withdrew to Geneva; thence to Milan, where he became known to Buonaparte, by whom he was countenanced and employed. He followed the army for six years, and returned to France in 1801. Then painted several pictures commemorative of Napoleon’s military achievements. He enjoyed ample patronage under both the Emperor, and the Restoration; but in his later years he fell into melancholy; and one morning his body was found in the Seine. His compositions are remarkable for boldness and facility of invention; but his colouring is frequently exaggerated. His subjects, too, though invariably treated with power, degenerate occasionally into vulgarity and theatrical display. His best picture is “The Plague at Jaffa.” He was a man of cultivated mind, and passionately fond of music.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Debay Sen., 1827.]

214. PIERRE NARCISSE GUÉRIN. _Painter._

[Born in Paris, 1774. Died at Rome, 1833. Aged 59.]

The son of an humble shopkeeper, and in early years self-instructed. As a painter he was the pupil of Regnault, under whom he soon became distinguished for facility of execution and refined composition. He subsequently studied several years in Rome. In 1822, appointed Director of the French Academy. He was not distinguished either for design or colour; but his figures are full of expression. His subjects chiefly mythological and classical.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Auguste Dumont, 1831, author of the statue of Louis Philippe, at Versailles, and lately deceased.]

215. COMTE D’ORSAY.

[Born in Paris, 1798. Died there, 1852. Aged 54.]

A man of fashion, endowed with exquisite taste and with great talent for the cultivation of art. He resided many years in England, where he influenced the taste of a portion of society, and practised sculpture and painting as an amateur. Towards the close of his life he withdrew to Paris, and there received an appointment in connexion with the fine arts, from his former friend the Emperor of France. He had engaging manners, a kind heart, and an open hand. Possessed of great personal beauty, he was not wanting in manly attributes, being athletic, and skilled in arms and horsemanship.

[This excellent work and admirable likeness is by W. Behnes.]

216. MADEMOISELLE FELIX RACHEL. _Tragic Actress._

[Born at Munf, in Switzerland, 1821. Still living.]

The daughter of poor Hebrew parents. In 1831, this famous actress made her debût at the Theâtre Molière, in Paris, as Hermione in “Andromaque;” but without giving indication of the genius she has subsequently displayed. In 1841, she first appeared in England, and from that time has won unbounded admiration, and maintained an undivided supremacy both here and in France. French dramatic poetry, which ordinarily finds no welcome in English ears, is reconciled to our taste as it falls from her lips. Her excellence consists in the emphatic expression of deep feeling and passion, in the thrilling effects which she is able to produce, even by a whisper, and in her independent superiority over the traditions and conventionalities of the stage. She is the least unnatural of French tragedians; yet is not so natural as to be able altogether to conceal her art. The spectator never forgets that an actress is before him; is never carried away by an irresistible impulse. Rachel, great as she is, is always the same, even to the motion of a garment, and the raising of her hand. Hence, the impression made by a first representation is far more potent than any that may follow. She lacks ideality and refinement. Her temperament stands between her and her ability to inspire the spectator with a perfect belief in her earnestness, and in her love of the beautiful and good.

[Bust by Ludwig Wichmann. Plaster. 1844. The original in possession of the artist.]

217. DIANE DE POITIERS.

[Born 1499. Died at Arret, in France, 1566. Aged 67.]

At 13, married Louis de Brézé, Grand Sénéchal of Normandy, who died in 1531. At the age of 48 she became the favourite mistress of Henry II. of France. Her influence was used, except where she was herself biassed by religious prejudices, invariably for good and commendable objects. Her talents were commanding, and her beauty continued unimpaired by age. She was created Duchess of Valentinois, and her power was well appreciated abroad. One of her daughters by De Brézé married the son of the Duc de Guise, afterwards Duc d’Aumâle.

[A portrait of the time.]

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

218. PIERRE CORNEILLE. _Dramatist._

[Born at Rouen, in France, 1606. Died in Paris, 1684. Aged 79.]

The father of French tragedy. Educated by the Jesuits. During the early part of his career, monastic exhibitions were the only dramatic performances in vogue in France. When the French began to draw their dramatic inspirations from Spain, Corneille was the first to take real advantage of the movement. He dramatized the first youthful achievement of the Cid with extraordinary success. It soon became the custom to say of anything deserving applause, that “it was as good as the Cid.” Then followed his drama of “Les Horaces,” considered a masterpiece of French tragedy, a species of composition which is not to be criticized by the rules that we apply to the great productions of our own stage. “Cinna” and “Polyeucte” followed, both efforts of undoubted genius. In 1642, elected member of the French Academy. The claims of Corneille upon our regard not to be over estimated. The French drama was yet in the block when he took up his artist tools. Grandeur of thought, elevation of sentiment, and heroism of character are wrought out in all his productions, which have exercised a momentous influence upon succeeding times in France. Corneille was simple and almost rustic in his manners and appearance. Very proud, but very shy. Ambitious of glory, yet disdaining the society of the great, even up to the greatest. He had a commanding person, and expressive features. When he died he was poor, almost to want. Napoleon had a lofty idea of Corneille’s knowledge of government. “Had he lived in my time,” said the Emperor, “I should have taken him into my council.”

[This is from the original marble, by Caffieri, in the Comédie Française. There is a statue of him at Versailles done in 1836, by M. Laitie. Both are taken from painted portraits.]

219. JEAN DE ROTROU. _Dramatist._

[Born at Dreux, in France, 1609. Died there, 1650, Aged 41.]

One of the creators of French tragedy. To him Corneille is indebted for the idea of founding a tragedy upon the subject of the Cid--for it was at his instigation that the great master first looked to the Spanish stage for inspiration and guidance. Rotrou gloried in the success of Corneille, and generously maintained his superiority over all dramatic writers in France--including himself. He left thirty-seven dramatic pieces, and many of them exhibit power and great felicity of language. He enjoyed a civil office in his native town, where he was much respected. He was cut off by an epidemic.

[The original is in marble, by Caffieri. The costume is of the time of Louis XIII.; but the bust must have been done from some painted portrait, as it bears the date of 1783, and Caffieri was not born until 1723.]

220. JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. _Poet._

[Born at Château Thierry, in France, 1621. Died in Paris, 1695. Aged 74.]

A great French poet! His fables in verse, published when he was forty years of age, placed him at once amongst the first writers in verse that France had produced, and created an epoch in French literature. As a writer of fables he is probably not surpassed by any writer of any country. His life was full of vicissitudes. He succeeded his father, as Keeper of the Royal Domains at Château Thierry, but deserting both his wife and his occupation, he went to Paris, where he formed a lasting friendship with Molière, Racine, and Boileau. A pension saved him from starvation; and losing this with the fall of the Minister, Fouquet, who gave it, he was again rescued by the charity of Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I., and wife to the Duke of Orleans. Upon the death of this princess, he was again fortunately provided for by Madame de Sablière, in whose house the poet lived for twenty years. In society, La Fontaine was dull, silent, and subject to absence of mind. In his youth he was remarkable for his aversion to poetry. He lies buried by the side of Molière, who ever regarded him with affection, and who discovered his genius years before it was acknowledged by the world. His style is easy, sprightly, graceful, witty, pointed, and inimitably naïve.

[This is from the bust in terra cotta in the Théâtre Français, by Caffieri. It has served as the authority for that by Dessine, at Versailles, and the statue in the Vestibule of the Admirals, by M. Seurre, done in 1837. Unfortunately, none of these could have been modelled from the life.]

220A. JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. _Poet._

[By Auguste Dumont.]

221. MOLIÈRE. _Dramatist._

[Born in Paris, 1622. Died there, 1673. Aged 51.]

The real name of Molière was Jean Baptiste Poquelin. That which is associated with his renown was assumed when he became an actor, and “disgraced” his family, who cut Jean Baptiste away from the genealogical tree,--the father of Molière being _valet de chambre_ to Louis XIII. Like our own Shakspeare, Molière was an actor as well as a writer of plays. He forsook the study of the law for the stage, and at the age of 24 was making his way in the provinces, where he produced comedies, in which he himself acted. In 1658, he returned to Paris, and by the favour of Louis XIV. opened the theatre of the Palais Royal. His new comedies produced there attracted crowds. His latest work was “The Imaginary Invalid,” brought out in 1673. He played the principal part himself, and during the fourth representation, was carried a dying man from the stage. The rites of Christian sepulture, denied, as a matter of course, to the player, were not conceded to the author who had satirized hypocrisy in his well-known comedy of “The Hypocrite.” Molière was beloved by his contemporaries: he was generous and warm-hearted--the friend of Condé, Boileau, and Racine. He is by far the first writer of Comedy in modern times. His place is close to the side of Shakspeare, for, like the English writer, he successfully addresses all countries and all ages, appealing to no limited, local, and accidental condition of the human mind, but striking home to the universal and unchangeable heart of man, as it everywhere throbs. Beyond the humorous faculty, he possessed earnestness of feeling, and a deep tone of passion. He was a man of tender heart; and of all French writers, he is the least French.

[From the marble in the Louvre.]

222. THOMAS CORNEILLE. _Dramatist._

[Born at Rouen, 1625. Died at Andelys, 1709. Aged 84.]

Younger brother of the great Corneille, with whom he lived until his death in brotherly affection. Inspired by his brother’s success, he early devoted himself to dramatic composition, and, like his illustrious brother borrowed from Spain the materials for his earliest attempts. The labours of Thomas Corneille found even more approbation with contemporary audiences than those of Pierre; but the majority of the younger brother’s many comedies are now forgotten. The services rendered by Thomas to philology are perhaps more useful and lasting than his contributions to the drama. He published a supplementary Dictionary to that of the French Academy, and wrote other works. In his old age he lost his sight. He died honoured and beloved.

[By J. J. Caffieri, 1785. There is a copy of it at Versailles, in marble, by M. Chenillion, dated 1836. The original was taken from an authentic picture by Jouvenet, which belonged to the Countess of Bouville, daughter of Corneille, a copy of which picture was given to the Comédie Française by Caffieri.]

223. PHILIPPE QUINAULT. _Poet._

[Born at Felletin, in France, 1635. Died in Paris, 1688. Aged 53.]

A lyrical poet of great reputation, and the most famous writer of French operas. His earliest works were tragedies and comedies, but in 1670, after his election to the Royal Academy, he allied his verse to music, and did not sever the union until he altogether eschewed dramatic composition. He furnished to Lully, the musician, the words for his first opera, and continued to aid that composer until Lully’s death. Towards the close of his days, Quinault, influenced by religious scruples, ceased to write for the stage. His lyrical productions have great tenderness, and melodious sweetness, and are happily and eminently adapted to their alliance with the sister art.

[From a bust in terra cotta, by Caffieri, which was the model for that in marble placed in the public room of the Opera, at Paris, and for another in the Bibliothèque Généviève, at Paris.]

224. NICOLAS BOILEAU. _Poet and Satirist._

[Born at Crosne, in France, 1636. Died at Paris, 1711. Aged 75.]

One of the illustrious writers of his time. His labours went far to fix the character and purity of the French language, and his sharp criticisms have exercised ever since his day a salutary influence upon the literature of his country. He ridiculed with singular acuteness the false taste of his generation, and endeavoured to point out the true principles of composition. His “Art Poétique” is considered by many, as rivalling the “Ars Poëtica” of Horace. His humorous and heroic poem of “Le Lutrin,” written to illustrate his theory that an epic ought to have a slender groundwork, abounds in fanciful and sportive wit. He was the friend of Molière, Racine, and Lafontaine, and the great Condé was his patron. A generous and charitable man, an upholder of religion, but a sworn hater of hypocrisy. Constant in his friendships, and always ready to forgive injuries.

[From a marble, by François Girardon, in the Louvre, a sculptor born at Troyes, in Champagne, 1630, and died 1715.]

225. JEAN RACINE. _Dramatist._

[Born at La Ferté Milon, in France, 1639. Died there, 1699. Aged 60.]

Racine was the Euripides of France, as Corneille was her Æschylus. The first excelled in impassioned tenderness, the last in power and sublimity. Corneille borrowed from the Spanish stage; Racine took his inspiration from the ancients, whom he studied with ardour and effect. He published “Phèdre,” one of his best tragedies, when he was thirty-eight years old, but, disgusted with the envy which he raised, he resolved to renounce the theatre ever afterwards. He did not keep his word; for some years later, at the request of Madame de Maintenon, he wrote his beautiful drama of “Athalie,” which, it would seem, was not appreciated at the time. His versification is sweet, expressive, and harmonious; and his plays are remarkable for grace and feeling. He was himself beloved for his simplicity, modesty, and genuine character. He was too sensitive to adverse criticism.

226. JEAN FRANÇOIS REGNARD. _Dramatist._

[Born in Paris, 1655. Died at Dourdan, in France, 1709. Aged 54.]

A celebrated comic writer of France, and a man of many adventures. Returning from an Italian journey, he was taken by pirates, and sold to slavery in Algiers. Whilst there he was sentenced to become a Mussulman, or to be burnt alive. Ransomed by the French Consul in 1681, he resumed his travels northwards. In 1683, he took up his abode in Paris, and wrote comedies, which became very popular,--the most successful being “The Gamester,” produced in 1696. Regnard had an inexhaustible fund of humour. Voltaire has said that “he who is not pleased with Regnard, is not entitled to admire Molière.”

[In marble, by J. J. Foucon, signed and dated 1779. There is a copy of this bust at Versailles.]

227. CHARLES RIVIÈRE DUFRESNY. _Dramatist._

[Born in Paris, 1648. Died 1724. Aged 76.]

A versatile genius! A musician, a poet, a draughtsman, a gardener, and an architect. And most improvident withal! Was in the service of Louis XIV. first as valet-de-chambre, then as Inspector of the Royal Gardens. In the latter capacity, he was the first to introduce the English style of gardening into France. He enjoyed a pension; but for an inconsiderable sum he sold both place and pension, and soon became penniless. Then took to writing for the theatre as a last resource for bread. Few of his plays met with, or deserved, success; but one or two have recognised merit. He received fresh favours from the King, and the Duke of Orleans conferred upon him a handsome gift of money. But nothing could save Dufresny from himself. He fell in his age into deep poverty, and so died.

[From the marble by Augustin Pajou, signed and dated 1781. A sculptor and professor in the Academy of Paris, and one of the best of his time. He died in 1809.]

228. PROSPER JOLYOT DE CRÉBILLON. _Dramatic Author._

[Born at Dijon, in France, 1674. Died in Paris, 1762. Aged 88.]

Styled the _Æschylus_ of France. Educated by the Jesuits, and intended for the law, he produced, in 1705, his first play, “Idomeneus.” A subsequent effort, the tragedy of “Rhadamistus,” placed him at once in advance of all the tragic poets who lingered on the stage after Corneille and Racine had quitted it. Disgusted, at a later period, with Court neglect, and the decline of popularity, he withdrew from the world, and passed a life of abstinence amidst a large number of cats and dogs, whose attachment, he said, consoled him for man’s ingratitude. In 1731, elected a member of the French Academy. Towards the close of his days the sun once more smiled upon his fortunes. He received a pension through Madame Pompadour of 2,400 French livres; and the King of France caused his works to be printed at the Louvre press. As a tragic author he takes high rank. Too fond of dealing in horrors, but all his works have warmth, energy, and varied action. He was proud, independent, and alive to his own defects.

[The marble bust from which this was taken was executed after a model from the life, by the celebrated sculptor, J. B. Lemoyne, in 1760. The marble was carved by J. B. Huez, in 1778, as the inscription tells us. The only notice of Huez, who has often been considered the author of the bust, is in “Les Salons” of Diderot, where he is mentioned amongst the contributors to the exhibitions of the day, and not in complimentary terms. Lemoyne was a Parisian, and died in 1778. He did many busts.]

229. PHILIPPE NÉRICAULT DESTOUCHES. _Dramatist._

[Born at Tours, in France, 1680. Died 1754. Aged 74.]

In his youth served as a volunteer in the French army. Then adjoined to the embassy in Switzerland, where his leisure enabled him to follow the bent of his fancy, and to write for the stage. His plays were as popular as his diplomatic skill proved useful. He found favour with the Duke of Orleans, who attached him to the mission of Dubois, when that minister, in 1717, went to London. His diplomacy still pleased the Regent, who, unfortunately, died too soon for Destouches. But the dramatist had been prudent; and upon the death of his patron, he retired with a sufficient fortune to his estate, and sought consolation in the pursuits of agriculture and philosophy. His plays won applause rather by the interesting situations of which they were full, than by subtle development of character.

[From the only bust of him, by P. F. Berruer, done in 1781 and signed. Berruer was a member of the Paris Academy, and died in 1797.]

230. ALAIN RÉNÉ LE SAGE. _Novelist._

[Born at Sarzeau, in France, 1683. Died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1741. Aged 58.]

The author of “Gil Blas” and the “Devil on Two Sticks.” A poor man, notwithstanding the success of his novels. Becoming deaf, he used a speaking-trumpet in the presence of intelligent visitors; when other visitors came to him he gravely put the instrument into his pocket. An inimitable painter of human nature, ranking with the few immortals whose creations appeal to all times. Proud and independent, though amiable of disposition. Devoted to the pursuits and joys of a literary life.

231. ALEXIS PIRON. _Poet._

[Born at Dijon, 1689. Died 1773. Aged 84.]

A wild and dissolute spirit. The author of one admirable comedy, “La Métromanie,” which may take rank with the dramatic productions of the best period in France, and of seven volumes of compositions which have long ceased to float on the broad river of fame. Piron was the son of an apothecary at Dijon, and after almost breaking his father’s heart by his follies, he was obliged to flee his native town in consequence of the publication of an indecorous effusion written amidst the fumes of an orgie. He went to Paris, and there for nine years lived in great indigence, supporting himself as a copyist. Then he took to writing for the minor theatres, with more or less success, until 1738, when he produced his masterpiece, already mentioned. It secured him a place at once amongst the best dramatists of his country. In 1753, he applied for a vacant seat in the Academy, and was refused. He revenged himself by composing a satire and the following epitaph:--

“Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien, Pas même Académicien.”

“Here lies Piron--a nullity-- Not even an Academician.”

[This is an admirable bust, by Caffieri, dated 1775. Copied at Versailles by M. Pigalle.]

232. PIERRE CLAUDE NIVELLE DE LA CHAUSSÉE. _Dramatist._

[Born in Paris, 1692. Died there, 1754. Aged 62.]

He is regarded as the inventor of sentimental comedy in France (_Comédie larmoyante_.) Hugh Kelly’s “False Delicacy” made the invention known in England, and Foote’s “Piety in Pattens” ridiculed it. Pierre de la Chaussée was a French Academician. His writings gained for him considerable fame during his life, and La Harpe ranks him amongst the authors who have conferred honour upon the French theatre.

[In marble, by Caffieri. 1785.]

233. FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE. _Historian, Poet, and Wit._

[Born at Chatenay, in France, 1694. Died in Paris, 1778. Aged 84.]

This extraordinary Intellect was not, as is generally supposed, an atheist. Voltaire was not destitute of the sense of moral responsibility; and he hardly believed in the immortality of the soul; but it was from his pen that fell the startling confession that, “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent his being.” Voltaire was richly endowed. He wrote the best epic poem in the French language; his tragedies, full of strength and passion, take high rank; his satire is cutting and inimitable, and his historical writings are full of life and movement. Wrapt up, however, in the philosophical spirit of the eighteenth century, he was ever incapable of judging justly of the greatness of minds who had received the prejudices of less enlightened times. For forty years, he led a life of incessant literary action: part of that time he was forced, in consequence of his satirical writings, to live in England, where he became the intimate of Bolingbroke, Toland, and other deists. In 1749, he visited Berlin, on the invitation of Frederic the Great. Always a persevering and acrimonious enemy of Christianity, he laughed at Revelation; and, a sneerer at hereditary orders, he helped largely to the overthrow of the monarchy in France. He did not live to witness the Revolution; but it is said that he lived long enough to be horrified at his infidelity. It must be noted to his honour, that whilst he ridiculed all things in which he had no faith, he was sincere in his maintenance of the rights of humanity, and in his denunciations of injustice. He was the idol of all who read and talked in France in his time.

[From the marble, by Houdon, done in 1778, and signed by him in the Théâtre Français. There is a fine seated statue of Voltaire in the Théâtre Français by Houdon considered to be his _chef-d’œuvre_ as a portrait statue, and remarkable for the noble style in which the subject is treated. Copies of the same bust and statue exist at Versailles.]

233A. FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE. _Historian, Poet, and Wit._

[By Pajou.]

234. MICHEL JEAN SEDAINE. _Dramatist._

[Born in Paris, 1719. Died there, 1797. Aged 78.]

The son of an architect. At the age of 13 relinquished, through poverty, the study of architecture and became a journeyman mason. Later in life he set up as master mason, but he forsook his calling for literature and the drama. His plays are well written for stage effect, but are not remarkable for their poetic character, or correctness of style. The success of his play, “Richard Cœur de Lion,” procured him admission into the French Academy.

[From a marble, by Jaques Edouard Gatteaux, signed and dated 1843. M. Gatteaux is an engraver of medals as well as sculptor, and member of the Institute. Born 1788.]

234*. CHARLES PALISSOT DE MONTENOY. _Dramatist._

[Born at Nancy, in France, 1730. Died, 1814. Aged 84.]

Celebrated chiefly for his comedy of the “Cercle,” in which, by his ridicule of Rousseau, he gave offence to the philosophical _literati_ of France, with whom he waged continual literary war. In 1760, he produced his comedy of “Les Philosophes;” in 1764, the “Dunciade.” His works are not distinguished by richness of invention or copiousness of ideas; but his style is natural, easy and correct.

[Bust to come.]

235. MARIE JEANNE VAUBERNIER, COMTESSE DU BARRY.

[Born at Vaucouleurs, in France, 1746. Guillotined, 1793. Aged 47.]

Of humble parentage. Quitting a convent in Paris into which she had entered at an early age, she worked as a milliner when fifteen years old. Shortly afterwards she became the mistress of the Count du Barry, a dissolute man of fashion, and by him was introduced to Louis XV., who captivated by her beauty and unrestrained manners, induced the brother of the Count to make Mademoiselle Vaubernier his lawful wife. La Comtesse du Barry, received at Versailles, soon acquired an ascendancy over the licentious monarch and his court. She exercised supreme sway, and held in her hands the power of life and death--promotion and disgrace. Her extravagance was boundless. At the death of Louis in 1774, she was shut up in a convent, where she became religious. Released from her imprisonment by Louis XVI., she conducted herself with decorum, but too late for any earthly happiness she might derive from repentance. In 1793, the revolutionists took her life because she had devoted it to the service of the Royal family, for whom, it would appear, she had sold her diamonds. She was much pitied at the scaffold, where she betrayed great want of courage.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Pajou. A very beautiful work delicately chiselled, and full of life and softness. It is signed and dated 1772. The bust at Versailles is a repetition, dated 1773.]

SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.

236. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. _Essayist._

[Born at the Castle of Montaigne, in Perigord, France, 1533. Died at Perigord, 1592. Aged 59.]

An original and most engaging writer. His essays consist chiefly either of personal narrative, or of disquisitions upon his individual nature. His reasoning acute and philosophical, his manner, if one may so call it, grotesque, and naïve. His descriptions of persons, events, and places full of life and exquisite drawing. A favourite author with all lovers of sterling thought, lucid style, and quaint reflection. He lived during a time of religious conflict, but walked quietly and unscathed through the fire, blessed with philosophic calm. He travelled in 1580, visited Switzerland and Venice “which he had a hunger to see,” and settled for a time in Rome. He said “he could not go out of his way, for he had no way to go.” On his return, elected Mayor of Bordeaux, though he told the electors he had “neither party-spirit, memory, diligence, nor experience.” Elected for a second time to the office, nevertheless. A man of great moral courage, and warm in his friendships.

237. JACQUES AUGUSTE DE THOU. _Minister of State and Historian._

[Born in Paris 1553. Died 1617. Aged 64.]

Under Henry III. of France, De Thou discharged the duties of several offices with eminent ability and credit; and in 1581, was appointed one of the commissioners, sent to quiet the disturbances in Guyenne. In 1588, he was nominated Councillor of State, and in the following years proceeded to Germany and Italy on a diplomatic mission. On the death of Henry III. he received the confidence of Henry IV., and was employed, with others, to digest the articles set forth in the celebrated Edict of Nantes in 1598. In 1591, he commenced his great history of his own times; and, in 1604, published the first eighteen books. After the death of Henry IV., he served for a time as one of the Directors of Finance in Sully’s place, but soon retired, disappointed and vexed; and closed his days in the completion of his magnificent historical labours, and in the practice of piety. De Thou was deeply read in men, and learned in human dealings; grave and severely simple. His mighty work was written in 138 books, in the purest Latin, and is one of the world’s monuments of industry, intelligence, and knowledge. He also wrote Latin verses.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Barthélemi Prieur. The head is in white marble, and the body in porphyry to imitate his robe.]

238. RÉNÉ DESCARTES. _Mathematician and Metaphysician._

[Born at Touraine, in France, 1596. Died at Stockholm, in Sweden, 1650. Aged 54.]

Shares with Bacon the title of Father of Modern Philosophy. All the metaphysical writers follow him, as the men of the physical sciences follow Bacon. He was only three and twenty when, whilst with his regiment on the Danube, he determined to reform philosophy. To do so, he resolved to efface from his mind all that he had learnt, and to admit nothing that could not be demonstrated by reason and experience. With him, consciousness was the sole _basis_, mathematics the sole _method_, of certainty. He substituted the philosophy of reason for that of authority. His genius for the great sciences, and his superiority over the majority of his contemporaries in scientific acquirements, were remarkable. He first applied algebra to geometry; he likewise made observations on the decline of the magnetic needle, put forward the true theory of the rainbow, and brought the science of optics within the domain of mathematics. His influence over his age was great, though his writings involved him in controversies. But he was timid as a man. He wrote a book on astronomy, but destroyed it on learning the fate of Galileo. He was the first great master of French prose. It is said of him, that he began by doubting everything, and ended by believing that he had left nothing unexplained.

239. ANTOINE ARNAULD. _Theologian and Controversialist._

[Born in Paris, 1612. Died at Brussels, 1694. Aged 82.]

A learned and fierce polemic, whose consistency was as perfect as his spirit was bitter, and whose defiance of conflict and danger was as insolent as his private life was blameless. His happiness consisted in spiritual warfare. He established himself spokesman of the Jansenists. When he was ten years old he was heard to say to Cardinal Perron, “With this pen I, like you, will write against the Huguenots.” He commenced the labours of his life by an attack upon the Jesuits. Taking active part in all the angry discussion respecting grace, he published two “Apologies” in favour of Jansenius, which drew upon him the censure of the Sorbonne, and compelled him to retire to Port Royal, where he remained for the space of twelve years. Returning to Paris in 1668, he plunged immediately into the seething waters of controversy, and was again forced into exile. Fifteen years afterwards, we find him, as furious as ever, attacking the doctrine of Malebranche respecting the grace and vision of God. At his own request, his much-agitated heart, after it had ceased to beat, was sent to be deposited in the Port Royal. Forty-eight volumes remain to attest the intensity of his religious prejudices, the depth and extent of his learning, his violent love of wrangling, and his restless and unwearied industry. We sigh over the waste of power and the misuse of fine material.

240. SÉBASTIEN LE PRESTRE DE VAUBAN. _Engineer._

[Born at St.-Léger de Foucheret, in Burgundy, 1633. Died 1707. Aged 74.]

Of poor parents, but well descended. At the age of seventeen, entered the army of Condé, in Spain, then fighting against France. Taken prisoner in 1653, he went over to the French army, and received his commission as lieutenant of engineers. His rise was as rapid as his services were great. At the age of twenty-five, he conducted the sieges of Gravelines, Ypres, and Oudenarde. He gave the most valuable help in all the campaigns of Holland and Flanders, from 1667 to 1703; and in 1703 was created Marshal of France. His contributions to the science of fortification have celebrated his name. He was not only a great builder, but a shrewd observer, and knew better than any of his contemporaries how to avail himself, whether in defence, or in attack, of the circumstances by which he was surrounded, and of the opportunities and conditions of his time. To him we owe the system of parallel lines, which he introduced before the city of Maestricht. At the siege of Philisbourg, he invented the “tir à ricochet,” in which the ball, making a series of bounds, strikes several times along works against which it is directed. He also invented the musket, in which the match served in lieu of the cover to the pan. He afterwards armed the musket with the bayonet. He vastly improved the system of inundations, that most useful element of self-defence. His engineering appliances during his long and indefatigable service were inexhaustible. It is affirmed on authority, that he repaired three hundred old fortresses, constructed thirty-three new works, conducted fifty-three sieges, and was present at a hundred and forty severe engagements. He also left behind him twelve folio volumes on Strategetics, entitled “Idle Hours.” Vauban was beloved by the soldiery, for whose safety he was always careful. His humanity is otherwise known by his endeavour to procure from the king, his master, the restoration of the Edict of Nantes. To that king he was deeply attached; although to him, as well as to every other man, he was blunt in the expression of what he believed to be truth,--straightforward and manly. He has been called the prince of engineers, and the best of subjects.

241. JOSEPH PITTON DE TOURNEFORT. _Botanist._

[Born at Aix, in Provence, 1656. Died 1708. Aged 52.]

Educated by the Jesuits, and intended originally for the Church; but upon the death of his father he made several botanical excursions, and finally devoted his days to the prosecution of his darling pursuit. He visited England, Spain, and Holland. Tournefort did much towards the foundation of a scientific botany. His special service was in distinguishing plants from one another, and in preparing them by classification for the handling of the more philosophic student. Like the other botanists of his time, he had his own system of classification. He was one of the first thinkers upon the geographical distribution of plants. In 1700, he pursued his inquiries in the Levant, whence he brought home, after protracted and perilous wandering, no fewer than 1356 new plants. He published his “Travels in the Levant” upon his return to France.

242. CHARLES ROLLIN. _Historian._

[Born in Paris, 1661. Died 1741. Aged 80.]

The son of a cutler, and himself intended for that trade; but rescued to learning and literature by a Benedictine monk who placed him at the College of Plessis. His studies were eminently successful. After holding many high scholastic appointments in France, he was obliged to resign, in 1720, the Rectorship of the College of Plessis, where he had been brought up, in consequence of the religious troubles of the time, he being suspected of favouring the Jansenists. From 1720 until his death, occupied in literary labours. His “Ancient History” appeared at intervals, from 1730 to 1738. Its simple style and moral tendency are more to be admired than the exactness of its narrative and the discernment of its author. The other writings of Rollin improved the taste of his age, and certainly strengthened its moral tone. As Rector of the University he revived the study of Greek, and gave prominence to the cultivation of French. He corresponded with Frederic the Great, Rousseau, and Voltaire, without deriving injury from their acquaintance: for all his contemporaries describe him as singularly virtuous and pious.

243. JEAN BAPTISTE ROUSSEAU. _Lyric Poet._

[Born in Paris, 1669. Died at Brussels, 1741. Aged 72.]

A lyric poet of great celebrity in France, but many of his compositions defaced by scurrility and indecency. He was the son of a shoemaker, but he received a good education, and at an early age, gave sign of his poetic genius. In his nineteenth year, appointed page to the French ambassador at the court of Denmark; and subsequently attached as Secretary to the Embassy in England. In 1712, he fell into disfavour, and was banished from France for writing libellous verses, which, to the last moment of his life, he declared were the production of some enemy, who had designed his ruin. Retiring to Vienna, he found favour with Prince Eugene. The odes of Jean Baptiste Rousseau are not surpassed, if they are equalled, in the French language; his lyrics are elegant and harmonious, and his epigrammatic skill is perfect. His later productions, however, exhibit a lamentable falling off from the early excellence by which he won his fame.

[In marble, by Caffieri. No date.]

244. RÉNÉ ANTOINE FERCHAULT DE RÉAUMUR. _Chemist and Naturalist._

[Born at Rochelle, in France, 1683. Died at Maine, in France, 1757. Aged 74.]

The discoverer, in his own country, of the art of making steel, till then imported into France. The thermometer which he adjusted, and which is named after him, is chiefly used on the continent. His life spent in the service of science, and in the close pursuit of truth. Entomology was, however, his favourite study; and he contributed a most interesting memoir towards the history of insects. He died from the effects of a fall from his horse.

245. GEORGES LOUIS LE CLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON. _Naturalist._

[Born at Montbard, in France, 1707. Died in Paris, 1788. Aged 81.]

This great naturalist commenced his scientific career at the age of 25, and his study at Montbard was called by Prince Henry of Prussia “the cradle of Natural History.” Shortly afterwards appointed Intendant to the _Jardin des Plantes_ at Paris, where he projected his theory of the classification of animals, and assisted by Daubenton and Lacépède, wrote the great work which has immortalized his name. He was more or less dissimilar to Linnæus in the spirit and in the detail of his undertaking. Buffon’s object is to write a natural history of each animal; that of Linnæus to express its peculiar and distinctive character in the fewest possible words. Linnæus gives classical names to the objects he describes. Buffon names his animals in French. Buffon’s style is luminous and elevated, and at times approaches the character of blank verse. He is one of the founders of ethnological science, and as a writer on ethnology gave great prominence to the history of man as an Animal. He was sensual, vain, and in religious matters hypocritical.

[The original bust, which is in the Louvre, is inscribed--“By Pajou, sculpteur du Roy, professeur de son Académie de peinture et de sculpture, 1773.” Pajou died in 1809.]

245A. GEORGES LOUIS LE CLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON. _Naturalist._

[By J. Debay.]

246. CHARLES LINNÉ, known by his Latin name LINNÆUS. _Botanist._

[Born at Rœshult, in Sweden, 1707. Died at Upsal, in Sweden, 1778. Aged 71.]

A botanist, even at school, where he neglected his books in order to collect plants in the fields. His father, in despair, apprenticed him to a shoemaker. With eight pounds in his pocket, he went to Upsal, to study for the medical profession. Here he was appointed botanical lecturer in the University. Thence he was despatched to Lapland on a botanical expedition, and it is said he travelled 3,500 miles with no more than ten pounds. Finally became Professor of Medicine at Upsal, and Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. Published, besides his great _Systema Naturæ_, many works on natural history, and a book on _Materia Medica_ and nosology. He invented a new system of classification, founded upon the sexes of plants, which reigned in the science till superseded by the natural system of Jussieu. In person below the middle height, strong, and muscular. His head large; his look ardent and piercing; his features agreeable and animated. Vanity his greatest foible; yet few men have shown greater boldness, zeal, and activity, in the pursuit of science. His love of nature seemed a religious devotion of the heart. His library and _herbarium_ were purchased for 1000_l._ by Sir James Edward Smith, and are now in the possession of the Linnæan Society of London.

247. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. _Philosopher and Writer._

[Born at Geneva, 1712. Died at Ermenonville, in France, 1778. Aged 66.]

This singular and morally-distempered man, was endowed by nature with a warm imagination, a teeming fancy, and ardent feeling; but his whole nature was unhinged, by the absence of conscientiousness and directing principle. He was not only self-loving and vain, but self-engrossed. His early life was passed in reading romances, and in the loose indulgence of his weaknesses and passions. Yet his pen was a potent one, and, even more than that of Voltaire, helped to bring about the Revolution in France, and all its social blasphemies. Whilst Voltaire, with his bright and sharpened wit, cut away the cable that held religion to its moorings, Rousseau penetrated to the households of men, invaded their firesides, and poisoned their hearts. His writings were new, fascinating, and eloquent; abounding in highly-wrought descriptions of nature, and in what seemed genuine bursts of passion. His philosophy attributed all vices to civilization, to the existence of property, and to the tyranny of governments. His career was as disgraceful to himself, as his works proved detrimental to the happiness of others. He committed frequent thefts in his youth, and behaved with infamous ingratitude towards his benefactress, Madame de Warens, who saved him from threatened starvation; yet was left by him to starve in later days, when the condition in life of both had changed. With all his profound sentiment, Rousseau was a cold-blooded and cruel man. He was a subtle, independent, and original inquirer.

[From the bronze in the Louvre which bears the name of Houdon, 1778. The treatment is in the antique manner. The drapery is a mantle, and the head is bound with a fillet. This bust has an especial interest, from its having been executed from a cast taken after death by Houdon, who was sent for to Ermenonville immediately after the decease of Rousseau, by M. de Girardin, with whom he lived. The original cast still exists, and shows its genuineness by the scar on the forehead, caused by Rousseau’s falling from his chair; an accident which gave rise to the report that he had shot himself.]

247*. JEAN DARCET. _Chemist and Physician._

[Born at Douazit, in France, 1725. Died in Paris, 1801. Aged 76.]

Disinherited by his father for preferring the study of natural philosophy to that of jurisprudence; but befriended by Montesquieu, who appointed him tutor to his sons. His great discovery was the composition of porcelain. He artificially formed from minerals, found in France, the earth of which porcelain is made, and which exists in a natural state in Saxony, where the law forbade its exportation. The first to extract gelatine from bones, and soda from the sea water. Director of the Gobelins and of the Sèvres manufactories.

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248. JEAN PIERRE DUHAMEL. _Man of Science._

[Born at Nicorps, in France, 1730. Died 1816. Aged 86.]

In 1752, Duhamel visited the mines of the Pyrenees, and of various parts of Germany, in order to collect information, his object being to establish a School of Mines in his own country. But he had to wait twenty years for the realization of his idea. As soon as it was carried out, he received the appointment of Professor of Agriculture and Metallurgy. He was a true practical philosopher, and his inventions and discoveries were all of the highest use in the branch of science to the development of which his life-long exertions had been directed.

249. JOSEPH LOUIS LAGRANGE. _Astronomer._

[Born at Turin, in Italy, 1736. Died in Paris, 1813. Aged 77.]

At the age of 19, was Professor of Mathematics at the College of Turin. Appointed successor to Euler when the latter was removed from Berlin. Subsequently settled in Paris, where he became one of the Directors of the Mint, and Professor in the Polytechnic school. In 1793, when all foreigners were ordered to leave France, he was permitted to remain. His important labours contributed largely to the advancement of mathematics and astronomy, agitating most of the problems which Laplace subsequently treated with such success. Delicate in health, he led a temperate life; and in society he was reserved and contemplative. Neither great fame nor high honour impaired his modesty. One of the Encyclopedists.

250. JEAN FRANÇOIS GALAUP DE LA PÉROUSE. _Navigator._

[Born at Albi, in France, 1741. Died about 1788.]

At an early age entered the naval service of his country, and in 1782 commanded the successful attempt to destroy the English settlement at Hudson’s Bay: an attack in which he displayed great humanity towards the foe. In 1785, he quitted France with two small frigates on a voyage of discovery. He visited the coasts of Tartary, Japan, and New Holland; in 1787, he sent home one of his officers with an account of his expedition; and in 1788, he quitted Botany Bay. No further intelligence was ever received of him or of any of his crew. He probably perished on one of the Vanikors islands.

250*. MARIE-JEAN-ANTOINE NICOLAS CARÉTAT, MARQUIS DE CONDORCET. _Mathematician and Philosopher._

[Born in Picardy, France, 1743. Died at Clamart, in France, 1794. Aged 51.]

One of the original thinkers of the eighteenth century, and the biographer of Voltaire. Cold and reserved in his manner, but his feelings warm and enthusiastic. D’Alembert called him “a volcano covered with snow.” Another writer has said that goodness was so sweetly expressed in his eyes, that had he proved dishonest, he would have been more to blame than any other man. He earned and still retains the name of the “virtuous Condorcet.” His scientific attainments caused him to be elected Secretary to the Academy of Sciences at an early age. His works, which are in 21 vols., were collected by Cabanis and Garat. The work on which his fame will rest is the _Esquisse d’un tableau Historique des progrès de l’esprit Humain_, where, for the first time, the idea of Progress as a law of Humanity was scientifically expounded. Condorcet believed in the indefinite perfectibility of man as the result of this law of progress. In 1791, inflamed with the zeal which he had helped to kindle for liberty, and the overthrow of inveterate abuses, he became a member of the National Assembly, but not proving violent enough for his colleagues, was forced to secrete himself in the house of a friend. Death being pronounced against all who should harbour proscribed persons, Condorcet voluntarily quitted his sanctuary in disguise; but was detected in the village of Clermont, and thrown into prison. He swallowed poison, and was found dead on the following morning. In action, Condorcet wanted moral courage.

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251. JACQUES ÉTIENNE MONTGOLFIER. _Aëronaut, and Inventor of Balloons._

[Born at Vidalon-lès-Annonai, in France, 1745. Died at Serrières, in France, 1799. Aged 54.]

The son of a paper-maker. Was led by reading the philosophical writings of Priestley to conceive the idea of employing gas, lighter than the atmosphere, as a means of ascending through the air. His first experiment was made at Annonai in 1783, and with such success that he repeated it the same year in Paris, and again at Versailles before the Court. Montgolfier was rewarded for his invention by admission to the Academy of Sciences, the cordon of St. Michel, and a pension of 2000 livres.

251*. GASPAR MONGE. _Geometrician._

[Born at Beaunée, in France, 1746. Died in Paris, 1818. Aged 72.]

Inventor of descriptive geometry, and one of the founders of the Polytechnic School at Paris. During the Revolution elected Minister of Marine but soon resigning, took a personally active part in the equipment of the army for war. Under Napoleon, visited Egypt, where his investigations of architectural remains were incessant. His whole life devoted to science; and his work on the history of Mathematics testifies to his deep spirit of research. An impartial writer, but a praiser of few.

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252. DOMINIQUE DENON. _Egyptian Traveller._

[Born at Chalons-sur-Saone, in France, 1747. Died in Paris, 1825. Aged 78.]

Brought up to the law, he neglected his profession for the fine arts. Found favour with Louis XV. and his successor. Fulfilled several diplomatic appointments with great success. In 1787, became a member of the Academy of Painters. Employed by Robespierre to design the new republican official costumes. Accompanied the French expedition to Egypt; of which one result was his interesting and magnificent work, published at the public expense, “Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, during the campaigns of General Buonaparte.” This work first brought the wonderful remains of ancient Egyptian art distinctly before our eyes. Subsequently appointed, by Napoleon, Director-General of Museums, and mainly organized in Paris the admirable collection which for a time constituted the richest treasury of art ever known in Europe. At the Restoration, Denon lost his office, and devoted his leisure to the arrangement of his own museum. He was an ardent lover of the fine arts, possessed an elegant taste and liberal mind.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by M. Marin. 1827.]

252*. CLAUDE LOUIS BERTHOLLET. _Chemist._

[Born at Talloire, in Savoy, 1748. Died at Arcueil, in France, 1822. Aged 74.]

After studying at Turin, went to Paris. There elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and Professor of Chemistry to the Normal and Polytechnic Schools. During the first wars of the Revolution employed in making gunpowder, and converting iron into steel. With Monge, the geometrician, accompanied the French army to Italy and Egypt in order to direct the removal of the plundered works of art. The friendship of these two philosophers, their calmness in pursuing science amidst danger, their courage and kindness to the soldiers, won for them the admiration of the whole army. Berthollet discovered the bleaching properties of chlorine, and the art of fixing the colour of dyes. Also assisted in the establishment of a new chemical nomenclature. Generous, disinterested, heroic; and his modesty equal to his merit.

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253. ANTOINE LAURENT DE JUSSIEU. _Botanist._

[Born at Lyons, 1748. Died in Paris, 1836. Aged 88.]

One of a celebrated family of botanists; his uncle Bernard, who died in 1777, having been one of the foremost botanists of his age. His most famous work, founded upon his uncle’s great labours, was “The Varieties of Plants, arranged according to their Natural Order.” His whole scientific life was spent in an endeavour to ascertain the natural relations of plants, and, by the aid of fresh discoveries, to justify and complete the system he upheld.

253*. PIERRE SIMON LAPLACE. _Astronomer._

[Born at Beaumont, in France, 1749. Died in Paris, 1827. Aged 78.]

A great geometrician and physical astronomer. To him we owe the Theory of Probabilities, and the _Nebular Hypothesis_. He also prepared the way for the Theory of Tides. He discovered the existence of an invariable plane in the solar system. Invented a thermometer. His great work, _Mécanique céleste_, introduced to the English by Mrs. Somerville in her “Mechanism of the Heavens,” is so complete that no alterations of importance have been made by subsequent discovery.

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254. JEAN ANTOINE CHAPTAL. _Chemist._

[Born at Nogaret, in France, 1756. Died in Paris, 1832. Aged 76.]

As a chemist eminent for making the science subservient to the uses of manufacture. In 1800, elected Minister of State. In 1802, presented to the State a scheme for education which embodied Napoleon’s educational measures. Curious to say, the scheme betrayed a distrust of general education altogether, and an anxiety to train up youth in the interest of the government. An able statesman, but in science a practical philosopher, rather than a brilliant discoverer.

255. BERNARD GERMAIN ÉTIENNE LACÉPÈDE, COMTE DE LA VILLE SUR ILLON. _Naturalist._

[Born at Agen, in France, 1756. Died at Epinay, in France, 1825. Aged 69.]

When young, in the army; but quitted it for the study of Natural History. The favorite pupil of Buffon, who obtained for him the appointment of Curator to the king, and selected him to continue his Natural History. His works display profound research, and are elegantly written. A courteous and kind-hearted man.

255*. ANTOINE ISAAC SILVESTRE, BARON DE SACY. _Orientalist._

[Born in Paris, 1758. Died there, 1838. Aged 80.]

One of the greatest of modern linguists, he made himself master, not only of all the classical and modern languages of Europe, but of many of the languages of the East. His industry was remarkable. In 1806, he was appointed Professor of Persian. In 1810, he published an Arabic grammar. In 1832, he was raised to the peerage, and made keeper of the Oriental MSS. in the king’s library. De Sacy was the chief founder and first President of the Asiatic Society in Paris, and besides extending in his country the knowledge of every branch of Oriental literature, he caused professorships of Chinese, Sanskrit, and Hindostani to be established in Paris. He left behind him a magnificent library.

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256. GEORGES LÉOPOLD CHRÊTIEN FRÉDÉRIC DAGOBERT CUVIER. _Naturalist._

[Born at Montbeliard, in France, 1769. Died in Paris, 1832. Aged 63.]

At an early age displayed a taste for drawing and natural history, and an extraordinarily retentive memory. After the Reign of Terror, invited to Paris, where he prepared his “Tabular Arrangement of the Natural History of Animals,” which has served as the basis for all subsequent works on zoological classification. Shortly afterwards commenced the formation of his celebrated collection for the study of comparative anatomy. His greatest work, “The Animal Kingdom distributed according to its Organization,” has been the foundation of all zoological studies since his time. Possessed of great administrative capacity. Famous for his discoveries among fossil animals, and by these rendered invaluable services to geology. Was made Councillor of State, by Napoleon. In 1881, raised to the peerage. His writings very attractive. His mind active and enterprising, yet sound and methodical. Unlike Buffon, he considered _system_ indispensable in the investigations of physiology. Solicitous for the diffusion of knowledge. A good as well as great man. Unimpeachable in all the relations of social life.

256*. JEAN LE ROND D’ALEMBERT. _Mathematician and Philosopher._

[Born in Paris, 1717. Died there, 1783. Aged 66.]

When an infant exposed in the church of Le Rond, from which he is named. Nursed in obscurity by the wife of a glazier; educated at the College of Mazarin. Evinced astounding precocity and a decided inclination for mathematical studies. At the age of twenty-four gave proof of his great mathematical knowledge, and gained admission into the Academy of Sciences. Memorable for his connexion with the great French work “L’Encyclopédie,” to which he contributed many articles, and its excellent preliminary discourse. In 1772, appointed Secretary to the French Academy. The author of many celebrated works on his favourite science, in which he was an undoubted discoverer. He was the friend of the Empress Catharine of Russia, and of Frederic the Great of Prussia. In the war which in his time was carried on against the church, he took his place by the side of his friends Diderot, Voltaire, Grimm, and D’Holbach.

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256**. ALEXANDRE LOUIS JOSEPH, MARQUIS DE LABORDE. _Soldier, Traveller, and Educator._

[Born in Paris, 1774. Died there, 1842. Aged 68.]

At the breaking out of the French Revolution, entered the Austrian service, in which he remained nine years. After the treaty of Campo Formio, revisited his native city, prosecuted the study of literature and the arts, and attached himself to Napoleon and the Imperial family. Then travelled through. England, Holland, and Spain; accompanied Napoleon to the last-named country, and went with the Emperor also to Austria in 1810. He held many important offices during Buonaparte’s life, and formed one of the Embassy appointed to demand the hand of Maria Louisa. After the Restoration the influence of Laborde ceased; his usefulness, however, continued, for he took great pains to introduce into France the Lancasterian system of education for poor children. In 1822, he was elected Deputy for Paris; and in 1830, signed, with 220 other Deputies, the protest against the ordinances of Charles X. He was again deputy under Louis Philippe. Laborde was a traveller in the East as well as in the West: an accomplished man, and an eloquent speaker. He wrote many works having reference to his travels and to his educational objects.

[Bust to come.]

256***. GAY LUSSAC. _French Chemist._

[Born 1778. Died 1850. Aged 72.]

