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plexion, as Dürten herself had. But in other respects, as I have said already, he was a good man, and although some people reckoned it as a fault, that he was sharp at a bargain, and extremely economical in his expenses, there was reason enough why he should be, for his income was small, he had no friends who could or would assist him, and old age stared him in the face. Avaricious, however, he was not, except of paper; of that he was very sparing, and wrote on the smallest fragments; but one often meets with that description of avarice. I have a good friend, who will give you two thalers very cheerfully, if you ask it for any one; but he makes a pitiful face, if one uses two matches.

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On the morning of the day, which I have been telling about, he walked up and down his room, dressed in a short jacket, which his neighbour the tailor had made for him out of an old coat, and with a long pipe in his mouth. He could not afford the expénse of a dressing-gown. "I haven't smoked a pipe at this time in the morning, since the fair, last fall," said he to himself. It is very pleasant to get out of the old harness once in a while. Holidays are still holidays; a man can draw a long breath. Now, I will examine my electrical apparatus;" and he pulled out a shallow tin box, filled with rosin, and a fox's brush, and sundry bottles and halves of bottles; for the apparatus was of his own manufacture, and gotten up as cheaply as possible. "It is not so nice as the apothecary's machine," he observed, "but it will work; one can get some idea from it."

He worked over this until noon; then he made himself tidy for the day, and appeared in a russet brown coat, with great gold-embroidered buttons, and wide cuffs on the sleeves, black Manchester velvet breeches, snow-white stockings, and brightly polished shoes, with silver buckles. Then he called Dürten Holzen to arrange his hair in a bag, and afterwards he sat down with her to dinner.

After dinner, he had a little fire made in his stove; then went to the window, opened it, and examined his thermometer, a valued gift from the apothecary; for they two were the only ones in Nigen-Bramborg who possessed such a weather prophet.

Just as he opened his window, a window was raised in the second story of the house opposite, and his neighbour in the yellow pelisse made him a bow, and uttered a friendly:

"Bon jour, Monsieur."

"Good day!" was his reply. "I have told you once before, that if you wish

totalk with me, you must speak German."

"I wish you a merry Christmas!" said the lady, in German.

"The same to yourself!" And with a faint attempt at a polite bow, he closed the window.

"The cuckoo knows," said he, "I said a couple of words to her one day, when I met her on the wall, and now she attacks me, wherever she sees me. Well, let her work."

·

He seated himself in his leather-covered arm-chair, which his father-in-law, who died three months ago, had given him several years before, for a Christmas present, and smoked his pipe. The room was pleasantly warm, the fire crackled in the stove, the chair was comfortable: out of doors, the wind and the driving snow; in doors, everything quiet. "Eight degrees by the thermometer outside," said he, leaning back in his chair, "well for him who has a warm room to stay in. But how lonely, how lonely! Dürten Holzen is a good creature, but it was different with Lotting. She was economical, too; but she would not have let to-day pass without some notice, she would at least have made pepper-nuts. Dürten says: You don't eat them, and it isn't worth while baking them for me; besides, we can't spare the money.' She is right; but Lotting was economical, too, and yet she would have baked pepper-nuts." Thoughts of the past returned to him, and he sighed gently, but could not call back what had vanished forever. His was no bitter heart-sorrow; he felt rather like a man alone on a desert island in the wide ocean, whose eyes vainly search the blue distance for a white sail, bearing to him human hope, and the waves dash mournfully against the shore, the monotonous waves of daily life. He was weary of their sighing, and his eyes closed, and then the pipe dropped from his mouth, and he was asleep. Then the clock struck two, and he roused himself: "Eh, there's no help for it. Oh, to be sure! it is vacation," and he went to sleep again.

When he awoke for the second time, after a comfortable nap, his thoughts went on to the future. He sat down by the window, and watched the storm. "It does well enough now," he said. "I am still healthy and strong, and can continue my teaching for some time longer; but when old age comes, and they pension me off on bread and butter, what shall I live on? My profession is not a good one to lay up money in. I might marry again; but it should be a woman with a few groschens

of her own, and who would be disposed to be kind to me in my old age. And where could I find such an one? The old jurist Cujacius relates that he was thrice married; the first time propter opus, the second time propter opes,† and the third time propter opem; ‡ I must marry propter opes and propter opem at the same time. A difficult matter, if one knows women; the opes would afford no opem, and the opem have no opes." Here, he looked up, and in the twilight saw his neighbor standing at her window. "There she is again! People say you have opes; but you don't look to me as if you would be worth much for opem."

