"The Germans are not so domestic a people as the English, yet, perhaps, more so than the French. The taste of the middle and lower classes carries them incessantly to public gardens, coffee-houses, the table d'hôte, and the theatre. In the neighbourhood of every town are one, two, three, or more public gardens, in which a good band of music is stationed at the hours of resort: some parties promenade; in a few even dancing is practised, but the greater part of the visitors seat themselves in the open air, consuming ices, coffee, and beer, the women often knitting, the men usually engaged in smoking. The musicians send one of their number round to the company, who collects, on a sheet of music, a few pence from the liberal. The theatre is a universal amusement, and a constant theme of criticism and conversation. A large portion of the male population dine daily at the table d'hôte, not long after mid-day, and here a considerable portion of their time is dissipated. The higher orders, in addition to the theatre, derive one of their chief gratifications from a summer visit to some mineral spring, and here they live altogether in a family manner; entire families at these baths dine and sup, and even breakfast, in public. In the smaller towns the men of learning confine themselves unintermittingly to their cabinets, and it is in such scenes that the real learned German is most in his element,-an individual almost totally distinct from the rest of his European colleagues, in the intenseness of his studies, the extent of his acquirements, and the simplicity of his manners. The cosmopolitan man of learning, who understands most of the European languages, and some of the oriental ones, who is conversant with almost every science, is, perhaps, only to be found, at the present moment, in Germany; he differs from most other specimens of the same class, not only in his attainments, but in his scrupulous exactitude, in the conscientious manner in which he weighs evidence, and records every minute shade of fact, and also in his impartiality, and in that genial love for his calling which enables him to disregard pecuniary profit, and confines his anxiety to the noble ambition of instructing his brethren, of conciliating the suffrages of the wise, and of laying the foundation of a posthumous fame, whieh, alas! is too rarely completed into a lasting edifice. Those who are in search of precise, faithful, and extended collections of facts, which omit nothing, and trace every thing to its source, must turn exclusively to the literature of this country, which, indeed, forms a vast and inexhaustible mine, in which the patient German collects the native ore, while more careless or more idle labourers from other countries too frequently carry off the precious metal, without always acknowledging the friendly hand which has worked and which continues to work during night and day.

"Frankness, honesty, simplicity, and diffidence, are original characteristics of the national character, sometimes disappearing on the frontiers, but strongly marked in the centre, and above all, conspicuous in the smaller towns and in the rural districts. Modesty is a peculiarity of the German character, which appears, indeed, to a certain degree innate in all the great family diffused from this stock throughout the north of Europe. It is only in the Germanic family, in which our own race is of course included, that the characteristic of diffidence is to be usually seen, which manifests itself under various forms, but especially in a respect for the opinions of others, in a distrust of one's own powers

of pleasing, and in an earnest endeavour to conciliate and to accommodate. It would be invidious to pursue this topic into the various national comparisons which it is capable of suggesting. In the countries in which this trait is not part of the national character, it is too often misinterpreted into pride and arrogance, of which it is the very antipodes."-P. 282.

There is considerable justice and force in these observations. Dr. Hawkins appears to have studied the German character very thoroughly, and we have no doubt that what he says of it is very true; although we cannot help making the observation in passing, with regard to the German literati, that some of the specimens of this class who have visited this country, and who have written upon it, do not afford quite so favourable an illustration of his opinion as might be wished. When we recollect the work of M. Von Raumer upon England, an author who was extolled by a certain party as a perfect marvel of learning, research, and philosophy, when we consider the conceit, the arrogance, presumption, and gross ignorance displayed by him in his lucubrations upon English institutions and usages, and the strange and discordant compound of affected liberality and admiration of the laws and customs of Prussia (one of the most despotic countries in the world) which occurs in almost every page of his production, we own we experience a very considerable abatement in our respect for the learned men of Germany, at least if M. Raumer is one of them.

In the other passage to which we referred, which occurs in the same chapter, after noticing some features in German society, Dr. Hawkins makes some applications to the state of manners in our own country, which merit serious consideration.

