I

During the Anglo-American Revolution

1770 GOLDSMITH (1728-1774)
1772 Struensee (1737-1772)
1774 First American Congress
1776 Declaration of Independence
1778 Lafayette (1757-1834)

1780 ALFIERI (1749–1803)

1782 Washington (1732-1799) 1784 Franklin (1706-1790)

II

1786

During the French Revolution

Pitt (1759-1806)

1788 Hastings (1733-1818)

(1759-1805)

1790 GŒTHE and SCHILLER (1749-1832)—

1792 The French Republic

1794 Robespierre (1759?-1794)

1796 The Directory

1798 Nelson (1758-1805)

1800 EMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

1802 Peace of Amiens

1804 Napoleon (1769-1821)

1806 Stein (1757-1881)

1808 Wellington (1769-1852)

1810 WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832)

1812 Burning of Moscow

1814 Lundy's Lane, b.

III

FRANKLIN: Autobiography. BANCROFT: History of the IRVING: Life of Washington.

MASSEY: History of the Reign of George III.

United States.

IRVING: Goldsmith.

ALFIERI: Autobiography.

RANDALL: Life of Jefferson.

LOCKHART: Life of Scott.

CARLYLE: Life of Schiller.

LEWIS: Life and Works of Goethe.

CARLYLE: French Revolution.
THIERS: History of the French Revolution.
THIERS: History of the Consulate and Empire.

During the Spanish-American Revolution

1816 Metternich (1773-1859)

1818 Independence of Chili

1820 BYRON and MOORE (1788-1824)-(1779-1852)

1822 Henry Clay (1777-1852)

1824 Missolonghi, siege

1826 George Canning (1770-1827)

1828 Bolivar (1783–1830)

ΔΙ

Since the July Revolution of 1830

1830 WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)

1832 The Orleans Dynasty in France 1834

Sir Robert Peel (1750-1830)

1836 Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
1838 Dost Mohammed (1785-1889)

1840 TENNYSON (b. 1810)

1842 Espartero (b. 1792)

1844 O'Connell (1775-1847)

1846 Mexican War

1848 European Revolution 1850 LONGFELLOW (b. 1807)

JOHN QUINCY

Abbassides. (750-1258 A.D.) The descendants of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed. The first half of the 8th century is the period of the greatest extent of the Caliphate. The will of the High Pontiff of Islam was supreme from the Jaxartes to the Atlantic. The house of Ommiah, under whom these conquests had been made, reigned less than a century, and their fall entailed the dismemberment of the Empire. In 750, the Caliphate of Damascus was transferred, by the result of a ferocious civil war, from the descendants of Moawiyah to those of Abbas. The Ommiads were hunted down through all Asia, and Abul Abbas was established as Caliph on the throne of Damascus. But a single youth of the doomed race escaped from destruction. After a long series of romantic adventures, he found his way into Spain; he there found partisans, by whose aid he was enabled to establish himself as sovereign of the country, and to resist all the attempts of the Abbassides to regain possession of the distant province. From this Abderrahman the Ommiad proceeded the line of Emirs and Caliphs of Cordova. From the year 750, the Mohammedan history loses its unity. The Empire was permanently divided; never again did all the disciples of Islam unite in allegiance to a single representative of the Prophet. The Ommiads of Cordova form the natural centre for the history of Mohammedanism in the West, and the Abbassides in Bagdad for its history in Asia. The latter ruled over Mohammedan Asia for more than five centuries. The Caliphate of the Abbassides was extinguished in the year 1258 A. D., by the Mongols who stormed Bagdad, (the only city at that time in the possession of the Caliphs,) and for seven days deluged its streets with blood. Motazem, the 56th and last Caliph, was sewn up in a cow's hide, and dragged by the conquerors through the streets of his capital. Abdallah. (650 A. D.) The first Saracen general who invaded Latin Africa,

A

(Northern Africa, west of Egypt.) Abdallah's expedition marks the first Mohammedan attack on the West, which was not checked until about 80 years afterwards, on the battlefield between Tours and Poitiers in Central France. Abderrhaman. (731-787 A.D.) The founder of the Ommiad dynasty in Spain, (Caliphate of Cordova.) It was against this Caliph that (778) Charlemagne undertook the expedition so famous in romance, which resulted in the temporary occupation of Navarre and part of Arragon by the Franks, and ended with the battle of Roncesvalles, where Charlemagne's army was wellnigh annihilated, and the renowned Roland lost his life. (See ABBASSIDES.)