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As it grew darker, Dürten brought in a light, mended the fire, and brought out a pair of warm felt shoes. • Herr Conrector, put on your warm shoes, so as not to take cold," and went out again.

“Dürten would answer for opem," said the Herr Conrector, "but where would the opes come from, in that case?"

Then he heard some one stamping off the snow, and the Herr Advocate Kägebein entered the room.

Honoured friend and benefactor, I could not resist." "What?"

"Coming to visit you; I felt the strongest impulse to see you again."

So? Why, when did you get home?" "Last evening." "Well, if the impulse was so strong, I wonder you did not come last evening.' "Business, my friend, indispensable business."

"What? Have you got a case, for the first time in your life?"

"Preserve us! Far more important was the business which wafted me on the wings of the zephyrs, while yet the purple garment of Aurora overspread the Eastern sky from New-Strelitz to Brandenburg."

"Fine old zephyrs out of doors to-day!" said the Herr Conrector irreverently, but Kägebein did not allow himself to be disturbed.

"I am going to have a collection of my finest poems printed, and his Serene Highness has been graciously pleased to accept my humble dedication, and here they are " and he deposited a quantity of manuscript on the table.

"His Highness? Poems? He must have done it out of curiosity, for I do not think he ever read a poem in his life."

"I read him some of mine, and he was much pleased with them; he has a great For assistance. 6

• For necessity. LIVING AGE.

For riches.

VOL. I.

deal of taste and appreciation for really fine, lofty poetry; and between us from what Rand, his Herr Kaminerdiener said to me, I have a confident expectation of receiving the title of Court Poet."

I congratulate you on the lofty title." "But the poems are really very fine! They are in the highest style; I have, so to speak, melted Gellert and Rammler and Gleim into one. Just listen!"

"Pray sit down, first."

The Herr Advocate did so, and began to look over his papers.

"I will not choose out any; I will take them just as they come. Here is one which I wrote like Gellert; it is an Idyllum."

"That is not the word; it should be Idyllium; it comes from the Greek ειδύλλιον."

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'Oh, that is a little matter; the great thing is to be able to create; listen: "INVITATION TO THE MASQUERADE

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And with joy is filled his Trina's breast.
Like the shepherd, happy will we be,
When, my friend, thy face beloved I see,
Full of joy shall be the fleeting hours,
And the nymphs shall strew the path with
flowers.

Come, dear friend, and leave the old books lying,
All the Pandects and the codicem,
Know that with the hours of youth are flying
Also youthful joys, and come ad locum quem.”

"Rather a tough rhyme, but very pretty," said the Conrector; and Kägebein went on:

"Waiting thee with open arms they stand, Mid the sounding strings and trumpets' music grand, Dorimene and Syncerene and all the graces,

Fairer than in olden times the fair in Greece and other famous places."

"Now hold on!" cried the Conrector, | The Hofrath Altmann lent it to me; I canpushing back the papers. "It would take not afford to buy such things myself."

a man a week, at least, to comprehend that. And you think that is in the style of Gellert ?"

"Yes," replied Kägebein, innocently; "and here I have a piece which is more like Gleim. Friendship, you know; I composed it for my friend Horn, upon the birth of his son:

"Dear friend, I much regret to say,
I'm in the doctor's care to-day,
And therefore cannot go to meet thee;
May Zephyrus and Phoebus greet thee!

Yet at half past eight, may be,
We shall one another see,
Let not anxious care attend,
I am still thy faithful friend.

Greetings to thy Lotta dear,
And the little God of slumber,
Sweetest blessings without number
Greet his welcome entrance here.

Pay the vows that thou didst make, Praying often for his sake, Full of love and joy to-day, Fall upon thy knees and pray!' Here the Conrector sprang up: "You must excuse me, I cannot stand that, I am quite dizzy; I must walk up and down a little."

Kägebein drew himself up, proudly: "Your feelings are overcome by the poetry?"

"Yes, it has quite overpowered me. Sounding strings-by that you mean fiddles, I suppose?

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"Yes, that is poetical." "And I suppose 'God of slumber' is poetical for a new-born child?”

