The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Chautauquan, Vol. 03, December 1882This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, December 1882Author: Chautauqua Literary and Scientific CircleChautauqua InstitutionEditor: Theodore L. FloodRelease date: February 5, 2015 [eBook #48166]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAUTAUQUAN, VOL. 03, DECEMBER 1882 ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, December 1882Author: Chautauqua Literary and Scientific CircleChautauqua InstitutionEditor: Theodore L. FloodRelease date: February 5, 2015 [eBook #48166]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Title: The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, December 1882
Author: Chautauqua Literary and Scientific CircleChautauqua InstitutionEditor: Theodore L. Flood
Author: Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution
Editor: Theodore L. Flood
Release date: February 5, 2015 [eBook #48166]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAUTAUQUAN, VOL. 03, DECEMBER 1882 ***
Transcriber's Note:This cover has been created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Transcriber's Note:This cover has been created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE CHAUTAUQUAN
A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.——————————————VOLUME III.FROM OCTOBER, 1882, TO JULY, 1883.——————————————THEODORE L. FLOOD, D. D., Editor.——————————————THE CHAUTAUQUA PRESS,Meadville, PA.
Copyrighted by Theodore L. Flood, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C., 1883.
Agassiz at Penikese, With. Prof. J. Tingley, Ph.D. 533.Air, The Worth of Fresh. 386, 449.Amusements—Lawn Tennis.Robert Macgregor. 441.Announcement for1882-3, C. L. S. C. 113, 172.Answers.To Questions for Further Study. A. M. Martin. 288, 355.Arizona.Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. 255.Art and Artists, Some German. 259.Assembly of1882, California. 46.Assembly, Pacific Coast C. L. S. C. 597.Astrology—The Romance of Astronomy.R. K. Miller, M.A. 441.Astronomy, Discrepancies in. Bishop Warren. 458.Astronomy.Lecture by Bishop Warren. 596.Attempts to Fly in the Air.From the French of F. Marion. 96.Bible and Nature, The. Rev. J. B. Thomas, D.D. 573.Book Notices.177, 302, 486, 608.Borrowing and Lending, Morals and Sorrows of. A. Denbar. 151.By-Ways, In Some Medical. Andrew Wilson, F. R. S. E. 537.Change in Words, Constant.John Peile, M.A. 586.Chautauqua Emerging from Winter.Rev. Victor Cornelle. 413.Chautauqua Ripples.538.Circles, Local.104, 163, 225, 282, 347, 403, 459, 525, 592.Circles, How to Conduct Local. Dr. J. H. Vincent. 289.C. L. S. C., The. Miss Myrtie Hudson. 44.C. L. S. C., Pacific Branch. 523.C. L. S. C. Work.42, 102, 161, 222, 280, 345, 401, 457, 522, 590.Clothing, The Advantage of Warm. 264, 332.Commencement of1882, C. L. S. C. 18.Comet That Came but Once, The. E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S. 319.Comets.Richard A. Proctor. 142.Coming Chautauqua Days.600.Conversation, The Art of. 514.Conjurors.Thomas Frost. 518.Defects in Our American Homes.A Conference at Chautauqua. 399.Discovery of America, Results of the. John Lord, LL.D. 562.Distribution of Animals, Geographical. Alfred Newton. 588.Dream, and Practical Life, A.207.Driving.193.Drink, The Influence of Wholesome. 519, 577.Duties in the Family, Social. Frances Power Cobbe. 342.Editor’s Outlook:Art, The Study of. 416.Assembly, The Chautauqua. 56.Assembly, The Decennial. 294.Chautauquan, The. 540.C. L. S. C. as a Substitute for the College, The. 415.C. L. S. C. as a Substitute for the Public Library, The. 359.C. L. S. C. on the Pacific Coast. 476.C. L. S. C. in Troy, N. Y. 114.C. L. S. C. as an Educational Force, The. 293.C. L. S. C. Literature. 173.Co-Education. 235.Commencement, the C. L. S. C. 56.Coronation of the Czar, The. 604.Course of Study for 1883-84, The C. L. S. C. 540.Doré, Gustave. 360.Draper, Professor Henry. 234.Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret. 359.Education, Our National. 