example of their leaders, they could never have prospered as they did. And certainly any who were ambitious to excel in virtue might now find opportunities far greater than before. This general enlargement of the Greek horizon is well exhibited in a passage of Droysen, which we cannot do better than transcribe : 'In taking a general survey of the time we must not forget amid the gloomy pictures of fratricidal wars, storming of towns, tyrannous violence, and the profligacy of courts, to cast an eye on the brighter side, the splendour of numberless blooming cities, the luxury of the most varied productions of art and manufacture, the thousand new enjoyments with which life is now adorned and enriched, among them those nobler ones ministered by the growing and fertile spread of a literature alike tasteful and many-sided. And this all spreading over the wide regions of Hellenism and binding them together. Think of the crowds of Dionysiac artists and their joyous wandering life, the festivals and games of old and new Greek cities even in the far East, to which are gathered together from afar festive spectators in common worship. As far as the colonies on the Indus and Jaxartes, the Greek has kinsmen and finds countrymen; the merchant seeks on the Chinese frontier wares for the market of Puteoli and Massilia, and the bold Ætolian seeks his fortune on the Ganges or at Meroë. Scientific men explore the distant, the past, the wonders of nature; for the first time an educated research lays open the ages gone by, the courses of the stars, the language and literature of new peoples, whom of old the Greeks in their pride despised as barbarians, looking in stolid ignorance on their ancient monuments. In the fixed lights of the starry heavens, science finds for the first time means for measuring the earth, whose distances are now known, and whose great forms are surveyed and ordered. Science orders into system the marvellous traditions of the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Indians, and strives from a comparison of them to gain new results. All these streams of civilization, some subdued, some still raging and unbounded, are now united in the cauldron of Hellenistic culture and science, and preserved to history for all future time.' In days when politics were the primary concern of the Greek citizen, domestic life formed only the background of his existence, and occupied but a moderate part of his attention. But in Hellenistic times domestic life occupies a place by far more prominent, and the consequence is a great change in the family ties. The relation between father and son partakes less of authority and more of friendship. We should scarcely find, before Alexander's time, so charming and cordial relations between father and son as existed between the elder Antigonus and Demetrius or between the first Seleucus and Antiochus. Both of the young princes we have named shared the thrones of their fathers; Antiochus received at the hand of his father not only a kingdom but even, as a wife, his own young step-mother, of whom he was passionately enamoured. The position of women also changed unmistakably, and on the whole improved. There were in Syria and Egypt princesses, who sometimes became queens, and occupied in the world of Greek society such a position, as women had never before held. A number of cities, Laodicea, Berenice, Apamea, Arsinoë, and the rest, were named after them. The respect which they exacted tended to raise their whole sex. In the laxity of the time at position scarcely inferior to that of queens was occupied by the leading Hetara, who disposed of cities and made wars by the favour of their admirers. Lamia exacted tribute on her own account from the rich burghers of Athens, Glycera required those who approached her to prostrate themselves in the Oriental fashion, to Pythionice a temple and altar were erected at Athens as to an impersonation of Aphrodite. The splendid success of these female soldiers of fortune caused a host of the most able Greek women, even the daughters of citizens, to follow in their steps. The best of these Hetæræ were, if we may trust Athenæus, sufficiently disreputable, yet it can hardly be doubted that their influence on the whole raised the position of their sex. Professor Helbig has well pointed out that it is in the Macedonian period of Greek history, that we find the beginnings of gallantry between the sexes in the modern sense of the word. Berenice, wife of the first Ptolemy, had a regular following of poets who were ever singing her praises; the hair of her younger namesake was by a conspiracy of astronomers and poets raised to heaven, and gave its name to a constellation. Theocritus sends to the wife of Nicias at Miletus a spindle as a present, accompanied by a set of verses. The rude savage Polyphemus becomes in the Idyl of Theocritus a sentimental lover, who longs to kiss the white hand of his mistress Galatea, and is so far advanced in the lore of courtship, that when the lady makes advances by pelting him with apples he pretends not to see, in order to rouse her love by neglect. It would appear that flattery and attention on the part of men aroused in women all the arts of coquetry. Gallantry on the one hand and coquetry on the other may not be the highest form of sexual relations, but they indicate an advance from the time when women were either household drudges or slaves kept for the indulgence of appetite. According to Pericles and his contemporaries, all outside the walls of her house should be a closed world to a woman; but we find Phila, wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, undertaking a diplomatic diplomatic mission on behalf of her husband; and at Alexandria we hear of female poets and painters, and even a woman, Histiæa, who writes a learned topographical commentary on the Iliad. How much liberty the wives of the citizens of Alexandria enjoyed appears from the Idyl of Theocritus, which represents Gorgo and Praxinoë as going, attended only by a maid, to the festival of Adonis, exchanging lively banter with the passers-by, and in a crush accepting the protection of a friendly stranger. It will probably occur to the reader that our remarks as to the altered status of women are not borne out fully by what remains of the new Attic comedy. This is to some extent the case; the change took place earliest in the great cities of Asia and Egypt; perhaps latest of all in Athens, where a vast mass of feeling and tradition had to be encountered. Cultivated men of the world, like Menander and Philemon, did not concern themselves much with new movements in society, unless they offered them a chance for ridicule. But they seem to have violently attacked