Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/379

* CONSTANT. 321 CONST ANTINE. York possesses a large mural decoration by Constant representing "Justinian in Council." Constant was also a vriter of repute, liaving contributed a number of good studies on con- temporarv Frcncli painters. Consult Stranaban, Modern Freiirli Painters (Xew York, 1803). CONSTAN'TA. See Kl'me.nuje. CONSTANT DE REBECQTTE, kox'staN' de nl'liek'. Henri Benjamin (1707-1830). A dis- tinguislicd French politician and novelist, born at Lausanne, October 23, 1707. His family was Protestant, and had taken refuge in Switzerland from religious persecution. Till thirteen. Con- stant studied at Lausanne, then successively at Oxford, Erlangen, and Edinburgh, laying the foundations of a cosmopolitan culture that ex- plains his affinity for JIadame de Stael. He was a moderate Rejiublican during the Revolution, and after 1795 settled in Paris, where his politi- cal writings, especially his pamphlet, De la force dil gourernemcnt acluel de la France, attracted great attention. In 1799 Bonaparte called him to the tribunate, but he opposed the First Consul's attack upon constitutional rights, and was exiled in 1802. His political career thus checked, he turned to literature, and accompanied iladame de Stael, like him an exile, on her travels. At Weimar he learned to know Goethe and Schiller. He translated, or i-ather adapted, the latter's Wallenstcin. He also wrote Adolphe (1816), a literary result of his relations to ^Madame de Stael. who had put her experience with him into Delphi lie.' This sole novel of the versatile poli- tician is a clear, keen, relentless analysis of the mutual degradation resulting from ill-assorted matings. It is brief, almost cruelly simple, and told in a style as precise and dry as that of a mathematical demonstration. Chivalrous toward Madame de Stael, he is pitiless to himself, to his father, to his former love. JIadame de Charri&re, and to their officious friend. Madame Reeamier. Constant's Correspondence, his Journals, all that ■we know of his life, show him, as he reveals him- seli here, always seeking emotion, never att.iining to passion. With this novel still unpul)lished, he returned to France after Napoleon's first abdication (1814), with the prestige of his stirring pamphlet De I'esprit de conquete et de rusurpatioii (1813). He hoped to find the Restoration more favorable to constitutional liberty than Napoleon's 'government of mame- lukes,' but he was soon undeceived. During the Hundred Days, he cooperated with the returned Emperor, and assisted in drawing up the acte additionel to the Constitution. After Waterloo he retired to England, but was permitted to return to France in 1816. He joined the liberal writers of the day, and was elected Deputy in 1819. He became the acknowledged leader of the opposi- tion to Charles X., and the most brilliant cham- pion of a constitutional monarchy. He deplored the violence of the Revolution of July, which oc- curred while he was convalescent in the coun- try. At the request of Lafa.yette he returned, and for the few months that remained to him of life supported the Government of Louis Phi- lippe and the principles to which his political life had been dedicated. He died at Pau, December 8, 1830. Constant was not a graceful speaker, but a singularly effective writer. His speeches are collected as Discours (2 vols., 1828) : his essays on representative government as Coiirs de polififjue constitiilionelle (4 vols., 1817-20). He wrote also iliinoires sur les Cent Jours (1820), and De la religion consideree dans sa sonrce, ses formes, et scs dcveloppements (1824- 31), in which he undertook to show that the re- ligious instinct remained essentially unall'ected through all changes of dogma and forms. In teaching that Christianity had '''introduced mor- al and political liberty into the world," he widened the breach with the thought of the eighteenth century shown and in part caused by the Genie du Christiunisme of Chateaubriand. "Lucian was incapable of understanding Ho- mer," he said; "Voltaire has never understood the Bible." Consult: Faguet, I'olitiques et mor- alistes (Paris, 1808), and Sainte-Beuve. Sou- veaiix Luiidis, vol. i. (P.aris. 1803), and Por- traits liitcraires, vol. iii. (Paris, 1804). CONSTANTIN, koN'staN'taN', Abb£. The lovable, benevolent old parish priest in Ludovic Halevy's graceful romance L'Abbc Constantin (1882), a revulsion from the sensational work of the naturalistic school. It tells the simple story of the good abbe and his old housekeeper, the wealthy American woman who becomes his eolaborer in good works, and her sister, wdio falls in love with a young lieutenant. A success- ful comedy under the same title was adapted from the romance by Cremieux and Deeourcelle, and piesentcd at the Gymnase in 1887. CONSTANTINA, kun'st.an-te'na. A town of Spain, in the Province of Seville, about 40 miles north-northeast of Seville (Map: Spain, C 4). It is in a mountainous region, and has silver and lead mines, lumbering interests, distilleries, and tanneries. Population, in 1901, 9687. CONSTANTINE, kon'stan-ten'. A fortified city and a Catholic episcopal see, the capital of Constantine, the easternmost department of Algeria (ilap: Africa El). It is situated on a precipitous hill with a flat summit, three sides of Avhich are washed by the Ruramel, flowing through a deep and narrow ravine. Tlie fourth and west side is connected by a natural moimd with the surrounding mountains. It is 830 feet above the river and 2162 feet above the sea. It is sur- rounded by walls constructed by the Arabs out of Roman sculptured stones. The streets in the Moorish or older portion of the town are nar- row and dirty, and the houses mean. The chief ancient buildings are the Kasha, or citadel, of Roman construction; the palace of the Bey; the harem of Salali; and three mosques, one of which, Suk-er-Rezel. dating from 1143, is now the Christian Church of Notre Dame des Sept Dou- leurs. The modern and French portion of the town is marked by wide streets and open squares. Its principal buildings include the Palais de Justice, administrative buildings, the Protestant church, and theatre. The Mohammedans sup- port a mcdreso, or religious seminary, and the French Government maintains a college and other educational institutions for Arabic and European culture. There are an archaeological society and museum of local antiquities. The town has manufactures of woolen cloths, sad- dlery, and other articles in leather, and a con- siderable grain trade with Tunis. Its seaport for foreign trade is Philippeville, .50 miles to the northeast, with which and the principal towns of Algeria it is connected by rail. Constantine, anciently one of the most important towns of Numidia. called Carta by the Carthaginians,