234.England’s Troubles in Ireland and Egypt. 115.English-Irish Troubles, The. 540.Gambetta. 293.Historical Studies in the C. L. S. C. 114.Irving, Washington. 416.Lectureship, The Joseph Cook. 360.Literature, The C. L. S. C. 173.Natural Method in Language at Chautauqua, The. 173.Passion Play, The. 293.Penn and his Policy, William. 173.Prohibition. 114.Prohibition in Politics. 541.Problem, The Educational. 478.Religion, Prospect for a Revival of Spiritual. 173.Roeblings, The. 604.Schools, The Common. 57.Social Life in the C. L. S. C. 603.Stewart’s Madame de Staël. 477.Temperance Question, The. 56.Ten Years at Chautauqua. 603.Trial by Jury. 476.Wagner. 415.Warren, Amos K. 605.Weed, Thurlow. 235.Editor’s Note-Book.58, 115, 174, 236, 295, 361, 417, 479, 541, 605.Editor’s Table.117, 176, 238, 297, 363, 419, 481, 543, 607.Education, The History and Philosophy of. Prof. W. T. Harris. 28, 79, 194, 262, 336, 446, 567.Egypt and England.Sheldon Amos. 33.Egypt for the Egyptians.Judge G. M. Barber. 562.English History, Pictures From. C. E. Bishop. 15, 66, 124, 184, 246, 309, 371, 432, 494.Etching.509.Evidence of the Necessity of a Revealed Religion, An Unnoted. Rev. R. H. Howard, M. A. 412.Examination, Report of Chautauqua Normal. 177.Fashion, Anecdotes of. I. D’Israeli. 323.Fashions, Changes in. From the French of M. Augustin Challamel. 446.Fashions, How to Regulate the. From the French of M. Augustin Challamel. 556.Florida, A Tropical River in. S. J. M. Eaton, D.D. 576.Food, The Value of Good. 202.Forces, The Co-Related. 257.French Circle, The Prospectus of the. 475.French, The Study of. Prof. A. Lalande. 111, 358.Genius, What is. James Kerr, M. A. 254.Geology, How to Teach. Colonel Daniels. 231.Geology, Readings in. J. W. Dawson. 43.Geology, Readings in. Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D. 68.German Circles, Two. 592.German, Six Reasons for the Study of. 475.German DepartmentC. L. S. C. Prof. J. H. Worman. 54.Germany, Home Life in. 199.God’s Ideal of a Man.Rev. B. M. Adams. 157.Graduates, Class of 1882, List of C. L. S. C. 298.Graduates of1882, Chautauqua. 118.Greek Life, Studies in Ancient. J. P. Mahaffy. 126.Greek, Reasons for the Study of. Prof. H. Lummis. 169.Greek, Hints to Beginners in the Study of New Testament. Rev. A. A. Wright. 414, 476, 539.Green, John Richard. Rev. H. A. Haweis, M.A. 575.Gymnastics.508.Habit of Taking Pains.James Kerr, M.A. 392.Heaven, The Employments of. Rev. L. T. Townsend, D.D. 570.History, God’s Hand in. Bishop Simpson, LL.D. 70.Hood, Thomas. W. C. Richards. 409.Housekeeping, German and American. 442.India, A Voice From. C. A. Martin. 47.Irving, Washington. Wallace Bruce. 390.Jeannette, Story of the. 89.Joys of High Companionship.Arthur Helps. 561.Landseer, Edwin and Charles. 466.Language in Animals.Richard Budd Painter. 323.Lectures, Local Circle. 529.Lecture by Artemus Ward.549.Letter from England, A. 524.Light, The Electric. A. A. Campbell Swinton. 325.Literature, Selections from English.Advice, on Giving. Joseph Addison. 424.Education compared to Sculpture. Joseph Addison. 125.Poet Described, The. 423.Practice and Habit. John Locke. 317.Thoughts and Aphorisms. Jonathan Swift. 318.Literature, Selections from Chinese. 503.Literature, Selections from Japanese. 505.Longfellow’s Birthday.459.Mammalia.From the French of Ernest Menault. 389.Man, The Ugly. 169.Manner.Lord Chesterfield. 141.Manners, Street. 452.Memorial Bell.457.Montana.Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. 394.Mind, Ardor of. James Kerr, M. A. 532.Music at the Dawn of the Christian Era.Prof. E. E. Ayres. 95.Music in Early Times.Prof. E. E. Ayres. 30.New Mexico.Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. 327.Notes on Required Readings:April, 419.May, 482.June, 544.Outlines of C. L. S. C. Studies.November, 104.December, 167.January, 230.February, 288.March, 356.April,408.May, 463.June, 531.Paintings, Old. Robert Kempt. 