ZEL
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ZEN
ZELOTTI, Battista, an able painter of Verona, where he
was born about 1532. He was a pupil of Badile, in whose school he became acquainted with Paul Veronese, whom he afterwards assisted and imitated; and many of Zelotti's works have been confounded with those of his more distinguished rival. He worked much in fresco, chiefly in obscure provincial towns, and is not so well known as he deserves to be. He died about 1592. Vasari notices him as Battista da Verona.—R. N. W. ZELTER, Carl Friedrich, a musician, was born at Berlin, December 11, 1758, where he died May 15, 1832. He had a strong predilection for music, but his father was imperative that he should become a builder like himself, and he was accordingly bound apprentice in 1775. A violent illness in 1776 threw young Zelter into an earnest train of thought, in which he resolved to satisfy his father by application to trade, and to gratify himself by studying music for a recreation. Thus he became a skilful craftsman, executed his masterpiece to entitle him to the license to work for himself in 1783, and became one of the most esteemed masters of his trade. Meanwhile he had made the intimate friendship of Fasch, the founder of the Singing Academy in Berlin, and with his assistance he obtained a profound knowledge of music. He was much associated with this friend in the direction of his important institution, and succeeded him in that duty in 1800, which he fulfilled until his death. The king appointed him professor of music in the Academy of Arts and Science in 1809. While Mendelssohn was still a child, Zelter was engaged to teach him composition, in which he was his only master. The completeness of the pupil's theoretical acquirements, and his lifelong reverence for his instructor, well attest the erudition of Zelter. Another evidence of the mental capacity of this remarkable man, is the affectionate regard for him entertained by Göthe, to whom he introduced his wonderful pupil. Zelter's compositions comprise a large number of characteristic songs which are greatly admired, and some elaborate church music. He wrote the life of his friend Fasch. His very interesting correspondence with Göthe is also published.—G. A. M. ZENO, the Eleatic philosopher, was born at Elea in Southern Italy about 490 b.c. He was the favourite pupil of Parmenides. In Plato's dialogue entitled Parmenides, it is related how Parmenides and Zeno came to Athens and held a philosophical conversation with Socrates, when the latter was a very young man. This must have been about 450 b.c. when Socrates was twenty years of age. Zeno was intimately associated with Parmenides, not only in the pursuits of philosophy, but also in the avocations of practical life. They took an active part in the administration of the affairs of their native city. Zeno is said to have stood forth as the resolute opponent of tyranny. Whether he was successful in his resistance, or perished in the attempt to obtain for his country a freer form of government, is a matter of uncertainty. The philosophy of Zeno differed but little from that of Parmenides. Both regarded the reason, and not the senses, as the organ of truth. Both argued for "Being," "the one," "the permanent," as that which alone existed; "the many" or "the changeable" being the opposite of the "one," was identical with "non-being." The only difference between the two philosophers seems to have been, that while Parmenides argued affirmatively that "the one," "the permanent," alone was; Zeno argued negatively that "the many"—the universe according to sense—was not. What is memorable in this philosophy is the attempt which it makes to signalize in the strongest terms the contrast or antithesis between sense and reason, and to exhibit the truths of reason in their most extreme opposition to the intimations of the senses. This opposition is principally set forth in those subtle puzzles of which Zeno was the author. One of these is the well-known "Achilles and the tortoise." If the tortoise has the start of Achilles by a hundred feet he can never overtake it; for when Achilles has advanced fifty feet, the tortoise will have advanced in a corresponding ratio, and so on in a progress in which the tortoise keeps the lead for ever. It is no solution of this paradox to show that Achilles does actually outstrip the tortoise. That, in fact, is the very circumstance which occasions the difficulty, for if he did not overtake it there would be no contradiction in the case. The same argument strikes at the possibility of all motion. Motion which is true in point of fact, is shown to be impossible on grounds of reason; for the shortest space is infinitely divisible, and therefore a body in passing from one point to another must traverse infinity, which it cannot possibly do. The only solution of these puzzles is to be found in the philosophy, which has for its principle "the unity of contraries."