. IRIDION (Polish Irydyon). The dis memberment of Poland, still more, the dis astrous Polish revolution of 1830, had bred the sentiment of national hatred against the op pressors, but Krasinslci, in all his poetry, cau tioned his people against hate as an expression of patriotism and preached inner perfection as a means of obtaining the highest good for his country. gridion,) which appeared in Paris in 1836, is a poem-drama of exquisite beauty, based on Krasinslci's reading of Montesquieu, Gibbon and Niebuhr. In this poem he wished to give a picture of the fall of pagan Rome and the triumph of Christianity, and tried to show that it was not Greek hatred, but Chris tian humility, that renovated the Roman world. In the days of the domination and corruption of the C.msars, Iridion, who is represented as of Greek ancestry, sought vengeance against the Rome that had betrayed Athens and throttled Corinth. His mother was a priestess of Odin, and after her death he gave his sister to Heliogabalus, so that she might unsettle the emperor's mind. Iridion, as prefect of the
Pretorians, urges Heliogabalus to conspire against Rome. The African Massinissa, versed in magic, persuades him to arm the Christians. Iridion, in the Catacombs, falls in love with a Christian maiden, who thinks that he will bring about the millenium. But just as he appears to be victorious, the bishop of Rome denounces his militancy. He returns to the northern gods of his mother. Heliogabalus and his sis ter perish. Massinissa tauntingly tells Iridion that Christ will some
rule over Rome, and puts him into a lethargic sleep. He does not awaken until 1835 in the north, but he now loves Christ's cross and has abandoned all ideas of revenge.
Leo WIENER.