570.Pearls, A Chaplet of. William Jones, F. S. A. 385.Photography, The Applications of. 471.Physiology.374, 434.Plan, The Latest—Chautauqua Summer School for Children. 111.Poison in Common Things.Prof. P. A. Simpson, M.A., M.D. 137.Portrait Collections.Walter F. Tiffin. 556.Pronouncing Vocabulary—Names of the Stars. 486.Questions for Further Study.107, 167, 229.Questions and Answers.A. M. Martin.Astronomy. 286, 353.China, Corea, and Japan. 530.Evangeline. 463.Geology. First Lessons in. 48, 105.Greece, History of. 47, 105.Greek Course in English, Preparatory. 164, 228.Hampton Tracts. 407.Raindrops, Hailstones and Snowflakes.Prof. O. Reynolds. 75.Rambles in Dakota and Montana.W. A. Duncan. 598.Readings for1883-84, C. L. S. C. 531, 589.Re-Union at Cincinnati, C. L. S. C. 591.Roumanian Peasants and Their Songs.C. F. Keary. 197.Round-Table.51, 109, 167, 231, 289, 356, 409, 464, 596.Russia, History of. Mrs. M. S. Robinson. 10, 61, 121, 179, 241, 303, 365, 427, 489.Scandinavia, A Glance at the History and Literature of. Prof. L. A. Sherman. 8, 63, 182, 244, 305, 368, 429, 487.School of Languages, The Chautauqua. 54, 111, 414, 475, 539.School of Theology, The Chautauqua. 112, 602.Science, The Six Follies of. I. D’Israeli. 257.Science and Common Sense.Charles Kingsley. 321.Sciences, The Circle of. Prof. J. T. Edwards. 601.Scientists, Atheistic. John Stuart Blackie. 137.Songs, C. L. S. C.Anniversary Ode—1879. 458.Break Thou the Bread of Life. 590.Evening Praise. 523.Hymn of Greeting. 590.Join, O Friends, in a Memory Song. 402.A Song of To-day. 44.The Winds are Whispering. 346.Spurgeon, Rev. Charles Haddon. A. A. Livermore, D.D. 565.Sunday Readings.Selected by Dr. J. H. Vincent.Abraham to the Occupation of Canaan, From. W. F. Collier, LL.D. 190.Action, The Reproductive Power of Human. Henry Melvill. 3.Beginning to Abraham, From the. W. F. Collier, LL.D. 188.Bible and other Religious Books, The. George F. Pentecost, D.D. 251.Bible and Science, The. George F. Pentecost, D.D. 252.Book, History of God’s. Rev. Frank Russell, A.M. 186.Christmas Songs. 134.Christ and the Apostles. S. A. Allibone. 249.Christian Described, A. Rev. W. Jay. 439.Communion with God. R. S. Storrs, D.D. 5.Communion with God, The Privilege of. R. S. Storrs, D.D. 6.Conflicts of Life, The. Bishop Edward Thomson, DD., LL.D. 133.Design of the Discrepancies of the Scriptures. J. W. Haley, A.M. 90.Dispensations in History and in the Soul, Three. Bishop Huntington. 313.False Balance Detected by the True, The. William Arnot, D.D. 311.Faith the Sole Saving Act. Rev. William Taylor, D.D. 381.Finding and Bringing. 379.God Magnified in his Works. G. Chaplin Child, M.D. 135.Goodness of a Good Man, The. 131.Growing. F. E. Havergal. 131.Having, Doing and Being. James Martineau. 130.Israelites after Reaching the Promised Land. W. F. Collier, LL.D. 191.Life of the Israelites from Saul to Christ. W. F. Collier, LL.D. 248.Love. Julius Muller, D.D. 1.Manners. Abel Stevens, D.D., LL.D. 501.Pardon—Forgiveness. Bishop Merrill. 94.Religion in Common Life. John Caird, D.D. 496.Speculations in Theology. Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D. 329.Tears of Jesus, The. J. H. Grandpierre, D.D. 2.Tales from Shakspere.Charles Lamb.All’s Well that Ends Well. 515.As You Like It. 453.Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 275.King Lear. 271.Macbeth. 338.Midsummer Night’s Dream. 210.Much Ado About Nothing. 395.Romeo and Juliet. 84.Taming of the Shrew. 81.The Tempest. 39.Twelfth Night. 152.Two Gentlemen of Verona. 583.Winter’s Tale. 213.Talk From Headquarters.Concerning Chautauqua. 474.Taxidermy.507.Tennyson and Mrs. Carlyle.588.Testimony, C. L. S. C. 103, 162, 223, 402, 524.They Grow to Flowers or to Weeds.Maxims. 383.Thrift.Charles Kingsley. 218.Tour Round the World, A. 99, 147, 216, 267, 466, 510, 551.Transit of Venus, The. 239.United States, The Resources of. 393.Webster, Daniel. A Letter from Prof. W. C. Wilkinson. 292.Webster, Daniel,versusStephen Girard. 472.W. C. T. U. Born at Chautauqua, The. 156.
