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    **> THE REAPER. ~ 313i s&TVRniv

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    xil J"-t '*¦ • • • > WS B ^ S0UTH OF THE...

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    The Art Of The Akcients. Torso. Kunst , ...

    ^ ^ of a later period , when , under the successors of Alexander , the schools o * Asia Minor and of Rhodes eclipsed the waning-glories of Athens , Sicyon and Argos , we have the Laocoon , the Farnese IJull , and the Dying Gladiator ; and in the sketch of Greek art under the patronage of Imperial Rome we have tlie Bacchus of the Vatican , the Barberini Faun , the Nile , and the Apollo Belvedere . One of the ^ jn ost interesting parts of the present volum e is the chapter on the growth and character of artistic taste and culture in Rome after the close of tie second Punic War , including a special discussion of Cicero ' s relation to art , a relation which may be taken as typieal of the Roman point of view . Perhaps our readers will like to hear Professor Stahr himself speak on this subiect : —

    la Cicero we have a man who attached less importance to his love of art than , did many of Ms contemporaries—a statesman and man of affairs whose calling and inclination drew him towards altogether different pursuits—an author , among whose numerous works there is not one which is especially occupied with plastic arfc either historically or aesthetically considered ; and yet we find in him a knowledge of the history and productions of ancient art , and a correctness of judgment in relation to both , such as we rarely find tinder like circumstances in a similar personage of our own time . For Cicero is the man to whom , next to Pliny and Quinctiliau , we owe the greatest part of our information concerning the style of the earlier Greek artists . In his works generally , he shows himself to be an accomplished connoisseur of ancient art , and his books on oratory axe fall of traits which give evidence of tliis . He is accurately acwith the various

    quainted styles which characterised tie development of Greek arfc ; lie knows the relation of the individual great masters to each other , and the rank due to each in the history of art , and he not unfrequently derives from this knowledge very striking comparisons and illustrative ^ parallels for the history of oratory . How -the ^ writihgs in which , these illustrations occur were destined for thecultiv & ted public in general , for young and old statesmen and orators , in a word ,-forreaders who had no pretension to be regarded either as dilettanti or connoisseurs . Thus , even in addressing this general public , he could depend on being understood when he spoke of the characteristic . style of Calamis , Canachos , Myron , Phidias , and Poiykletes , and of the respective value of the great Greek pamters , Zeuxis , Polygnotus , Timanfches , Nicomaclrus , Protogenes , and Apelleswhen he compared the oldest Latin version ofthe Odyssey with . a , Dcedalian statue , Or the Bongs of the old Roman poet Usevius on the Punic Wat- with , a work of liyron's . How raairy statesmen ofour timeican boast of a corresponding knowledge ^ either i n . themsel ve s or their read e rs ? . . . Both Cicero and the public to wiom his works were addressed must be regarded as having a love and knowledge ofart , evea in spite of Ids protest to the coatraryi Such a protest he mates where it suits Mnito'asstime that haugity contempt wibh which the old Roman sjwnt , ^ till strongly represented among his co-untrymen , loved to look down on everything that bore the name of Greek culture . Cicero himself relates , that at tke ^ tune when he was a boy , even those distinguished orators and statesmen who had-prosecuted the most thorough , study of Greek philosophy , literature and science , endeavoured carefully to conbeal this from the great public of their own nation ; nay , even put on the air of despising all such studies . In his great work iftOratore , he mak ^ s the ^ cel eb rated statesman and orato r Antonius express himself quite openly on this kind of inverted hypocrisy . Indeed Greek science , literature , and doctrine , stood with the pre-eminently practical Romans , who were averse to all speculation , in much : the same sort of reputation as the existing acctnnazres and " ideologists" -with the practical men of our own day . Hence Antony declares quite iiaavely > that he had certainly studied in secret a : nd by stealth the rich and .- ' profound . literature of Greece , for not to have done so \ rou \ d ftaye shown too . brutal a stupidity ; but at the same time he had , throughout his wile , held it discieefc to pay homage to the repugnance of his nation , and in his public orations to > avoid tixQ faintest sign . of his having occupied himself with such " Qreek mattera , " lest he snould lose authority among his own people . As a specimen of Professor Stahr ' s style on another kind of subject , we give some of his observations on the Apollo Belvedere : — It is probable that tins statue belongs to tlie time of Nero . The spot where it was found was the favourite residence of this Emperor . Here he was bornhere he made his magnificent entrance after his return from his artistic travel in Greece—here he remained during the tremendous conflagration , which laid twothirds of Home in ashes ; and the Dying Gladiator , whjcTB . was also found in the ruins of Antium , shows , no less than the Apollo , that the noblest works \> f plastic art adorned this imperial summer residence . It is a deeply poetical thought of J-euerbaok ' s , that the Fury-diapelling god stood in the house of the crowned Orestes , who had ventured , with the guilt of matricide on his own soul , to act the part of Orestes on the stage . N " ot seldom , aa his most confidential companions admitted , liis disturbed senses were shaken by visions of the avenging deities with their whips and torches ; and it is quite conceivable that his guilty conscience sought refuge under this image of the protecting God . But even if this were nothing more than au ingenious conjecture , one thing remains certain , namely , that in the expression of the Apollo's head lies the nobleness of that divme indignation which Tacitus felt in the contemplation of that age and its hideoua crimes . And if it was really Nero who gave the commission to the artist of the Apollo , one can understand that the great soul of the master , who was capable of producing this work , stamped on the lofty god of light and purity that expression of scornful indignation which every noble heart must experience m thes contemplation of a world full of the moat debasing iniquity . For evoiy great artist , in his best works , can only embody the mental state which is produced f a him or suggested by the subject he undertakes to represent . 'Alma a ^ t yan , when he was called on to paint the lovely blonde poisoner , Luorczia Borgia wjth her husband , opposite to the Holy Family , expressed , in tho famous picture in the -Dresden Gallery , all the scornful reprobation of hypocr itical vico which we felt in his own soul . . Qur extracts , however , do no justice to a work which is chiefly valuable as ? J $ r , ° ** » a » d not for the sake of special information and beauty here and Vj ^ * i Those who con read German will , we hope , since the number of P ^^^| Perai an ^ ookl * is noti overwhelming , he induced to procure Tor ? o ^• t ^ Rf ^ y ^ * and foiP those who do not read German it might be aa well if ? 2 # ? i ? ifr } Wp Pu blisher arid industrious translator would undertake to Rive the p ^ fai . e \ m English edition . B