Abraham, (2000 B. C.) is the progenitor, not only of the Hebrew nation, but of several cognate tribes. His history is recorded to us with much detail in Scripture, as the very type of a true patriarchal life. His character is that which is formed by such a life: free, simple, and manly, full of hospitality and family affection; truthful to all such as were bound to him by their ties, though not untainted with Eastern craft to those considered as aliens; ready for war, but not a professed warrior; free and childlike in religion, and gradually educated by God's hand to a continually deepening sense of its all-absorbing claims. The place we have to assign to him in Universal History is indicated in Genesis xiv. 5-7. Abraham appears here as the head of a small confederacy of chiefs, powerful enough to venture on a long pursuit to the head of the valley of the Jordan, to attack with success a large force, and not only to rescue Lot, but to roll back for a time the stream of northern immigration. His high position is seen in the gratitude of the people, and the dignity with which he refuses the character of a hireling. 29

Abelard. (1079-1142.) A celebrated French philosopher, the restorer of philosophy in the Middle Ages, who taught with wonderful success in Paris. He simplified and explained everything, presenting philosophy in a familiar form, and bringing it home to men's bosoms. While in the zenith of his popularity he became violently enamored of his pupil Heloise, and forgot his duty towards God and men. His cruel punishment is known. He renounced the world and turned monk. Here he found no peace. He was charged with heresy, and St. Bernard succeeded in getting him condemned by the Church. He sought and found a refuge at Cluny, where he died two years afterwards.

Abulfeda. A celebrated Mohammedan historian and geographer, who wrote a compendious History of Mankind, especially valuable on account of the information it contains about the early Caliphs. His chief work is, "The True Disposition of Countries," of which the description of Syria, his native country, is the most interesting and authentic portion. Died, 1333. Act of Supremacy of Nov., 1534. By this Act, Henry VIII., king of England, was declared "the only supreme Head in Earth of the Church in England." Considerable sarcasm has been levelled at the assumption by Henry of this title. Yet it answered a purpose in marking the nature of the revolution, and the emphasis of the name carried home the change into the mind of the country. It was the epitome of all the measures which had been passed against the encroachments of the spiritual powers within and without the realm; it was at once the symbol of the independence of England, and the declaration that thenceforth the civil magistrate was supreme, within the English dominions, over Church as well as state. Addison and Steele. These two writers introduced into English literature the Essay, a species of writing in which they have never been surpassed by any of their many followers. Addison's poem, "The Campaign," on the victory of Blenheim, and his imposing but frigid tragedy of Cato, have given him a lasting reputation; and Steele also holds a respectable rank among our comic dramatists as the author of "The Tender Husband," and "The Conscious Lovers;" but it is as writers of periodical essays, that they, have sent down their names with most honor to posterity. They started, in 1709, the Tatler, which in 1711 was replaced by the Spectator. This

was a daily publication, containing observations on life and literature by an imaginary Spectator, who communicates them to a small circle of six intimate friends. The delicate imagination and exquisite humor of Addison, and the vivacity and warm-heartedness of Steele, give a charm to these papers which is to be enjoyed, not described. We not only admire the writers, but soon come to love them, and to regard both them and the personages that move about in the world they have created as among our best and best-known friends. (See Macaulay's ESSAY ON ADDISON.) Æmilius Scaurus is a significant illustration of the tone and character of the Roman aristocracy during the epoch of Patrician restoration between the Gracchan and Cinnan revolutions. Marcus Emilius Scaurus was the son of highly noble but not wealthy parents, and therefore compelled to make use of his far from mean talents. He raised himself to the consulship (115), and censorship (109), was long the chief of the senate and the political oracle of his order, and immortalized his name not only as an orator and an author, but also as the originator of some of the principal public buildings executed in this century. But if we look at him more closely, his greatly praised achievements amount merely to this much, that as a general he gained some cheap village triumphs in the Alps, and as a statesman, won, by his laws about voting and luxury, some victories nearly as serious over the revolutionary spirit of the times. His real talent consisted in his being quite as accessible and bribable as any other upright senator, with only this difference, that he discerned with some cunning the moment when the matter began to be hazardous. As commander of the expedition against Jugurtha (111 B. C.), he negotiated a peace with him, in which the interests of the republic were so shamefully betrayed, that it required all his cunning to escape a summary condemnation.

