bodiment of true national tendencies. If which he was so conspicuous. On that so, we may hope that, though America matter, at least, we can have no jealousies; and if our cousins raise more Hawthornes, we may possibly feel more grateful than for some of their other productions. may never produce another Hawthorne, yet other American writers may arise who will apply some of his principles of art, and develop the fineness of observation and delicate sense of artistic propriety for INSANITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES.-The mid- I tribunals. A curious and a pitiful epoch, dle ages were a period of upheaval, when every | when the possessed and their exorcists were thing was swallowed up in the bottomless abyss madmen alike! of scholasticism and demonology, and medicine This view of insanity was favored by the became a routine of superstitious practices. philosophical, or rather the theological ideas of Such and such a plant was considered beneficial, the time. According to these, man was of a if gathered at the new moon; but deadly poison, twofold nature. On the one hand was the flesh, if at the moon's wane. Science, art, and liter- mere matter; on the other, the soul, a direct ature, went down in the storm, and wars, bat- emanation from Deity, passing through this vale tles, pestilence, and famine, were the order of of tears, on its way to the ineffable glory of the day. As God was invoked in vain, men heaven. The body is but the soul's dwellingturned to Satan. The belief in the devil was place -a temple or a den, accordingly as its universal, and the world became a hell. Now invisible inhabitant is the servant of God or of both science and experience show that the pre- Satan. Therefore, when the soul is deceased, Failing notions of a given period are very rapid- the treatment must regard the soul alone, which ly taken up by the insane, and by them distorted is governed by laws of its own, and is merely in into grotesque shapes, with a uniformity resem- juxtaposition with the body for a moment. No bling the symptoms of epidemic disorders. This doubt the ideal of purity thus held up was subphenomenon is of daily occurrence. Thus, ac-lime; yet the result of it was the upsetting of cordingly as France is ruled by a king, an em- the body's equilibrium; and this reacted on the peror, or a president, those insane persons who mind. But this theory led to still more serious imagine themselves to be somebody, claim the consequences; for it was admitted into science, rank of president, emperor, or king, as the case and checked the progress of the medical art. may be. Just now, respectable women patients When in 1828 Broussais attacked it, he was at Salpêtrière, Ste.-Anne, Vaucluse, and Ville- accused of blasphemy, and of "sapping the Erard asylums, solemnly assure the physicians foundations of society." Now, however, we in charge that they are pétroleuses; while men know that the faculties of the mind are not of unquestionable patriotism will tell you that independent of the conditions of the body. Take they guided the Prussians up the heights of a slight dose of sulphate of quinine, and you Sedan. The phenomenon therefore of diabolic lose, for the time being, the faculty of recollecpossession in the middle ages is perfectly natur- tion; swallow a little hashish, and you are tranal. The calamities attendant on continual wars siently insane. - DU CAMP, in Popular Science had so enervated the people, that they were fit Monthly for December. subjects for all manner of mental disorder; and this, taking form from the prevailing ideas of the times, found expression in demoniacal pos session. During the middle ages the devil was every"SWEETNESS AND LIGHT.". I take the folwhere-ubique damon. There was one reli-lowing verse from a short poem by Bishop Ken, entitled "The Poet" (Church Poetry, J. & C. Mczley, 4th edit., 1855, page 238):— gious sect whose adepts were ever spitting, hawking, and blowing the nose, with a view to expel the devils they had swallowed. A trace of this still remains in some localities, where one who sneezes is saluted with "God bless you!" Such beliefs were universal Thus a certain prior of a convent had around him constantly a guard of two hundred men, who hewed the air with their swords, so as to cut to pieces the demons who were assailing him. Demons were even cited to appear before ecclesiastical "A poet should have heat and light; Notes and Queries. THE Herr Conrector had played on the organ, after church, a couple of fugues from Sebastian Bach, in which his headache might have been plainly discerned, and finished with: "Unsern Eingang segne Gott, Unsern Ausgang gleichermassen," and then came home. Finding on the hall table a piece of white paper which was a part of Dürten's spencer pattern: "H-m!" said he, "it is too bad how paper is wasted!" and he folded it up, and put it in his pocket, resolving to scold Dürten for her carelessness. But he was diverted from his purpose by the sight of Mamsell Soltmann's offering standing