Outlines of Universal History Part 50

HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN ENGLAND.--The literature of history has been enriched by British authors with important works besides those named above. _Grote_ and _Thirlwall_ each composed histories of Greece which are the fruit of thorough and enlightened scholarship. The work of _Grote_ is a vindication of the Athenian democracy, a view the antipode of that taken in the work on Grecian history by _Mitford_. An elaborate work on the _History of the Romans under the Empire_ is one of several historical productions of _Charles Merivale. Stanhope_ [Lord _Mahon_] composed a narrative of the War of the Spanish Succession, and other useful histories. Sir _W. F. P. Napier_ wrote a _History of the War in the Peninsula_, in which the campaigns of _Wellington_ in Spain are described by an author who took part in them. The const.i.tutional history of England has been treated with satisfactory learning and judgment by _Hallam, May,_ and _Stubbs_. The Puritan revolution has been described with masterly skill and judicial fairness by _S. R. Gardiner_. In the earlier field, Mr. _Edward A. Freeman_ labored with distinguished success, the _History of the Norman Conquest_ being his princ.i.p.al work in this branch of historical inquiry. _J. R. Green_ is the author of an attractive history of the English people. _J. A. Froude_ wrote with engaging literary art a _History of England in the Reign of Elizabeth_, which attempts, in the preliminary part, an apology for the character and conduct of _Henry VIII_. _Spencer Walpole_ has written a _History of England since 1815_. _Ramsay_ has written the _Foundations of England, Angevin England, Lancaster, and York_. _John Hill Burton_, a Scottish author, educated as a lawyer, composed vigorously written histories of Scotland and of the reign of Queen Anne. _Lecky_ wrote in a pleasing style a _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, besides a _History of Rationalism in Europe_, and a _History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne_. In ecclesiastical history, _Milman_, whose leading work is the _History of Latin Christianity_, Dean _Stanley_, and Bishop _Creighton_ have been the princ.i.p.al writers.

ENGLISH NOVELISTS.--The series of "Waverley novels" by _Walter Scott_ (1771-1832) had an unbounded popularity. Pervaded by a cheerful, healthy tone, they presented fascinating pictures of life and manners, and kindled a fresh sympathy with the Middle Ages and with the spirit of chivalry. The poems of Scott depicted, in a metrical form, like picturesque scenes, and knightly combats and adventures. The fictions of Scott gave rise to a school of writers, one of whom was _G. P. R. James_ (1801-1860). A new and different type of novel appeared, in connection with which the names of _d.i.c.kens_ (1812-1870) and _Thackeray_ (1811-1863) are preeminent. Both are humorists; in _d.i.c.kens_ especially, humor runs into broad caricature. Both present pictures of society and of common life. They ill.u.s.trate the tendency of the novel at present to rely for its attraction upon scenes and incidents of ordinary life, and the minute portraiture of manners and of character. _d.i.c.kens_ owes his popularity largely to the unique sort of drollery and the genuine pathos that are mingled in his pages. _Thackeray_ is a satirist, with a keen eye to detect the weaknesses of humanity, but with a deep well of sympathy, veiled, however, and sedulously guarded from sentimentalism, by a tone of banter and a semblance of cynicism. Measured by their popularity with the cultivated cla.s.s, the novels of Mrs. _Lewes_ (_George Eliot_) stand next in rank to the productions last referred to. In some of her tales, the artistic motive and spirit are qualified by the didactic aim, or the underlying "tendency,"--the purpose to teach, or to promote a favorite cause,--which has become a frequent characteristic in modern fiction. Among the other English novelists, _Bulwer_ (1805-1873), whose later stories are free from the immorality that stains the earlier, is one of the most widely read. The novels of _Charles Kingsley_ (1819-1875) are among the justly popular productions in this department. Among the novelists of the late Victorian Era were _Charles Keade_, _Blackmore_, _Stevenson_, _Kipling_, _Meredith_, _Hardy_, and Mrs. _Humphry Ward_.

ENGLISH POETS.--_Alfred Tennyson_ (1809-1892), the author of _The Princess_, _In Memoriam_, and the _Idylls of the King_, held the first place among the poets of his day. An adept in the metrical art, he combines in these mature productions, with terseness of diction and fresh, striking imagery, deep reflection and sympathy with the intellectual questionings and yearnings of the time. In his lyrical poems the fullness of his power is seen. He was, without question, a consummate literary artist. _Browning_ (1812-1889), careless of rhythmical art, with a defiance of form, but with dramatic power, in his descent to "the under-currents" of the soul, placed himself open to the reproach of obscurity. Among English poets of high merit in the recent period stand the names of the delightful humorist _Thomas Hood_ (1798-1845), _Arthur Clough_ (1819-1861), and more recently, _Matthew Arnold_ (1822-1888).

With this reference to the poets may be coupled the name of the most eloquent and suggestive of the English writers on art, _John Ruskin_.

THEOLOGY IN ENGLAND.--Theological scholarship in Great Britain, after a long season of partial eclipse, again shone forth in the present period. Critical works relating to the Scriptures have been produced, which are on a level with the best Continental learning. About 1833, there began at Oxford what has been called the "Tractarian movement,"