"It is of little moment to discuss the character of others, unless we endeavour to deduce some results applicable, more or less, to the illustration and improvement of our own; and this reflection conducts us to the most delicate and difficult part of our brief estimate. A singular period has arisen in Europe, and is fast arriving at maturity: it consists in the rapid increase of knowledge in the lower classes, in the diffusion and misrepresentations of newspapers, in the augmentation of the middle ranks in number and wealth, and in the losses and confusion which the higher families have in many parts experienced, through the ravages of war, the plunder of foreign invasion, the changes of territory, and the whirlwind of revolutions. The problem, then, which awaits solution, and which earnestly demands the deepest consideration of the wise and virtuous, is, to regulate this new movement aright, and so to direct the helm, that the vessel may not lose its course, and that all on board may not be shipwrecked, with the exception of a few unprincipled and selfish passengers, who also must, at last, share the common fate. In Germany, this new motion communicated to society is in a certain degree softened and eased by the friendly tone which, more or less, prevails among the different classes of the community: an extreme

affability, beginning at the highest point, and gradually descending to the base, seems likely to prevent violent collisions, and to diminish the friction. A truth, of inexpressible value in all the relations of life, is there acknowledged and practised as a fundamental usage of intercourse; namely, that all are to be treated with respect; that no superiority of rank or fortune can warrant arrogance of demeanour or pride of speech. Mankind will far more readily forgive even great vices than a breach of courtesy; and we have ample experience in all biography and history, that kindness and affability of manner form the real secret of conciliating golden opinions. It is not sufficient that laws should be equally administered between different ranks; it is still highly necessary, in order to preserve social harmony, that a cordial, gentle, and unpresuming deportment should be observed by those who are placed on an eminence, and whose example, whether good or evil, in this respect, will assuredly be imitated in various shades by all the intermediate classes, until we arrive at the lowest. It is impossible to deny, however painful may be the avowal, that a certain pride of deportment prevails frequently in our own country, not at all confined to the higher classes, but very conspicuous in all, from which none is exempt in its intercourse with those below it, and which may be traced even in stronger characters in the farmer, the tradesman, and the domestic servant, than in the middle orders, and is again more prominent in the middle orders than in the highest. A certain bitterness of feeling is thus engendered, which, although it stimulates men to rise above their own original position to the one next above them, renders them too apt to entertain calumnious reports, to encourage the slander of newspapers, and to propagate scandal. A separation of interests and a mutual jealousy is thus fomented between the different classes, which, in calamitous and difficult times, will tend to harden the feelings of each class against the one above it, and to inspire a hateful satisfaction in witnessing the degradation of others. This sentiment of distrust and repulsion is unhappily encouraged by political incendiaries, not confined to any one rank, but to be found in all conditions, who seek to propel themselves into an unnatural popularity, or to gain some temporary, sordid object, by declamations against the oppressions of the rich, against the miseries wilfully inflicted upon the poor, and by a sweeping abuse of the aristocracy to which they themselves belong, and whose spirit they themselves breathe in an inflated degree.

"This so-called aristocracy is not in England the proper title of any particular set of men, but belongs equally to all; it is found in the habits, language, and behaviour of the servants'-hall, the vestry, and the coffee-room, as commonly as in the counting-house, the ball-room, or the race-course; and in all these places it is far more highly coloured than in the palace, the college, or the literary and scientific meeting. No where, indeed, is aristocracy more legibly written than on some of those persons who inveigh most vehemently against it on the hustings and in legislative assemblies, and who, in the midst of their cheap public pretensions to universal equality, exhibit, in the private scenes of life, all the haughtiness, the illiberal prejudices, and the exclusiveness, which we are apt to attribute to despotic princes, but which is certainly seldom to be found among the rulers of Germany.

