Then we have long details of the Weinlesen (Vintage), the Harvest-Home, Christmas, and so forth; with a whole cycle of the Entepfuhl Children's-games, differing apparently by mere superficial shades from those of other countries. Concerning all which, we shall here, for obvious reasons, say nothing. What cares the world for our as yet miniature Philosopher's achievements under that 'brave old Linden'? Or even where is the use of such practical reflections as the following? In all the sports of Children, were it only in their wanton breakages and defacements, you shall discern a creative instinct (schaffenden Trieb): the Mankin feels that he is a born Man, that his voca'tion is to work. The choicest present you can make him is a 'Tool; be it knife or pen-gun, for construction or for destruction; either way it is for Work, for Change. In gregarious sports of skill or strength, the Boy trains himself to Coöperation, for war or peace, as governor or governed: the little Maid again, provident of her domestic destiny, takes with preference 'to Dolls.'

Perhaps, however, we may give this anecdote, considering who it is that relates it: 'My first short-clothes were of yellow serge; or rather, I should say, my first short-cloth, for the ves'ture was one and indivisible, reaching from neck to ankle, a 'mere body with four limbs of which fashion how little coulá 'I then divine the architectural, how much less the moral sig'nificance !'

More graceful is the following little picture: 'On fine even'ings I was wont to carry-forth my supper (bread-crumb boiled ' in milk), and eat it out-of-doors. On the coping of the Orchard' wall, which I could reach by climbing, or still more easily if 'Father Andreas would set-up the pruning-ladder, my porringer was placed there, many a sunset, have I, looking at the dis'tant western Mountains, consumed, not without relish, my even'ing meal. Those hues of gold and azure, that hush of World's expectation as Day died, were still a Hebrew Speech for me; ' nevertheless I was looking at the fair illuminated Letters, and • had an eye for their gilding.'

With the little one's friendship for cattle and poultry' we shall not much intermeddle. It may be that hereby he acquired a 'certain deeper sympathy with animated Nature:' but when, we would ask, saw any man, in a collection of Biographical

Documents, such a piece as this: Impressive enough (bedeutungsvoll) was it to hear, in early morning, the Swineherd's 'horn; and know that so many hungry happy quadrupeds were, on all sides, starting in hot haste to join him, for breakfast on the Heath. Or to see them at eventide, all marching-in again, 'with short squeak, almost in military order; and each, topographically correct, trotting-off in succession to the right or left, through its own lane, to its own dwelling; till old Kunz, at the Village-head, now left alone, blew his last blast, and retired for the night. We are wont to love the Hog chiefly in the form of Ham; yet did not these bristly thick-skinned beings here manifest intelligence, perhaps humour of character; at any rate, a touching, trustful submissiveness to Man,-who, were he but a Swineherd, in darned gabardine, and leather 'breeches more resembling slate or discoloured-tin breeches, is 'still the Hierarch of this lower world?'

It is maintained, by Helvetius and his set, that an infant of genius is quite the same as any other infant, only that certain surprisingly favourable influences accompany him through life, especially through childhood, and expand him, while others lie closefolded and continue dunces. Herein, say they, consists the whole difference between an inspired Prophet and a double-barrelled Game-preserver: the inner man of the one has been fostered into generous development; that of the other, crushed-down perhaps by vigour of animal digestion, and the like, has exuded and evaporated, or at best sleeps now irresuscitably stagnant at the bottom of his stomach. With which opinion,' cries Teufelsdröckh, 'I should as soon agree as with this other, that an acorn might, by favourable or unfavourable influences of soil and 'climate, be nursed into a cabbage, or the cabbage-seed into an oak.

'Nevertheless,' continues he, 'I too acknowledge the all-but omnipotence of early culture and nurture: hereby we have either 'a doddered dwarf bush, or a high-towering, wide-shadowing · tree; either a sick yellow cabbage, or an edible luxuriant green " one. Of a truth, it is the duty of all men, especially of all philosophers, to note-down with accuracy the characteristic ' circumstances of their Education, what furthered, what hin'dered, what in any way modified it: to which duty, nowadays so pressing for many a German Autobiographer, I also zeal

'ously address myself.'. Thou rogue! Is it by short-clothes of yellow serge, and swineherd horns, that an infant of genius is educated? And yet, as usual, it ever remains doubtful whether he is laughing in his sleeve at these Autobiographical times of ours, or writing from the abundance of his own fond ineptitude. For he continues: If among the ever-streaming currents of Sights, Hearings, Feelings for Pain or Pleasure, whereby, as in a Magic Hall, young Gneschen went about environed, I 'might venture to select and specify, perhaps these following · were also of the number :

