508 

 LIVES OF THE POLISH HEROES. No. II. 



THOMAS ZAN. 



THOMAS ZAN was born of a noble family in Lithuania, in the palati- 

 nate of Nowogrodek, about the year 1791. At an early age he was 

 sent with his four brothers to the Gymnasium of Minsk, which he 

 quitted in 1813, for the schools of the district, at Molodeczno. Even at 

 this early period Zan perfectly understood the power of a spirit of 

 association, and he sought to introduce it among his companions. By 

 his exertions a society was formed, the object of which was to keep 

 alive the old Polish patriotism. The students who were members of it, 

 assembled in the most retired part of the country, to sing in choir their 

 national hymns ; sometimes feigning a war, they formed themselves 

 into battalions, and by a mimic struggle, preluded more serious combats. 

 Zan was the chief, the soul, of these significative games. It was he, 

 who to deceive surveillance of the masters, conceived the idea of giving 

 to his comrades mythological names, and who first set the example, by 

 assuming that of Apollo. 



In 1815, Zan quitted Molodeczno to repair to the University of Wilna. 

 The son of parents but scantily blessed with the gifts of fortune, he 

 was reduced to be at the same time, a student in the class, and tutor 

 to a nephew of Kassemir Kontrym, and, subsequently, to the sons of 

 the president John Chodzko. At this new period of his life the ascen- 

 dancy which the young patriot was destined to exercise over all who 

 approached him, was revealed in a most characteristic manner. The 

 University of Wilna was resorted to by all the youth of Lithuania, 

 Samogitia, White Russia, Wolhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine. Ancient 

 provinces of Poland, whose children thirsted for union and nationality. 

 Zan felt all the power of such elements, and he sought to connect them 

 by an association. 



Having taken a degree of M.A., he acquired an unlimited influence 

 over his class-fellows, and founded a philantrophic society, of which 

 he was unanimously elected the president. He soon felt that he had 

 now to play a part political as well as social, one of amelioration and 

 progression, and he resolved to devote himself to it. A thousand 

 young men, at least, at that period, frequented the university, some 

 rich others poor, some of high others of low birth. To form into one 

 body characters and ranks so dissimilar and unequal, it was necessary 

 to operate by the conviction of a great moral reform, bring together 

 men separated by prejudices, maintain them all on a level of fraternal 

 equality, and, lastly, to rally them round one common centre the love 

 ,of country and of letters. 



In order to accomplish such noble projects, Zan first considered upon 

 what basis he should found an association that should give no umbrage 

 to the government, he turned first his eyes towards the German univer- 

 sities, but preferring rather to create than to imitate, he founded, in 

 1820, the society of te The Radiant Brothers," and drew up the statutes 

 of it himself, which were approved of by the rector of the university, 

 Simon Malewski, and by the Bishop Knudzicz. 



The society prospered, but as is always the case, prosperity begot 

 envy, and drew down upon it the hatred and jealousy of its contem- 