A leading discoverer in Chemistry whilst the science was advancing with the most rapid steps and surprising disclosures. Of a spirit exact and large to reason out abstruse principles, subtly curious to hunt on the track of new marvels, and patient and inventive to repeat, vary, and heap experiments, his long life of labour might well leave a name memorable to his own science, and to the arts which it enlightens and aids. In 1816, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School. He was one of those who do not shrink from personal peril in enlarging the domain of science. In. 1804, at the desire of the French government, he ascended in a balloon in order to ascertain by experiment, whether the magnetic force suffers perceptible diminution at great elevations, and found no appreciable diminution up to the elevation of 13,124 feet. Simple, modest, gentle, firm, open and upright, an unchangeable friend, and a sound patriot:--he carried into all the relations of life the ardour of truth which animated his scientific researches.

256****. CHARLES NODIER. _Writer._

[Born at Besançon, in France, 1780. Died, 1844. Aged 64.]

One of the contributors to the “Biographie Universelle,” and an able writer on many subjects. He published a dictionary of words which naturally represent by their sound the action signified: and this work became at once, by order of the government, a class-book in all the public schools. He also wrote instructive works on flowers and insects. In 1800, there appeared from his pen a poem called “Napoleone,” for which he suffered imprisonment. A writer for the _Journal des Débats_ newspaper; subsequently conducted the _Quotidienne_. In 1834, a member of the French Academy. He had great rapidity in composition, and published many writings; amongst them several novels. As a writer his style is pure; he was hostile to innovations in language. He has been accused of political tergiversation: and of being, little scrupulous in the way of pushing his interests, and forcing a reputation.

[Bust to come.]

SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN.

257. PIERRE DE TERRAIL, SEIGNEUR DE BAYARD. _Warrior._

[Born near Grenoble, in France, 1476. Died, 1524. Aged 48.]

The “_Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_.” A true knight and gentleman. His earliest renown won at the tourney. At the age of eighteen, entered active service, which he did not quit until his death in Italy, where he fell, as he desired, by the weapon of the foe on the field of battle. Spotless in character, intrepid, generous, self-denying, and the very soul of honour. He enjoyed the respect and admiration of his country’s enemies, and by his own countrymen he was idolized. After the battle of Marignan, his King, Francis I., one of the bravest men of his age, desired to receive the order of knighthood from the hands of Bayard. The ceremony over, Bayard addressed his sword, vowing to regard it thenceforward as a sacred relic, never to be drawn except against Turks, Saracens, and Moors. The body of Bayard was embalmed by the foe and restored to the French for honourable burial, at Grenoble.

258. GASTON DE FOIX. _Warrior._

[Born 1489. Died at Ravenna, in Italy, 1512. Aged 23.]

The nephew of Louis XII. of France. Succeeded the Duke of Longueville in the command of the army in Italy, where his prodigies of valour and daring exploits gained him the name of the “Thunderbolt of Italy.” He raised the siege of Ravenna, and in his hot pursuit of the foe, was cut down;--slaughtered in the hour of victory.

[This is one of the finest French busts. There is also a portrait of him in the Gallery of Vienna, by Palma Vecchio.]

259. MICHEL DE L’HÔPITAL. _Chancellor of France._

[Born at Aigueperse, in France, 1505. Died at Vignay, in France, 1573. Aged 68.]

One of the greatest magistrates of France. Educated by his father, a surgeon, for the profession of law, at Toulouse and Padua. Entering Parliament, he became distinguished for his judgment, learning, modesty, and legal attainments. On the death of Francis I. nominated Ambassador to the Council of Trent. Upon his return to France, appointed by Marguerite de Valois, Duchesse de Berri, Private Chancellor of her Household; and after the accession of Henry II., raised to the dignity of Chancellor of France. Religious dissensions were now rife and bitter, and L’Hôpital took the side of moderation and justice. It was his hand that in 1562 drew up the edict called the “edict of January,” which gave freedom of worship to Protestants in France. Hopeless, however, of seeing an end to the fierce quarrels of Roman Catholics and Calvinists, he resigned the seals of office in 1567, and retired into privacy. He was still in obscurity when the butchery of St. Bartholomew took place. During the massacre, Catherine de Medicis sent a body-guard to protect the Ex-Chancellor. Being told that he was pardoned, L’Hôpital calmly replied “that he was not aware that he had done anything demanding either death or pardon.” The grief and horror which he experienced at this dreadful event broke the heart of the mild and conscientious man. His character looks all the brighter from the darkness by which he is surrounded. His industry was equal to his great learning, and his high sense of honour and justice corresponded to his humanity. When, in 1554, he was made Superintendent of the Royal Finances, he restored an exhausted treasury by his stern and resolute honesty.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Gois, Sen.]

260. GASPARD DE COLIGNY. _Marshal and Admiral._

[Born at Chatillon-sur-Loin, in France, 1517. Died in Paris, 1572. Aged 55.]

Greatly distinguished for his valour. The head of the Protestant party in France, and the first victim of the horrible massacre of St. Bartholomew.

261. PIERRE LAURENT BUIRETTE DE BELLOY. _Dramatist._[32]

[Born at St. Flour, in Auvergne, 1727. Died 1775. Aged 48.]

A writer who acquired immense popularity in his own day, but whose death, it is said, was hastened by grief at the total failure of his last dramatic work. His best production is “The Siege of Calais,” which, as the third great success achieved by his pen, secured for him the gold medal accorded by the king to authors who should have been thrice successful on the stage. The style of Belloy is somewhat laboured and sententious, and he indulges largely in hyperbole; but he had a happy knowledge of stage effect. He possessed an astonishing memory; and was the first introducer of national subjects, for representation upon the French stage. At an early period of his life he had himself been an actor in Russia.

[From the marble by Caffieri. On the pedestal of the bust is inscribed--“The work of his friend, Caffieri. 1771.”]

[32] This biographical notice belongs properly to “French Poets and Dramatists,” and has been unavoidably misplaced.

262. FRANÇOIS DE BONNE, DUC DE LESDIGUIÈRES. _Constable of France._

[Born 1543. Died 1626. Aged 83.]

When nineteen years of age, a simple archer; but, by dint of great bravery, activity, and success, he shortly became chief of the Protestant party in France. In 1575, appointed commander of the Protestant army in the place of Montbrun; performed great feats of arms in Dauphiny and Provence, and helped, more than any other soldier of his time, to place Henry IV. upon the throne. After the death of Henry, the religious convictions of Lesdiguières underwent a remarkable change. He was converted to Romanism,--some say, by the persuasive powers of a missionary; others, by the dazzling office of Lord High Constable of France, offered on condition that he abjured his faith. It is certain that he had a lust of power and wealth, and was unscrupulous in the means of getting them. Yet he had great qualities. He was generous and forgiving. He was conqueror in every battle he fought. Our own Elizabeth was heard to say that “had there been two Lesdiguières in France, she would have begged one from the king.” He was indeed a man after her own great heart; for he was brave, handsome, active, full of resources, and always successful.

263. MAXIMILIEN DE BÉTHUNE, DUC DE SULLY. _Minister of State._

[Born at Rosny, in France, 1560. Died at Villebon, in France, 1641. Aged 82.]

The early friend and Minister of Henry IV. of France. Educated, like his royal master, in the reformed faith, he ran in his youth great risk of falling a victim to the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew. Escaping from that danger, he joined the standard of the young King of Navarre, shared his dangers, and distinguished himself by the most daring courage. His abilities, however, as diplomatist and financier outweighed his bravery and impetuosity on the field. When Henry IV. ascended the throne of France, Sully became Minister of Finance, and by dint of skilful management and great labour he so far repaired the monetary credit of the nation as to be able to pay off, in the course of ten years, a heavy debt, and to leave a considerable surplus in the treasury. Upon the accession of James II. of England, he came to this country as ambassador, and concluded a treaty advantageous to the interests of both nations. After the assassination of Henry IV., Sully quietly retired to his estates, where he was frequently consulted by Louis XIII., and where he composed his interesting “Memoirs.” He was amazingly rich, and laden with honours. He held many appointments--amongst others, those of Governor of Poitou, and Grand Surveyor of France. Sully was parsimonious, although he had ever been liberal in supplying the necessities of his royal master, when the King of Navarre stood in need of help. He had many fine qualities: not the least of these was his plain, blunt sincerity in all his dealings with the king. He was a most diligent worker, rising invariably at four o’clock in the morning to commence his daily work. He is described as violent in temper, avaricious, and greedy of honour as well as money. He had largely earned both by his life-long fidelity to his sovereign, and by the lasting services rendered in the time of peace to the bankrupt exchequer of his country. He died as he had lived--a Protestant.

[From the statue in the Institute of France, by Mouchy.]

264. CLAUDE FABRI DE PEIRESC. _Patron of Science._

[Born at Beaugensier, in France, 1580. Died 1637. Aged 57.]

A benefactor of his kind, being one of the most notable promoters and patrons of science and literature. For a long time resident on his native soil, then in Italy, England, and Holland, in all which countries he collected with the greatest avidity, and at infinite pains, rare memorials of antiquity. He encouraged and assisted men of genius wherever he met them, and corresponded with the learned of his time in Europe. We are indebted to him for the preservation of several ancient manuscripts, and for our acquaintance with fragments of learning, until his time unrecovered. He was himself an antiquary, a philologist, and an astronomer.

[From a marble in the Louvre, copied by Claude Francin from a bust by Caffieri. Francin died in 1773. An original work of his from the life, is the bust of D’Alembert, at Versailles. The original of our bust, some years ago, had the nose broken off. It has not been very skilfully restored.]

265. ABRAHAM DUQUESNE. _Vice Admiral of France._

[Born at Dieppe, in France, 1610. Died in Paris, 1688. Aged 78.]

One of the most famous sea-captains of France. At the age of seventeen, he already gained great distinction by his deeds against the Spaniard. During the minority of Louis XIV. entered the navy of Sweden, and destroyed the fleet of Christian IV. of Denmark. Returning to France, performed illustrious service against Spain and Holland combined; opposed Ruyter and Van Tromp, and gained important victories over both. Ruyter he completely defeated near Messina, winning that city for the French. In 1683, bombarded Algiers, and in 1684, humbled Genoa. Duquesne, being a Protestant, did not receive from his royal master the highest rank in the French navy, but he was created a Marquis, and upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, his was the sole name not included in the general proscription. Louis XIV. expressed to this great sailor his regret that he could not recompense his services as they merited, because of his religious faith. When Duquesne repeated this to his wife, she said, “You ought to have replied:--‘Sire, if I am a Protestant, my services are Catholic.’” Like Nelson, Duquesne was in private life admired for his gentleness and sterling worth.

[For an account of this statue, see Handbook of Modern Sculpture, No. 92.]

266. HENRI DE LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE, VICOMTE DE TURENNE. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Sedan, in France, 1611. Died at Baden, 1675. Aged 64.]

The most skilful commander in Europe, at a time when the art of war was studied with greater assiduity than at any previous period. The public and private acts of Turenne proclaim the inherent grandeur of his mind. He was born a Protestant, and becoming a Roman Catholic in after life, he exhibited moderation and comprehensive liberality, not always characteristic of the convert. He was sagacious, truthful, and virtuous. In war energetic, brave, and full of resources; in private life pure, kind, and disinterested. He entered upon military duty in Holland in his 13th year. After the death of Louis XIII., Mazarin and the Queen Mother enlisted the successful soldier in their service, and conferred upon him the Marshal’s baton. They had no cause to repent the act. He performed great deeds in Germany, took part in the wars of the Fronde, and covered himself with glory in every campaign. He fell whilst leading his men into action, and his marshalled troops, paralysed by the blow, retired without hazarding a battle. Montecucculi, the opposed commander, on seeing the movement, exclaimed, “Turenne is dead.” Turenne was unprepossessing in appearance: he had a fierce expression, was of the middle height, with very broad shoulders and thick eyebrows. He was mourned, by order of the King, as a prince of the blood royal, and buried with kings in the Church of St. Denis. Napoleon said, at St. Helena, that he had studied the life of Turenne, deeming his renown exaggerated, but that he had risen from the study confirmed in his opinion of the commander’s greatness. “The boldness of Turenne,” he added, “increased with his experience; for he was more daring at the close than at the outset of his career. It was the reverse with Condé, who made so great display at starting.”

267. EDOUARD COLBERT. _Minister of State._

[Died, 1693.]

Brother of the great Jean Baptiste Colbert, who was Finance Minister of Louis XIV. Edouard was a lieutenant-general in the army, and a member of the government.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Desjardins, a Dutch sculptor, born at Breda, 1640, who died at Paris, in 1694. Desjardins attained to eminence and became principal of the Académie in Paris. The original is inscribed--“E. C. Marquis de Colbert, Surintendant des batimens du Roy, agé de LXIIII. ans.”]

267*. JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT. _Statesman and Financier._

[Born at Reims, in France, 1619. Died in Paris, 1683. Aged 64.]

It has been said that Louis XIV. would never have been so great a King had not Colbert been so great a financier. And there is warrant for the remark. His soul was absorbed in the work of glorifying France, and he carried out his patriotic object by re-establishing order in the finances of the country, from which he contended all material prosperity flows--by a reconstruction of the whole commercial system--by adorning the capital with great public works, and by a general encouragement of art and literature. Some authors assert that Colbert was the son of a draper. His mind was that of the most enlightened statesman. In early life, Mazarin had been his patron, and when the Cardinal died, he bequeathed his friend to the King as the best legacy he could leave him, and he appointed him his own executor. France prospered under his hand, which suffered no fatigue from inordinate exertion, and which ruled,---if occasionally with a rod of iron,--with a success that has left some of its effects visible even at the present day. He died spent with service, having lived through intrigues and rivalries.

[This bust, which is to come, is from a marble in the Louvre, by Michel Anguier, who died in 1686. He was the artist who executed the sculptures of the Triumphal Arch at Paris, called the Porte St. Denis. The costume is the court dress, with a mantle over, which is the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the Cordon. At Versailles there is a bust also from the life, by Coysevox, who did the kneeling statue on his tomb in the church of St. Eustace, a copy of which is there also.]

268. LOUIS II. DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDÉ, surnamed THE GREAT CONDÉ. _Warrior._

[Born in Paris, 1621. Died at Fontainbleau, in France, 1686. Aged 65.]

A great soldier, daring, impetuous, valiant, brilliant in his achievements, and, in the pursuit of victory, utterly regardless of human life, whether in respect of himself or of others. When he first entered the army, he served under the great Turenne, but in 1643, five days after the accession of Louis XIV., being invested with the chief command of the armies of Flanders and Picardy, he won the famous battle of Rocroi, in which, with a most inadequate force, he annihilated the veteran Spanish troops. From 1643 to 1649, he accumulated glory and honour upon his brow. In 1650, Mazarin, alarmed by the position assumed by the laurelled warrior during the troubles of the “Fronde,” arrested him, and imprisoned him in the Bastille. Released after thirteen months’ confinement, Condé in revenge threw himself into the arms of Spain, and marched against Paris; where, however, his bravery and hot indignation could make little way against Turenne. Peace having been concluded in 1659, Condé returned to France, resumed his old allegiance, and took part in the triumphant victories of the time. When Turenne was killed at Salzbach, in 1675, Condé assumed the place of the deceased commander, but only to make his last campaign; for ill-health soon compelled him to lay down his arms for ever. He retired to his estate at Chantilly, and passed the remainder of his days in the society and patronage of the chief literary men of the time. He was the friend of Racine and Molière, and an enthusiastic admirer of Corneille. Condé was a hero on the field of battle, but there only:--as a man, proud, fierce, eager, passionate, and ambitious. He had an eagle glance, and a spirit easily roused. After the wont of the great world in France in those days, he became religious in his decline.

269. HENRI FRANÇOIS D’AGUESSEAU. _Chancellor of France._

[Born at Limoges, in France, 1668. Died at Fresnes, in France, 1751. Aged 83.]

A distinguished orator and judge, a fine scholar, a loyal citizen, and a worthy, if in some respects, a weak man. He improved the administration of justice in France, defended the monarchy against papal aggression, and the people from the aggressions of the monarch. He became Chancellor in 1717, but resolutely opposing the dangerous system of finance known as “Law’s system,” he was deprived of the seals and banished. In 1720, he was recalled, to counteract the disastrous effects of Law’s schemes; but in 1722, making another stand against corruption, he was again dismissed, by the influence of Court intrigue. Once more invited back to office, he served his country until 1750, when he finally resigned the Chancellorship. He was distinguished for gentleness of manner and sweetness of disposition, as much as for love of honesty and truth. It was said of him, that his thoughts were those of a philosopher; his speech, that of an orator. He was conversant with many ancient and modern languages, and he wrote Latin and other verses. His works, chiefly legal, formed thirteen quarto volumes.

[From the marble in the Louvre.]

270. MAURICE, COMTE DE SAXE. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Dresden, in Saxony, 1696. Died at Chambord, in France, 1750. Aged 54.]

One of the most illustrious warriors of the eighteenth century. The natural son of Frederic Augustus II., King of Poland, and Aurora, the celebrated Countess of Königsmarck. In 1711, he followed the King of Poland to Stralsund; he also served in Hungary against the Turks, and was at the siege of Belgrade. In 1720, he entered the service of France, in which, after famous deeds of heroism, and many brilliant triumphs, he rose to the highest rank. In 1745, he gained the battle of Fontenoy, and by the capture of Mäestricht in 1747, he secured the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Marshal Saxe was large in size, and of extraordinary strength. He was a Lutheran.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by J. B. Pigalle, a celebrated French sculptor of the last century, who died at Paris in 1785. The mausoleum to the memory of Saxe, in the church of St. Thomas, at Strasbourg, was built by him. The Marshal wears his armour, which is sculptured with the arms of his family. The statue at Versailles is the work of M. Rude, in 1836. Another bust, by Cartellier, treated in the Antique style, is in the Tuileries.]

271. FRANÇOIS CHRISTOPHE KELLERMANN. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Strasbourg, in France, 1735. Died in Paris, 1820. Aged 85.]

One of Napoleon’s generals. Commanded at the battle of Valmy, 1792, against the Duke of Brunswick, and his victory probably determined the fate of Europe until 1815. Years afterwards it was his good fortune to decide the issue of one of Napoleon’s greatest battles by the brilliancy of his charge. Napoleon said “the charge was opportune.” “Opportune!” replied Kellermann, “it has put the crown upon your head.” The Emperor never forgave the remark. Kellermann excelled in statesman-like tact and finesse.

272. CHARLES FRANÇOIS DUMOURIEZ. _French General._

[Born at Cambrai, in France, 1739. Died, 1823. Aged 84.]

Played a conspicuous part in the first French Revolution, changing from one party to another. His antipathy to the extreme Republicans induced him at last to treat with Austria for the invasion of France, but, deserted by his army, he retired to Hamburgh and thence to England. A friend of Lord Castlereagh and the late Duke of Kent. Enterprising, ambitious, and capable, but inconsiderate and hasty. He wrote several works.

273. THÉOPHILE MALO DE LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE-CORRET. _Warrior._

[Born at Cartraix, in Lower Britanny, 1743. Died at Neuburg, in Bavaria, 1800. Aged 57.]

Styled by Napoleon “the first grenadier of France.” Entered the Spanish army as a volunteer, and conducted himself with great bravery and humanity at the siege of Mahon. Throughout his military life exhibited unflinching valour and singular judgment. After the close of his service, re-entered the army as the substitute for the son of a friend, who had been drawn as conscript. Killed at the battle of Neuburg, he was buried on the field, but his heart was embalmed and confided to the care of his regiment. A hero in war, and in private life. An excellent scholar, well versed in history, eminent as a linguist, and known as the author of a Franco-Celtic Dictionary. As a signal distinction, the name of La Tour D’Auvergne, after his death, was still called, in its turn, in the muster-roll of his regiment.

[From the marble in the Tuileries. The author not known, but supposed to be Chas. Louis Corbet.]

274. PIERRE ALEXANDRE BERTHIER. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Versailles, in France, 1753. Died at Hamburg, in Germany, 1815. Aged 62.]

The bosom friend of Napoleon, and his constant companion in his campaigns. He received in person the Emperor’s instructions, and forwarded them to the different generals. Performed his duties with docility, readiness, and perfect silence, and never betrayed his master’s secrets. As a subordinate unsurpassed, but had none of the qualities of a commander. He proved ungrateful. On the fall of Napoleon, he went over to the Bourbons; on Napoleon’s return from Elba he changed again, but to be repulsed by his former chief. After Waterloo the Bourbons refused to countenance him, whereupon he fell into melancholy and died by his own hand.

[From the marble in the Tuileries.]

275. JEAN BAPTISTE KLEBER. _French General._

[Born at Strasbourg, in France, 1754. Assassinated at Cairo, in Egypt, 1800. Aged 46.]

At first in the Bavarian army. At the breaking out of the French Revolution, served France in the ranks. His lofty stature, martial air, and fearless demeanour soon insured his promotion. With Napoleon in the Egyptian expedition. Left in command of the army in Egypt, he captured Cairo, but was himself assassinated in that city by a native of Aleppo. In him cool judgment and romantic bravery were combined; and his humanity and integrity equalled his courage and coolness. Napoleon pronounced him one of the greatest of his generals,

[From the marble in the Tuileries, by Masson. It figured in the Exhibition of the 9th year of the Consulate, with the statement that it was done for the Gallery of the Consuls.]

276. FRANÇOIS JOSEPH LEFEBVRE, DUC DE DANTZIC. _Marshal of France._

[Born in Alsace, 1755. Died in Paris, 1820. Aged 65.]

One of the many who at the breaking out of the French Revolution found themselves on the lowest step of the social ladder, and in time, by force of ability and valour, mounted to the very highest. Lefebvre was the son of a miller, and being an orphan, was brought up in charity by a relative. He enlisted in the Guard, and, at the time of the Revolution, had become a sergeant. Before forty, he was General of brigade. In 1804, Marshal of the Empire. In 1807, besieged and took Dantzic, and for the exploit received his title. In the expedition to Russia (1812) he had the command of the Imperial Guard. Upon the restoration of Louis XVIII, made peer of France, but deprived of his dignity at the second restoration, in consequence of his equivocal conduct during the hundred days. He died in 1820, having followed twelve sons to the grave. He was not a brilliant soldier, nor had he striking qualities of mind; but he was intelligent, well-informed, modest, and discreet--qualities not without their value in an officer of Napoleon’s army.

[From the marble in the Tuileries.]

277. MARIE PAUL GILBERT MOTIER, MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. _French General._

[Born at Chavagnac, in France, 1757. Died in Paris, 1834. Aged 77.]

Of noble family, but a republican and an enthusiast from his earliest youth. He was only twenty-three years of age when he embarked secretly for America, in order to take part in the War of Independence. Raising and equipping a body of men at his own expense, he fought at the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth. He was again in France in 1779, for the purpose of concluding a treaty between that country and America; returned ta America after accomplishing his object, and commanded Washington’s vanguard when Lord Cornwallis surrendered in 1782. His zeal, on behalf of America and the republican cause, knew no bounds, and his restlessness was excessive. Many of his proposed schemes were wild and impossible. During the French Revolution, this arch-republican was himself obliged to fly from France, in order to save his head, and being taken by the Austrians, was imprisoned for five years at Olmütz. Buonaparte stipulated for his deliverance, in the treaty of Campo Formio (1796), and obtained it, but Lafayette took no part in politics under Napoleon, and at the Restoration publicly evinced his dislike for the Bourbons. In 1824, he revisited America, where he was received with an affectionate welcome, and acknowledged as one of the joint founders, with Washington and Franklin, of American Freedom. The Revolution of 1830 saw Lafayette, for a day, Dictator of France, but he resigned that supremacy to hand over the vacant throne to Louis Philippe. Lafayette, with purity of intention, and elevation of principle, was the victim of vanity, puerile simplicity, and an overweening-love of popularity. His heart was stronger than his head: his capacity for public business not equal to the virtues which adorned his heart. Brave and chivalrous to a fault, he was without solid judgment. One error ran through his life: he believed that the constitution of America might be transplanted to his own soil; and that a throne, surrounded by republican institutions, would be the very perfection of human government, even in France.

278. PIERRE FRANÇOIS CHARLES AUGEREAU. _Marshal of France._

[Born in Paris, 1757. Died at La Houssaye, in France, 1816. Aged 59.]

One of Napoleon’s generals, and remarkable for his recklessness and courage. At the age of 35, in the ranks, he rose to become a General of Division. On the fall of Napoleon, he took his army over to the Bourbons. When Napoleon returned from Elba he shouted “_Vive l’Empereur!_” After Waterloo, he again joined the legitimate monarch. His avarice was unbounded: he robbed churches and private houses, and his coarse manners contrasted strongly with the pomp of his dress and daily life.

[From the marble in the Tuileries, by Masson.]

279. ANDRÉ MASSENA. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Nice, in Italy, 1758. Died in Paris, 1817. Aged 59.]

The French General whom Napoleon styled “The Child of Victory.” Entered the French army as a private soldier, and in 1793 was General of Division. Sharing in the brilliant campaigns of Napoleon, he was distinguished by his irresistible impetuosity, clear penetration, and military skill. In comprehensiveness of view, and in the formation of those combinations on which the fate of battles depends, he was superior to all his brother Marshals. He opposed Wellington in Portugal, and conducted the admirable retreat of the French army. Personally, he was avaricious, rapacious, cruel, and mean.

[From the marble in the Tuileries.]

279*. PIERRE CLAUDE FRANÇOIS DANNON. _Statesman and Writer._

[Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1761. Died in Paris, 1840. Aged 79.]

Took an active part in the first French Revolution; but not proving violent enough for the Jacobins, was sentenced to death. Regaining his liberty, was appointed one of the Commissioners for drawing up the new Constitution. Afterwards sent with others to Italy, to organize the Roman Republic. On his return opposed the ascendancy of Napoleon, but was subsequently made Archivist of the Empire. In 1830, restored to offices, which he lost on the downfall of Buonaparte, and afterwards created peer of France. Wrote much in the “Biographie Universelle,” and in the “Histoire Littéraire.” Simple in manners, of unaffected modesty, disinterested and benevolent.

[Bust to come.]

279**. PIERRE PAUL ROGER COLLARD. _Statesman and Philosopher._

[Born at Sourmepuis, in France, 1763. Died in Paris, 1845. Aged 82.]

At twenty called to the bar. Embraced the revolutionary principles, but disgusted with the anarchy to which they led, withdrew to the more peaceful pursuits of literature. Devoted himself to philosophy, and sought to counteract the infidel tendencies of his age by a religious spiritualism. Appointed by Napoleon Professor to the Normal School. At the Restoration, re-entered the field of politics and made President of the Chamber of Deputies. Retired again in 1830. Introduced into France a system of philosophy analogous to that of Reid, the Scotch philosopher, of whose works he recommended the study. As a politician, one of the founders of the popular school known by the name of _Doctrinaires_, which recognised certain principles as essential to all society, and desired to render the actions of men conformable to them. A man of perfect integrity. His interests never interfered with his duty, and he left an honoured and unspotted name.

[Bust to come.]

280. LAZARE HOCHE. _French General._

[Born at Montreuil, in France, 1768. Died at Witzlar, in Prussia, 1797. Aged 29.]

Son of an ostler in the Royal stables at Versailles. First a stable boy, then a private soldier, he commanded, at the age of 25, the army of the Moselle! Set sail to invade Ireland with 25,000 men, but a storm dispersed his vessels. Afterwards commanded the armies of the Sambre and Meuse, and forced a passage across the Rhine. His brilliant career cut short by death. In his early youth fiery and vehement; but he soon obtained a mastery over his temper, and became grave, silent, and thoughtful beyond his years.

[From the marble in the Tuileries by Delaistre.]

281. BESSIÈRES, JEAN BAPTISTE. _Duke of Istria. Marshal of France._

[Born in Guienne, France, 1768. Died 1813. Aged 45.]

One of the bravest, worthiest, and most faithful of Napoleon’s lieutenants. Served in the first campaign of Italy, in the expedition to Egypt, in the second campaign of Italy, and was created Marshal in 1804. In the subsequent wars in Germany he displayed the highest valour, skill, and judgment. According to the Emperor, “he was full of fire, but never otherwise than prudent and circumspect.” In 1808, achieved victory in Spain; afterwards greatly contributed to the success of the battle fought at Essling; and having visited Spain a second time in 1811, he proceeded in 1812 to Russia, at the head of the Imperial cavalry guard. On the morning of the battle of Lützen, in 1813, he betook himself to a narrow pass at Rippach, in order to drive out the enemy there vigorously defending himself. He was on foot and at the head of his men. The foe had already given way, when a shot struck him in the breast and he fell dead. Napoleon received the news with grief, but it was kept a secret from the army for the rest of the day. The Emperor had lost a friend, the soldiers a companion in arms, whose character had never belied his military deeds. He died very poor, leaving to his family nothing but his good name. At St. Helena, Napoleon left 100,000 francs to his son. He had not forgotten the fidelity of the father.

282. BARTHÉLÉMI CATHARINE JOUBERT. _French General._

[Born at Pont-de-Vaux, in France, 1769. Killed at Novi, in Italy, 1799. Aged 30.]

A brave soldier who, had he lived, would undoubtedly have proved not the least eminent of the famous Marshals of the Empire. He was intended for the bar: but at the breaking out of the Revolution, moved by his Republican sympathies, he entered the National Guard. Subsequently enlisted in the regular army as a common soldier, and rapidly distinguished himself. For his admirable conduct under Kellerman, at the Battle of Loano (1795), he was made General of Brigade upon the field. Two years afterwards he was General of Division. In 1798, he succeeded General Brune in the command of the army in Italy. He fell at Novi, whilst impetuously leading on his men. He was prompt, energetic, and fearless to a fault; he enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the soldiers, and his private life was stainless. His countenance had a melancholy cast--his manner was grave and silent. When he spoke it was with blunt and soldier-like brevity. An ardent Republican. One great aim of his life was said to be the dethronement of all the petty sovereigns of Italy, and the substitution of one great Italian Republic.

[From the marble in the Tuileries by Boizot.]

283. LOUIS CHARLES ANTOINE DESAIX. _French General._

[Born at St. Hilaire D’Argat, in France, 1768. Killed at Marengo, in Piedmont, 1800. Aged 32.]

A celebrated General of the French Republic. Brave, discreet, prompt, intelligent, and energetic. Mainly contributed to Napoleon’s triumphs in Egypt; and at Marengo, where he fell, his charge against the Austrians contributed largely to the fate of the day. Napoleon considered Desaix only second to himself, and said of him that “he thought only of glory; and luxury, and even comfort he despised.” Mild yet decided in character; and so just in his conduct as to have gained in Egypt the name of “the Just Sultan.”

[From the marble in the Tuileries by Dejoux.]

284. JEAN LANNES, DUC DE MONTEBELLO. _Marshal of France._

[Born in Guienne, 1769. Killed at Essling, in Austria, 1809. Aged 40.]

In the first rank of Napoleon’s renowned Marshals. Of poor and humble parents, was in early life apprenticed to a dyer. In 1792, entered the army as a volunteer. By signal intelligence, activity, and matchless courage, soon fought his way upward, and secured the notice of Napoleon. Distinguished himself greatly in the first Italian campaign; accompanied Buonaparte to Egypt; followed him again into Italy in 1800, and covered himself with glory at Montebello in 1804, when he was created Duke. At Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, and Friedland; and at one and all justified the fame his skill and intrepidity had gained. At the battle of Essling, 1809, he had the command of the centre. On the 22nd, on passing through the lines to cheer on his men, he was struck by a cannon shot, which took off both legs. He was borne to the Emperor, who was deeply affected at the sight of his brave and mutilated soldier. When speaking of Lannes, at a later period, Napoleon said that “at first his courage carried away his mind; but by degrees his mind came more and more abreast of his courage, and he was great when he perished. I took him,” he added, “a pigmy: I lost him a giant.”

285. MICHEL NEY. _Marshal of France._

[Born at St. Louis, in France, 1769. Was judicially shot, in Paris, 1815. Aged 46.]

Known as “The Bravest of the Brave.” The son of poor parents. Enlisted at the age of thirteen, and speedily fought his way up to the command of a division. His name intimately connected with Buonaparte’s military career. He secured the retreat of the small remnant of the grand army after the disastrous Russian invasion, and at Waterloo he had five horses shot under him. After the final overthrow of Napoleon in 1815, Ney was tried and shot for his treachery to the Bourbons in joining the Emperor on his return from Elba. A monument recently erected on the spot where he fell has translated the act of treachery into a triumph of patriotism. Ney was sincere, honest, blunt, and almost austere in his manners, yet merciful to the vanquished. It is recorded to his honour that he lived and died poor.

286. FRANÇOIS SÉVÉRIN DESGRAVIERS MARCEAU. _French General._

[Born at Chartres, in France, 1769. Killed at Hochsteinbach, in Germany, 1796. Aged 27.]

Brave, generous, and heroic, gifted for great military achievements. Twice narrowly escaped the guillotine; once for gallantly protecting a beautiful woman from the brutality of the soldiers. He fell mortally wounded in the forest of Hochsteinbach; and the armies of France and Austria both showed honour to his memory by firing volleys of artillery over his grave.

[From the marble in the Tuileries by Ed. Dumont.]

287. PIERRE JACQUES CAMBRONNE. _French General._

[Born at St. Sebastian, near Nantes, 1770. Died 1842. Aged 72.]

A brave, humane, and faithful soldier, who rose in virtue of his own good deeds from the ranks, and made for himself an honoured name in the French army. He entered that army in his twentieth year, and knew no repose until the peace of 1815. He made one in Hoche’s unsuccessful expedition against Ireland, fought in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and was present at the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipzig. Devoted to the Emperor, he accompanied him to Elba; returned with him in 1815; and at Waterloo was found ready as ever at his post, commanding a division of the Old Guard. At Waterloo, as befitted this brave and simple-minded soldier, he performed his best service. His men were slaughtered around him, and, threatened with death himself, he was called upon to surrender. His answer has been treasured up in the annals of the French army: “The Guard dies, but does not surrender.” He was taken prisoner, covered with wounds. In 1816, he was tried by a council of war; but he had broken no oath to the Bourbons, and was acquitted. Other generals of Napoleon have a wider fame; none can show a better title to their renown.

[By Debay, 1816.]

288. LOUIS NICOLAS DAVOUST, PRINCE D’ECKMUHL. _Marshal of France._

[Born at Annoux, in Burgundy, 1770. Died in Paris, 1823. Aged 53.]

One of the bravest and ablest of Buonaparte’s lieutenants. Cool and collected in danger, energetic and methodic in his plans. His troops were always in better order than those of any other general. Served at Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, and Auerstadt, and successfully defended Hamburgh against the allies. Cruel, rapacious and coarse. His extortions, oppressions, and murders gained for him the title of the Hamburgh Robespierre. Upon the fall of Napoleon, he retired from active life.

289. MAXIMILIEN SEBASTIEN FOY. _French General._

[Born at Ham, in Picardy, 1775. Died in Paris, 1825. Aged 50.]

Began his military career at 15. Served in the Peninsular war, and at Waterloo received his fifteenth wound. Entered the Chamber of Deputies after the peace, became an orator, an opponent of the reactionary government, and one of the most popular men of his time. He died poor, and a subscription of 40,000_l._ was raised for the relief of his destitute family. Skilful and courageous in the field. Left an unfinished history of the Peninsular war, which is honest, candid and eloquent.

290. ANTOINE CHARLES LOUIS COLLINET DE LASALLE. _General of Cavalry._

[Born at Metz, in France, 1775. Killed at Wagram, in Austria, 1809. Aged 34.]

A famous officer in the wars of Napoleon. Served with the revolutionary army in 1793, on the Rhone and Moselle. Accompanied Kellermann as Aide-de-Camp into Italy, and there was made prisoner. When taken before the veteran and war-tried field-marshal Wurmser, and asked the age of Buonaparte, he replied, “Of the age of Scipio when he conquered Hannibal.” At a later period with Napoleon in Egypt. In 1801, in Italy, where at the battle of Caldiero he had three horses killed under him. His later services were unremitting, and always brilliant. He fell mortally wounded at the battle of Wagram, July 6, 1809. On the eve of the battle he had a singular presentiment of his coming death. He rose in the night for the express purpose of inditing a letter to the Emperor, praying his consideration on behalf of his wife and children. The letter was placed the next morning in the hands of the Emperor at the very moment when news also came of the hero’s death. A dauntless soldier, and of spotless fidelity to his chief.

[From the marble in the Tuileries by Delaistre.]

291. CASIMIR PÉRIER. _Statesman._

[Born at Grenoble, in France, 1777. Died in Paris, 1832. Aged 55.]

First served in the army. Then entered into business, established a banking-house, and embarked in commercial speculations, which proved successful. Elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies. Until 1830, the fierce opponent of government, and the chief advocate of the popular cause. In 1831, until his death, Prime Minister of Louis Philippe; his policy the preservation of peace, the repression of the military spirit, and the encouragement of commerce. His public career courageous and free from corruption.

[Medallion by Houdon.]

PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.

291*. GEORGES D’AMBOISE. _Cardinal and Minister of State._

[Born at Chaumont sur Loire, in France, 1460. Died at Lyons, 1510. Aged 50.]

As Prime Minister of Louis XII. of France, acquired popularity by reforming abuses and relieving the burdens of the subject. Acquired the title of “Father of the People.” Also Archbishop of Rouen. When created Cardinal, effected great reforms in some of the religious Orders. Benevolent and charitable. Never in possession of more than one benefice, two-thirds of which he gave to the church and to the poor.

[From the statue in the Cathedral at Rouen.]

292. CARDINAL RICHELIEU. _Minister of France._

[Born in Paris, 1585. Died there, 1642. Aged 57.]

The great Minister of Louis XIII., and the actual ruler of France during that monarch’s reign. He was the third son of François du Plessis, Seigneur de Richelieu, and at first destined for the army, but renounced this career for the Church, when his elder brother gave up his ecclesiastical dignities for a monastic life. His political career commenced when he was appointed Secretary of State for the War and Foreign Departments; and it was sustained on the highest eminence, by the force of superior intelligence, unequalled craftiness, and an utter contempt for conscientious scruples. He was now the grateful protégé of the King, now his exacting master; now he was insidiously sowing the seeds of distrust and dissension amongst all the members of the Royal Family, now openly and magnanimously effecting their reconciliation. But, subtle and unscrupulous as were the means he employed, his views were vast, his political ideas profound, and he laboured strenuously to give stability to the French monarchy. He was a heartless man, but a faithful minister; jealous of interference with his control, but using his boundless influence for the welfare of the nation. He was a right hypocrite, affecting piety, which he never felt; he was perfidious, and even cruel; but we look back upon his career with an enforced respect for his skill, his strong will, and his undoubted successes. He persecuted Protestants in France, and abated the power of the French nobility.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Coysevox. He wears the Cardinal’s robe, with the Order of the Holy Spirit. Modelled from some of the painted portraits of the time. There are two statues of him at Versailles, one by Ramey, dated 1819, the other by Duret, 1836.]

292A. CARDINAL RICHELIEU. _Minister of France._

[A mask.]

293. CARDINAL MAZARIN. _Minister of France._

[Born at Rome, 1602. Died at Vincennes, in France, 1661. Aged 59.]

The pupil, protégé, and successor of Cardinal Richelieu, by whom he was recommended to Louis XIII. on his death-bed, and whom he surpassed in cunning, finesse, intrigue, and in the skill with which he turned all his public acts to his own private advantage. His avarice was excessive, and his coffers groaned with the wealth of the country which he ruled and impoverished. France was indebted to him for the treaties of Westphalia and of the Pyrenees, and these constitute his best claim to the consideration and gratitude of the French people. Another service must not be forgotten. He beggared the French nation, but he endeavoured to make amends by bequeathing to Louis XIV. the sagacious Colbert, under whose strong hand the finances of France rapidly recovered. The character of Mazarin has been variously described. By some he is regarded as a great Minister of State, equal to Richelieu; by others as a man of indifferent abilities, with an inordinate share of craftiness and diplomatic trickery. It is certain that he was deeply versed in the knowledge of man. Louis XIV. was in leading-strings whilst Mazarin lived, but sole and absolute monarch from the day of his Minister’s death until the hour of his own. Mazarin founded the first public library established in France, but he kept the young monarch who was entrusted to his hands, in shameful ignorance of all that it concerned the youthful prince to know.

[From the marble in the Louvre by Coysevox.]

294. BLAISE PASCAL. _Theologian and Philosopher._

[Born at Clermont-Ferrand, in France, 1623. Died in Paris, 1662. Aged 39.]

Of a genius so rare as to seem supernatural. In tender years the boy, debarred from mathematical books, with charcoal, on the wall of a garret, worked out for himself problems answering to nearly the first book of Euclid--without definitions or terms,--calling a circle a round, and a right line a score. Whilst still young, he was a discoverer in physics. The rise of water in pumps, and of quicksilver in the barometer, had, till his time, been ascribed by the philosophers to the “horror of Nature for a vacuum.” He guessed that the cause was the pressure of the atmosphere, and verified his conjecture by carrying the barometer up a mountain. He saw, agreeably to his expectation, that as by the ascent the pressure gradually diminished, the quicksilver as gradually fell. He had a subtle and profound metaphysical intellect, with great power to express abstruse thoughts clearly and precisely. His temperament was melancholy. A singular hallucination hung by him--without otherwise disturbing the sound use of his faculties--that at his side a visible gulph was ever yawning. The melancholy took a deeper hue as he advanced towards the close of his brief life. He became religiously austere, and subjected himself to personal mortification and trials, under which elasticity and health gave way. Yet the pious philosopher was not without the lighter qualities of the mind. His celebrated “Provincial Letters,” written in defence of the doctrines of the Abbey of Port Royal, against the Jesuits, are bright with the keenest satire. Pascal was a great mathematician, a true philosopher, and one of the purest of men.

295. JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET. _Prelate of France._

[Born at Dijon, 1627. Died in Paris, 1704. Aged 77.]

According to Voltaire, the eloquence of Bossuet stands unrivalled. His _Universal History_, published for his pupil, the son of Louis XIV., written to point out the influence of God animating all the changes of historic events--an idea expressed in the noble aphorism “_l’homme s’agite: Dieu le mène_;” (man struggles and strives: but it is God who leads him). His sermons, funeral orations, and controversial publications, place him in the very highest rank as a writer. According to Eustace, who wrote the “Classical Tour,” it is the especial glory of Bossuet to have compelled the French language “to become the vehicle of sublimity.” In the second part of the _Universal History_, the truths of Christianity are vindicated with a lofty eloquence that is without equal in France. One of Bossuet’s controversial works against Protestantism, converted Gibbon, in his younger years, to the Roman faith. On one occasion, he was the opponent in argument of the mild Fénélon. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the styles of the fiery Bossuet and the gentler, but equally pious and learned author of “Telemachus.” The illustrious Bossuet was buried in the Cathedral of Meaux, of which city, his friend, Louis XIV., had appointed him Bishop. Hence he is still popularly styled “The Eagle of Meaux.”

[From a marble in the Louvre, by A. Coysevox.]

296. FRANÇOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LAMOTTE FÉNÉLON. _Archbishop and Writer._

[Born at Perigord, 1651. Died 1715. Aged 64.]

The author of “Telemachus.” A meek, pious, wise, and gentle-hearted man who passed through life loving all, and doing good to all. The tutor of the Duke of Burgundy, the King’s grandson, in whose self-willed and ungovernable temper, his influence and skilful management effected a moral conversion. Having engaged in a religious controversy with the celebrated Bossuet, who procured his writings to be condemned at Rome, and subsequently incurring the displeasure of Louis XIV., was banished by that monarch. The resignation of the archbishop caused the king to repent of his injustice, and Fénélon was recalled. Though possessed of high station, great talents, and sound learning, a perfect example of humility. The style of Fénélon is melodious, translucent.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Coysevox, and taken from the life. The costume is that of a bishop of the time, with the Order of the Holy Spirit round the neck; this Order was broken at the first Revolution: the form of the cross is still apparent. The statue at Versailles is by Felix Lecomte.]

KINGS AND QUEENS.

296*. CHARLEMAGNE or CHARLES THE GREAT. _King of the Franks and Emperor of the West._

[Born at Saltzburg, in Bavaria, A.D. 742. Died A.D. 814. Aged 72.]

The son of Pepin, who was the first King of France of the Carlovingian dynasty. On the death of his father, in A.D. 768, crowned with his brother Carloman, joint King of France. On the death of Carloman in A.D. 771, became sole ruler. In 772, commenced the subjugation of the Saxons, whom he finally overthrew. Marched into Lombardy to the aid of the Pope, overran the country, and caused himself to be crowned King of Lombardy in A.D. 774. Then passed into Spain to assail the Saracen power established there, but suffered defeat at the battle of Roncesval. In A.D. 800, crowned at Rome “Emperor of the West,” by Pope Leo III. Engaged in ceaseless warfare throughout his reign; yet a great promoter of learning, and the founder of several universities. Collecting enlightened and learned men about him, he completed many national works, advanced agriculture and the arts, and rendered himself immortal by the wisdom of his laws, and by the influence which his magnificent labours produced upon the destinies of mankind. He was said to be the tallest and strongest man of his time. His habits were of the simplest, and his frugality a pattern to the world. A steadfast friend and a devoted father. He was buried with great pomp at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was sincerely mourned by his subjects, who had loved him in life. Few kings have so legitimately and nobly earned the title of “Great,” as Charles I., King of the Franks.

[A head from the Rotonda of the Vatican. In the Louvre is a very remarkable portrait of him in stucco; a similar one is in the Vatican library. There is also in the Vatican a large picture of the coronation of Charlemagne, which contains a vast number of portraits.]

296**. PHILIP III. _King of France._

[Born 1245. Died 1285. Aged 40.]

This king was surnamed “The Bold” for a reason which historians have never been able to discover. He was a mere tool in the hands of his Chamberlain, whom he raised to the dignity of Prime Minister, but who eventually suffered as a common culprit on a gibbet. The king was wholly given up to superstitious practices, and his rule was disastrous for France. During this reign a plain gentleman, Rodolph, count of Hapsburg, was elected Emperor of Germany, and became the founder of a line of kings in Austria. We are reminded also that one of the most remarkable events of this period was the momentary reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches, in 1274, effected by Gregory X. at the second œcumenic council of Lyons.

297. LOUIS XI. _King of France._

[Born at Bourges, in France, 1423. Died at Duplessis les Tours, 1483. Aged 60.]

The son of Charles VII. and Mary of Anjou. The mother was one of the most virtuous women of her age; the son proved a bad child, a bad father, a bad husband, a bad brother, a bad friend, a bad subject, and in all qualities of the heart, a bad king. He was a tyrant, a cheat, a bigot; cruel, implacable in his hatred, unscrupulous in revenge, a miser, until he had an end to accomplish, when he could prove a prodigal; crafty, sanguinary, suspicious, and despicably mean. He availed himself of the humbler orders to crush the power of the nobility, and loved to surround himself at all times with the lowest instruments for the accomplishment of his designs. Four thousand persons are said to have fallen victims to his cruelty, and history records that his father died of privations, self-imposed, through fear of being poisoned by his son. Yet this concentration of vice was personally brave, and a great promoter of letters. He introduced printing into France, and he wrote a book of counsels for his son, which he called “The Rose Tree of Wars.” He moreover left the royal authority established, and France powerful. His last few years were passed in seclusion, in suspicious alarm, and constant terror of death.

[A characteristic bust; evidently a true portrait, pourtraying the well-known bigotry and cruelty of the man.]

298. LOUIS XII. _King of France._

[Born at Blois,in France, 1462. Died in Paris, 1515. Aged 53.]

The son of Charles, Duke of Orleans, and heir presumptive to the throne, during the minority of Charles VIII. Disputing the Regency with the mother of Charles VIII, he was defeated, and suffered severe imprisonment for the space of three years. Liberated by King Charles in person, he conceived a warm friendship for the young monarch, which was never broken. In 1498, when Charles died without issue, Louis succeeded to the French throne. His reign was fruitful of good to his country. He forgave his enemies, re-established discipline and order in his army, economized the resources of the state, and made the army of France victorious abroad. He appointed the judges of the land for life, in order to secure their integrity, encouraged literature and science, and liberally rewarded men of talent. He was three times married, his last wife being Mary, sister of Henry VIII. of England. During his reign, Gaston de Foix fell at Ravenna, and the authority of the Pope was suspended in France. Louis was of a frank and generous nature, and was called “the Father of his People.”

[From the bronze half-figure in the Louvre.]

299. FRANCIS I. _King of France._

[Born at Cognac, in France, 1494. Died at Rambouillet, 1547. Aged 53.]

The son of Charles of Angoulême, and cousin-german of Louis XII. of France, whose daughter he married, and whom he succeeded on the French throne. A libidinous king, with many knightly qualities, and with all the bigotry and self-absorption that characterized too many of the despotic rulers of his time. He was a great encourager and patronizer of letters and the fine arts: but he had no mercy towards the heretic, and, in 1535, he forbade printing in France under pain of death. Not a successful warrior; he was taken prisoner at Pavia, during a war with Spain, and detained at Madrid for the space of a twelvemonth. His meeting with our own Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520, is known to every reader of history. A lustre is shed upon the reign of this monarch in consequence of his magnificent patronage of art, but his life otherwise presents as little for admiration as the satyr-looking bust which no doubt faithfully records the lineaments of the man. His passions were violent and gross: and though he received the dignity of knighthood from the hands of a subject, yet even the sword of a Bayard could not endow him with virtue enough to protect him from wilful prodigality, selfish follies, and open debaucheries.