Among the Mountains.By the author of “John Halifax, Gentleman.” 326.Beyond.Mrs. Emily J. Bugbee. 557.Celia Singing.Thomas Stanley. 442.Chautauqua Chimes.Addie Glover Carter. 47.Cheerfulness Taught by Reason.Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 514.Children, Our. Genevieve Irons. 150.Coming of Summer, The. Harriet Mabel Spalding. 536.Content.A. E. A. 196.Counsel.Alice E. Jennings. 573.Daffodil, The. Ada Iddings Gale. 558.Daffodils at Sea.J. S. Howard. 448.Death’s Changed Face.Frederick Langbridge. 537.Garden Reverie, A. I. L. Cosham. 18.Glint of Moonlight, A. I. L. Cosham. 129.God’s Hearthstone.Wallace Bruce. 95.Hours of Rest.Anna H. Drury. 392.In the Forest.S. Reid. 81.June.Ellen O. Peck. 507.Kneeling Figure in Malvern Priory, On the. Chas. Grindrod. 141.Last Snow of Winter, The. Sarah Doudney. 518.Loss and Gain.Mrs. Emily J. Bugbee. 413.May.Luella Clark. 473.My Winter Garden.Harriet Mabel Spalding. 320.My Own Girl.Frederick Langbridge. 161.Nightingale, To the. Drummond of Hawthornden. 436.Petition to Time.B. W. Proctor. 207.Petrocchi, Sonnet of. Translated by Strong. 557.Prophecy, A. Rev. Benjamin Copeland. 582.Quaint old Garden of my Childhood.Clara Thwaites. 155.Renunciation.A. C. M. 569.Robin and I.C. B. 407.Satisfied.J. C. A. 452.Songs in Winter.David Buxton. 561.Song.Sir John Denham. 338.Song of the Robin.Miss A. M. Starkweather. 532.Sonnet, The. William Wordsworth. 466.Sorrow of the Sea, The. Alexander Anderson. 322.Sowers, The two. Alexander Anderson. 509.Stages.Benjamin Bulkeley. 193.Stranger, The. Ada Iddings Gale. 123.Striving.Henry Burton. 75.Sun-Worshippers, The. Hattie A. Cooley. 279.Surprise, A Sweet. Mary R. Dodge Dingwall. 346.Thinking of Michael.Alexander Anderson. 17.Three Ages.John Albee. 193.Two Graves, The. Henry Hogan. 78.Weary Heart, The. Rev. Frank S. Child. 263.We Must not Forget Our Dead.Mary R. D. Dingwall. 271.
The Chautauquan.
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE. ORGAN OFTHE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE.
Vol. III.DECEMBER, 1882. No. 3.
President, Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio.
Superintendent of Instruction, J. H. Vincent, D. D., Plainfield, N. J.
General Secretary, Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Office Secretary, Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.
Counselors, Lyman Abbott, D. D.; J. M. Gibson, D. D.; Bishop H. W. Warren, D. D.; W. C. Wilkinson, D. D.
Transcriber's Note:This table of contents of this periodical was created for the HTML version to aid the reader.