    **> The Reaper. ~ 313i S&Tvrniv

    **> THE REAPER . ~ 313 i s & TVRniv

    Xil J"-T '*¦ • • • > Ws B ^ S0uth Of The...

    xil J " -t '*¦ • • > WS ^ S 0 UTH OF THE CAUCASUS . ^* w * * I'T [ J ^ 5 ? K ? lK '< * % 'Cumpuima qf Prince Paakiewitch in 1828 and 1820 ; and a « ^ iWJSL ^ i ^^ J ^^ I ! ^ " *^ OB < f ' Ocauamujivm the time of Peter the t ^^^^^ ^ - ^^ man ° ana Adrianopti . By Ueutenont-General SJ O « S & 'S ^ S ? I ^« y- ««« d of the progress of Russia ^ eyond the OmicfttfiM , from t ^ e fi rst in rqad of Peter in 1721 , to the successful warfare

    feTted ^ ^ * S « N T hirVan - ^ erWmseira : al ^ en kSST ™ de gts ^ s ^ f & t . sia ^ = sk £ wig calamities , interruptions in the great dreams of the Romanoffs ; obstacles nfl ^ ted wKS" n tO * estimated as i ^ uperable ; like ' the triah the « - ? 11 Jr ? f UP ° ° ^ JWle . Whose will i , the stronger , the will cf Russia to conquer and break P up Turkey and seize upon its potent uTat ttt ? ^ IT - ° WerS ^ ^^ sha 11 not he £ oken up , at least not to the profit of Russia , and that lirr * . Y . ™ t . i * i ™ n * ¦ * „„ ^ S ^ RE ^^ J ?^!^^ . !^ WC ,

    i -MTI —W ^ MU _____ ^ ~ > of Paskiewitch a little more than a hundred years later Russia th * , e " ssssK-ss & si ^ ss have been only temporarily and partially accomplished , to be renounced anS ? WH , TT - ' u But We I *™ ' P ect that R « ssia ^ 11 so give up her W cherished designs because she has been once beaten . Nadir ShaKmt elS ifi ? their suceetoTfini