[From the bronze in the Louvre by Jean Cousin, representing the king in complete armour, interesting as a work of the time, but far less real as a portrait than the head 299A, which is from the celebrated monument at St. Denis, by P. Bontemps, where the king is sculptured lying dead, and perfectly naked.]

299A. FRANCIS I. _King of France._

300. CHARLES V. _Emperor of Germany and King of Spain._

[Born at Ghent, in Belgium, 1500. Died in Estremadura, in Spain, 1558. Aged 58.]

The reign of this undoubtedly great monarch is chiefly remarkable for the rivalry which, during twenty-eight years, subsisted between him and Francis I., of France, leading to European war, and to battles of varied fortune, Charles inherited Germany from his father, Spain from his mother; but the Empire was boldly disputed by Francis I., and thus war commenced. After alternate success and defeat, Charles overcame his rival at Pavia, in 1525, and took him prisoner. Gaining his freedom the following year, Francis allied himself with Henry VIII. of England, but Charles V. still contrived to obtain good terms by the treaty of Cambrai, in 1529. The wily Emperor now caused himself to be crowned Emperor of Rome, and then engaged in a crusade against the Turks. War again broke out with France; but this time fortune turned against Charles, and never pronounced in his favour again. Suffering reverse upon reverse, his army beaten by disease as much as by the enemy--he himself forced to flee, almost alone, for safety--he was thrown into a depth of calamity as profound, as his previous condition had been brilliant and lofty. Resigning his crown in favour of his son Philip, he retired to a monastery in Spain, where he closed his career. Charles was sagacious, cool, crafty, and obstinate, with great grasp of intellect; cruel and hypocritical, yet not without some knightly qualities. He affected great piety, especially in his later years, but there was more of policy than of spiritual conviction in his religious movements. One of his first acts as king, was to convene the Diet of Worms, to which he gave Luther a safe conduct. He treated the Protestants with cruel harshness. No two characters could have been more opposite than those of the Royal and Imperial rivals. Their points of difference are admirably described by Robertson.

[From a medallion in bronze in the Louvre. Compare with Titian’s portrait, often engraved.]

301. CHARLOTTE, or CARLOTA D’AVESNE, DUCHESS OF VALENTINO.

[Died, 1514.]

A princess less illustrious for her great beauty and mental endowments, than for her virtue and piety. First married to Charles, Prince de Chimey; afterwards forced by Louis XII., to marry the infamous Cæsar Borgia, whose misfortunes she shared without participating in his vices.

302. HENRY II. _King of France._

[Born at St. Germain-en-Laye, in France, 1518. Died in Paris, 1559. Aged 41.]

The son of Francis I. He pursued the policy of his sire, carried war into Italy, and strenuously opposed the House of Austria under Charles V. and Philip II. He also took arms against England, and was bitter in his persecution of Protestants. In his reign France recovered from England the towns of Boulogne and Calais, the latter of which England had held for the space of 210 years. Henry II. was an average king of the time. He was the slave of his mistress, the celebrated Diana of Poitiers, upon whom, and upon his favourites, he lavished his wealth; he cultivated libertinism at Court, he robbed the people, he overstepped his legitimate rights, and he left his country largely in debt. Historians thank Providence that it was no worse. This monarch died of an accidental wound, in a tournament, from the hand of Montgomery, the chief of his Scotch guards.

[From a marble in the Louvre, by Jean Goujon. A very interesting relic, formerly part of a beautiful chimney-piece brought from the Château de Villeroy, and now in the Louvre, the work of Germain Pilon. No 302A is from the marble by Germain Pilon, the celebrated sculptor of the French Renaissance. The marble is very much decayed, but the general character of the head is preserved, as well as the costume. The head is crowned with laurel. The mantle is ornamented with the fleur-de-lys, and the Order is that of St. Michel. The magnificent tomb of this king in St. Denis is by Pilon.]

302A. HENRY II. _King of France._

303. CHARLES IX. _King of France._

[Born at St. Germain, 1550. Died there, 1574. Aged 24.]

The son of Henry II. and Catherine de Medici. He was brought up under the tutelage of his mother; and at an early age, gave promise of a good career, exhibiting a taste for literature, princely courage, and a love of glory. But under the influence of his pernicious mother, he became profligate and cruel. His unenviable reign is notorious for the horrible Massacre of St. Bartholomew, when thousands of Protestants were deliberately murdered. Remorse for this tremendous crime followed Charles IX. to his grave, into which he was prematurely cast by diseases, the result of his debaucheries.

[From a marble in the Louvre, attributed to Germain Pilon. It represents the king in his youth. The pedestal is inscribed, Carolus IX. 1568.]

304. HENRY III. _King of France._

[Born at Fontainebleau, 1552. Died at St. Cloud, 1589. Aged 37.]

The son of Henry II. and Catherine de Medici. He acquired military fame as Duke of Anjou, by the victories of Jarnac and Moncontoni, gained over the Huguenots. In 1573, he was elected King of Poland; but on the death of his brother, Charles IX. of France, he relinquished the sovereignty of Poland for that of France. As King, his early energy and manly courage, gave place to shameless vice and debauchery. He was surrounded by the most unworthy favourites, who caused his reign to be designated as “The reign of the minions.” He had had a hand in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; but at a later period, driven out of his own capital by a faction, he formed an alliance with Henry of Navarre, the chief of the Protestants, and with that prince he laid siege to Paris. He was thus employed at the camp of St. Cloud, when he was assassinated by a monk, named Jacques Clement. Henry III. has been described, by some historians, as a pupil of Machiavelli, concealing a profoundly devised plan beneath his gross immoralities, obscenities, and blasphemies. His acts were frequently those of a madman, yet he was not without good qualities. He was the last king of the house of Valois. It had reigned 261 years, and given 13 monarchs to France.

[From the marble in the Louvre, by Germain Pilon. Like its fellow, No. 302A, very much eaten away, as though at some time exposed to the weather.]

305. HENRY IV. _King of France._

[Born at Pau, in France, 1553. Assassinated in Paris, 1610. Aged 57.]

Educated in the reformed religion by his mother, Jeanne d’Albret, he became head of the Huguenot party: as such he took part in the civil wars, which arose in the reign of Henry III., and was in consequence excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V. Acknowledged King of France by a portion of the French army after the death of Henry III., he took arms against the League, vanquished its followers in several engagements, and finally entered Paris, after professing his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. In the reign of Henry IV. the humane Edict of Nantes, which gave toleration to Protestantism, was promulgated, and the sagacious reforms of the Minister Sully, a Protestant, helped largely to the restoration of order, and to the development of the public resources. The arsenals were replenished, roads and canals were made, taxation was reduced, and the industry of the people fostered. Whilst this salutary work was going on, and Henry IV. and his. Minister were negociating the most important treaties with the various powers of Europe, in order to establish a general confederacy and a lasting peace, the monarch fell by the knife of Ravaillac, a fanatic. Henry IV. was an unfaithful husband, and unstable in his religion. He had many mistresses, and he twice abjured his faith: but he was the author of the edict of Nantes.

305A. HENRY IV. _King of France._

[A very elegant statuette of the time. The head beautifully sculptured, and evidently a good portrait.]

306. MARIE DE’ MEDICI. _Queen of France._

[Born at Florence, 1573. Died at Cologne, 1642. Aged 69.]

Daughter of Francis II., Grand Duke of Tuscany; wife of Henry IV. of France; and mother of Henrietta-Maria, the queen of Charles I. of England. She wedded Henry IV. after he had divorced his first wife, Margaret of Valois, and the alliance was not a happy one. Crowned the day before the assassination of her husband, at which some of her contemporaries more than suspected that she herself connived. But no proof of her guilt has been forthcoming. Regent during the minority of her son Louis XIII., she threw France into confusion by her misgovernment, prodigality, intrigues and wilfulness. The confusion ended in civil war. Resigning the regency when Louis XIII. attained his majority, she took up arms against her son; but reconciliation being made through the intervention of Richelieu, then Superintendent of her household, she introduced that great and wily man into the counsels of the king. Richelieu, appointed Prime-Minister, arrested his former mistress at Compeigne, and threw her friends into the Bastile. The sun of Mary had finally set; she became an outcast and a wanderer in Europe. Our own Charles I. found his mother-in-law an asylum; but he himself was soon in need of human charity, and the abased queen must needs creep to Cologne, where she lived in obscurity and died--as travellers are still shown--in a garret. A weak woman, with strong passions. Ambitious, jealous, irascible. In her character, as with all men and women--even the worst---there is one brighter spot for contemplation. She introduced into France an enlightened and a pure taste for art. There still exist some specimens of engraving by her hand. To her, Paris owes the Palace of the Luxembourg, and, for her, Rubens painted a gallery still possessed by France.

[The companion statuette to 305A.]

307. LOUIS XIII. _King of France._

[Born at Fontainebleau, 1601. Died at St. Germain, 1643. Aged 42.]

He succeeded his father Henry IV. when nine years old. In 1614, his majority was declared: in the following year he married Anne of Austria. His reign is chiefly remarkable for the ascendancy acquired over the King and his government, by Cardinal Richelieu, whose policy, although directed by personal ambition, elevated the power of France and prepared it for the glory of the succeeding reign. Louis XIII. was surnamed “The Just:” but the good, which he desired, he had neither firmness nor enlightenment enough to secure. He was timid and diffident, though scrupulous, sincere, and pious. He had a melancholy nature. Grandeur had no seductions for him, and it could not be said that he enjoyed the sweets of private life. His mother Richelieu caused to be banished, and Louis suffered her to die in misery at Cologne; an unfilial act to be attributed rather to weakness of character, and the influence of the Cardinal, than to deliberate unkindness. He was the father of Louis XIV.

[From a fine portrait statue in bronze, by Simon Guillain of Paris, who died in 1658. The original is in the Louvre, and a copy of it is at Versailles: it has lost a spur and the fleur-de-lys which was at the top of the sceptre. The King wears the royal fleur-de-lys mantle over his armour, and the grand collar of the Order of the St. Esprit. He holds the sceptre in one hand, and stretches out the other, as if giving a command. There is an interesting bust at Versailles of the same King when a boy, and no doubt from the life.]

307A. LOUIS XIII. _King of France._

[From the marble statue in the Louvre, by Guillaume Couston, a pupil of Coysevox, who died at Paris in 1746. The King wears the royal fleur-de-lys mantle, and on his knees offers his crown and sceptre to the Virgin. The 15th of August, 1638, the day on which Louis XIV. was born, was ordered to be celebrated by a solemn procession in Nôtre-Dame; and throughout France, to this day it is kept in the Cathedral, and called the ceremony of the Vow of Louis XIII. The attitude chosen by the sculptor is thus explained. There are several other examples of the same kind at Versailles; the statue of Louis XIV. (No. 308) is one. At Versailles there is a similar statue by Coysevox, and a bust by Warin.]

307.* ANNE OF AUSTRIA. _Queen of France._

[Born in Spain, 1602. Died in France, 1666. Aged 64.]

The daughter of Philip II. of Spain, and wife of Louis XIII. of France. She was neglected by the King, her husband, and had no influence in France during his lifetime. But upon his decease, the parliament annulled his will, which had restricted the Queen’s power, and gave her the unlimited Regency of the kingdom, and sole guardianship of her son, Louis XIV. She appointed Cardinal Mazarin her Prime Minister, and the alliance thus formed between a Spanish princess and an Italian priest, gave rise in France to the civil wars of “La Fronde.” In spite of the opposition which she encountered, she made over the sovereignty of France unimpaired to her son when he reached his majority. Of a mild and docile temper, religious and charitable. As a mother she was devoted to her children, and sought to imbue them with high moral and religious principles.

[Mask from the statue referred to in note No. 308.]

308. LOUIS XIV. _King of France._

[Born at St. Germain, 1638. Died 1715. Aged 77.]

The son of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria. He ascended the throne at five years old--his mother being Regent during his minority--and reigned 72 years, longer than any other King of France. Until the death of Mazarin in 1661, Louis XIV. suffered the adroit Cardinal to rule. From that hour until his own death, no man governed but himself. This renowned monarch survived nearly the whole of his family, and when he died, the crown, as in his own case, came to the charge of a child--his great grandson--then in his fifth year. The reign of Louis Quatorze was singularly eventful within and without the realm. It embraced wars, marked now with splendid successes, and now with formidable reverses. He aimed at universal monarchy, and endangered his own. He sustained, in the War of the Succession, the defence of Spain and France against united Europe--a war in which the allies hoped to dismember France, that did not lose a province. Under this king, the soil of France was stained with the blood of her children in religious civil conflict; the most industrious and the best, slaughtered for their faith, or exiled. A magnificent Court surrounded his person--the centre to the politeness of Europe, its stately decorum veiling great moral corruption. Jealous of his prerogatives and of his supremacy amongst kings, Louis XIV. was still more jealous to be thought the best bred gentleman of his time. In this reign, the marine, the commerce, and the manufactures of France made a vast stride. Arts, letters, and science were royally encouraged. It is looked back upon as the Augustan age of French literature, when the writings of Corneille, Racine, Molière, and Boileau--of Masillon, Bossuet, Fénélon, seemed to have fixed the language. The age of Louis XIV. was the age of glory to the French monarchy; and splendidly dissolute, and, in many respects, hollow, as it may have been, we still revert to its records with a fascination that never palls, and an interest that becomes more acute the more it is gratified.

[This statue, representing Louis as a child, is from a bronze by Guillain, which formed, with a statue of Anne of Austria, and one of Louis XIII., a group of three, as a monument to commemorate the building of the Pont-au-Change, begun by Louis XIII. in 1639, and finished under Louis XIV., 1647, while Anne was Regent. The monument was destroyed in 1787; but the statues are in the Louvre, as well as the great bas-relief. The bust of Anne of Austria (No. 307*) is taken from the statue.]

308A. LOUIS XIV. _King of France._

[From the marble, by Ch. Ant. Coysevox, in the Louvre and at Versailles. The King, kneeling on a cushion where his crown is placed, is dressed in the Royal mantle, with the Orders of the Holy Spirit and St. Michel. There are numbered no fewer than twenty-two busts, statues, and medallions of this favourite King at Versailles. Four are equestrian statues in bronze; one by Martin Bogaert, called Desjardins, and two by Louis Petitot, done in 1834. The statue in bronze by Desjardins, which once stood in the Place des Victoires, was destroyed in 1793. The four slaves which stood chained at the angles of this statue were alone preserved, and are now at the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris.]

309. LOUIS XV. _King of France._

[Born at Versailles, 1710. Died there, 1774. Aged 64.]

He succeeded his great grandfather, Louis XIV., in the fifth year of his age. He was styled “the well beloved.” In his 34th year, on the field of Fontenoy, he gave proof of courage. Up to the prime of manhood, he gave equally satisfactory evidence of many good qualities of heart and head. But indolence and vicious habits, subsequently contracted, rendered the latter half of Louis’s reign one of the most disgraceful and profligate that France had witnessed. The shameless proceedings which had stained the career of his guardian, the Regent Orleans, were re-enacted in his own vicious Court. The disasters of France abroad during this degraded time, the destruction of her navy, the financial crisis that followed that catastrophe, the corruptions that were eating into the very heart of the State, and the immorality that characterized the higher classes, were the natural forerunners of the frightful storm that burst over France in the following reign. Louis XV., once “the well beloved,” died execrated by his subjects, who insulted his wretched remains, as they were passing to their last home.

309A. LOUIS XV. _King of France._

[From the marble, in the Louvre, by Guillaume Couston the son, who died at Paris, 1777. The costume, in accordance with the fancy of the day, is that of a Roman general, as we see in the statue of King James II., of England, (No. 491). The King holds in his right hand a sceptre reversed, and with his left presents a baton of a Marshal of France. At Versailles, are several authentic busts of the time of this monarch, besides a copy of this statue, and an equestrian statue in bronze, by Bouchardon. The date of this work is about 1728.]

310. MARIE ANTOINETTE JOSÉPHINE JEANNE. _Queen of France._

[Born at Vienna, 1755. Guillotined 1793. Aged 38.]

The unfortunate daughter of Francis I., Emperor of Germany, and the illustrious Maria Theresa of Austria. In 1770, before she was sixteen, married to Louis the Dauphin, who in 1774 became King of France, under the title of Louis XVI. At the breaking out of the French Revolution, every public disaster was laid to her charge by the maddened people, and after the execution of her husband, she was herself condemned to death. On her way to the scaffold, she was for two hours reviled by a ferocious mob; but resignation and sweetness of demeanour only could be traced on her countenance. Her hair had been turned silvery white by her many troubles, and a settled melancholy was stamped on her beautiful features. After her execution, her body was immediately consumed with quick lime. The murder of this unhappy lady was the most crimson spot in all the bloody time of the French Revolution. She was of a playful, happy, cheerful disposition, devoted to her family, benevolent to all. Her purity is beyond question, her heroism perfect. In mixing in public concerns, which she did not understand, she betrayed imprudence. In despising etiquette she laid herself open to the worst criticisms of her ungenerous foes; but her character shines unsullied after cruel persecution, horrible imprisonment, and ignominious death.

[From the marble in the Louvre by Lecomte.]

311. NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. _Emperor of France._

[Born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, 1768. Died at St. Helena, 1821. Aged 53.]

A soldier of fortune at the outset of his career. Lieutenant of Artillery, 1785. First Consul of France, 1799. Emperor of France in 1804, when he was but 36 years of age. Discrowned exile, and prisoner, 1815. The military prodigy of his age. His story reads like a romance of eastern enchantment; for he made and unmade kings at his will, and confounding all the established conceptions and expectations of men, asserted and won his right to fix for a time the destinies of nations. His extreme hour of greatness was in 1813, after the fearful retreat from Russia, when in a few months he summoned a new army to his side from the fields of exhausted France, and alone defied, and almost overcame, the united strength of the rest of civilized Europe. The most ignoble period of his life is found on the barren rock of St. Helena, when, treacherous to his former grandeur, he was afflicted and absorbed by the worthless and passing annoyances of the moment. His career was that of a dazzling meteor, astonishing all men in its fiery passage, but creating little else than amazement, and admiration mingled with fear. Not naturally cruel, he enacted cruelties. Brave in the field, he lacked the true heroic element. He used all men for his own advancement, and counted human life valueless, when its sacrifice might add to his imagined glory. Superstitious, but not religious. Framed for intensest exertion, indefatigable, impatient, irritable, untruthful, theatrical, petty. Yet a grand lawgiver; cognisant of the wants of men, and capable of meeting them, had his lust of ambition suffered him to provide for the interests of his people as sedulously as for his own. His character, a singular conflict of great virtues with small vices, and of great vices with small virtues. The most splendid soldier since the days of Julius Cæsar, and the idol of his army. The uncle of Napoleon III., the present Emperor of France.

[From the marble in the Louvre by Houdon.]

311A. NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. _Emperor of France._

[The colossal bust by Canova.]

311B. NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. _Emperor of France._

[An ideal bust by Thorwaldsen, supported on the French eagle with palm branches.]

311C. NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. _Emperor of France._

312. LOUIS PHILIPPE. _King of the French._

[Born in Paris, 1773. Died at Claremont, in England, 1850. Aged 77.]

A monarch who ascended the throne of France on the neck of one Revolution, and was hurled from it by the heel of another. A king who had borne adversity bravely in his youth, yet was unequal to sustain prosperity in his age. The most remarkable example of the proverb that “a Bourbon learns nothing, and forgets nothing.” If any Bourbon could prove an exception to the rule, Louis Philippe must have been the man. He had great sagacity; he had mixed for many years with all ranks and conditions of men. He had acutely felt the want of the means of living. He had been forced to earn his own bread by humble day labour. He had travelled in America, resided in England, had read much, observed more. Yet in 1848, after a reign of 18 years, he conducted himself towards the French nation with a blind obstinacy and wilful disregard of consequences, worthy of a sovereign who had been suckled in the lap of despotism, and fed for ever afterwards upon obsequious flattery, and all the other dainty diet of a Court. Louis Philippe had many good qualities of heart. He was beloved by his wife and children, and was a true hero at the domestic hearth. He had also a shrewd, active, well-informed mind. Nor did he act without a principle in his dealing with his subjects. But unfortunately his love for his family led him into foolish schemes for their advancement, his shrewdness overreached itself, and his principle of action was based upon a fallacy. He imagined that he could satisfy his people with the very husk and rind of constitutional government, and flatter them with the conviction that they were chewing and enjoying the kernel. Corruption was hardly greater in the days of the Regency, than towards the untimely close of the reign of Louis Philippe, but the rottenness under the later Orleans was veiled beneath forms demanded by the spirit of the age, and conceded by the King in a spirit of mock complaisance and quiet irony. Few men have had greater opportunity than the King of the Barricades. None have so desperately disappointed hope and baffled expectation. The history of the House of Orleans is full of instruction for all who bear the name: but no chapter is so fraught with momentous interest to the living chief of the House as that which tells the extraordinary and calamitous history of Louis Philippe.

[From the Marble, by J. E. Jones, 1845.]

312*. LOUIS NAPOLEON. _Emperor of France._

[Born 1808. Still living.]

The third Emperor of the name, and not the least remarkable of his extraordinary race. The opinions formed of the present Emperor of France from his earlier history, have all been belied by his subsequent career. He has been an exile, a prisoner, a wanderer, an outcast. When he has ceased to be an object of suspicion, it was only to become a subject for ridicule. Of all pretenders to thrones in Europe, he has been held the least likely to obtain, by any change of circumstances or overthrow of dynasties, supreme dominion. When kings, in their fear, have reckoned over the names of those from whom danger might be expected, and have exhausted the entire list by including all possible representatives of peril, Louis Napoleon has not been in the number. He lived for years in London, and on the 10th of April, 1848, when special constables were enrolled for the preservation of menaced order, he sallied forth with his neighbours, and performed street duty with the humblest. He was so poor in England, that his goods were sold to pay his debts. Yet at this hour the diadem binds his brow, and his foot is firmly planted upon the summit of power in tranquillized France, and we all pray Heaven in the interests of humanity, civilization, and peace, to maintain it there. Since the accession of Napoleon III., all his exertions have been directed to the development of the material resources of his country, and to the upholding of that good understanding amongst nations which is essential to the continuance of social prosperity. Europe lies under great obligations to his sagacity, and England has cause to rejoice in his friendship. When he married, he called himself a “_parvenu_.” His wisdom, moderation, and good faith have attached him to the heart of public opinion more closely than though, upon an insincere brow, he had brought to his imperial throne the stamp of a hundred kings.

[From the marble by Barre, 1853.]

312A. LOUIS NAPOLEON. _Emperor of France._

[From the marble by J. E. Jones.]

312**. EUGÉNIE MARIE GUZMAN. _Empress of France._

[Born 1826. Still living.]

The wife of Napoleon III., before her marriage with whom she was Countess Montijo of Teba.

THE GERMAN PORTRAITS.

INTRODUCTION.

Ludwig, King of Bavaria, first conceived the idea of raising a monument to the national glory of Germany. In the year 1807, he planned the WALHALLA, a grand hall for the reception of the statues and portrait-busts of celebrated Germans, borrowing the title of the structure from the old Norse language, the name being that of the palace into which Odin, the Scandinavian Jupiter, received the souls of the slain heroes. The idea, however, remained undeveloped until the important part played by the soldiers of Germany in the final overthrow of Napoleon gave a new impulse to the great scheme of the king. In 1821, he entrusted his architect, Leo von Klenze, with the execution of his plan. But it was not until 1830 that the design was sufficiently matured for building; and, after the laying of the first stone, twelve years were occupied in consummating the work. The Walhalla was inaugurated October 18th, 1842.

The Walhalla stands in a commanding position on the banks of the Danube, close to the little town of Donaustauf, and not far from Regensburg. It is a noble building of the Doric order, resembling the Parthenon of ancient Greece, 230 feet long, 108 feet broad, and 64 feet high, having a colonnade on every side. It is based upon a massive structure of Cyclopean stone work formed into three terraces, and is approached by a grand flight of steps.

The pediments at each end are filled with marble statues by Ludwig Schwanthaler. The south, pediment, looking over the river, contains an allegorical subject designed by Rauch, and sculptured by Schwanthaler. Germany is here as a female figure surrounded by young warriors, who represent the different States of Germany, presenting to her the chief fortresses under the form of young women. The north pediment is entirely by Schwanthaler. It represents the battle between Hermann and Varus.

The interior forms a noble highly-decorated hall in the Ionic style, with polished marble walls and painted mouldings, the floor being also richly inlaid with marbles. The hall is 168 feet long, 48 feet broad, and 53 feet high. The entablature is supported by 14 Caryatides, treated as Walkyren, the Chusers of Slaughter in the old Germanic mythology, each being 10 feet 9 inches high. They are modelled by Schwanthaler, and executed in marble by his pupils; the figures being painted in the manner supposed to have been practised by the Greeks: the hair is brown, the flesh ivory colour, the tunics are of violet colour, the upper drapery white with red and gilt edges, and the bearskins gilt. A frieze runs round the hall, on which is sculptured the history of the Germans, from their origin in the mountains of the Caucasus to their baptism by Bonifazio. This frieze is the work of Martin Wagner, a Bavarian sculptor, living at Rome, assisted by Schopf and Pettrich. It is in marble, and measures 3 feet 4 inches in height, by 292 feet long.

Six statues of Victory, larger than life, and sculptured by Rauch, are arrayed round the hall. Between these are placed the busts of the great men of Germany, in six groups, numbering, in all, 96. They begin, chronologically, with Arminius, who repelled the Romans, and King Harry I. (A.D. 876-936), and come down to Blucher and Schwarzenberg. The Poets are represented from the medieval Minne and Meister-singers, down to Goethe and Schiller. All these busts are however modern works of art, the earliest dating from 1794.

The “Ruhmeshalle” (or “Hall of Fame”), at Munich, contains another collection of portrait-busts of celebrated Germans. This, like the Walhalla, was established by Ludwig, King of Bavaria, and built by the architect Klenze. It was commenced in 1843, and completed in 1853. It is well situated upon a hill which rises from a flat of some extent near Munich, called after the Queen of Louis, “die Theresen-Wiese.” It is in the Doric style of Greek architecture, 230 feet long, by 150 feet broad, and 60 feet high, and is surrounded by 48 columns, 24 feet in height. Within the 92 metopes are 44 figures of Victory, and 48 representations of the principal events in the progress of Bavaria, designed and executed by Schwanthaler. The pediments also are ornamented with statues in marble by the same artist, personifying the provinces of the present kingdom of Bavaria. The statue of Bavaria, a cast from the head of which is in the Crystal Palace (See No. 205 of the Handbook of Modern Sculpture), stands in front of the building.

Some of the German portraits enumerated in the following pages are copies from portraits in both collections above referred to. There are also some portrait-busts of which the originals exist in the “Royal Museum,” and in the “Lager-Haus” at Berlin.

* * * * *

(_The German Portraits begin immediately behind the Statue of Sir Robert Peel at the south-west angle of the Great Transept and Nave._)

ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS.

313. PETER PAUL RUBENS. _Painter._

[Born at Cologne, in Germany, 1577. Died at Antwerp, in Flanders, 1640. Aged 63.]

One of the most prolific and famous painters; not of the Flemish school only, but of the world. His life as untroubled as his genius was grand. Crowned heads courted him, wealth followed him, and until immediately before his death he knew not the sorrow of sickness. He passed happily through life, multiplying with astonishing rapidity those marvellous pictures which have associated his name for ever with the idea of glorious colour. He left paintings in France and in Spain, and both countries vied with each other in loading the great artist with well merited honours. He came to England in the reign of Charles I. as Envoy from the Spanish court, and in England fresh dignities awaited him. As a painter, he is memorable for the harmony, beauty, and mellow richness of his colouring, which flings a surpassing charm over every one of his productions. His men are always powerfully drawn and characterized with wonderful variety; but for the graceful and ideal representation of the more delicate sex, we have only the coarse type of his countrywomen. His portraits are fresh, vigorous, and carefully executed. His most celebrated work, _The Descent from the Cross_, at Antwerp, is a wonderful creation, both for expression and feeling. In landscapes, Rubens was also most happy. In all his works there is a luxuriance of life and vigour and passionate expression. In person he was tall, majestic, and extremely handsome; in temperament energetic and enthusiastic; in his manner of living plain and moderate; in his dealings with his brother artists, gentle and munificent as a prince. Amongst his pupils he reckoned Vandyke, Teniers the younger, Jordaens, and Sneyders.

[For a description of this noble statue, see No. 107, Handbook of Modern Sculpture.]

314. GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Halle, in Saxony, 1684. Died 1759. Aged 75.]

This magnificent musician, the dominant characteristics of whose genius are grandeur, spirituality, and solemnity, was the son of a surgeon. Having in his youth displayed a passionate love for music, and having travelled much with the view of gaining instruction in Germany and Italy, he went to London, at the age of twenty-six, and there composed, by order of Queen Anne, the “Te Deum” and “Jubilate,” which, in 1714, were performed at St. Paul’s. Subsequently became Director of the Opera, in the Haymarket, for the production of his own works: a large subscription, headed by George I., enabling him to open the theatre. The scheme falling to the ground, in consequence of the quarrels of the singers, Handel abandoned the stage, and devoted his powers to the production of those sublime oratorios that have immortalized his name. In 1740, he composed “Saul;” in 1741, “The Messiah;” the last a three weeks’ work. Other great oratorios followed. In 1750, he lost his sight, and from that time until his death he gradually declined. He was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. This mighty musician was infirm of temper, and imperfectly educated. When roused, he was violent and ungovernable. A singer once refused to sing one of his airs. Handel, seizing the man in his arms, and pale with rage, threatened to throw him out of the window if he persisted in the refusal. His countenance wore a rough expression, though he was good-natured when not agitated. He stands at the head of the greatest masters of music; and, as a performer on the organ, he was without a rival.

[In the Musical Collection of the Royal Library at Berlin. The artist is not known, but it bears many evidences of being a truthful portrait, and is altogether a more characteristic head than the conventional portrait by Roubiliac No. 314A.]

314A. GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL. _Musical Composer._

[From the marble by Roubiliac.]

315. JOHAN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN. _Antiquary._

[Born at Steindal, in Germany, 1717. Died at Trieste, in Austria, 1768. Aged 51.]

The son of a shoemaker, and self-educated. At thirty became a Roman Catholic, and journeyed to Rome, where he studied the antique, and published his celebrated. “History of Art.” At Trieste he was murdered by a felon, for the sake of the medals conferred upon him by the Courts of Austria and Bavaria. His investigations into the true principles and significance of high art, more especially of antique sculpture, led the way to the enlightened criticism of Lessing and Goethe.

[By Doel. It was placed in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, by Geo. F. Reiffenstein.]

315*. ANTHONY RAPHAEL MENGS. _Painter._

[Born at Aussig, in Bohemia, 1728. Died at Rome, 1771. Aged 43.]

Surnamed, but without much reason, the Rafaelle of Germany. He studied assiduously at the Vatican. Upon his return to Germany he was appointed at Dresden painter to the King. Revisiting Rome he fell in love with a beautiful peasant girl, and became a Roman Catholic in order to marry her. In 1757, he commenced painting in fresco, and his works of this kind will bear comparison with some of the best of the Italian masters. In 1761, he was invited by Charles III. to Spain, where he painted for the palace at Madrid, the “Apotheosis of Trajan.” This is his _chef d’œuvre_. He died leaving scarcely sufficient to pay his funeral expenses, and the King of Spain provided for his seven children. The works of Mengs display correctness of drawing, vigour of colouring, finished execution, and studied grace: but the loftier qualities of mind, demanded by historical painting, are wanting. He was a writer on art as well as an artist: and a generous, warm-hearted man.

[Bust to come.]

316. FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN. _Musical Composer._

[Born in Rohrau, on the frontiers of Austria and Hungary, 1732. Died at Vienna, 1809. Aged 77.]

The son of very poor and humble parents, who cheered their poverty and supported their labour by home music. The family concerts constituted Haydn’s initiation into Art. He was a passionate neophyte. At the age of thirteen, he had composed a mass, which he was unable to write correctly. Taken into the service of the great master Porpora, he submitted to menial drudgery in order to have the advantage of his instruction. In 1760, he entered the better service of Prince Esterhazy, with whom, as Court Musician, he continued for the space of twenty-five years. During that period, some of his finest symphonies were produced. In 1791, he went, on invitation, to London, and continued there for thirteen years, sending forth his inimitable works, and receiving honour on every side. In 1794, he returned to Germany, established himself in the suburbs of Vienna, and composed the oratorio of “The Creation.” He died in 1809, from agitation, it is said, induced by the advance upon Vienna of the French army. Haydn is one of the greatest of modern musicians. He set free the spirit of instrumental music, and purified his art by the purity, simplicity, and beauty of his works. He is remarkable for lucid melody and for his power of effective painting. His labours were enormous and his compositions countless. He could himself reckon up to 800 works, large and small, and there he stopped.

317. JOHANN WOLFGANG MOZART. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Salzburg in Austria, 1756. Died at Vienna, 1791. Aged 35.]

The most renowned of German musical composers. His father was a musician, and he himself the greatest musical prodigy that ever lived. It is alleged upon authority that at four years old, he could already play and even compose. It is certain, that before he was eight a harvest was in reaping by his family, who travelled over Germany to exhibit his astounding performances. In 1764, he was in England playing before the King and Court. In 1769, he produced an opera, being then 13 years of age. At 15, he was in Italy, creating wonder by works which rivalled those of the great Italian masters. Medals were struck in honour of young Orpheus in the land of art and song. He was not 17 years old when he could count as his productions four operas, an oratorio, two masses, and many other compositions. Mozart grew in years, and did not suffer the ordinary penalty of precocity. In him “the child was father to the man.” The blossom became ripe fruit. In 1781, he produced his opera of “Idomeneo.” Then followed the “Marriage of Figaro,” and in 1787, his masterpiece “Don Giovanni”--a work composed in an incredibly short space of time. Now came sickness--and the threatening of a complaint allied too frequently to unnatural intellectual development. Symptoms of consumption gave rise to melancholy--melancholy to inordinate labour--inordinate labour to speedy death. Mozart had the grave already in sight when he composed his exquisite “Requiem.” This illustrious man was the founder of the school in which Beethoven was a faithful disciple. His fertility of creation, the rich luxurious beauty of his music, his purity and melody, can hardly be excelled. In all the relations of life Mozart was blameless. He had a generous soul, and we are pained to think so rare and so richly endowed a genius should at any period of his career have suffered anguish from poverty and distress.

318. KARL FRIEDRICH ZELTER. _Musician._

[Born at Berlin, 1758. Died 1832. Aged 74.]

The son of a master mason, whose trade he followed. Forsaking masonry for music, he became the pupil of Fasch, at whose death he was appointed Director of the Royal Institute of Music, and Professor of music in the Academy of Fine Arts at Berlin. Zelter’s works are chiefly songs and compositions for men’s voices, without accompaniment. He also wrote on the theory of music. He will be chiefly remembered as the friend and correspondent of Goethe, and the early instructor of Mendelssohn.

[By Rauch, March, 1825. Modelled as a present from the sculptor to Goethe, the friend of Zelter. The Academy of Music had it executed in marble for their institution, Rauch again charging nothing for his services.]

319. JOHANN GOTTFRIED SCHADOW. _Sculptor._

[Born at Berlin, 1764. Died there, 1850. Aged 86.]

The son of a poor tailor. He evinced, at an early age, a great love for the fine arts, but he was one of many children, and there was small hope of gratifying fine-art tastes in the needy household. Fortune brought the youngster in contact with a sculptor, who taught him drawing, and from that moment his destiny was fixed. Whilst receiving instruction, he ran off with a girl to whom he was attached, married her at Vienna, and with the consent and at the expense of his stepfather, proceeded to Rome. There for two years he laboured hard as a sculptor, in the Vatican and in the Capitol. In 1788, he had already advanced far enough to be appointed Court Sculptor at Berlin. In 1822, he was made Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city. His works, numerous and of a high order, are found in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany. He was one of the first who opposed to the insipid and conventional idealism of the eighteenth century, a vigorous and truthful representation of nature, heightened by noble intellectuality. This is especially visible in his portrait statues. He was a worthy precursor of Rauch, who is one of his most famous followers. To his eldest son, Rudolph Schadow, also a distinguished sculptor, belong the specimens of modern sculpture which appear under the name of Schadow in this collection. The second son, Wilhelm Schadow, is one of the most celebrated painters in Germany, and President of the Academy at Düsseldorf. Both have a greater name as artists than the father.

[By Rauch, 1811. Plaster. The original is in the studio of Rauch.]

320. ALBERT BARTHOLOMÄUS THORWALDSEN. _Sculptor._

[Born 1770. Died 1844. Aged 74.]

He was born, as he said, at Copenhagen: some say in Iceland: some at sea, between. His father, an Icelander, was employed in carving heads for ships in the Royal Dockyard, on which the great sculptor practised his young hand: his mother was a priest’s daughter. He was educated, as all the children of workmen, in the _Holm_, or dockyard, at the King’s expense. At 11, Thorwaldsen was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. At 17, he first secured attention, and gained the small silver medal; at 19, the large. At 21, he won the small, at 23, the large gold medal. His birthday he did not know, but he called it March 8th, the day of his arriving at Rome in 1796. In the Eternal City he addicted himself to the antique. He brought introductions to Zoega the Dane, then living at Rome, a learned and antiquarian connoisseur. Zoega dealt kindly and hardly with the young sculptor, severely criticizing his labours; and Thorwaldsen, under his critic’s censure, and from his own dissatisfaction, destroyed numerous attempts. His first “Jason with the Golden Fleece,” of the natural size, made no impression, and he broke it in pieces. He made it again, 8¹⁄₂ feet high. It secured general admiration, and this time he did not destroy his work. He had, however, made up his mind to go home; his small preparation was completed; Jason was to be sent after him; but a mistake in a passport created a day’s delay. During the short interval, Thomas Hope, a well-known name in England, entered the artist’s studio, and saw the “Jason.” The price was asked. “Six hundred zecchini.” “I will give eight hundred,” answered Thomas Hope. Thorwaldsen stopped in Rome, and now began and went on, his mightier career. His chief works are classical subjects--some Christian, to which he drew late in life. The most popular of all his productions is the bas-relief of “Priam and Achilles.” In 1819, he returned to Copenhagen, but not permanently until 1838. In Rome he was the friend of Canova, who acknowledged his merit. His health was often very weak, and he died suddenly at a theatre. He was simple in his manners, and beloved. In fire and grandeur he resembled Michael Angelo. The old Scandinavian energetic blood rolled in his veins. The family tradition made him descended from one of those early warrior-kings: a more glorious, innocent conqueror.

[By Rauch. Plaster. 1816. Done at Rome. A fine artist-like head. The original is in the studio of Rauch.]

321. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Bonn, in Rhenish Prussia, 1770. Died at Vienna, 1827. Aged 57.]

This great composer was taught music from his childhood; but it was not until his twelfth year that he at all developed his genius. Sent to Vienna, he was placed there under the care of the Chapel-Master, Albrechtsberger, in spite of whose cold and conventional instruction he advanced in knowledge and strength, and excited general attention by his extraordinary gift of improvisation, and marvellous execution. In 1805, he composed “Fidelio;” then followed his oratorio of “Christ on the Mount of Olives,” the “Heroic” and “Pastoral” symphonies, and his pianoforte Concertos. At this time Beethoven had scarcely the means of subsistence, and to save him from want, a pension of four thousand florins was settled upon him by the Austrian government. He fixed his abode at the village of Baden, near Vienna, and his life became one of retirement and self-nurture. He composed his music in his solitary rambles. The wildest scenery to him was the choicest, for he shrank from intercourse with men. His habits were known and respected. He died unmarried. From his twenty-sixth year he had been deaf; but he was otherwise robust. He was passionately fond of Scott’s romances, and these works, with the “Odyssey” of Homer, were his consolations during the illness of which he died. His fertility and variety of production are marvellous. The passionate soul of melody possessed him. His works are rich in harmony, tinctured it may be with the delicate mysticism that ruled his genius in its silent haunts.

[By Ernst Hähnel, of Dresden. Plaster. 1847. In the possession of the artist, who executed the large statue of Beethoven in bronze, which stands in the Place at Bonn. This was the study from the life, for the head of the statue.]

321*. FERDINANDO PAER. _Musical Composer._

[Born at Parma, in Italy, 1771. Died 1839. Aged 68.]

At sixteen, Paer began to write for the stage. Before he was twenty-six he had already produced twenty-two operas, all in the conventional style of the old Italian operas, and after the manner of Cimarosa and Paisiello. After 1797, a laudable change is remarked in his style--more force in the harmonies, more variety in the modulations, with richer and more effective instrumentation. In 1801, appointed by the Elector of Saxony Chapel-Master in Dresden, and, favoured by the repose afforded here, Paer still improved his style. In 1806, Dresden was taken by the French. The musician transferred his services to Napoleon, and accompanied his new master to Paris. In 1810, revisited his native city, and there composed his master-piece, the opera of Agnèse. His subsequent career is remarkable for little more than for petty intrigues against rival composers, and--after his appointment as Director of the Italian Opera in Paris in 1812--for miserable squabbles with actors and musicians. He ceased to be an artist, and condescended to become a mere courtier and “homme de salon.” His death was accelerated by long-continued habits of intemperance. Paer was gifted with great fluency, and his works have brilliancy and spirit; but he is without originality, force, and dramatic power.

[Bust to come.]

322. CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH TIECK. _Sculptor._

[Born 1776. Died at Berlin, 1850. Aged 74.]

Of the school of Schadow. Brother to the celebrated poet and critic, and the friend of Rauch, with whom he was engaged in illustrating in sculpture the glories of the late war. His productions are in various parts of Germany, and are held in high estimation. He is the sculptor of the statue of Frederic William at Ruppen, and of the front gate of the cathedral at Berlin.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1825. Given by Rauch to his friend Tieck, and now in the possession of his widow.]

323. CHRISTIAN RAUCH. _Sculptor._

[Born 1777. Still living.]

The leading German sculptor of his day--endowed with great imaginative powers, and excelling in portraits, which, under his treatment, exhibit truth and nature, intimately associated with poetic elevation. In 1804, he took his way from Berlin to Rome, and presently secured the friendship of Thorwaldsen, whose love for the antique greatly influenced and directed his taste. Whilst at Rome he executed “Mars and Venus wounded by Diomedes,” a colossal bust of the King of Prussia, and other celebrated works. In 1811, invited by the King of Prussia to Berlin, he produced many colossal statues and countless busts. His colossal “Victories,” for the Walhalla, and the equestrian monument of Frederic the Great, are well known efforts of his genius. A great artist--competent to express vigorously, truthfully, and naturally, historical rather than ideal conception.

[By F. Tieck. Plaster. 1825. Modelled, to be given to his friend Rauch, but the marble bust not finished. From Lager-Haus.]

324. KARL FRIEDRICH SCHINKEL. _Architect and Painter._

[Born at Neuruppin, in Germany, 1781. Died at Berlin, 1841. Aged 60.]

Styled by his countrymen the Luther of architecture. Employed by the King of Prussia to erect those structures in his capital which have stamped a new character on Berlin, and endowed it with high architectural claims. He gave a new impulse to his art, both by his influence and his example, and was besides a generous and amiable man.

[By F. Tieck, 1819. The marble bust is in the Berlin Museum. A copy in bronze is on the staircase of the Royal Theatre, Berlin.]

325. LEO VON KLENZE. _Architect._

[Born at Hildesheim, in Hanover, 1784. Still living.]

The architect, in Munich, of “The Glyptothek,” and the constructor of many works, Royal and otherwise, in the same city. Also the designer of the plans for the “Walhalla.” Author of some literary productions bearing upon his art. In 1844, accompanied Ludwig I. to Greece to examine the plans already made for the improvement of Athens, and to suggest original designs. Klenze possesses great decorative skill, and a comprehensive knowledge of the history of architecture; but the true genius and high faculty of composition appears on few of his productions. He does not take what is universal in the various styles with which his mind is familiar, in order to form a style expressive of his own spirit, and suitable to the country and climate in which it is his business to exhibit it, but he borrows his structures from Greece and Italy, and deposits them in Munich, loading the city with specimens of foreign styles of architecture. His effects are undoubtedly picturesque, and the decorations of his buildings always beautiful, but fault is found with the internal arrangements of his edifices, with the lowness of the apartments, and with the bases of his façades, which are occasionally mean and even vulgar.

[By J. Halbig. Plaster. 1846. Executed for King Ludwig.]

326. PETER CORNELIUS. _Painter._

[Born at Düsseldorf, in Prussia, 1787. Still living.]

A renowned painter of the later German school. He studied under Langer, a disciple of the old school, who made enormous efforts to suppress the romantic tendencies of his pupil, to check his imagination, and to restrain his boldness. By a visit to Italy, however, Cornelius confirmed the bent of his genius, and rendered the good intentions of Herr Langer of no avail. His indomitable perseverance, hard study, and rare gifts, soon enabled him to outstrip all rivalry. Whilst still young he was invited to direct at Düsseldorf the School of Painting, which has proved itself one of the most careful and successful nursing-mothers of Art in Germany. In 1819, engaged by the King of Bavaria to decorate the Museum of Sculpture then constructing at Munich. The subjects painted by Cornelius in fresco for this Museum from the heroic myths of Homer and Hesiod, are conceived with a rich imagination, and executed with superior power. His cartoons illustrating the old “Nibelungen-Lied,” and the “Faust” of Goethe, are equally remarkable. In 1825, appointed Director of the Academy of Painting at Munich. In 1841, summoned to Berlin by the King of Prussia, for whom Cornelius designed the “Shield of Faith,” presented by his Majesty to his godson, the Prince of Wales. Cornelius paints with the passionate sensibility and delicate perception of a true poet. His copious imagination is never at fault, and his ability to produce is as striking as his faculty of conception. Yet he never oversteps the modesty of nature, or the confines of true art. He is the worthy leader of a daily increasing school in Germany, which attempts, and not unsuccessfully, to unite in art earnestness of thought, activity, boldness, and freedom.

[By E. Hähnel. Plaster. 1852. In the possession of the artist. This was the study for the head of the large statue of Cornelius which Hähnel was commissioned to execute for the new museum at Dresden, and which stands on the outside, amongst the artists of Germany.]

327. CHRISTOPH GLUCK. _Musician._

[Born in the early part of the 18th century. Died at Vienna, 1787.]

The great merit of Gluck is that he emancipated music from the trammels of conventionalism and false taste, and made it the exponent and minister of poetry and the drama. Gluck, invited to London in 1745 to celebrate in music the butcheries of the Duke of Cumberland, found that the operas represented there were mere concerts, for which the drama was a pretext. Sound was everything, meaning nothing. His own music was set to words with which it had no connexion, and, torn from its original context, lost all its effect. This fact led him to the discovery of the great principle which is the key to the rest of his life: viz., that music is not merely a pleasant arrangement of sounds intended to gratify the ear, but a subsidiary language, able to exalt and strengthen the emotions, raised by the measure and force of the spoken language to which it is allied. In 1761, he composed his opera of “Alceste,” as an illustration of his idea. It was followed in 1762 and 1763 by “Paris and Helena” and “Orpheus.” In 1779, he composed the “Iphigenia in Tauride,” the greatest of his works. Wieland has happily expressed Gluck’s claim upon our respect in a sentence. “He preferred,” he says, “the Muses to the Syrens.” His works are not so much operas, in the ordinary sense of the term, as poems, in which music is employed for producing and sustaining emotion. Off the stage Gluck was nothing, but upon it the musician was himself a poet. The manners of Gluck, like those of Beethoven and Handel, were rough and blunt. He was large in person; and his habits were indolent and somewhat sensual. The bust discloses the man.

[From the Terracotta, by Houdon. In the musical collection of the Royal Library at Berlin. The only bust taken from the life.]

327A. CHRISTOPH GLUCK. _Musician._

[From the Terracotta by Houdon, in the Louvre.]

327B. CHRISTOPH GLUCK. _Musician._

[From the bust by Francin (Fils) in the Louvre.]

327C. CHRISTOPH GLUCK. _Musician._

[From a bust by R. Wagner of Berlin.]

328. FRIEDRICH GÄRTNER. _Architect._

[Born 1792. Died 1847. Aged 55.]

The chief architect in Munich since the withdrawal of Klenze. His most important work is the new Library in that city, which is remarkable for the simple magnificence of its façade. He designed the Palace of King Otho at Athens, and he re-opened the quarries of Pentelicus, which had not been employed since the days of Hadrian. Upon the departure of Cornelius from Munich, Gärtner received the appointment of Director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

[By Johann Halbig.]

329. JULIUS SCHNORR. _Painter._

[Born at Leipzig, in Saxony, 1794. Still living.]

First studied under his father, who was Director of the Academy at Leipzig. In 1811, went to Vienna to get instruction there; but found little to gratify his taste, or to encourage his genius. In 1817, travelled into Italy, and there made the acquaintance of Ludwig, then Crown Prince of Bavaria. At Rome worked at the Villa Massimi, where Cornelius was also employed, and where he produced in the space of five years his eleven frescos from the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. Called to Munich in 1827, he received there the appointment of Professor of Historical Painting in the Academy, and painted for the King of Bavaria his admirable frescos illustrating “The Nibelungen-Lied.” In 1846, accepted an invitation to Dresden. Schnorr is chiefly known to us by his beautiful illustrations of the Bible. Amongst all the fresco painters of Munich he stands unrivalled for combining individual life with ideal composition.