on his study table. "What is that?" asked he. "Oh, that is from her," said Dürten, pointing across the street, and looking as innocent as if the Herr Conrector had been on terms of intimacy with "the yellow woman for years. "Kunst has been here too." "Why, yes; what else should he come for? But I fooled him well." "That is right," said the Conrector, but said nothing more, and threw himself into his arm-chair. "Now he is sitting just across from here," said Dürten, looking at her master with a compassionate glance, as if she would say: Unhappy man, wandering blindly on the brink of an abyss! Why don't you ask me? I could tell you." 46 But he asked no questions, and she said: "Herr Conrector, are you going out this afternoon? After church, I mean." "No. Why?" "Then I would go out on the ice a little while with Stining and Halsband." "You can do so," said he, putting his hand to his head. "Now leave me; I will have a nap before dinner." Then reflected from the lake as from a mirror of There was a little booth erected on the ice, in which the Rathkellermeister's Karl was very busy with a punch-pot, for Kunst himself was too dignified to attend to it; he gave an eye to the business occasionally, and called "Karl!" now and then; and then the others would call "Karl!" and hold out their empty glasses. Amid all this confusion, there shot back and forth, like a flash of lightning, a young fellow, broad in the shoulders and slender in the hips, and supple as a reed when it is shaken by the wind, and everybody was looking at him with admiration as he turned round on one foot and cut circles and figures of 8, and Jochen Tiemann said to Krischan Biemann: "Hold on! I can do that!" and - slap!- he was lying on his back with his feet in the air, and the young fellow flashed by, towards the shore, and cried: "Never mind! Once is not always! You will do it yet." "So, Stining, so, Dürten, come now; but first have a glass of punch." "Oh, no, Halsband said Dürten, but he was already giving the order; "Karl! Three glasses of punch, Karl!” "As innocent as a child," said Dürten, as she left the room; "he dreams of nothing." In the afternoon, after service, there was The two girls came forward with short a merry company upon the ice. The wind steps and now and then a little slide, and had blown off yesterday's snow from the when they reached the booth, Halsband smooth surface of the lake, and had piled handed each of them a glass of hot punch, it in great drifts upon the banks; the sun and as Dürten took the first sip she glanced was dropping down behind the beeches of around to see what people said to her the Broda wood, and his Highness's new dissipation, and as she took the second she pleasure house, - which he called a Belvi- wondered what the Herr Conrector would dere and Rand and the Nigen-Bramborger's have said if he had seen her, and when she a Belmandür, and his last beams were had finished the glass, she felt as if she [Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Littell & Gay, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] early moonlight; but Karl Nahmaker of Gustrow knows, and my cousin August of Tessin, and the two will remember what sorrow it cost us to go home. Ah, then the pleasure was just at its height ! were in a fair way to waste her poor old Many who read this may have no idea father's little remaining substance in riot-how charming it is to be on the ice in the ous living. It grew black before her eyes, and the sun seemed to be going the wrong way. Just at this moment a young gentleman came skating up, pushing a sledge in which a young lady was sitting, and as she was about to get out the young man begged for his "sledge-right," and kissed her directly on the mouth. Halsband was ready with his sledge. "So, Stining, come "Hold!" cried Dürten, and pointed to the lady. "Do you do things in that fashion? You are not to kiss my sister Stining here on the open lake. I will rather go myself." And she seated herself in the sledge without more ado. What could the poor fellow do? He was obliged to give Dürten a ride first, while Stining came tripping and slipping along behind them. Dürten was very comfortable, and felt that she was doing a praiseworthy thing and sacrificing herself for her sister; but the others were decidedly vexed. The sun was going down, as Halsband came sweeping round on his way back, and restored Dürten to her sister. "So," said Dürten, "it is sun-down; we ought to go home." No," said Halsband, "you don't get off like that. First my sledge-right!" He took hold of Dürten, and kissed her heartily. "And now," said he, "what is right for one sister must be right for the other too. Get in, Stining." "It will be too late," cried Dürten. "Dürten," said Stining, with a beseeching glance at her sister, "he came over from Nigen-Strelitz on purpose to give me this ride." But Halsband grasped her in his arms, seated her in the sledge, and away they sped over the shining mirror. And here, too, the pleasure was just at its height, but it was as pure and innocent as with us boys in our childhood. Far out in the curve of the lake, where the great beeches grow, Wilhelm Halsband thrust his skate into the ice, and bent down and kissed Stining on her white cheek. That was not sledge-right, it was a different sort of right, the right which one human heart has to another. 