"Would it not be more patriotic, more wise, more kind, instead of holding out to the poor, expectations and promises which are incapable of being fulfilled, instead of exasperating them against those on whose prosperity they ultimately depend, to encourage in them a taste for innocent pleasures, and to provide them with the means of enjoying them? *** Such are the elements of contentment, of cheerfulness, and of a friendly reciprocity of feeling and sympathy between the upper and lower classes, and not delusive suggestions of cheap bread, or of an impossible degree of reduced taxation."-Pp. 285-288.

As the first section of Dr. Hawkins's work is devoted to the consideration of Germany taken as a whole, and to a general view of the more prominent features which are common to each one of her territorial divisions, so the latter portion treats of Germany in its parts, and describes each one of her states in detail, giving an account under the head of each kingdom of the ruling family, the mode of government, the religion, finances, army and navy, public officers, &c.; together with a view of the statistics of the country. In each of these sections no subject has been neglected, nor has any matter been omitted which could be necessary for the information of the reader. In short, it appears to us that this volume will become a work of indispensable reference to all persons, who may be desirous of making themselves acquainted with the political and social condition of Germany.

In conclusion, we cannot too highly commend the courteous, candid, and impartial tone,-very different from that spurious impartiality so much the fashion of the day,-which our author has preserved throughout his work, and his uniform avoidance of that contemptible weakness into which so many writers of travels are prone to fall, the practice, namely, of praising other countries and their institutions at the expense of their own.

ART. VII.—1. The Miscellaneous Poems of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 4 vols. Longman and Co.

2. The Excursion: a Poem. By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Longman and Co.

3. Ecclesiastical Sketches. By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Longman and Co.

4. Yarrow Re-visited, and other Poems. By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Longman and Co.

5. The Poetical Works of DR. SOUTHEY. Collected by himself. Longman and Co.

6. The Grave of the last Saxon. By the REV. W. L. BOWLES. Hurst, Robinson, and Co.

7. Scenes and Shadows of Days departed. By W. LISLE BOWLES. London. Pickering.

8. Little Villager's Verse Book. By the REV. W. L. BOWLES. London.

9. Second Series of Little Villager's Verse Book. By the REV. W. L. BOWLES. London.

IT has been the fate of every genius charged with a new mission to extend the realms of the imagination, to have in some sort to break through the trammels which the prejudices of his age oppose to the appreciation of those qualities which are peculiarly his own, which constitute the essence of his originality, and on which he rests his claims to the subjection of his contemporaries. He has to call forth and bestow those powers by which mankind will be enabled to judge, and thoroughly relish, the highest products of his brain. The invisible links of custom hang with the weight of lead upon the human intellect, and the soul of the poet, while he thaws by the genial influence of Apollo (as Hannibal cleared his road among "Alpine solitudes") the barriers to success, is in fact only making an advance or conquest before unattempted and unthought of. He must establish his dominion over the wilderness of free spirits, whereby, having been "subdued even to the very quality of their lord," they are at length invigorated to the exertion of a corresponding energy to sympathize with the profound and the exquisite in feeling, or the lofty and universal in thought,— when introduced to their notice in new and unwonted aspects. This in our opinion is entirely beyond the province of taste, which has only to deal with the proportion and congruity of those subjects, respecting which all the requisite knowledge is already acquired, or easily attainable.

It would seem unnecessary to detain the reader longer with these preliminary remarks, more especially as the practical illustration of our theory, to which we hasten, cannot fail to furnish a satisfactory test of the soundness of the principles on which it rests; for as the falsehood of an hypothesis necessarily leads to erroneous conclusions, so the uniform agreement of experience with those inferences we are anxious to establish, is fitted to inspire the most assured confidence in the principles from which they are derived.

Much stress has been laid upon the competence of taste to weigh in the scales of her meager sense the acts and operations of the intellect. But by what magical charm a passive faculty is qualified for this, has not and cannot be shown: and until languages are framed according to the plan of a chemical nomenclature, it is not easy to perceive how any such virtue can belong to a mere metaphor. Images which are easily apprehended, such as the impression made on the mind of the Trojan chief by the