from a series of "Tracts for the Times," relating to theology and the Church, which were issued by its promoters. The party thus originating were called "Puseyites," as Dr. _Edward Pusey_ (1800-1882), the author of learned commentaries, and of works in other departments of divinity, was their acknowledged leader. They formed one branch of the cla.s.s called "High Churchmen." They laid great emphasis on the doctrine of the "apostolic succession" of the ministry, the necessity and efficacy of the sacraments administered by them, and the importance of visible ecclesiastical unity. They claimed to stand in the "middle path" between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. One of the leading a.s.sociates of _Pusey_ was _John Keble_ (1792-1866), the poet, author of _The Christian Year_. The most eminent writer in this group of theologians was _John Henry Newman_ (1801-1890), who won general admiration by the subtlety of his genius and its rare felicity of expression. He entered the Church of Rome, and was advanced to the rank of a cardinal. One of the princ.i.p.al literary undertakings of the recent period is the Revision of the Authorized Version of the Bible, by a.s.sociated companies of English and American scholars. In the long catalogue of influential writers in theology, it is practicable to refer here to a few suggestive names. _Thomas Chalmers_ (1780-1847) was equally noted as a glowing preacher, an eloquent defender of the Christian faith, and a lucid expounder of the Calvinistic system. _Edward Irving_ (1792-1834) was a pulpit orator of unsurpa.s.sed eloquence in his day, whose peculiar view as to the restoration of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, that were granted in the apostolic age, gave rise to a religious body calling itself the "Catholic Apostolic Church." _Frederick Denison Maurice_ (1805-1872) was one of the leaders of the "liberal," or "Broad Church," portion of the English Episcopal Church. His writings have exerted a strong influence. In the same general direction, but of a more critical and argumentative tone, were _Richard Whately_ (1787-1863), Archbishop of Dublin; and _Thomas Arnold_, who, in addition to his influence as a teacher, cla.s.sical scholar, and historian, engaged actively in discussions on the questions relating to Church and State.

LITERATURE IN AMERICA: POEMS AND TALES.--The period which we are now considering witnessed a gratifying development of belles-lettres and historical literature in the United States. At the outset, two writers appeared who acquired a transatlantic fame. _Washington Irving_ (1783-1859) in 1818 published _The Sketch Book_, in a series of pamphlets. It had been preceded by _Knickerbocker's History of New York_ and other humorous publications. Among his later writings were included the _Life of Columbus_, the _Life of Mohammed_, and the _Life of Washington_. The refinement and charm of his style, which brought back the simplicity of Goldsmith, satisfied the foreign critics who had ridiculed the florid rhetoric of previous American authors. _James Fenimore Cooper_ (1789-1851) published _The Spy_, the first of his novels, which attracted much attention, in 1821. This was followed, two years later, by _The Pioneers_, the first of the famous "Leatherstocking" series of novels, in which Indian life and manners were portrayed. Cooper was also the founder of the "sea-novel," a line of fiction in which he was followed by an English writer, _Marryat_ (1792-1848). _Richard H. Dana_ and _Fitz-Greene Halleck_ were poets who had a much higher than the merely negative merit of freedom from tumidity, the bane of the earlier American bards. Not only in verse, but also in his prose tales, _Dana_ manifested genius. Several later poets, acknowledged at home and abroad, well deserve the name. Such are _Bryant_ (1794-1878), whose poems, pensive and elevated in their tone, lack neither vigor nor finish; _Longfellow_ (1807-1882), a poet of exquisite culture, whose purity of sentiment, as well as polish and melody of diction, have made him a favorite in both Europe and America; _Whittier_ (1807-1892), whose spirited productions are pervaded with a glowing love of liberty and humanity. _Lowell_ (1819-1891) has justly earned fame as a poet and a critic; and, as a poet, in both serious and humorous compositions. The "Biglow Papers" are without a rival in the species of humor that characterize them. Distinction as a poet and a prose writer belongs likewise to _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ (1809-1894), who was especially successful as an author of "poems of society." _Edgar Allan Poe_ (1809-1849), faulty in his moral spirit as he was wayward in his conduct, exhibited, both in his poems and tales, which are unique in their character, the traits of a wild and somber genius. _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ (1803-1882), admired as a poet, but more generally as an essayist, valuing insight above logic, has commented on nature, man, and literature with so rare a penetration and felicity of expression that _Matthew Arnold_ has placed his productions on a level with the Meditations of the Emperor _Marcus Aurelius_. In the list of American novelists the foremost name is that of _Nathaniel Hawthorne_. In his romances the subtle a.n.a.lysis of the workings of conscience and sensibility, in particular the obscure--including the morbid-action of these powers, is combined with perfection of style and of literary art. The novels of _Harriet Beecher Stowe_, especially those which relate to slavery and depict negro character, have had a world-wide currency. Among other novelists were _Paulding_ and _Sedgwick_, and more recently, _Howells, James, Bret Harte, Cable_, and _Aldrich_. The most distinguished humorist has been _S. M. Clemens_ (Mark Twain).

Good work has been done by Americans in literary history and criticism.

The _History of Spanish Literature_, by _George Ticknor_, is the fruit of many years of labor by a competent scholar.

HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN AMERICA.--Creditable works have been produced in America in the department of historical literature. The lives of Washington and Franklin, and other biographical and historical writings of much value, have been composed or edited by _Jared Sparks. George Bancroft_ (1800-1891) published, in successive editions, the results of extensive researches in the history of the United States. Works on the same subject have been published by _Richard Hildreth_ and many others. _John G. Palfrey_ is the author of an excellent history of New England. _William H. Prescott_ by his _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_, his histories of Spanish conquest in America, and his fragment on the reign of Philip II. of Spain, has deservedly attained to a high distinction on both sides of the Atlantic. The same may be said of _John Lothrop Motley_ (1814-1877), in his _Rise and Progress of the Dutch Republic_. The history of French colonization and of the contests of France in America has been detailed with thoroughness and skill by _Francis Parkman_. Other prominent writers have been _John Fiske, Justin Winsor, Henry. Adams, James F. Rhodes_, and _A. T. Mahan_.

AMERICAN WRITERS ON LAW ANS POLITICS.--American writers on law embrace names of world-wide celebrity. Among them are _Henry Wheaton_, in international law, a science to which _Woolsey_ and _Lawrence_ have made valuable contributions; _James Kent_, whose _Commentaries on American Law_ is a work held in high honor by the legal profession; and _Joseph Story_, a jurist and legal writer of distinguished merit. The speeches and other productions of _Webster, Calhoun, Clay, John Quincy Adams, Edward Everett, Seward, Sumner_, form a valuable body of political writings. The works of _Francis Lieber_, a German by birth, and the treatise on _Political Science_ by _Theodore D. Woolsey_, are important contributions to the branch of knowledge to which they relate.