66 66 "Oh, Wilhelm !" said Stining. 'Stining, I brought you here to tell you something. I cannot bear this any longer. I must be free from this cursed runnerbusiness. If his Highness will not let me go by fair means, he shall by foul; I will do some stupid trick and get turned off." "For God's sake, Wilhelm!" begged Stining, standing up and throwing her arms around him. "Ah, Wilhelm, Wilhelm," said she, and laid her hand on his arm, "don't do anything to make us still more unhappy!" But suddenly a powerful feeling thrilled this gentle soul; she drew back a step, and cried: "But if he only values you so But the sledge-right, the confounded What! Are we not also human beings?" kissing!" called Dürten after them. They "That is right, Stining," cried the warmdid not hear her; only a couple of shoe- hearted young fellow, taking her in his maker's apprentices heard it, and saw Dür-arms and kissing her again; "we have alten creeping back to the shore. ways found each other when we have sought each other." "Now come," said Stining, seating herself in the sledge. "It is enough; we are one. Bless me, what will Dürten say?" Eh, Dürten 66 "Halsband," cried Stining, "I have little insight; but I know so much if anyone can help us, and will help us, it is Dürten." They were gliding over the lake, rushing, flying! Here past a reedy nook, there a little grove. Stining held fast to the chair with both hands; her head swam; if it had not been Halsband she would have screamed for help. And the way seemed more and more lonely and quiet and solemn; the sun had gone, and had left its last greeting to the earth inscribed in rosy And Dürten? She was running back letters on the gray sky; and on the oppo- and forth on the shore like a hen that has site side, towards the east, over the Neme-hatched duck's eggs and sees her unnatural row wood, arose the moon, as round and offspring taking to the water, and knows red as the cover of a copper kettle. not how she is ever to get them back Dürten was raging, and her feet were, well enough. I have often had to bring freezing. him to Serene Highness in a thunderstorm." "Good evening, Dürten," said the Rathkellermeister, "is he here too? I mean my brother-in-law." "He is not here," said Dürten, coldly. Karl," cried the Rathkellermeister, over towards the booth, "bring a right hot glass of punch for Dürten Holzen! "Much obliged to you; do you think I am a Judas, to sell my master for a glass of punch? You want to get his cane, don't you? Look here: here I stand on the open lake; you can cut my throat if you like, but you'll never get the cane from me. Oh, you went home with Mamsell Soltmann this noon, and no doubt you two held wise counsel together!" "Karl," cried Kunst, "you needn't bring the punch; she won't have it. But the cane, I shall get that yet, and without cutting your throat, either. Just wait till New Years. And Mamsell Soltmann? Well, she is very well acquainted with my brother-in-law, there she was in his room, - and last evening I heard a little bird, -don't you see, if he takes her it is not a bad bargain at all. She is good-looking, and has money · "And she is yellow!" cried Dürten," and yellow she will always be," and she ran away from him. Just then Halsband and Stining came up to the booth. See, here we are," said Stining. "So," said Dürten, crossly, "then it is all settled." "Dürten," said Stining, "are you angry with me?" 66 "She would say nothing," was the reply, but the vexation was gone from Stining's voice; the thought of her mother had softened her. "She would be glad she hal got such a brave son-in-law." 66 "Oh, God bless him! He has long legs." Well, Dürten, he is quite determined to marry me, and he has just told me he means to do some stupid thing, so that Serene Highness may dismiss him." "So, will he do that? Well, he has done stupid things enough, and he can hardly fail to do more. But I am glad he has such a design. It would be a fine thing if he could really provoke Serene Highness." Angry!" repeated Dürten, and stamped on the ground as if she would pierce through a foot and a half of frost; "no, I am not angry, but my feet are freezing, and I am provoked with that fellow," and she pointed to the Rathkellermeister, who was superintending Karl, as he packed up the glasses and crockery. "Well, now we will go home," said Halsband. "I will just take back the sledge, and then I will go with you." "Halsband," said Dürten, and she spoke in a more decided tone than Stining thought needful," that cannot be to-night. Our By this time they had come to the Trepfather is playing cards this evening at Bohn-tow gate. Kunst was close behind them. sacken the tailor's, and I must look after