EOTVOS, JOZSEF. 



BAH1NONDA8, 



784 



Kossuth, though mot nearly allied to thote of the latter. While 

 KosMith wa. at that time disposed to rely ou the old machinery of the 

 Hungarian institution*, objectionable a* much of it was, ni the best 

 nmni of counteracting the despotic tendencies of the Austrian court, 

 Eotvo* advocated a bolder course, and was for extensive reforms, in 

 accordance with the spirit of the age, to be carried out by a vigorous 

 centralised government, unchecked by the prejudices of local authori- 

 ties, to which he thought too much' power of obstruction was already 

 conceded. Though the Eotvos party was far from equal, either in 

 numbers or influence, to the others, it had considerable effect on the 

 progress of affairs. A pamphlet by its leader on prison discipline, in 

 K hich he oppoeed the American system, which had been advocated by 

 Parkas, the American traveller, produced a strong impression ; and 

 a committee of the diet was appointed to consider the subject, in 

 which he had a seat Count Louis Batthyani aud Kotviis were at this 

 time the leaders of the opposition in the upper house of the Hungarian 

 Diet, and Eotvos was iU ablest speaker, occupying, from his rank, his 

 fine person, and his splendid talents, one of the very first positions in 

 Hungarian society. 



At this time from some unfortunate financial speculations of his 

 father, which were shipwrecked by the monetary crisis of 1841, the 

 family fortune was irretrievably ruined. Eotvos was reduced to com- 

 parative poverty, and though a career of power and wealth would 

 undoubtedly have been open to him if he had chosen to accept them 

 from the Austrian court, with the sacrifice of some portion of his 

 principles, he at once, without wavering, trusted his fortunes to the 

 scantily remunerated labours of the pen. To demonstrate the vices 

 of the old Hungarian system of government by county elections, he 

 commenced a tale, intended at first to be little more than a political 

 pamphlet in action, on the plan of Miss Martineau's ' Illustrations of 

 i'olitical Economy.' It was published in numbers, and, as in the case 

 of the ' Pickwick Club,' it grew both on the author aud the public as 

 it went on till at last it turned out something very superior to what 

 either had expected. ' A' Falu Jegyzoje,' or ' The Village Notary,' is 

 one of the best national tales in the whole circle of European litera- 

 ture. In the second volume in particular the liveliness and vigour of 

 the narrative, the easy and natural manner in which incident after 

 incident keeps turning up, some of a humorous, some of a political 

 character, and both treated with an equal mastery, present a combina- 

 tion of excellence which will not easily be matched, except in the 

 masterpieces of Walter Scott Strange to say, the Hungarian critics 

 were some of the last to discover an excellence which soon carried the 

 work into circles which no Hungarian novel had ever visited before. 

 The English translation by Otto Wenckstern, published in 1850, with 

 a preface by 1'ultzky, the author's former friend, to whom the original 

 was dedicated, is executed with remarkable freedom and vigour, but 

 u lees close to the Hungarian than the German one by Mailath, which 

 is an exact reproduction of the original The ' Notary,' which was 

 published in 1845, was followed in 1847 by a third romance ' Magya- 

 rorszog 1514-ben,' or 'Hungary in 1514,' which is a delineation of the 

 peasants' revolt, crushed at that time with singular cruelty by the 

 nobles. The scene is hud on the banks of the Tomes in the very 

 localities which a few years later were destined to be the theatre of 

 thu momentous struggle which has terminated in the temporary loss 

 of II uDgariau independence. Eotvos's political labours were continued 

 with as much vigour as bis literary ones. For some time ho wrote 

 the leading articles in the ' Pesti Hirlap,' one of the leading news- 

 papers of Hungary, and these were collected and published in a volume 

 under the title of ' Reform.' His opponents were of course not slow 

 to avail themselves of the old reproaches which have been directed 

 against the combination of politics and literature, and perhaps the 

 authorities which he cites in his defence in one of his articles will 

 hardly be regarded as conclusive. "Richelieu," he says, "occupied 

 himself with writing tragedies, Frederick the Great considered himself 

 a poet, Canning is not regarded as an altogether brainleis statesman, 

 though he is the author of some fine verses, aud the whole of the last 

 Whig ministry, which consisted almost exclusively of poets, did not 

 govern England so badly after all so long as it had a majority." 

 Toe time was now approaching in which the whole existence of 

 Hungary was to be shaken to its foundations. Eotvos, when after 

 the revolution of February 1848, he went to attend the diet of 

 Presburf, told bis friends, I shall return a minister of state." He 

 WM correct in bin prediction. He was offered and accepted the post 

 of minister of public instruction in the lintthyani administration. Ho 

 brought forward a large plan for the improvement of education, which 

 was strongly opposed by different religious parties on the samo 

 ground on which similar plans have been opposed in England, the 

 Catholic, protesting that Eotvos showed too much favour to the 

 Protestants, and the Protestant, to the Catholics. At length Kossuth 

 by threatening to resign if the measure was rejected, carried it through 

 the dwt. Bat the headlong coune of events which followed had much 

 that was so ali.n to the feelings and opinions of Eotvos that he 

 became every day more averse to his position, and finally the out- 

 break on the bridge at I'enth in which Count Lamberg, appointed by 

 the emperor of Austria governor of Hungary, was torn to pieces by 

 the populace, determined him to withdraw. He left the country and 

 went first to hi. family at Vienna, tbn to Munich, and during the 

 momentous crisis that succeeded remained quietly in Bavaria. ' To 



hose who know me and my way of thinking." ho wrote to a friend, 

 it is easy to explain why I retired, to others it is impossible." 