PHILOLOGY IN AMERICA.--On the catalogue of students of language, the name of _Noah Webster_ (1758-1843) is prominent, through his English Dictionary, the fruit of many years of arduous labor; a work that since his death has appeared in successive and improved editions. Another successful laborer in the same field was _Joseph E. Worcester_ (1784-1865), likewise the author of a copious and valuable lexicon of the English language. _George P. Marsh_, an erudite Scandinavian scholar, wrote also on the _Origin and History of the English Language_. In the departments of cla.s.sical learning, of Oriental study, and of general philology, there have appeared other American authors of acknowledged merit, e.g. _William D. Whitney_.

THEOLOGY IN AMERICA.--Theology has been cultivated with much fruit by a large number of preachers and authors, of different religious bodies.

_Moses Stuart_, by his commentaries on Biblical books, and _Edward Robinson_, especially through his published Travels in the Holy Land, were widely known. _Charles Hodge_, long a professor at Princeton; _Nathaniel W. Taylor_, who broached modifications of the Calvinistic system; _Henry B. Smith_, an acute and learned theologian; and _Horace Bushnell_,--are among the influential authors on the Protestant side. To these should be added the name of _William Ellery Channing_, the most prominent leader of the Unitarians, equally distinguished as a preacher and as a philanthropist.

The Unitarian movement in New England, which began in the early part of the nineteenth century, included other theological writers, one of the most learned and scholarly of whom was _Andrews Norton_ (1786-1853). _Theodore Parker_ (1810-1860) subsequently went so far in his divergence from received views as to reject miracle and supernatural revelation altogether. He was one of the most vigorous combatants in the warfare carried on through the press and in the pulpit against slavery. Out of the Unitarian school there came a cla.s.s of cultured writers in literature and criticism, of whom _George Ripley_ (1802-1880) was a representative. The "transcendentalists," as they were popularly styled, with whom these were often at the outset affiliated, were much influenced by contemporary French and German authors and speculations. Emerson, was the most prominent writer in this vaguely defined cla.s.s. A periodical called "The Dial" was issued by them.

One of the most ingenious and active-minded thinkers in the Roman Catholic Church was _Orestes A. Brownson_, a prolific author on topics of religion and philosophy.

LITERATURE IN GERMANY.--The German mind has been so productive in almost all branches of literary effort, that the annual issues of the German press have numbered many thousands. The political condition of Germany until a recent date was such as to attract large numbers to the pursuits of literature and science. It is possible to allude to but few of the princ.i.p.al authors. In imaginative literature, _Heinrich Heine_ (1799-1856), of Jewish extraction, was a most witty yet irreverent satirist, and one of the princ.i.p.al song-writers of modern times. _Gustav Freytag_ has written some of the best of the later German novels. _Auerbach_, _Keller_, and _Spielhagen_ stand very high on the roll of novelists. Of numerous recent poets, _Lenau_ and _Freiligrath_ are among the few best esteemed. In the long catalogue of German historical writers, to whom the world owes a debt, are found the names of _Schlosser_ (1776-1861), _Heeren_ (1760-1842), _Raumer_ (1781-1873); _Ranke_, whose numerous works are based on original researches, and are written with masterly skill; _Gervinus_, a critic as well as historian; _Von Sybel_, _Droysen_, _Duncker_, _Weber_, _Giesebrecht_, _Mommsen_, _Curtius_, _Treitschke_. A powerful impulse was given to the study of history by _Niebuhr_ (1776-1831). German researches have been carried into every region of the past. In Egyptology, _Lipsius_, _Bunsen_, _Brugsch_, and _Ebers_ are leading authorities. _Neander_, _Gieseler_, _Baur_, _Dollinger_, _Hefele_, _Alzog_, _Harnack_, _Janssen_, and _Pastor_ are writers on ecclesiastical history. German travelers have explored many of the countries of the globe. _Schliemann_ has uncovered the ruins of Troy. In mathematics and the natural sciences, in philology and criticism, in philosophy, in law and the political sciences, and in the different branches of theology, the world acknowledges its debt to the patient, methodical investigations and the exhaustive discussions of German students during the nineteenth century.

THEOLOGY IN GERMANY.--The history of religious thought in Germany includes the successive phases of _rationalism_, or that general theory which makes the human understanding, apart from supernatural revelation, the chief or the exclusive source of religious knowledge, and the umpire in controversies. In the age of _Frederick II._, the Anglo-French deism was widely diffused (p. 493). _Lessing_; the genial poet and critic (1729-1781), allied himself to no party. In his work on _The Education of the Human Race_, he set forth the view that the Scriptures have a high providential purpose as an instrument for the religious training of mankind, but that their _essential_ contents are ultimately verified by reason on grounds of its own; so that the prop of authority eventually becomes needless, and falls away. Not radically different was the position of _Kant_ (p. 545), who gave rise to a school of theologians that for a time flourished. This school made the essential thing in Christianity to be its morality. With _Semler_ (1721-1791), the rationalistic _Biblical criticism_ took its rise. From that day, a host of scholars have engaged in the investigation of the origin and interpretation of the Bible, and of the early history of Christianity. A middle position between the established orthodoxy and the Kantian rationalism was taken by _Frederick Schleiermacher_ (1768-1834), a man of genius, alike eminent as a critic, philosopher, and theologian. He placed the foundation of religion in the feeling of absolute dependence. In laying stress on _feeling_ as at the root of piety, he had been preceded by the philosopher _Jacobi_. From the impulse given by _Schleiermacher_, there sprung up an intermediate school of theologians, many of whom departed less than he from the traditional Protestant creed. This they professed to undertake to revise in accordance with the results of the scientific study of the Bible and of history. In their number belong _Neander_, _Nitzsch_, _Twesten_, _Tholuck_, _J. Muller_, _Dorner_, _Rothe_, _Bleek_, _Ullman_, and many other influential authors and teachers. In the department of Biblical criticism, _Ewald_, _Tischendorf_, _Meyer_, _Weiss_, are among the names of German theological scholars which are familiar to Biblical students in all countries. The critical works of _De Wette_ (1780-1849) were extensively studied. The philosophy of _Hegel_connected itself with a new form of rationalism, which found expression in the _Life of Jesus_, by _Strauss_, published in 1835, in which the Gospel miracles were treated as myths; and in the writings of _Ferdinand Christian Baur_, in connection with his followers of the "Tubingen School," who attempted to resolve primitive Christianity into a natural growth out of preexisting conditions, and held that the historical books of the New Testament were the product of different theological "tendencies" and parties in the apostolic and the subsequent age. The Roman Catholic system has not lacked in Germany able defenders, one of the most noted of whom was _Mohler_, the author of _Symbolism_ (_Symbolik_), an ingenious polemical work in opposition to Protestantism.