Index to Volume III.INDEXChautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Officers121REQUIRED READING:History of Russia121The Stranger123Pictures from English History124Studies in Ancient Greek Life126A Glint of Moonlight129SUNDAY READINGS.December 3Having, Doing, Being130Growing131December 10The Goodness of a Good Man131December 17The Conflicts of Life133December 24Christmas Songs134December 31God Magnified in His Works135Atheistic Scientists137Poison in Common Things137Manner141On the Kneeling Figure in Malvern Priory141Comets142A Tour Round the World147Our Children150Morals and Sorrows of Borrowing and Lending151Tales from Shakspere—Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will152Quaint Old Garden of Our Childhood155The W. C. T. U. Born at Chautauqua156God’s Ideal of a Man157My Own Girl161C. L. S. C. Work161C. L. S. C. Testimony162Local Circles163Questions and Answers164Outline of C. L. S. C. Studies for December167Questions for Further Study167C. L. S. C. Round-Table:How England Maintained Her Nationality During the Middle Ages167Reasons for the Study of Greek169The Ugly Man169C. L. S. C. Announcement for 1882-’83172Editor’s Outlook173Editor’s Note-Book174Editor’s Table176Books Received177Report of Chautauqua Normal Examination—1882177New Books for Boys and Girls178
By Mrs. MARY S. ROBINSON.
The glory of the Russian arms, the splendor of the Russian State, attained their maximum in the reign of the great Iaroslaf. Its form of government continued to retain the Variag-Slav elements, but was compacted and confirmed by the ideas brought into the country with the influx of Greek priests and men of letters. The prince long remained, as in the primitive times, first among his equals, the drujina—the head and chief of a family of soldiers. He had great respect for the counsels, and for the demands of these. Vladimir’s men complained, in that they had to eat from wooden bowls. He forthwith provided them with silver ones. “I can not buy myself a drujina with silver and gold,” he said, “but with a drujina I can obtain silver and gold, as did my father and my grandfather.” The Roman empire of the east represented another form of government. Its sovereign was the heir of Constantine and of Augustus; the vicar of God upon earth, the human representative of the Sovereign of the universe. The Greek emperor derived his power, not from the consent of his subjects—a phrase unknown in his dominions,—but rather from the Being who conferred it as a prerogative, a divine right. His person, his regalia, were sacred. The populace of Constantinople believed that when God gave the empire to their city, he gave it also the regal vestments at the hands of an angel. Leo, king of the Kazarui, was said to have been smitten with a fatal ulcer for his temerity in putting the Byzantine crown upon his head. This Roman, and antecedently Asiatic conception of government, as vested in the person of the imperator who made the laws, executed justice, received the adoring homage as well as the unquestioning obedience of his subjects, essentially modified the nobler, freer idea of government, as held by the Variag princes; but the change was wrought gradually, and was hardly perceptible during the epoch of the ascendency of the Russia of the steppes, the supremacy of Kief. It came into prominence, as we shall see, in the Russia of the forests, when Suzdal, and later Moscow, became the nuclei, the centers of the realm in a subsequent epoch. Iaroslaf compiled a code of laws, the Russkaia Pravda, the Russian right, or verity, a code that, though subsequently modified by Byzantine influence, remained for centuries the basis of the national jurisprudence. The laws of the Pravda are in effect those of ancient Scandinavia. Private revenge and avenging are recognized, as are also the judicial duel and the ordeals; fines are fixed for various crimes. The primitive form of trial by jury is established, but none of the harsher penalties are prescribed that were introduced later by the corrupted Greeks. Prisons, torture to wring confession, corporal cruelties, flogging and capital punishment were unknown in the Russia of the eleventh century. Its laws were milder, more humane than those of Charlemagne. The Slav had not become debased by the vices of the Roman empire of the east, nor by the ferocity of the Tatars. “A white Arab,” a child of nature, uncorrupted by the iniquities of an ancient civilization, with his ardent Oriental temperament, he retained as yet much of the simplicity, the freedom from duplicity, that won the recognition of Homer, Choerilius and Strabo.
