Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/152

Rh 136 M A C M A C Macdouald had none of that military genius which distinguished Davoust, Massena, and especially Key, nor of that military science conspicuous in Marmont and St Cyr, but nevertheless his campaign in Switzerland gives him a rank far superior to such mere generals of division as Oudinot and Dupont. This capacity for independent command made Napoleon, in spite of his defeats at the Trebbia and the Katzbach, trust him with large corps d armee till the end of his career. As a man, his character cannot be spoken of too highly ; no stain of cruelty or faithlessness rests on him. He retained always the frank honour of a soldier of fortune ; but he never forgot that he was a gentleman, or disgraced the new nobility of Napoleon by ridiculous pretensions. Macdonald was especially fortunate in the accounts of his military exploits, Mathieu Dumas and Segur having been on his staff in Switzerland. See Dumas, tivenements Militaircs ; and Segur s rare tract, Lettre sur la campagne du GZniral Macdonald dans Us Orisons en 1800 et 1801 (1802). Also consult Pelet s excellent Campagne de 1809, and Segur s iSloge (1842). MACDONALD, LAWRENCE (1798-1878), sculptor, was born at Gask, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1798, and in early life served as a mason s apprentice. Having shown an aptitude for stone carving, he went while still a youth to Edinburgh as an art student at the Trustees Academy, finding at the same time a good deal of occasional employ ment in carving coats of arms and other ornamental figures on the gateways or walls of country houses. By the help of friends he was enabled to visit Rome, whence, after a stay of two or three years, he returned to Edinburgh in 1826. During the next few years he executed a consider able number of commissions for busts, and also devoted a good deal of time to the designing of ideal subjects, in which branch of his art, however, the public interest was comparatively slight. From 1832 until his death on March 4, 1878, his home was in Rome; during the long period of forty-six years his chisel never rested, and the number of works that issued from his studio, chiefly in the department of portrait sculpture, was very great. Among his ideal works may be mentioned Ulysses and his Dog Argos, Andromeda chained to the Rock, Eurydice, Hya cinth, a Siren, and a Bacchante. His busts, while excellent as likenesses, are remarkable for purity and dignity of style : and the ideal works are at once full of grace and - carefully correct in form, design, and treatment. Plate III. MACEDONIA, when that name is taken in its widest signification, is the country between Thrace on the east and Illyria on the west, bounded on the S. by Thessaly and the ^Egean Sea, and on the N. by the lands which belong to the basin of the Danube. The most definite limit in its physical geography is that towards Illyria, where the Scardus range, which still bears the name of Schar, forms a continuous barrier between the two countries; on the side of Thessaly also, Mount Olympus and the Cambunian mountains constitute a well-marked frontier. In the other two directions its natural limits are less clearly defined. Towards the east, during the greater part of its history, the river Strymon was regarded as its proper boundary ; but after the foundation of the city of Philippi it encroached on Thrace, and extended as far as the river Nestus, or even Mount Rhodope. &quot;With regard to the features of the country immediately to the north of Macedonia a misconception long prevailed, which has only of late years been dispelled by geographical research. Owing to a misinterpretation of a passage in Strabo (vii. fragm. 10; cf. vii. 5, 1), it was long believed that the country between the Danube and the ^Egean was divided in the middle by a lofty range of mountains, which formed a continuation of the main chain of the Alps as far as the Euxine ; and this mistake is perpetuated in many of our maps at the present day. But since this district has been explored, first by Grisebach, and afterwards by Von Hahn, it has been known that along one important portion of this supposed line, directly to the north of Macedonia and south-east of the modern principality of Servia, the hill do not rise to any considerable elevation, and that affluents of the Margus (Morava), which flows into the Danube, and of the Axius (Vardar), which runs to the ^Egean, rise close together in the upland plain of Kossova, the scene of the great battle in which the Servian monarchy was overthrown by Sultan Amurath I. in 1389. This watershed may be regarded as the northern boundary of Macedonia. But the extended limits which have here been given did not belong to the district that bore that name in early times. The original Macedonia was confined to the inland region west of the Axius, between that river and the Scardus mountains, and did not include the northern portion, which was known as Pseonia,. or the coast-land which, together with the eastern districts, was inhabited by Thracian tribes, and was regarded by the Greeks at the time of the Peloponnesian war as part of Thrace. The people of this country were not Hellenic, though its rulers ultimately succeeded in claiming that title for themselves, at the time when Alexander I. was admitted as a com petitor at the Olympic games. The same thing may be said of the land itself, the appearance of which presents many points of contrast to that of Greece proper. Instead of the delicate, bright, and varied scenery of that country, with its clear atmosphere and sharp outlines, we find in Macedonia broad masses of mountains, extensive sweeps of lowland, and uniformity of colour. The climate of the inland regions also is severe, so that the cypress and other trees which flourish in Greece will not grow there. The river Axius divides Macedonia into two parts, the eastern of which resembles the neighbouring country of Thrace in the irregularity of its surface ; but in the western part there is a succession of valley-plains, generally elevated themselves, though deeply sunk among the rocky walls that surround them. These lie under the flanks of Mount Scardus, and differ in a still more striking manner from the country of Illyria on the further side of that chain, which is made up of a number of irregular, and usually narrow, river-valleys, separated from one another by rugged mountains. The characteristics of these valley- plains are the well-defined basins in which they lie, their rich alluvial soil, and the river which waters each of them respectively, and in each case makes its exit through a narrow passage, which is its only means of escape. The northernmost and smallest of these is now called the Tettovo, and from it the main stream of the Axius issues. At the southern extremity of this a branch detaches itself from the Scardus, and bending southward forms an import ant secondary chain, which is continued until, under the nime of Bermius, it approaches Mount Olympus. This branch, in the upper part of its range, forms the eastern boundary of the second and most important valley-plain, that of Pelagonia (now the plain of Monastir), from which the Erigon (Czerna) forces its way to join the Axius. This plain, which is 40 miles in length by 10 in breadth, and 1500 feet above the sea, was one of the primitive seats of the Macedonian race, and was suited for developing a hardy yet thriving population which might afterwards become a great people. Here is laid the scene of the story of the foundation of the Macedonian monarchy, which Herodotus has related (viii. 137, 138). According to this, three brothers of the family of the Temenidse of Argos, having entered the service of the king of the country, and having been defrauded by him of their wages, made their escape in a romantic manner, the narrative of which contains numerous fabulous incidents, and ultimately conquered all Macedonia. The southern part of this plain was called Lyncestis, and was the scene of the encounter between Brasidas and the Illyrians, which Thucydides has described (iv. 124-28); the famous retreat of that general was made by the pass at its south eastern extremity.