now

nearly two centuries ago, the Revocation | myself in the same atmosphere of damnaof the Edict sorced its founders to fee tion and eternal salvation in which I was their native land. The name of the settle brought up." The men and women pres. ment is Friedrichsdorf, in the landgraviat ent not only chanted and prayed in French, of Hesse-Homburg, so called in honor of but looked French ; and yet from the win. the landgrave Frederick 11. This prince dows of the temple could be seen the gave the site of the village and some fields spires of Kiedorf and Seulberg, the one a to a number of refugees from Champagne, German Catholic, the other a Lutheran the Isle of France, and Languedoc, who village. M. Weiss found himself in the in 1687 arrived in the country, and craved presence of an ethnologic curiosity, — a his protection. Nor did his liberality end petrified piece of France, two hundred here. For ten years the settlers were to years old. But though the people of be entirely exempted from taxation; at Friedrichsdorf are of pure French blood, the expiration of that time they were to and cling so tenaciously to the customs of pay a land-tax of a forin an acre. They their ancestors, they are not the least were also allowed to organize themselves French in spirit. They know little or after their own fashion, to elect their own nothing of the land from which they came, mayor and aldermen, to manage their own and look upon Germany as their country, law affairs — with the exception of one or the country for which, if need be, they two unimportant reservations — and to would fight and die. Considering the exclude from the village anybody to whose treatment their forefathers received in presence they might object. These immu. France, the way in which they were driven nities have helped Friedrichsdorf, which out of it, and the welcome they received in

numbers about twelve hundred the land of their adoption, this is, perhaps, French-speaking inhabitants, to maintain not greatly to be wondered at, though M. almost intact the manners, customs, and Weiss evidently thinks it both strange language of their refugee ancestors. This and unnatural. 'On the other hand, these village, in the heart of Germany, is prob- people are both proud of the language ably a better sample of the France of they speak and the race to which they Louis Quatorze than anything that can be belong. They consider it derogatory to found in France itself.

intermarry with their German neighbors; An interesting account of Friedrichs- and though they are not in the least moved dorf, the existence of which has been by a recital of the sufferings of France in almost, if not altogether, forgotten in the 1870–71, they fire up at once if you hint mother country, appeared lately in a that their men are in any way inferior in French periodical, from the pen of M. J. strength or their women in beauty to the J. Weiss, a politician and writer of some Hesseners and Brandenburgers around

Hearing at Homburg that there them. Though living in the same country, was a Huguenot village in the neighbor educated in the same gymnasiums, and hood, he was moved by curiosity to make trained in the same regiments as their a visit of inspection. As he neared his Teutonic neighbors, they are resolute to destination, he overtook a letter-carrier. maintain the natural superiority of their “Wo bin ich, bitte ?” he asked, and re. breed. They esteem themselves both ceived the rather_surprising answer, better and braver than the folks of Kiedorf spoken in excellent French,“ Vous pouvez and Seulberg; the women being especially parler Français." This opening naturally proud of their origin and conservative of led to a conversation ; but after a few their customs. Their language is the more questions had been put and an. quaint and beautiful French of the seven. swered, the letter-carrier begged to be teenth century. Anybody who would know excused, on the ground that it was Sunday, how French was spoken and pronounced and it was time to go to the Temple in the grand siècle must go to this German This excited the visitor's curiosity still village. In France itself the secret is more, and he, too, went to the Temple. lost. But while some of the villagers The pastor was in the pulpit, reading the speak as Madame de Sévigné wrote, others Confession of Sin in French, from which use "vicious and vulgar phrases," which were omitted none of the characteristic shows, in the opinion of M. Weiss, that phrases of primitive Calvinistic Christian. the original immigrants were composed of ity, albeit in France itself two-thirds of two classes, - one educated and refined, them have long been obsolete. “I could the other ignorant and uncultured. Seve have believed myself in the New Temple eral of the phrases in common use, though at Rochelle,” says M. Weiss, " or in the obsolete in France, are expressive and Paris Oratoire, hearing a sermon from the convenient. For instance, they say vio. stern old Pastor Grandpierre. I found lonner (to fiddle), souventes fois, une paire de fois. On the other hand, they know I was a part of their religion, to be handed nothing of the thousands of words and down reverently to their children, together forms with which, during the last two with the family Bible and the Confession hundred years, the French language has of Sins, which, as M. Weiss tells us, the been enriched. The speech of Friedrichs. present generation still repeat in the un. dorf, in fact, is literally the speech of mutilated form used by their ancestors be1687. Since that time it has undergone fore Louis XIV. drove them from France. no alteration whatever. What it was then M. Weiss speculates as to how much it is now. The fact is curious, but it is longer the French language is likely to natural. The persecuted Protestants who survive at Friedrichsdorf. He thinks arrived in Hesse Homburg in 1687 were that its disappearance is within measur. thenceforth cut off from communication able distance. Germans are no longer with their country and their kindred. So excluded from the village; fifty years ago far as French literature was concerned, there were only four, now there are four they might almost as well have been in hundred Teutons at Friedrichsdorf. It the wilds of Africa. The children learned may, therefore, be presumed that the French from their mothers, and from the process of assimilation has already begun. few books they brought with them, which, French is still taught in the village school, no doubt, were mainly religious books. but “the brutal uniformity of Prussian

