The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 9 | Page 2

during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the influence of Albert Durer
and his school was strongly felt. And finally, relics of ornamental art of
different nations and epochs.
In the third class, two parts only are devoted to contemporary art; the
medals illustrative of the French revolution of 1789; those of the
"Empire" and of the Emperor "Napoleon;" generally smacking of the
florid and corrupt taste of that period, they are nevertheless curious as
being often the sole evidence of the facts commemorated. There is,
however, a manifest improvement in the late ones, and in them may be
traced the transition from the independent ideas of the revolution to the
subsequent submission to one man: and not less striking is the

transition from a slip-shod style of art to a pedantic imitation of the
antique. The "Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique" is the most
scientific and important work of art which has been executed and
achieved of late years in France. Our great public libraries may be
proud of possessing so rich, so valuable, and so curious a collection,
Most lovers of art have their favorite periods and well-beloved masters,
but in this varied range of excellence it is difficult which to select for
preference and admiration. The cameos have a beauty and finesse
which far surpass that of busts and statues; they evince the skill of
grouping, which, with rare exceptions, such as the Niobe and Laocoon,
is seldom aimed at in the more important pieces of sculpture. Cameos,
moreover, let us, as it were, into the secrets of indoor life. To these
considerations we may add that these gems have had an immense
influence on French modern art. The "Apotheosis of Augustus"
especially, known to antiquarians as the "Agate of Tiberius," the largest
cameo in the world, and beautifully engraved the size of the original in
this collection, may be traced in more than one of their late
compositions.
It is said that large medallions are a sign of taste either in the medalist
or the monarch he is supposed to honor; if so, Dupré and Varin have
drawn a thick vail over the effulgence of Louis XIV. We would not,
however, lose their wigs and smiles for a world of historiettes.
But it is to be remembered that the more names are blazoned on works
of art, the more art becomes deteriorated. In this respect the present
collection shows the rapidly progressive march of this evil through
twenty-five centuries--a most instructive subject of contemplation.
* * * * *
THE CSIKOS OF HUNGARY.
Of the chivalry, the gallantry, the splendor, the hospitality, the courage,
and the love of liberty of the Hungarian noble or gentleman, no one
doubts. Of his ideas of true constitutional freedom, or the zeal with
which that or Hungarian independence has been maintained first
through Turkish, and then German domination for some hundred years
past, doubts may be entertained. Neither do the Hungarian peasantry or
people reflect high credit on their "natural superiors." Something
should be deducted for the forced vivacity and straining after effect of
the littérateur; but this sketch of a large class of peasantry from Max

Schlesinger's "War in Hungary," just published in London, must have
some foundation in truth--and very like the Red Indians or half-breeds
of Spanish America the people look.
"The Csikos is a man who from his birth, somehow or other, finds
himself seated upon a foal. Instinctively the boy remains fixed upon the
animal's back, and grows up in his seat as other children do in the
cradle.
"The boy grows by degrees to a big horse-herd. To earn his livelihood,
he enters the service of some nobleman, or of the Government, who
possess in Hungary immense herds of wild horses. These herds range
over a tract of many German square miles, for the most part some level
plain, with wood, marsh, heath, and moorland; they rove about where
they please, multiply, and enjoy freedom of existence. Nevertheless, it
is a common error to imagine that these horses, like a pack of wolves in
the mountains, are left to themselves and nature, without any care or
thought of man. Wild horses, in the proper sense of the term, are in
Europe at the present day only met with in Bessarabia; whereas the
so-called wild herds in Hungary may rather be compared to the animals
ranging in our large parks, which are attended to and watched. The deer
are left to the illusion that they enjoy the most unbounded freedom; and
the deer-stalker, when in pursuit of his game, readily gives in to the
same illusion. Or, to take another simile, the reader has only to picture
to himself a well-constituted free state, whether a republic or a
monarchy is all one.
"The Csikos has the