PHILOLOGY AND LAW IN GERMANY.--Cla.s.sical philology was founded as a science by _Heyne_ (1729-1812) and _Wolf_ (1759-1824). Their work was carried forward by _G. Hermann_ (1772-1848), _b.u.t.tmann_ (1764-1829), _Jacobs_ (1764-1847), _K. O. Muller_ (1797-1840), and by numerous contemporaries and successors of these. By this succession of scholars, not only have the tongues of Greece and Rome been accurately learned and taught, but cla.s.sical antiquity has been thoroughly explored. Comparative philology, under the hands of _Bopp_ (1791-1867), of _La.s.sen_ (1800-1876), a Norwegian by birth, of _W. von Humboldt_ (1767-1835), of _Pott_ (born in 1802), of _Schleicher_ (1821-1868), and their coadjutors, has grown to be a fruitful science. In the study of the German language and early literature, _J. Grimm_ (1785-1863), _W. Grimm_ (1786-1859), _Lachmann_ (1793-1851), _Simrock_ (1802-1878), have been among the pioneers. The study of law, especially of Roman law, was placed on a new foundation by the labors of _Savigny_ (1779-1861), while a like thoroughness was brought to the exposition of German law by _Mittermaier_ and others. In political science, _Mohl_ (1779-1875), _Bluntschli_ (1808-1881), _Stahl_ (1802-1861), and _Gneist_ (1816-1895) gained a worldwide celebrity.

LITERATURE IN FRANCE.--A cla.s.s of vigorous young writers in France broke loose from the restraints of the "cla.s.sical" school and its patterns, and composed dramas in the more free method of the "romantic"

school. They drew their ideas of the drama from _Shakspeare_, rather than from _Corneille_. Among these writers were _Alexandre Dumas_, a most prolific novelist as well as writer of plays; and the celebrated poet and dramatist, _Victor Hugo_. The romances of _Dumas_ comprise more than a hundred volumes. In his historical novels, incidents and characters without number crowd upon the scene, but without confusion, while the narrative maintains an unfailing vivacity. Of the authors of light and witty comedies, _Scribe_ is one of the most fertile. _George Sand_ (Mme. _Dudevant_) is one of the princ.i.p.al novel-writers of the age. _Eugene Sue_ and _Balzac_ are both popular authors in this department. The leading poets are the song-writer _Beranger_, _Lamartine_, _Victor Hugo_, and _Alfred de Musset_. With the close of the first half-century romanticism began to give way before realism, from which, however, there was a reaction before the century closed. Among the greater poets are _Sully-Prudhomme_ and _Coppee_; among the novelists, _Daudet_, _Zola_, _Maupa.s.sant_, and _Bourget_. In history some writers, as _Villemain_, are remarkable for their power of descriptive narrative; others, like _Guizot_, for their breadth of philosophical reflection, superadded to deep researches. Some, like _Augustin Thierry_, in his work on the Middle Ages, combined both elements. His brother, _Amedee Thierry_, depicted the state of society in Gaul and other countries in the period of the fall of the Roman Empire. _Barante_ composed an interesting history of the Dukes of Burgundy. Among those, besides Guizot, who treated of the history of France, _Sismondi_, the spirited _Michelet_, and the thorough and dispa.s.sionate _Henri Martin_ are specially eminent. _Thiers_, _Mignet_, _Louis Blanc_, _Taine_, and _Lanfrey_ wrote on the Revolution or Napoleon. The most eminent of the newer school of scientific historians are _Boissier_, _Sorel_, _Lavisse_, _Luchaire_, and _Aulard_. In political economy and the science of politics, _Chevalier_, _De Tocqueville_ (the author of _Democracy in America_), and _Bastiat_ are among the writers widely read beyond the limits of France. _Sainte-Beuve_ is only one of the foremost in the cla.s.s of literary critics, in which are included _Renan_, _Sarcey_, _Brunetiere_, _Lemaitre_, _f.a.guet_, and others, themselves authors. The clearness of exposition which goes far to justify the claim of the French to be the interpreters of European science to the world, appears in numerous treatises in mathematics and physics. The qualities of lucid arrangement, transparency of style, and terseness of language have extended, however, to other branches of authorship; so that the French have presented a fair claim to precedence in the literary art.

SWEDEN AND RUSSIA.--There are Swedish authors who are well known in other countries. Such are the historian _Geijer_ (1783-1847); and the novelist _Fredrika Bremer_, who wrote "The Neighbors,"

and other tales. The most famous of the Russian novelists is _Ivan Turgenejff_, some of whose stories contain admirable pictures of Russian life.

ARCHITECTURE.--The nineteenth century witnessed in Germany, France, and England a revival of the ancient or cla.s.sic styles of architecture. This appears, for example, in edifices at _Munich_, and in such buildings as _St. George's Hall_ at Liverpool. But a reaction arose against this tendency, and in behalf of the Gothic style, which is exemplified in the new _Houses of Parliament_ in London. Many Gothic churches have been erected in Great Britain. Many-storied office buildings are characteristic of America.