the growth of Oriental superstitions, and, if we knew more of their works, we might find that some of the shafts of their ridicule were directed against innovating women. It is well pointed out by Helbig that one circumstance in which we may trace the growing sentiment of the age is the rise of a love of nature of a character new to the Hellenic mind. As long as the Greeks lived in the full enjoyment of their own beautiful country, their love for the face of nature was a feeling which existed, but of which they were scarcely conscious; but when they were cooped up in great cities in the plains of Asia and Africa, that love became a sentiment and a longing. Their desire for nature, being no longer satisfied with daily enjoyment, led them to resort to the practice of forming artificial parks, in which the scattered beauties of nature were gathered as it were into a nosegay. Such practice was not new in Asia, where the great kings of Babylon and Persia had long ago stilled the same want in the same manner, but it was new to Hellenes. Antioch on the Orontes became celebrated for its splendid park, Alexandria was full of open squares, and the west end of the city of detached houses and pleasant gardens. The same taste may be traced in the contemporary poetry, more especially in that of Theocritus, and even in the painting of contemporary vases, in which landscapes begin to appear, not quite conventionally treated, but showing touches fresh from nature. Kindred to this is the love of hunting, which is far more prominent among the Successors of Alexander than in the previous age. With the sentiment for nature realism in art goes naturally. In the statues of the school of Lysippus the portrayal of the different parts of the body is complete; there is a careful rendering of muscles, sinews, veins, and fat. Lysistratus, the brother of Lysippus, was the first to take moulds of the faces which he intended to represent. The portraits of the time before Alexander are treated ideally, and individual traits smoothed down. Even of Alexander himself we possess no representation which is not very highly idealized; but of the Greek princes who succeeded him we possess a gallery of portraits, in which every individual character is brought into the strongest relief, sometimes, one would think, even exaggerated. Of the pictures of the same period we have descriptions which show that they were extremely realistic. Thus we are told that in the picture of Apelles, which represented Alexander holding a thunderbolt, the hand and the thunderbolt seemed to stand out from the picture. All sorts of new subjects were chosen, such as a Dutch painter might have envied; Methe drinking out of a glass through which her face showed; Aphrodite looking into the shield of Ares and seeing the reflection of her own form. When the Greek artists of the fifth century had to represent Persians or Amazons, they could only indicate their nationality by a modification of dress; the bodily forms remained the same; but when the sculptors of Pergamus were called on to represent their king's victories over the Gauls, they proceeded in a very different manner. Their study of nature and knowledge of anatomy enabled them to see that the frame of the northern barbarians was of ruder and less symmetrical build than that of the Greeks, and led them to supply to art quite a new series of bodily shapes. The same truth to nature is clear in the terra-cottas of the period, of which a large number have reached England from Tanagra in Boeotia. There are many more phases of Hellenistic life over which, did space permit, we would gladly linger. We have not yet said a word about the relations of the Jews to the successors of Alexander, and the partial subjugation of their spirit by that of the Hellenes. We have not touched on the history of the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily, or on the immense influence exercised by Hellenism on Rome. These and many other such matters we must pass by in silence. Perhaps it was rash to attempt to compress into a short review a statement of the leading characteristics of all the eastern world for a period of two or three centuries. Our only justification is the desire to call more general attention to a period of history, with regard to which the general level of knowledge is very low, and yet which is remarkably full of instruction for modern times. ART. ART. V.-1. Aus Metternich's nachgelassenen Papieren. Her- von Alfons v. Klinkowström. Autorisirte Deutsche OriginalAusgabe. Erster Theil: von der Geburt Metternich's bis zum Wiener Congress (1773-1815). Wien, 1880. 2. Mémoires, Documents et Ecrits divers, laissés par le Prince de Metternich, Chancelier de Cour et d'Etat. Publiés par son Fils, le Prince Richard de Metternich. Classés et réunis M. A. de Klinkowström. Première Partie: depuis la Naissance de Metternich jusqu'au Congrès de Vienne (1773-1815). Paris, 1880. 3. Memoirs of Prince Metternich, 1773-1815. Edited by Prince Richard Metternich. The Papers classified and arranged by M. A. de Klinkowström. Translated by Mrs. Alexander Napier. London, 1880.* PRING RINCE METTERNICH, whose Memoirs have recently been published simultaneously in three languages, was conspicuous amongst the illustrious band of statesmen by whom, between sixty-five and seventy years ago, the politics of Europe were guided or controlled. Their times were exceptionalpregnant with momentous events, destined to become landmarks in history; and the men were on a par with the times. It was they who planned the grand concentrated movement which crushed Napoleon: their work commenced where the victorious generals left off; and on them devolved the task of restoration and reconstruction, when the revolutionary spirit was tamed down, when the tide of conquest was rolled back, when (to borrow the beautiful imagery of Canning) 'the spires and turrets of ancient establishments began to reappear above the subsiding wave:' The world is out of joint, oh, cursed spite! This, it may be taken for granted, was not their mode of As the French and English versions profess to be literal, we are at a loss to account for the three varieties of title-page. In the preface to what is termed Authorized German Original Edition,' Prince Richard Metternich, the editor, states that the writings or fragments of writing (Schriftstücke) left by his father, were part in German, part in French, and that the whole are published in this edition in the language in which they were written, with the exception of the autobiography; the French portions of which are given in German for the sake of uniformity; an insufficient reason for what strikes us to be an unsatisfactory arrangement. looking |