[From the plaster model by Ernst Rietschel, dated 1848. In the possession of the sculptor.]

330. LUDOVIC SCHWANTHALER. _Sculptor._

[Born at Munich, in Bavaria, 1802. Died there, 1848. Aged 46.]

Most of his numerous and admirable works adorn his native city. His masterpiece is the colossal statue of Bavaria, cast in bronze, 54 feet high. The noble head of this figure forms a remarkable object in our Court of German and English Sculpture. Before its inauguration the artist had died, having been an invalid for the last fifteen years of his life. Many casts from the works of Schwanthaler may be found in the Court of Modern German Sculpture. He had the advantage of being an excellent classical scholar, and was besides a warm-hearted, unassuming man, simple in his manners, full of wit and humour, and a true friend. As an artist he had a fine classic feeling, great spirit and fire, a strong imagination, a vigorous and creative genius.

[By Xavier Schwanthaler. Marble, 1849. The original is in the “Ruhmeshalle” (Hall of Fame), at Munich. It was modelled from the life in 1837.]

331. FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. _Musician._

[Born at Berlin 1809. Died at Leipzig 1847. Aged 38.]

The grandson of the Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, and the son of an eminent banker. Like Mozart he exhibited an astonishing precocity. In his twentieth year he was already a musical composer of great originality. Then setting out on his travels, he visited London, Paris, and various parts of Italy. In 1834, appointed Chapel-Master at Düsseldorf. In that city he produced, when 27 years old, his oratorio of “St. Paul.” It won the success it merited. In 1839, he composed his “Lobgesang,” or “Hymn of Praise,” by many regarded as his masterpiece. In 1846, his marvellous oratorio of “Elijah” was produced at Birmingham. From this period his mental activity was prodigious, and his production ceaseless. He died, literally consumed by the fire within him. He was a great man. His faculties, of the highest order, were engaged in the advancement of the purest art. His manner was unaffected, his heart warm and affectionate. He loved England. His earliest works indicate his genius; his latest compositions are tinged with a deeper, and more solemn hue--but all he did was beautiful--like his mind.

[By E. Rietschel. Marble. 1848. In the possession of Alexander Mendelssohn, the banker, of Berlin, for whom it was executed.]

332. JOHANN HALBIG. _Sculptor._

[Still living.]

An excellent German sculptor, who studied under Schwanthaler, at Munich. The grand colossal figure of Franken (Franconia), in the German Court of Modern Sculpture (No. 173), is by this artist.

[Modelled by himself. 1850. A commission from King Ludwig.]

333. MORITZ VON SCHWIND. _Painter._

[Born at Vienna, 1804. Still living.]

Studied under Ludwig Schnorr; then under Cornelius. Since the year 1828, has been employed in decorating with frescos the Palace of the King of Bavaria, at Munich, and the Palace of the Grand Duke of Baden, at Carlsruhe. His compositions from the classical mythology, and from the modern poets, particularly from Tieck and Goethe, are amongst the finest things which have been produced in modern times.

[From a medallion by Ernst Rietschel.]

333*. EDWARD DEVRIENT. _Player._

[Born 1801. Still living.]

One of a family remarkable, like that of the Kembles in England, for dramatic genius. His uncle was a famous actor of his time; his elder brother is a player of repute in Hanover, and his younger brother, Emile (born in 1803) is known in England, as one of the best representatives of Hamlet at the present day. Edward is rather a studious and careful artist, than a man of genius. He is also an author of ability, his dramatic works having obtained considerable favour.

[From a medallion by Ernst Rietschel, dated 1852. In the possession of the sculptor.]

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

334. FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK. _Epic and Lyric Poet._

[Born at Quedlinburg, in Prussian Saxony, 1724. Died at Hamburgh, 1803. Aged 79.]

Goethe said well of Klopstock, that to him German literature owed a debt of gratitude, for he was in advance of his time, although he lived long enough for his time to be in advance of him. He is the classical epic poet of Germany, as Milton of England, but with a difference. Milton was nurtured on the overflowing bosom of English poesy. Klopstock had imbibed no such strength at a native fount. The sublime utterance of the one still reverberates through a world that is still the wiser and the better for the heavenly strain. The sonorous rhapsodies of the other already weary the ear of the land on which they originally fell with weight and power. Few were the admirers of England’s blind poet when he sang “of Man’s first disobedience.” To-day they are countless. When Klopstock published the first part of “The Messiah,” Germany was enthusiastic. The learned were at his feet, kings craved his companionship, and the people worshipped a prophet. To-day, a young German critic has the hardihood to say--without being stoned for his heresy--that Klopstock’s poems are like nothing so much as translations from some unknown author, by an erudite but somewhat unpoetical philologist. With the early admiration for the poet, was mingled awe for the sanctity with which his subject had enveloped his person. He became in a nation, what Pollock, the author of “The Course of Time,” has been amongst a class. If he is now taken down from his undue eminence, his just claims to respect must not be disregarded. If Luther constituted an epoch in the moral and intellectual emancipation of his country, Klopstock marked an era in the progress of her poesy. Both names are landmarks, in the history of the language, as cultivated in the service of letters. The latter was, also, a pioneer and a reformer. His odes are striking and lofty; his learning extensive; his piety fervent; and his poetic sensibility profound. The thirst of communing with the soul of his native Germany--since, a widely-possessing enthusiasm--announced itself as a literary virtue, first in Klopstock’s writings. It spoke in the selection of some of his themes: but was chiefly operative in his profound and enamoured study of the language which begins, in his verse, to discover and lavish exuberant wealth.

[By Dannecker.]

335. GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING. _Man of Letters._

[Born at Camentz, in Saxony, 1729. Died at Brunswick, 1781. Aged 52.]

A philosopher and a poet, but more of an investigator than of a creator. Nevertheless, a strong renovator. He is named by Germany of to-day with gratitude, amongst those who loosened the old chains of imitation from her literature, and summoned her to think and to write, self-conscious, from her own deep and powerful spirit. Powerlessly enough, her drama, till his time, was borrowed from that of a people, geographically divided from her by a river--intellectually, her antipodes. Lessing showed her, in place of Corneille and Racine, a foreigner, in whose kindred veins her own blood ran; and called her to Nature and to herself, in calling her to SHAKSPEARE. Lessing was a critic in plastic art; witness his “Laocoon.” He was a fabulist of great invention, fancy, and humour: witness his “Fables,” which may take rank with those of Æsop. He was a dramatist of skill, power, and pathos: witness his “Nathan the Wise,” and his “Emilia Galotti.” Above all, he was an independent thinker; and a style clear, precise, and masterly, runs through all his writings. He is one of those now elder classics through whom the language of the country has risen into literary rank and service.

[By Ernst Rietschel. Bronze. 1849. Erected by subscription at Brunswick. For further account of this statue, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture. No. 200.]

336. CHRISTOPH WIELAND. _Poet._

[Born in Suabia, 1733. Died 1813. Aged 80.]

An exquisite artist in words, herein resembling though more enchanting than, Lessing, whose contemporary he was. He might seem to be a transitionist; softening the passage from the imitative French school in Germany, to the pure German. Or you may suspect that the foreign element is not French, but Italian, if modern,--or Attic, if ancient. For he was a student of classic antiquity, and a lightness of grace, and a mobile sensibility to the beautiful, which are not German, reign over his numerous writings in prose and verse. Some of his works are direct imitations from the Greek--as his Dialogues after Lucian. His elaborate philosophical romance, “Agathon,” lays the scene in old Greece. But his gift is an unrivalled ease in the flow of his narrative verse--lively or serious--made alluring by perpetual representation to the eye; and roving with predilection amidst romantic scenes and adventures. His poem of “Oberon” is a masterpiece in this kind. He seems to have prepared for it in studying Ariosto, but engrafting upon the Italian style the more picturesque of his own northern and later poetry. The qualities missed in this rich, enticing, and luxurious word-painter, are profound passion, intellectual might, and the more solemn contemplation of the universe, natural and spiritual. Wieland was a scholar: you feel the influence of his reading at every step; but the springs in his own bosom well freely.

[The original marble, by Schadow, is the property of Henry Crabbe Robinson, Esq. of London. Flaxman declared it “a perfect work, never surpassed by any artist, living or dead.” When Mr. Robinson visited Goethe at Weimar, and informed him that he possessed this bust, Goethe related the circumstances under which it had been lost to Germany, and added: “You have made me as happy as though I had recovered a lost child.” Mr. Robinson promised Goethe to bequeath the bust to the Public Library at Weimar, where Wieland had lived for many years. One cast has been allowed to be taken for the Crystal Palace; and the mould has been destroyed.]

337. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. _Poet._

[Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in Germany, 1749. Died at Weimar, in Germany, 1832. Aged 83.]

For comprehensiveness and grasp of thought, for profound knowledge of human life and dealings, for intellectual prowess, for intimate acquaintance with various and opposing arts and sciences, Goethe stands alone in Europe throughout the period which he elevated by his presence and swayed by his achievements. He was a great poet, an excellent dramatist, a fine novelist, a skilled naturalist; with chemistry, botany, and anatomy he was familiar. In truth, it is not easy to limit the immense domain through which his giant mind ranged at its will, conquering and acquiring wherever it touched. His productions are voluminous, corresponding to the wealth of his overflowing brain. His “Faust” predominates far above his other works in popular impression. It is the one in which he seems the most resolutely to have committed himself to his subject. Wild, audacious, lying as this does desperately out of the Real and the Possible, he throws himself into his enterprise, doing it justice, with all his gathered might. We have a feeling persuasion of this having been his own favorite work, to which he most confided, with love, the intimacies of his genius. The recognition of Faust, as a high work of art, must, however, be restrained to the first part. In the second the poet seems as though self-bewitched. Certainly, Germany never has possessed so consummate a master, in art, of her words. His lyrics are gems of music. They have the _felt_ charm of grace, rather than demonstrable worth. In the verse of Schiller it is the other way. Ask of his Germany what constitutes the all-extolled merit of Goethe, and you will hear for answer:--“He is the great world-sage.” But some of the elements of true wisdom he unquestionably lacked. Admit all his strength, his knowledge, his skill, his intuition, and you still miss the heart lodged by Mother Nature in the bosoms of Homer, of Shakspeare, of the compatriot and contemporary Schiller; which, warm and large, embraced with loving and devout sympathy all that is great and high in the souls of men. You desire, in many of his personages, the beating pulses of simple, natural, human affection; the exuberance of genial and generous passion;--in himself, the possessing and tyrannizing enthusiasm, proper to the vowed follower of the Muse. His _judgments_ of the world show distinguished capacity, but his _pictures_ are not generic representations of Man, either as reality gives him in experience to every one of us, or as poesy would select him. Goethe promulgated speculations on plants and colours that have been received into science. He made other speculations during his mighty and protracted career, which passed into the spirit of more than one generation, to influence, guide, advance, fashion, and direct it.

[By Alexander Frippel, 1789. Modelled from the life when Goethe was in his prime. It was done at Rome, by order of the Prince Waldeck, in whose castle at Aroldsen the original exists. Goethe at that time allowed his hair to grow in all its natural luxuriance. “I remember him well,” says a distinguished friend and countryman of his; “he was then as handsome as Apollo.”]

337A. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. _Poet._

[This bust is by Rauch, from the marble, dated 1820. It was a commission from the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar, and occupies its place in his palace.]

337B. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. _Poet._

[This bust is from the colossal statue, the work of Steinhauser, executed by order of the Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar.]

338. FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH VON SCHILLER. _Poet._

[Born at Marbach, in Germany, 1759. Died at Weimar, 1805. Aged 46.]

According to the Germans, Schiller stands second in the list of their great poets, Goethe being the first; but in the esteem of the rest of the world, Schiller is pre-eminently the greatest of German poets. In universality, breadth and power, his genius yields to that of his illustrious rival; but in delicacy of perception, refinement of feeling, intense sympathy with the passions he represents, exquisite purity of thought and diction, and in the treatment of ideal beauty, he is without a competitor in his own country. His manifest delight in the delineation of pure and generous characters is not the least grateful of his excellences. His poetry is the bright intellectual reflexion of his own chastened spirit, as the writings of Goethe constitute the masculine and mighty expression of his essentially sensual nature. The German stage was formed by Schiller, whose later tragedies gave to the drama of his country a rank that it had never held before. At the outset of his career Schiller studied law, then medicine; and whilst his own tastes would have led him to the pastoral office, he found himself, at the age of 30, appointed to the Chair of History at Jena. His acknowledged greatest work is the tragedy of “Wallenstein.” He died of consumption, and was buried with public honours. He conferred dignity upon the literature of his country, and helped, more than any other man of his time, to bring it abreast of the poetry of other nations; but the originality, beauty, and force of his productions are not more worthy of contemplation, than the aspiring grandeur and nobility of his moral character. He was the friend and pupil of Goethe. The teacher was the more consummate artist, the disciple was the purer man. Schiller exalts our idea of humanity, Goethe lowers it.

[By Dannecker. Marble. 1805. The original was bequeathed by the artist to King William of Würtemberg, who presented it to the Museum at Stuttgart.]

338A. FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH VON SCHILLER. _Poet._

[This colossal bust was executed by order of King Louis of Bavaria for the Walhalla.]

339. LUDWIG TIECK. _Author._

[Born at Berlin, 1773. Recently deceased.]

A writer in literature and art, who has exercised a sensible influence upon the minds of contemporary authors. His narratives reveal a powerful imagination and a profound sense of the beautiful. In his “Zerbino” he exhibited his ideas on general æsthetics. A visit to England in 1818 inspired him with the idea of translating the plays of Shakspeare, and he undertook this labour in conjunction with W. Schlegel. The translation is perhaps the best that has ever been made in any language of our great poet. At the early period of his literary career, Tieck delighted in the marvellous and fantastic. In 1820, his genius took a new direction, and built upon an historical foundation, and upon observation of actual life. The present King of Prussia charged Tieck with the direction of the theatre at Berlin, and conferred upon him a pension. Many of his works have been translated into English--two by Bishop Thirlwall.

[By F. Tieck. Plaster. 1836. In the Lager-Haus. The original model was done at Dresden.]

340. BERTHOLD AUERBACH. _Poet and Novelist._

[Born 1812. Still living.]

Of Jewish parents, and originally intended for theological pursuits. Completing his education in 1832, he abandoned Rabbinical lore for the study of history, philosophy, and general literature. In 1841, he published a life of Spinosa, to whose doctrines he was deeply attached, and a translation of that philosopher’s complete writings. In 1843, he produced a much more popular and generally interesting work, “Village Histories of the Black Forest,” which has been translated into English, Dutch, and Swedish. Since 1845, Auerbach has resided either at Weimar or Leipzig. He is zealous in the cause of popular education, and, during the commotions of 1848, took part with the moderate democrats.

[By Ernst Rietschel. Medallion. 1847. In the possession of the sculptor.]

SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.

341. JOHANN GUTENBERG. _Inventor of Printing._

[Born at Mayence, in Germany, between 1395 and 1400. Died there, 1468.]

Nothing is known of the early history of Gutenberg, save that he was born of a patrician family. In 1427, he resided at Strasburgh. When and where his first attempt at printing was made, it is impossible to say, for he never affixed his name, nor the date of printing to any of his productions. About 1438 he first employed moveable types made of wood. In 1443, he quitted Strasburgh, and returned to his native place. There he met with one John Faust, a rich goldsmith, and engaged with him to establish a printing-press, Faust finding the money for the undertaking. The press was established, and then, for the first time, the Bible was printed in Latin. Business went on prosperously for a time. But, four hundred years ago, it fared with great discoverers and great speculations as at the present hour. Faust had made large advances, and Gutenberg could not meet the claim. The pair went to law; and, as it falls out in these cases, the goldsmith got the verdict. He retained the business. Gutenberg was thrown upon the world. There he found a friend, was set upon his feet, and established another press. In 1837, a splendid monument, by Thorwaldsen, was erected to the memory of Gutenberg in his native town, where the members of the Gutenberg Society--to which many of the writers of the Rhenish provinces belong--meet to celebrate his mighty discovery, and to do honour to his name. Who shall fix the merit or assess the claims, or tell the influence exercised in the world by the portentous labours, of “The Inventor of Printing?”

[By E. Von Launitz. Plaster. 1840. Modelled gratuitously by the artist, for the celebration of the invention of printing in 1840. For an account of the very line monument erected to Gutenberg at Frankfort by E. Von Launitz, see No. 175 of Handbook to Modern Sculpture.]

342. IMMANUEL KANT. _Metaphysician._

[Born at Königsberg, in Prussia, 1724. Died there, 1804. Aged 80.]

The founder of a new philosophy in Germany. After twelve years’ meditation, he produced, in the space of five months, his celebrated “Criticism of Pure Reason.” His main theory is, that there is only one source of knowledge, viz., the union of subject and object; that is to say, our knowledge is partly _mental_, partly _physical_,--one half of it coming from the mind, or _subject_, the other half from the _object_. The mind has its own forms which it gives to objects. Time and space are forms of the mind, not things existing out of it. By thus restoring to mind its independent activity he was able to oppose Locke, proving that we have ideas independently of experience, and to oppose Hume, by proving that these ideas have a character of universality, necessity, and irresistibility. Hume insisted that the understanding is treacherous. Kant declared it is only limited. For a time, Kant’s philosophy superseded every other system in the Protestant Universities of Germany. A man of high intellectual endowment; his life rigorously philosophical. He lived and died a type of the German Professor. The cathedral clock of Königsberg, which town he never once quitted during his long life, was not more punctual, it was said, than Immanuel Kant.

[By Fried. Hagemann. The original in marble is in the University of Königsberg. F. Hagemann was a pupil of G. Schadow; he was born in 1773, and died at Berlin in 1806. He executed this bust at Königsberg.]

343. HEINRICH PESTALOZZI. _Educator._

[Born in Switzerland, 1745. Died there, 1827. Aged 82.]

In a year of great dearth and distress to a Swiss Canton, he found himself in charge of half a hundred ragged and wretched children--in an empty barn for a school--with hardly bread for them and him, and wholly without books, or any other usual implements of that industry; but with a heart yearning and overflowing in love towards his little helpless ones, and with an intellect singularly given to resolve the complex forms of knowledge into the primitive elements fitted, by their evidence and their simplicity, for the tender and opening mind to receive. So driven and so gifted “he made every child its own book.” These emphatic words of the narrative tell the secret of that genius with which he afterwards renovated instruction for the schools of Europe. To draw forth power--to invite the native energies into spontaneous action--to lead on the pupil, step after step, in creating thought, in investigating and constructing, how slowly soever, knowledge for himself--to foster intelligence under the kindliest influences, like a plant that wins growth in dews and sunshine, in soft airs and showers--was the new and living scholastic art which Pestalozzi opposed to the old tyranny of inflexible rote, rule, and routine. But intellectual training alone, he held for vain and pernicious. The roots must strike and feed in the soil of the religious, rightly-governed will.

[Marble. 1809. A commission from King Louis of Bavaria. The original is in the Walhalla.]

343.* JOHANN PETER FRANK. _Physician._

[Born at Rotalben, in Germany, 1745. Died at Vienna, 1821. Aged 76.]

One of the greatest practical physicians that Germany has produced. In 1779, he published the first volume of his most famous work, the “System of Medical Police,” which he states to have cost him ten years intense study. Was Professor of medicine at Göttingen. In 1795, invited to Vienna by the Emperor with commission to reform the medical department of the army. In 1804, charged by the Emperor Alexander with the formation of a chemical school at Wilna; and subsequently received many tempting offers from Napoleon to establish himself in France. Has written many interesting works in connexion with his profession; but his fame as a writer rests upon the publication already mentioned.

[The bust, which is to come, is by Rauch, in bronze. 1841. The original belongs to the monument raised to Frank by subscription, in the House of the Orphans at Halle on the Saale.]

344. FRIEDEICH HEINRICH JACOBI. _Philosopher and Poet._

[Born at Düsseldorf, 1743. Died at Munich, 1819. Aged 76.]

The son of a merchant whose business he followed in spite of his great fondness for literature, until an official appointment in his native city enabled him to devote his whole time to study. In 1777, he published “Friendship and Love,” a philosophical poem, and in the same year was invited to Munich, where he was made Privy Councillor. In 1781, he had a sharp controversy with Mendelssohn, respecting the doctrines of Spinosa. In 1804, he assisted in the formation of the Academy of Sciences at Munich, of which institution he became President in 1807. His work published in 1811, upon “Divine Things and Revelation,” involved him in bitter discussion with Schelling. Jacobi was a philosophical critic, rather than the founder of a distinct philosophical system, and his polemical works did good service to philosophy by weeding false theories from systems already in existence. He was an honest, diligent, and penetrating inquirer after truth, and carried a reverent mind and a sincerity of purpose into all his investigations. He affirmed that all our knowledge of the divine world comes by spiritual intuition, and that all demonstrative systems tend to fatalism.

[By Tieck, 1809. In plaster. Modelled at Munich, and now in the Royal Museum, Berlin.]

345. ALBRECHT THAER. _Physician and Agriculturist._

[Born at Celle, in Hanover, 1752. Died at Mœglin, near Frankfort, 1828. Aged 76.]

Educated for the medical profession at Göttingen, where in 1774, he took his doctor’s degree. From his youth upwards of a serious and reflective turn, engaged in philosophical studies, and in brooding over plans for the amelioration of his kind. He passed some time in England, at the University of Oxford, and there attracted the notice of George III., to whom he was appointed Physician in Ordinary. After making a pedestrian tour through England, he visited Scotland, and closely investigated the system of agriculture there pursued. Henceforth he belonged to agricultural science. In 1794, he published his introduction to English agriculture. Retiring to Celle upon the death of his father, he founded in his native place an institution for the education of young agriculturists. Implements instantly improved, and a rational system of cultivation spread throughout the Communes bordering on that of Celle. Invited to Berlin, he quitted Hanover in 1804. Obtaining a property at Mœglin on the Oder, through the generosity of the King of Prussia, he began a course of oral instruction in agriculture to classes of youth collected from all parts of Germany. His Institution rapidly rose to the rank of an Academy, and all its Professors were paid by the Prussian government. As an agricultural writer, the name of Thaer is worthy of being placed beside that of our own Arthur Young, and of the meritorious Frenchman, Olivier de Serres. He is the reformer of husbandry in his own country, and an enlightened expounder of the great principles upon which agricultural prosperity in modern times rests.

[By Carl Wichmann. Marble. In the possession of Thaer’s family at Mœglin.]

346. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. _Physician and Founder of Homœopathy._

[Born at Meissen, in Saxony, 1755. Died in Paris, 1843. Aged 88.]

He began life under good auspices. His father, a porcelain painter, an upright and instructed man, in straitened circumstances, is said to have been assiduous in inculcating upon him his own principles of integrity. When, unable to support further the expenses of his education, he was about putting him to a trade, the Meissen professors, struck by the lad’s talents, resolved to continue his education gratuitously, and afterwards obtained for him the same favour at Leipzig. He embarked in his profession, and gained such distinction, that for a whole twelvemonth, during the illness of the celebrated Wagner, all the hospitals of Dresden were placed under his direction. His eminence offered the fairest prospects, when he was visited by a growing distrust of the science which he practised. He found in it no settled and commanding principles. He saw the ablest men, groping their way between experience and conjecture. One law, as he thought, dawned on him; that the cure of the disease is to be effected by the same agent which, in the healthy body, would have produced it. On this basis he re-constructed medicine, giving to his new system the name of “Homœopathy,” or “The Science of Like Affections.” His disciples devoted themselves to the creation of a suitable Materia Medica, by experimenting upon their own healthy bodies; and it is a second discovery of Hahnemann, if a discovery, that infinitesimal doses may be effectual in the cure of disease. The system of Hahnemann waged war to the knife, and it met with war to the knife. As an historical point it is worthy of remark, that Homœopathy has spread, and is spreading, its conquests. The honesty of the founder may stand on the single plain fact, that by denouncing and renouncing established doctrines, he stepped down from the safe height of his profession, into hazard of the poverty which he had tasted, and from which he had laboriously risen.

[By Rauch. The original bust is in marble, in the Library at Bremen.]

346A. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. _Physician and Founder of Homœopathy._

[This is a colossal bust representing the homœopathist at a more advanced age.]

347. HEINRICH WILHELM MATHIAS OLBERS. _Astronomer._

[Born at Abergen, in Germany, 1758. Died at Bremen, in Germany, 1840. Aged 82.]

In 1779, whilst studying medicine at Göttingen, he became known as an astronomer by his observations on the comet of that year. He then discovered a new method of calculating the orbits of comets. In 1802, he discovered the planet Pallas; and in 1807, after an arduous search of three years, the planet Vesta. Olbers was by profession a physician, and he divided his time between the practice of medicine, and the pursuit of his darling study. His observatory was the most complete known in Germany at his time. He wrote but little, and his works are on abstruse subjects. His valuable library was purchased at his death by the Emperor of Russia, and deposited in the University of Pultowa.

[For description of this statue, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture.]

348. FRIEDRICH AUGUSTUS WOLF. _Philologist._

[Born at Hainrode, in Germany, 1759. Died at Marseilles, 1824. Aged 65.]

Son of the organist of Hainrode. In 1777, he entered the University of Göttingen, where he gave private lessons to his fellow-students in English and Greek, and published an edition of Shakspeare’s Macbeth. In 1807, he went to Berlin, and took an active part in the foundation of the University shortly afterwards created there. Is honourably known to literature, for his erudite and admirable editions of the classical authors, and for his bold elucidation of many obscure points in ancient learning. His most celebrated work, the “Prolegomena ad Homerum,” published in 1795, was directed to overthrowing the opinion, previously universal, which saw in the “Iliad,” the entire creation of a single mind. He argues that it is the contexture of distinct traditionary songs, the productions, probably, of many distinct singers: thus dissolving at once the unity of the poem and of the poet, and making out of one many Homers. An earlier suspicion had already separated the authorship of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.” Both questions are still in full debate amongst the learned. He may be regarded as the founder of the modern philological school of Germany; and his “Prolegomena” undoubtedly exercised a greater influence upon modern scholarship than any work that has yet appeared.

[By F. Tieck. Marble. 1822. In the Royal University, Berlin.]

349. JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. _Philosopher and Metaphysician._

[Born at Rammenau, in Germany, 1762. Died at Berlin, 1814. Aged 52.]

He was an humble private teacher in Leipzig when he first made acquaintance with the writings of Kant, whose views he eagerly adopted and cherished. He subsequently (1792) introduced himself to Kant by a work which he wrote in eight days, “A Critique upon every possible Revelation.” This publication procured for its author the Chair of Philosophy at Jena, in 1793, which he was obliged to resign in consequence of his heterodox religious principles. Finding an asylum in Prussia, he was appointed to the Philosophical Chair first at Erlangen, then at Berlin. In 1813, he joined a corps of volunteers, and took part in the memorable campaign of that year, his wife accompanying him, and performing many heroic and womanly services to the wounded. Husband and wife both took fever in the discharge of their duties, and died. It has been said of Fichte that he erected the temple which Kant declined to build. His great aim was to construct a science out of Consciousness, and to found upon it a system of morals. He endeavoured to establish the identity of Being and Thought, and is therefore the great advocate of Idealism, which, however, he understood in a different sense from that taught by Berkeley. According to his theory, the realization of the world is the complete development of ourselves--which should tend to the beautiful, the useful, and the good. His life and death were both honourable to his nature. Before he died, he was doomed to see his system in a great measure superseded by that of Schelling.

[Bust by Ludwig Wichmann. Marble. The original is in the hall of the University of Berlin. Executed for the University.]

350. CHRISTOPH WILHELM HUFELAND. _Physician._

[Born at Langensalze, in Saxony, 1762. Died, 1836. Aged 74.]

Professor of medicine at Jena in 1793, and physician to the King of Prussia. The author of several works, the most celebrated being “The Art of prolonging Human Life,” a book translated into many languages. His fame in his own country was very great, and he is styled the Nestor of German practitioners.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1833. A commission from the University of Berlin, where the original exists.]

351. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. _Naturalist and Traveller._

[Born at Berlin, 1769. Still living.]

The mighty traveller of our own day. Filled with literature and science, as if he had spent one life in the library, the laboratory, and the observatory, he performed the work of another in treading visited and unvisited plain, valley and mountain of the eastern and western hemisphere; uniting an ardour of spirit and a vigour of intellect rarely mated, and not often, singly matched. An author of books that have advanced existing science, and the creator of new sciences. His writings, conveying an account of his world-wide journeys and scientific exploits, and treating profoundly and originally of general physics, zoology, comparative anatomy, astronomy, mineralogy, magnetism, and botany, are without parallel for richness of materials, and in respect of their value as manuals for all enlightened explorers of the marvels of nature. After a life of almost superhuman labour, and inconceivable results, the grey-headed sage sums up the diligence of his lengthened years, in a survey which registers, along every line of human inquiry, the point of progress attained in the contemplation of the Universe,--the first half of the teeming nineteenth century having elapsed. Who else could have achieved--who but he could have attempted--the Atlantean service? Who but the philosopher, to whom the whole cycle of the physical sciences is familiar--who walks hand in hand, a friend and fellow-labourer, with their most distinguished inquirers? Who but the scholar, before whose eyes the lore of old time lies unrolled? Who but the workman whose strength toil cannot quell, and whose fire age does not quench?--Spread his “Kosmos” before a young and ardent intelligence, which has just then accomplished its regular liberal nurture, and say “Read and comprehend.” The comprehension exacted will, when acquitted, have added an education.

[By Rauch. Executed in marble at Rome, 1823.]

351A. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. _Naturalist and Traveller._

[This medallion, by F. Tieck, was modelled gratuitously for a medal struck at the expense of those who had attended a course of lectures delivered by Humboldt, and by them presented to him.]

352. GOTTFRIED HERMANN. _Philologist and Critic._

[Born at Leipzig, 1772. Still living.]

This distinguished scholar evinced, at a very early age, a taste for classical literature, but was compelled by his father to study law at Jena. Returning to his native city, he resolved to abandon the career of jurisprudence for that of literature. In 1798, he became Professor of philosophy. The foundation of his reputation was his fine work on Greek metres, well known to English students. He translated “The Clouds” of Aristophanes, and some tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles. His academic dissertations are numerous, and his Latin poems are admirable specimens of antique composition. Hermann has rendered invaluable service to the cause of letters. Goethe said of him, that he was “a true Sçavant, for he knew how to renew the old and to revive the dead.” Dr. Parr placed him at the head of the great contemporary critics.

[By Ernst Rietschel. Marble. 1846. Executed for the University of Leipzig, and placed in the hall there.]

353. FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEPH VON SCHELLING. _Metaphysician._

[Born at Leonberg, in Germany, 1775. Still living.]

At Leipzig, where he studied medicine and philosophy, became the pupil of Fichte. Afterwards filled Fichte’s vacant Chair at Jena, where he lectured with great success. Continued in Bavaria until 1842, when he was invited by the King of Prussia to Berlin. Is still there, occupying as lecturer the philosophical Chair once held by Hegel. Is often styled the German Plato. It has been suggested that he should rather be called the German Plotinus. Schelling proclaims the incapacity of reason to solve the problems of philosophy, and calls in the aid of a higher faculty--“intellectual intuition.” He is the founder of a new school of scientific thinkers, called the _Nature Philosophers_, of whom Oken is the most illustrious example. He treats Newton’s speculations upon light with disdain, although they have led to many practical discoveries. Schelling’s views on light and philosophy, generally, will probably lead to little more than endless disputation. His works, nevertheless, indicate a vivid imagination conjoined with, subtle dialectics. Coleridge, in his philosophical writings, has often adopted and adapted the ideas of Schelling. In many respects, Schelling’s head and face resemble those of Socrates.

[By J. Halbig. Marble. 1852. The original is in the Royal Palace at Munich. It was executed by order of King Maximilian II.]

354. JAN JACOB BERZELIUS. _Chemist._

[Born at Ostgothland, in Sweden, 1779. Died at Stockholm, 1848. Aged 69.]

The son of a village schoolmaster, and educated for the medical profession. Cultivated with ardour the science of chemistry, which then scarcely drew the attention of the medical student. Appointed Professor of Chemical Pharmacy in the University of Stockholm, and retained the Chair for the space of forty-two years. At home and abroad he attained to great honour and distinction. In Sweden he was made a noble, and he could boast of connexion with eighty-eight scientific societies of Europe and America. His patient investigations helped largely to lay the foundations of organic chemistry; and to him pre-eminently belongs the honour of applying the great principles of inorganic chemistry. He invented the use of symbols for chemical formulæ, an invaluable method of representing chemical changes; and was as distinguished for his researches in analytical chemistry, as for his philosophical views of the science. His personal appearance was that of a strong, healthy man, and gave no indication of his intellectual power. An early riser, devoting all his mornings to his scientific labours, and his evenings to social relaxation. He was beloved in Stockholm.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1822.]

355. SULPITZ VON BOISSERÉE. _Architect and Archæologist._

[Born at Cologne, 1775. Still living.]

A man to whom, as to his brother, Germany is indebted for one of its most interesting and valued picture galleries. The two brothers, and a friend named Bertram, in 1803, formed a resolution to collect the artistic antiquities of Germany, and for years all three pursued their object with the utmost vigour, intelligence, and zeal. In 1814 “The Boisserée Collection” already reckoned 200 works of art, and was arranged at Cologne. It was ultimately transferred to Stuttgart, on the invitation of the King of Wurtemburg. Many valuable masterpieces of old masters were thus brought to light. In 1827, the collection was ceded to Louis, King of Bavaria, for 120,000 dollars, and in 1836 conveyed to Munich, in which city Sulpitz and his brother established themselves. A writer upon the “Architectural Monuments of the Lower Rhine,” and an indefatigable, as well as a successful, day labourer in the field of his early and later discoveries.

[Bust. Plaster. By L. Schwanthaler. 1840. The original is in the Palace at Munich.]

356. PETER KASPAR WILHELM BEUTH. _Member of the Council of State in Prussia._

[Born 1782. Died 1853. Aged 71.]

Director in Berlin of the Government department of trade, commerce, and buildings, and head of the Great Industrial Society of Prussia. In his public service he endeavoured to advance the principles of Free-trade, and always acted upon the idea that the regulative intervention of government in matters of commerce should be restricted to cases of general danger. He established many useful institutions in connexion with his department, and caused the issue of several works of instruction for industrial schools and for artisans. He also introduced into Prussia valuable improvements in manufactures, brought home by himself from the United States, England, and France, into which countries he had travelled. An active promoter of enlightened industry.

[By F. Tieck. 1847. Modelled for a large gold medal struck by the Great Society for the Encouragement of Industry in Berlin, and presented to Mr. Beuth.]

357. KARL GUSTAV CARUS. _Physician and Anatomist._

[Born at Leipzig, 1790. Still living.]

The son of a painter. Intended for a dyer,--he devoted himself to the study of chemistry; but, widening his sphere, applied himself to medicine, and, subsequently, to anatomy. In 1811, appointed to the Chair of Comparative Anatomy in Leipzig; and, in 1815, to the Directorship of Clinical Midwifery, at the Medico-Surgical Academy of Dresden. Has acquired great reputation by his lectures on Psychology. Also a painter of considerable talent, and the author of numerous works on Medicine, and upon Art. His Letters on Landscape-painting are valuable to artists; their merit was recognised by Goethe. No less important is his book on the “Proportions of the Human Body,”--just published. In him severe science and beautiful art--a rare union--are happily combined.

[By Ernst Rietschel. Plaster. 1846. In the possession of the sculptor.]

358. KARL GUTZKOW. _Journalist and Dramatist._

[Born at Berlin, 1811. Still living.]

A German author, who, after the breaking out of the Revolution of 1830, exerted himself to advance the interests of his countrymen by publishing one work against Revelation, for which he received three months’ imprisonment, and another against Marriage, which was scarcely issued before he himself entered the marriage state. The dramas of Gutzkow have fared better than his polemical writings, some of his plays being very popular. He is a prolific author, and has cleverness and wit, which he brings to the illustration of every topic of the day; but his vanity and conceit surpass his abilities, and perpetually mislead him.

[By Ernst Rietschel. Plaster. 1850. In the possession of the sculptor.]

SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN.

359. HANS JOACHIM VON ZIETHEN. _Prussian General._

[Born at Ruppin, in Germany, 1699. Died at Berlin, 1786. Aged 87.]

One of the bravest and best of the great Frederic’s generals. Served with great honour in the campaign of Silesia, 1742; secured the victory of Hennesdorf by the eminent skill displayed in the retreat from Bohemia. As lieutenant-general, made the campaign in Saxony, 1756, and won further distinction in 1760 at Torgau. When 80 years old still eager for action, and kept out of battle only by the kind interdict of the king. He died honoured by his sovereign, beloved by his inferiors, and worshipped with enthusiastic admiration by the great mass of the people. Frederic the Great was fond of proposing military problems to his officers, asking them, in such or such an imaginary situation,--“What would you do?” to which the other officers replied, as they best might. All that he could ever get from old Ziethen was: “Sire, only let me see the enemy coming, and I shall know well enough what to do with him.”--So he did.

360. GEBHARDT LEBRECHT VON BLUCHER, PRINCE OF WAHLSTADT. _Prussian Field Marshal._

[Born at Rostock, in Germany, 1742. Died in Silesia, 1819. Aged 77.]

First entered the Swedish army. Taken prisoner by the Prussians, whom he joined, but expelled from this service for duelling and dissipation. Retired to the country, married, and, after fourteen years’ quiet, returned to the army as Major of the very regiment which he had quitted as Captain. Then commenced a glorious military career, proudly terminating with his opportune appearance on the field of Waterloo. In 1814, visited England with the allied sovereigns, and was enthusiastically received. A rough and fearless soldier, brave, honest, free, beloved by his comrades, devoted to his country, and a bitter hater of his country’s foes. As a general, daring, reckless, and impetuous, to the detriment of otherwise high military qualifications. In temper he was vehement and irascible, and an ardent lover of pleasure. His soldiers gave him the nickname of “Marshal Forwards.”

[Bust, by Rauch. 1816. Marble. This is the bust presented by King Frederic William III. to the Duke of Wellington, and is in the gallery at Apsley House. The large intaglio (No. 360A) is from the monument at Kriblowitz, a small village near the city of Kant, in Silesia, and about ten English miles from Breslau. It was erected about six years ago by order of King Frederic William IV. of Prussia, and is designed after the ancient Roman sepulchre of Cæcilia Metella, but on a smaller scale, being thirty feet high. It is constructed entirely of granite, and the ceiling is formed of one large block. A marble sarcophagus within contains the remains of Blucher. The monument at Löwenberg, on the river Bober in Silesia, was erected by King Frederic William IV. to commemorate the battle of Katsbach, won by Blucher over the French in 1813. It consists of a colossal bust in marble upon a pedestal of grey marble, bearing an inscription. The bust, No. 360B, was sculptured by Berger, a pupil of Rauch’s, after the head of the colossal statue in bronze by Rauch, which stands in the Place at Breslau.]

360A. GEBHARDT LEBRECHT VON BLUCHER, PRINCE OF WAHLSTADT. _Prussian Field Marshal._

360B. GEBHARDT LEBRECHT VON BLUCHER, PRINCE OF WAHLSTADT. _Prussian Field Marshal._

361. FRIEDRICH WILHELM BULOW. _Prussian General._

[Born in Mecklenburgh, 1755. Died at Königsberg, 1816. Aged 61.]

A brave man and a distinguished general. He fought under Blucher in the battles of Eylau, Friedland, and Tilsit. In 1813, he three times saved Berlin from the advancing French army. He was in the great battle of Leipzig; and in 1815, he repulsed Vandamme and Grouchy on the heights of Wavre. The marvellous rapidity with which he brought up his division to the field of Waterloo won high commendation from the Duke of Wellington. He had great taste in the Fine Arts, and a cultivated mind. He composed some pieces of sacred music, which have been much admired.

[By Rauch. Bronze. 1824. In the Pleasure Garden near the Palace at Potsdam.]

362. KARL BARON VON STEIN. _Prussian Minister of State._

[Born at Nassau, 1756. Died 1831. Aged 75.]

A great Minister of modern times. Though rough and uncouth in his manners, his honour was unimpeachable, his integrity without a flaw, and his devotion to the interests of Prussia patriotic and enlightened. He was Prussian Minister of Finance in 1804: but resigning in consequence of some differences with the King, he retired to his patrimony in Nassau. Thence recalled after the peace of Tilsit, he resumed his functions, and commenced a series of great social, economical, and material reforms, which led directly to the resuscitation of the Prussian monarchy, and to her present eminence. Napoleon, jealous of the useful activity of this Minister, demanded and obtained his exile. In 1813, the banished man proceeded to St. Petersburg, where his counsels directed the Emperor Alexander through the crisis of that dreadful year. Nor did Prussian interests suffer, in consequence of the sagacious advice that came from time to time to Berlin from the exile’s retreat in Courland.

363. GEBHARDT DAVID SCHARNHORST. _General._

[Born in Hanover, 1756. Died at Prague, 1813. Aged 57.]

A very distinguished general of his day. He served first in the Hanoverian service, then in the army of the King of England, and finally in that of Prussia. In the war with France, in 1806, he contributed greatly to the brilliant retreat on Lübeck, effected by Blucher. After the peace of Tilsit, he was named President of the Commission for the re-organization of the Prussian army, and his energy and wisdom enabled Prussia to bring a finely appointed army of 200,000 men into the field, after Napoleon’s Russian reverses. He was wounded at Lutzen, and died at Prague shortly afterwards. In 1804, he had been appointed by the King of Prussia, conjointly with Baron Knesebeck, instructor to the Prince Royal: and at one time of his life he wrote several works on military subjects, which gained him great repute.

[By Rauch. Modelled in 1819, and executed in bronze by order of King Frederic William III. It stands in the Pleasure Garden near the Royal Palace at Potsdam. A colossal bust, taken from the same model, was done by Rauch, by order of King Louis of Bavaria, for the Walhalla.]

364. YORCK, COUNT VON WARTENBURG. _Prussian Field Marshal._

[Born at Königsberg, 1759. Died 1830. Aged 71.]

One of the ablest Prussian generals in the wars with Napoleon. He fought under the British flag in the American revolution. When commanding subsequently in the Prussian service, he concluded in 1812, on his own responsibility, the celebrated Convention which separated the Prussian troops from the French, and proved one of the main causes of Napoleon’s overthrow. He gained many victories at various times, and was honoured with the title of Wartenburg for the battle fought at that place. In 1821, he was created Field-Marshal. A brave man, endowed with great military talent; a shrewd observer of men, ambitions, violent, yet devoted to his country.

[By Rauch. Bronze. 1818. In the Pleasure Garden near the Palace at Potsdam.]

365. FRIEDRICH HEINRICH VON NOLLENDORF. _Prussian Field-Marshal._

[Born at Berlin, 1763. Died there, 1823. Aged 60.]

A distinguished Prussian officer. Commanded a brigade in the Prussian contingent to Napoleon’s disastrous expedition to Russia, and bore an honourable part in the wars subsequently undertaken against Napoleon. Accompanied Frederic William of Prussia on his visit to England. He died on the same day as Buonaparte. All the sovereigns of the coalition had conferred honours upon him, and Napoleon himself decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honour.

[By Rauch. Bronze. 1819. In the Pleasure Garden near the Palace at Potsdam.]

366. AUGUSTUS, COUNT HERDART DE GNEISENAU. _Field-Marshal._

[Born at Schilda, in Upper Saxony, 1760. Died at Posen, in Prussia, 1832. Aged 72.]

An eminent soldier, who served first under the Margrave of Anspach-Bayreuth; then in the English, then in the Prussian service. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he was placed at the head of Blucher’s staff, and was mainly instrumental in bringing up the Prussian troops at Waterloo, where he ably conducted the pursuit. In 1831, took the command of the Prussian army on the breaking out of the Polish insurrection, and died of cholera the same year. A great master of strategy.

[By F. Tieck. Bronze. 1821. In the Pleasure Garden near the Palace at Potsdam.]

367. KARL WILHELM BARON VON HUMBOLDT. _Statesman and Philologist._

[Born at Potsdam, in Prussia, 1767. Died near Berlin, 1835. Aged 68.]

In William Von Humboldt the highest qualities of a scholar were united to the talents of a statesman and man of the world. He discharged the functions of Ambassador at Vienna and in London, and served his country on more than one grave and diplomatic mission. He was extensively learned in languages dead and living; but that is common in Germany. His _originality_, as a philologist, lies in a delicacy of abstruse thought--a philosophical vein, as fine as profound, which he brings to bear on all questions of the literary field, from the rigid investigation of grammatical forms and laws, to the most feeling and comprehensive criticisms of taste. A rare power of sifting analysis, a strong impulse to tread, alone and self-guided, unfrequented grounds, and an eye to seek out new truth on ground the most trodden, may be read in his various masterly writings. He was a poet also.

[Modelled by Thorwaldsen, at Rome, in 1807. It has since been executed in marble by order of King Frederic William III., and placed in the Museum at Berlin.]

368. HERMANN VON BOYEN. _Prussian Minister of War._

[Born at Kreutzburg, in Prussia, 1771.]

Commenced his military career as corporal in an infantry regiment, 1784, and gradually rose until, in 1799, appointed Staff-Captain. In his youth a great student of the works of Frederic the Great; and from 1794 to 1796, during the war with Poland, the adjutant and friend of the celebrated General Von Günther, whose military disciple he became, and whose memoirs he subsequently composed. In his twenty-eighth year he wrote a treatise upon military law, which eminently conduced to the more humane treatment and greater comfort of the common soldier. Served in all the later wars against Napoleon. Major-general at the Peace of Paris, when he became Minister of War. In that capacity, established in connexion with the service a number of organic laws, which display great practical wisdom, and a manly consideration for the well-being of the army. Retired from office in 1819, and occupied himself in literary pursuits. Reinstated by the present King of Prussia in 1841, he at once pursued his former energetic course of improvement on behalf of his country and of its loyal defenders, to the great joy of the soldiers, and with the honour, good-will, and affection of the people.

[By Hopfgarten. The original bronze is in the Palace at Potsdam.]

369. OTTO-FEODOR FREIHERR VON MANTEUFFEL. _Prussian Minister._

[Born, 1805. Still living.]

Educated at the University of Halle. In 1827, went to Berlin, where he was employed in the Administration. In 1841, appointed Chief Counsellor of State and Director of the Home Department in the government of Königsberg. When, in 1847, the first united Prussian Chamber met, Manteuffel powerfully defended the existing system against the liberal attempts of the day; and in April, 1848, protested and voted against universal suffrage. In November, 1848, appointed chief Administrator for Brandenburg, since which time his ministerial activity has become matter of Prussian history. Manteuffel took an active part in framing the constitution of December 5, 1848. After the death of Count Brandenburg, he was entrusted provisionally with the direction of foreign affairs; and in 1850 was elected President of State. He is in high favour with the king, but not so popular with the liberal party.

[By Vollgold. Bronze. 1850. In the Pleasure Garden near the Palace at Potsdam. First executed by the artist for his own gratification. Has since been cast in bronze by order of King Frederic William IV.]

370. COUNT JOSEPH RADETZKY. _Austrian General._

[Born in Bohemia, 1766. Still living.]

Has been a soldier, and in active service, for upwards of seventy years. He took part in the great struggle against Napoleon. In 1809, distinguished himself at Agram, and in the battles of 1813, 1814, and 1815, won fresh laurels. In 1822, appointed Commander-General of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. His last great service for Austria was after the Revolution of 1848, when he opposed and defeated the vacillating attempts made by Charles Albert of Sardinia, on behalf of Italian liberty. When it is said that Radetzky is a brave soldier, an able general, a loyal subject, and, as many aver, a courteous gentleman, his claims to respect are enumerated. He is rigid and severe, if not cruel, as he is certainly regardless of all human considerations that presume to interpose between him and the duty which he owes as a soldier to his king.

[By Rauch. Considered to be a very exact likeness.]

PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.

371. MARTIN LUTHER. _The Great Reformer._

[Born at Eisleben, in Saxony, 1483. Died there, 1546. Aged 63.]

The Lion of the Reformation. One of the men who, by coming to their time, have made an epoch in the world’s history. Assuredly the abuses of Rome,--in her second supremacy, as the spiritual mistress of the world,--must have aroused their effectual remedy; for partial resistances, before Luther rose, showed how deeply the mind of mankind resented and resisted the oppression and the spiritual malversation, and how fast the time was ripening for general revolt. Europe, since the overthrow of the Roman Empire, had been gradually rising with the inward vigour of her renewed life. The restored study of classical letters came as a powerful external impulse. Rome had but slowly established her domination, and only then securely given herself up to licence. Thus the strengthening of the evil on the one hand, and of the resisting life on the other, met: and then Luther came. He was fit for his Herculean labour. He had stepped from the very heart of the people, and his strong nature bespoke his hardy origin. He was fearless as one who could not feel fear in the midst of the most terrible danger; he was zealous as one who labours under the sense of Divine appointment, who knows that to die may be to live, to live may be to suffer worse than death: and who rejoices equally at every turn of fortune. He was threatened with the stake: he persisted in his crusade all the more for the menace. The Pope excommunicated him in the face of all the world. He denounced the Pope before as large an audience. The Pope publicly burned all his writings: he publicly burned the Bull of excommunication, the Canon Law, and the Pope’s Decretals. Before Luther died,--and he fell asleep tranquilly, worn out with labour, not with age,--his doctrines had already taken deep root in the wide world. We are all the debtors of his work; and we may remember with gratitude the generous protection of the Elector of Saxony, who again and again refused to give the Lion up, when the hunters loudly demanded his blood at the gate.