Æschylus. (525-456.) The eldest of the three great tragic poets, (Sophocles and Euripides being the others.) After having distinguished himself as a soldier in the great battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platææ, he made poetry the serious business of his life. The bold sentiments of the soldierpoet, who is inflamed with the love of freedom, reflect the predominant spirit of haughty Athens during the time of the great struggle which she so gloriously maintained. The number of tragedies written by Eschylus

is doubtful, but seven only are extant. The earliest among them is, "The Persians," which is a glorious panegyric upon Athens. The most sublime, and, at the same time, the most simple of all, is the "Prometheus Chained." Shelley, whose whole poetry is deeply imbued with the mysterious power of Eschylus, has imitated the imagery of this play with a success proving that a man must be a poet to truly appreciate the great tragedian. Agathocles, (361-289,) was a soldier of fortune, who raised himself from the meanest beginnings to the throne of Syracuse. He displayed a never surpassed energy and perseverance. Apart from his enterprising genius we know nothing of him, except his sanguinary and faithless disposition. Agathocles, however, though among the worst of Greeks, was yet a Greek, and the mortal foe of the ancient enemy of the Greeks, the Carthaginians. His life was one of great struggle against Carthage for the possession of Sicily. Often was he on the eve of dislodging them from the island, but quite as often they were masters of all Sicily as far as the solid walls of Syracuse. At length he conceived the bold plan of attacking them in their own home in Africa. When they had defeated him, and believed him almost their captive, he suddenly carried the terror of his arms before the walls of Carthage (310). His expedition terminated miserably, but he had pointed out the way to the future enterprises of the Romans. After a long and illustrious reign, Agathocles died in extreme old age, in a state so lamentable and destitute, that, in spite of his tyranny, his misery excites compassion. After his death, the Greeks of Sicily were without any leading power, and the Carthaginians could extend their dominion unmolested. Aix-la-Chapelle, (Peace of.) The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which made an end to the war of the Austrian Succession, was signed Oct. 18, 1748. The object of this war had been to establish four States on the ruins of the House of Austria. But though that house had been deprived of Silesia and the Italian duchies, these losses were small compared with the danger with which it had at first been threatened. It had established its order of succession, and still remained a first-rate Power. France, the chief promoter of the war, gained nothing by it, and had increased her debt by $250 millions, lost her reputation, and ceased to be regarded as the arbitress of Europe. England procured compensation for her commercial losses, established her maritime preponderance, and enforced the recognition of the

exclusion of the Stuart dynasty. But the most important consequence of the war was the elevation of Prussia to a first-rate Power. The morality of the conduct by which Frederick II. achieved this result will hardly bear a strict scrutiny. In some eyes, however, success will be his great justification for it is certain that he increased the Prussian dominions by a third.

Alaric, king of the Visi-Goths, invaded Italy 400 A. D. He besieged Rome three times; the third time he took the city, which was given to pillage. Nothing Pagan did escape but that which found shelter under Christianity. For Alaric was, though a barbarian, a Christian. Heathenism was buried under the ruins of heathen Rome. After ravaging Southern Italy, he was preparing to pass into Africa, when he fell suddenly ill, and died at Cosenza in 410.

Alba, (FERDINAND ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, DUKE OF,) holds the first place among the great men whom Philip II. inherited from his father. A faithful friend and servant of Emperor Charles, Alba attained even in early youth a high degree of glory. He was accounted the pride of the Spanish nobility and the darling of his nation. In the prime of manhood, during the German campaigns, when he stood, a consummate captain, at the side of Charles, the cause and warnings he gave his master were wholly on the side of mercy. It awakes a melancholy feeling to compare the beautiful picture of Alba's youth and manhood with the cruelties which in his old age he perpetrated in the Netherlands, whither he was sent by Philip in 1567. He was actually sent thither to terrify the inhabitants into submission. It has been computed that in six years upwards of 18,000 individuals perished by Alba's order under the hand of the executioner. But the resolute firmness of an irritated people was proof against this. The revolt, instead of being suppressed, took constantly greater dimensions, and after six years' fruitless efforts to quell it, Alba solicited to be recalled. In December, 1573, he was superseded by Requesens, and soon after his return to Spain was imprisoned. He was, however, subsequently released to undertake the conquest of Portugal, which he rapidly executed (1580). Died, 1582. (See Motley: RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.) Alberoni, (1664-1752,) cardinal and first minister of Spain. He formed many schemes for the extension of the power of Spain, invading Sardinia