the latter the story of Mazeppa. Marya is a narrative in verse
in the manner of Byron. It is written with much feeling and
elegance, and in a most harmonious metre. The chief poem isof
Severin Goszczynski (1803-1876) is Zamek Kaniowski (“The
Tower of Kaniow”). The most interesting poem of Bogdan
Zaleski is his “Spirit of the Steppe” (Duch od stepu). Other
poets of the so-called Ukraine school, which has been so well
inspired by the romantic legends of that part of Russia, are
Thomas or Timko Padoura (who also wrote in the Malo-Russian,
or Little-Russian, language), Alexander Groza, and Thomas
Olizarowski. For many of the original songs and legends we
must turn to the work of Messrs Antonovich and Dragomanov.
Bogdan Joseph Zaleski was born in 1802 in the Ukraine village,
Bohaterka. In 1820 he was sent to the university of Warsaw,
where he had Goszczynski as a fellow student. Besides the
longer poem previously mentioned, he is the author of many
charming lyrics in the style of the Little Russian poems, such
as Shevchenko has written in that language. He died at Villepreux,
in France, in 1886, after more than fifty years of exile.
Michael Grabowski (1805-1863) belongs also to this school by
his fine Melodies of the Ukraine (1828). Maurice Goslawski
also won fame by his Poems of a Polish Outlaw in the struggle
of 1830-1831. A poet of great vigour was Stephen Garczynski
(1806-1833), the friend of Mickiewicz, celebrated for his War
Sonnets and his poem entitled The Deeds of Wacław.
Wincenty Poi (1807-1872) was born at Lublin, and though of foreign extraction by both parents proved an ardent patriot. He wrote a fine descriptive work, Obrazy z zycia i podrózy (“Pictures of Life and Travel”), and also a poem, Piesn o ziemi naszej (“Song of our Land”). For about three years from 1849 he was professor of geography in the university of Cracow. In 1855 he published Mohort, a poem relating to the times of Stanisłaus Poniatowski. Ludwik Władyslaw Kondratowicz (who wrote chiefly under the name of Syrokomla) was born in 1823 in the government of Minsk, and died on the 15th of September 1862 at Vilna. His parents were poor, and he received a meagre education, but made up for it by careful self-culture. One of his most remarkable poems is his Jan Dęborog, in which, like Mickiewicz, he has well described the scenery of his native Lithuania. He everywhere appears as the advocate of the suffering peasants, and has consecrated to them many beautiful lyrics. In Kaczkowski the Poles found a novelist who treated many periods of their history with great success. His sympathies, however, were mostly aristocratic, though modified by the desire of progress. An important writer of history is Karl Szajnocha (1818-1868), born in Galicia of Czech parents. He began his labours with The Age of Casimir the Great (1848), and Bolesław the Brave (1849), following these with Jadwiga and Jagiello, in three volumes (1855-1856)—a work which Spasovich, in his Russian History of Slavonic Literature, compares in vigour of style and fullness of colour with Macaulay's History of England and Thierry's Norman Conquest. Our author was still further to resemble the latter writer in a great misfortune; from overwork he lost his sight in 1857. Szajnocha, however, like Thierry and the American Prescott, did not abandon his studies. His excellent memory helped him in his affliction in 1858 he published a work in which he traced the origin of Poland from the Varangians (Lechicki początek polski), thus making them identical in origin with the Russians. He began to write the history of John Sobieski, but did not live to finish it, dying in 1868, soon after completing a history of the Cossack wars, Dwa lata dziejów naszych (“Two Years of Our History”). A writer of romances of considerable power was Joseph Korzeniowski (1797-1863), tutor in early youth to the poet Krasiński, and afterwards director of a school at Kharkov. Besides some plays now forgotten, he was author of some popular novels, such as Wedrówki oryginata (“Tours of an Original”), 1848; Garbaty (“The Hunchback”), 1852, &c. But the most fertile of Polish authors was J. I. Kraszewski (q.v.). His works constitute a library in themselves; they are chiefly historical and political novels, some or which treat of early times in Poland, and some of its condition under the Saxon kings. As lyrical poets may also be mentioned Jachowicz; Jáskowski, author of a line poem, The Beginning of Winter; Edmund Wasilewski (1814-1846), the author of many popular songs; and Holowinski, archbishop of Mogilev (1807-1855), author of religious poems. The style of poetry in vogue in the Polish parts of Europe at the present time is chiefly lyrical. Other writers deserving mention are Cornelius Ujejski (1823-1897), the poet of the last revolt of 1863; Theophilus Lenartowicz (born 1822), who wrote some very graceful poetry; Sigismund Milkowski (T. T. Tež, born in 1820), author of romances drawn from Polish history, for the novel of the school of Sir Walter Scott still flourishes vigorously among the Poles. Among the very numerous writers of romances may be mentioned Henry Rzewuski (1791-1866); Joseph Dzierzkowski wrote novels on aristocratic life, and Michael Czajkowski (1808-1876) romances of the Ukraine; Valerius Wieloglowski (1865) gave pictures of country life.