[By G. Schadow. Marble. The original placed in the Walhalla by order of King Louis. Luther was excluded from the Walhalla till 1848, when he was admitted, and inscribed as Dr. Martin Luther. In the Berlin Museum there is a portrait of him from the life, by L. Cranach, as the Junker Georg, with moustaches, painted when he was concealed in the Castle of Wartburg.]

372. PHILIP MELANCTHON. _German Divine and Reformer._

[Born at Bretten, in the Palatinate of the Rhine, 1497. Died at Wurms, in Germany, 1560. Aged 63.]

The wise and gentle sharer with Martin Luther in the glory of the Reformation. Melancthon was Professor of Greek in the University of Wittemberg in 1518, when Luther was there teaching Theology. They united their great gifts and powers to do the perilous labour of their lives, and each proceeded to his mission in the spirit created within him for the accomplishment of a seemingly superhuman task. Luther raged furiously against the error he encountered on his path. Melancthon strove to entice it into the right road by gentle words and mild remonstrance. The one exhibited the resolute bearing of a soldier fighting for the church militant; upon the face of the other beamed the quiet heroism of the Christian saint. Luther upbraided his companion-in-arms for his lukewarmness. Melancthon met the rebuke by continuing his steadfast course of conciliation, caution, and thoughtful zeal. Luther found no friend in the camp of the enemy. The most intolerant of his foes respected the mild virtues of Melancthon. Both were fit instruments for the hour in which they were summoned to action, and for the sacred cause they arose to defend: and, as was fitting, both were buried side by side in death, as they had laboured side by side, and hand to hand, in life. Melancthon compiled the celebrated Augsburg Confession. He was a great scholar, attached to the study of mathematics, and to scientific studies generally. He had no desire for worldly honours and distinctions. He was a true hero.

[From the marble by G. Schadow. Placed in the Walhalla by order of King Louis.]

373. FRIEDRICH ERNEST DANIEL SCHLEIERMACHER. _Theologian._

[Born at Breslau, in Prussia, 1768. Died at Berlin, 1834. Aged 66.]

His parents were of the Moravian brotherhood, which he quitted at the age of 18, and began to study philology and divinity at the University of Halle. In 1802, he taught the same subjects in the same University of Halle. In 1833, he visited England, and opened the German chapel of the Savoy. The author of several works distinguished for profound thought, conveyed perspicuously to those he is addressing. He was an excellent theologian, a distinguished philologist, a profound critic, and an admirable translator. His translation of Plato, unfortunately not completed, is the best extant. He had a pure and pious mind.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1822. A commission from the University of Berlin. The same bust was placed over his tomb by the friends of Schleiermacher.]

KINGS AND QUEENS.

374. FREDERIC WILLIAM. _Elector of Brandenburg._

[Born at Cologne, 1620. Died 1688. Aged 68.]

Surnamed the Great Elector, and father of the first King of Prussia. He succeeded to the government in 1640, and found his dominions exhausted by war and mismanagement. He restored the public finances, and corrected abuses. In 1655, he joined the Swedes in the invasion of Poland. In 1678, he completed the conquest of Pomerania. He then fought against the Swedes, and involved himself in war with France, because, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he had befriended 20,000 French Protestants who sought protection at his door. In 1686, he helped the Emperor against the Turks, and two years afterwards assisted William of Orange in his invasion of England. He left his territory as rich, fruitful, and well-governed, as he had found it poor and distracted. He has been censured for his frequent change of party, but he deserves his name of “Great,” no less for the victories he won abroad, than for the good services performed at home. He is described as a generous, kind-hearted man.

[By Ludwig Wichmann. Bronze. At Treptow.]

375. FREDERIC WILLIAM I. _King of Prussia._

[Born at Berlin, 1688. Died there, 1740. Aged 52.]

The son of Frederic I. and the father of Frederic the Great. The best that can be said of him is, that he left behind him a full treasury and an efficient army of 66,000 men. He was rough and rude in his manners, a hater of luxury, and parsimonious in all things but his expenditure for the increase of his military resources. He had a childish desire to fill all his regiments with very tall men, and was unscrupulous in his methods of gratifying the whim. An amusing story is told in connexion with this passion. Meeting with a fine, tall, and strong young peasant woman, who was on errand to the quarters of a regiment, he gave her a letter to deliver to the commanding officer, ordering him to marry the bearer to his tallest grenadier. The girl, hindered on her way, and not knowing the purport of her mission, entrusted it to a little old woman, and the marriage was effected accordingly. His contempt for science and literature was supreme, and he made no secret of his want of all respect for their professors. He was feared, not loved, in his country, and his death caused no regret.

[By Hopfgarten. Bronze. At Treptow. Done within the last ten years.]

376. FREDERIC II., SURNAMED THE GREAT. _King of Prussia._

[Born at Berlin, 1712. Died 1786. Aged 74.]

The greatest soldier of his time, and the most famous king that Prussia has given to her throne. At the commencement of his reign, in 1740, his dominions contained two and a quarter millions of inhabitants. At the end of its 46 years, Prussia counted six millions of subjects. He held the field singly against Russia, Saxony, Sweden, France, and Austria; and came with honour and rich booty out of the conflict. A great worker, whether in the field or in the cabinet. His custom was to rise at five in the morning to read “papers.” These he dispatched with a word or two, written on the margin: the rest of the day was marked out with exact precision, a part of it being invariably devoted to literary pursuits, and to the cultivation of music, of which he was fond. No man ever gave less of his time to frivolity or inaction. His dress was plain, and never other than military; his toilet, when he rose, occupied him only a few minutes; he always wore high jack boots, and he never changed his dress during the day. An able administrator, a liberal encourager of art, science, and industry, and the personal friend of D’Alembert, Condorcet, and Voltaire, with all of whom he personally corresponded. His conversation was lively and brilliant, not unfrequently sarcastic: but, in action, he was not cruel. A free thinker, rejoicing in his intellectual independence. Besides his other acquisitions, he was one of the guilty sharers in the dismemberment of Poland. Nevertheless, dying, he left an illustrious name to his country, and a throne to his successor worthy the acceptance of a European monarch.

[For an account of the admirable and unique monument, by Rauch, of which this is the life-size model, see No. 195 in Handbook to Modern Sculpture.]

377. FREDERIC LOUIS HENRY. _Prince of Prussia._

[Born at Berlin, 1726. Died at Rheinsberg, in Prussia, 1802. Aged 76.]

The son of Frederic William I., of Prussia, and brother of Frederic the Great. A student in his youth, and a distinguished soldier in his manhood. He held important command during the Seven Years’ War. In later life, when he withdrew into retirement, he erected in his garden a monument on a huge mound of earth. It was raised in memory of his companions in arms, and underneath, it, in a vault, he directed that his own remains should be interred.

[By Emil Wolff. Marble. 1847. It was modelled at Rome. The original is in the Palace at Berlin.]

378. MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH I. _King of Bavaria._

[Born 1756. Died 1825. Aged 69.]

From 1799, Elector, and from 1806, King of Bavaria. The year that he saw his Duchy raised to the dignity of a kingdom, Maximilian, who for some years was the faithful ally of Napoleon, gave his daughter in marriage to Eugène Beauharnois. In 1813, the Bavarian king, acting in the true interests of his country and of humanity, joined the allies against France, and helped with them to rescue Germany from the fangs of the French invader. In public as well as private life, Maximilian was courteous, benevolent, simple-minded, and true-hearted.

[By Stiglmayer. In marble. It is in the Palace at Munich. Stiglmayer was for a long time at the head of the Royal Foundry for bronze casting.]

379. FREDERIC WILLIAM III. _King of Prussia._

[Born 1770. Died 1840, aged 70.]

The grand nephew of Frederic the Great. He succeeded to the throne in 1797, and, in 1806, was involved in a war with France, which, before its close, almost extinguished his kingdom. The peace of Tilsit, in 1807, left him little more than a nominal sovereignty. In 1810, he founded the University of Berlin; in 1812, took part with France against Russia; and in 1813, again declared war against France. His army shared in the triumphal entry into Paris in 1814; and in 1815, his soldiers under Blucher partook of the glory of Waterloo at the crisis of the battle. A man of domestic virtues, but of small capacity. Napoleon’s judgment of this King was somewhat harsh. “He is,” said Buonaparte, “the greatest idiot on the face of the earth--without intelligence, and incapable of sustaining a conversation for the space of five minutes--a true Don Quixote.” The present King of Prussia is the son of Frederic William III.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1826. In the Royal Palace at Berlin.]

380. LOUIS FERDINAND. _Prince of Prussia._

[Born 1772. Died at Saalfeld, in Germany, 1806. Aged 34.]

A soldier of great distinction, and beloved by the Prussian army. In the war of 1806, he commanded the advanced guard of Prince Hohenlohe, and was killed in that year, whilst covering the evacuation of Saalfeld, in Central Germany. He died bravely. He was of a generous and vehement nature, a great advocate of the war, and frequently a violent opponent of the government. He was impatient of the fact, that the accident of his birth prevented the full exercise of energy and activity, which meaner men were permitted.

[By L. Wichmann. Bronze. 1822. At Potsdam.]

381. LOUISA AUGUSTA WILHELMINA AMELIA. _Queen of Prussia._

[Born at Hanover, 1776. Died at Hohenzieritz, 1810. Aged 34.]

The honoured wife of Frederic William III. of Prussia. Napoleon admired her for her wit, tact, and singular address, and Europe applauded her for her heroic character, and true nobility of soul. On the breaking out of the war with France, in 1806, she was inspired with enthusiasm, and was frequently seen in the streets of Berlin at the head of her Hussars, whose uniform she wore. On the defeat of her husband at Auerstadt, she shared his perilous retreat, and evinced great firmness and resignation. She was also with her husband at the Conference of Tilsit, and was earnest in her entreaties to Napoleon for easier conditions on behalf of her unfortunate country. She was beautiful in person, calm and constant in reverses, with great dignity and grace of manner. She was beloved by her people.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1824.]

382. LUDWIG I. _Ex-King of Bavaria._

[Born 1786. Still living.]

The eldest son and successor of King Maximilian Joseph. As Crown Prince he took little interest in public affairs, but confined himself to the zealous patronage of the fine arts. Frugal in his personal expenditure, he was extravagant in his purchases of works of art, and in the construction of his celebrated Glyptothek, a building devoted to the reception of the finest works of sculpture. Ascending the throne in 1825, he commenced many economical reforms, but still drew around him, by his munificent patronage, the most celebrated artists of Germany, for the adornment and elevation of his capital. More than one stately edifice and exquisite collection in Munich bear testimony to his love for art and zeal in its promotion. He would have done still more for his city had he been permitted. He lodged the munificent sum of £30,000 in the hands of an English banker to purchase the Elgin marbles, in the event of their rejection by the English government. The sum actually paid for the marbles by England was £35,000. A grandeur is reflected upon this--the finest side of Ludwig’s character. On the other hand, he has lived to become a bigot, to forget his early political reforms, to deal with a rough hand in matters of religion and state, and to shock public opinion by illicit alliances, at the very moment he is expressing a pious anxiety for the restoration of monasteries. In 1848, Ludwig I. abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian, the reigning king. The ex-king is a ruler fit for the middle ages, when the love of art was intense and passionate, when manners were rude and unformed, and the people in fetters, spiritual and bodily.

[By Halbig, 1848.]

382A. LUDWIG I. _Ex-King of Bavaria._

[Colossal bust, by Ludwig Schwanthaler. Marble. 1840. The original is in the Royal Palace at Munich.]

383. LEOPOLD I. _King of the Belgians._

[Born 1790. Still living.]

Head of the House of Coburg. He was educated in Germany, and in 1816, married Charlotte, the daughter of George IV. of England. She died the following year. In 1832, he married a daughter of Louis Philippe of France; and in 1850, she also died. He was called to the sovereignty of Belgium in 1832. Although a foreign prince, and a Protestant ruling over a Catholic country, he has succeeded in winning the respect of all political parties, and the sympathies of all religious sects. He is the type of a constitutional king on the continent of Europe, and his personal influence, in European politics, is considered to be weightier than in proportion to the size of his dominions. He is the uncle of Queen Victoria.

[From the marble by G. Geefs, in Windsor Castle.]

383.* LOUISE MARIE. _Queen of the Belgians._

[Died 1850.]

She was the daughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French, and second wife of King Leopold I. of Belgium.

[From the marble by G. Geefs, in Windsor Castle.]

384. FREDERIC WILLIAM IV. _Reigning King of Prussia._

[Born 1795. Still living.]

A king whose good intentions and fair-sounding promises seem invariably to overbalance his powers of performance. Anxious for popularity, yet always vacillating on the path that leads to it. Manifestly ambitious, but kept aloof from the great prizes of ambition by want of moral courage, of earnestness, and vigorous action. He commenced his reign with many advantages, and might have rendered himself the most powerful sovereign of Germany, and the most popular of its rulers. He has missed the power, and parted with the popularity. He promised his people a constitution: they have never received it. In the Revolution of 1848 he sided with the extreme liberals, but only to bound back again--further than ever--into the arms of absolutism. In his conduct towards Russia and England in the momentous dispute of 1854, Frederic William IV. is faithful to his character and his antecedents.

[By Rauch. Marble. 1845. In the Royal Palace at Berlin.]

385. NICHOLAS PAULOVITCH. _Reigning Emperor of all the Russias._

[Born 1896. Still living.]

The third son of Paul I. and of Maria Feodorowna, and the eighth sovereign of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, which is of German origin. Succeeded to the throne in 1825, upon the death of Alexander--his elder brother Constantine renouncing the throne in his favour. In 1826, declared war against Persia; in 1828, the war closed in his favour. In the same year found occasion for a quarrel with the Turks, crossed the Balkan mountains, which Russian troops had never before passed, and imposed hard conditions upon the Sultan--amongst others, the so-called Protectorate of the Danubian Principalities. The insurrection in Poland, after the French Revolution of 1830, the commencement of the war in the Caucasus, are familiar events. Still more recent is the interference of Nicholas in the war between Hungary and Austria--an interference that restored Hungary to Austrian rule--and, later still, the invasion of the Danubian principalities, on the plea of securing the rights of the Greek Church in the Turkish dominions. A fanatic in his adherence to Russian customs, language, and religion, and glorying in his title of Spiritual Chief of the Orthodox Church. The incarnation of despotism, and the stern hater of all liberal ideas. His rule military and absolute. Like Frederic the Great, he never shows himself but in military costume. Is of great height, and said to be very proud of his size. His life one of feverish activity. He gets through more work in a day than other monarchs can manage in a month. He rides, walks, holds a review, superintends a sham fight, goes on the water, exercises the navy, gives a fête, takes his meals, and enjoys his rest, all within the twenty-four hours. He is a wondrous traveller--travelling faster and getting over more ground than everybody else--and has an absolute passion for military evolutions. Since the days of the Empress Catharine, Constantinople--called in Russia Czarapol (city of the Czars)--has been regarded as the future capital of the Russian empire. Nicholas, after much diplomacy, cozening, double-dealing, menace, and display of anger, has put forth his massive hand to seize it. The world waits to see whether that greedy hand shall grasp its prize, or recoil smitten and maimed for its unauthorized rapacity.

[By C. Rauch. Marble. 1820. In the Palaces at St. Petersburg and Berlin.]

386. ALEXANDRA. _Empress of Russia._

[Born 1798. Still living.]

The wife of Nicholas, the reigning Emperor of Russia, and the sister of Frederic William IV., King of Prussia.

[By Rauch. From the marble. 1816. A commission from the Emperor. It is in the Palace at St. Petersburg, and another copy is in the Royal Palace at Berlin.]

387. FRANCIS JOSEPH. _Reigning Emperor of Austria, and King of Hungary._

[Born 1830. Still living.]

Succeeded to the throne on the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand, in 1848, (the epoch of revolutions), his father, Francis Charles, having refused the Crown. At the time of his accession, Vienna had just been recovered from the insurgents, but Hungary was in arms against Austria. In 1849, a new constitution, of a more liberal character, was promulgated by the Emperor, and, in the same year, Hungary was reduced to submission by the assistance of Russia. In 1850, the young Emperor returned to the old system of absolute government. In 1852, his life was attempted by a Hungarian whilst walking on the ramparts of Vienna. Francis Joseph is personally popular. He is bold and soldier-like, possessed of strong will and independent judgment. His experience is beyond his years.

[By Halbig. Marble. 1850. The original is in the Imperial Palace at Vienna.]

ENGLISH PORTRAITS.

INTRODUCTION.

We have no great collection of Portrait Busts in England. The British Museum contains 20 antique portrait busts; those of Homer, Pericles, Diogenes, and Julius Cæsar have a good claim to authenticity. There are, also, in the Museum, some valuable antique Portrait Statues. The English portraits, in Sculpture, in the Crystal Palace have been collected, as time permitted, from old busts and statues, and from the studios of living and deceased sculptors. Attached to the lives of our English worthies given in the following pages, will be found, wherever practicable, the names of the respective artists.

With the English Contingent, the muster of our illustrious army for the present closes. Five hundred busts and statues constitute the vigorous germ of a collection which it is hoped eventually to render by its extent worthy of the magnificent structure in which it is housed, and of the subject which it is intended to vivify, viz.:--The history of the great men of all nations who have, by thought and deed, advanced human civilization, and stamped their impress, whether for good or evil, upon the world through which they have passed.

* * * * *

(_The English Portraits commence immediately behind the Farnese Hercules at the north-west angle of the Great Transept and Nave._)

ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS.

388. INIGO JONES. _Architect._

[Born in London, 1572. Died 1651. Aged 79.]

Inigo Jones served his apprenticeship to a joiner: but his talent for landscape-drawing obtained for him the favour of the Earl of Pembroke, in whose company he visited France, Flanders, Germany, and Italy. At Venice he was inspired with a taste for architecture, and following the art with ardour and success obtained the office of first architect to the King of Denmark. The king took Jones to England in 1606, and introduced him to James I. His employment at the English Court as scenic decorator is well known. The attachment of Inigo Jones, who was a Roman Catholic, to the cause of Charles I., caused him great loss and suffering during the civil wars, and he died, shortly after the sacrifice of his master, worn out with grief and trouble. The style of architecture introduced into England by this famous master, was founded on the Venetian school, and more particularly on that branch of it exercised by Andrea Palladio. It is distinguished by excellent proportions, and by a masculine and noble character, which, whilst it does not condescend to borrow too much from ornament, yet makes just use of its charm. The Banquetting House at Whitehall, the only completed portion of the magnificent palace designed by Jones, is his _chef-d’œuvre_, and bears comparison with any work of the Italian style in Europe. He practised the best and purest style of Italian architecture ever known in England.

389. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. _Architect and Mathematician._

[Born in Wiltshire, 1632. Died at Hampton Court, 1723. Aged 91.]

We think of Wren as the first of British architects; but he was something more. As a mathematician, he was in his day second only to Newton; and in general scientific knowledge, he had no superior. Educated at Westminster. At thirteen, had already invented a new astronomical instrument. At fourteen, entered Wadham College, Oxford;--and, young as he was, formed one of the original members of a club established for philosophical discussions and experiments; a club out of which sprang the Royal Society. When twenty-five, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London. At the Restoration, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford; his skill as an architect having been meanwhile shown in the Sheldon Theatre at Oxford. The popular fame of Wren rests on St. Paul’s Cathedral, which he began to rebuild nine years after the great fire, taking thirty-five years to complete his magnificent labour. Before, and during this lengthened period, he built other edifices, and applied his vigorous and subtle mind to the most abstruse branches of science. His mechanical discoveries are numerous. He invented an instrument for ascertaining the amount of rain falling in each year; he rendered the taking of astronomical observations more easy and exact; he was the originator of the attempt to introduce fluids into the veins of animals; and there is every reason to believe that to him, and not to Prince Rupert, we owe the art of mezzotint engraving. Amongst his architectural buildings are Trinity College Library, Cambridge, the new part of Hampton Court Palace, Chelsea Hospital, a wing of Greenwich Hospital, and the palace at Winchester. St. Paul’s, probably suggested by St. Peter’s at Rome, although not of equal dimensions with its supposed prototype, is a far nobler work of art, excelling it in plan, in composition externally, in variety of effect internally, and in scientific construction. Bow Church, Cheapside, St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, and most of the other churches, in the City of London--where he chiefly worked--with their exquisite and varied steeples, are the work of Wren, whose ecclesiastical edifices greatly surpass in beauty all his other buildings. In his time the Greek style had not been made known, and though with the Roman acquainted only through books, and the Renaissance buildings of Paris, his work in it is critically correct. His native genius is stamped upon his buildings, and he is ever to be admired, if not always imitated. Supplanted by Court intrigue in 1718, he spent his old age as quietly as intrigue would let him at Hampton Court, absorbed, and finding compensation, in his scientific studies, and visiting London occasionally to see how the repairs at Westminster Abbey were going on.

390. DAVID GARRICK. _Player and Dramatist._

[Born at Hereford, 1716. Died at Hampton, 1779. Aged 63.]

The pupil of Dr. Johnson, with whom he went to London from Lichfield, in search of a profession. He adopted the stage, and after playing for some time at Ipswich under the assumed name of Lyddel, made his first appearance in London, in 1741, in the theatre of Goodman’s-fields. He was twenty-five years old--the part was Richard III.--the success triumphant. According to tradition, the sole imperfect reporter to posterity of the triumphs achieved on the scenic boards, Garrick was a rare master of his art; equally impressive in tragedy and comedy. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted him smiling at Comedy, looking sadly at Tragedy,--and claimed by both. He raised immeasurably the character of the actor’s profession in this country, and purified the stage. His acting was founded upon a delicate and thorough perception of Truth and Nature. To him is due the great merit of restoring Shakspeare to the boards, and of annihilating the false taste created by the dramatists of a later period. His last appearance on the stage was in 1776. He was small in stature, but well built; his eyes were dark, and full of fire. He had marvellous power of transfusing the workings of the soul into the face, and all the passions were at his bidding. He was very vain, and not without other weaknesses; but else a generous and worthy man. His private life reflected additional lustre on his genius, and as citizen and artist he earned the honourable grave which he found in Westminster Abbey. Garrick was also a writer for the stage. His comedies and farces are lively and agreeable, and some of his epigrams have wit and fancy. Johnson and he maintained their friendship to the last. The great lexicographer affected contempt for the profession of his pupil; but he hugged “Davy,” nevertheless, in the folds of his capacious heart, and was justly proud of his achievements and renown.

391. HENRY FUSELI or FUESSLI. _Painter._

[Born 1745. Died 1825. Aged 80.]

An artist of undoubted genius and originality, but very eccentric both as painter and as man. Born at Zurich, where he cultivated learning with great ardour, especially the literature of England; at the same time took delight in copying the works of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle. Came to England in 1763, and showed his paintings to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who praised the work and recommended to the young aspirant the usual pilgrimage to Rome. Obeying the command he remained for eight years in the city of Art, and then came back to England where he worked his way to honour. In 1790, he was Royal Academician; in 1799, Professor of Painting; in 1804, Keeper of the Royal Academy. Fuseli was a good scholar, endowed with a potent and wild imagination, and an excellent anatomist; but he suffered his imagination to lead him into extravagance, and his anatomy protruded itself in his pictures. He painted, in 1798, a series of forty-seven pictures illustrative of Milton. They reveal grand conception and daring power, but tremble occasionally on the verge of the grotesque. No later artist has ventured to follow him in his flights, but his profound interpretations of the true spirit of poetry may be contemplated by all men with advantage.

[From the marble, by E. H. Baily, R.A. Executed for Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1824.]

392. JAMES NORTHCOTE. _Painter._

[Born at Plymouth, 1746. Died 1831. Aged 85.]

The son of a watchmaker, and intended for his father’s business; but, at an early age, he transferred his affections from the parental shop to the more genial region of art. In 1771, he attracted the notice of Reynolds, under whose eye he studied for a time, and in 1777, set out for Italy. In 1783, first exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1787, elected Royal Academician. The subjects of Northcote are chiefly historical, but he is not remarkable for power, or originality of conception. Although he displayed considerable skill in composition and colouring, as well as some vigour of expression, his ability in art was by no means equal to his enthusiasm and his application. Northcote was also a writer on art, and the author of a Life of Reynolds. At the age of eighty-four he published a Life of Titian. He was penurious and eccentric, and not a favourite with his brother Academicians.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A., 1821.]

392A. JAMES NORTHCOTE. _Painter._

[Modelled from the life, and executed in marble, by Joseph Bonomi. Presented by J. S. Scoles, Esq.]

393. JOHN RAPHAEL SMITH. _Engraver._

[Born about 1750. Died in 1811.]

A distinguished draughtsman in crayons, and a mezzotint engraver. The friend of Chantrey the sculptor, when that admired artist was serving his time at Sheffield, in the shop of Mr. Ramsay, carver and gilder. It is related that the sight of Mr. Smith’s drawings, together with his conversation, first rendered Chantrey impatient of his servitude in the carver’s workshop, and induced him to purchase his release, which he obtained two years before his indentures had expired, for the sum of fifty pounds. This bust of John Raphael Smith, by Chantrey, was the first that brought the young sculptor into note. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy when Chantrey was 24 years old, and, during the disposition of the works for exhibition, attracted the attention of Nollekens, who exclaimed, “This is a splendid work. Let the man be known. Remove one of my busts and put this in its place.”

[The subject of this bust was afflicted with deafness, and the expression of the infirmity is cleverly given in the face.]

394. JOHN FLAXMAN. _Sculptor._

[Born at York, 1755. Died 1826. Aged 71.]

Beyond all compare the greatest artist England has produced, and in all respects one of her worthiest sons. His life constitutes one of the landmarks set up in a nation for the guidance of the ambitious, and the encouragement of the desponding. His father was a moulder of plaster casts: in whose humble shop the boy received his earliest inspiration. Feeble, and crippled, and thrown upon himself, he read such books as he could obtain, and made drawings from the classic models that surrounded him. This was his education, for there was no money at home to purchase a better. At ten, the self-taught boy could read Latin, and had picked up much varied information. A shop filled with plaster casts will be visited occasionally by men of taste and feeling. One such man saw, and was struck by the genius of John Flaxman. His name was Mathew, and by him the child, who could read Latin, was made acquainted with the beauties of the Iliad and Odyssey. At fifteen, admitted a student of the Royal Academy, and competed successfully for the silver medal. What was to be done next?--the father without means, and the youth old enough to earn his own bread! The young sculptor entered the service of the Messrs. Wedgwood, and devoted some dozen years of his life to the improvement of their porcelain manufacture. His genius stamped upon the products of the potteries a character of beauty and classic elegance rivalling the productions of any country. The forms were admired in his own day; they are now more highly esteemed than ever. At the age of twenty-seven Flaxman married Anne Denman. His marriage, his friends declared, would ruin him as an artist. Friends are apt to look upon the shadowy side of one’s happiness. In this case they were mistaken. Anne Denman had the finest qualities of heart; she possessed also exquisite taste, and a cultivated mind. She appreciated the genius of her husband, and was an enthusiast for his works. She accompanied him to Italy, where he nourished his talents by the study of the masterpieces of antiquity. At Rome he executed his illustrations of Homer, Hesiod, Æschylus, and Dante. For the first-named he received fifteen shillings for each drawing, and was satisfied. He was elected member of the Academies of Florence and Carrara, and after seven years’ absence came back to England. His reputation bad preceded him, and he soon justified his fame by his noble monument of Lord Mansfield, in Westminster Abbey. The works of Flaxman, whether of the pencil or the chisel, may take rank with the productions of any age or country. They are distinguished by simplicity, dignity, sublimity, grace, and true poetic feeling. If any modern sculptor may take rank with the ancients, Flaxman’s place will be second to none. His productions are scattered over the globe; we meet them in India, the two Americas, and in Italy, as well as nearer home. He is better appreciated everywhere than in England. But we are beginning to know his value. His worth as a man was equal to his greatness as an artist. All who knew him speak of his modesty, his gentleness, his single-heartedness. After the death of his wife in 1820, whom he tenderly loved, he lived in comparative retirement.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. From the marble executed for Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1824.]

395. THOMAS STOTHARD. _Painter._

[Born 1755. Died 1834. Aged 79.]

Apprenticed at an early age to a pattern draughtsman. Subsequently, and for many years, he furnished the illustrations to “The Novelist’s Magazine.” Became the reigning prince of illustrators, and for fifty years continued to adorn the pages, not only of contemporary literature, but of our poets from Chaucer all down to Rogers. His most famous productions are the illustrations to “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” to “Robinson Crusoe,” to “Rogers’s Italy,” the Procession of the Flitch of Bacon, the Pilgrimage to Canterbury, and the Wellington Shield. He made many designs for sculptors; amongst others, that for Chantrey’s “Sleeping Children,” in Lichfield cathedral. At one time or another he attempted every branch of the limner’s art. He had great powers of imagination, moulded and directed by unflagging industry and the severest application. His genius is peculiarly English. He studied deeply the works of Raffaelle and Durer, but was no slavish imitator of these, or of any other men. The grace that clings to his works is essentially the expression of his own mind. Let us see his productions how, or when, or where we may, his spirit is detected at once, and we say, “This is Stothard.” His female figures, not always strictly correct in drawing, are exquisitely graceful. His life passed evenly in the performance of labour in which he delighted. He was a good man, and his works are his annals.

[From the marble executed by E. H. Baily, R.A., in. 1825, for Sir Thomas Lawrence.]

396. SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE. _Painter._

[Born at Bristol, 1769. Died 1830. Aged 61.]

Of humble origin; the father of Sir Thomas being the landlord of the “Black Bear,” at Devizes, in Wiltshire. At an early age evinced great delight in drawing, and a talent for the recitation of poetry. Received his first instruction at Bath from Mr. Hoare, the painter in crayons; and when thirteen years old, gained from the Society of Arts the great silver palette and five guineas, for a copy, in crayons, of the “Transfiguration.” When eighteen, he exhibited seven female portraits at Somerset House. In 1791, chosen Associate of the Royal Academy. In 1815, knighted; and in 1820, upon the death of West, elected President of the Royal Academy. The first portrait painter of his time, and in other respects an accomplished man. His numerous works are representations of the most notable and wealthiest people of his day, by whom he was courted, honoured, and richly rewarded. His colouring was clear and brilliant, and his design most graceful; but vigour and truthfulness of character are not always remarked in his productions. Lawrence had little or no education,--he was removed from school when only eight years old,--but he must have picked up much on his road. One of our great actors has acknowledged his large debt of gratitude to Lawrence for instruction, advice, and intellectual training.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Taken the year after Sir Thomas Lawrence’s death.]

397. CHARLES KEMBLE. _Player._

[Born at Brecknock, 1775. Still living.]

The living chief of a family remarkable for dramatic genius. Since the time of Garrick, until very recently, the English stage has not been without its Kemble, as one of its brightest ornaments. Mrs. Siddons and John Kemble, were the sister and brother of Charles. As the representative of Falconbridge, Mercutio, Benedick, Cassio, and similar characters, Charles Kemble has been without an equal in our time. He first appeared at Sheffield, as Orlando, in “As You Like it,” in 1792. His first appearance in London was at Drury Lane Theatre (1794), in the character of Malcolm, in “Macbeth.” He retired from the stage in 1836, but subsequently returned to the boards for a short time, in 1840, in order to play a few of his best parts before her present Majesty. He played for the last time, April 10, 1840, in the character of Hamlet.

[By Dantan, 1842.]

398. FRANCIS CHANTREY. _Sculptor._

[Born at Norton, near Sheffield, 1781. Died in London, 1841. Aged 60.]

The first portrait sculptor of his day, but not equally famous for works of imagination, the very few compositions of this kind that proceeded from his chisel having been suggested to him by other more poetic minds. Chantrey did not command astonishment, but compelled admiration by the simplicity, beauty, and truth, that were stamped on all his productions. His portraits are faithful, characteristic, and most artistic representations; idealizing the individual; and in this branch of his art he undoubtedly outstripped all rivals. His success was very great. He began life as a carver’s apprentice, and was a journeyman carver in London, where he helped with his own hand to furnish the dining-room of Mr. Rogers, the poet--a room in which many times, in after life, he sat, one of the most welcome and sociable of the guests there assembled. Wealth and honour came to him earned by labour and perseverance; and the fruits of his industry, amounting to £90,000, he bequeathed to the Royal Academy, for the purchase of “works of fine art of the highest merit in painting and sculpture,” such works “being executed within the shores of Great Britain.” The bequest was worthy of a man whose mind, whose works, whose habits, all bore the strong impress of the nation in which he was born, and of the people from whose heart he had sprung.

[By his pupil, F. W. Smith.]

398A. FRANCIS CHANTREY. _Sculptor._

[Medallion by Heffernan.]

399. WILLIAM MULREADY. _Painter._

[Born at Ennis, in Ireland, 1786. Still living.]

An honoured name in British art, and undoubtedly the head of the charming and peculiar style which he adopted, after having employed his genius on larger and more striking subjects. He has risen from obscurity by the force of genius, and given to the world works which will not readily perish. When fourteen years old admitted a student at the Royal Academy. Elected Royal Academician in 1816. His works reveal great delicacy and purity of mind. He is a consummate draughtsman and colourist; and in the refined beauty and finish of his pictures, is not surpassed by any of his contemporaries. Amongst his best works may be reckoned those in the Vernon Gallery and in the collection of Mr. Sheepshanks.

[By Christopher Moore. 1830.]

400. JOHN GIBSON. _Sculptor._

[Born at Conway, N. Wales, 1790. Still living.]

Like Chantrey, apprenticed to a wood-carver, and, like him also, a cabinet-maker at this starting-point of his career. At the age of eighteen, he exhibited a wax model of “Time,” which procured him employment with a sculptor in Liverpool. Making the acquaintance of Lord Castlereagh, he was furnished by that nobleman with an introduction to Canova, and he accordingly set out for Rome in 1820. In Rome he still resides. He has wrought with his chisel for the noble and wealthy of his own country, and for the patrons of art in the land which he has chosen for his residence. Ludwig of Bavaria--the eager and munificent patron of art--has been amongst the serviceable friends of the gifted Welshman. For grace, beauty, and finished execution, John Gibson has never been surpassed in this country. Flaxman is the first of British artists; but as a sculptor, chisel in hand, Gibson is hardly second even to him.

[From the marble by Theed.]

400A. JOHN GIBSON. _Sculptor._

[This bust is by Macdonald of Rome.]

401. WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. _Player._

[Born 1793. Still living.]

The son of William Macready, who was author, actor, and manager. Educated at Rugby. Made his first appearance on the stage as Romeo, at Birmingham, and his debût in London, in 1816, as Orestes, in the “Distressed Mother.” He continued in London a leading tragic actor, until he finally retired from the stage in 1851. Mr. Macready’s style of acting was of the romantic, rather than of the classic order; his “Virginius” a more masterly performance than “Hamlet,” his “Rob Roy” far more picturesque and striking than “Richard III.” In the representation of Shakspeare’s characters this popular actor was not, generally speaking, equal to the most celebrated of his contemporaries. His conceptions were not the conceptions formed by the intellectual portion of his auditory in the tranquillity of the study. It was, however, impossible to witness a more admirable execution of a wrong conception, than that which Mr. Macready was able to render. In private life he has done honour to his profession; and he has left no actor behind him. superior to himself.

[By W. Behnes.]

402. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. _Caricaturist._

[Born in London, 1794. Still living.]

Like Tom Hood, George Cruikshank is something more than a humourist: or, to speak more correctly, like all great humourists, both he and Hood possess and reveal a deep perception and appreciation of the serious and the pathetic in Nature and Art. The labours of Cruikshank, which commenced at a very early period of his life, have been incessant and remarkable. His admirable illustrations have adorned books of all kinds, from the political “House that Jack built,” to the moral “Bottle.” At no period has he drawn a line which--however cutting may have been the satire employed--has not had for its object the benefit, as well as the amusement of his fellow-men. His latest works--attacking the most degrading of our national vices,--command our gratitude and respect. George is popular amongst his associates. His face is an index to his mind. There is nothing anomalous about him and his doings. His appearance, his illustrations, his speeches are all alike,--all picturesque, artistic, full of fun, feeling, geniality, and quaintness. His seriousness is grotesque, and his drollery is profound. He is the prince of living caricaturists, and one of the best of men.

[By W. Behnes.]

403. ROBERT VERNON. _Patron of Art._

[Born 1774. Died in London, 1849. Aged 75.]

A benefactor to his country, who amassed a fortune in business, and expended his wealth in the formation of a gallery of pictures by British artists. Whilst living, he proved himself the benefactor of struggling genius. Dying, he bequeathed his works of art to the nation. His pictures are now collected at Marlborough House, where they form “The Vernon Gallery.”

[By W. Behnes.]

404. FANNY BUTLER. _Actress._

[Still living.]

The daughter of Charles Kemble: and a popular actress of her day. She made her first appearance at Covent Garden Theatre, October 5, 1829, in the character of Juliet; and the sensation she then created rescued the theatre from the difficulties into which it had fallen. She married Mr. Butler, an American, and is the authoress of one or two well-written tragedies and other works.

[By Dantan, of Paris.]

405. ADELAIDE SARTORIS. _Vocalist._

[Still living.]

Second daughter of Charles Kemble: highly distinguished as a vocalist of the Italian school; she made her first appearance at Covent Garden Theatre, in Norma, Nov. 2, 1841, and sang and acted with great success at the same theatre in 1841 and 1842; but at the end of 1842 she retired from her profession into private life.

[By Dantan, of Paris.]

405*. GRACE DARLING. _Lighthouse-keeper’s Daughter._

[Born at Bamborough, Northumberland, 1815. Died 1842. Aged 27.]

“ONE whose very name bespeaks Favour divine, exalting human love; Whom, since her birth on bleak Northumbria’s coast, Known unto few, but prized as far as known, A single act endears to high and low, Through the whole land.”--WORDSWORTH.

Grace was the seventh child of a humble man who had charge of a lighthouse on one of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland. In the month of September, 1888, the “Forfarshire” steamer, of 300 tons, having on board sixty-three souls, during a terrible storm and dense fog, struck on a rock within a mile of the light-house. It was deep night. The ship snapped in half. Nearly all the creatures on board were swallowed by the chafing sea; and when morning broke, all that remained of the “Forfarshire” and its people, were nine of the passengers clinging to the windlass in the forepart of the vessel. It was a fearful morning, the fog still prevailing--the sea hardly less boisterous. Through the mist, however, the sad spectacle could be witnessed from the mainland, and a reward was offered to any boat’s crew that would venture to the rescue. It was offered in vain. But the despairing castaways were visible also from the lighthouse, where none was rich enough to offer reward of any kind, for the sole inhabitants were husband, wife, and daughter. It was the last watch before extinguishing the light at sunrise, and Grace was keeping it. She intreated her father to go to sea, and he consenting, the girl shared his boat, and the pair in dread and awe put off. Why speak of danger? Why detail the miracle? The risk was incalculable. The chances of recovery, nay, of self-preservation, were infinitesimal. But God strengthened the woman’s arm, as he had visited her heart, and, after painful labour, the rescue was effected. The delivered nine were taken to the lighthouse, and there kindly treated by the heroic girl and her aged parents. The spirit of the nation was stirred by the act. Money enough to provide for her as long as she should live, and gifts innumerable, were brought to her sea-girt rock; but she would not leave the light-house. Why should she? What place so fitting to hold this queen? She held her modest Court there until her early death. One who visited her speaks of her genuine simplicity, her quiet manner, her perfect goodness. In 1841, symptoms of consumption--the poisonous seed sown, it may be, on that drear morning--revealed themselves. In a few months she died, quietly, happily, religiously. Shortly before her death, she received a farewell visit from one of her own sex, who came in humble attire, to bid her God speed on her last illimitable journey. The good sister was the Duchess of Northumberland, and her coronet will shine the brighter for all time, because of that affectionate and womanly leave-taking. Joan of Arc has her monument. Let Grace of Northumbria have none. Her deed is registered--

“in the rolls of Heaven, where it will live A theme for angels when they celebrate The high-souled virtues which forgetful earth Has witnessed.”

[Medallion by David Dunbar. Modelled from the marble bust in the possession of the Bishop of Durham. The original model was taken. from the life at the Longstone lighthouse, soon after the incident above recorded, and three years before the death of Grace.]

405.** WILLIAM DARLING. _Lighthouse-Keeper._

[Born 1783. Still living.]

The father of Grace Darling. He succeeded his own father as keeper of the Coal-light on the Brownsman, the outermost of the Farne islands, on the coast of Northumberland. In 1826, he was transferred to the lighthouse on the Longstone, another of the same group of islands. Solitary, cut off for weeks from communication with the mainland, this humble man has passed his days in self-improvement. He is intelligent, quiet, and well-conducted. His children have received a good education for their position in life, the father being the sole instructor--and one daughter at least has not thrown discredit upon her bringing up.

[By David Dunbar.]

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

406. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. _The Father of English Poetry._

[Born in London, 1328. Died there, 1400. Aged 72.]

Notwithstanding the gulf of years, the poetical sire of Shakspeare. He to whom, in an age which we call dark, the full sun of poetry shone. He whose lineaments and gesture, transmitted by a contemporary pencil, are here before us. He whose eye, though downcast, reads the world around him, as it sounds the interior of Man: whose grave look of thought hides the soul of mirth. What phase of our various life seems strange to him? To this he is at home in experience; to that in imagination. With what Homeric power has he not described the tournament where kings fight in the lists at Athens! What mediæval romance in the loves of Palamon and Arcite! What an oriental colour and grace in the Squier’s half-told tale of the Tartar Cambuscan! You read tale after tale, and wonder which of the diversified strains was indeed the most native to the heart of the poet. One critic will tell you--the broad coarse mirth--Never believe it! See with what lingering and tender fondness he brings out the sorrowful story of the pure, innocent, and falsely accused Custance, abandoned to the wild, drifting sea. How patiently he tells the trials of the patient Griseldis--how sternly the self-doom of those two impious challengers of death. To Chaucer was given an insight of which nothing eludes the scrutiny, a sympathy of which nothing lies beyond the embrace. And in what spring-like vigour and bloom of life that vanished world rises again before us! What truth! and what spirit! Under his quill the speech of England first rose into the full form and force of a language. Look up at him! He seems to be scanning thought and word, both. Mine host of the Tabard singling him out amongst the pilgrims, for the teller of the next tale, says of him: “He seemeth elvish by his countenance.”--Does he?

[For an account of this statue by Marshall, see No. 53, Handbook of Modern Sculpture. There is an interesting contemporary portrait of Chaucer in the British Museum, bearing date 1400, from which the idea of this statue is borrowed.]

407. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. _Poet._

[Born at Stratford-on-Avon, 1564. Died there, 1616. Aged 52.]

William Shakspeare stands at the head of those whose intellectual domain is the spirit of man. This is the master character of his mind, to which poetry is in him an accidental direction. His insight into man is his title to universal interest. He is the chief painter of humanity that the world has seen, combining, at once, perfect intimate knowledge of human nature, and perfect creative power of representation. The drama had suddenly awakened in his country, and he obeyed the instinct of his time, the poetic bent of which was created for him, as he for it. There were with him, before him, and immediately after him, great poets, with whom the dramatic elements existed in high native strength and beauty; but in him alone are those elements mastered, so as to produce entire works of art, complete in power, and in consistent, though not regular, form. Sharing the intuition of Aristotle, which makes the action in the play the root out of which the characters and all else grow, he directs the stream of events as connectedly as it flows in the human world; and, as in the world, so in his inspired writing--agents appear born for their work, as the work to do seems to offer itself to the agents. All beauties of language, all flights of poetry, all particular scenes and speeches, powerful and impressive as they may be, are merely subordinate. No character, how exquisitely or elaborately soever conceived and finished, is drawn for itself; but one and all are relative to the scope of the play and to one another. He seems to have undertaken a great task, and to be seriously and solely intent upon advancing to its fulfilment. No form of human life is foreign to him; the most heroic and the humblest, the most illustrious and the most obscure, of all times, in all places, are in presence before him. He seizes the spirit of time, place, and theme. Natural, preternatural, light, weighty, laughter, tears, terror, are all alike to him---all under his mastery, and flung forth with free power. Grace and gigantic strength, are spirits equally at his bidding. The learned and the unlearned are both attracted by his spell. The ignorant feel the fascination, the erudite have never exhausted the study. His country, with her innumerable titles to renown, ranks amongst the highest his great name. With school instruction of the most ordinary kind, by universal and unerring observation, by profound and intense meditation of men, with the creative power of the highest imagination, he gave out, spontaneously, works of that kind whose study makes men learned: and they are so viewed and studied by all civilized nations, every day more and more, at home and abroad. In him England competes for the crown of poetical glory with all other nations of old or modern fame. She has had other great poets, but they all, besides their own natural offerings, have brought poetry from other lands and languages, into their own. In him alone she feels, that what she displays SHE has produced. Little is known of the life of William Shakspeare.

[From the well-known monumental bust in the church at Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakspeare lies buried. It was executed by an artist named Gerard Johnson, very soon after the death of Shakspeare, and erected between 1616 and 1620. The original is in common limestone, and was painted to resemble life. The eyes were a light hazel, the hair and beard auburn: the doublet was scarlet, and the loose gown black. It was repainted precisely in the same manner in 1749. But in 1793, Malone officiously had it whitewashed, as it now exists. There is a great resemblance between this face from the Stratford monument and the portrait published in the first folio of Shakspeare’s works, by the actors, in 1623. No. 407A is from a very remarkable terracotta bust, in the possession of Professor Owen, of the College of Surgeons. It was discovered in pulling down the old Duke’s Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it was placed over one of the stage-doors, the bust of Ben Jonson (accidentally destroyed by the workmen) occupying a corresponding place over the other door. Shakspeare having been rescued by the timely interposition of Mr. Clift, Professor Owen’s father-in-law, the bust became that gentleman’s property, and by him it was given to its present owner. There are two types of the Shakspeare portrait: the “round-faced,” as seen in the monument of Stratford-on-Avon, and the “oval-faced” of Cornelius Jansen. Roubilliac’s bust, and that in the possession of Professor Owen, are after Jansen. No. 407B is the bust by Roubilliac. The statues by Roubilliac and John Bell (see Handbook of Modern Sculpture, Nos. 56 and 9) are conventional, and represent the two types.]

407A.} } WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. _Poet._ 407B.}

408. JOHN MILTON. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1608. Died there, 1674. Aged 66.]

The son of a scrivener. In his earliest years he became enamoured of the Muses, wrote exquisite poetry, travelled in Italy, returned hastily on the outbreak of the Civil war, and identified himself with the Republican party. Later in life, and as blindness was deepening upon him, he was appointed by Cromwell Latin Secretary to the Council of State. Retiring from politics on the death of the Protector, he would, under the Restoration, have suffered as a regicide, had not Sir William Davenant, to his great honour, interposed his own favour with the Court. So rescued, Milton withdrew into obscurity and poverty, unnoticed and forgotten. In his solitude and blindness he composed “Paradise Lost,” which he dictated chiefly to his eldest daughter. The poem was sold to a bookseller for ten pounds, and was not very popular during the lifetime of the poet. At one time he took pupils. He was three times married, was devoutly religious, austere in his morals, and simple in his ways of life. He is the great epic poet of England, distinguished by the strength and sublimity of his genius, and hardly less for sensibility to the graceful and beautiful. Laboriously learned, with an admiration as intelligent as devoted, of the great writings preserved from Greek and Roman antiquity, he, more than any other of our poets, has modelled his works on the type of his illustrious predecessors. He has, of all English poets, carried art in his writings to the highest pitch, but neither art nor imitation has tamed the wing of his muse, or impaired his praise of originality. He knew the greatness of his powers, viewing them as a gift to be used to the honour of the Giver; and his one paramount work, the “Paradise Lost,” having for its “great argument,” as he himself says, “to justify the ways of God to men,” must be regarded as his oblation, brought and laid on the Altar. He founded and formed English heroic blank verse,--a measure which, under his hand, rivals in richness and variety the music of his classical masters; and which alone could, by its majestic flow and inexhaustible powers of expression, have sustained the weight and amplitude of his subject. He loved and honoured Shakspeare.