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.--One of the most original of modern sculptors was _Schwanthaler_ (1802-1848), who carved the pediments of the Walhalla at Munich, and the bronze statue of Bavaria. French sculptors at the present day are fully on a level with the recent sculptors of Italy. _Chantrey_ (1788-1841) and _John Gibson_ (1791-1866), a pupil of _Canova_ and himself an original mind, are high on the roll of English sculptors. A genius for sculpture appeared among Americans, and to the names of _Powers and Crawford_, of _Story, Brown, and Ward_, the names of other meritorious artists in this province might justly be added. The German national school of painting had _Overbeck_ for its most eminent founder. _Cornelius_ (1783-1867) revived the art of fresco-painting, and established the Munich school. _Von Kaulbach_, who painted the "Battle of the Huns" in the Berlin Museum, was one of his pupils. _W. von Schadow_ is the founder of the Dusseldorf school. One of his eminent pupils was _K. F. Lessing_. Still more recent are _Ad. Menzel, Liberman, and Lenbach_. In Great Britain, _Constable_ (1796-1837) painted English landscapes full of thought and feeling, and gave a fresh impulse to this branch of art. _Stanfleld_ (1788-1864) was a master of the realistic school, which aims at a simple and faithful representation of the landscape to be depicted. _Wilkie_, a Scotchman (1785-1841), was chief among the _genre_ painters, of whom _Leslie_ (1794-1859), by birth an American, was one of the most forcible and refined. _Eastlake_ (1793-1865) was a writer on art, as well as a painter. _Landseer_ (1802-1873) was unrivaled as an animal painter. _William Hunt_ (1790-1864) had decided skill as a painter in water-colors. The _pre-Raphaelite school_, professing to go back of _Raphael_ to nature, included _Turner, Hunt, Millais_, _and Burne-Jones_. Other prominent artists have been _Herkomer, Leighton_, and _Alma-Tadema_. In France, _Paul Delaroche_ (1797-1856) followed in the path of _Horace Vernet_ (1789-1863), as a painter of battle-pieces and other modern historical scenes. _Ary Scheffer_ (1795-1858), a Dutchman by birth, painted in a graceful and pathetic tone "Christ the Consoler," and other sacred subjects. The more recent French school, comprising _Delacroix, Meissonier, Gerome, Cabanel, Millet, Rosa Bonheur_, an artist of masculine vigor, the famous painter of animal pictures,--is distinguished for technical skill and finish, but also for a bold and peculiar method of treatment. Among the leading landscape-painters of this school, _Corot, Daubigny, Rousseau, Diaz_, are conspicuous. Still more recent are _Bastien-Lepage, Chavannes, Breton, Bouguereau, Dagnan-Bouveret, Lhermitte, Jean-Paul Laurens_, and _Dupre_.

About the year 1825 an American school of landscape-painters was founded by _Thomas Cole_, many of whose pictures were allegorical. _Durand_ is one of those who excelled in landscape painting. In other provinces of the art, _Peale_, _Weir_, _Huntington_, _Page_, _Morse_, _Chase_, _Whistler_, _Sargent_, _Abbey_; in landscape, _Gifford_, _Kensett_, _Church_, _Bierstadt_, _McEntee_, _Inness_, _Winslow Homer_, well represent what is best and most characteristic in the later productions of American painters.

MUSIC.--In music, Germany in the nineteenth century held the palm.

_Schubert_, _Spohr_, _Weber_, _Meyerbeer_, and _Wagner_ are names of world-wide celebrity, while in the works of _Mendelssohn_ (1809-1849) and _Schumann_ (1810-1856) the art of music reached its climax. _Chopin_ (1810-1849), the founder of a new style of piano-forte music, was born in Poland: his father, however, was French.

PHILANTHROPIC REFORM.

In a survey of the course of recent history, notice should be taken of the increased activity of a humane spirit in the several nations.

1. SOCIAL SCIENCE.--The investigation of social evils and of their proper remedies, and of the laws which govern man in his social relations, has received of late the name of _social science_. In 1857 a meeting in _London_, over which Lord _Brougham_ presided, resulted in the organization of a society of persons interested in different forms of social improvement, bearing the name of the _National a.s.sociation for the Promotion of Social Science_. Its work embraced the consideration of these five subjects: law-amendment,--to promote which a society had existed, of which Lord _Brougham_ was the head; education; prevention and repression of crime; public health; and social economy. Branches were established in various towns in England. Similar societies have flourished in the United States. An international society of the same character held its first meeting in _Brussels_ in 1862. The wide range of special topics which these societies consider may give an appearance of indefiniteness to their aims. The movement at least indicates that social advancement has a.s.sumed the form of a distinct and comprehensive problem, and is drawing to itself the deliberate attention of thoughtful persons of diverse nations and creeds.

2. MITIGATION OF THE SUFFERINGS OF WAR: HOSPITALS.--If wars are still frequent and destructive, much more has been done of late to mitigate the sufferings consequent upon armed conflicts. The right of an invading force to ravage the territory of an enemy was seldom practically a.s.serted in the nineteenth century. Non-combatants, according to the modern rules of war, are not to be molested. Their property, if it is taken, is to be paid for at its fair value. The doctrine that requisitions may be made by a commander is not yet abandoned. It was acted on by _Napoleon_ on a large scale. It was not approved by _Wellington_. There is a growing opinion against it. It is not now held to be a crime for an officer to hold a fortress as long as he can. In the care of the sick and the wounded, there has been a great change for the better. The _ambulance_ system, or the system of movable hospitals accompanying armies on the field, was established by the French, with the approval of _Napoleon_, in 1795. The name _ambulance_ is also frequently given to the vehicles for transporting the wounded and sick. The whole ambulance system was completely organized in the American civil war, and defined by an Act of Congress in 1864. To a French surgeon is due, also, the establishment of a corps of _stretcher-bearers_. By the European Convention adopted at _Geneva_ (1864), the wounded, and the whole official staff connected with ambulances, are exempted from capture as prisoners of war. For the more efficient organization of hospitals, a great service was rendered by the example of _Florence Nightingale_, an English lady, who, at the head of a company of volunteer nurses, during the Crimean war created a great establishment of this sort at Scutari (1854). The increased pains-taking in the method of building, in the ventilation and general management of hospitals, during the last half-century, has gone far towards freeing them from the dangers and evils to which they were formerly subject.