    „„ , „ S ^ A ^/ SrV * ^ ^ Y aCe « - ^ on £ 7 Ve " Sha „ p ^ va L But to say that the struggle is over because Sebaatopol is destroyed is perfectly preposterous . It has only begun ; and all the treaties of peacfwil ] L Sot prevent its renewal at some day of not far distant date—a little later or a little earlier . Ihe question is neither more nor less than this : what is to be the position of the Russian race or races on this globe ? - a question not to he firmly settled , we fear , by peace conferences , but by fierce and san « uinarv wars . ° J _ General Monteith ' book throws a strong light upon the past . The lesson it teaches is that what Russia has done Russia may do again under favourable circumstances , and those favourable circumstances are unfortunately of but too common occurrence in the . history of Eastern monarchies . They are sure to recur . J

    It was one of the many vast designs of Peter the Great to' extend his empire to the Indus and the Persian Gulf , including , of course , the mastery of the Caspian Sea . With that view he prepared a fleet , and only awaited a gvouraWe opportunity . Persia soon furnished one . In 1721 the Shall Hussein , apprehensive of being conquered by the Affghans , applied for aid to Feter . The Czar met the request by an instant and cheerful promise of assistance . Troops were collected at Moscow and seiit down the Moskawa and Oka to the Volga . The Emperor repaired to the head-quarters of the Calmueks , and easily obtained from the Khan a body of 5 , O 0 G horse . The fleet emerged from the Volga , and " on the 19 th July , 1722 , the imperial standard of Russia first waved over the Caspian . " How great have been the advances of Russia in that quarter since that eventful day ! The troops

    landed at Agrakhan a little to the south of the embouchure of the Terek , and mustered 30 , 000 fighting men . With this force Peter advanced as far as Derbend , which he entered and occupied on the 30 th August . But here his career iras ^ brought to an end . A hurricane wrecked his transports and destroyed the stores accumulated for the campaign ; and leaving a stron ? garrison in Derbend , he earned back the main body to Astrachan . Such was the first move of the Russians towards Persia . Peter was far enough from assisting the Shah against the Affghans j but he had succeeded in planting a Russian force in an important post , and from that day to this , with slight intervals of misfortune , the arms of Russia have gradually extended , not only round the shores of the Caspian Sea , but far beyond the Caucasus . It is significant of the estimate formed by the Persians of the daneerous character

    of the aid to be expected from the Czar , that the Persian Governor of Bakoo would not surrender that fort until compelled by a bombardment to do so . The price , in fact , of Russian aid was the cession of the southern and western shores of the Caspian ; but Russia found to her cost that the expense in blood and treasure of establishing herself in the ceded territory was fur beyond what it was worth ; nevertheless , she persisted with her wonted tenacity until Nadir Shah , sweeping with conquering strides over the whole region of the East , forced the Russians in 1736 , not only to quit the southern and western shores of the Caspian , but to evacuate Durhend under a threat from the terrible conqueror of being pitched into the sea .

    But the eyes and hands of the Czars and Czarinas were thenceforward never turned from the § reat mountain chain dividing Europe from Asia . Domestic quarrels in Georgia soon furnished an occasion and a pretext for intervention . As early as 1762 , Tamaris the Georgian chief , and Ueraclius his son , besought the impress Elizabeth to accept their submission , and protect them from the lurks . In 1 / 60 Heraelius imprisoned his father , and the old man escaping hud his grievances at the foot of the Russian throne . The usual consequences followed . "In 1768 the first Russian troops passed the Caucasus , " after overcoming tremendous obstacles , The Russians never wholly fmve up possession ; and subsequent invasions took place , sometimes to resist the Turks , sometimes

    to defend Georgia from the Lcsghians , until at the close of the lust century , the Empress Catherine , " deeply affected * ' by the misfortunes of Ueorgm , made arrangements for its permanent annexation to Hussia . The v . ft « ' llowevcr > Mas not consummated until the rc 5 gn of the Emperor Paul , when Georgia ngrced to n treaty of submission . " According to this treaty , Ueorgia became an integral portion of Russia , and the plans of Peter the Ureat tor the subjugation of all the adjacent kingdoms—plans which bad never been lost sight of by hi 3 successors , however they might differ in opinions and character—were now made an object of attention , and every endeavour was made to carry them into execution . " How those pliuis were carried out up to the year 1829 will bo found from the narrative of General xwonteitn who carries the reader on from the acquisition of Georgia , through i m ° , wars TO * intrigues and usurpations of Russia against Persia ana lurkey , down to the signature of the treaty of Adrianonle in 1829 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22031856/page/16/