409. ALEXANDER POPE. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1688. Died at Twickenham, 1744. Aged 56.]

Alexander Pope, the son of a linendraper, and a Roman Catholic, was his own instructor. He was sent home from school in his twelfth year for lampooning his tutor, and from that time he gave his teachers no further trouble. Already, as a boy, a happy versifier--twice happy, for an indulgent father smiled on his dawning skill--he was, in his maturer day, and for the remainder of his own century, the leading star in the sky of our English poetry. He received at the hands of his master, Dryden, the rhymed ten-syllable couplet. This couplet was not first by Dryden used harmoniously, forcibly, eloquently--for Hall in his Satires had done this--but by Dryden it was first raised into the reigning measure of English song. He sustained in it a free flow and bold sweep, suitable to his genius. Pope rather chained the movement, stamping even on his verse the peculiarity of his fine intellectual powers. When we search for Pope’s characteristic amongst poets, we find that he had reasoning--which is the earnest,--and wit--which is the sporting--of the logical faculty, both intimately blending themselves with the poetic vein. It was, accordingly, to a bright and sharp intellectual action that he fitted the couplet, apt by its nature for the service. Uniting to a lively, quick and keen intellect, so much of poetic passion as, in fact, secured the dedication of a life, he produced works which, by their mastery, must command admiration whilst the language is read, although in them, the deliberate skill predominates over the passionate expression. Viewed from the highest point, he was imitative, not original. His spirit active and perceptive in the study of his greater and less predecessors, not self-infused into the contemplation of Man and Nature. What is most felt as a fire in his verse is the ardency of writing, the zeal of an artist enamoured of his task: or he accepts and translates the passion of others, which, not having its home in its own bosom, does not receive justice there. Our grandfathers and our grandmothers knew by heart the “Essay on Man,” the “Essay on Criticism,” the “Moral Essays,” the “Characters of Women” (sparkling with wit and malice, but adding nothing to the observation and true ideal delineation of woman), and the “Rape of the Lock,” in which the playfulness, lying in the verse, exquisitely comes out, and a graceful half-ironical fancy amuses and captivates, but no steeping imagination subdues or transforms to its likeness. He introduces us again to Ariel, whom we have known before, but how different his Ariel and Shakspeare’s. Pope brought intellective precision into poetry, which should feed on the indefinite and the vague, and should flower out into the softened and the flowing. Hence, often when he is the most admirable, he is the most artificial.

410. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. _Poet and Man of Letters._

[Born in Ireland, 1728. Died in London, 1774. Aged 45.]

Poor dear Oliver! What shall we say of him, with his kindly benevolence, his manly independence, his honest feeling, his childish vanity, his naughty extravagance, his irregularities, his blunders, his idleness, his industry, his zeal for the improvement and advancement of the whole world, and his improvident neglect of himself. Goldsmith had fits of genius:--moments of an inspiration, or a possession, that appeared to produce in him powers, not ordinarily there. In the conduct of life he seemed born to be the world’s victim: he lay under the world. His gifted pen in his hand, he rose above it. The tender sensibility that indites his verse agrees too well to his story. The playful humour, and the sharp, never rough, never malignant, satire, take by surprise. He then had the laughers on his side--too often, unfortunately, against him. His poems of “The Traveller” and “The Deserted Village” are a species by themselves, or each a species. The vein of reflexion, of personal feeling, and of poetical viewing, with native simplicity of expression and musical sweetness, is common to the two. The dirge of the deserted hamlet sowed the seed of “The Pleasures of Memory;” and the wandering poet, feeding his verse from his travels, was repeated in “Childe Harold.” Goldsmith’s “Retaliation,” written upon his friends of the St. James’s Coffee House, in requital of the epitaphs they had provided for himself, is the most brilliant and masterly summing up of characters in pointed words and streaming verse that the language possesses. The “Vicar of Wakefield” is the smiled-at, honoured, and loved inmate of every English home.

[By W. Behnes.]

410*. ROBERT BURNS. _Poet._

[Born in Alloway, Ayrshire, 1759. Died at Dumfries, 1796. Aged 37.]

The ploughman-poet of Scotland; in whom the labour of the limbs appeared to invigorate the intelligence, and the bleak air of poverty to cherish the blossoms of genius. Shakspeare rose from the bosom of the people to delineate kings and queens. Burns, born some steps lower, dwelt, even in his verse, to the last, amongst his own order. That is his dignity and his glory. The life of the Scottish peasant as it remains represented by his pencil, and in his person, seizes the imagination and the sympathies of the educated world. He has drawn the heart of the high towards the low. He has raised the low to their just esteem in the opinion of the high. But besides this moral aspect, he has gained, as a poet, immeasurably, by rooting his foot to the fields which he furrowed. The conflict, so maintained in our thoughts between his social position and his endowments and aspirations, sheds a continual illumination of wonder upon his writings. But more! His happiest subjects and strains draw life and meaning from the soil of which they are the self-sown flowers. Not merely that solitary agricultural Idyl, with its homely-pathetic and homely-picturesque--“The Cotter’s Saturday Night,”--but the fanciful tenderness of his lament over the Daisy and the Mouse;--but the wild and reckless daring of imagination in that cordial rencounter with the dread foe Death--that blending of the humorous, the supernaturally grotesque and the terrific in Tam O’Shanter--of the rustic, the gracious, the solemn, even the sublime--in the Vision of Coila--these most characteristic feats of poetical skill and genius--which stand apart, defying competition and claiming rank for the name of Burns, amongst the illustrious on Parnassus--all are made possible by originating from and by reflecting his native condition. His songs are tender, passionate, musical; chaunting his own or imaginary rustic loves. The torrent of his spirit, that, pouring along the channels of thought and song, became an elate and exalting enthusiasm, hurried him on the paths of common life into excesses, dilapidating the humble home and the proud householder. He first published his poems--now in every peasant’s cottage throughout Scotland--in his 27th year, and his fame was instantaneous. Later in life, the favour and patronage of the Scottish nobility and gentry were able to confer upon him a place in the Excise, of no less than £70 a-year: in the discharge of which distinguished public function, and in the enjoyment of which splendid public remuneration--then his only certain support--the one-laurelled modern singer of the time-honoured Scottish tongue sank, from his darkening noon, into the grave.

[This Bust is by David Dunbar.]

411. SAMUEL ROGERS. _Poet._

[Born at Newington Green, near London, 1762. Still living.]

A classic inheritance from the entombed past. The living poet who carried his first production with a trembling hand to Dr. Johnson’s house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, and could not find heart to wait for an answer to his summons when he had knocked at the door; who listened with delight and instruction to the lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds; and who still remembers and relates how, when his father took him to see Garrick act, he himself punished his boyish impatience by closing his eyes for a moment, as the great actor was coming on to the stage. It is nearly seventy years since Samuel Rogers published his first poem, and he was then a man. He is the Addison of verse. Grace, elegance, delicacy, softness, are the characteristics of his poetry. He does not astonish by power, nor thrill by burning passion; but he soothes, gratifies, and charms all who are susceptible of consolation and pleasure from polished and complete works of art. His taste is refined and classical, and all his works have the finish which such taste will require of the artist possessing it. The rhythm of his poetry partakes of the character of the sentiment: all is chaste, smooth, refined, and clear. The descriptions in “Italy” of Italian life and scenery are very beautiful, and his reflections are at all times pure and elevating. For so long a life, Mr. Rogers has written very little; but his works are gems, and have been heightened and improved by labour until scrupulous thought can do for them nothing more. All poets since the century began have acknowledged Rogers for a master; and his conscientiousness, purity, and refinement, fit him for a teacher. He has outlived not only his illustrious contemporaries, but the great poets who were unborn when he had reached his prime. The patriarch, in his long protracted nightfall, still gladdens his memory with the visions of the past, looking with placid hope towards his all but present future.

[By W. Behnes.]

412. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. _Poet._

[Born at Cockermouth, 1770. Died at Rydal Mount, 1850. Aged 80.]

The most original of the poetical thinkers whom his day gave to his country. Her verse, notwithstanding one or two better voices uplifted, had too long and too patiently worn the character of an imitative literature. He undertook the championship of a conflict, which was to reseat legitimate powers on the throne. Born and bred in the northern, mountain region of England, his first study of men was amongst the simple-minded, vigorous, independent, and intelligent peasantry of the dales. The earth, which his young feet explored, lay embosoming its lakes, rearing crag and steep, as though yet freshly robed in loveliness, or charged with power, by the Creator’s hand. His instinct already drew him, even unconsciously, to gather, in _that_ contemplation of Man and of Nature, and not in books, the materials of his appointed Art. Solitary, self-communing, self-sufficing, he soon stood in presence with an educated world, the prophet of a new poetical revelation. He found, at the first encounter, a prophet’s reward--belief in the few: from the multitude, mockery and persecution. He lived long enough to be understood; to see health and strength of his infusing reanimate the too languid veins of our English poesy. An extreme trust in the worth inhering in every phase of humanity may have sometimes descended too low, in the choice of the theme; an excessive zeal of simplicity may occasionally have stripped the style a little too bare. But his writings remain distinguished, amongst the lays of his own just elapsed age, as the most soothing and instructive to the heart of the reader; and for the generations of poets, rising and to rise, the most warning and oracular. His strains have been remarkably various in length and weight, in manner and style. As a portrayer of human nature, he ranks amongst those who have the most deeply and critically explored the workings of our mysterious heart and intellectual being. His especial vocation amongst poets was, in his own view, the disclosure of the affinities which attract, by feeling, the human soul to the natural world: It supplying intellectual forms, and We, passion--an intercourse, blending, if it may be so said, two lives into one. He entered upon his work of reforming our poetical spirit, in two volumes of Lyrical Ballads and Other Poems, in the years 1798 and 1807. His life was one long day of brooding calm--his sunset, lucid and serene.

[Presented to the Crystal Palace by the sculptor, F. Thrupp, and modelled by him from a cast after death by Chantrey.]

413. SIR WALTER SCOTT. _Poet and Novelist._

[Born in Edinburgh, 1771. Died at Abbotsford, 1832. Aged 61.]

The great magician of the north, under whose fascinating spell millions in all lands have been entranced and strengthened. His boyish eye fed on the wild scenes of his native land, and on the mouldering wrecks--here and there sadly gracing those scenes--of her former sterner, yet greater day. His boyish heart was cradled in the music of her old wild songs, then living, and in the rough and bold traditions of her strange and romantic Past. The joy and the passion which were life to the boy, became power to the man. With a wondrous dominion suddenly begun, yet prolonged whilst he lived, he swayed and swept back the spirits of his generation on a torrent of delight and desire, into forgotten times, alien to our manner of thinking and of being. But the poet finds one heart of Man under all the shapes of human existence: one universal spirit of human life. Transported by the poet, we find ourselves everywhere with our kind. Reanimated by him, the worn-out and the antiquated rise new-born and of our time. And Scott, in verse or in prose, was a poet. The electric telegraph of the press carried his writings, as they left his desk, over the globe. The excellent French historian, Augustin Thierry, says that the romances of Scott, by their vivid and vital representations of the past, have reformed the style and study of history on the continent, urging and guiding the historian, instead of chronicling dry facts, to throw himself with a thirsty inspiration into the bosom of the mighty departed time. A Scottish traveller in Spanish California told, that a Spanish monk had there shown him his copy of “Ivanhoe,” and said “Next after my Bible.” We remember with pain that Scott, to whom the world stands so largely indebted for some of its purest delights, fell into trouble and difficulty, and snapped his brain in his noble and manly struggle for escape. The spot of Scotland which the toil of his genius had won him, for rooting his family on, when torn from both him and them by a blast of ill-fortune, was redeemed to them by the reverent affection of his country---made theirs by a public act which tied even every “book of his curious learning” to its place on his shelves, in perpetuity. There his favourite daughter’s daughter and her children now prolong, if not his illustrious name, his honoured line.

[By F. Chantrey.]

414. ROBERT SOUTHEY. _Poet Laureate._

[Born at Bristol, 1774. Died at Keswick, in Cumberland, 1843. Aged 69.]

An author who has earned imperishable renown in his own country, for the dignity with which he upheld the literary character, for his virtuous mind, for his patient, honest industry, and for his masculine prose writings. His poetical compositions--with the exception of the minor poems--are too laboured and too long, are too deliberately planned, and not sufficiently impassioned to be immortal; but they contain, nevertheless, many fine descriptive passages, abounding in strength and beauty: the subjects are chosen, and treated, with bold and free imagination. Southey read too much, and reflected too little; he was an insatiable devourer of books, and almost a prisoner to his study; hence he imbibed prejudices, and narrowed his intellectual sympathies: but his heart was of the soundest, and his feelings of the freshest. In the distribution of his hours he was most methodical. He had a surprising memory, a yearning towards the romantic in his literary pursuits, and an insuppressible vein of humour. He lived and died, comparatively poor, and he was always a day labourer. Yet he had ever a ready ear for the tale of distress, and an open hand for all who needed its grasp in the difficult journey of life. He never murmured at his own inevitable yoke, and he had self-command enough to refuse a baronetcy, when, towards the close of his career, he was offered the honour by the Minister of the day. It is sad to think that the mind of Southey gave way in the decline of life. When he could read no longer, he walked to his bookshelves with a vacant soul, and opened the volumes only to look at them, without being able to derive the least consolation from their pages. He died honoured, and literary men in England are proud to acknowledge, in him, one of the worthiest of their order.

[This is a posthumous Bust, by E. H. Baily, R.A., from the marble which forms a portion of the monument erected to the poet’s memory in Bristol. It was carved in 1847.]

415. THOMAS CAMPBELL. _Poet._

[Born at Glasgow, 1777. Died at Boulogne, 1844. Aged 67.]

The poetical career of Thomas Campbell began when he was twenty years old, and was completed before he was thirty-three. He wrote nothing subsequently to this age worthy of his fame. His earliest work, the “Pleasures of Hope,” composed in youth, at once established his claim to be ranked amongst the foremost poets of his time. It brimmed with promise; and not the least singular circumstance in connexion with Thomas Campbell’s life is, that the excessive expectation raised by his first appeal was never satisfactorily fulfilled. The poetic faculty burned in the “Pleasures of Hope,” which was full of melody, pathos, animated description, and impassioned sentiment. All needful ardour was there. There were also to be noted the faults of a youthful pen--redundancy of diction and incorrectness. Ten years after the “Pleasures of Hope” he published “Gertrude of Wyoming.” The impulsive quality was already subdued by elaborate art; and although extreme beauty and tenderness were here and there in the poem, correctness was still wanting. Your spirit was entranced with verses, than which, in the English language, you could find none better, simpler, and sweeter. Yet for one such verse that was borne away from “Gertrude of Wyoming” a hundred were forgotten which were not its peers. Campbell had momentary, true, intense conceptions, and fineness of fancy; he exhibited felicities of thought and expression that fastened instantly on every memory; his, too, was an ear of poetical sensibility to the music of language; but woe to the verse if his poetic utterance came not of an inspiration--by a seizing theme. “Ye Mariners of England,” “The Soldier’s Dream,” “The Battle of Hohenlinden,” constituted such themes, and these small poems of Campbell are consequently abiding treasures in the literature of the nation.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Executed in 1827.]

416. THOMAS MOORE. _Poet._

[Born at Dublin, 1780. Died in Wiltshire, 1852. Aged 72.]

A poet of exuberant fancy, revelling in lavish ornament and gorgeous painting, and giving utterance to the most ingenious creations, in language of ineffable, and, occasionally, overpowering sweetness. A writer of inimitable Irish ballads, which are now plaintive, now joyous, now pathetic, now fervid, now tender, now fierce, now melting, now heroic; but always matchless by the graceful flow of the verse, and the prompt springing of the happiest illustration. Also the author of satires, brilliant and cutting, but rather the outpourings of a generous fancy, delighting in its own exquisite self-conscious faculty of mischief, than the malicious and bitter expression of a vexed and disappointed mind. Melody and joyance are careering in almost every syllable that he wrote. He was a passionate lover of music, and when he sang his own ballads, the effect upon his listeners was electrical. His most celebrated poetical composition is “Lalla Rookh,” an Eastern romance, which he wrote “amidst the snows of two or three Derbyshire winters.” His best prose work, “The Epicurean,” is a masterly performance, redolent of the perfume which breathes through his verse, and elevated by a high moral aim. When Thomas Moore died, the impression left of the man upon the public mind was stamped there by his jocund muse--a feeling of tenderness and love was associated with the pleasant memory of “Little Tommy Moore.” Since his death his memoirs and his diary have been published, and the impression has grown dimmer and dimmer in consequence. As a man, Thomas Moore, the poet, appears to have been hardly more heroic than the most prosaic of his kind.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1838, for the late Edward Moore, of Mayfair.]

417. JOHN WILSON. _Poet and Professor._

[Born at Paisley, 1785. Died in Edinburgh, 1854. Aged 69.]

The son of a Paisley manufacturer. Educated at Glasgow and Oxford. Like the youth of ancient Greece, he delighted equally in the spoils of the arena, and in the wisdom of the porch. At Oxford, the first wrestler of his time, and the gainer of the Newdegate prize for the best poem. His genius as passionate as his frame was overflowing with the sap of animal life. Endowed with a lofty and glowing imagination, and with great critical powers, improved by knowledge. A lover of learning for the joy it brings, and a hearty sympathizer with the glorious labours of the great makers of prose and verse, whether in ancient or modern time. He himself excelled as a worker in more than one of the paths of literature. His poetry is remarkable for the beauty of its imagery, for its rich fancy, and for the flow of the verse; his criticisms exhibit a profound knowledge of the true principles of taste, are eloquent, and full of generous sentiment; his prose tales of fiction have deep pathos, and reveal intimate acquaintance with the human heart. As an orator, John Wilson might have vied with the most eloquent of his contemporaries had he chosen to compete with them in their own peculiar field; as a writer upon the manly sports which he so ardently loved, he is unequalled. His very corporeal substance seems heaving with joy and physical happiness, as we follow his vigorous, picturesque, and elated pen, amongst the lochs of Scotland, or the lakes of Cumberland. Wilson wrote with the zeal of a strong partizan in politics. He would be one, and could not. His large and universal heart never entertained what are called political antipathies. His Toryism was his strong and hearty nature bubbling up and venting itself in loyalty, chivalry, and affectionate duty. To say that he was opposed to Liberty and Right, is to assert a monstrous paradox. He was the very incarnation of liberty, and his giant soul shrunk from wrong, by natural action. In 1818, Wilson was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. The bust bespeaks the man. It looks like Jupiter. We cannot gaze upon a more magnificent head.

[This striking and characteristic work is by the late James Fillous of Glasgow, a fellow townsman of Professor Wilson. It was executed in marble for the Public Reading Room at Paisley.]

418. GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1788. Died at Missolonghi, in Greece, 1824. Aged 36.]

Assuredly, the most popular, if not the greatest poet of our times. But, the popularity by no means proof of the greatness. He was an object of interest on account of his birth, his youth, his misfortunes, his constant practice of associating with poetry his personal and daily history, his strongly imagined injuries, his feverish complaints. A vigorous painter of portraits--that is to say, of two, for he took delight only in the hero of gloomy passion, and in the heroine of soft voluptuous beauty--all his pictures more or less reflecting his own nature, and the nature of woman as it appeared to his refined sensuality. Byron has described with ineffable grandeur natural scenery, and has kindled the spirits of men with enthusiasm for the ancient glory; but we find no solace in his companionship, although he takes us to streams and mountains visited by the gods. His own distempered image is too visibly stamped on every scene. Byron affected to be a misanthrope; yet he cherished the good opinion of men, and shrunk from their adverse criticism. He pretended that he was isolated from the world; yet his name and fame were upon every lip. What will last in the poetry of Byron are the verses uttered in moments of self-oblivion. Keats complained that Byron made solemn things gay, and gay things solemn. This was a great wrong, and is hardly repaired by the tenderness, pathos, sentiment, and passion, that start from his poetry to go straight to the heart. It was the misfortune of Byron to be sent into the world without discipline or training of any kind. Had he been fairly dealt with in his childhood and youth, his life might have been happier--its course more equable. As it was, his genius was enslaved and wronged, his career was violent and erratic, his whole nature warped, and his poetry, instead of being a well-trimmed garden of beauty, had its choicest flowers entangled and half hidden in unwholesome, gaudy weeds.

[By Thorwaldsen, but not from the life.]

418A. GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON. _Poet._

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Modelled from authentic portraits.]

419. DOUGLAS JERROLD. _Writer._

[Born in London, 1803. Still living.]

Before he was eleven years old, he went as midshipman to sea. Returned to London after two years’ service, and in his boyhood took to writing dramas for minor theatres. In later life he has produced dramatic works of a higher kind--his comedies being remarkable for epigrammatic wit, and sparkling dialogue. His prose writings, generally, are characterized by trenchant sarcasm, by a vigorous Saxon style, by earnestness of will, and by an unflinching advocacy of liberal principles. Douglas Jerrold has been charged with bitterness of spirit, and a malicious desire to set the poor against the rich. The charge rests upon no good foundation. He revolts from injustice and oppression; he feels acutely their effects upon all who come within their operation; and his views are invariably expressed with all the intensity of his genuine convictions. His pen has been always at the service of humanity; and his heart is as sound as his language is plain, direct, and unequivocal.

[Executed in marble, 1852, by E. H. Baily, R.A.]

419*. HENRY TAYLOR. _Poet._

[Still living.]

Known to literature as the author of “Philip Van Artevelde,” a drama for the study, not for the stage. This dramatic poem is admirably finished, and contains many beautiful images, and passages of undoubted vigour. But the polish is too evident, the labour expended too much on the surface. There is nothing in the work to offend; nothing to take by surprise; nothing that stirs the human heart to its depths. The author shall defy you to point out the blemishes of genius on his pages. You may equally challenge him to produce evidence of the power of genius. In “Philip Van Artevelde” we are ever within sight of the domain in which the great dramatists reign supreme, but never in the domain itself. It is all but a great work. It seems as if only fire were wanting at the poet’s heart to convey us at once from the region of great talent to the higher sphere of undoubted inspiration. But the needed warmth comes not.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.

420. FRANCIS BACON. _Chancellor of England, and Founder of the Inductive Philosophy._

[Born in London, 1561. Died 1626. Aged 65.]

The son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Elizabeth. Francis was yet a boy when he evinced so keen and lively an intellect, that Elizabeth was wont to call him her young Lord Keeper. He rose to the highest distinction in the state, becoming Lord Chancellor of England. He was removed from his eminence, because he had sullied it by accepting bribes. He lived ostentatiously, and died leaving many debts. His name is one of the greatest this country boasts. He is the father of the modern Philosophy. Standing between two intellectual eras, he surveyed the past, and predicted the future, of human inquiry. Reverting his eye, he saw that the most acute and powerful intellects had, age after age, wasted their strength in investigating physical phenomena, without fruit either of great ascertained truths, or of service won from their speculations to human uses. Neither zeal nor ability had been wanting. He inferred that the method of those elder philosophers was in fault. Impatient and arrogant, they presumed, upon the first strong impressions caught from the contemplation of Nature, oracularly to divine her universal laws. From these laws, affirmed not established, they proceeded to solve, as best they could, all further phenomena: for, within these false and hasty conclusions once recognised, Reason lay thenceforward imprisoned. Lord Bacon said: “Have patience. Wait upon Nature. Observe indefatigably. Accumulate, without ceasing, records of the appearances. Verify experiment by experiment. Set instance beside instance, without sparing, but not without choosing. Ultimately the law will stand revealed.” What has happened? Immense and ever-advancing discovery--science created upon science--observers, without number, conspiring in the most disjoined parts of the civilized world to solve the same philosophical problems--Nature every day more and more yielding to man the service of her powers--and the wisdom of her Author every day more and more discerned in His works--these are the results which honour the school of Bacon.

[From the monument at St. Albans.]

421. HUMPHREY CHETHAM. “_Dealer in Manchester Commodities._”

[Born 1580. Died 1653. Aged 73.]

An early and generous benefactor to the city of Manchester. One of Fuller’s “Worthies of England.” He made a large fortune by sending Manchester commodities up to London; and during his life-time he invested his gains in the education of twenty-two poor boys. At his death he left money enough to provide for the suitable education of forty boys; and he also bequeathed £1000 for the purchase of books for a general library, as well as £100 for the erection of a building to receive them. At the present hour 100 boys are educated, maintained, and clothed, by the munificence of Humphrey Chetham, and more than 23,000 volumes are open to all who desire to improve themselves by reading. The statue of which the one in the Crystal Palace is a cast, has been recently raised to the memory of this pious and benevolent man, by one who, in early life, partook of Humphrey Chetham’s bounty. The name of the grateful recipient is unknown; but he need not blush to make it public. The statue may be seen in Manchester Cathedral--a monument of affectionate reverence and gratitude, as well as of Christian well-doing.

[For an account of this statue, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture, No. 62.]

422. JOHN LOCKE. _Philosopher._

[Born in Somersetshire, 1632. Died at Oates, in Essex, 1704. Aged 72.]

A stern intellect with a pious and gentle heart. Of a good family. He studied for medicine; but his delicate health prevented his engaging in the profession. The study was apparently turned to higher account in settling his contemplation on the real and the useful. He ranks amongst English philosophers as the one who first, by his writings, impressed the fact that the Mind of Man lies before us, if we can attend, as much a subject for observation and for the investigation of laws, as the outwardly sensible world. The impulse given by his teaching to the educated mind of the country was strong and lasting. His successors have introduced, as might be expected, more method and precision into this region of speculation. They have confirmed, enriched, and extended the science, although yet far from having attained that luminous certainty, and that wealth of profitable results, which wonderfully reward the inquirers into the physical order of Nature. Besides his “Essay on the Human Understanding”--for which Locke is called the founder, in England, of modern metaphysical inquiry--he stood up in other works also, as the champion of intellectual liberty, vindicating the rights of Reason in politics and in religion. In the study of the Mind, “he broke the fetters of the schools,” as Bacon had done for physical science. Locke was the friend of Newton.

[By Riesback.]

423. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. ASTRONOMER AND PHILOSOPHER.

[Born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, 1642. Died in London, 1727. Aged 85.]

This illustrious man was educated at Grantham, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1660. Before he had reached his twenty-third year, he had already made various important discoveries in pure mathematics; amongst others, the celebrated “Binomial Theorem,” familiar to every tyro, and that most refined and powerful instrument of scientific investigation, the “Method of Fluxions,” which, a few years later, was independently discovered by the famous Leibnitz, and given to the world in the form now universally known as the “Differential Calculus.” Newton was still young when the fall of an apple gave birth in his mind to the first germ of “the Law of Gravitation,” which, some years later, he so beautifully and wonderfully developed. In 1666--his age twenty-four--he began those experiments with the prism which quickly led him to “The Decomposition of Light,” and to other optical discoveries, unfolded in the lectures delivered by him at Cambridge, as the successor of Barrow, from the year 1669. In his thirtieth year, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; in 1703, its President; and he was re-elected to this distinguished post year after year, for twenty-five years. His great work, “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” appeared complete in 1687. It has excited the astonishment and profound admiration of the greatest philosophers in all nations, from that time to the present; and no wonder, since, in some respects, this grand production might almost seem to have resulted from actual inspiration, and not from the mere day labour of an unassisted human intellect. The mighty teacher was the originator of views and theories, upon which the ablest philosophical minds of the last century and of the present have built their most renowned achievements, yet we are most admonished by his humility, his religion, and his calm. Newton was member of Parliament for Cambridge. He was also master of the Mint. Honour was shown to him living and dead. George I. ordered that his body should, after lying in state, be buried in Westminster Abbey. What luminary is without its dark spot? Leibnitz and Newton were the two greatest men of their age, yet a bitter and lasting quarrel between them is recorded, for our solemn instruction. It remains to state that the year in which Galileo died, Newton was born. No interval was suffered between the extinction of the one essential light and the kindling of the other.

[By Roubilliac.]

424. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. _Statesman and Philosopher._

[Born at Boston, in America, 1706. Died at Philadelphia, in America, 1790. Aged 84.]

“Franklin” is another word for usefulness, self-denial, frugality, perseverance, and independence. A poor printer’s boy, who, by his own unaided powers raised himself from the lowest place of society to the highest, and contributed alike to the advancement of science, and to the independence of one of the finest countries of the earth. His discovery of the identity of lightning and electricity, and the invention of the lightning-rod; the explanation of the _aurora borealis_ and thunder-gusts upon electrical principles, are triumphs of the philosopher. His ardent support of the new Republic, his activity, judgment, and resources, speak for the statesman and the lover of liberty. His language unadorned, but ever pure and expressive; his reasoning manly and cogent, and so concise that he never exceeded a quarter of an hour in any public address. His correspondence a model of clearness and compendious brevity. Scrupulously punctual in all his dealings. An exemplar of economy, and regularity. His life, one of the most instructive and encouraging studies for youth, since it exhibits the sufferings, the trials, the power, and the victory of self-command, temperance and industry, and the reward of genius overcoming all the difficulties of fortune.

[By Houdon.]

424A. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. _Statesman and Philosopher._

[By Hiram Powers.]

425. SAMUEL JOHNSON. _Writer and Moralist._

[Born at Lichfield, 1709. Died in London, 1784. Aged 75.]

The son of a bookseller in Lichfield. Educated at Oxford, but compelled to leave the University without a degree, in consequence of the misfortunes of his father. Then an usher,--and then, marrying,--the proprietor of a private academy in his native city. He had only three pupils, but one of them was David Garrick. Master and pupil went up together to London in search of fortune. Both found what they sought--the pupil suddenly and brilliantly; the master, after trial, privation, and suffering. In 1738, Johnson published his first poem, “London.” Twelve years later, he came forth as an essayist in the “Rambler.” In 1755, appeared his “Dictionary of the English Language,” a seven years’ labour; and in 1781, “The Lives of the Poets.” In 1762, a pension of £300 a-year was settled upon him by King George III. The tradition of Johnson in society is of a literary and moral dictator--a character which, as far as he was concerned, implied much rather the depth of conviction with which he championed great interests, than the pride of self-conscious intellect, the taste for conflict, or the thirst of rule; and which the listeners conceded yet more in reverence for the personal worth of the man, than in submission to his intellectual superiority. He is one of the manliest and most robust minds in our letters. From moral sense and religion, from deep natural concern, his giant will was devoted to the great interests of mankind. He felt in himself a vocation to sustain these interests, and he was the sturdiest of combatants in the prosecution of his moral crusade. His style is stately, nervous, Latin, original, singularly suited to his mind, which gave a direction to contemporary minds, and largely fashioned the literature of his time. The prime characteristic of his writings is unquestionably strong, solid sense, mixed it may be with onesidedness, but bright with acute reflection. Johnson’s exterior was unwieldy, his manners were not polished, but a tenderer heart never beat than his own. He could utter a withering epigram. He never committed a deliberately unkind act. His house was a hospital for the sick and distressed; he could not walk the streets without emptying his pockets into the hands of beggars, and his great heart melted under a tale of sorrow and injustice. He had strong prejudices, and although sincerely pious, was superstitious. He loved to speak in aphorisms, and we still quote his sayings, as attributing to him something of the dignity and weight of an oracle. His life influenced his age. After his death he still exercises his influence, for he has given occasion to the most perfect and amusing biography in the language.

425A. SAMUEL JOHNSON. _Writer and Moralist._

[This statue, by J. Bacon, R.A., is at the South End of the Nave, on the East Side; for account of which, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture.]

426. ADAM SMITH. _Philosopher and Political Economist._

[Born at Kirkaldy, in Scotland, 1723. Died, in Edinburgh, 1790. Aged 67.]

This great master in the science of political economy was the son of an Officer of Customs, and studied first in Glasgow, afterwards at Oxford. He had feeble health, and was of studious habits. In 1748, a lecturer, in Edinburgh, upon Rhetoric and the Belles-Lettres; and in 1751, appointed Professor, first of Logic, and then of Moral Philosophy, in the University of Glasgow. At this period of his life he published his “Theory of the Moral Sentiments,” a work in which he regards Sympathy as the foundation of all morals. In 1763, resigning his Professorship, he became tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch, with whom he travelled on the continent for several years. He subsequently retired to his native village, where he passed ten years of his life in close obscurity, study, and fruitful meditation. In 1776, he issued from his cell to pour light for ever into the busy world. In that year was published his memorable “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” This monument of industry, observation, sagacity, learning, and acuteness, continues the one great hand-book of political economists. The leading points which Adam Smith laboured to urge in his “Inquiry” are--That labour is the only source of the wealth of nations; that wealth does not consist in the abundance of gold and silver, but in the abundance of the necessities, conveniences, and enjoyments of life; that it is sound policy to leave individuals to pursue their own interest in their own way, and that every regulation intended to force industry into particular channels, is impolitic and pernicious. The justice of these axioms has, after years of argument, denial, and resistance, received general acknowledgment in England; and Adam Smith is the author of one revolution in the world’s progress, and a benefactor of his kind. His reasoning is not always sound; but the base of his fabric is unassailable, and the illustration which constitutes its ornament, is amongst the happiest ever employed to give life and light to a solid structure. Adam Smith is the great practical philosopher of an age and a people, craving for his philosophy more than for any other, yet wanting, most of all, the philosophy which shows the soul of a man as the most precious of all his estates, and teaches him the husbandry of it. He died, having won a competence, and fulfilling a government appointment.

[This plaster cast was formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence.]

427. JOHN HUNTER. _Surgeon and Comparative Anatomist._

[Born in Scotland, 1728. Died in London, 1793. Aged 65.]

When John Hunter was twenty years old, he could scarcely read or write; but he could make chairs and tables. At the time of his death, forty-five years afterwards, he was the first anatomist in the country; and he left behind him a museum--the work of his own rare intelligence and industry--which the government purchased for the sum of £15,000, and conferred upon the Royal College of Surgeons. Hunter came to London, from his carpenter’s shop in Scotland, in order to serve as anatomical assistant to his brother William, who had already established a reputation as an anatomist, and was doing well. In a few months John had made sufficient advance to be able to give instruction in the dissecting-room. He then studied on his own account, went to Oxford, and became a surgeon. Intense application, profound observation, ceaseless experiments, and masterly skill and judgment, enabled him in time considerably to enlarge the knowledge of surgery, and to make valuable discoveries in connexion with his favourite science of comparative anatomy. He was, for England, the first great leader in the Science of animal life. He was a bold and clever operator; he wrote several professional treatises; and, besides being Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, he held the offices of Inspector-General of Hospitals, and Surgeon-General. His name is honoured in the profession to which he belongs, and he is justly regarded as the great and worthy guide and pioneer of all the seekers and successful discoverers, who since his time have explored the same paths.

[By Flaxman.]

428. JAMES WATT. _Improver of the Steam-Engine._

[Born at Greenock, 1736. Died 1819. Aged 83.]

It has been said that the genius of Watt, as displayed in his mechanical inventions, has contributed more to show the practical utility of the sciences, to extend the power of man over the material world, to multiply and expand the conveniences of life, than the works of any other individual in modern times. His was a rare mechanical genius. It had been nurtured from his infancy at home; where he lived, as a boy, in solitary retirement, cultivating observation and reflexion, and kept apart from other boys by weak bodily health. It may be affirmed that his whole life was one long day’s labour, for his enlightened industry never ceased. When a mere child, he would take to pieces and reconstruct every toy that came in his way. At nineteen he went to London, and placed himself with a maker of mathematical instruments there, making delicate instruments for his employer with his own hands. “With those same hands,” says M. Arago, a little fancifully, since the head now took the place of the hands, “he afterwards constructed those colossal machines which in Cornwall, and on the ocean, perform the service of millions of horses.” But the improvement of the steam-engine, until it attained its highest point of perfection, is not Watt’s sole claim to the title of a discoverer. Without knowing a note of music, he constructed an organ, and in a great measure solved the problem of _temperament_. He invented the press for copying letters; he introduced the process of bleaching by the aid of chlorine; he explained the composition of water, and the art of warming by steam. The extent, variety, and accuracy of Watt’s knowledge were amazing. No subject seemed foreign to him, and upon every subject he spoke as if that alone had all his life engaged his attention. Sir Humphrey Davy declared that Watt stood upon a higher elevation than Archimedes. Great as were his powers, he was a man of child-like candour, and of the greatest simplicity.

[By Flaxman.]

429. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. _Historian and Metaphysician._

[Born in Scotland, 1765. Died, 1832. Aged 67.]

A strong and shrewd intellect: determined by native impulse and aptness to the metaphysical speculations, which, in the country where he was born, make regularly an important part of a liberal education. He sought and maintained the character of a dispassionate inquirer, reading extensively and carefully weighing conflicting opinions. More a student than a man of action; yet, even in study, his energies clogged by a natural indolence. Mackintosh, though descended from Jacobites, was a Whig. In 1791, he wrote a defence of the French Revolution, in answer to Burke; but, in less than four years, confessed that bitter experience had overthrown his generous argument. Adopting the law as a profession, he received promotion in India at the hands of his political allies. After seven years’ service, entered Parliament. He wrote an admirable “Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy” for the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and he was engaged on a “History of the Revolution of 1688,” when he died. A man of great learning, philosophical clearness, and fine perception. Yet his works lack method and elegance, and fail, from the absence of these qualities, to do justice to the intellect that fashioned them.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1829 for Lord Nugent.]

430. FRANCIS JEFFREY. _Critic and Essayist._

[Born at Edinburgh, 1773. Died, 1850. Aged 77.]

One of the founders, and for many years the editor, of the “Edinburgh Review,”--a publication which he enriched by his essays on poetry and general literature. He had an acute, ingenious, and spirited intellect, a sensibility of taste, and a constant flow and vivacity of style; but his apprehensions in literature and the arts, were rather trained and authorized than free and original. He had a leaning, scarcely a special gift, to speculate on the questions of the Mind--questions early and familiarly brought before him, as rife in the Scottish school in which he was educated. The influence of Jeffrey upon literature and public opinion, during his life-time, was very great--partly from the character of the Review which he governed, partly from the independence, brilliancy, and ability with which he maintained his principles of taste. Many of his criticisms contain the soundest views, and are eloquently written: others have been signally refuted by time and the public verdict; and their style is defaced by wanton and unjustifiable flippancy of language. Jeffrey studied for the law, and, being always a liberal in politics, was promoted by his Whig friends to the Scottish bench. With the reputation of a brilliant and ingeniously argumentative speaker, he disappointed, in the House of Commons, the general expectation. He was esteemed a very kind and friendly feeling man.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1846.]

431. FRANCIS BAILY. _Astronomer._

[Born at Newbury, 1774. Died 1844. Aged 70.]

Originally a stockbroker. One of the founders of the Astronomical Society, and for many years its President. Also Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Society. Author of many astronomical works; amongst others, of a volume detailing the repetition of the Cavendish experiment for the determination of the earth’s density.

[Executed in marble, by E. H. Daily, R.A. Posthumous. 1848.]

432. WILLIAM YARRELL. _Naturalist._

[Born in London, 1784. Still living.]

The author of “A History of British Birds,” and of various papers on subjects connected with natural history. Is treasurer to the Linnæan Society of London.

[By Henry Weigall.]

433. GEORGE STEPHENSON. _Engineer._

[Born 1781. Died 1848. Aged 67.]

A sturdy plant of English growth. A working mind born ripe for its time. An uncultivated power endowed with immeasurable capability. The story of George Stephenson reads well for his country, well for himself, well for the high faculties which Providence has given to man, irrespectively of birth, station, education, or any accidental condition. His parentage was of the poorest. He could not have begun his race at a more distant point from the goal of fortune. He did not even start with his fellows in open day, under the bright sun, on the earth’s surface. He was a pit-engine boy, and his pay was twopence a day. It was a great rise for him when he was made stoker, and he was on the high road to prosperity when he found himself breaksman. Promoted to the office of engineman, he declared that he was “now a man for life.” He first made known his mechanical genius in the service of Lord Ravensworth, when he repaired and improved, as an amateur, a condensing pump-engine, which had baffled the skill of some professional engineers. Having been, for a time, occupied in laying down some unimportant lines of rail, he went to Liverpool to plan a line of railway between that city and Manchester. He held out great inducements to enterprize, and made unheard-of prophecies of success. He even undertook that a locomotive should accomplish ten miles of distance in every hour. We must not be surprised that the people called him “mad” for proffering the assurance. Similar madmen had preceded him,--Columbus, Galileo,--the inventor of gas, the discoverer of vaccination and others. The line, as we know, was made,--the experiment tried. Stephenson was right, a locomotive can travel at the rate of ten miles an hour. The rise of Stephenson was now rapid as the strides of his own locomotives. He took the lead at once in railway engineering; became a great locomotive manufacturer, an extensive railway contractor, a large owner of collieries and iron-works, and a man of mark in the nation. Our railway system is the result of the multiform operations of his strong practical mind. Stephenson disputed with Sir Humphry Davy the invention of the safety lamp. Other claimants are in the field. We shall never know the discoverer, any more than we shall learn the birth-place of Homer; and George Stephenson may spare the extra laurel from his iron crown.

[By Christopher Moore, 1831. Executed for Robert Stephenson, Esq.]

434. WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN. _Millwright and Engineer._

[Born at Kelso, on the Tweed, 1789. Still living.]

This eminent engineer settled as a millwright in Manchester, in 1815, and distinguished himself at once by his practical improvements in the construction of mills and workshops. To his early efforts, in the science of mill architecture, may be traced much of the improved taste now displayed by mill-owners in the manufacturing districts. His latest achievement in this direction is the magnificent structure at Saltaire, near Bradford, Yorkshire. He was an early builder of iron ships in Manchester, Hull, and London. His experiments, designs, and superintendence, were available in the construction of the Conway and Britannia Tubular Bridges. Mr. Fairbairn, besides his title to respect as a mechanical engineer, and a great improver in the specific sciences to which he has devoted his life, is a contributor of much valuable knowledge through the medium of the press. He is the architect of his own fortunes, and is remarkable, in an age of remarkable engineers, for his great energy, skill, taste, and discrimination.

[By J. E. Jones.]

435. SIR JOHN HERSCHELL. _Astronomer._

[Born 1790. Still living.]

The worthy son of a celebrated sire. Educated at Cambridge, where he easily distanced all who competed with him for the honours of that seat of learning. Like his father, Sir John has devoted himself mainly to astronomical pursuits; but he has penetrated with ardour into every field of science, and illuminated by his genius all the ground he has trodden. He is a consummate mathematician, an accomplished chemist, a profound philosopher, a master of his native language, and of style. In 1834, he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of making observations in the southern celestial hemisphere, and continued there for the space of four years. His “Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy,” is amongst the most beautiful, eloquent, and useful of modern publications. His treatises on Sound and Light show a profound application of the highest order of mathematics to physical subjects of the most subtle, delicate and ethereal character. Herschell, more than any other man of this day, has contributed to uphold and increase England’s scientific renown; his learning and accomplishments are universal, and his constant zeal in the diffusion of knowledge amongst all classes,--amongst the very humblest as well as the very highest,--constitutes a right to our gratitude and respect equal to that established by his philosophic labours and infinite acquirements. Sir John Herschell is Master of the Mint. Sir Isaac Newton held the post before him.

[From the marble by E. H. Baily, R.A. 1848.]

436. MICHAEL FARADAY. _Natural Philosopher._

[Born 1794. Still living.]

This illustrious scientific man is the son of a poor blacksmith, and was in early life apprenticed to a bookbinder, at which craft he worked until his twenty-second year. His great delight in electrical researches brought him into acquaintance with Sir Humphrey Davy, whose assistant he became in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where Faraday himself in time rose to the dignity of Fullerian Professor. The discoveries of Faraday in several branches of science have placed him in the very highest rank amongst European philosophers. The most difficult and abstruse points in connexion with light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and the laws of matter, have been simplified to an extraordinary degree by the force of his sagacity and singular acuteness. As remarkable as his genius for discovery, and for the detection of the hidden operations of nature, is his admirable faculty of exposition. No living man approaches Faraday in the easy power of communicating the results of the most subtle investigation to a miscellaneous audience. Passing through his lucid understanding, every subject, however abstruse or abstract, becomes simple, clear, and attractive.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Executed in 1823.]

436*. MARY SOMERVILLE. _Mathematician and Astronomer._

[Still living.]

One of the few women who step out from the limits which seem naturally assigned to their intellectual avocations, to compete with men in theirs. One of the fewer who do so, deserting none of their proper tasks, forfeiting nothing of their proper character. A profound mathematician and astronomer; a delicate inquirer into natural phenomena. Her work on “The Connexion of the Physical Sciences” spreads out, in a form designed for the uninitiated reader, but not for the inattentive, a large variety of impressive knowledge, on some of the most interesting laws of the natural world. Her manner of writing is remarkably simple, descriptive, clear and exact.

[By Macdonald. Executed in Rome, 1848.]

437. WILLIAM WHEWELL. _Philosopher._

[Born at Lancaster, 1795. Still living.]

The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and at this moment the greatest ornament of that celebrated university. He has been tutor in the college of which he is the Head, and Professor of Mineralogy. Subsequently appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy, which he still occupies. A great promoter of the study of this branch of human learning, both by his writings and his oral lectures. Has contributed valuable essays on the subject of education, with especial reference to the studies of his own university. Has enriched mathematical and physical science with many original investigations; is the author of a great work on the History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, and of many scientific treatises exhibiting the application of the higher mathematics to natural philosophy. The vigour, activity, vivacity, and quickness of his intellect is extraordinary: his memory, in relation to almost every branch of literature and science, is rich to overflowing, and his faculty of conversation brilliant. The mind of William Whewell, by natural, impetuous action, invades all territories of knowledge, and grasps at a dominion forbidden by the term allotted to human life: but that mind, clearly and beyond all doubt, has power to grapple and to deal effectually with all that it has time to apprehend and seize. It is not to be wondered, that the temper of so ardent a spirit should be hasty: that its nature is frank, generous, and noble.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1850.]

438. SIR HENRY THOMAS DE LA BECHE. _Geologist._

[Born in London, 1796. Still living.]

Distinguished himself early by his geological researches in England, France, Italy, and the West Indies. In 1835, the government instituted, at his suggestion, a Geological Survey of Great Britain, in conjunction with, the Ordnance Survey, and subsequently extended it to the United Kingdom, with Sir Henry as Director General. This post he now holds, in conjunction with the direction of the Museum of Practical Geology, and of the Government School of Mines. The author of many highly esteemed works and memoirs on geology; and has rendered good service to the state, by directing his knowledge to practical and educational purposes, and by inducing politicians, seldom ready to advance in a scientific direction, to found institutions of a high intellectual type.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1845. From the bronze deposited in the Museum of Economic Geology, London.]

439. THOMAS CARLYLE. _Writer._

[Born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 1796. Still living.]

Critic, Philosopher, Essayist, Censor: the criticism acute, penetrating,, severe; the philosophy idol-worship; the essay-writing picturesque, striking, animated, and strongly coloured; the censorship furious, testy, useless, if not unmeaning. Saturated with German metaphysics, full of German literature, and delighting in the German form of expression. If Thomas Carlyle would throw off his foreign affectations, and forget _himself_ in his labours, he would be one of our most instructive, useful, convincing, and admirable writers; for his heart is large, his intellect strong, and both heart and intellect have long striven to inculcate human love amongst men, and to build, upon mutual affection, high deeds, and benevolent aspirations. But Thomas Carlyle, pen in hand, never did forget himself at any one instant of his life, and never will. To use one of his own Germanisms, he is the very incarnation of “Ich.” An instructed author will hold the balance fairly between his subject and his reader, dealing with each with intelligent reference to the other. Carlyle usually cares nothing either for his reader or his subject, but swallows up both. Whatever he shows us, we chiefly see Thomas Carlyle. “The French Revolution” is the best of his works! His pictures, there are startling, wonderful, and highly painted; his eloquence is inspiriting, and his imagery grand. As a social and moral Reformer, he beats the air, belonging to that humblest order of architects who are clever enough at destroying houses, but have no power to set up others in their place. Yet the influence of Carlyle has been great, both in England and America. He has forced men to think--he has appealed with irresistible power to their better natures--given vigour and direction to their impulses, and torn the veil from quackery as often as the evil thing has crossed his manly and indignant path. Sad thought that so serviceable an arm should be clogged with fetters of its own forging--that an almost boundless capacity for good should be restricted by a tether of its own fashioning.

[By H. Weigall.]

440. FREDERICK CARPENTER SKEY. _Surgeon._

[Born at Upton-on-Severn, 1798. Still living.]

Professor of Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons of England: Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and other institutions. The author of a work on “Operative Surgery,” in which a strong and humane plea is put forward against the use of the knife until the last extremity; and of the Hunterian Oration for 1850.

441. RICHARD OWEN. _Naturalist._

[Born at Lancaster, 1804. Still living.]

Owen, Faraday, and Herschell are England’s living representatives of science, and are so esteemed throughout Europe. Comparative anatomy, founded by Cuvier, has been perfected by Owen, and to him is due the great merit of raising that science in England to a position that commands the gratitude and admiration of the whole scientific world. This illustrious philosopher commenced life as a midshipman, but his career was quickly arrested by the close of the American war in 1813. In order to re-enter the profession, he adopted the medical profession, and became the pupil of Mr. Baxendale, a surgeon in Lancaster. In 1824, he matriculated in Edinburgh. In 1825, he came to London, and passed the Royal College of Surgeons in 1826. Under the advice of his friend, Abernethy, Owen gave up all thoughts of the navy, and accepted an appointment at the College of Surgeons, where for ten years he laboured at completing the catalogue of John Hunter’s magnificent museum. The enormous labour was achieved in 1840. Since that time every form of animal life, from the Sponge to the Man, has been submitted to his sagacious mind, and upon every subject he has thrown illumination. The mere enumeration of his contributions to the literature of natural history would in itself be a task. His “Treatise on the Homologies of the Vertebral Skeleton” has been received with great favour by anatomists and physiologists. His histories of “British Fossil Mammals and Birds,” and of “Fossil Reptiles,” the treatise “On the Nature of Limbs,” on “Parthenogenesis, or the successive production of procreative individuals from a single ovum,” have each brought fresh laurels to his brow. Cuvier asked, “Why should not natural history one day have its Newton?” We answer, “It has found Richard Owen.”

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1840.]

442. BENJAMIN DISRAELI. _Writer and Politician._

[Born 1805. Still living.]