SANITARY SCIENCE.--Sanitary science, and the engineering connected with it, belong to the nineteenth century, and mainly to the second half of it. Systems of drainage have been devised which involve much mechanical skill, not to dwell on their usefulness in promoting health. Prior to 1815, in England, the law forbade the discharge of sewage in water-drains. The law of 1847 required that which up to 1815 was prohibited. The great change on this whole subject dates from the cholera of 1832, which awoke public attention to the sources of disease. The condition of the poor, and the discussions relating to it, lent a new stimulus to the inquiry. A series of English reports, from 1842 to 1848, had a great influence in producing a sanitary reform, in the particulars referred to, in England and in other countries.

3. PUBLIC EDUCATION.--During the nineteenth century, systems of general education were established in different countries. In a part of the United States, an effective common-school system has always existed. In Germany also, especially in Prussia, there have long been thorough provisions for the instruction of all the young in elementary branches. In France, in consequence of the laws requiring primary schools in all the communes of any considerable size, the average of illiteracy has of late steadily diminished. In 1881, in France, instruction in the public primary schools was made absolutely free. England has witnessed a very great change in the legal establishment of means of instruction in the rudiments of knowledge for the whole people. The Education Act of 1876 required that every child between the ages of five and fourteen should receive such teaching. In England, and in some other countries, the employment of children who have not had a certain amount of school instruction was prohibited by law. In the new kingdom of Italy, every commune having four thousand inhabitants was required by law (1859) to maintain a primary school. By subsequent legislation, the compulsory principle was adopted as far as the circ.u.mstances of the country would allow. The result has been a most remarkable diminution in the numbers of the wholly illiterate cla.s.s. Other European states have made primary education compulsory. For instance, in Hungary, attendance at school was made obligatory for children from the beginning of the eighth to the end of the twelfth year. Such measures in behalf of general education as governments have adopted in recent times are founded, to be sure, partly on the conscious need of self-protection against ignorance and its baleful consequences to the state. A more directly humane impulse, however, mingles with this motive. The operation of benevolent feeling is seen in the multiplying of special schools for the benefit of the blind, of the deaf and dumb, and even of imbeciles.

4. REFORM OF CRIMINAL LAW.--The advance of humane sentiment has produced a reform of criminal law. In England, in the closing part of the eighteenth century, there were two hundred and twenty-three offenses that were punished with death. To injure Westminster Bridge, to cut down young trees, to shoot at rabbits, to steal property of the value of five shillings, were capital offenses. Vigorous and persevering opposition was made to the mitigation of this b.l.o.o.d.y code. Sir _Samuel Romilly_ (1757-1818) began his effort at reform by endeavoring to secure the repeal of these cruel laws, one by one. His bills, when carried with difficulty through the Commons, were repeatedly thrown out by the House of Lords. One of the most strenuous opponents of the change was the Lord Chancellor, _Eldon_. Lord _Ellenborough_, the chief justice, stigmatized the proposed alteration of the statutes as the fruit of "speculation and modern philosophy." It was predicted that, if it were made, there would be a terrible increase of crime. Sir _James Mackintosh_ continued with success the effort of Romilly. In 1837 the list of capital offenses had been reduced to seven. One consequence was the striking diminution of crime. Another reform in England was that of the police-system (1816). The officers of the police had encouraged crime in order to secure the reward of forty pounds offered by the government on conviction, in the case of crimes of a certain grade.

5. PRISON-DISCIPLINE REFORM.--One of the distinctions of modern philanthropy is the prison-discipline reform. When _Howard_ began his labors (1773), the prisons in England were generally dirty, pestiferous dens, crowded with inmates of both s.e.xes,--nurseries of loathsome disease, and of still more loathsome vice. Soon after this time, a serious effort began to make prisons a means of reform, instead of schools of debauchery and crime. There was a movement for the erection of penitentiaries of improved construction. This was aided by the exertions of _Jeremy Bentham_. The most successful efforts in behalf of a better system of management in prisons were made by members of the Society of Friends. Of these, the most useful person in this cause was Mrs. _Elizabeth Gurney Fry_ (1780-1845), a woman of rare powers of mind and of the n.o.blest Christian character. By her personal influence, she wrought such a transformation of character and behavior among the female convicts in Newgate Prison as it had been deemed impossible to effect. The reforms which Mrs. _Fry_ effected spread to other places. Her labors were not confined to Great Britain. She visited France (1838), Belgium, Holland, and other countries. Her correspondence in the interest of the cause which she served extended to Russia and Italy. Her recommendations bore fruit for good in almost all parts of Europe. Signal improvements in plans of construction, and in the interior life of prisons, have been effected under the auspices of the Prison Discipline Society in England. In these changes, the example of changes and reforms in this matter in the United States has had a marked influence. The two great ends kept in view at present in the arrangements and occupations of prisons are the reform of the criminal, and the deterring of others from the commission of crime. Distinct establishments for the detention, reform, and training of juvenile offenders, who were formerly corrupted by a.s.sociation with criminals mature in vice, are peculiar to recent times. The transportation of English convicts to Australia began in 1787. As these multiplied, there sprang up cruelty on the part of supervisors in the colonies; and in the penal settlements where the worst offenders were guarded, there were found the most corrupt and degraded herds of criminals. The opposition in the colonial communities to transportation found support in England. In 1840 deportation to New South Wales ceased. At length Van Dieman's Land also refused to receive this forced emigration even of released convicts. The British Government was obliged to rely on other methods of punishment, especially on the graduation of the term of confinement according to the conduct of the criminal.