The Friedrichsdorfers are necessarily law" compels the teaching of German, bi-lingual; and all their material interests and "we may expect before long to see being centred in Germany, they must French treated in Friedrichsdorf as it is needs obtain their news, their literature, treated in Lorraine.” It seems impossiand their secular ideas from German ble for a Frenchman to speak of Prussia sources. French is kept for worship and in any connection without saying somedomestic use; and it is to their religious thing abusive. But M. Weiss overlooks separateness, more than any other cause, the causes that are most likely to put an that the long survival of their mother end to this curious religious survival, tongue is to be ascribed. There is no the decay of old customs and the waning test for sincerity and constancy like the of religious zeal. Friedrichsdorf, at least fiery ordeal of persecution; and the Hu- if it remains Calvinist so long as it reguenots, who, after undergoing contumely mains religious, can hardly resist the teoand reproach, stripes and bonds, ended dency of the age; and in Germany, at by sacrificing their country to their faith, least, that tendency is towards unbelief. were more than sincere, they were fanati. Calvanism is not the religion of the future; cal. Huguenots lived in an intolerant age, it is dead in Calvin's own city; it is fast and the doctrine of exclusive salvation, dying in France; it canoot much longer together with the conviction that they survive even in remote Friedrichsdorf; were God's elect, made them as intoler. and when the Huguenot wanderers of ant as Scottish Covenanters. Whenever 1687 lose their faith, they will probably they had the opportunity they proscribed forget the tongue in which they learnt to the Catholic religion as stringently as worship the God of their fathers. the Catholics had proscribed theirs. To those stern Calvinists from Languedoc and Champagne, the Lutheranism of Seulberg was hardly less abhorrent than the Mariolatry of Kiedorf. If they could have

From The Spectator. worshipped in common with their neigh

BOYS IN THE CHRYSALIS. bors, all trace of their mother tongue We published on October 20th, 1883, a would have perished in the second gen. paper on the “ Autobiography of Anthony eration. But their religion was more of Trollope,” in which we maintained, what Moses than of Christ, and they developed a great many correspondents evidently much of that Judaic spirit to which the considered a very odd thesis, namely, that Jews owe their isolation. To worship in Mr. Trollope probably was, as a boy, as French, to hear the word in the speech in disagreeable, loutish, and incapable as all which they had been wont to hear it in his comrades, including his brother, al. the Temple and the Desert — the speech most all his masters, and at leasi one of in which, when beset by enemies and his able superiors considered him to be. overwhelmed with trouble, they had be. We maintained that if Mr. Trollope had sought the help of the Most High told the truth, and of that there was no seemed to these simple souls necessary reasonable doubi, - there could be but to their salvation. Thus the old tongue one explanation of the facts, and that was became in some sort sacred to them; it that Anthony Trollope the boy differed