 Amid these contests," he said on another occasion, " I feel myself 

 useless; Heaveu did not moke mo for a man of revolutions." )lii 

 riend Pulszky informs us in the preface to the English translation of 

 .he ' Village Notary,' that Eotvos was often in the habit of relating to 

 lis friends that, when at Paris in 1837, he had visited Madame Le 

 S'ornmnt, the famous fortune-teller, and that she had told him, " You 

 are rich ; you will be poor : you will marry a rich wifa ; you will be 

 a minister of state, and you will die on the scaffold.'' The other 

 lortions of the prediction had been accomplished, and Batthyani, the 

 iead of the ministry of which Eotvos was a member, did die on the 

 scaffold, a victim of the Austrian government. 



From Bavaria Eotvos issued a German pamphlet 'On the Giving of 

 Equal Rights. to Different Nationalities,' in which he aimed at showing 

 ,hat to do so was destructive of the unity and vigour of a state. He 

 ias since returned to Hungary, and has published a large political 

 treatise ' On the Influence of the Leading Ideas of the Nineteenth 

 Hentury on the State,' both in Hungarian and German, the German 

 translation mode by himself. The first volume of this work was issued 

 n 1851, and the second in 1854. It has been remarked, and apparently 

 with truth, that, although the ideas with which be commenced bis 

 rolitioal career were revolutionary in the extreme, Eotvos, the poet 

 md novelist, has long been remarkable among Hungarian |...l.ti'-i.ui* 

 for the sobriety and moderation of his views, which have lost him the 

 favour of both of the extreme parties in his native country. Tho 

 remark with which he commences bis last work is one quite opposed 

 M ordinary notions, yet one that is not unlikely to be ratified by 

 posterity : " Although it is usual to accuse the age in which we are 

 iving of the grossest materialism, a calm consideration of what is 

 going on around us must convince any one that scarcely a century is 

 to be found in history in which whole nations have more readily offered 

 jp all considerations of their material welfare to the realisation of 

 ideas." 



EPAMINONDAS, a Thebon statesman and soldier, in whose praise, 

 both for talents and virtue, there is a remarkable concurrence of 

 ancient writers. Nepos observes that, before Epaminoudas was born, 

 aud after his death, Thebes was always in subjection to some other 

 power : on the contrary, while he directed her councils, she was the 

 liead of Greece. His public life extends from the restoration of 

 democracy by Pelopidos and the other exiles, B.C. 379, to the battle 

 of Mantiueio, B.C. 362. In the conspiracy by which that revolution 

 was effected he took no part, refusing to stain his bauds with the blood 

 of his countrymen ; but thenceforward he became the prime mover of 

 the Theban state. His policy was first directed to assert the right 

 and to secure the power to Thebes of controlling the other cities of 

 licEotia, several of which claimed to be independent In this cause 

 he ventured to engage his country, single-handed, in war with the 

 Spartans, who marched into Boootia, ao. 371, with a force superior to 

 any which could be brought against them. The Theban generals wi , 

 divided in opinion whether a battle should be risked for to encounter 

 the Lacedemonians with inferior numbers was universally esteeme<l 

 hopeless. Kparninoudas prevailed with his colleagues to venture it, 

 and devised on this occasion a new method of attack. Instead of 

 joining battle along the whole lino, he concentrated nn overwhelming 

 force on one point, directing the weaker part of his line to keep 

 The Spartan right wing being broken, and the king slain, the rest of 

 the army found it necessary to abandon the field. This memorable 

 battle was fought at Louctra. The moral effect of it was much more 

 important than the mere loss inflicted on Sparta, for it overthrew the 

 prescriptive superiority in arms claimed by that state ever since its 

 reformation by Lycurgus. 



This brilliant success led Epamiuondas to the second object of his 

 policy the overthrow of the supremacy of Sparta, and the substitu- 

 tion of Thebes as the leader of Greece in the democratical interest 

 In this hope a Theban army, under his command, marched into 

 Peloponnesus early in the winter, D.C. 869, aud, iu conjunction with 

 the Eleions, Arcadians, and Argians, invaded and laid waste a largo 

 part of Laconia. Numbers of the Helots took that opportunity to 

 shake off a most oppressive slavery ; and Epaminoudas struck a 

 deadly blow at the power of Sparta, by establishing these descendant, 

 of the old Messeuians [AnisTOMKNEs] on Mount Ithome, in Messenia, 

 as an independent state, and inviting their countrymen, scattered 

 through Sicily and Italy, to return to their ancient patrimony. 

 Numbers, after the lapse of 200 years, obeyed the calL This memo- 

 rable event is known in history as the return of the Messeuians. 



In B.c. 308 Epamiuondas again led an army into Peloponnesus ; 

 but not fulfilling the expectations of the people, he was disgraced, 

 and, according to Diodorus (xv. 71), was ordered to serve in the ranks. 

 In that capacity ho is said to have saved the army in Thessaly, when 

 entangled iu dangers which threatened it with destruction ; being 

 required by the general voice to assume the command. He is not 

 again heard of in a public capacity till .<;. 366, when he was sent to 

 support the democratic interest in Achaia, and by his moderation and 

 judgment brought that whole confederation over to the Tbcbau 

 alliance without bloodshed or banishment 



As the narrowness of our limits forbids us to trace the motives 

 which led to the formation of so powerful a Theban party in Pclopon- 



