C U R T I U S- C U R Z 0 L A Anna Shaw. Not long after his marriage he became, through no fault of his own, deeply involved in debt owing to the failure of Putnam's Magazine; and his high sense of honour compelled him to devote the greater part of his earnings for many years to the discharge of obligations for which he had become only by accident responsible, and from which he might have freed himself by legal process. In the period just preceding the Civil War other interests became subordinate to those of national concern. Curtis made his first important speech on the questions of the day at Wesleyan University^ in 1856 ; he engaged actively in the Presidential campaign of that year, and was soon recognized not only as an effective public speaker, but also as one of the ablest, most highminded, and most trustworthy leaders of public opinion. In 1863 he became the political editor of Harper's Weekly, and no other journal exercised during the war and after it a more important part in shaping public opinion. His writing was always clear, direct, forcible; his fairness of mind and sweetness of temper were invincible. He never became a mere partisan, and never failed to apply the test of moral principle to political measures. From month to month he contributed to Harper's Monthly, under the title of “ The Easy Chair,” brief essays on topics of social and literary interest, charming in style, touched with delicate humour, and instinct with generous spirit. His service to the Republican party was such, that more than once he was offered nominations to office of high distinction, and might have been sent as Minister to England ; but he refused all offers of the kind, feeling that he could render more essential service to the country as editor and public speaker. In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant chairman of the Commission to report on the reform of the Civil Service. The report which he wrote was the foundation of every effort since made for the purification and regulation of the Service and for the destruction of political patronage. From that time till his death Mr Curtis was the leader in this reform, and to his sound judgment, his vigorous presentation of the evils of the corrupt prevailing system, and his untiring efforts, the progress of the reform is mainly due. He was the President of the National Civil Service Reform League and of the New York Civil Service Reform Association. In 1884 he refused to support the nomination of Mr Blaine as candidate for the Presidency, and thus broke with the Republican party, of which he had been one of the founders and leaders. From that time he stood as the typical independent in politics. In April 1892 he delivered at Baltimore his eleventh annual address as President of the National Civil Service Reform League, and in May he appeared for the last time in public, to repeat in New York an admirable address on James Russell Lowell, which he had first delivered in Brooklyn on the 22nd of the preceding February, the anniversary of Lowell’s birth. On the 31st of the following August he died. He was a man of consistent virtue, whose face and figure corresponded with the traits and stature of his soul. The grace and charm of his manner were the expression of his nature. Of the Americans of his time few were more widely beloved, and the respect in which he was held was universal. See :—George William Curtis, by Edward Cary, in the series of Lives of American Men of Letters (Boston, 1894) ; an excellent biography.—“An Epistle to George William Curtis,” by James Russell Lowell, 1874-87. In Lowell’s Poems. — George William Curtis, a Commemorative Address delivered before The Century Association, 17th December 1892, by Parke Godwin. New York, 1893.—Orations and Addresses by George William Curtis, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 3 vols., 8vo. New York, 1894. (C. E. N.)
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Curtius, Ernst (1814-1896), German archaeologist and historian, was born at Lubeck on 2nd September 1814. On completing his university studies he was chosen by Professor Brandis to accompany him on a journey to Greece for the prosecution of archaeological researches. Curtius then became Otfried Muller’s companion in his exploration of the Peloponnesus, and on Muller s death in 1840 returned to Germany. In 1844 he became an extraordinary professor at the University of Berlin, and in the same year was appointed tutor to Prince Frederick William (afterwards Emperor Frederick III.)—a post which he held till 1850. After holding a professorship at Gottingen and undertaking a further journey to Greece in 1862, Curtius was appointed in 1863 ordinary professor at Berlin. At the same time he became Secretary of the Royal Academy of Science, of which he had been a member since 1853. In 1874 he was sent to Athens by the German Government, and concluded an agreement by which the excavations at Olympia were entrusted exclusively to Germany. Among the results of these excavations was the discovery of Praxiteles’ famous statue of Hermes. He died at Berlin on 11th July 1896. Curtius’ best-known work is his History of Greece (1857-67 ; English translation by A. W. Ward, 1868-73). It presented to the public in an attractive style the latest results of scholarly research, but was criticized as wanting in erudition. His other writings are chiefly archaeological. The most important are : Hie Akropolis von Athen (1844); Naxos (1846); Peloponnesos, eine historisch-geographische Beschreibung der Halbinsel (1851); Olympia (1852); Die lonier vor der ionischen Wanderung (1855); Attische Stvdien (1862-65); Gottinger Festreden (1864); Sieben Karten zur Topographic von Athen nebst einem erlduternden Text (1868); Ephesos (1874); Die Ausgrabungen zu Olympia (1877, etc.); Olympia und Umgegend (edited by Curtius and Friedrich Adler, 1882); Olympia, Die Ergebnisse der von dem Deutschen Regierung veranstalteten Ausgrabung (also with F. Adler, 1890-98); Die Stadtgeschichte von Athen (1891). His collected speeches and lectures were published in 2 vols. under the title of Altertum und Gegenwart (1875 and 1882), to which a third volume was added under the title of Unter drei Kaisern (1889). His brother, Georg (1820-1885), philologist, was born at Lubeck on 16th April 1820. After an education at Bonn and Berlin he was for three years a schoolmaster in Dresden, until (in 1845) he returned to Berlin University as privat-docent. In 1849 he was placed in charge of the Philological Seminary at Prague, and two years later was appointed Professor of Classical Philology in Prague University. In 1854 he removed from Prague to a similar appointment at Kiel, and again in 1862 from Kiel to Leipzig. His philological theories had a widespread influence upon the study of that science. The more important of his publications are: Sprachvergleichung in ihrem Verhdltniss zur classischen Philologie (1845), Sprachvergleichende Beitrdge zur griechischen und lateinischen Grammatik (1846), Grundzuge der griechischen Etymologic (1858-62), Das Verbum der griechischen Sprache (1873). From 1868 to 1878 he was general editor of Studien zur griechischen und lateinischen Grammatik, and, from 1878 till his death, of a similar publication entitled Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie. His Greek Grammar for Schools, first published in 1855, passed through a number of editions, and has been edited in English. He died at Hermsdorf on 12th August 1885. Curzola, chief town of the Adriatic island of the same name in the Austrian province of Dalmatia. The