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE UNITY OF MANKIND.

UNITY AMID DIVERSITY.--The path of human progress has led in the direction of _unity_ as the ultimate goal. It is, however, a _unity in variety_ toward which the course of history has moved.

The development and growth of distinct nations, each after its own type, and, not less, the freedom of the individual to realize the destiny intended for him by nature, are necessary to the full development of mankind,--necessary to the perfection of the race. The final unity that is sought is to be reached, not by stifling the capacities of human nature, but by the complete unfolding of them in all their diversity. The modern era has made an approach toward this higher unity that is to coexist with a rich and manifold development. An enlightened man, Prince _Albert_ of England, remarked in a public address (1850): "n.o.body who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of our present era will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end to which, indeed, all history points, _the realization of the unity of mankind!_ Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but rather a unity, _the result and product_ of those very national varieties and antagonistic qualities."

In concluding this volume, it is proper to advert to some of the signs and means of this unification of mankind, which belong to the recent era.

1. INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS.--The words quoted above from Prince _Albert_ were spoken in antic.i.p.ation of the Great International Exhibition in London, in 1854. The industrial exhibitions, in which the products of many nations are collected, and to which visitors are drawn from different parts of the earth, are one indication of the effect of manufactures and commerce in drawing mankind together. The first displays of this kind were for French manufactures alone, and were held in Paris in 1798, and, under the consulate of Napoleon, in 1801 and 1802. The first _international_ exposition was in Paris in 1844; and it was followed by the "World's Fair" in London (1850), for which the vast edifice called "the Crystal Palace," made of iron and of gla.s.s, was constructed. Similar exhibitions were held in New York (1853), in Paris in 1855 and again in 1867, in Constantinople, Amsterdam, Vienna, (1873), in Philadelphia on the hundredth anniversary of American independence (1876), in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900. In these fairs, the products of the industry of the far East were shown by the side of the products of European and American manufacture.

2. ECONOMICAL ENLIGHTENMENT.--In connection with the wide extension of commerce, the better methods and ideas which have come into vogue in respect to commercial relations deserve notice. The _system of credit_, facilitating trade and forming a bond of confidence and of union between different nations, although it began in the Middle Ages, was not fairly established until the organization of the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609. This system, if it is "one of the most powerful engines of warfare," is likewise "one of the great pledges of peace."

The stimulus given to manufactures by mechanical inventions has been an effective promoter of commercial intercourse. The teaching of _Adam Smith_, and of the political economists since his time, by which it is seen that the gain of one nation is not the loss of another, and that nations are mutually benefited by the interchange of the products of their labor, which is the true source of wealth, has operated as an antidote to discord. The ruin of a neighbor, or non-intercourse with him, has been discovered to be as contrary to the demands of a prudent self-interest as of a disinterested benevolence.

3. COMMUNITY IN SCIENCE AND LETTERS.--The community of literature and science has been growing more cosmopolitan. The barriers created by differences of language are overcome. The custom of learning foreign languages has become more diffused. The most important writings, in whatever country they appear, circulate through translations in all other civilized lands. All well-stored libraries are polyglot.

4. WIDENED POLITICAL SYSTEM.--In the political relations of countries, it is found necessary to comprehend all parts of the globe in the political system, in the right adjustment of which each country has a stake, and over which stretches an acknowledged code of international law. The establishment of an international tribunal of arbitration at The Hague is a long step toward making such a code effective and toward preventing war.

5. INTERNATION PHILANTHROPY.--The growth of humane feeling, of the interest felt in man as man, engendered a spirit of universal philanthropy. For example, the hostility to the slave-trade led to the treatment of it as piracy by the munic.i.p.al laws and by the treaties of several nations, while it is prohibited and punished by nearly all of the countries of Europe. This is the direct result of a heightened respect for man and for the rights of human nature, however poor or degraded man may be. Instances have occurred in which help has been generously given to sufferers by fire or famine, by strangers in remote lands. A famine in Persia called out liberal contributions from America. Examples of the exercise of justice and kindness toward distant nations may remind the reader of opposite examples of wrong and cruelty. We are pointing out, however, only the _drift_ of sentiment; and it must be remembered that the facts which have been referred to as ill.u.s.trative of the growth of philanthropy, are such as never occurred in former ages.

6. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.--The spread of the Christian religion by missionary efforts is one of the means of unifying mankind. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the two great achievements of the Church were the conversion of the Roman Empire, and then of the barbarian nations by whom it was subverted. But, in the Middle Ages, there was also missionary labor, here and there among the Saracens and in the lands of the East. Since the thirteenth century, missions in the Roman Catholic Church have been chiefly prosecuted by the monastic orders. In this work, the Jesuits, from the first establishment of their order, were conspicuously active in all quarters of the globe. Of their missionaries, none have been more eminent and zealous than _Francis Xavier_ (1506?1552), who died just as he was about to undertake the conversion of China. Protestants, in the period after the Reformation, were too busy in the struggles going forward in their own lands, to undertake foreign missions on an extended scale. Yet they were not indifferent to the importance of the work. Under the protectorate of _Cromwell_, an ordinance established a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (1649). In 1701 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was established in England. Later, the Moravians from the beginning evinced great interest in foreign missions, and planted missionary stations in several countries. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Congregation of the Propaganda was founded in 1622, for the general superintendence of missionary operations. Colleges for their training were established, the chief of which was the "Urban College" at Rome, where students from all nations have been educated for missionary service.