The introduction of Greek Christianity was a fact of immeasurable significance to the Russian realm. It proscribed the Papal Church from Russian territory, and thereby isolated it from the nations of the west. This isolation precluded the Russian people from the religious sympathy, the material support of the Pope, and of the other European nations, in crises of peril, or periods of emergency, such as that of the appalling Tatar invasion. They could look for no help beyond their own resources, their own strength. The difference of religion served also as a perpetual barrier, a continually irritating antagonism between the Russian and the Polish Slavs. On the other hand, as the new faith was introduced by means of the Slavonic, the mother tongue, Russian society was spared the sharp division between the clerical, the learned, the high, Latin-speaking class, and the lower classes that compose the bulk of every nation; a division that contributed immensely to the founding of caste and to the arrogations of a hierarchy throughout Latin Christendom. In Russia was reared a national church, subject to no foreign, no alien sway, entangled with no foreign alliances or foreign politics. Thus was secured an absolute national and ecclesiastical independence. “No dragonnades, no frightful inquisition, no Saint Bartholomews, no myriads of martyrs, no hideous tortures, such as those invented and practiced by Jesuits and Romish priests, have ever defiled the venerable ministry that traces its origin to Ephesus and Saint John.”
Christianity gradually but essentially modified the social life, the customs and manners of the people. It abolished polygamy; the structure of the family was no longer Asiatic, but European. It heightened the Slav virtues of hospitality and benevolence, by inculcating the humanitarian precepts of the New Testament. It conferred a dignity previously unknown, upon weakness, infirmity, povertyand labor. It modified the public sentiment in regard to crime, by teaching the inherent heinousness of sin. The oft-uttered words of Vladimir, “I fear to sin,” indicate the change that was gradually effected in the popular mind. Assassination, theft, and other crimes ceased to be regarded as private injuries, to be commuted by fines or atoned for by reprisals. They were punished as offences against humanity, in the name of the Legislator, the Father of the race. What is more precious than a Christian soul? asks one of the earlier descendants and successors of Vladimir. The new religion brought music in its train to a people who had a capacity for this art, but who were ignorant of its first principles. It brought architecture into a realm whose buildings were simply wooden tents, and whose ramparts were made of mud. In the rude city were laid the decorated aisles, the sumptuous columns, the golden cupolas and domes of the Russian church. It brought literature, first of all by the sacred books translated into the vernacular; the works of the Church fathers, among them Basil and Chrysostom; the lives of the saints, Byzantine chronicles, eagerly read by the scholastic monk; works on speculative and natural philosophy, and some few romances. Contemporary Byzantine literature was not of the highest order; but exported among a people whose thought and knowledge were limited to the recital of their national legends, their primitive poems, it aroused their germinant powers, and gave direction to their intellectual, their social, and their moral development. We have to concede, however, that the introduction of the Greek form of Christian belief was not entirely salutary in its effects upon the people at large. The Byzantine Church was smitten with the decay whereof the Byzantine civilization was perishing. It retained, indeed, the elevated truths of the Christian system, but had deplorably lost the spirit that alone “giveth life.” It had failed, generally speaking, to eradicate the distinctive vices of the Greek peoples—falsehood, treachery, perfidy, instability. In place of a regenerated nature, it required of its adherents participation in its elaborate ceremonial, the practice of its intricate rites, homage to its imposing forms. It did little for intellectual enlightenment or advancement, save in the perverted form of Oriental monachism,—a painfully unnatural mode of life, calculated to foster mental disease and general self-stultification. With no arrogations of secular or of civil power, it has associated itself throughout Russian history with the baleful conservatism, the hoary tyranny, the enslaving autocracy of her sovereigns. Oriental in its origin, it has fastened upon the Russian State the stationary ignorance, the servitude, the mental inertia of the effete Oriental nations. Among its adherents we shall find scarcely an example of the moral and spiritual liberty wherewith the Head of the Church maketh his children free. So far removed are they from this freedom, that their spiritual debasement, their intellectual bondage and moral perversion lie like an incubus, against which thus far the inherent strength of the nation has struggled in vain. An Oriental autocracy and a church devoid of spiritual vitality have hitherto proved immovable checks upon the advancement of the Russian people. Not without reason does the Nihilist reject the wretched ecclesiasticism that has misguided and miseducated his race throughout a thousand years.
