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LITEEATUEE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1874. 



pouacs the English side. Statesmen who take 

 an interest in the Oriental question, and the 

 role that Hungary shows a disposition to play 

 in it, will find a great deal of information in 

 " The Magyars and other Hungarians," an 

 able book by Franz von Loher, the historian 

 of the Germans in North America. 



^Esthetic and art can boast of a valuable 

 and original acquisition in the clever although 

 somewhat eccentric " Twelve Letters of an 

 ./Esthetic Heretic," under which title Karl 

 Hillebrand, of Florence, a former contributor 

 to the Revue des Deux Mondes, is concealed. 

 GottschalPs well-known "Poetic" has reached 

 a third edition, and Lemke's cheap "Popular 

 ^Esthetic " a fourth. 



I cannot even enumerate the numberless 

 writings which the German ecclesiastical ques- 

 tion daily calls into existence. The theologico- 

 political quarrel about the limits of papal and 

 civil authority, which one imagined was ex- 

 tinct, has broken out with fresh violence, and 

 one might suppose that the times of the 

 Guelphs and the Ghibellines had begun again. 

 Of publications which, keeping clear of the 

 questions of the hour, attack the very founda- 

 tions of the papacy, I may here mention, as 

 the best, the " Critical Inquiries into the Eo- 

 man Legend of St. Peter," by the learned 

 evangelical theologian, E. A. Lipsius ; Volk- 

 mar's lecture, " The Eomish Papal Myth ; " 

 and the critique of the basis of the popedom, 

 by Prof. Frohschammer, of Munich, " The 

 Eock of St. Peter at Eome." But for the 

 knowledge of the dogmas and constitution of 

 the Catholic Church as they have been since 

 the Council of Trent to the present day, the 

 most weighty publication of the year is the 

 " Acta Concilii Tridentini," for the first time 

 printed in a complete form, and from the ori- 

 ginal texts in the Vatican, in two thick vol- 

 umes, by the former head of the Vatican Ar- 

 chives, Father Theiner, whose death has since 

 occurred. This edition was originally com- 

 menced under the direction of Pius IX., before 

 he had fallen into the hands of the Jesuits, 

 stopped at the instance of the society, and 

 completed at Agram by the compiler after his 

 banishment from Eome, under the protection 

 of the well-known opponent, at the Council, 

 of the dogma of the papal infallibility, the 

 Croatian Bishop Strossmayer. 



GREECE. In history, the most important 

 place is unquestionably due to the fifth and 

 last volume of the " History of the Hellenic 

 Nation," by the learned Prof. M. C. Paparigo- 

 poulos. The volume, which fills one thousand 

 pages, presents nothing short of a picture of 

 the civilization of Greece from the thirteenth 

 century to the nineteenth. It is divided into 

 three parts, the first containing the history of 

 the Frankish rule in Greece in the thirteenth . 

 century; the second, her history under the 

 Ottomans; and, thirdly, her efforts to attain a 

 worthy place among the free and civilized na- 

 tions of Europe. M. Paparigopoulos has the 



great merit of having been the first to give a 

 comparative table of coins, and thereby shown 

 the colossal resources of the Byzantine Em- 

 pire. On the other hand, the elegant pen of 

 Dr. D. Vikelas depicts the Byzantines under 

 the most favorable aspect, so far as morality is 

 concerned. I would remark, in passing, that 

 something has always been lacking to the 

 perfection of the Byzantines, and that is rea- 

 son. ^ Finally, our historian maintains that the 

 politicians of the eeventeeth century, known 

 under the name of Phanariotes, entertained, 

 in a higher degree than the Church and its 

 clergy, the feeling of Hellenism. It is true 

 that the Phanariotes always showed clear- 

 sightedness and patriotism, and that the men 

 of that fraction of the nation preserved the 

 spirit of the ancient Hellenic race, while the 

 women preserved the ancient Hellenic type of 

 beauty; but I do not consider it correct to 

 say that the services rendered to the national 

 cause by the Phanariotes equaled, or even 

 surpassed, those of .the Church and her clergy. 

 Leake, who, for a long time to come, will be 

 our teacher, says expressly that it was the 

 Church that preserved the language, and with 

 it the national union. 



Besides the incomparable work of M. Papa- 

 rigopoulos, there have appeared the fourth vol- 

 ume of the "History of the Ionian Islands" 

 (from 1815-1829), by M. Christis; the "His- 

 tory of the Island of Hydra, from the Most 

 Ancient Times down to 1821," by M. Miaulis; 

 a new " History of the War of Independence," 

 by M. Oeconomos ; memoirs of the same war, 

 by M. Dragoumis. They are all interesting for 

 the documents they contain. Among geo- 

 graphical works, two especially deserve par- 

 ticular mention. The first, by M. Miliaraki, is 

 called " The Cyclades," and contains the his- 

 tory and geography of those islands from the 

 earliest period till the Frankish rule. 



M. Sathas has just published, in the fourth 

 volume of his " Library of the Middle Ages," 

 the' unpublished MS. of Michel Psellos, secre- 

 tary, tutor, embassador, and minister of seven 

 emperors in succession. By the publication 

 of the important MS. which the industrious 

 editor found in the National Library in Paris, 

 the gap of one hundred years which existed in 

 Byzantine history, between Leo Diaconos and 

 Anna Comnena, is filled up. 



A new publication of inedited Greek MSS. 

 has been begun at Venice, under the superin- 

 tendence of MM. Triantaphyllis and Grapponi- 

 tis. The first part contains historical and re- 

 ligious writings of the Patriarch Philothens, 

 who lived in the thirteenth century; In the 

 following parts, the editors propose to print 

 only those writings of the patriarch which 

 are immediately connected with the religion, 

 history, and literature of Greece, properly eo 

 called. 



HOLLAND. Our diplomatic literature has 

 been enriched this year by many works of in- 

 terest. As it is impossible to enumerate all 



