BULGAKIA. 



65 



In 1855 a new edition of his poems was 

 published, and in 1863 appeared "Thirty 

 Poems," a small volume of new productions. 

 In 1864 the seventieth anniversary of his 

 birthday was celebrated by the Century Club 

 of New York, an event which brought togeth- 

 er many of the prominent literary men of the 

 country, and called forth eulogistic letters from 

 many others who were unable t6 be present. 

 These letters, with the proceedings of the fes- 

 tival, were afterward published in a volume. 

 Mr. Bryant's translations into English blank 

 verse of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," the 

 former appearing in 1870 and the latter in 



1871, at once put him in the foremost rank of 

 the translators of those great epics. In 1876 

 a new and complete edition of his poems was 

 published. His " Library of Poetry and Song " 

 has proved a popular holiday gift book. Be- 

 sides being the active editor of the "Evening 

 Post " up to the time of his death, he was the 

 editor of " Picturesque America," published by 

 D. Appleton & Co., and was engaged with 

 Sidney Howard Gay in the preparation of a 

 popular history of the United States. Few 

 literary men have been oftener called upon to 

 pay public tribute to the memory of distin- 

 guished Americans than has Mr. Bryant. He 

 delivered a funeral oration on the artist Thom- 

 as Cole in 1848, and a discourse on the life 

 and writings of James Fenimore Cooper in 

 1852, which was followed by a similar tribute 

 to Washington Irving in 1860. He was the 

 orator at the dedication of the statue of S. F. 

 B. Morse in 1871, of Shakespeare and Scott in 



1872, of Halleck in 1877, and of Mazzini in 

 1878, all of which are placed in Central Park 

 in New York. His address on the last-named 

 occasion, which was made but a short time 

 before his death, was his last appearance in 

 public. The presentation of the "Bryant 

 Vase " in 1876 was one of the many distin- 

 guished honors which the poet has received. 



In 1845 Mr. Bryant bought an old Dutch 

 mansion near what is now Roslyn, on Long 

 Island. This continued to be his residence for 

 a part of the year till the time of his death. 



Mr. Bryant's poems are characterized by 

 purity and elegance in the choice of words, a 

 concise and vigorous diction, delicacy of fancy 

 and elevation of thought, and a genial yet sol- 

 emn and religious philosophy. He was an 

 enthusiastic lover of nature, and a close ob- 

 server of its phenomena. In pastoral beauty 

 many of his poems are not excelled. His prose 

 writings are marked by pure, manly, straight- 

 forward, and vigorous English. He was a per- 

 son of delicate sensibilities, extreme purity and 

 integrity, and of unflinching adherence to prin- 

 ciple. So regular was Mr. Bryant in his habits 

 of living, working, and taking exercise, that 

 until his final illness his mental and physical 

 vigor continued to be remarkable in one of his 

 advanced age. 



f BULGARIA, a province of the Turkish Em- 

 pire, which was constituted by the treaty of 

 VOL. xvni. 5 A 



San Stefano, as modified by the treaty of Ber- 

 lin, in 1878, an autonomous tributary princi- 

 pality. Area about 33,000 square miles, popu- 

 lation 1,859,000, of whom about 1,100,000 are 

 Christians, mostly of the Greek Church, and 

 700,000 are Mohammedans. The principal- 

 ity of Bulgaria nearly corresponds with the 

 former vilayet of the Danube, and lies on tLe 

 south side of the Danube River, extends to the 

 Balkan Mountains, by which it is separated 

 from the newly constituted Turkish province 

 of Eastern Roumelia, and stretches from the 

 coast of the Black Sea on the east to the bor- 

 ders of Servia on the west. The country near- 

 est the Danube is a district of fertile plain 

 lands; these are succeeded by a hill region, 

 which is well adapted for habitation and for 

 tillage except upon the crests of the hills; and 

 beyond rise the mountains. An extensive 

 marshy region between the lower Danube and 

 the Black Sea, called the Dobrudja, bounded 

 on the south by a line extending from east of 

 Silistria on the Danube to south of Mangalia 

 on the Black Sea, and containing a population 

 of between one and two hundred thousand, 

 consisting principally of Turks and Wallachs, 

 which was formerly a part of Bulgaria, was 

 given by the treaties of 1878 to Roumania. 

 The plain lands of the valley of the Danube 

 are well adapted to the cultivation of grass and 

 wheat, and the hill regions furnish consider- 

 able forests and support large herds of cattle. 

 The province has been regarded as one of the 

 principal sources of grain-supply to Turkey, 

 and has furnished the state with about one 

 tenth of its revenues. The Balknn Mountains, 

 although they constitute a formidable military 

 barrier, form no natural ethnical or political 

 boundary. The predominating population of 

 Eastern Roumelia are as intensely Bulgarian 

 in national feeling and as active in national en- 

 terprises as the people of the northern prov- 

 ince, and have been identified with them in 

 history and in all popular movements ; and it 

 is difficult to speak of Bulgaria and the Bulga- 

 rians without including the southern territory 

 and its people. 



The Bulgarians were originally of a race re- 

 lated to the Tartars and Turks, and are first 

 mentioned in history as inhabitants of the re- 

 gions of the Volga River, whence they made 

 occasional incursions into the Roman Empire. 

 In the seventh century they crossed the Volga, 

 and, mingling with the Slavic tribes, occupied 

 the country north and south of the Danube, 

 and built up a powerful state. Their language 

 was replaced by a tongue almost purely Slavic, 

 on account of which they have become classed 

 with the Slavic peoples; but in physical traits 

 their Tartar characteristics prevailed, and still 

 endure. They were converted to Christianity 

 in the ninth century, during the reign of King 

 Boris, or Bogoris, under the ministrations of 

 the so-called Slavic apostles, Cyril and Metho- 

 dius. The Bulgarian nation attained great ex- 

 tent and power under the successors of Bo- 