The author, at an early age, of “Vivian Grey,” a novel. Has since published many interesting works of the same kind, the most popular being “Coningsby,” a book in which the political views of the writer are interwoven in the tale of fiction. Mr. Disraeli has acquired greater fame as a politician than as an author. By his own efforts, and by the force of his great genius, he has risen to one of the highest offices of state, having for a few months served his country as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Disraeli is unequalled in the House of Commons for sarcasm and invective; but he has other, better, more useful, and more lasting qualities of a statesman. If the moral weight of Mr. Disraeli in the country, is less than his talents would seem to claim, public opinion is not so much to blame as Mr. Disraeli, for the discrepancy between his acknowledged ability, and his place in the world’s estimation.

[By W. Behnes.]

443. THOMAS BRASSEY. _Railway Contractor._

[Born at Buerton, near Chester, 1805. Still living.]

One of the chiefs of the aristocracy that has risen in these latest times upon the foundations of commercial enterprise. A prince of the new dynasty, whose dominion extends wherever civilization is fostered by the Rail, and whose coronet is of iron. He commenced life as a surveyor at Birkenhead, and his first connexion with a railway was a contract to supply the stone for a viaduct of the “Manchester and Liverpool.” Since that time his labours have been incessant and extraordinary, both in his own country and out of it. Since 1846, he has, upon his own responsibility and credit, constructed upwards of 500 miles of railway, representing an aggregate of £9,250,000 of contract money. In France and Spain, his joint contracts with Mr. Mackenzie were for 189 English miles of road, and for nearly £3,000,000 sterling. His engagements, in Scotland and England, with Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. John Stephenson, from 1844 to 1851, comprised 511 miles of railway, and an aggregate of £7,200,000. His hands are still full, and his men are carrying out his behests in all parts of the world. In more senses than one the career of Thomas Brassey may be described as princely. The “Barentin” viaduct, of 27 arches, on the “Rouen and Havre” line tumbled down when all but completed; and the casualty involved a loss of £30,000. Mr. Brassey the contractor was neither morally nor legally responsible. He had repeatedly protested against the material used in the structure, and the French lawyers maintained that his protest freed him from liability. The contractor was of a different opinion. He had contracted, he said, to make and maintain the road, and no law should prevent him from being as good as his word. The viaduct was rebuilt at Mr. Brassey’s cost. For the construction of this stupendous work (accomplished in seven months) 16,000,000 bricks were required, of which 14,000,000 were new, and made on the spot. Thomas Brassey is beloved by his countless retainers. Riches, power, influence, and dominion, have not touched his sound and feeling heart. We dare to speak truth of this living worthy, for his life is in all respects one of the highest examples we can offer to our generation, absorbed as we are in the production of great industrial undertakings, and, above all things, intent upon the pursuit of wealth.

[By J. E. Jones.]

443*. WILLIAM DARGAN. _Railway Contractor._

[Still living.]

Born at the beginning of the present century, of humble parents, in the county of Carlow, Ireland. After leaving school, was placed in a surveyor’s office. Then served with Telford the engineer, on the Holyhead-road; afterwards engaged, on his own account, in forming the Howth Road, and some canal works in other parts of Ireland. Since the introduction of railways he has been the chief maker of the iron paths that traverse the sister kingdom. When all the works shall be completed, which owe their construction to his skill, ingenuity, and industry, nearly a thousand miles of railway will be due to his enterprise. William Dargan is not only a railway contractor, but a railway owner, a steam-packet proprietor, a flax grower, and a farmer. Whilst too many of his fellow-countrymen have been engaged in destroying--as far as in them lay--the elements of industry in Ireland, he has laboured to develop her resources, and to rouse the physical energy and the self-respect of all classes. He is a patriot, not a partizan--not an Orangeman, nor a Ribbandman, nor a Repealer, nor a Protestant-ascendancy-man, but a true-hearted Irishman, a useful citizen, a loyal subject. If Sir Robert Peel could have counted a dozen Dargans amongst his coadjutors in Ireland, he would never have had cause to reckon the government of that portion of the United Kingdom, amongst his insuperable “difficulties.” The greatest work of the patriotic Dargan remains to be mentioned. He placed £20,000 at the disposal of the Committee formed in Dublin, for the construction of a Crystal Palace in that city. Before the Palace was ready to receive the contributions of all nations, William Dargan had contributed a much larger sum. He has his reward in the affectionate gratitude of the Irish people--in the approving smiles of his sovereign--in the lasting good wrought by his act in the land of his birth.

[This statue, by J. E. Jones, is at the south end of the nave.]

444. SAMUEL WARREN. _Lawyer and Writer._

[Born in Denbighshire, 1807. Still living.]

Is the author of “The Diary of a Physician,” and “Ten Thousand a-Year,” in the department of fiction, and of a work on the Study of the Law. Mr. Warren was originally educated for medicine. He has risen to the rank of Queen’s Counsel in the profession which he subsequently adopted; and his writings have acquired a wide popularity. The genius of Mr. Warren lies especially in the detection and dissection of character, in which he exhibits great skill and power.

[By Henry Weigall.]

445. EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY. _Historical Writer._

[Born in Kent, 1812. Still living.]

Educated at Eton, where he obtained the “Newcastle Scholarship.” Subsequently proceeded to King’s College, Cambridge. In 1837, called to the bar. Is Professor of History in University College, London, and the author of some able historical works.

[By E. G. Papworth, jun., by whom it is presented to the Crystal Palace.]

446. JUDGE HALIBURTON. _Lawyer and Writer._

[Still living.]

Off the bench, better known under his assumed name of “Sam Slick.” He is a judge of Nova Scotia. In 1835, first appeared in a Canada paper as the author of a series of letters, illustrating the Yankee character. In 1842, was Attaché in England to the American Legation; one result of this appointment was the publication of “Sam Slick in England.” Sam’s pen continues from time to time to enliven and amuse the world, and to set it broadly grinning. He has infinite humour, a rollicking, racy, uncontrolled style, an exuberance of animal spirits, great acuteness, much worldly sagacity, and marvellous good sense under all his fun. A genial satirist, and one of those who have the best succeeded in making the low, corrupted, half-provincial, and half-slang language of an inferior social class serve literary use.

[By J. E. Jones.]

447. EDWARD FORBES. _Naturalist._

[Born at Douglas, Isle of Man, 1815. Still living.]

One of the most eminent of our scientific men, remarkable for his originality, sagacity, lucid research, and general scientific attainments. Studied at Edinburgh, and afterwards lectured there on Natural History. Joined, in 1841, the Hydrographical Survey of the Ægean, under Captain Graves, R.N., and made important discoveries respecting the laws of bathymetrical distribution of marine animals and plants. In 1842, explored the antiquities, geology, and natural history of Lycia. During this expedition the sites of eighteen ancient cities were brought to light. In 1845, appointed Naturalist to the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and in 1851, a Professor of the Government School of Mines. President of the Geological Society, one of the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, and author of numerous works and memoirs on geological, zoological, and botanical subjects. In 1854, upon the decease of Professor Jameson, raised to the Chair of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A.]

SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN.

448. WILLIAM MURRAY, EARL OF MANSFIELD. _Lord Chief Justice._

[Born at Perth, in Scotland, 1704. Died in 1793. Aged 88.]

This great lawyer and upright man was the fourth son of David, Lord Stormont. In 1718, being thirteen years old, he travelled to London on the back of a pony, and went to Westminster school. In 1723, he proceeded to Oxford. At both places of learning he was distinguished for his industry and classical attainments. Afterwards entered at Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1730 was called to the bar. He gradually made his way upward. In 1742, Solicitor General; 1744, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench; 1776, advanced to the dignity of an Earl. Other events are worthy of record. During the Gordon Riots of 1780, the Protestant mob, thinking him favourable to the Catholics, burned his house to the ground, and cruelly destroyed a valuable collection of books and manuscripts. He was the principal victim of the merciless assaults of Junius; and he is remembered in the law books, as the chief justice who, in the celebrated case of “Rex _v._ Almon,” arising out of one of Junius’s Philippics, attempted in vain to withdraw the cognisance of the question of libel from the jury, to vest it in the court. In politics Lord Mansfield was a Tory; as a judge he recognised nothing but his duty to his sovereign and his country; and he must always be regarded as one of the greatest men that have adorned the judgment-seat in England. He possessed an amazing clearness of apprehension, vast learning, and marvellous perspicuity of exposition. His love of justice was the sole passion that absorbed his otherwise calm nature, and his integrity was spotless. In law, as in religion, the mind of Mansfield was essentially liberal. It was a saying of Burke’s that Murray--superior to the technicalities of his profession--still made the liberality of law keep pace with the demands of justice and the actual concerns of the world, conforming our jurisprudence to the growth of our commerce and of our empire. He was thus the founder of the commercial law of England, which before his time had no existence. Brave as a lion on the bench, Mansfield exhibited unaccountable timidity as a statesman. He quailed before Lord Chatham, whose schoolfellow he had been, and who mercilessly opposed him from the school to the grave. The illustrious rivals now lie quietly side by side in Westminster Abbey.

[From the statue in Westminster Abbey. Executed in 1801 by Flaxman.]

449. WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. _Statesman._

[Born 1708. Died at Hayes, in Kent, 1778. Aged 70.]

A grand Minister, an idol in the memory of the nation, but failing in some of the elements of true greatness, for he was haughty, overbearing, inconsistent, insolent, obstinate, and petty. The statesman who would never be seen on business, except in a full dress coat and tie wig--who never allowed the highest considerations to interfere with his constant study of effect--who, in opposition, anathematized men for attempting that which he himself, in power, was the very first to carry out--who never suffered his under secretaries to sit in his presence--who never blushed at the most barefaced and vehement self-contradiction, can hardly be ranked with the very highest characters that adorn the pages of History. Yet he was superb withal, and potent in his influence upon the age in which he lived. He had tremendous earnestness; his thoughts blazed in his mind, and were communicated in burning words to his listeners. He had the faculty of uttering great truths, in language that carried not only conviction to every understanding, but enthusiasm to every soul. He had a noble person--an eye like an eagle’s--a voice of thunder. His oratory was splendid, and his speeches maintained some of their power when transferred to paper. He was always terrific. He began his career as a Cornet in the Blues, and entering Parliament as member for Old Sarum, in 1735, he so astonished Sir Robert Walpole by the violence of his assault, that the astute Minister was fain to intreat some one “to muzzle that terrible Cornet of horse.” The great glory of Chatham, as Minister, consists in the war policy which he advocated and upheld to the great advantage and pre-eminence of his country. In spite of all his errors he was adored by the people. He could feel and act with true nobility, and the multitude were touched by the lofty sentiments by which he was himself animated. Almost his whole fortune consisted of private benefactions. The Duchess of Marlborough left him £10,000, and Sir William Pynsent bequeathed him £3000 a year, and £30,000 in ready money. He opposed the war with America, but with his latest breath denied the right of the colony to independence. Whatever he did, he was still the most popular man in England. Proud and domineering as he was in public, his private character, as Lord Chesterfield declared, “was stained by no vices, and sullied by no meannesses.” In his own household, by his children and dependents, he was beloved for his gentle kindness. The statue before the visitor is highly characteristic of the man. “Graven by a cunning hand,” says Macaulay, “it seems still with eager face and outstretched arm, to bid England be of good cheer, and to hurl defiance at her foes.”

[The original model of the statue by J. Bacon, R.A., in Westminster Abbey. It will be found at the South end of the Nave.]

450. EDMUND BURKE. _Orator, Writer, Statesman._

[Born at Dublin, 1730. Died 1797. Aged 67.]

Coleridge, speaking of Edmund Burke, has said that “he referred habitually to principles--he was a scientific statesman.” He is by far the most philosophic politician that ever dealt with public affairs in England. He takes rank with those who have applied their genius to the transactions of their own fleeting day, in order to extract from them truth, wisdom, and instruction for all ages. Gifted with gorgeous eloquence, he spake like a prophet. We read his words, which we are told fell as he uttered them upon dull insensate ears, and are astounded to find how nearly, under altered circumstances, they concern ourselves. Our descendants shall peruse the same syllables with the same living interest, desire, and benefit. Châteaubriand has asserted that when Fox spoke in the House of Commons, he and all strangers could not keep back their tears. When Burke rose, the act was a signal for general flight. We can understand the difference. Burke walked sublimely in advance of his contemporaries; Fox was abreast of them, sharing in their prejudices, and, it may be, inflaming their passions. Burke had great knowledge of men and books, an imagination rich to overflowing, and although a philosopher and a theorist, business-like habits. His genius was unmatched in the House of Commons, and his industry did not fall short of that of the most plodding member of that assembly. He was the son of a Dublin attorney, and in early life found favour with Lord Rockingham, who, bringing him into Parliament, allied him to the Whig interest. The connexion was subsequently broken off, when. Burke, in alarm at the frightful results and portents of the French Revolution, strove to preserve Liberty by holding her back from the too ardent embrace of her professed friends. His “Reflections on the French Revolution” was the most memorable treatise of the time; and it was followed by others as remarkable for splendid diction, as for the profoundest philosophical thought. When starting into life, Burke wrote his celebrated essay on “the Sublime and Beautiful,” and set on foot the “Annual Register,” the historical portion of which he wrote for many years. He would have been raised to the peerage but for the premature death of his only son, of whom he was very fond. His character has been variously estimated. There is no reason to doubt that he was as conscientious, as honest, and as sincere, as he was mighty in his high mental endowments.

[By Christopher Moore, 1850.]

451. GEORGE WASHINGTON. _First President of the United States._

[Born in Virginia, United States, 1732. Died, 1799. Aged 67.]

If we were asked to single out from ancient or modern story one bright unsullied example of true greatness, of perfect patriotism, disinterestedness, consistency, and self-devotion, it would be difficult not to select George Washington. England, that suffered by his acts, has reason to be proud of his surpassing glory; for he came from the common stock, and he wrought the liberty of his country by the exercise of virtues dear to all Englishmen, and--let us dare to say--characteristic of their race. He received the most ordinary education, for he lost his father when ten years old; and he had to make his way in life by his own best efforts. At the age of eighteen he was appointed surveyor, in Virginia, to Lord Fairfax. At twenty he was Major in the colonial militia. In 1775, he took the command of the army in America against England. How he acted from that hour until 1783, when the treaty of peace was signed,--what intrepidity he exhibited,--what wisdom, what coolness, what courage, what moderation, what rare self-command under defeat, for, fighting at great disadvantage, he lost more battles than he gained,--is known to all. In 1789, he was elected President of the United States. As chief of the government, he declined all remuneration, save the bare payment of his official service: he had shown the same abstinence when in command of the army. In 1796, worn out by the labours and anxieties of his momentous life, he laid down his power and withdrew into privacy; but not until he had delivered to the American people, as his last public work, his solemn advice for their future self-government and conduct. His words of weight may be read to-day with singular advantage by the millions who enjoy the inappreciable blessings of freedom and prosperity, which his good right hand, sound heart, and sagacious judgment, chiefly secured to them. If hero-worship may be pardoned, he shall be forgiven--for his offence shall induce in him only humility--who kneels before the quiet, unpretending shrine of Washington.

[By Canova.]

451*. WARREN HASTINGS. _Statesman._

[Born 1732. Died 1818. Aged 86.]

Descended of an ancient and honoured line, seated at Daylesford, in Worcestershire, but ruined by taking the King’s side in the civil war. The boy, motherless, from his birth, and left in the hands of his grandfather, the impoverished incumbent of the parish, was sent early to the village school, and taught his letters with the peasantry. At seven years old, as he basked on the bank of the little stream that ran through the domain of his fathers, the thought of repossessing the lost inheritance broke on his imagination. The vision of the child was the single personal aim of the man’s life. What a life, ere the vision took reality! At 10 he was placed at Westminster school, at 17 he sailed with a writership for Bengal. His courage and intelligence, when the English authorities had fled from Calcutta, with his services in Clive’s army, raised him rapidly to distinction, and in ten years after setting foot on Indian ground, he was member of Council. At 32, he returned, with a moderate fortune, to England: and--that given and spent--at 36, back to India. At 40, Governor of Bengal. At 41, Governor-General. Ere the five years of his appointment had elapsed, he was more! He had overthrown his mortal foes in the Council: and was Lord Paramount of British India. In his 53rd year, his reign ceased. What had it been? With a resolution which no dangers and no difficulties could daunt, with a genius for resource, fertile in proportion to the demand, with a sagacity that disabled opposition and commanded success, with a self-possession calm in every tempest, he had taken in hand a set of provinces imperilled by their disorganization and by terrible enemies: and he left a constructed and fortified empire. What had been his means? Good and ill. He had stood between the rapacious rulers and the feeble ruled, and was alike beloved by both. A civilian, he held the heart and allegiance of the army. But in India he had used Indian powers. He had not amassed money corruptly, but he had corrupted with it. He had extorted treasure, he had broken faith, he had authorized and instigated cruelty, he had violated justice to shed guilty blood, he had held the ordinary moral laws suspended, for the safety and the aggrandizement of the dominion committed to his sway. Called to answer before the highest tribunal in the land, by all the intellect, eloquence, and power of a great party in Parliament, he was acquitted after a process of unheard-of duration, reaching through many years: but ruined by the costs. Partially compensated by the India House he retired to the ancestral home which, according to his early resolve, he had taken care to secure. Here for years he lived a tranquil, happy life in the midst of books, which he loved, and of endeavours to improve English cultivation from his experience in India.

[By J. Bacon, R.A.]

452. CHARLES JAMES FOX. _Statesman._

[Born 1748. Died 1806. Aged 58.]

This great orator and popular statesman, like his rival William Pitt, was trained from his youth for political life. He was the son of Henry, first Lord Holland, and received his education at Westminster, Eton, and Oxford. His acquaintance with ancient and modern literature was extensive, his taste highly cultivated, and his literary ability great. Had he not been a politician, he might have won high distinction as a scholar; or, had he not been constitutionally indolent, have reflected lustre upon his public deeds by labours in more classic fields. There was a difference of ten years in the ages of Pitt and Fox; Pitt being the younger man. Both were second sons: both had been sedulously prepared for the great arena by their ambitious fathers. Pitt began his work as a Reformer, but quickly turned aside into the ranks of the Tories. Fox, starting into life under the wing of his Tory parent, spoke and voted against Wilkes; but quickly repenting of his act, threw himself into the arms of the Whigs. And then the battle between the two rare combatants was well fought out unto the end--Pitt dying in harness in 1806, Fox following him the very same year. Fox was a Liberal, as the name was in his time understood by the great Whig families--an aristocrat with popular ideas, sympathizing with progress, but holding fast to the pillar of the constitution, every stone of which he jealously upheld. On every great subject he stood opposed to Pitt; he inveighed bitterly against the war with France, as he had formerly steadily opposed the rupture with the American Colonies. He was a speaker of extraordinary power; his oratory being bold, argumentative, impassioned, and unpremeditated. His followers were attached to his person, and in private life he was beloved, for he had an affectionate and noble nature, clouded by sad weaknesses. He was a desperate gamester, and a lover of pleasure to excess. At St. Ann’s Hill, withdrawn from the heat of conflict and dissipation, to his quiet and beloved garden--to his friends and his books, he was more faithful to himself, and to the good gifts of Providence within him.

[By I. Nollekens, R.A.]

453. JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. _Lawyer._

[Born near Cork, 1750. Died in London, 1817. Aged 67.]

Of very humble parentage. Obtaining a sizarship, he received his education at Trinity College, Dublin, free of expense. He went to London, and entered himself as student at one of the Inns of Court. Called to the bar in 1775. His brilliant qualities soon brought him into notice. He was employed to defend various persons charged with political offences, and his eloquence, his wit, his withering sarcasm, and touching pathos, carried all before them. In 1784, he obtained a silk gown, and took his seat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Doneraile. When the Whigs came into office in 1806, he was made Master of the Rolls in Ireland. This office he held until 1814, when he resigned it and secured a pension of 3000_l._ a-year. He then visited England, and took up his residence in London, where he died. He was a popular advocate, and a most successful debater. His personal appearance was as deficient in grace as his intellectual powers were splendid. His country, which loved him when living, lamented him when dead, and perpetuated her love and her grief by the erection of a public monument to his memory.

[By Christopher Moore. 1841. Executed for his monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.]

454. LORD ELDON. _High Chancellor of England._

[Born 1751. Died 1838. Aged 87.]

A great lawyer. His legal learning, it is said, has never been surpassed, If it has been equalled. For many years of his long life he sat on the judgment seat, and in the councils of his Sovereign. But the fame of Eldon as a politician has not survived him. He was narrow-minded and narrow-hearted. Lord Brougham has summed up his political faith when he says, “he was alike the determined enemy of all who would either invade the institution, or extirpate the abuse.” He worshipped things as they were. Whatever existed--whether a rotten borough, a sanguinary enactment, or an unjust civil disability--to the mind of Lord Eldon it formed part of the “British Constitution,” and that Constitution had in his eye a sanctity, like religion. No argument was admitted against this iron and immovable belief. Hence, though all men respected his sincerity, all enlightened men pitied his bigotry, and felt it as a public relief when he departed in his ripe old age. He was the last great man of the remorselessly obstructive school to which he belonged. As Lord Chancellor, his decisions have obtained great respect, but he was generally so long in arriving at them, and hesitation and doubt formed so marked a characteristic of his judicial character, that the pecuniary losses and human misery for which he became responsible were considerable. Lord Eldon was of humble origin, and his chances of promotion seemed in early life so remote, that he was actually at the minute of quitting London in despair when he received the brief that took him on to fortune.

[By Chantrey.]

455. HORATIO NELSON. _Lord High Admiral._

[Born at Burnham-Thorpe, in Norfolk, 1758. Died at Trafalgar, 1805. Aged 47.]

The most famous of sea-captains, and the darling of his country. He fought the sea-half of the world’s greatest war. England has a just pride in her Wellington, whose memory she honours. Towards Nelson she looks with a tenderer recollection, and her heart moves when she thinks of his services and renown. As Captain in 1794, he conducted a siege at Calvi, and lost an eye. In 1797, crying to his men “Westminster Abbey or glorious victory,” he captured the San Jose and San Nicolas, at the battle of St. Vincent. In the same year he lost his right arm at Teneriffe, and twelve months afterwards he received a wound in his head at the glorious victory of the Nile. There was in truth very little left of the man--yet all of the hero--when, in 1805, a cruel shot at the battle of Trafalgar, killed him in the very hour of triumph to his fleet, of delivery to his country. His death was felt in England as a personal, as well as national calamity, and was mourned by the whole people as by one man. Gentle as a woman; brave as a lion; devoted to his country; fighting her battles with a passionate ardour that consumed and obliterated all personal considerations; loyal; pious;--these are some of the qualities that combined to form the character of Horatio Nelson. He was always insignificant in person; and after his slender frame had been battered about by the enemy, his appearance in the honoured uniform which, his services had won, was most singular and striking; for he looked like a skeleton clothed in cumbrous magnificence. Yet the influence of this reduced, war-beaten figure was electrical. All who came within its atmosphere partook of its own nature. The followers of Nelson could and did achieve miracles, because they had unbounded faith in the power of their chief--in his heroism, resolution, and determination at all times to win. Nelson was beloved by his sailors. He lies buried in St. Paul’s.

456. WILLIAM PITT. _Statesman._

[Born at Hayes, in Kent, 1759. Died 1806. Aged 47.]

It has been well said that the life of William Pitt, the second and favourite son of the magnificent Earl of Chatham, had neither springtime nor autumn. It knew neither the fresh delights of boyhood, nor the tranquil happiness of age. His father had trained him from his very childhood, like an athlete, for the feverish arena of politics. Before he was twenty-one, he stood a gladiator armed; and from that age until his comparatively early death he knew no rest. He was twenty-four--a period at which our English youth are quitting college, and looking around them for a profession--when he became Prime Minister of England. For seventeen years, in the midst of broil and battle, of discontent at home and warfare abroad, this great man held the place which his eagle ambition had chosen for its eyrie on the rock, defying opposition by his commanding eloquence, by the fertility and grandeur of his resources, by his singular financial ability, and by his unquenchable energy. In 1801, he descended from his lofty seat in order to make way for a Minister of peace; but in 1804, all hope of peace being blasted, he was again summoned to direct the councils of the nation, and again he exercised all his varied powers for the development and consummation of the policy, which, right or wrong, he deemed essential to the safety of England, and to the tranquillity and freedom of the world. Two years after his return to office, he fell a victim to his life-long labours and to an hereditary gout, nourished by intemperate habits. It is somewhat curious that Pitt, the cherished head of the aristocratic and Tory party, had expressed himself in favour of nearly all the principles which the liberals of subsequent times have struggled, not fruitlessly, to uphold. He was friendly to Church Reform, to Financial Reform, to Parliamentary Reform, and to the removal of disabilities on account of religious belief. He died at the same age as Lord Nelson; and as to Lord Nelson, so to him, a public funeral was decreed. The sum of forty thousand pounds also was voted to pay his debts. Whatever had been the faults of Pitt, he was not avaricious. He had made no money by the State, for he had ever been the most unostentatious of men. The character of his eloquence was unlike that of his father. It was logical, dignified, equable: now rising into indignant invective, and now taking the shape of the keenest and most cutting sarcasm; but always self-possessed. It did not burst in torrent from an overflowing fount of wrath and passion like the submerging oratory of Chatham. The form of Pitt was gaunt, his countenance harsh, and his action ungraceful. He was, in many respects, one of the greatest Ministers our country has ever seen. His rapid comprehension was well described by his tutor, who said that he seemed to him to justify the doctrine of Plato, that the act of learning is reminiscence only, and not acquisition. He was the favourite of the nation: Fox of a party.

[By J. Nollekens, R.A.]

457. GENERAL JACKSON. _President of the United States._

[Born in South Carolina, U.S., 1767. Died at Nashville, in Tennessee, 1845. Aged 78.]

The son of an Irish emigrant. He was originally destined for the Church: but he quitted school to take part in the War of Independence. The war over, he adopted the law as a profession, and became judge in Tennessee, as well as Major-General of the Forces of the same state. In 1815, as Major-General of the United States, he gained a decisive victory over the English at New Orleans. In 1821, appointed Governor of Florida, and the next year elected member of the Senate for the state of Tennessee. Elected President of the United States in 1828 and again 1832; so that he was at the head of the American government for the space of eight years. An ardent democratic chief throughout life. His presidency was distinguished by the development of democratic tendencies, of the spirit of territorial extension, and by the marked encouragement of the slave-holding interest. He successfully opposed Congress in the matter of the United States Bank, regarding it as a monopoly in the State injurious to the general interests of the people. Jackson was a man of Roman virtues, a true patriot, and of uncompromising integrity, simple, and austere. Straightforward and blunt as a soldier.

[By Hiram Powers.]

458. HENRY WILLIAM PAGET, MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY. _English Field Marshal._

[Born 1768. Died 1854. Aged 86.]

A distinguished, brave, and gallant military commander. In 1793, served in Flanders. Later, won honour in Spain, especially by the skill with which he covered General Moore’s retreat. At Waterloo, where he commanded the whole British cavalry, he lost a leg. He was member of the government under Canning, and in 1828--a memorable epoch--Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Again held this appointment under Lord Grey, in 1831.

[By Christopher Moore. 1840. Executed for W. H. Curran, Esq.]

459. ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON. _Soldier and Statesman._

[Born in Ireland, 1769. Died at Walmer Castle, 1852. Aged 83.]

The third son of the Earl of Mornington, and of Anna, daughter of Viscount Dungannon. Received his early education at Eton--then studied at the military school of Angers, in France; and in 1787, entered an infantry regiment as Ensign. Later became by purchase Lieutenant-Colonel of the 33rd, and in that regiment took part in Holland in the campaign of 1794. His first great military exploit was at the beginning of the century, in India, where his brother was Governor-General, and where, fighting in the war against the Mahrattas, he annihilated at Assaye an army of 60,000 men, with only 12,000 troops. From this period until his defeat of the French army, and the overthrow of Napoleon on the field of Waterloo (1815), his career was a series of triumphs. Many comparisons have been made between Napoleon and Wellington; all are unnecessary, and from the purpose. There is no resemblance whatever in the two characters. If it is contended that Napoleon was the greatest military hero of his time, it is sufficient for the admirers of Wellington to state, that after the English captain had beaten, one upon another, the great Marshals of Napoleon, he conquered Buonaparte himself, and put an end for ever to his splendid authority and terrible misrule. Madame de Staël has said, speaking of Wellington, that “Never was so great a man made out of such small materials.” Another writer has remarked, that in him “common sense amounted to genius.” A third tells us that he accomplished everything by that system of self-subjugation which made every wish, desire, aim, and object of life subordinate to a paramount and an ever-present sense of duty. We may gather a notion of the true character of Wellington from such criticism. There was nothing brilliant and overpowering in his genius; but he commanded respect, and won greatness by the wisdom of his combinations, the steadiness of his will, the simplicity of his aim, and the pertinacity of his course--his mind being once made up as to the direction to be taken. Wellington had boundless influence over his men, because he had irresistible power over himself. He knew better than any other great captain what not to do: and having resolved upon the propriety of inaction, no consideration, no amount of obloquy, blame, or reproach, could incite him into action. When he undertook command in Portugal, it was his conviction that the enemy were to be finally defeated by a passive policy on his part at starting. For months, against general opinion, he persisted in that policy; and after it had succeeded beyond all expectation, once a-foot, he advanced resolutely with his troops, scoured Portugal and Spain, drove the French before him, followed them into France, and never slackened until he had caught Napoleon, and chained him to the rock of St. Helena. Into the field of politics Wellington brought the same policy to play. He knew when to act on the defensive, how long he might defend with safety, when it was prudent to retreat or capitulate upon honourable conditions. The life of Wellington, from his boyhood until his death, is an instructive lesson for his countrymen. His daily habits, as we all know, were of the simplest; and his business-like activity was the most remarkable characteristic of his old age. In manners Wellington was soldierly and rough, but he was fond of children. He had few intimate male friends, but he has left behind him a correspondence that shows the delight he took in opening his mind freely, on the most delicate questions of State policy, to more than one of the gentler sex. A great contemporary poet, a friend and warm admirer of Wellington, has said that this illustrious, and in many respects perfect man, had one infirmity that brought him down to the level of us all--“he could be angry.”

[By Henry Weigall. This was the last bust for which the Duke sat. It was modelled in four sittings, the dates of which were August 6, 9, 11, and November 18, 1851.]

459A. ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON. _Soldier and Statesman._

[Colossal Bust presented by the sculptor, H. Ross.]

460. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. _President of the United States._

[Born at Boston, U.S., 1769, Died 1848. Aged 79.]

Educated in Europe. At a tender age, private secretary to the American Minister at St. Petersburgh. In 1794, appointed by Washington, Ambassador to the Hague. In 1809, Ambassador to the Court of Russia. Subsequently Ambassador in London. In 1825, President of the United States. His administration worthy of his life, which was pure, disinterested, and strictly honest. Upon his death in 1848, he left a reputation for integrity, independence, and manly straightforwardness, second only to that of Washington. His habits to the last simple and unostentatious, and his industry remarkable. His exterior was cold, but fire glowed within, for his nature was as earnest as his oratory was fierce. He had a tenacious memory, great knowledge, and the faculty of speaking forcibly, clearly, and to the purpose. One of the worthies of the Great Republic.

[By Hiram Powers.]

461. LORD MONTEAGLE. _English Peer._

[Born 1790. Still living.]

Comptroller-general of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty’s Exchequer. Before he was raised to the peerage, Lord Monteagle, as Mr. Spring Rice, sat in the House of Commons, and filled various offices of State--amongst others, that of Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

462. WILLIAM HUSKISSON. _Statesman and Financier._

[Born in Worcestershire, 1770. Accidentally killed, 1830. Aged 60.]

A distinguished statesman, whose commercial views, early in the present century, were considerably in advance of those of the political party to which he was attached, and who strongly advocated the principle of the measures carried at a later period by Sir Robert Peel. He served under Pitt, and afterwards was President of the Board of Trade. He was accidentally killed by a train, at the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway.

[For account of this statue, the original of which is at Liverpool, see Handbook of Modern Sculpture, No. 29.]

463. JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, BARON LYNDHURST. _Ex-Chancellor of England._

[Born in Boston, U. S., 1772. Still living.]

The son of a celebrated painter. After having studied at Cambridge, where he took high mathematical honours, he was called to the bar, in 1804. In 1826, Master of the Rolls; in 1827, Lord Chancellor. Has held this last high office at three distinct periods of his life. Lord Lyndhurst is remarked for the extraordinary lucidity and quickness of his understanding. His mind has the utmost facility in grasping the most intricate and involved points of any case submitted to it; and his facility of exposition is as perfect as his perception is acute. Hence, though not the greatest of the lawyers who have dignified the woolsack, he has always been the most agreeable and popular of Lord Chancellors. He is eloquent without labour, and convincing without vehemence--in many respects a master of oratory. In his eighty-third year, his polished intellect has lost none of its lustre. It has all the vigour, in debate, which it possessed half a century ago. Lord Lyndhurst at first took side with the Liberal party in politics, but he soon became a follower of Sir Robert Peel, and with that Minister he remained to the last.

[By W. Behnes.]

464. LORD ASHBURTON. _English Peer._

[Born 1774. Died 1848. Aged 74.]

The head of the great mercantile house of Baring. As Ambassador to America during the government of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Ashburton concluded the treaty between England and the United States which settled the much-vexed “Oregon question.” His marriage with an American lady attached an interest to his person in America, and his high character gave him weight and authority at home.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

465. DANIEL O’CONNELL. _Orator and Lawyer._

[Born at Cahir, in Ireland, 1775. Died at Genoa, 1847. Aged 72.]

The great Irish agitator. A man of extraordinarily powerful talents and influence. His oratory, especially adapted to sway the hearts of an Irish multitude, obtained for him a rule throughout Ireland that has never been equalled. Thousands upon thousands of his fellow-countrymen were content to be governed by his will for good or for evil. The unprecedented opportunity was used by Daniel O’Connell, less for the advantage and happiness of his afflicted country, than for his own selfish ends. When the wrongs of Ireland clamoured loudly for redress, O’Connell was an agitator with a righteous cause sustaining his great eloquence. When those wrongs were in course of remedy--were remedied--he was still an agitator, but unsustained by any cause save that of his own pecuniary necessities. It is lamentable to think how much good might have been effected by the energies of O’Connell, and to what deplorable straits his policy had reduced Ireland before death took him from it. Had it been as much to his personal and pecuniary interest to render his country contented, peaceful, prosperous, as to keep her in a ferment of discontent, discord, and semi-rebellion, O’Connell would have proved one of the greatest benefactors of his kind. As it was, he left behind him a name, which is not uttered with opprobrium--simply because it is already nearly forgotten. The associations connected with his memory have nothing in common with the new epoch of tranquillity, order, and steady industry, upon which Ireland has entered. O’Connell was not so eloquent in the House of Commons as out of it. He was born for the multitude. His power of invective, his faculty of humour, his facility of illustration, his familiar tones, his burly form, his winning voice, were all elements that go to make up the successful demagogue.

[By J. E. Jones.]

466. JOSEPH HUME. _Political Reformer._

[Born at Montrose, 1777. Still living.]

Has sat in the House of Commons for upwards of forty years. Was educated for the medical profession, and is member of the Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and London. Acted in India as Persian interpreter to the army, during the Mahratta war, from 1802 to 1807. Joseph Hume is a consistent Reformer, and by his steadiness, earnestness, and faithful adherence to the principles of his life, has secured the respect and good-will of all political parties. When he entered parliament, his views were considered extreme and theoretical. Many of these views have been gradually adopted by the leading statesmen of the time, and there is every probability that Mr. Hume will outlive all his grievances. He is a rigid economist, and a thoroughly honest politician.

467. HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM. _Lawyer, Statesman, Educator._

[Born 1779. Still living.]

A name that will be identified for ever with the advances in civilisation made in this country, during the first half of the present century. For the great reforms effected in our criminal law, for the impetus which has been given to education among all classes, we are chiefly indebted to the influence of Lord Brougham, and to the indomitable exertion of his strong, practical, energetic, and versatile mind. He has been Lord High Chancellor of England; but his legal attainments constitute his very smallest title to respect. He is a great orator, a man of science worthy of taking rank with scientific men, a metaphysician, an historian, an essayist. He has addressed himself to every branch of knowledge, and is distinguished in all. Before he was elevated to the peerage he was one of the foremost men in England, honoured for his resolute and fiery opposition to abuses of every kind, and beloved for his eager anxiety to remove the shackles from the negro, and every disability from the limbs of his fellow-creatures nearer home. Social elevation has not added to the popularity of Lord Brougham, for the ermine has in part withdrawn the idol from the people. All his magnificent qualities are depressed and dwarfed beneath his coronet. His eloquence is not so overpowering nor so thrilling, his sympathies for the classes below him are apparently deadened, his respect for his “order” proportionately increased. He has ceased to be “the first man” out of doors, without becoming the first lord within. If he has not survived his reputation he has manifestly damaged it. Yet for his former permanent and vital services to his country, his name shall be held by Englishmen in lasting, grateful, and affectionate remembrance.

[By Deer.]

467A. HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM. _Lawyer, Statesman, Educator._

[An admirable seated portrait statue, by E. G. Papworth, Sen., which will be found at the South end of the Nave, Presented by the sculptor.]

468. MARTIN VAN BUREN. _Ex-President of the United States._

[Born 1782. Still living.]

A lawyer, and an active politician in the democratic interest. From 1812 until 1820, a member of the United States Senate, during which time a keen supporter of the war with England, and, for a short period, Attorney-General. In 1828, Governor of the State of New York--then Secretary of State in the cabinet of General Jackson. Vice President in 1832, and during General Jackson’s second term of office. In 1836, elected President by a large majority. The principal measure of his administration was the re-establishment of the independent treasury. In 1840, again nominated for the Presidency, but defeated by General Harrison, the Whig candidate. Since the close of his presidential term in 1841, Mr. Van Buren has lived in retirement. His popularity was not so great at the close as at the beginning of his political life.

[By Hiram Powers.]

469. JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. _American Statesman._

[Born at Abbeville, in South Carolina, U.S. 1782. Died at Washington, 1850. Aged 68.]

Of Irish descent. Educated at Yale College, and studied law at Lichfield, in Connecticut. In 1807, admitted to the Bar. In 1811, elected to Congress. Secretary of War in 1817; and from 1825 to 1832, Vice-President of the United States. He asserted that the American constitution was a mere federal treaty, from the conditions of which an individual State might at any time withdraw itself, if the inhabitants of the State so desired. This dangerous principle was combated by Webster, and--luckily for the Union--with success. Calhoun had great eloquence, and rapid powers of generalisation. He was inflexible in integrity, firm of purpose, energetic, laborious, and endowed with a high sense of honour; devoted to his country, with an inextinguishable love of liberty. A moderate democrat, nevertheless, and a free-trader. In person he was tall and lank; his face indicated great firmness of character and determination. His manner of speaking and of gesticulation was remarkable. He would walk constantly up and down during his discourse, his right arm moving all the while regularly backwards and forwards, like the pendulum of a clock.

[By Hiram Powers.]

469.* DANIEL WEBSTER. _American Statesman and Orator._

[Born, in New Hampshire, U.S., 1782. Died 1852. Aged 70.]

Descended from one of those pilgrim-fathers of New England, who emigrated, in 1636. A lawyer. In 1813, took his seat in Congress for New Hampshire, war then raging with England. He advocated the war with fervid eloquence. In politics a “Whig,” a term corresponding to our “Conservative.” An avowed opponent of the Democratic party, but a still stronger friend to the true interests of his country, and, like our own Sir Robert Peel, preferring these to a dogged and an injurious persistance in his own preconceived political views. Hence, though no friend to slavery, Webster carried on no bitter crusade against it; and hence his conciliatory policy which, in dealing with the unhappy institution, maintained, through difficulty and danger, the political Union that contributes so largely to the strength and greatness of the American people. The oratory of Webster was of a high order: the most classical that America has yet displayed. It was powerful, argumentative, and as remarkable for passion, as for logical acumen. He was also a scholar, with a refined taste, and deeply attached to the literature of the old country. In person he was thick-set and burly. The countenance indicated force, without delicacy of taste and perception: but in this respect the countenance of Daniel Webster belied his mind. His death, at the close of a vehement career, was serene and happy.

[By Hiram Powers.]

470. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. _Chief Baron of the Exchequer._

[Born in London, 1783. Still living.]

Educated at Cambridge, where he obtained high mathematical distinction. Has been Attorney General.

[By W. Behnes.]

470.* SIR HENRY POTTINGER. _Diplomatist._

[Still living.]

Went to India as Cadet in 1804, and became Major-General in the East India Company’s service. During his long sojourn in India he fulfilled many appointments. In 1841, selected by the Government to proceed to China as Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary for the adjustment of the differences then existing between the two empires. Amongst his other rewards for his success in this mission, he received from the House of Commons a pension of 1500_l._ a-year. Afterwards Governor of the Cape of Good Hope: now Governor of Madras.

[By J. E. Jones.]

471. HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. _Statesman._

[Born 1784. Still living.]

A Minister under many governments. Secretary-at-War from 1809 until 1828. Foreign Secretary, with a slight interval of repose, from 1830 until 1841. Again Foreign Secretary in 1846. At the present moment, Home Secretary in the administration of Lord Aberdeen. A statesman of vast knowledge and acquirements; of sterling business habits; quick and decided in action. An admirable debater, with a facile, ready, but not lofty eloquence. The upholder of constitutional government wherever his name and position have acquired influence in the world. Friendly to efforts made abroad for the recovery of liberty, he has been held in terror by those who would still keep liberty in chains. Of all living Ministers, Lord Palmerston is the most personally popular. He has served with many parties, and yet is no party man. The Whigs do not love him; the Conservatives cannot claim him; the Radicals own him not. Yet the eye of England glances involuntarily towards him as one with qualities to be exercised on great occasions, in the interests of his country. We cannot enumerate his followers; but his admirers are countless. He has many practical virtues that constitute a bond, uniting him to Englishmen, and make him an object of interest in the national mind. He is bold, outspoken, courageous, patriotic; genial in temper, and unaffected in intercourse. He has infinite “pluck.” When he strikes, he hits straight and effectually. In self-defence his “parry” is inimitable, and always successful.

[Executed in 1846 by Christopher Moore.]

472. SIR ROBERT PEEL. _Statesman._

[Born near Bury, in Lancashire, 1788. Died in London, 1850. Aged 62.]

The House of Commons was to Peel--what it had been to Pitt, his illustrious predecessor--his world of thought and action. Pitt was 20 when he took his seat in Parliament by the influence of Sir James Lowther. Sir Robert was 21 when he was returned for Cashel, by the influence of his father. Both lived, and, so to speak, died on that grand stage. If Pitt is to be recognised as the boldest and bravest Minister that ever conducted a country through the perils and disasters of a protracted war, Peel must be regarded as the most courageous statesman that ever dared to guide a busy nation through the peculiar dangers that environ a period of long peace. Pitt set up a principle of action as his guiding star, and steered his course by its light, against the bitterest opposition and the most vehement remonstrance, and died, still proclaiming the safety of his chosen path. Peel, in a later age, and under different circumstances, sacrificed, year after year, his strong convictions, in order to direct within safe channels the popular current which in spite of all his efforts to resist it, flowed on until it threatened to destroy and drown all obstacles--good or evil--that opposed its progress. Had Pitt lived in the days of Peel, his sagacity would have compelled the same policy. The proof of Peel’s sound wisdom was emphatically witnessed when he ceased to be Minister in 1846, but continued, until his cruel and untimely end, to exercise the greatest influence of all living men, over the destinies of his country. More potent than even the Prime Minister who had unseated him, was Sir Robert Peel, from 1846 until 1850. Many are the claims of Peel upon our gratitude. He reformed our criminal code; he advanced the cause of religious freedom; he repealed the corn laws. His attainments as a scholar were great, and he was a warm encourager of literature and art. His secret charities to men of genius--revealed since his death--declare the goodness of his heart. It is said that he had few friends in public life. It may be difficult for a politician to enjoy this luxury. In the bosom of his own family he was beloved.

[This fine colossal statue, which will be found at the south-west angle of the great Transept and Nave, is by Baron Marochetti. It is executed in bronze.]

473. SIR MICHAEL O’LOCHLEN. _Lawyer._

[Born 1789. Died 1842. Aged 53.]

A judge in Ireland, of high legal attainments, great practical knowledge, and unwearied industry. The first Roman Catholic created law officer of the Crown, and raised to the bench, since the Revolution of 1688. A member of the Church of Rome, he owed his promotion to the Liberal party. Appointed Attorney-General 1835, Baron of the Exchequer 1836, and Master of the Rolls 1837. He was earnest in his endeavours to promote the ends of justice, courteous in manners, and kind in disposition. All parties esteemed and admired him for his judicial conduct, and, after his decease, Lord Lyndhurst, a political opponent, paid a just and feeling tribute to his memory.

[By Christopher Moore, for the Incorporated Law Society of Dublin.]

474. LORD JOHN RUSSELL. _Statesman._

[Born 1792. Still living.]

The third son of the sixth Duke of Bedford. Has served many offices of state, amongst others that of Prime Minister of England. The recognised leader of the Whig party, and the representative of the school of Charles James Fox. The author of a work on the Constitution of England, of a tragedy, and of other books. The editor, also, of the Memoirs of Thomas Moore, the poet. Lord John Russell is considered one of our first constitutional statesmen. His course is not always so distinctly marked as to be obvious and intelligible to every looker-on. Now he is too liberal for Conservatives, now too conservative for Liberals; to-day he offends the lovers of religious toleration by his legislation against spiritual freedom; to-morrow he will distress bigotry by his zeal for religious independence. Yet Lord John is a man of mark and influence: and when he suffers his soul to be kindled into warmth, the sympathies of men rally involuntarily around him. The prominent feature in the character of this distinguished statesman, is the supreme absence of self-mistrust, be the matter in hand what it may.

475. DAVID SALOMONS. _Alderman._

[Born in London, 1797. Still living.]

The first Hebrew gentleman who has held civic appointment, and sat as member of parliament, though but for a day, in the House of Commons. Was elected sheriff of London in 1835, and alderman of Aldgate-ward in 1836; but could not take his seat in consequence of the existing state of the law, which practically excluded Jews. In the year 1844, elected alderman of the ward of Portsoken, but the election again annulled. The law having been altered by Sir Robert Peel’s government in 1847, elected without opposition, in that year, alderman of Cordwainers’ ward. In 1851, returned to parliament for the borough of Greenwich. Taking his seat, he maintained his right to remain there; but he was ordered to withdraw, the law of the land forbidding his presence until he could take the necessary oaths. The claims of the Jews to equal rights with their fellow citizens are identified with the name of David Salomons, as they have been maintained chiefly by his untiring exertions.

[From the marble by Edward Davis.]

476. SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT. _Lawyer._

[Born in Devonshire, 1798. Died in London, 1845. Aged 46.]

The most celebrated advocate of his time. Remarkable for the lucidity of his intellect, for his extensive and accurate legal knowledge, for his acute discrimination, his intuitive sagacity, and for his power of rapidly transferring his whole attention to anything that might be brought before it. His reasoning faculties were of the highest order, and his memory was singularly quick and retentive. His manner calm, dignified, and graceful, and his temper serene and unruffled. His labours at the bar were excessive, and prosecuted in the midst of pain and sickness. He died comparatively early, worn out by disease and work. He had served Her Majesty as Solicitor-General, and, had he lived, would inevitably have taken the highest position open to his profession.

[By W. Behnes.]

477. THE EARL OF DERBY. _Statesman._

[Born 1799. Still living.]

Has been Chief Secretary for Ireland, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Prime Minister. Has served with the Whigs under Lord Grey, and with the Conservatives under Sir Robert Peel. Since the death of Sir Robert, has headed the extreme Tory party. Lord Derby is one of the readiest, most eloquent, clever, and fluent speakers in the House of Lords. When in the House of Commons, he was styled by Mr. Disraeli “The Prince Rupert of Debate.” As a lieutenant, he was brilliant, fierce, and irresistible in assault. As a leader, he did not discover the comprehensive grasp, the knowledge, and administrative skill of his illustrious predecessor and chief, Sir Robert Peel.

[By Christopher Moore. 1839. Executed for Lord Skelmersdale.]

478. GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK VILLIERS, EARL OF CLARENDON. _Statesman._

[Born 1800. Still living.]

A Minister who has honourably and usefully served his country in many capacities. Has been Envoy Extraordinary at Madrid, President of the Board of Trade, and, during a stormy period of incipient rebellion, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. At present, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. An excellent man of business, and a consistent Liberal in politics.

[By J. E. Jones.]

479. SIDNEY HERBERT. _Statesman._

[Born 1810. Still living.]

Half brother of the Earl of Pembroke. Was educated at Oxford. Entered Parliament in 1832. Has been ever since a follower of the policy identified with the name of Sir Robert Peel. From 1841 to 1845, Secretary to the Admiralty. In 1845, appointed Secretary at War. Retired from office with Sir Robert Peel in 1846, but became again Secretary at War, in Lord Aberdeen’s administration, 1853. Mr. Herbert has acquired a well deserved reputation for his benevolent exertions on behalf of the unemployed industrious classes of both sexes.

[By Macdonald of Rome.]

480. LORD CANNING. _English Peer._

[Born 1812. Still living.]

The only surviving son of George Canning, Prime Minister of England. Has been Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and for a short time, in 1846, was Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests. He was Chairman of the Council of Juries in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

[By Macdonald.]

