Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
content to let the loss of provinces , the ravages of Mahometans , or the incursions of Bulgarians , conclude the declension of this once favoured empire . It is not enough for him that the ruin , which followed in the wake of corrupted morals and general effeminacy of manners should be simply acknowledged or only regretted . He raises the curtain , which even then hung over the last spot where Soman arms and civil administration yet lingeredand shows that some portion of that vigorous ritality
, , which made Rome mistress of the world , infused , even in the last agonies of dissolution , a transient energy , and the semblance of at least a material prosperity , into the Eastern empire , during the reigns of the Isaurian princes . The work is , moreover , full of light and easy historical narrative , with many characteristic sketches of incidents that are as romantic as the crimes with which they are distinguished are startling and terrible . From this work we pass to Mr . Grote ' s eleventh volume of his "History
of Greece , " * which includes the later years of the usurpation of Diouysius the elder , and the sixty years which end with the death of Timoleon and Philip of Macedon . We have , therefore , in the present volume , that charmed passage of Grecian history over which every school-boy loves to linger , because it describes the march of Xenophon and his handful of brave companions , and the first check given by Grecian valour to the might and power of Persia . In the character of Xenophon , Mr . Grote
draws the picture of the true democrat of classic times . In the chivalrous soldier , we have the free citizen , the patriot , and the orator combined . For him Grecian education did its utmost ; and it was only when the military spirit of Greece gradually sank , after Alexander ' s destruction of
the Persian host , before the inordinate pursuit of Avealth , and the advent of literature and learning , that the race of Xenophons became extinct , and the glories of Greece gradually died away . Of Demosthenes , Mr . Grote speaks with hearty and unqualified admiration . The narrative of his life and administration is a masterpiece , excelled by nothing that Mr . Grote has hitherto written throughout the whole of this delightful work . We are inspired with the eloquence , by which the mighty orator and the profound statesman ht to move his countrymen to actionand
soug ; with him groan in mournful sympathy over the decline of Athenian spirit , which led to the transfer of the duties of soldiership from the citizen militia into the hands of paid mercenaries and foreign legions . From Greece to France is a rapid transition ; yet Miss Louisa Stuart Costello ' s amusing compilation of anecdote and history , entitled " Memoirs of Mary Duchess of Burgundy , " f is deserving of mention , if it cannot claim a high lace the historical literature of the day . There is
p among hardly any period of French history more interesting than that , in which the daughter of Charles le Temeraire played no unimportant part . She was , if we are to believe her biographer , her father ' s idol ; though he showed his affection in a rather unusual manner , by using her as a snare to entrap the surrounding potentates into lending themselves to his schemes of territorial aggrandisement . Miss Costello ' s work , though not a profound , is a pleasant piece of biography , gleaned from sources in
themselves not worth the trouble of exploring ; and if we are not treated to any very elaborate discussions on matters more nearly connected with politics , or to surmises touching the end and aim of the far-sighted cunning of Louis , the master of State craft , we are amused with abundance
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
content to let the loss of provinces , the ravages of Mahometans , or the incursions of Bulgarians , conclude the declension of this once favoured empire . It is not enough for him that the ruin , which followed in the wake of corrupted morals and general effeminacy of manners should be simply acknowledged or only regretted . He raises the curtain , which even then hung over the last spot where Soman arms and civil administration yet lingeredand shows that some portion of that vigorous ritality
, , which made Rome mistress of the world , infused , even in the last agonies of dissolution , a transient energy , and the semblance of at least a material prosperity , into the Eastern empire , during the reigns of the Isaurian princes . The work is , moreover , full of light and easy historical narrative , with many characteristic sketches of incidents that are as romantic as the crimes with which they are distinguished are startling and terrible . From this work we pass to Mr . Grote ' s eleventh volume of his "History
of Greece , " * which includes the later years of the usurpation of Diouysius the elder , and the sixty years which end with the death of Timoleon and Philip of Macedon . We have , therefore , in the present volume , that charmed passage of Grecian history over which every school-boy loves to linger , because it describes the march of Xenophon and his handful of brave companions , and the first check given by Grecian valour to the might and power of Persia . In the character of Xenophon , Mr . Grote
draws the picture of the true democrat of classic times . In the chivalrous soldier , we have the free citizen , the patriot , and the orator combined . For him Grecian education did its utmost ; and it was only when the military spirit of Greece gradually sank , after Alexander ' s destruction of
the Persian host , before the inordinate pursuit of Avealth , and the advent of literature and learning , that the race of Xenophons became extinct , and the glories of Greece gradually died away . Of Demosthenes , Mr . Grote speaks with hearty and unqualified admiration . The narrative of his life and administration is a masterpiece , excelled by nothing that Mr . Grote has hitherto written throughout the whole of this delightful work . We are inspired with the eloquence , by which the mighty orator and the profound statesman ht to move his countrymen to actionand
soug ; with him groan in mournful sympathy over the decline of Athenian spirit , which led to the transfer of the duties of soldiership from the citizen militia into the hands of paid mercenaries and foreign legions . From Greece to France is a rapid transition ; yet Miss Louisa Stuart Costello ' s amusing compilation of anecdote and history , entitled " Memoirs of Mary Duchess of Burgundy , " f is deserving of mention , if it cannot claim a high lace the historical literature of the day . There is
p among hardly any period of French history more interesting than that , in which the daughter of Charles le Temeraire played no unimportant part . She was , if we are to believe her biographer , her father ' s idol ; though he showed his affection in a rather unusual manner , by using her as a snare to entrap the surrounding potentates into lending themselves to his schemes of territorial aggrandisement . Miss Costello ' s work , though not a profound , is a pleasant piece of biography , gleaned from sources in
themselves not worth the trouble of exploring ; and if we are not treated to any very elaborate discussions on matters more nearly connected with politics , or to surmises touching the end and aim of the far-sighted cunning of Louis , the master of State craft , we are amused with abundance