In 1882 the Poles lost, in the prime of life, a very promising historian Szujski (born in 1835), and also Schmitt, who died in his sixty-sixth year. Szujski commenced his literary career in 1859 with poems and dramas; in 1860 appeared his first historical production, Rzut oka na Historye Polski (“A Glance at Polish History”), which attracted universal attention; and in 1862 he commenced the publication in parts of his work Dzieje Polski (“The History of Poland”), the printing of which ceased in 1866. The value of this book is great both on account of the research it displays and its philosophical and unprejudiced style. One of the last works of Szujski, written in German, Die Poten und Ruthenen in Gatizien, attracted a great deal of attention at the time of its appearance. Schmitt got mixed up with some of the political questions of the day—he was a native of Galicia and therefore a subject of the Austrian emperor—and was sentenced to death in 1846, but the penalty was commuted into imprisonment in Spielberg, whence he was released by the revolution of 1848. In 1863 he took part in the Polish rebellion, and was compelled to fly to Paris, where he only returned in 1871. His chief works are History of the Polish People from the Earliest Times to the year 1763 (1854), History of Poland in the 18th and 19th Centuries (1866), and History of Poland from the time of the Partition (1868), which he carried down to the year 1832. In opposition to the opinion of many historians, his contemporaries, that Poland fell through the nobility and the diets, Schmitt held (as did Lelewel) that the country was brought to ruin by the kings, who always preferred dynastic interests to those of the country, and by the pernicious influence of the Jesuits. Adalbert Kętrzyński, who succeeded Bielowski in 1877 in his post of director of the Ossolinski Institute at Lemberg, is the author of some valuable monographs on the history of Poland. He was born in 1838. Casimir Stadnicki has treated of the period of the Jagiellons; and Szaraniewicz, professor at the university of Lemberg, has written on the early history of Galicia. Thaddeus Wojciechowski has published a clever work on Slavonic antiquities. Xavier Liske, born in 1838, processor of universal history at Lemberg, has published many historical essays of considerable value, and separate works by him have appeared in the German, Polish, Swedish, Danish and Spanish languages The “Sketch of the History of Poland” (Dzieje Potskie w zarysie) by Michael Bobrzyński, born in 1849 in Cracow (professor of Polish and German law), is a very spirited work, and has given rise to a great deal of cont rovers on account of the opposition of many of its views to those of the school of Lelewel. Vincent Zakrzewski professor of history at Cracow, has written some works which have attracted considerable attention, such as On the Origin and Growth of the Reformation in Poland, and After the Flight of King Henry, in which he describes the condition of the country during the period between that king's departure from Poland and the election of Stephen Batory. Smolka has published a history entitled Mieszko the Elder and his Age. Wladyslaw Wislocki has prepared a catalogue of manuscripts in the Jagiellon library at Cracow. Dr Joseph Casimir Plebański, besides editing the Biblioteka warszawska, a very valuable literary journal which stands at the head of all works of the kind in Poland, has also written a dissertation (in Latin) on the liberum veto which puts that institution in a new light. Felix Jezierski, the previous editor of the above-mentioned journal, published in it translations of parts of Homer, and is also the author of an excellent version of Faust.
The history of Polish literature has not been neglected. We first have the earl history of Felix Bentkowski (1781-1852), followed by that of Michael Wiszniewski (1794-1865), which, however, only extends to the 17th century, and is at best but a quarry of materials for subsequent writers, the style being very heavy. A “History of Eloquence” (Historya wymowy w Polsce) was published by Karl Mecherzyski. An elaborate history of Polish literature has been written by Anton Malecki, who is the author of the best Polish grammar (Gramatyka historyczno-porównawcza jezyka polskiego, 2 vols., Lemberg, 1879). The Polish bibliography of Karl Estreicher, director of the Jagiellon library at Cracow, is a work of the highest importance. One of the most active writers on Polish philology and literature is Wladysław Nehring, whose numerous contributions to the Archiv für slavische Philologie of Professor Jagic entitle him to the gratitude of all who have devoted themselves to Slavonic studies. Wladimir Spasowicz, a lawyer of St Petersburg, assisted Pipin in his valuable work on Slavonic literature. The lectures of Professor Cybulski (d. 1867) on Polish literature in the first half of the 19th century are written with much spirit and appreciation. The larger poetical works which appear during that time are carefully analysed.
In recent times many interesting geological and anthropological investigations have been carried on in Poland. In 1868 Count Constantine Tyszkiewicz published a valuable monograph on the Tombs of Lithuania and Western Ruthenia. And Professor Joseph Łepkowski, of Cracow, has greatly enriched the archaeological museum of his native city.
In philosophy the Poles (as the Slavs generally) have produced but few remarkable names. Goluchowski, the brothers Andrew and John Sniadecki, the latter of whom gained a reputation almost European, Bronislaw Trentowski, Karol Liebelt and Joseph Kremer