"Yes, these poetical expressions are, as many have told me, my peculiar forte. Here I have a great epic poem, which is entitled: The Beauty of the Bakery; or, the Leap through the Blackthorn;' Ï shall not print it at present, because

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"That is right, that is the most sensible thing you can do - nonum prematur in annum, don't print it yet awhile; these poems are enough for people to swallow. Now, tell me, how long have you written poetry?

"Oh, well! Fifteen or twenty years." "Then let it go, for the future: you have done your duty, in that respect."

"Eh, my friend, so you say; but when the spirit moves me, for my nature is a poetical one

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"A confounded nature and a good-fornothing spirit! Tell me, did you ever read a book called 'Götz von Berlichingen?'

Kägebein shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head, saying:

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"Yes, but it is rough and unpolished; there is very little fine poetry in it."

"All the better! I should hope not," cried the Conrector, warmly. There is truth and nature. Look at Homer; where is the fine poetry? People stammer and blunder over Homer at school, and never understand half of his beauty and naturalness and truth. I had one scholar, only a farmer's boy when he came to me, ― Johann Heinrich Voss his name was, who had some sense of it."

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"Yes, my friend; but Homer has nothing fine; he lived in such a barbarous age."

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Eh, and we in a very refined one? I suppose you think, because you call the women in your poems by all sorts of silly names, that therefore you are a fine writer; what we call Mariken and Fika and Dürten, you call Dorimene and Syncerene and Fatima, and what not ridiculous names; I can only tell you, I would not take all your Iphigenias and Philomelas and Dorimenes, in exchange for my honest old Dürten Holzen. That comes from the cursed French, which is destroying our German character and German language. See, there is a fellow," and he pointed to a picture of Lessing, which hung on the wall, “I studied with him at Leipsic, he was a crony of mine, - he understood it; and if we would follow him, we should be on the right track. And here," taking down an old book from the shelf, "is a countryman of yours, who wrote good old-fashioned poetry, listen: I will translate it from his old dialect, into the present, and read only the close of it, for the first part is a little too strong for this delicate, refined age:

"So'ne hocher lüchtete Red', de is un up ge kamen,

Bringet den nigen Poeten einen ewigen Na

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"But, my dear friend, that is our com- menes, and the rest of the lot, common women?"

mon Platt-deutsch."

"Well, and why not?" "Yes, I know that you and it is much deplored by your friends, are so much attached to the common Platt-deutsch language, that you give it the preference over the High German."

"So? Well, you may tell my friends not to distress themselves on my account; I have my reasons for it, tell them. Do you think if, coming here as I did, a Saxon, I had learned no Platt-deutsch, my scholars would not have indulged in all manner of foolish jokes against me, in that language? And I will acknowledge, in addition, that I like the Platt-deutsch much better than the High German that you write; it is at least not yet corrupted and spoiled by the French."

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"We don't seem to agree, this evening," said Käge bein, collecting his papers, and getting ready to go.

When the old Conrector observed this, a feeling came over him that he had been rather rude to his visitor, and as a kindhearted man, he endeavoured to make amends, but as it proved, he made matters worse than ever. He went up to his guest very frankly, and gave him his hand:

"I am older than you, Kägebein, and can give you a word of advice; don't publish the confounded poems!"

The poet started back, looked sharply at the Courector, and thought he was pale with envy; so he smiled in a superior way, and said as he went out of the door :

"Your advice is certainly well meant, and many people may not appreciate my poems; but his Highness, our gracious reigning Sovereign, has accepted the dedication, and so they must be published. Good evening."

The Conrector accompanied him to the door and said:

"I am glad of it," cried the Conrector, striking the table, "it is too honest. You say that I am fond of the Platt-deutsch dia- "Good evening! I wish you much happilect, and then you say of my beloved ob-ness from them; but, excuse me for saying ject, that it is common?-what? so, you are a great goose ! look to your words! what would you say, if I were to call your Chloes, and Dori

Herr,

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Kägebein went off, replying:

"We shall see, my friend, we shall see! Look at them in print, first; they will seem quite a different thing.”

He went off towards the wine-cellar, and the Conrector growled after him:

"Have I wasted my Christmas evening on that stupid fellow!"

And, as we have seen, a little while after, he followed Kägebein to the wine-cellar.

