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In such rose-coloured light does our Professor, as Poets are wont, look back on his childhood; the historical details of which (to say nothing of much other vague oratorical matter) he accordingly dwells on, with an almost wearisome minuteness. We hear of Entepfuhl standing in trustful derangement' among the woody slopes; the paternal Orchard flanking it as extreme outpost from below; the little Kuhbach gushing kindly by, among beech-rows, through river after river, into the Donau, into the Black Sea, into the Atmosphere and Universe; and how the brave old Linden,' stretching like a parasol of twenty ells in radius, overtopping all other rows and clumps, towered up from the central Agora and Campus Martius of the Village, like its Sacred Tree; and how the old man sat talking under its shadow (Gneschen often greedily listening), and the wearied labourers reclined, and the unwearied children sported, and the young men and maidens often danced to flute-music. 'Glorious summer twi'lights,' cries Teufelsdröckh, when the Sun like a proud Conqueror and Imperial Taskmaster turned his back, with his gold'purple emblazonry, and all his fire-clad bodyguard (of Prismatic 'Colours); and the tired brickmakers of this clay Earth might 'steal a little frolic, and those few meek Stars would not tell of 'them!'

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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 (schaffeden Trieb): the Man'kin feels that he is a born Man, that his vocation 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 Co-operation, for war or peace, as gov

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ernor or governed: the little Maid again, provident of her do'mestic destiny, takes with preference to Dolls.'

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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 vesture was one and indivisible, reaching from neck to ankle, a mere body 'with four limbs of which fashion how little could I then divine 'the architectural, how much less the moral significance !'

More graceful is the following little picture: 'On fine evenings I was wont to carry forth my supper (bread-crumb boiled in milk), and eat it out of doors. On the coping of the Or'chard wall, which I could reach by climbing, or still more easily if Father Andreas would set up the pruning-ladder, my porrin'ger was placed: there, many a sunset, have I, looking at the · distant western Mountains, consumed, not without relish, my evening 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 Let'ters, and had an eye for their gilding.'

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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 cor' rect, 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 mani'fest 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 re

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sembling 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 close-folded 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 philoso'phers, to note down with accuracy the characteristic circum'stances of their Education, what furthered, what hindered, what "in any way modified it to which duty, now-adays so pressing for 'many a German Autobiographer, I also zealously 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 Sighs, Hearings, Feel'ings 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 :

'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 grey 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, talkative 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 Postwagon could be other than some terrestrial 'Moon, rising and setting by mere Law of Nature, like the hea'venly one; that it came on made highways, from far cities to'wards far cities; weaving them like a monstrous shuttle into 'closer and closer union. It was then that, independently 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!

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'Why mention our Swallows, which, out of fair Africa as I 'learned, threading their way over seas and mountains, corporate '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 policy? 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,

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loud, long-drawn chirpings, and activity almost super-hirundine, 'complete it again before nightfall?

But undoubtedly the grand summary of Entepfuhl child's'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 hurly-burly. Nutbrown maids ' and nutbrown men, all clear-washed, loud-laughing, bedizened 'and beribanded; who came for dancing, for treating, and if pos'sible for happiness. Topbooted Graziers from the North; 'Swiss Brokers, Italian Drovers, also topbooted, from the South; 'these with their subalterns in leather jerkins, leather skull-caps, 'and long ox-goads; shouting in half-articulate speech, amid the 'inarticulate barking and bellowing. Apart stood Potters from 'far Saxony, with their crockery in fair rows; Nürnberg Ped'lars, in booths that to me seemed richer than Ormuz bazaars; 'Showmen from the Lago Maggiore; detachments of the Wiener Schub (Offscourings of Vienna) vociferously 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.

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'Thus encircled by the mystery of Existence; under the deep 'heavenly Firmament; waited on by the four golden Seasons, '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 ele'ment 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

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