a

essentially as well as in outward seeming ! reserved for this birth-hour, on the stroke from Anthony Trollope the man. The of which it eagerly seizes on the relations one developed into the other, but it was which crowd in upon it from the novel by a sudden start and not by a gradual elements around.” That passage conveys, process, just as the tadpole, which is not in better words, precisely the idea we a frog, but something quite different, be endeavored to make plain, with the ex. longing, indeed, to a different branch of ception that we think the change a little the animal kingdom, becomes suddenly a greater than breaking.forth, the actual frog. People are so possessed with the nature being occasionally modified, as we, phrase, “ The boy is father of the man," though rarely, sometimes see it modified ibat many thought this a little absurd, half in maturer life, under religious or other a dozen assured us that no such change influence, and that we should put the pos. could occur in a human being, and one sible time of its occurrence much later. excellent man gravely warned us that if a The man's difference from the boy is solution of continuity could occur in life, sometimes not established till he is fiveso it might in death, and then what would and-twenty, unless circumstances have become of continuous identity in another been very favorable to independence, world? We need not say we intended either of judgment or of action. 'Trollope nothing so absurd as this gentleman im. was a man before his true nature appeared, agined, but we did intend to say that the even in respect of efficiency for the work difference, the radical difference, between of life; and we have noted the alteration the boy and the man, which constantly in men older than he, and that, too, in startles as well as puzzles preceptors, is the peculiarities we think least liable to seldom sufficiently reckoned on, especially change, such as temper and frankness. by parents, whose experience of their It seems impossible to most parents that children is often so great and so minute the violent lad should become geotle-temas to be delusive. It is frequently a posi- pered, and the reserved lad frank; but tive change, as it was in Trollope's case, both changes do in rare instances mani. as if the nature had been compressed in a festly occur. There is no reason, indeed, case, subsequently to be bursi; and while why they should not. The relaxation of compressed, lacked qualities which could pressure upon the inner oature, which is only come to it after its release. We are often the consequence of independence or pleased, as well as amused, to find that other change of circumstances, not only this idea, which was a product of con allows the wings of the mind, as Dr. siderable experience, is confirmed by Dr. Martineau says, to be unfolded, but perJames Martineau, who has probably much mits them to grow where they were not greater experience, having, like all reli- before. Tying up a child's limb may only gious teachers of mark, been compelled distort it; but it may also take out of the to make a special study of the young. In general frame its inherent vigor, its natthe course of the remarkable sketch of his ural health, its characteristic and special family history, and of his differences with power, and that larger result of compres. his sister Harriet, which he published in sion is true also of the mind. It is not the Daily News of Tuesday, Dr. Marti- only genius which requires room, but neau says: “If I do not misconstrue a sometimes ordinary nature also. Ten per class of facts frequently noticed, there are cent. of the most ordinary natures would natures — and among them some of the have been crushed out of shape by a boy. most energetic and gifted in the end – hood like that of John Stuart Mill as com. which remain through childhood in a kind pletely as that of a Shelley or a Coleridge of chrysalis state; and first begin to quiver would have been. The crust over the with their inidoeed life, and at length mind, though it often compresses only its break forth upon the wing in the second powers, - a phenomenon known in every half of their second decade. As that is third household, where Tom's success in also the time when young people often life never ceases to cause a mild surprise, leave the early nest for some new expe. — sometimes also squeezes and deadens, rience, bringing them into contact with or suspends vitality in the essential char. fresh types of character and manners, the acter. The difference between Prince change of scene is apt to get all the credit Frederick and Frederick the Great was of the marvellous hues and vivid Right not only one of mental strength, and now taken by the creature once so color. though in part he may have hidden himless and dull. But the metamorphosis self deliberately, in part also, when the would not be wrought upon a brother or fagstone was lifted by his father's death, sister differently tempered. It is essen. his character changed. tially the unfolding of an ioward oature We wonder whether the converse differ: ence often occurs, and a character injured | moval of the compression which once sell by want of compression, of the discipline upon children with the irresistible and allwhich reveals that there are “ musts” in pervading weight of an atmosphere. One the world, ever recovers strength under can easily imagine that if lite, with its the pressure of actual life, so that the hard facts — such as the necessity of eat. light nature becomes serious and strong. ing, of obedience to “musts,” and of We have not seen that, and do not re- standing alone - restores this old influ. member in biography a clear instance of ence, the lightsome youth of our day will it; but Shakespeare knew human nature, display as men, changes at least as startand he thought it perfectly possible. If ling, though in an opposite direction, as it is, and if the occurrence is frequent, the those which have struck Dr. Martineau relief to the fathers of this generation will and ourselves. Some of our Prince Hals be considerable. There is an impression will become Henry the Fifths. The alter: current, derived principally, we think, from ation will be attributed to experience, and satiric literature, that the defect of the work, and contact with the unsympanew generation is premature manliness, thetic; but it will not be wholly due to that all children, boy's more especially, those causes, but to the fact that pressure because they are more examined, display has brought out qualities only existing

