'gent sorrowing widower, little enough was known at Entep'fuhl. Heedless of all which, the Nurseling took to his spoonmeat, and throv I have heard him noted as a still infant, that kept his mind much to himself; above all, that seldom or never 'cried. He already felt that time was precious; that he had ' other work cut out for him than whimpering.'

Such, after utmost painful search and collation among these miscellaneous Faper-masses, is all the notice we can gather of Herr Teufelsdröckh's genealogy. More imperfect, more enigmatic it can seem to few readers than to us. The Professor, in whom truly we more and more discern a certain satirical turn, and deep under-currents of roguish whim, for the present stands pledged in honour, so we will not doubt him: but seems it not conceivable that, by the 'good Gretchen Futteral,' or some other perhaps interested party, he has himself been deceived? Should these sheets, translated or not, ever reach the Entepfuhl Circulating-Library, some cultivated native of that district might feel called to afford explanation. Nay, since Books, like invisible scouts, permeate the whole habitable globe, and Tombuctoo itself is not safe from Britith Literature, may not some Copy find out even the mysterious Basket-bearing stranger, who in a state of extreme senility perhaps still exists; and gently force even him to disclose himself; to claim openly a son, in whom any father may feel pride?

CHAPTER I

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'HAPPY season of Childhood!' exclaims 'Nature, that art to all a bountiful mother, 'man's hut with auroral radiance; and fo. 'provided a soft swathing of Love and infin 'waxes and slumbers, danced-round (umg 'Dreams! If the paternal Cottage still shut 6 screens us; with a Father we have as yet a 'king, and an Obedience that makes us Free. 'has awakened out of Eternity, and knows no what we mean by Time; as yet Time is no fast-hurrying stre, m, but a sportful 'sunlit ocean; years to the child are as ages: h! the secret of 'Vicissitude, of that slower or quicker decay 'rushing of the universal World-fabric, from 'tain to the man or day-moth, is yet unknown: 'less Universe, we taste, what afterwards in ti 'Universe is forever denied us, the balm of Res. 'fair Child, for thy long rough journey is at uand! A little 'while, and thou too shalt sleep no more, but t'y very dreams 'shall be mimic battles; thou too, with old Arnau d, wilt have to say in stern patience: "Rest? Rest? Shall I not have all 'Eternity to rest in ?" Celestial Nepenthe! though a Pyrrhus 'conquer empires, and an Alexander sack the world, he finds 'thee not; and thou hast once fallen gently, of thy own accord, ' on the eyelids, on the heart of every mother's child. For as yet, 'sleep and waking are one: the fair Life-garden rustles infinite ' around, and everywhere is dewy fragrance, and the budding of Hope; which budding, if in youth, too frostnipt, it grows to 'flowers, will in manhood yield no fruit, but a prickly, bitter'rinded stone-fruit, of which the fewest can find the kernel.'

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In such rose--" wont culesso 'meat, and throv.

A light does our Professor, as Poets are childhood; the historical details of which ch other vague oratorical matter) he ac'kept his mind r ...th an almost wearisome minuteness. We 'cried. He fuhl standing in trustful derangement' among the 'other work cut v. P ernal Orchard flanking it as extreme outlittle Kuhbach gushing kindly by, among Such, after utm iver after river, into the Donau, into the miscellaneous P. Atmosphere and Universe; and how the Herr Teufelsdr matic it can se whom truly w and deep pledged in u

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tching like a parasol of twenty ells in raother rows and clumps, towered up from the ampus Martius of the Village, like its Sacred 4ld man sat talking under its shadow (Gnelistening), and the wearied labourers reclined, children sported, and the young men and ced to flute-music. Glorious summer twiAlsdröckh, 'when the Sun like a proud Con

เ queror and Impe ial Taskmaster turned his back, with his gold'purple emblazony, and all his fire-clad bodyguard (of Prismatic Colours); and the tired brickmakers of this clay Earth might

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long details of the Weinlesen (Vintage), the Hartmas, and so forth; with a whole cycle of the n'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 Chil'dren, were it only in their wanton breakages and defacements, you shall discern a creati 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 6 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

6

'ernor or governed: the little Maid again, provident of her do'mestic 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 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 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 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 correct, trotting off in succession to the right or left, through its ' own lane, to its own dwelling; till old Kunz, at the Villagehead, 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?'

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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;