But It is true this was hardly perceptible till the present century, for until the peace of 1815, Germany had been the seat of almost incessant warfare, and was, therefore, disabled from pursuing the arts of peace with success. thirty years' peace has enabled her to perform great things, and to justify a pretty sure hope of yet greater. We ought to be far in advance of her, for where she now is we were exactly two hundred and fifty years and upwards ago. Till the reign of Elizabeth, England had been, like Germany till 1815, the seat of perpetual war or religious discord. At the end of the sixteenth century in England, and at the beginning of the nineteenth in Germany, the Teutonic mind began to develop itself with effect. The same deep investigations in history, the same subtle disquisitions in metaphysics, the same love of philological criticism that distinguished English literature in the early part of the seventeenth century belong to German literature in the nineteenth, and are combined with the same coarseness of manners that marked our ancestors. The Germans, still delight in those rude, indecent productions, called Miracle - plays or Mysteries,* which amused the predecessors of Shakspere: legalized wager of battle, semi-feudalism, masks of fools dancing in a gigantic beer-barrel and chanting the praises of beer, deer-battues, perpetual duelling and beer-swigging, millions pilgrimaging to the Coat of Trèves, the implicit reception of sham Miracles, all mark a state of society little removed from that magnificent barbarism which stained the rushstrewn court of the ear-boxing and swearing Elizabeth. In refinement, and that wealth which springs from Science, we have advanced far beyond Germany; but in that wealth which emanates from Mind we are only on a par with her. The causes of this will be considered more fully hereafter, when we treat under Class III. of the causes of the decline of Wisdom. The impulse given to German mind may in * See Hone's description of one performed in 1815 before several crowned heads of Europe for three successive days; Hone on the Mysteries. See also Wilhelm Meister, Vol. 1. a great measure be attributed to the pains which Frederick II. took to civilize and educate his people. For this purpose he founded numerous popular schools, it is said as many as sixty in one year. He instituted an Academy of Sciences and fostered Universities. He patronized Commerce and the Arts, and by his wise administration as much as by his military talents raised Prussia to the rank of a second-rate European State. The military success of the correspondent of Voltaire, it is unnecessary to do more than refer to. Machiavellism formed a strikingly distinctive feature in the characters of all the foregoing personages. They all possessed more of the wisdom of the serpent, than of the innocence of the dove. It may be thought, however, that we employ too strong a term in calling this Machiavellism. A less strict morality would only call it policy, worldly wisdom. In men of strong conscientiousness, astuteness may be little or nothing more; but where the moral sense is weak, it easily passes into duplicity and dishonest craft. The shrewd policy and worldly wisdom by which the great ALFRED civilized a barbarous people, and tamed to quietude a nation of turbulent robbers, has never been accused of departing from a strict morality. It may be that he is somewhat indebted to the partiality of the monkish historians for the very flattering pictures of him handed down to us. The prompt and energetic manner in which, from time to time, he fell upon and defeated the Danes who ravaged the country is too well known to need mention, and the prudent means by which he endeavoured to incite his people to educate themselves has been often the subject of praise. In a remarkably illiterate age, he alone courted literature, and, conscious of its power to civilize his people, urged them to follow his example. Nevertheless, he did not forget the more arduous duties of a King. While devoting a large part of his time to learning, he never neglected the interests of his country; nor suffered her liberties to be trampled upon by invaders while he was cultivating the arts of peace. His biographer, quaintly and somewhat poetically, describes the King's studious mind. and gubernatorial talents. "Like a most pro ductive bee, he flew here and there asking questions as he went, until he had eagerly and unceasingly collected many various flowers of Divine Scriptures, with which he thickly stored the cells of his mind. His friends would voluntarily sustain little or no toil, though it was for the common necessity of the kingdom; but he alone, sustained by the divine aid, like a skilful pilot, strove to steer his ship laden with much wealth, into the safe and muchdesired harbour of his country though almost all his crew were tired, and suffered them not to faint or hesitate, though sailing among the manifold waves and eddies of this present life."* The circumstances in which men are involuntarily placed marvellously affect their actions. Crowd together a number of young trees in one small plot, and how slowly they grow, how stunted they become! Remove them to separate stations, where their roots may spread, their branches expand, and their leaves drink freely of the sun and air, and how soon * Asser's Life of Alfred. |