The portraits of Rurik and his Variag-Slav successors, preserved in the imperial galleries of St. Petersburgh, are doubtless much idealized; yet they may be supposed to bear some resemblance to their originals, for Byzantine artists were in Kief as early as the reign of Vladimir (972). The face of Rurik is strong, and possessed of a primitive majesty; beneath heavy brows his eyes are steadfast, penetrating, containing a force that under stress might break into the Berserker rage, the fury that was a characteristic of the ancient Norse warrior. The contours of the face are vigorous, and marked by a certain rude symmetry, so to speak. The heavy mustaches part above the lips; below them falls a dense beard that clings to the sides of the cheeks and climbs to the hair. The head is shielded beneath a plain helmet terminating above in a talon. From the under side of the helmet falls a cape of mail, protecting the throat and shoulders; a sack or loose coat of mail covers the body. A man to put one’s trust in, a man to be feared as an enemy, is the impression conveyed by the portrait, as a whole.
Vladimir, “the beautiful sun of Kief,” the Christianized Apollo of the Russian Slav, the apotheosized hero of numberless legends and poems, still current among his people, is represented with a richly jewelled crown above an ermine border, resting upon his shapely head. His dark hair falls flowing upon his shoulders; his beard is fine and waved; his eyebrows delicately pencilled. Poetry and song lie in his liquid eyes and upon his well-moulded lips. A touch of sadness allied with a princely stateliness adds an indefinable, a melodious charm to this beautiful portrait, that one might take at first glance for a humanized representation of the Son of Man. Lovely, tender, strong, it is not difficult to ascribe to the gracious influences of Christianity the elevation, the chastened symmetry, the perceptible advance, evident in the face, from the rude power of the Norse physiognomy. A bust like unto it, set amid the busts of ancient Athens, would have elicited expressions of admiration from the beholders. “A noble, a beautiful barbarian!” they would have exclaimed.
The portrait of Iaroslaf represents a distinctive Slav. It depicts a melancholy temperament held in equipoise by a clear intellect and a firm will. Delicacy, a capacity for sadness and strength, combine in the intelligence of the face; an intelligence more reposeful than animated. The symmetry of the features is remarkable. The long-lidded, serious eyes are essentially Slavic. The throat is large and shapely. The regal robe is heavily broidered, decorated around the neck and down the front with a band of light-hued fur. A grave man, with capacities for understanding the arts that give solace and charm to existence, Iaroslaf the Great was also a man to love and to be loved. Captain, sovereign, legislator, he was especially the father of his people in his affectionate care of, and in his intercourse with them.
The Slav’s inextinguishable passion for liberty, and the faithfulness of the Variag to his ruler, his capacity for obedience and for martial discipline, augured well for the nascent Russian state. The Slav conception of the family, however, dominated long over that of a compact government. The Byzantine form of political unity took root in Russian soil, but was of slow growth, and was long obstructed by the division of lands among the heirs of the reigning prince—a Slavic custom observed from time immemorial. Iaroslaf had designed that his eldest son should succeed him upon his throne; and upon his death-bed he urged upon his other children the duty of recognizing their brother Isiaslaf as their sovereign; they were to regard him “as a father.” But notwithstanding the precautions of the great prince, the Slavic custom of division prevailed with those who came after him. As a consequence, the hundred and thirty years following his death (1054-1224), form a period of internal partition, of disturbance, of civil wars and strifes between the increasingly numerous members of the royal family. During this period the realm was divided into no less than sixty-four duchies or principalities, under the varying possession of two hundred and ninety-three princes. These partitions were the occasion of eighty-three civil wars, some of which brought into conflictthe entire fighting force of the nation. In addition to the internal contentions, the barbarians remained a hostile element in the country. The chroniclers record forty-six invasions of the Polovtsui, and eighteen campaigns directed against them. This anarchy of princes in eastern Europe possessed features of similarity with the feudal anarchy of the west. The principalities of Russia corresponded with the domains of the dukes, grafs, land-grafs, and mar-grafs of Germany, with those of the lords and counts of France, and with the governments of the lords and barons of England.
The principality or grand duchy of Kief remained preëminent among these divisions. Its position near to, and its intercourse with the Greek empire, its control of the Dnieper, the fertility of the Warm Soil, the illustrious history of the capital and metropolis of the realm, mother of Russian cities, all contributed to maintain its supremacy. Its prince was the Grand Prince, chief among his fellow rulers elsewhere in the realm, in point of privilege. Often was his territory hotly contested by those princes whose energy or ambition impelled them to audacious enterprises. To obtain Kief and the position of Grand Prince, were the ends ardently coveted by the restless, warlike rulers who chafed within the restricted limits of their obscure domains.