—J. F. F. ZENO, the founder of the stoic philosophy, was born at Citium, a town in the island of Cyprus, about 350 b.c. It is uncertain at what time he came to Athens—probably when he was about twenty-five years of age. He is said to have lost all his property, which was considerable, by shipwreck in the neighbourhood of the Piræus. This disaster may have had some effect in determining the austere character of his philosophy. He attached himself first to the Cynics—a sect who snarled at all mankind—but was soon repelled by their grossness of manners, intellectual narrowness, ignorance, and incapacity. After studying for twenty years under Stilpo of the Megaric sect, and under Xenocrates and Polemon, the successors of Plato in the Academy, he resolved to establish an ethical school of his own, of a more practical and not less enlightened character than any at that time in vogue. He founded the sect and philosophy of the Stoics, so called from Stoa, the Porch—the place in Athens where he delivered his doctrines, and the walls of which were adorned with the paintings of Polygnotus representing the victories gained by the Athenians over the Persians. Zeno wrote many works, but none of them are extant. From their titles we may judge them to have been of no small ethical interest—"On the Life according to Nature;" "On Impulse;" "On the Nature of Man," and others of a similar purport. Zeno died at an advanced age, probably about 260 b.c. The stoical ethics will perhaps be best understood if placed in contrast with the contemporary doctrines of Epicurus. Both systems teach that happiness is the summum bonum, or chief good of man; that the means to this end is the life according to nature; and that this is identical with the life of virtue. But they differ widely as to what the nature of man is, and as to what his virtue and his happiness consist in. According to the Stoics, man's nature is, we may say, a nature above nature. According to the Epicureans, it is a nature on a level with nature. The Stoic places man's nature in the activity of reason, of thought, of the spirit. The Epicurean places it in the passivity of sensation, of feeling, of the flesh. Hence, according to the stoical doctrine, the life of nature is the life in which reason rules and keeps down the passions, not merely on prudential grounds, but because reason is the essence, and passion rather the accident of our being. On the other hand, the Epicurean doctrine is that the life of nature is a life in which reason is indeed permitted to direct the passions, but solely from considerations of prudence, and because their unrestrained indulgence would in the long run make us miserable. Here sensation and passion are regarded as the more essential, and reason as the less essential, part of our constitution. Thus stoicism makes our virtue and happiness to centre in the restraint which our reason imposes on our passive modifications, inasmuch as in this restraint we find our true freedom, and assume our true nature, which, as has been said, is a nature above nature; while epicurism places our virtue and happiness in the indulgence, within reasonable limits, of our passive modifications, inasmuch as these, according to this system, constitute the true staple and groundwork of our nature. Neither system preaches restraint or indulgence exclusively; but stoicism, laying emphasis on the restraint, says, "Restrain the passions in so far as nature will permit;" epicurism, laying emphasis on the indulgence, says, "Indulge the passions in so far as prudence will allow."—J. F. F. ZENO, Apostolo, was a native of Venice, and was born in 1668. His father belonged to a branch of the famous Zeno family, which had been settled in Candia for upwards of three hundred years, but had been driven from the island, with the loss of all his property, by an invasion of the Turks. He died when Apostolo was only a child; and the boy was indebted for his education to his mother's brother-in-law, the bishop of Capo d'Istria, who placed him in the college of the Somaschi at Venice. At an early age young Zeno displayed a taste for poetry; and shortly after leaving college he composed several popular melodramas, one of which obtained for him, from Leopold I., the offer of the situation of dramatic composer at Vienna, with a salary of four hundred florins, which, however, he declined. In 1717 Zeno received from the Emperor Charles VI. an invitation to Vienna, with the offer of the situation of court poet, to which a liberal salary was attached. Having made up his mind to accept this office, he quitted Venice for Vienna in 1718, but had the misfortune to break his leg on the journey, by the upsetting of his coach in crossing the Alps. He recovered from this accident,