Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1179

CON , however, and, like many bold and successful schemers, never knowing when to stand or stop. He knew, I think, more of the business of a bookseller in planning; and executing popular works than any man of his time."—J. T.  CONSTABLE,, an English poet of the sixteenth century. He was the author of "Diana, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H. C., augmented with diverse Quatorzains of honourable and learned Personages, divided into eight decads," 1594. The "Shepherd's Song of Venus and Adonis" was reprinted by Malone in the notes to the tenth volume of his edition of Shakspeare. Constable, who was a Roman catholic, having come secretly to London, was apprehended and confined in the Tower for some time on account of his religion.—R. M., A.  CONSTABLE, : this distinguished landscape painter was born in 1776 at East Bergholt in Suffolk. He was the second son of a miller, and to that fact was fond in after life of attributing the many mills and streams, dams and wears, constantly produced and reproduced in his pictures. He was twenty-four years of age before he took up ail as a profession. He received lessons from Reinagle, R.A., and was greatly patronized by Sir George Beaumont. He had visited London in 1795 and again in 1799, and in 1800 he first entered the academy as a student. Three years afterwards he was residing in America Square, and the exhibitor of a picture in the academy which attracted some attention. But his works in the first instance startled rather than convinced the connoisseurs. Constable simply thought to be truthful—to paint what he saw—and was denounced as an innovator for his pains. He worked on, however, in his fresh, genial, original manner, indebted a little only to his predecessors, Wilson and Gainsborough, and a great deal to his earnest, indefatigable study of nature. His representations of atmospheric effects are singularly striking, and in his day were even more so. For many years quite a gallery of his paintings remained on his hands, but the tide turned at last. In 1829, in his fifty-third year, he was elected an academician. Good fortune smiled on him; he could sell as fast as he could paint; he was recognized and fairly appreciated at last. He doted upon his native fields. "I love," said he, "every style and stump and lane in the village; as long as I am able to hold a brush I shall never cease to paint them.'" At his death another academician, his friend the late C. R. Leslie, published his memoirs and letters. Some students to do honour to his memory purchased one of his landscapes and presented it to the national gallery, in the English art division of which it may still be seen. And a high place must be awarded him in the list of great English painters. If something limited, he was very conscientious—uniting a poetic quality to his realistic views of landscape; a thorough Briton—fond and proud of the moist air of his island—of its rich wood and abundant water, and its ever-varying sky. He resided for many years on Hampstead Heath, painting there some of his most successful works; but he died suddenly and painlessly at a house, 63 Upper Charlotte Street, London, on the 30th March, 1837, no less esteemed as a man than as an artist.—W. T.  CONSTANS I.,, was the third son of Constantine the Great and Fausta. In the division of the empire at his father's death in 337, Italy, Africa, and Western Illyricum were allotted to him; and three years afterwards he acquired the dominions of his eldest brother, Constantine, who had perished in an unsuccessful invasion of his Italian provinces. He was slain in 350 by the partisans of Magnentius.—W. B.  CONSTANS II.,, eldest son of Constantine III., succeeded to the Byzantine throne in 641. Through his jealousy of his brother Theodosius, the latter was forced into holy orders, and afterwards put to death. But the guilty monarch was speedily punished by the necessity of fleeing from his indignant subjects; and he is also said to have been haunted in his restless exile by the phantom of his murdered brother. He was assassinated at Syracuse in 668.—W. B.  CONSTANT, an eminent French litterateur and statesman, was born at Lausanne, 25th October, 1767. His education was remarkably catholic in its general character. He studied English literature at Oxford, Scotch philosophy at Edinburgh, and German learning at Erlangen; while among his personal acquaintances he numbered Makintosh and Erskine, Kant and Gibbon, Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. Possessed of quick and lively capacities. Constant displayed that power of making mysteries of abstruse thought clear, and of bestowing life upon otherwise dull technicalities, which gives so great and special a charm to the literature of France. Familiar with the philosophies of various nations, he endeavoured to realize the conditions of their existence, and their actual relationships to human needs, by putting himself en rapport with the dispositions and sympathies from which they sprung, rather than by measuring them by dogmatic rules of his own construction. The breadth of his culture determined the specialities of Constant's political as well as his literary career. Delighting in free intercourse with many minds, he perceived that liberty results from the balancing of contending claims and principles, rather than from the enthronement of any sectional authority; and hence he attached himself to that constitutional party which endeavoured to preserve France from the despotism alike of emperor and mob. Constant began his political career by uniting himself to moderate republicans who wished to preserve the principles of the Revolution, while repudiating its excesses. He was intimately connected with the constitutional club, Le Cercle Constitutionnel, which was directed by Talleyrand, and adorned by the brilliancy of madame de Staël. When Napoleon became first consul. Constant opposed his arbitrary authority and found it necessary to quit France. He took refuge at Weimar and Göttingen, and associated with Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. With ready versatility he forsook politics for literature, translated Wallenstein, and collected materials for his great work on the history of Religions. In 1814 he returned to France; and although the republican of 1795 became the supporter of constitutional monarchy, we recognize the same principles of political conduct, seeking their realization in a different outward form. He resolutely opposed, however, the reactionary policy of the Bourbons. When Napoleon returned from Elba he was for a short time minister of state, defending himself by the assertion that he had a duty to his country above and beyond external changes of government; and on the final fall of the emperor, he became the principal leader of the constitutional party in the chamber of deputies. He took a foremost part in every great question at issue between 1818 and 1830, on the side of constitutional liberty; and his general policy was in harmony with that of the greatest and best of our own British statesmen. He established the Constitutionnel newspaper, which through his knowledge, wit, and eloquence achieved a marvellous success. As litterateur, editor, and leader of the constitutional party. Constant achieved important influence and power in France. Louis Philippe sought to bestow favours upon him; these were accepted in the spirit of the following words, "Sire, I accept your kindness, but liberty must ever be before gratitude; I wish to be independent; and if your government commits faults, I shall be the first to summon the opposition." "I have no other expectation," replied the king.—The last and greatest of Constant's works, and the one on which his fame in foreign lands chiefly depends, is entitled "De la Religion, considèrèe dans sa source, ses formes et ses developpements," and was completed shortly before his death. The object of this work is threefold, and whatever may be thought of the conclusions he reaches, no doubt can be started regarding its pervading spirit of sincere devotion. (1) The general action of the religious principle is illustrated as a fundamental law, authoritative and universal. (2) Religions are divided into the sacerdotal and the independent, and decision is given against a. preponderant hierarchy as injurious to the highest worship. (3) An attempt is made to prove a development of faith, upwards from fetischism; and the gradual stages of spiritual growth are traced.—Benjamin Constant died at Paris, 10th December, 1830, aged sixty-three, and was buried in the Pantheon.—L. L. P.  CONSTANTIA,, sister of Constantine the Great, and wife of Licinius, assisted to maintain the harmony which prevailed between them for a time. When the war broke out she left her husband for her brother, to whom she was strongly attached, and with whom she continued even after the execution of her son. She died in 329.—W. B.  CONSTANTINE, surnamed, the first christian emperor of Rome, was the son of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus and Helena, and was born in 272 at Naissus in Dacia. He was brought up at the court of Diocletian, and served with distinction under Galerius in the Persian war. Apprehensive of danger from the jealousy of that prince, he sought and with difficulty obtained permission to join his father who was then in <section end="1179Zcontin" />