480.* WILLIAM HULME HOOPER. _Naval Officer._

[Born in London, 1826. Died there 1854. Aged 27.]

One of the intrepid Arctic explorers, whose spirit of enterprise has impelled them to invade the ocean, in his sternest and most terrific domain, through hope to solve the mystery hanging over the fate of Sir John Franklin. Lieutenant Hooper commanded the second cutter in the remarkable voyage of the boats of Her Majesty’s ship “Plover” from Icy Cape to Cape Bathurst. Lost for three days and nights in an Arctic snow storm, quartered two long and lonely winters away from his ship in log-huts with a few of his men, under every privation, he brought home the fastened malady of the lungs which so early cut short his ardent career.

[This bust is by David Dunbar.]

PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.

481. CARDINAL WOLSEY. _Minister of State._

[Born at Ipswich, 1471. Died at Leicester, 1530. Aged 59.]

A butcher’s son, with an inordinate appetence for place, power, and money. A magnificent pluralist, whose insatiable desire for wealth was redeemed only by the noble uses to which he applied a portion of his worldly goods. His revenues almost equalled those of the crown, and many of his acts were princely, as became the rival of a king. Wolsey founded several lectures at Oxford, built Christ Church in that University, and erected Hampton Court, which, in his splendid generosity, he presented to Henry VIII. He owed his first advancement to Henry VII., who sent him on an embassy to the Emperor of Germany, and afterwards made him Dean of Lincoln. His rise was, thenceforwards rapid. He became, under Henry VIII., Cardinal, Lord Chancellor, and Pope’s Legate. His fall was headlong. Offending the king by refusing to sanction his divorce, he was disgraced in an hour, and compelled to disgorge his enormous acquisitions. He was arrested at York, but, falling sick on his way to London, died at Leicester. Much of Wolsey’s wealth was, no doubt, ill-gotten; his ambition knew no bounds; his insolence was intolerable;--but he had in many respects a grand and royal mind, and the benefits conferred by him upon learning are never to be omitted in a history of his remarkable life.

[Presented by Mr. John Archbutt, London.]

482. CHARLES JAMES BLOMFIELD. _Bishop of London._

[Born 1786. Still living.]

Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was Fellow. Bishop of Chester, 1824--of London, 1828. Distinguished for his classical attainments, and before his elevation to the bench, known as the accomplished editor of the tragedies of Æschylus. As a churchman, Charles James Blomfield has endeavoured to take a middle and conciliatory course, notwithstanding his decided bent towards the high church party. It is no reproach to the Bishop of London to say that he has occasionally stumbled, upon a difficult and slippery path.

[By W. Behnes.]

482A. CHARLES JAMES BLOMFIELD. _Bishop of London._

[By Henry Weigall.]

483. FATHER THEOBALD MATHEW. _Temperance Reformer._

[Born at Thomastown, in Ireland, 1790. Still living.]

A modern crusader, who has drawn his spiritual sword against one of the deadliest foes to religion, civilisation, and human happiness. An apostle who carries glad tidings to every hearth, irrespectively of the altar raised there for divine worship. A proselytiser who converts Romanist and Protestant, with equal advantage and safety to both. He was educated at Maynooth; is a Romish priest; and his whole life has been spent in an anxious and a humane endeavour to release mankind from the self-imposed yoke of Drunkenness. He is the founder of the “total abstinence” principle, in virtue of which self-denying ordinance “pledged” men abstain from any use whatever of intoxicating liquors. The success of the good and courageous man has been equal to his deserts: both are inestimable. Under his teaching the most hardened drunkards have become abstemious, and the most reckless and improvident have been won to self-respect and virtuous conduct. No preacher in the olden or the modern time has surpassed his earnestness or his labour. Hundreds of thousands have taken the pledge from his hands in Ireland, in this country, and in the United States. If some of the number have been unfaithful to their plighted word, the weakness of humanity will explain the defection. That thousands are the better, the wiser, the happier, and the purer for his labours, is beyond all doubt. A few patriots like Father Mathew, would have changed the face of nature in Ireland years ago. His work, now, is productive of hourly good. The man who only checks the growth of Drunkenness is a benefactor of his kind. He who extinguishes the vice in a hundred thousand beasts, is one of the mightiest of human conquerors.

[By Christopher Moore, 1845.]

484. CARDINAL WISEMAN. _Chief of the Romish Church in England._

[Born at Seville, in Spain, 1802. Still living.]

Came to England in 1808. Educated at the English college in Rome, where he took his degree of D.D. in 1824. Consecrated Bishop of Melipotamus in 1840, and made Vicar Apostolic of the London district in 1849. Created Cardinal, 1850. Cardinal Wiseman is a man of vast learning and eminent ability. His lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion constitute a noble and masterly vindication of the cause which the lectures are intended to maintain, and are full of the happiest illustration. The style of Cardinal Wiseman is forcible, logical, and eloquent; and it is said that he writes with equal ease the language of nearly all the European nations. He is the seventh English Cardinal since the Reformation.

[By Christopher Moore. 1850.]

KINGS AND QUEENS.

485. EDWARD III. _King of England._

[Born 1313. Died 1377. Aged 64.]

An accomplished monarch, brave, and for his time enlightened. In his day, and by his act, the power of the Commons rose, and the pretensions of the Barons were reduced; several constitutional acts found their way to the statute book, and greater security was given by law to property and person. Glorious battles were fought in France; the field of Cressy was won, and Calais surrendered in 1346. Edward, Prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince, was the worthy son of this redoubtable sire. Following in the steps of his father, he won, in 1355, the battle of Poitiers, took the French king and his son prisoners, and brought them to London. In this reign, Queen’s College, Oxford, and Clare Hall, Pembroke Hall, Trinity Hall, and Caius, all colleges at Cambridge, were founded. Windsor Castle also was built by Edward III., William of Wykeham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, and Chancellor of England, and the founder of Winchester College, being “Clerk of the works.” Under Edward III., the first toll was levied for mending the highways; the highway concerned being the road between St. Giles’s and Temple Bar. Upon the whole, a grand time for England.

[From the Effigy.]

486. ELEANORA OF CASTILE. _Surnamed The Faithful. First Queen of Edward I., of England._

[Born in Castile, 1243. Died at Grantham, 1290. Aged 47.]

A queen who has been described as “a loving mother to our nation, the column and pillar of the whole realm,”--godly, modest, merciful. The united influence of loveliness, virtue, and sweet temper, inspired in the heart of her renowned lord an attachment as deep as it was true. She was the mother of the first Prince of Wales. When, in 1269, her husband took up the Cross, Eleanora resolved to share the dangers of his Syrian campaign. Her ladies of the Court endeavouring to dissuade her from the journey, she replied, “Nothing ought to part those whom God has joined; and the way to heaven is as near, if not nearer, from Syria, as from England or my native Spain.” She was a patroness of literature and art, and civilisation advanced under the auspices of her well-regulated Court. Taken ill at Grantham, whilst her husband was in Scotland, she expired there. Edward followed her body thence to Westminster in the bitterest grief, and on the spot marked by the close of every stage, vowed to erect a cross in memory of his _chère reine_. The crosses of Northampton and Waltham still remain, models of architectural beauty. Charing Cross was the last resting-place before the body was carried into Westminster Abbey.

[From the Effigy.]

487. HENRY VII. _King of England._

[Born 1456. Died 1509. Aged 53.]

A monarch whose greatest vice was avarice. He was inordinately fond of money. He had 14,000_l._ a-year allowed him by his first Parliament for his Household expenses, and 2000_l._ a-year for his wardrobe; yet he left behind him a sum equivalent to 16,000,000_l._ at the present day. With no worse quality than avarice, he had no quality that can be called great. He was brave, politic, attentive to business, reserved, suspicious. His chief merit consisted in closing the civil wars, and securing peace and order in the country. He died at Richmond, and was buried in the magnificent chapel at Westminster, erected by himself. He also built “The Great Harry,” the first ship in the English Navy, ships before this time having been hired or pressed from merchants. It cost 14,000_l._ The King seems to have had remorse for his rapacity on his death-bed. He issued a general pardon for all offences, released all debtors, himself paying the debts of many; converted the Palace of the Savoy into an hospital; built several religious houses; and ordered restitution to be made to all men whom he had wronged by his extortions. It is unnecessary to state that his successor being his son, Henry VIII., not the slightest effect followed from the “restitution” clause.

488. ELIZABETH. _Queen of England._

[Born 1533. Died 1603. Aged 70.]

A mighty sovereign, and the last of our absolute monarchs. Her rule, despotic, but grand, and wholly in the interests of her country. A true Englishwoman, ambitious of England’s glory, and capable of inspiring her servants by her example, with unbounded zeal, patriotism, and heroism. As a woman, the picture less fascinating. Too selfish to be amiable, she was vain, imperious, violent. She had favourites, but none whom she would raise to the throne, for she hugged power with a passionate embrace, which no generous sentiment could unfasten, and no tender consideration induce her to divide. She stood above law, and she knew it. A man sharing her throne might have been less fortunate. Her successor proved so; and the son of that successor, trying the perilous ascent, lost his head in the attempt. Wondrous was the reign of Elizabeth in its effects upon the civilisation of the world. It produced Bacon in philosophy, Shakspeare and Spenser in poetry, Gresham in commerce. Drake and Raleigh also belong to this time. It was the era of the re-establishment of Protestantism, and of the rescue, on the sea, of spiritual liberty from the threatened onslaught of Spain. Undoubtedly Elizabeth was surrounded by great men, but her masculine spirit sat at the helm, and directed, for nearly fifty years, the course of the State vessel. Her vigilance was sleepless, her ability unbounded, her sagacity penetrating and quick; yet she had a love of finery that was frivolous, and to the last laboured under the impression that she was beautiful. The spirit of maritime discovery was now alive in England, and commerce flourished. When dying, Elizabeth was asked by Cecil who should succeed her. She answered, “No rascal. My seat has been the seat of kings. Who should succeed me but a king?”

[From the Effigy.]

489. EDWARD VI. _King of England._

[Born 1537. Died 1553. Aged 16.]

The son of Henry VIII. by Jane Seymour, who died two days after the birth of her child. Edward was ten years old at the time of his accession to the throne. Before his character could be permanently formed he died, yet his form stands out in English history illuminated with intelligence, gentleness, and wisdom. He was fond of books, diligent in business, a lover of justice. He kept a diary, which still exists. Therein he noted down the characters of the good men by whom he was surrounded, how they lived, and what example they offered for his pious imitation. Well acquainted with foreign matters, and with the history and geography of his own country; zealous for knowledge, and ambitious of governing well. In this reign the first journal of the proceedings of the House of Commons was kept; the Common Prayer Book was established by Act of Parliament; Sternhold translated the psalms into English metre; and the king gave his palace at Bridewell for the lodging of poor travellers, and for the correction of vagabonds. Christ’s hospital, for the education of youth, and the hospitals of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas, for the reception of the sick, were also founded by him. His concern, Alfred-like--and so young!--for exalting the character, by the instruction, of his people, was shown in the foundation of numerous free schools throughout the kingdom, which still bear and endear his name. Edward was very handsome. He died of consumption, brought on by an attack of small-pox and measles.

[Presented by Mr. John Archbutt, London.]

490. MARY STUART. _Queen of Scots._

[Born, 1542. Died, 1587. Aged 45.]

A queen whose calamities fill our eyes with tears, so that we can hardly see the frailties of the woman. Her loveliness, her learning, her misfortunes, her wit, and fascinating manners, have attached to her memory an interest and affection which even the deeply-founded suspicion of her crimes cannot efface. Various judgments have been pronounced upon her conduct. But one report has come down to us of her perfect beauty of countenance, her winning manners, and her elegance of form. Grave historians speak with admiration of her jet black hair, her exquisite complexion, her delicate white arm and hand, her stature that rose to a majestic height. Her treatment of Darnley, brutal though he was, and her marriage with Bothwell after Darnley’s assassination, are blots that still cling to her character. But even these offences would seem more than expiated by her eighteen years’ imprisonment, and her unwarranted execution, that foulest stain upon the reign of our own Elizabeth. Mary Stuart was violent in her attachments, vivacious, indiscreet, fond of flattery, and conscious of the power of her charms. It is said that her heart was warm and unsuspicious. It may be questioned whether she was always sincere. One of her recent biographers in France has styled her the “eternal enigma of history,” “the most problematical of all historical personages.” Disastrous as was her own story, the fate of her immediate descendants was even worse. A curse was upon the line. Yet her lineage flourishes now. It is found in England, Prussia, Denmark, and Hanover; in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Naples, Sardinia, and Modena.

[From the Effigy.]

490.* CHARLES THE FIRST. _King of England._

[Born 1600. Beheaded 30th January, 1649. Aged 49.]

Grandson of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, whose misfortunes and drear fate he inherited, if he did not invite. A monarch whose exaggerated notions of prerogative, whose obstinacy, wilfulness, untruthfulness, and double-dealing, justified the resistance of a people awakened to a sense of their rights, and roused to the vindication of their liberties; yet a man whose sorrows, whose dignified bearing in misfortune, whose private virtues, love of literature and art, and gentle demeanour, render him an object of the deepest commiseration, and the most plaintive interest. His death was deliberate murder; and there is too much reason to fear that they who thought least of defending liberty, were the most thirsty of his blood. Yet some palliation for the guilt is found in the circumstance that in the public dealings of Charles with his Parliament his plighted word was not worth the paper upon which it was given. Irresolute and double-minded, he had never kept faith with his people. It was the misfortune of Charles to be born at a period when the conflicting elements of Royalty and Democracy were seething into tumult. Had he lived a little earlier, or a little later he would not have lost his head upon the block. A little earlier, the “divinity that doth hedge a king” would have shielded him in England from the sacrilege. A little later, he would have been hunted from English soil, as his son was. The catastrophe of his unhappy reign can never be re-enacted. His blood purchased that security. Never had the character of Englishmen, in many respects, looked so fair to the world as during the civil wars of Charles the First. The true-hearted loyal gentlemen who, knowing by experience the character of their master, yet clung to his cause and to his person until the last extremity, counting all sacrifice as delightful service, were not surpassed by the professed knights of chivalry. The devoted Republicans, who for the sake of man’s rights and God’s blessing seized arms for the first time in their lives, and became great Generals and Admirals--the glory of their country, and the terror of the world--take rank in the estimation of history, side by side with her most splendid heroes. We receive from them our cherished charters, and the liberty which finds no harm even when Europe is in conflagration. Terrible indeed must have been the state of the atmosphere in 1649, when the thunderbolt fell that struck down Charles, but purified the air for ever afterwards.

[The statue of Charles the First, which is in the South Transept, is from the bronze equestrian statue by Hubert le Sueur, which was erected at Charing Cross in the year 1674. It had been cast in 1633, near the church in Covent Garden, but never placed: and during the wars it was sold by Parliament to a brazier “living at the Dial, near Holborn Conduit,” with strict orders that he should break it up. The brazier concealed the statue and horse underground until after the Restoration. Le Sueur was a Frenchman, and pupil of John of Bologna. He arrived in England about 1630, and died here. The pedestal is by Grinling Gibbons, who was born about the middle of the 17th century.]

491. JAMES II. _King of England._

[Born in England, 1633. Died in France, 1701. Aged 68.]

The second son of Charles I., whose fate he challenged by his obstinacy, wilfulness, and double dealing. He was a Roman Catholic, and in the blind defence and advocacy of his faith against the Constitution and laws of the country he governed, he perilled his crown which he lost, and his life which he ignominiously saved. He was not without good qualities. He was personally brave--not unmindful of the services of friends, and he exhibited devotion in the maintenance of the religious cause which he believed it his paramount duty to uphold. But he was bigotted, cruel, and wrongheaded. He could not be trusted whenever he was acting in the interests of the Pope. Louis XIV. in vain remonstrated with his royal cousin of England. James II. was too sincere a zealot to listen to reason. Louis Quatorze was too fine a gentleman, and too practised a courtier, to be betrayed into fanaticism. When James went a fugitive and an exile to France, Louis received him with a magnificence worthy of a triumphal progress.

[From the well-known statue by Grinling Gibbons in Privy Gardens, Whitehall. Represented in the costume of a Roman Emperor, according to the taste of the day.]

492. GEORGE III. _King of England._

[Born 1738. Died 1820. Aged 82.]

The grandfather of her Majesty Queen Victoria. He reigned during sixty years, although during the last ten, he could take no part in public affairs. A king with many good qualities of heart and head, but obstinate, self-willed and not always sincere in his dealings with his Ministers. He is styled “The father of his people;” and his honest desire to secure their well-being and happiness, according to his own ideas of government, entitled him to the enviable distinction. In private life, George III. offered an admirable example for imitation to his subjects. But his wilful persistence in the maintenance of what he conceived his Royal prerogative, plunged England into war with America, and caused the premature loss to the country of that magnificent British colony.

[By John Bacon, R.A., when the King was 30 years old.]

493. GEORGE IV. _King of England._

[Born 1762. Died 1830. Aged 68.]

In 1811, during the lifetime of his father, this prince was appointed Regent: and in 1820, upon the death of George III., he succeeded to the throne. The reign of this monarch is rendered memorable, by the scandalous proceedings instituted against Queen Caroline, and by the passing of the Act in 1829, which tolerated the Roman Catholic religion in the United Kingdom. George IV. was considered the first gentleman in Europe whilst he lived. Since his departure, history has pronounced him heartless, sensual, self-absorbed, and negligent of the true interests of his subjects, though not without some kingly qualities.

494. WILLIAM IV. _King of England._

[Born 1765. Died 1837. Aged 72.]

The third son of George III., and uncle of Queen Victoria. He succeeded his brother George IV. in 1830. His reign is remarkable as that in which the Reform Bill passed, changing the constitution of England by widening its basis. This King was before his marriage the father of several children, since ennobled, the mother being Mrs. Jordan, one of the most fascinating actresses and kind-hearted women of her time.

494A. WILLIAM IV. _King of England._

[Medallion by Chantrey, modelled for the coinage.]

495. THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. _Prince of England._

[Born 1774. Died 1850. Aged 76.]

Youngest son of King George III., and one of the most popular princes of his family. He was for many years Viceroy of Hanover, where he endeared himself to the people. An amiable and innocent man.

496. HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. _Whom God Preserve!_

[Born May 24th, 1819.]

497. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT. _Consort of Queen Victoria._

[Born August 26th, 1819.]

[Modelled from the life, by Emil Wolf.]

497A. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT. _Consort of Queen Victoria._

To whom the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, a development of the original Palace in Hyde Park, is indebted for its existence.

[By J. E. Jones.]

INDEX TO THE PORTRAIT GALLERY.

No. Page 460 Adams, John Quincy, President of the United States, 210 113 Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, Roman General, 49 96 Agrippina (the Elder), 44 97 Agrippina (the Younger), 44 497 Albert, H.R.H., Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, 225 124 Alcibiades, Athenian General, 25 22 Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, 24 386 Alexandra, Empress of Russia, 168 180 Alfieri, Vittorio, Poet, 73 152 Allegri, Antonio. (_See_ Corregio.) 134 Angelico da Fiesole (Fra), Painter, 57 458 Anglesey, Marquis of, English Field Marshal, 209 307* Anne of Austria, Queen of France, 130 52 Annius Verus, Roman Prince, 35 79 Antinous, Bithynian Youth, 41 17 Antisthenes, Philosopher, 21 47 Antoninus Pius, Roman Emperor, 34 10 Aratus, Astronomer, 18 2 Archilochus, Greek Poet, 14 176 Ariosto, Luigi, Poet, 71 8? Aristides, Athenian Patriot, 17 239 Arnauld, Antoine, Theologian and Controversialist, 99 464 Ashburton, Lord, English Peer, 211 26 Aspasia, 26 340 Auerbach, Berthold, Poet and Novelist, 149 278 Augereau, Pierre François Charles, Marshal of France, 117 35 Augustus, Roman Emperor, 29

51 Ælius Verus, Adopted Emperor, 35 8 Æschines, Greek Orator, 17 6 Æschylus, Tragic Poet, 15 3 Æsop, Writer of Fables, 15

420 Bacon, Francis, Chancellor of England, 188 190 Bandineri, Giovanni Medici, Italian Soldier, 77 431 Baily, Francis, Astronomer, 194 128 Balbinus, Decimus Cœlius, Roman Statesman and Emperor, 54 142 Bartolomeo, Fra, Painter, 60 257 Bayard, Pierre de Terrail, Seigneur de, Warrior, 109 321 Beethoven, Ludwig Van, Musical Composer, 140 261 Belloy, Pierre Laurent Buirette de, Dramatist, 110 160 Berettini, Pietro di Cortona, or Pietro, Painter, 66 274 Berthier, Pierre Alexandre, Marshal of France, 115 252* Berthollet, Claude Louis, Chemist, 105 354 Berzelius, Jan Jacob, Chemist, 156 281 Bessières, Jean Baptiste, Marshal of France, 118 356 Beuth, Peter Kaspar Wilhelm, Member of the Council of State, in Prussia, 156 11 Bias, Greek Philosopher, 19 482 Blomfield, Charles James, Bishop of London, 219 360 Blucher, Gebhardt Lebrecht Von, Prussian Field Marshal, 158 224 Boileau, Nicolas, Poet and Satirist, 94 355 Boisserée, Sulpitz Von, Architect and Archæologist, 156 295 Bossuet, Jacques Beninge, Prelate of France, 123 368 Boyen, Hermann Von, Prussian Minister at War, 160 138 Bramante, Francesco Lazzari, Architect, Painter, Poet, 58 443 Brassey, Thomas, Railway Contractor, 199 467 Brougham, Henry, Lord, Lawyer, Statesman, Educator, 213 181 Brunelleschi, Sculptor and Architect, 56 107 Brutus, Lucius Junius, Roman Consul, 46 112 Brutus, Marcus Junius, Roman General, 49 245 Buffon, Georges Louis Le Clerc, Comte de, Naturalist, 102 361 Bulow, Friedrich Wilhelm, Prussian General, 158 311 Buonaparte, Napoleon. (_See_ Napoleon) 143 Buonarotti, Michael Angelo, Sculptor, Painter, Architect, 60 468 Buren, Martin Van, Ex-President of the United States, 213 450 Burke, Edmund, Orator, Writer, Statesman, 203 410* Burns, Robert, Poet, 182 404 Butler, Fanny, Actress, 176 418 Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, Poet, 187

156 Cagliari, Paolo. (_See_ Veronese) 40 Caligula, Roman Emperor, 32 469 Calhoun, John Caldwell, American Statesman, 213 495 Cambridge, Duke of, Prince of England, 225 287 Cambronne, Pierre Jacques, French General, 120 415 Campbell, Thomas, Poet, 185 480 Canning, Lord, English Peer, 218 168 Canova, Antonio, Sculptor, 68 60 Caracalla, Roman Emperor, 37 158 Caracci, Annibale, Painter, 65 155 Caravaggio, Polidoro Caldare da, Painter, 64 184 Caro, Annibale, Writer, 75 70 Carinus, Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 39 439 Carlyle, Thomas, Writer, 198 357 Carus, Karl Gustav, Physician and Anatomist, 157 110 Cato, Marcus Porcius, Roman General, 47 111 Cæsar, Julius, Roman Dictator, 48 398 Chantrey, Francis, Sculptor, 174 254 Chaptal, Jean Antoine, Chemist, 106 296* Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West, 124 490* Charles I., King of England, 223 195 Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 79 300 Charles V., Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, 126 303 Charles IX., King of France, 127 449 Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, Statesman, 203 406 Chaucer, Geoffrey, Father of English Poetry, 178 232 Chaussée, Pierre Claude Nivelle de la, Dramatist, 96 421 Chetham, Humphrey, “Dealer in Manchester Commodities”, 189 120 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Roman Orator, 51 167 Cimarosa, Domenico, Musical Composer, 67 208** Clairon, Mdlle., French Tragic Actress, 87 478 Clarendon, George William Frederick, Earl of, Statesman, 217 38 Claudius I., Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, Roman Emperor, 31 194 Clement XIII., Pope. (_See_ Rezzonico.) 117 Clodius Albinus, Decimus Clodius Ceionius Septimius, Roman General, 50 261 Colbert, Edouard, Minister of State, 112 267* Colbert, Jean Baptiste, Statesman and Financier, 113 188 Coleoni, Bartolomeo, Soldier of Fortune, 76 260 Coligny, Gaspard de, Marshal and Admiral, 110 279** Collard, Pierre Paul Roger, Statesman and Philosopher, 117 182 Columbus, Christopher, the Discoverer of the New World, 74 56 Commodus, Lucius Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 36 268 Condé, Louis II. de Bourbon, Prince de, and Warrior, 113 250* Condorcet, Marie-Jean-Antoine Nicolas Carétat, Marquis de, Mathematician and Philosopher, 104 73 Constantius Chlorus, Flavius Valerius, Roman Emperor, 40 116 Corbulo, Cneius Domitius, Roman General, 50 161 Corelli, Arcangelo, Violinist and Composer, 66 218 Corneille, Pierre, Dramatist, 91 222 Corneille, Thomas, Dramatist, 93 326 Cornelius, Peter, Painter, 142 152 Correggio, or Antonio Allegri, Painter, 64 160 Cortona, Pietro di, Painter. (_See_ Berettini.) 206 Coysevox, Antoine, Sculptor, 86 445 Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Historical Writer, 201 228 Crébillon, Prosper Jolyot de, Dramatist, 95 101 Crispina, Roman Empress, 45 402 Cruikshank, George, Caricaturist, 176 453 Curran, John Philpot, Lawyer, 206 256 Cuvier, Georges Léopold Chrêtien Frédéric Dagobert, Naturalist, 107

269 D’Aguesseau, Henri François, Chancellor of France, 114 256* D’Alembert, Jean Le Rond, Mathematician and Philosopher, 107 291* D’Amboise, Georges, Cardinal and Minister of State, 121 208* Dangeville, Marie-Anne-Botol, French Comic Actress, 87 279* Dannon, Pierre Claude François, Statesman and Writer, 117 173 Dante Alighieri, Poet, 69 247* Darcet, Jean, Chemist and Physician, 103 443* Dargan, William, Railway Contractor, 200 405* Darling, Grace, Lighthouse-keeper’s Daughter, 177 405** Darling, William, Lighthouse-keeper, 178 209 David, Jacques Louis, Painter, 88 288 Davoust, (Prince D’Eckmuhl,) Louis Nicolas, Marshal of France, 120 63 Decius, Caius Messius Quintus Trajanus, Roman Emperor, 38 438 De La Beche, Sir Henry Thomas, Geologist, 198 19 Demosthenes, Greek Orator, 22 252 Denon, Dominique, Egyptian Traveller, 105 477 Derby, Earl of, Statesman, 217 283 Desaix, Louis Charles Antoine, French General, 119 238 Descartes, Réné, Mathematician and Metaphysician, 99 229 Destouches, Philippe Nericault, Dramatist, 96 333* Devrient, Edward, Player, 145 217 Diane de Poitiers, 91 72 Diocletian, Caius Valerius Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 40 18 Diogenes, Philosopher, 22 442 Disraeli, Benjamin, Writer and Politician, 199 159 Domenichino, Domenico Zampieri, called, Painter, 66 44 Domitian, Titus Flavius Sabinus, Roman Emperor, 33 94* Domna Julia (Pia Felix Augusta), Roman Empress, 43 133 Donatello, Donato di Niccolo, di Betto Bardi, Sculptor, 57 215 D’Orsay, Comte, 90 114 Drusus, Nero Claudius, Roman General, 50 235 Du Barry, Marie Jeanne Vaubernier, Comtesse, 98 227 Dufresny, Charles Rivière, Dramatist, 95 248 Duhamel, Jean Pierre, Man of Science, 103 272 Dumouriez, Charles François, French General, 115 265 Duquesne, Abraham, Vice-Admiral of France, 111

485 Edward III., King of England, 220 489 Edward VI., King of England, 222 65 Elagabalus. (_See_ Heliogabalus.) 454 Eldon, Lord, High Chancellor of England, 207 486 Eleanora of Castile, first Queen of Edward I. of England, 220 488 Elizabeth, Queen of England, 221 20 Epicurus, Philosopher, 23 5 Epimenides, Poet and Prophet of Crete, 15 192 Eugene, François Eugene of Savoy, called Prince, Military Commander, 77 312** Eugénie Marie Guzman, Empress of the French, 134 9 Euripides, Greek Poet, 17

434 Fairbairn, William, Millwright and Engineer, 196 436 Faraday, Michael, Natural Philosopher, 196 105 Faustina, Junior, Annia Faustina, 45 203 Félibien, André, Sieur des Avaux et de Javercy, Writer on Art, 85 296 Fénélon, François de Salignac, de Lamotte, Archbishop and Writer, 123 349 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, Philosopher and Metaphysician, 154 394 Flaxman, John, Sculptor, 172 258 Foix, Gaston de, Warrior, 109 476 Follett, Sir William, Lawyer, 217 447 Forbes, Edward, Naturalist, 201 452 Fox, Charles James, Statesman, 206 286 Foy, Maximilien Sebastien, French General, 120 299 Francis I., King of France, 125 387 Francis Joseph, reigning Emperor of Austria, and King of Hungary, 168 343* Frank, Johann Peter, Physician, 151 424 Franklin, Benjamin, Statesman and Philosopher, 191 376 Frederic II., surnamed the Great, King of Prussia, 164 377 Frederic Louis Henry, Prince of Prussia, 164 374 Frederic William, Elector of Brandenburg, 163 375 Frederic William I., King of Prussia, 164 379 Frederic William III., King of Prussia, 165 384 Frederic William IV., Reigning King of Prussia, 167 391 Fuseli, or Fuessli, Henry, Painter, 171

39 Galba, Servius Sulpicius, Roman Emperor, 31 185 Galileo Galilei, Philosopher, 75 66 Gallienus, Publius Licinius Valerianus, Roman Emperor, 39 145 Garofalo, Benvenuto Tisio, called, Painter, 62 390 Garrick, David, Player and Dramatist, 170 328 Gärtner, Friedrich, Architect, 144 189 Gattamelata, Stefano, Warrior, 77 181 Gavazzi, Alessandro, Monk and Orator, 73 256*** Gay-Lussac, French Chemist, 108 492 George III., King of England, 224 493 George IV., King of England, 224 212 Gérard, François, Painter, 89 115 Germanicus Cæsar, Roman General, 50 61 Geta, Publius Septimius, Roman Emperor, 37 132 Ghiberti, Lorenzo, Sculptor, 57 140 Ghirlandaio, Domenico, Painter, 59 400 Gibson, John, Sculptor, 175 211 Girodet-Trioson, Painter, 88 154 Giulio Romano, Giulio Pippi di Giannuzzi, Architect and Painter, 64 327 Gluck, Christoph, Musician, 143 366 Gneisenau, Augustus Count Herdart de, Field Marshal, 160 337 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Poet, 147 179 Goldoni, Carlo, Poet, 72 410 Goldsmith, Oliver, Poet and Man of Letters, 181 55 Gordianus Africanus, Marcus Antonius, Roman Emperor, 36 62 Gordianus II., Marcus Antonius, Roman Emperor, 37 67 Gordianus III., Pius, Marcus Antonius, Roman Emperor, 39 196 Goujon, Jean, Sculptor, 83 172 Grisi, Giulia, Italian Singer, 69 213 Gros, Antoine Jean, Painter, 89 214 Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Painter, 89 135 Guidi, Tommaso. (_See_ Masaccio) 341 Gutenberg, Johann, Inventor of Printing, 149 358 Gutkow Karl, Journalist and Dramatist, 157

46 Hadrian, Publius Ælius Hadrianus, Roman Emperor, 33 346 Hahnemann, Samuel, Physician and Founder of Homœopathy, 152 332 Halbig, Johann, Sculptor, 145 446 Haliburton, Judge, Lawyer, and Writer, 201 314 Handel, George Friedrich, Musical Composer, 136 451* Hastings, Warren, Statesman, 205 316 Haydn, Franz Joseph, Musical Composer, 138 65 Heliogabalus, Varius Avitus Bassianus, Roman Emperor, 38 302 Henry II., King of France, 127 304 Henry III., King of France, 127 305 Henry IV., King of France, 128 487 Henry VII, King of England, 221 479 Herbert, Sidney, Statesman, 218 89 Herennius, Roman Emperor, 42 352 Hermann, Gottfried, Philologist and Critic, 155 435 Herschell, Sir John, Astronomer, 196 14 Hippocrates, Physician, 20 280 Hoche, Lazare, French General, 118 1 Homer, Great Epic Poet of Greece, 13 480* Hooper, William Hulme, Naval Officer, 218 119 Hortensius, Quintus, Roman Orator, 51 74 Hostilianus, Roman Emperor, 41 350 Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm, Physician, 154 351 Humboldt, Alexander Von, Naturalist and Traveller, 154 367 Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm, Baron Von, Statesman and Philologist, 160 466 Hume, Joseph, Political Reformer, 212 427 Hunter, John, Surgeon and Comparative Anatomist, 193 462 Huskisson, William, Statesman and Financier, 211

15 Isocrates, Rhetorician, 20

457 Jackson, General, President of the United States, 209 344 Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich, Philosopher and Poet, 151 491 James II., King of England, 224 430 Jeffrey, Francis, Critic and Essayist, 194 419 Jerrold, Douglas, Writer, 188 425 Johnson, Samuel, Writer and Moralist, 191 388 Jones, Inigo, Architect, 169 282 Joubert, Barthélémi Catharine, French General, 118 95* Julia, Daughter of Augustus, 43 71 Julian the Apostate--Flavius Claudius Julianus, Roman Emperor, 40 253 Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de, Botanist, 106

342 Kant, Immanuel, Metaphysician, 150 271 Kellermann, François Christophe, Marshal of France, 114 397 Kemble, Charles, Player, 174 275 Kleber, Jean Baptiste, French General, 115 325 Klenze, Leo Von, Architect, 142 334 Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb, Epic and Lyric Poet, 145

256** Laborde, Alexander Louis Joseph, Marquis de, Soldier, Traveller, and Educator, 107 255 Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne, Naturalist, 106 277 Lafayette, Marie Paul Gilbert Motier, Marquis de, French General, 116 220 La Fontaine, Jean de, Poet, 92 249 Lagrange, Joseph Louis, Astronomer, 104 284 Lannes, Jean, Marshal of France, 119 253* Laplace, Pierre Simon, Astronomer, 106 290 La Salle, Antoine Charles Louis Collinet de, General of Cavalry, 121 273 La Tour D’Auvergne-Corret, Theophile Malode, Warrior, 115 396 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, Painter, 173 202 Lebrun, Charles, Painter, 85 276 Lefebvre, François Joseph, Marshal of France, 116 383 Leopold I., King of the Belgians, 166 230 Le Sage, Alain Réné, Novelist, 96 262 Lesdiguières, François de Bonne, Duc de, Constable of France, 110 335 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, Man of Letters, 146 259 L’Hôpital, Michel de, Chancellor of France, 109 246 Linné, or Linnæus, Charles, Botanist, 102 93 Livia, Drusilla, Roman Empress, 43 122* Livy--Titus Livius, Roman Historian, 53 422 Locke, John, Philosopher, 189 482 London, Bishop of. (_See_ Blomfield.) 381 Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia, Queen of Prussia, 165 383* Louise Marie, Queen of the Belgians, 167 297 Louis XI., King of France, 125 298 Louis XII., King of France, 125 307 Louis XIII., King of France, 129 308 Louis XIV., King of France, 130 309 Louis XV., King of France, 131 312* Louis Napoleon. (_See_ Napoleon.) 312 Louis Philippe, King of France, 133 380 Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, 165 382 Ludwig I., ex-King of Bavaria, 166 205 Lully, Jean Baptiste de, Violinist, and Musical Composer, 86 371 Luther, Martin, the Great Reformer, 162 30 Lycurgus, Lawgiver, 28 463 Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley, Baron, Ex-Chancellor of England, 211

204 Mabillon, Jean, Antiquary, 85 183 Machiavelli, Niccolo, Political Writer and Historian, 74 429 Mackintosh, Sir James, Historian and Metaphysician, 194 401 Macready, William Charles, Player, 175 57 Macrinus, Marcus Opilius, Roman Emperor, 36 76* Magnus Decentius, 41 171 Malibran, Maria Felicitas, Actress, 69 102 Mamæa, Julia, Roman Empress, 45 207 Mansart, Jules Hardouin, Architect, 86 448 Mansfield, William Murray, Earl of, Lord Chief Justice, 202 136 Mantegna, Andrea, Painter and Engraver, 58 369 Manteuffel, Otto-Feodor Freiherr von, Prussian Minister, 161 151 Marcantonio Raimondi, Engraver, 64 286 Marceau, François Sévérin Desgraviers, French General, 20 163 Marcello, Benedetto, Writer and Musician, 67 108 Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, Roman General, 47 48 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor, 34 53 Marcus Galerius Antoninus, Roman Prince, 35 310 Marie Antoinette, Joséphine Jeanne, Queen of France, 131 104 Mariniana, 45 490 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, 222 135 Masaccio, Tommaso Guidi, Painter, 57 279 Massena, André, Marshal of France, 117 100 Matidia, 45 483 Mathew, Father Theobald, Temperance Reformer, 219 59 Maximinus, Caius Julius Verus, Roman Emperor, 37 378 Maximilian Joseph I., King of Bavaria, 165 68 Maximus, Caius Julius Verus, Roman Prince, 39 293 Mazarin, Cardinal, Minister of France, 122 91 Mæsa, Julia, Roman Empress, 42 187 Medici, Cosmo de, Merchant and Statesman, 76 190 Medici, Giovanni. (_See_ Bandineri), 77 306 Medici, Marie de, Queen of France, 128 372 Melancthon, Philip, German Divine and Reformer, 162 32 Menander, Comic Poet, 28 331 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, Musician, 144 315* Mengs, Anthony Raphael, Painter, 137 178 Metastasio, Pietro Bonaventura, Poet, 72 20A Metrodorus, Greek Philosopher, 23 143 Michael Angelo. (_See_ Buonarotti.) 199 Mignard, Pierre, Painter, 84 25 Miltiades, Athenian General, 26 408 Milton, John, Poet, 180 191 Mirandola, Francesco Pico della, 77 221 Molière, Dramatist, 93 251* Monge, Gaspar, Geometrician, 105 236 Montaigne, Michel de, Essayist, 98 461 Monteagle, Lord, English Peer, 211 234* Montenoy, Charles Palissot de. (_See_ Palissot.) 251 Montgolfier, Jacques Étienne, Aëronaut and Inventor of Balloons, 105 416 Moore, Thomas, Poet, 186 317 Mozart, Johann Wolfgang, Musical Composer, 138 399 Mulready, William, Painter, 175

149 Nani, Giovanni di. (_See_ Udine.) 311 Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of France, 132 312 Napoleon, Louis, Emperor of France, 132 455 Nelson, Horatio, Lord High Admiral, 207 36 Nero, Claudius Cæsar Drusus, Roman Emperor, 30 42 Nerva, Marcus Cocceius, Roman Emperor, 32 423 Newton, Sir Isaac, Astronomer and Philosopher, 190 285 Ney, Michel, Marshal of France, 119 385 Nicholas Paulovitch, Reigning Emperor of all the Russias, 167 256**** Nodier, Charles, Writer, 108 365 Nollendorf, Friedrich Hinrich von, Prussian Field-Marshal, 160 392 Northcote, James, Painter, 171 200 Nôtre, André le, Architect and Gardener, 84 34 Numa Pompilius, Second King of Rome, 29

465 O’Connell, Daniel, Orator and Lawyer, 212 473 O’Lochlen, Sir Michael, Lawyer, 216 347 Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Mathias, Astronomer, 153 130 Orcagna, or Orgagna, Andrea di Cione, Painter, Sculptor, Architect, 56 441 Owen, Richard, Naturalist, 199

321* Paer, Ferdinando, Musical Composer, 141 170 Paganini, Niccolo, Violinist, 69 165 Paisiello, Giovanni, Musical Composer, 67 157 Palestrina, Di. (_See_ Pierluigi.) 234* Palissot de Montenoy, Charles, Dramatist, 98 155 Palladio, Andrea, Architect, 65 471 Palmerston, Henry John Temple, Viscount, Statesman, 215 294 Pascal, Blaise, Theologian and Philosopher, 122 472 Peel, Sir Robert, Statesman, 215 264 Peiresc, Claude Fabri de, Patron of Science, 111 210 Percier, Charles, Architect, 88 29 Periander, “Tyrant” of Corinth, 28 27 Pericles, Athenian Statesman, 27 291 Perier, Casimir, Statesmen, 121 250 Pérouse, Jean François Galaup de la, Navigator, 104 49 Pertinax, Publius Helvius, Roman Emperor, 34 139 Perugino, Pietro, or Pietro Vanucci della Pieve, Painter, 58 343 Pestalozzi, Heinrich, Educator, 151 174 Petrarca, Francesco, Poet, 70 69 Philip (the Younger), Marcus Julius Philippus II., Roman Prince, 39 296* Philip III., King of France, 124 23 Phocion, Athenian Statesman and General, 25 157 Pierluigi, Giovanni, surnamed Palestrina, Musical Composer, 65 7? Pindar, Greek Poet, 16 164 Piranesi, Giambatista, Engraver, 67 231 Piron, Alexis, Poet, 96 129 Pisano, Niccola, Sculptor and Architect, 56 28 Pisistratus, “Tyrant” of Athens, 27 456 Pitt, William, Statesman, 208 16 Plato, Greek Philosopher, 21 99 Plotina, Pompeia, Roman Empress, 44 470 Pollock, Sir Frederick, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 214 409 Pope, Alexander, Poet, 180 106 Poppæa, Sabina, Roman Empress, 46 31 Posidippus, Comic Poet, 28 33 Posidonius, Greek Philosopher, 29 470* Pottinger, Sir Henry, Diplomatist, 214 198 Poussin, Nicolas, Painter, 83 58 Pupienus--Marcus Claudius Pupienus Maximus, Roman Emperor, 36

223 Quinault, Philippe, Poet, 94

216 Rachel, Madlle. Felix, Tragic Actress, 91 225 Racine, Jean, Dramatist, 94 370 Radetzky, Count Joseph, Austrian General, 161 146 Raffaelle, Sanzio, Painter, 62 323 Rauch, Christian, Sculptor, 141 244 Réaumur, Réné Antoine Ferchault de, Chemist and Naturalist, 101 226 Regnard, Jean François, Dramatist, 95 194 Rezzonico, Carlo, afterwards Clement XIII., Pope, 78 292 Richelieu, Cardinal, Minister of France, 121 411 Rogers, Samuel, Poet, 183 242 Rollin, Charles, Historian, 101 219 Rotrou, Jean de, Dramatist, 92 243 Rousseau, Jean Baptiste, Lyric Poet, 101 247 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Philosopher and Writer, 102 313 Rubens, Peter Paul, Painter, 136 474 Russell, Lord John, Statesman, 216

92 Sabina, Roman Empress, 43 255* Sacy, Antoine Isaac Silvestre, Baron de, Orientalist, 106 475 Salomons, David, Alderman, 216 103 Salonina, Cornelia, Roman Empress, 45 175 Sanazzaro, Giacomo, Poet, 70 147 Sanmicheli, Michele, Architect, 63 150 Sarto, Andrea del, Painter, 63 405 Sartoris, Adelaide, Vocalist, 176 270 Saxe, Maurice Comte de, Marshal of France, 114 109 Scipio, Africanus Major, Publius Cornelius, Roman General, 47 319 Schadow, Johann Gottfried, Sculptor, 139 363 Scharnhorst, Gebhardt David, General, 159 353 Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, Metaphysician, 155 338 Schiller, Christoph von, Poet, 148 324 Schinkel, Karl Friedrich, Architect and Painter, 142 373 Schleiermacher, Friedrich Ernest Daniel, Theologian, 163 329 Schnorr, Julius, Painter, 144 330 Schwanthaler, Ludovic, Sculptor, 144 333 Schwind, Moritz von, Painter, 145 413 Scott, Sir Walter, Poet and Novelist, 184 148 Sebastiano del Piombo (Fra), Painter, 63 234 Sedaine, Michel Jean, Dramatist, 97 122 Seneca, Lucius Annæus, Philosopher, 53 64 Severus, Alexander Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 38 54 Severus, Lucius Septimius, Roman Emperor, 35 407 Shakspeare, William, Poet, 178 137 Signorelli, Luca, Painter, 58 440 Skey, Frederick Carpenter, Surgeon, 198 426 Smith, Adam, Philosopher and Political Economist, 192 393 Smith, John Raphael, 172 13 Socrates, Philosopher, 19 436* Somerville, Mary, Mathematician and Astronomer, 197 7 Sophocles, Tragic Poet, 16 208 Soufflot, Jacques Germain, Architect, 87 414 Southey, Robert, Poet Laureate, 185 169 Spontini, Gasparo, Musician, 68 362 Stein, Karl, Baron Von, Prussian Minister of State, 159 433 Stevenson, George, Engineer, 195 395 Stothard, Thomas, Painter, 173 201 Sueur, Eustache le, Painter, 84 263 Sully, Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de, Minister of State, 110

177 Tasso, Torquato, Poet, 71 419* Taylor, Henry, Poet, 188 118 Terence--Publius Terentius, Latin Comic Poet, 51 345 Thaer, Albrecht, Physician and Agriculturist, 152 320 Thorwaldsen, Albrecht Bartholomäus, Sculptor, 139 237 Thou, Jacques Auguste de, Minister of State and Historian, 99 12 Thucydides, Greek Historian, 19 37 Tiberius, Claudius Nero Cæsar, Roman Emperor, 30 322 Tieck, Christian Friedrich, Sculptor, 141 339 Tieck, Ludwig, Author, 149 145 Tisio, Benvenuto. (_See_ Garofalo) 144 Titian, Tiziano Vecellio, Painter, 61 43 Titus, Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, Roman Emperor, 32 241 Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, Botanist, 100 45 Trajan, Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, Roman Emperor, 33 266 Turenne, Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de, Marshal of France, 112

149 Udine, Giovanni da, Painter, 63

301 Valentino, Carlota d’Avesne, Duchess of, 127 98 Valeria Messalina, Roman Empress, 44 139 Vanucci della Pievo, Pietro. (_See_ Perugino.) 150 Vannucchi, Andrea. (_See_ Sarto.) 240 Vauban, Sebastien le Prestre de, Engineer, 100 194* Ventura, Padre, Italian Priest, 79 207* Vernet, Claude Joseph, Painter, 87 403 Vernon, Robert, Patron of Art, 176 156 Veronese, Paolo Cagliari, called, Painter, 65 51 Verus, Ælius. (_See_ Ælius.), 35 52 Verus, Annius. (_See_ Annius.), 35 50 Verus, Lucius Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 35 39* Vespasian--Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianius, Roman Emperor, 31 496 Victoria, Queen of England, 225 141 Vinci, Leonardo da, Painter, 59 121 Virgil--Publius Virgilius Maro, Latin Poet, 52 41 Vitellius, Aulus, Roman Emperor, 32 233 Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de, Historian, Poet, and Wit, 97 75 Volusianus, Caius Vibius, Roman Emperor, 41 197 Vouet, Simon, Painter, 83

444 Warren, Samuel, Lawyer and Writer, 201 364 Wartenburg, Yorck Count von, Prussian Field-Marshal, 159 451 Washington, George, First President of the United States, 204 428 Watt, James, Improver of the Steam Engine, 193 469* Webster, Daniel, American Statesman and Orator, 214 459 Wellington, Arthur, Duke of, Soldier and Statesman, 209 437 Whewell, William, Philosopher, 197 336 Wieland, Christoph, Poet, 147 494 William IV., King of England, 225 417 Wilson, John, Poet and Professor, 186 315 Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, Antiquary, 137 484 Wiseman, Cardinal, Chief of the Romish Church in England, 220 348 Wolf, Friedrich Augustus, Philologist, 153 481 Wolsey, Cardinal, Minister of State, 218 410 Wordsworth, William, Poet, 183 389 Wren, Sir Christopher, Architect and Mathematician, 169

193 Ximenez de Cisneros, Francisco, Cardinal and Regent of Spain, 78

432 Yarrell, William, Naturalist, 195

159 Zampieri, Domenico. (_See_ Domenichino.) 318 Zelter, Karl Friedrich, Musician, 139 21 Zeno, Founder of the Stoic Philosophy, 23 359 Ziethen, Hans Joachim von, Prussian General, 157 166 Zingarelli, Niccolo, Musician, 67

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

THE NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE DESCRIBED.

ETHNOLOGY.

BY DR. R. G. LATHAM, M.D.

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

BY EDWARD FORBES, F.R.S., Professor in the University of Edinburgh.

CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; AND BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON.

1854.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY, WHITEFRIARS, LONDON.

PREFACE.

The Natural History, which forms the subject of this Handbook, is of a somewhat more comprehensive kind than the current meaning of the words would suggest.

It comprises not only Botany and Zoology proper, but also ETHNOLOGY, or, the Science of Human Races.

Ethnology, from the greater novelty of the subject and its comparative importance, occupies the first and larger part of this little volume. The second part is, however, absolutely necessary to the full illustration of the first; and in order that each may reflect due light upon the other, the reader will do well, after going through the notice of each Ethnological group, to refer to the corresponding description in the Botanical and Zoological portion.

In the heading of each group is indicated the page for reference.

CONTENTS.