The nineteenth century was marked by an extraordinary outburst of missionary activity. In this sort of exertion the Roman Catholic body has kept up an unflagging zeal. Within the various Protestant denominations, a remarkable increase of fervor and of success in this department of Christian labor has been witnessed. In the room of _seven_ societies for this purpose at the end of the eighteenth century, there were in 1880, in Europe and America, _seventy_ organizations. At this last date, there were not less than twenty-four hundred ordained Europeans and Americans employed in this service, besides a great number of a.s.sistants, both foreign and native. The native converts numbered not less than 1,650,000. The yearly contributions for the support of the missions increased proportionately. In 1882 British contributions alone amounted to 1,090,000. It is not an exaggeration to say that the globe is now "covered with a network of Christian outposts."

The following pa.s.sage, slightly abbreviated, from a German writer, presents a glowing sketch of the wide extension of recent missionary labors:--

"At the beginning of this century, the island world of the Pacific was shut against the gospel; but England and America have attacked those lands so vigorously in all directions, especially through native workers, that whole groups of islands, even the whole Malayan Polynesia, is to-day almost entirely Christianized, and in Melanesia and Micronesia the mission-field is extended every year. The gates of British East India have been thrown open wider and wider during this century; at first for English, then for all missionaries. This great kingdom, from Cape Comorin to the Punjaub and up to the Himalayas, where the gospel is knocking on the door of Thibet, has been covered with hundreds of mission-stations, closer than the mission-net which at the close of the first century surrounded the Roman empire; the largest and some of the smaller islands of the Indian Archipelago, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and now New Guinea also, are occupied, partly on the coast and partly in the interior. Burmah, and in part Siam, is open to the gospel; and China, the most powerful and most populous of heathen lands, forced continually to open her doors wider, has been traversed by individual pioneers of the gospel, to Thibet and Burmah, and half of her provinces occupied from Hong-Kong and Canton to Peking; and in Manchuria, if by only a thin chain, yet at many of the princ.i.p.al points, stations have been founded, while the population overflowing into Australia and America is being labored with by Protestant missionaries. j.a.pan also, hungry for reform, by granting entrance to the gospel has been quickly occupied by American and English missionary societies, and already, after so little labor, has scores of evangelical congregations. Indeed, the aboriginal Australians have, in some places, been reached. In the lands of Islam, from the Balkans to Bagdad, from Egypt to Persia, there have been common central evangelization stations established in the chief places, for Christians and Mohammedans, by means of theological and Christian medical missions, conducted especially by Americans. Also in the primitive seat of Christianity, Palestine, from Bethlehem to Tripoli, and to the northern boundaries of Lebanon, the land is covered by a network of Protestant schools, with here and there an evangelical church. Africa, west, south, and east, has been vigorously attacked; in the west, from Senegal to Gaboon, yes, lately even to the Congo, by Great Britain, Basel, Bremen, and America, which have stations all along the coast. South Africa at the extremity was evangelized by German, Dutch, English, Scotch, French, and Scandinavian societies. Upon both sides, as in the center, Protestant missions, although at times checked by war, are continually pressing to the north; to the left, beyond the Walfisch Bay; to the right, into Zululand, up to Delagoa Bay; in the center, to the Bechuana and Basuto lands. In the east, the sun of the gospel, after a long storm, has burst forth over Madagascar in such brightness that it can never again disappear. Along the coasts from Zanzibar and the Nile, even to Abyssinia, out-stations have been established, and powerful a.s.saults made by the Scotch, English, and recently also by the American mission and civilization, into the very heart of the Dark Continent, even to the great central and east African lakes. In America, the immense plains of the Hudson's Bay Territory, from Canada over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, have not only been visited by missionaries, but have been opened far and wide to the gospel through rapidly growing Indian missions. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of freedmen have been gathered into evangelical congregations; and, of the remnants of the numerous Indian tribes, some at least have been converted through the work of evangelization by various churches, and have awakened new hope for the future. In Central America and the West Indies, as far as the country is under Protestant home nations, the net of evangelical missions has been thrown from island to island, even to the mainland in Honduras, upon the Mosquito Coast; and in British and Dutch Guiana it has taken even firmer hold. Finally, the lands on and before the southern extremity of the continent, the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, and Patagonia, received the first light through the South American Missionary Society (in London); and recently its messengers have pushed into the heart of the land, and are rapidly pressing on to the banks of the great Amazon, to the Indians of Brazil."

RESULTS OF MISSIONS.--In carrying forward missionary work during the nineteenth century, the Bible has been translated into numerous languages. Missionaries, as in the early days of the Church, have reduced the languages of uncultivated peoples to writing, and made the beginning of native literatures. Schools, colleges, and printing-presses follow in the path of the preachers. The contributions made to philology and to other branches of science by missionary preachers and explorers are of high value. As far as the number of converts is concerned, progress has been more rapid, as was the case in the first Christian centuries, among uncivilized tribes. The reception of Christianity is more slow in a country like China, and among the Aryan inhabitants of India. But the influence exerted by missions in such communities is not to be measured by the number of converts. Moreover, history has often shown, that, in the spread of the Christian religion, the first steps are the most slow and difficult: they are like the early operations in a siege. Sir _Bartle Frere_ writes thus: "Statistical facts can in no way convey any adequate idea of the work done in any part of India. The effect is enormous where there has not been a single avowed conversion. The teaching of Christianity amongst a hundred and sixty millions of civilized, industrious Hindoos and Mohammedans in India, is effecting changes, moral, social, and political, which for extent and rapidity in effect are far more extraordinary than any that have been witnessed in modern Europe." Of the same tenor is an opinion expressed in strong terms by Sir _Henry Lawrence_, governor-general of India during the mutiny of 1857, and a most competent judge.

It is worthy of remark, as one characteristic of the Christian missions of the recent period, that the religions of the non-Christian nations have been studied more thoroughly, and the true and praiseworthy elements in them have been better appreciated.

The progress made in the past encourages the hope that the unity of mankind, a unity which shall be the crown of individual and national development, will one day be reached. That unity of mankind, in loyal fellowship with Him in whose image man was made, is the community of which the ancient Stoic vaguely dreamed, and which the apostles of Christ proclaimed and predicted,--the perfected _kingdom of G.o.d_.