Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/116

 100 S I S S I S department of the Leman. In 1813 he visited Paris for the first time and abode there for some years, mixing much in literary society. Although a Liberal and in his earlier days almost an Anglomaniac, he did not welcome the fall of the empire. During the Hundred Days he defended Napoleon's constitutional schemes or promises, and had an interview with the emperor himself which is one of the chief events of a not very eventful life. After the Restoration he lei't Paris. On completing his great book on the Italian republics he undertook a still greater, the Histoire des Franqais, which he planned on a vast scale, and of which during the remaining twenty-three years of his life he published twenty-nine volumes. His untiring industry enabled him to compile many other books, but it is on these two that his fame chiefly rests. The earlier displays his qualities in the most favourable light, and has been least injuriously affected by subsequent writings and investigations. The Histoire des Fran$ais, as a careful and accurate sketch on the great scale, has been entirely superseded by that of M. Henri Martin, while it is not to be mentioned, as a work of historical or literary genius, in the same category with that of Michelet. Sainte-Beuve has with benevolent sarcasm surnamed the author "the Rollin of French History," and the praise and the blame implied in the comparison are both perfectly well deserved. In April 1819 Sismondi married an English lady, Miss Allen, whose sister was the wife of Sir James Mackintosh. and the marriage appears to have been a very happy one. His later years were chiefly spent at Geneva, in the politics of which city he took a great, though as time and changes went on a more and more chagrined, interest. Indeed, in his later days he became a kind of reactionary. He died at Geneva on June 25, 1842. Besides the works above mentioned he had executed many others, his custom for a long period of years being never to work less than eight hours a day. The chief of these are Nouveaux Principes d'JlJconomie Politique (1819), an historical novel entitled Julia Severn ou I' An 492 (1822), Histoire de la Renaissance de la Liberte en Italie (1832), Histoire de la Chute de I' Empire Romain (1835), Precis de V Histoire des Fran$ais, an abridgment of his own book (1839), with several others, chiefly political pamphlets. Sismondi's literary character has been hinted at in the above remarks on his French history. He was exceedingly laborious, for the most part (though not entirely) free from prejudice, and never violent even when he was prejudiced. He had (with much " sensi- bility ") plenty of common sense, though not perhaps any extra- ordinary amount of acuteness in estimating things uncommon, and lie was a little deficient in historical grasp and in the power of taking large views of complicated series of events. His style corre- sponded to his thought, and (putting aside certain solecisms which French critics usually affect to discover in Swiss writers) lacks point, picturesqueness, and vigour. Of his moral character no one has ever spoken except in terms of praise, and it appears (which is not invariably the case) to have been as attractive as it was estimable. His chief weakness seems to have been a tendency, frequently observ- able in writers of very great industry, to rank his own productions somewhat too much on a level with those of writers who, if less indus- trious, were infinitely more gifted. Thus he has somewhere naively observed that " he should not object to signing" a certain proportion of a certain book of Chateaubriand's. But this overvaluation of self appears to have been merely naif, and not in the least arrogant. Sismondi's journals and his correspondence with Channing, with the countess of Albany, and others have been published chiefly by Mile. Jlongolfier (Paris, 1863) .nid M. de Saint- Rene" Taillandler. The latter work serves as the chief text of two admirable Lundis of Sainte-Beuve (September 1863), republished In the Nouveaux Lundis, vol. vi. SISTAN, or SEISTAN (SEJISTAN), the ancient Sacastane (Qakasthdna, "land of the Sacse") and the Nimruz or " meridies " of the Vendidad, is situated generally between 30 0' and 31 35' N. lat. and 61 0' and (including Rudbar) 62 40' E. long. Its extreme length is about 100 and its breadth varies from 70 to over 100 miles, but the exact limits are vague, and the modern signification of the name practically comprehends the peninsula formed by the lower Helmand and its embouchure on the one side and the " Hamun " or " lake " on the other. When British arbitra- tion was brought to bear upon the disputed claims of Persia over this country in 1872, it was found necessary to sup- pose two territories one compact and concentrated, which was called "Sistdn Proper," the other detached and irre- gular, called " Outer Sistdn." Of each of these a brief description will be given. 1. Sistan Proper is bounded on the north by the "NaizAr," or reed-bed which fringes the " Hamun " or expanse ; west by the Hamiin itself, of which the hill called " Kuh-i-Khwajah " marks the central point ; south by a line shutting in Sikuha and all villages and lands watered by the main Sistan Canal ; and east by the old bed of the Helmand, from a mile above the dam at Kohak to the mouth. Kal'ah-i-nau and Rindan are among the more northerly inhabited villages. The Kuh-i-Khwajah is a sufficient indication of the western side. Burj-i-'Alam Khan should be included within the southern boundary as well as Sikuha. Khwdjah Ahmad and Jahanabad, villages on the left bank, or west of the true bed of the Helmand, denote the eastern line. The whole area is estimated at 947 square miles. The fixed population may be roughly stated at 35,000, some 20,000 Sistanis and 15,000 settlers, the greater part of whom are Parsiwans, or rather, perhaps, a Persian-speaking people. To the above numbers may be added 10,000 Baluch nomads. Taking the aggregate at 45,000, and look- ing at the extent of country comprehended, we find nearly 48 persons to the square mile. These figures are eight times in excess of the proportional result found for the whole of Persia. It should be explained that the designation Sistdn Proper is not arbitrarily given. The territory com- prehended in it is spoken of as Sistan by the dwellers on the right bank of the Helmand, in contradistinction to their own lands. At the same time it could only be but a fractional part as indeed the whole country under consideration could only be of the Sistan of Persian history. Sistan Proper is an extensive tract of sand and clay alluvium, generally flat, but irregular in detail. It has heaps, but no hills ; bushes, but no trees, unless indeed three or four tamarisks of aspiring height deserve the name ; many old ruins and vestiges of compafative civi- lization, but few monuments or relics of antiquity. It is well watered by rivers and canals, and its soil is of proved fertility. Wheat or barley is perhaps the staple cultiva- tion ; but pease, beans, oil-seeds, and cotton are also grown. Among fruits, grapes and mulberries are rare, but melons and water-melons, especially the latter, are abundant. Grazing and fodder are not wanting, and besides the reeds peculiar to Sistan there are two grasses which merit notice, that called bannu, with which the bed of the Hamiin abounds on the south, and the taller and less salt Tcirta on the higher ground. 2. Outer Sistdn, the country on the right bank of the Helmand, and east of its embouchure in the Hdmun, extends more than 100 miles in length, or from a point between the Charboli and Khuspas rivers north to Rud- bdr south. In breadth the district of Chakhansur, measur- ing from the old bed of the Helmand, inclusive of Nad Ali, to Kadah, may be estimated at some 30 miles. It Map of Sistan.