old heads on young shoulders," and that before in the germ. The man will not be youthful priggishness is on the increase. in all instances the lad developed, but the That is not, however, the opinion of most lad transformed. He is not really transschoolmasters and tutors, or of the few formed, of course; but neither is he, as men we have encountered who have been we contend, only grown, but rather he has compelled to study unusual numbers of enlarged, and new characteristics have lads. They say that the enormous change come out as if they had been created. which has occurred in household disci. The potentiality of hardness must be in pline – a change which extends to all the clay; but still, pottery is not clay only. classes, and has immensely modified soci. We have most of us witnessed this change ety – while it has made the young dis. - if not in others, then in ourselves — as tinctly happier, and to a most curious regards one quality, patience; and why degree conscious of their happiness, and should not there be others? Many among conscious, too, that being dependent on us do not grow patient, so much as acquire their irresponsibility, it will soon end, the faculty of patience; and this often in has left them with characters altogether conscious, yet very sudden leaps. The lighier, er, and less capable of steady pressure, whatever it be, has annealed endurance. They have not learned in the inat side of the character, until it is as same degree to govern the will, they are different from the previous character as more reluctant to face difficulty, and they pottery from clay. Sharp suffering is the shrink from the great drawback to work quickest pressure, and the one most rec. ing life - its inevitable monotony, with a ognized; but the hydraulic pressure of life painful deficiency in fortitude. They are acts too, and nearly or quite as effectually. not shallow, for they assimilate knowledge, The loss is mainly one of time; and though and sometimes like it; they think with a it is impossible for parents to think so, clearness quite unknown in the past, and that is not always loss. The longer child. they observe as if they were old; but hood is after all something to the good, there is something lacking in the charac. and there is pliability in grisily bones. ter which the older and harsher processes Most boys of to-day are ready for anything of bringing-up did produce. They were from learning Arabic to driving cattle, and vexing processes, many of them, and they for the work of life that is a set-off against seem to parents of to-day quite out of the the three or four years which seem to be question, and to the young iyrannical; but lost from a certain want of “breeze," in they yielded their fruit. If the clay were the builders' sense, visible in so many conscious, it would probably not like the characters. It is odd to find the moth in wheel, and would certainly detest the fire; the cocoon, and the silk-spinner out of it; but fire and the wheel make the pipkin, but that happens with the human worm, and the pipkin is water-right, and uniil and only strikes us because we are accus. broken the most durable thing known. tomed to another sequence. The one An Etruscan vase of pottery would last change, when we have once seen it occur like a diamond, if only it were let alone, or recognized that it can occur, is as little and it is only clay. There is a want of miraculous as the other. The stupid lad hardness, or rather hardsettedness, in the becomes the brilliant novelist. Why not new race which perplexes the elder one, the blithesome lad the steadiest of plodand which is undoubtedly due to the re- ders?

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CONTENTS. 1. PATMOS,

Scottish Review,
II. PLAIN FRANCES MOWBRAY. Part II., Blackwood's Magazine,
III. THE AMERICAN AUDIENCE. By Henry
Irving, .

Fortnightly Review,
IV. M. SARDOU's “THEODORA,"

Contemporary Review, .
V. A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF. Ву
Mrs. Oliphant. Part VIII., .

Chambers' Journal,
VI. A WEEK WITH GEORGE ELIOT,

Temple Bar, VII. A CANADIAN HOLIDAY,

Macmillan's Magazine, VIII. De BANANA,

Cornhill Magazine, IX. A CRIMEAN SNOWSTORM,

Temple Bar, X. KILIMA-NJARO,

Spectator, XI. THE LIFE OF THE MAHDI,

Daily Telegraph, . XII. AGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES,

Spectator,

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