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'Doubtless, as childish sports call forth Intellect, Activity, so the young creature's Imagination was stirred up, and a Historical tendency given him by the narrative habits of Father 'Andreas; who, with his battle-reminiscences, and gray austere ' yet hearty patriarchal aspect, could not but appear another Ulysses and "much-enduring Man." Eagerly I hung upon his ' tales, when listening neighbours enlivened the hearth; from 'these perils and these travels, wild and far almost as Hades itself, a dim world of Adventure expanded itself within me. Incalculable also was the knowledge I acquired in standing by the Old Men under the Linden-tree: the whole of Immensity ' was yet new to me; and had not these reverend seniors, talk'ative enough, been employed in partial surveys thereof for nigh fourscore years? With amazement I began to discover • that Entepfuhl stood in the middle of a Country, of a World; 'that there was such a thing as History, as Biography; to ' which I also, one day, by hand and tongue, might contribute. 'In a like sense worked the Postwagen (Stage-coach), which, slow-rolling under its mountains of men and luggage, wended ' through our Village: northwards, truly, in the dead of night; ' yet southwards visibly at eventide. Not till my eighth year did I reflect that this Postwagen could be other than some terrestrial Moon, rising and setting by mere Law of Nature, like the heavenly one; that it came on made highways, from 'far cities towards far cities; weaving them like a monstrous ⚫ shuttle into closer and closer union. It was then that, inde'pendently of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, I made this not quite ⚫ insignificant reflection (so true also in spiritual things): Any ▪ road, this simple Entepfuhl road, will lead you to the end of the World!

P

'Why mention our Swallows, which, out of far Africa, as I learned, threading their way over seas and mountains, cor'porate cities and belligerent nations, yearly found themselves, 'with the month of May, snug-lodged in our Cottage Lobby? The hospitable Father (for cleanliness' sake) had fixed a little bracket plumb under their nest: there they built, and caught 'flies, and twittered, and bred; and all, I chiefly, from the heart 'loved them. Bright, nimble creatures, who taught you the 'mason-craft; nay, stranger still, gave you a masonic incorporation, almost social police? For if, by ill chance, and when 'time pressed, your House fell, have I not seen five neighbourly Helpers appear next day; and swashing to and fro, with animated, loud, long-drawn chirpings, and activity almost superhirundine, complete it again before nightfall?

'But undoubtedly the grand summary of Entepfuhl child'sI culture, where as in a funnel its manifold influences were con'centrated and simultaneously poured-down on us, was the ' annual Cattle-fair. Here, assembling from all the four winds, 'came the elements of an unspeakable hurlyburly. Nutbrown 'maids and nutbrown men, all clear-washed, loud-laughing, be'dizened and beribanded; who came for dancing, for treating, ' and if possible, for happiness. Topbooted Graziers from the 'North; Swiss Brokers, Italian Drovers, also topbooted, from 'the South; these with their subalterns in leather jerkins, lea'ther skull-caps, and long oxgoads; shouting in half-articulate speech, amid the inarticulate barking and bellowing. Apart 'stood Potters from far Saxony, with their crockery in fair rows; Nürnberg Pedlars, in booths that to me seemed richer than 'Ormuz bazaars; Showmen from the Lago Maggiore; detach'ments of the Wiener Schub (Offscourings of Vienna) vocifer'ously superintending games of chance. Ballad-singers brayed, 'Auctioneers grew hoarse; cheap New Wine (heuriger) flowed ' like water, still worse confounding the confusion; and high over all, vaulted, in ground-and-lofty tumbling, a particoloured Merry-Andrew, like the genius of the place and of Life itself.

'Thus encircled by the mystery of Existence; under the deep heavenly Firmament; waited-on by the four golden Sea'sons, with their vicissitudes of contribution, for even grim 'Winter brought its skating-matches and shooting-matches, its snow-storms and Christmas-carols,—did the Child sit and

⚫ learn. These things were the Alphabet, whereby in after-time® ' he was to syllable and partly read the grand Volume of the 'World: what matters it whether such Alphabet be in large gilt letters or in small ungilt ones, so you have an eye to read ' it? For Gneschen, eager to learn, the very act of looking 'thereon was a blessedness that gilded all: his existence was a bright, soft element of Joy; out of which, as in Prospero's Island, wonder after wonder bodied itself forth, to teach by 'charming.

Nevertheless, I were but a vain dreamer to say, that even then my felicity was perfect. I had, once for all, come down 'from Heaven into the Earth. Among the rainbow colours that glowed on my horizon, lay even in childhood a dark ring of ⚫ Care, as yet no thicker than a thread, and often quite over'shone; yet always it reappeared, nay ever waxing broader and 'broader; till in after-years it almost over-shadowed my whole canopy, and threatened to engulf me in final night. It was 'the ring of Necessity whereby we are all begirt; happy he for 'whom a kind heavenly Sun brightens it into a ring of Duty, ' and plays round it with beautiful prismatic diffractions; yet ever, as basis and as bourne for our whole being, it is there.

' most.

'For the first few years of our terrestrial Apprenticeship, we 'have not much work to do; but, boarded and lodged gratis, are set down mostly to look about us over the workshop, and see others work, till we have understood the tools a little, and can handle this and that. If good Passivity alone, and not ' good Passivity and good Activity together, were the thing 'wanted, then was my early position favourable beyond the In all that respects openness of Sense, affectionate • Temper, ingenuous Curiosity, and the fostering of these, what more could I have wished? On the other side, however, things ' went not so well. My Active Power (Thatkraft) was unfavour ́ably hemmed-in; of which misfortune how many traces yet ' abide with me! In an orderly house, where the litter of chil'dren's sports is hateful enough, your training is too stoical; ' rather to bear and forbear than to make and do. I was forbid much: wishes in any measure bold I had to renounce; every'where a strait bond of Obedience inflexibly held me down. • Thus already Freewill often came in painful collision with Ne