Along the tributaries to the east of the Dnieper, lay the principalities of Tchernigof and of Novgorod-Severski. The ruling family of Tchernigof, the Olgovitchi, who traced their lineage to the illustrious Olga, were the most formidable rivals of Kief. East of these lay the double principality of Riazan and Murom, whose chief towns, respectively of the same name, the one on the Moskova, the other on the Oka, indicate their ancient principalities on the modern map of the empire. Westward, in the heart of mediæval Russia, inclosing within its boundaries the great forest of Okof, where rise the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Dwina, was the principality of Smolensk, all of whose towns were built on the banks of one or another of its great rivers. Its political importance lay in its control of nearly all the commerce of the realm. A government in the later divisions of the empire bears the name of the ancient principality. Near by was Toropets, capital of a secondary domain ruled over by two princes of renown, Mstislaf the Brave, and his son Mstislaf the Bold, glorious names in the history of their country. Further to the northeast, in the dense forests of the Volga and the Oka, lay the principality of Suzdal, with its towns, Suzdal, Rostof, Vladimir-on-the-Kliasma. This rugged region at the extremity of the Russia of the eleventh century, encircled by aboriginal Finn tribes, was destined in time to achieve a supremacy over all the other principalities, and to control the destinies of the nation. The Slavs of the Volga, mingling with the Finn tribes, Muromians, Meria, Tcheremisa, who, from being their enemies, were ultimately forced to become their subjects, produced a modified race, endowed with permanent, salient characteristics. The Russia of the steppes of the Dnieper, gave way gradually, and yielded its supremacy to the Russia of the forests of the Volga. From the principality of Suzdal emerged the Grand Duchy or Tsarate of Moscow, and from the Tsarate of Moscow arose Little and Great Russia, with which were included in the fifteenth century Red and White Russia, the Warm Soil, and other vast territories that combine to form the European portion of the modern empire. The principalities we have named presented a frontier against the untamed tribes of the steppes and of the forests. A northern system of frontier defences holding in check the Lithuanians, Letts, and Tchudi, was re-enforced by the powerful governments of Novgorod and Pskof, situated in the regions of Lake Ilmen and Lake Peïpus. Within the protection of these domains lay two secondary appanages, Polotsk and Mursk, the latter in the basin of the Dnieper. In southwest Russia lay Volhynia and Gallicia, or Red Russia, one of whose cities was Galitch. Gallicia was peopled by the White Kroats, a branch of the Danubian Slavs, who had affinities with the neighboring kingdoms of Poland and Hungary. Igor, Prince of Novgorod-Severski, is the hero of a Russian epic, that relates his expeditions. In it the wealth and glory of Gallicia are thus exalted: “Iaroslaf Osmomuisl of Gallicia,” cries the poet, apostrophizing the prince, “lofty is thy throne of beaten gold! Thou holdest up the Carpathians with thy regiments of iron! Thou art he who shutteth the gates of the Danube, and putteth a bar across the pathway of the King of Hungary. At thy good pleasure the gates of Kief are opened. With thine arrows thou smiteth from afar!”
The division into appanages delayed but did not strike at the root of the unity of the empire. Nay, it may be said to have nourished this idea in its nascent development. At the death of every powerful sovereign fresh divisions were made; hence no principality remained sufficiently secure to become the home of a distinct, an enduring nationality. Identity of race, of language, and of religion characterized these states, whose princes were kinsmen, and whose ties of blood were strengthened in many instances by the bonds of wedlock. The descendants of Rurik bore rule from the Straits of Ienikale to the borders of the Frozen Sea. The Grand Prince was held in fatherly respect; and if some of his contemporaries stood ready to contend for his throne, more were at hand to defend him with their money and their arms. The unity of the nation, notwithstanding its numerous divisions, was more distinct than that of Germany or of France during certain periods of the mediæval era. The isolation of the Russian realm maintained the permanence of this idea, in that it was preserved from alien invaders, and from diplomatic or other complications with powers that might have interfered with its internal affairs, or that might have modified its advancement. The unity of the realm initiated by Rurik, was developed gradually but irresistibly, and with no considerable fluctuations down to the national uprising in 1612, when it attained its fullest strength, and rendered the nation impregnable alike to the designs of aliens, or to the subversions of internal discord.
[To be continued.]