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however, the number of schools in the empire is still far from sufficient for the wants of the population. The number of children fit to go to school is estimated at about eight millions, so that, taking an average of fifty children for each school, there should be about 160,000 schools, while there are not more than 40,000. The consequence is that the proportion of persons unable to read and write in Russia is greater than in almost any other European country. The good intentions of the Ministry, too, are in many instances foiled by the stupidity or corrup tion of the officials, and in Poland and the Baltic provinces the Government is too busy in keeping down antagonistic national elements to pay much attention to education.

Pall Mall Gazette.

From The Contemporary Review.
THE AMERICAN PRAYER-BOOK.

A LITURGICAL STUDY.

AT a time when the subject of liturgical revision is occupying many minds in England, and when already the Irish branch of the Church has taken the Prayer-Book in hand, and is even now actively engaged on the work of alteration, it may, we trust, be found useful to consider the success that has attended the only revision of the Prayer-Book that has been effected since the Caroline settlement of 1662, and generally enforced by the authority of any church of the Anglican communion. The efforts of the Royal Commissioners of 1689 were practically fruitless. The task imposed on them was one that at any time would have been attended with enormous difficulties and at the particular time when it was undertaken party spirit ran so high that there could have been among thoughtful men little serious expectation of its successful achievement. The result of their labours was a service-book from which enough of ancient usage and phraseology was surrendered to discontent and alarm the great majority of Churchmen without its becoming in the smallest measure really adapted to propitiate the deeprooted dislike of the general mass of the Nonconformists. While from a literary point of view the work of the Commissioners will always remain a curiosity, as displaying in a marvellous, sad way, the laborious and painstaking industry which a vitiated taste can employ in spoiling the beauties which it cannot appreciate. Happily for the Church the unruly temper of the Lower House of Convocation made it at once plain that no alteration of the

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existing Prayer-Book would then be tolerated, and since then no further experiment in liturgical changes has been tried, in England, under authority of Church or State. Of course the varieties of “use which in the last century sprang up among the Non-jurors and the Scottish Episcopalians make no exception to this statement, as not in general pretending to authority, and being in the main determined by the personal inclinations of individual Bishops. It was left thus to the American Church to be the first Church to attempt a revis

ion of our service-books which should be authoritatively binding within the whole circle of her jurisdiction.

The American Prayer-Book presents a very meagre and unattractive field of study to the mere liturgiologist; but it is not without considerable interest for any one whose mind is occupied with the practical problems of revision. And just at the present time is this more especially true, because the American Revision has been frequently pointed to by a busy innovating section in the Irish Church as a signal fact that should not fail to allay the grave apprehensions, with which the whole subject of liturgical change has been regarded by the more conservative party, while there are some found who even look to the American Prayer-Book as affording weighty precedent for alterations that they desire.

As I shall in the course of this article have need to use some hard words of censure, here at the outset I would say that to judge fairly of the praise and blame that attach to the American Revisers of 1789 we must never fail to bear in mind that in their day on both sides of the Atlantic the prevailing ideal of Divine WorTheir work was done ship had fallen low.

The following will give some notion of the state of excited feeling prevalent among the clergy at the ebb; and it was not till nearly half "Great canvassings were everywhere in the elections a century later that the flow of the tide of of Convocation-men; a thing not known in former times; so that it was soon very visible, that we were religious sentiment on this matter began not in a temper cool or calm enough, to encourage to grow full and strong. Indeed the very the further prosecuting such a design. When the Convocation was opened, the king sent them a mesconception of worship — worship as distinsage by the Earl of Nottingham, assuring them of guished in thought from prayer and edifihis constant favour and protection, and desiring cation was hazy, and ill-defined, among them to consider such things as by his order should be laid before them, with due care and an impartial English Churchmen, for many years after zeal for the peace of the Church. But the Lower the date of the American Revision. House of Convocation expressed a resolution not to enter into any debates with relation to alterations: so that they would take no notice of the second part of the King's mes age: and it was, not without dif ficulty, carried to make a decent address to the King, thanking him for his promise of protection. But, because, in the draught which the Bishops sent them, they acknowledged the protection that the Protestant Religion in general, and the Church of England in particular, had received from him, the Lower House thought that this imported their owning some common union with the foreign Protestants: so they would not agree to it."-Burnet, History of His Own Time, Book V., anno 1689.

And yet there is no truths more certain than this, that the firm and continuous grasp of the conception of worship-as the homage of man before the throne of God is the first essential to any worthy dealing with the Divine services. Once surrender the pre-eminence of the idea of adoration in the Church's worship of God - once allow edifying rites, doctrinal instructions, supplications and

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