the Herr Conrector; Stining is coming with me." And here I must acknowledge with regret that Dürten Holzen ought, by good rights, to have been sentenced to two years in the House of Correction for high-treason, for she added: "Serene Highness is a regular old donkey, to have such a bad opinion of us women.' As they were passing through, who should come walking up, on the wall, but the Herr Conrector, and who should be with him but the yellow woman! "You must not!" 66 Truly!" said Dürten to herself, "she But Stining stood before the Herr Con- has done it. She has neither shame nor fear! What does she want of him?" rector. "Good evening." "Good evening, Stining!" Oh, Herr Conrector, I want to ask you, -I am going to spend the evening with Durten, if you would not be willing that Halsband should come in for a little while, so that we might all be together?" "Yes, indeed, my dear little Stining, yes indeed. And Dürten can make you some coffee or something hot." "Many congratulations!" said Kunst, making a profound bow as he passed. “Good heavens!" cried Dürten, wringing her hands as if her child had fallen into the water, "how did they come together? -how did they come together?" "They probably met each other on the wall," said Stining, quietly. And so it was. The Herr Conrector had gone out walking, Mamsell Soltmann had met him; he had thanked her for the cake; Mamsell Soltmann had turned about and walked with him, vexing him, unwittingly, with her constant prattle of French phrases. CHAPTER VI. And now she was possessed by a dreadful curiosity. She would have given half her life to know what was going on inside. She took three steps towards the door, then she stopped. "What!-listen! Listen to my master? No!" she cried, and ran out of the back door into the yard. Here she stood, freezing, for a moment. "This is not at all necessary," she reflected, and returned to the passage. "I was here when she came; I can remain here, and if I should happen to overhear a word, my conscience need not trouble me." But she heard nothing, and it was not long before the Mamsell came out, the Conrector giving her his company to the street-door, and saying: "This afternoon, at three o'clock, then. - Dürten," he said, as he went back to his room, "before I forget it, - have coffee ready this afternoon; I expect company;" and with that he returned to his study. So," said Dürten, "expects company! Goes walking with her on the wall! One is scarcely out of bed, when she comes to see him; coming again, this afternoon, to coffee! It has certainly begun; I shall have to make up a bed for her, the next thing." At three o'clock that afternoon, Mamsell Soltmann appeared punctually, and with her a young fellow of fifteen, in a short coat, which we should call a hunting-jacket and how she quarrels with him. Why Kari now-a-days, with a long neck and extremeSiemssen must go into Secunda, and what tinely large hands, which hung down awkprospects greet him there. How Durten's cush How the Mamsell comes to see the Herr Conrector. fon flies at the Herr Conrector's head, and how he reads off his wisdom from her spencer pattern. — How the cushion led to a kissing, and how the Rathkellermeister Kunst sent the Herr Conrector an account - Durten offers herself as advocate for her master, and positively refuses to pay. — The Conrector goes about his business, and makes spiteful red marks in the school books. NEW YEAR had come, the holidays were over, and school was to begin the next day. The Herr Conrector was ready; but the Herr Rector Dankwart had indulged his appetite too freely during the holidays, and he now lay in bed, leaving all his honor and dignity, as principal of the school, to the Herr Conrector; and all the work also. The Herr Conrector was sitting in his room, the day before school began again, Dürten was cleaning in the passage, when the door opened, and Mamsell Soltmann entered. She greeted Dürten rather distantly, and walked right up to the door of the Conrector's room and knocked. "Come in!" cried his voice, and the woman actually went in. wardly from the sleeves, not knowing where to bestow themselves, and prophesying, meanwhile, that the young fellow would grow to be a man of fine stature, that is to say, if what is true of dogs holds good for boys also; for my friend Zaccheus, the watchmaker, says: "Do you see, judging by his joints and his paws, the dog must grow larger." Well, what is lacking may yet be supplied. This was Mamsell Soltmann's nephew, a clergyman's son from the country, who, as wholesome but raw dough, was now to be shoved into the Gymnasial bake-oven; and the Conrector was to examine him for the purpose of ascertaining whether as coarse bread he should be placed in Tertia, or as fine bread in Secunda, or as a wheaten roll in Prima itself. The examination began; the Conrector smoked tobacco, the young fellow perspired, and Mamsell Soltmann drank coffee. Dürten sat in the next room and grumbled to herself, and sewed on a soft cushion, which she was making. For the |