tice, which characterizes the Germans, renders them much more susceptible of being inflamed with abstract sentiments, than of the real interests of life; the general who loses a battle, is more sure of indulgence than he who gains one is of applause; there is not enough difference between success and reverse, in the opinions of such a people, to excite any very lively ambition.

Religion, in Germany, exists at the very bottom of the heart; but it possesses there a character of meditation and independence, which breathes nothing of the energy necessary to exclusive sentiments. The same independence of opinions, individuals, and States, so prejudicial to the strength of the Germanic empire, is to be found also in their religion: a great number of different sects divide Germany between them; and the Catholic religion itself, which, in its very nature, exercises a uniform and strict discipline, is nevertheless interpreted by every man after his own fashion. The political and social bond of the people, a general government, a general worship, the same laws, the same interests, a classical literature, a ruling opinion, nothing of all this exists among the Germans; each individual State is the more independent, each individual science the better cultivated; but the whole nation is so subdivided, that one cannot tell to what part of the empire this very name of nation ought to be granted.

The love of liberty is not developed among the Germans; they have not learned, either by enjoyment or by privation, the value which may be attached to it. There are many examples of federative governments, which give to the public spirit as much force as even a united administration, but these are the associations of equal States and free citizens. The German confederacy was composed of strong and weak, citizen and serf, of rivals, and even of enemies; they were old existing elements, combined by circumstances and respected by men.

The nation is persevering and just; and its equity and loyalty secure it against injury from any institution, however vicious. Louis of Bavaria, when he took the command of the army, intrusted to Frederic the Fair, his rival, and at tha

time his prisoner, the administration of his States; and he had not to repent of this confidence, which in those days caused no astonishment. With such virtues, they never found the ill consequences of the weakness, or even the complication of the laws; the probity of individuals supplied their defects.

The very independence which the Germans enjoyed, in almost all respects, rendered them indifferent to liberty; independence is a possession, liberty its security; and on this very account nobody in Germany was molested either in his rights or his enjoyments: they could not feel the want of such an order of things as might secure them in the possession of this happiness. The imperial tribunals promised a sure though slow redress of every act of arbitrary power; and the moderation of the sovereigns, and the wisdom of the governed, seldom gave room for any appeals to their interference: people, therefore, could not imagine that they stood in need of constitutional fortifications, when they saw no aggressors.

One has reason to be astonished, that the feudal code should have subsisted almost unaltered among a people so enlightened; but as, in the execution of these laws, so defective in themselves, there was never any injustice, the equality with which they were applied made amends for their inequality in principle. Old charters, the ancient privileges of every cityall that family history, which constitutes the charm and glory of little States, were singularly dear to the Germans; but they neglected that great national might, which it was so important to have founded among the colossal States of Europe.

The Germans, with some few exceptions, are hardly capable of succeeding in any thing which requires address and dexterity; every thing molests and embarrasses them, and they have as much need of method in action as of independence in ideas. The French, on the contrary consider actions with all the freedom of art, and ideas with all the bondage of custom. The C'ermans, who cannot endure the yoke of rules in literature, require every thing to be traced out before them in the ine of their conduct. They know not how to treat with men ;

and the less occasion is given them in this respect to iecide for themselves, the better they are satisfied.

Political institutions can alone form the character of a nation; the nature of the government of Germany was almost in opposition to the philosophical illumination of the Germans. From thence it follows, that they join the greatest boldness o. thought to the most obedient character. The pre-eminence of the military States, and the distinctions of rank, have accustomed them to the most exact submission in the relations of social life. Obedience, with them, is regularity, not servility; they are as scrupulous in the execution of the orders they receive. as if every order became a duty.

The enlightened men of Germany dispute vehemently among themselves the dominion of speculations, and will suffer no shackles in this department; but they give up, without difficulty, all that is real in life to the powerful of the earth. "This reality, which they so much despise, finds purchasers, however, who in the end avail themselves of their acquisition. to carry trouble and constraint into the empire of the imagination itself." The understanding and the character of the Germans appear to have no communication together: the one cannot suffer any limits, the other is subject to every yoke; the one is very enterprising, the other very timid; in short, the illumination of the one seldom gives strength to the other, and this is easily explained. The extension of knowledge in modern times only serves to weaken the character, when it is not strengthened by the habit of business and the exercise of the will. To see all, and comprehend all, is a great cause of uncertainty; and the energy of action develops itself only in those free and powerful countries where patriotic sentiments are to the soul like blood to the veins, and grow cold only with the extinction of life itself."

1 A passage suppressed by the censors.

2 I have no need of saying that it is England which I wished to point out by these words; but when proper names are not pronounced, the censors, in general, who are men of knowledge, take a pleasure in not com prehending. It is not the same with the police; the police has a sort of

CHAPTER III.

OF THE WOMEN.

NATURE and society give to women a habit of endurance; and I think it can hardly be denied that, in our days, they are generally worthier of moral esteem than the men. At an epoch when selfishness is the prevailing evil, the men, to whom all positive interests are related, must necessarily have less generosity, less sensibility, than the women. These last are attached to life only by the ties of the heart; and even when they lose themselves, it is by sentiment that they are led away : their selfishness is extended to a double object, while that of man has himself only for its end. Homage is rendered to them according to the affections which they inspire; but those which they bestow are almost always sacrifices. The most beautiful of virtues, self-devotion, is their enjoyment and their destiny; no happiness can exist for them but by the reflection of another's glory and prosperity; in short, to live independently of self, whether by ideas or by sentiments, or, above all, by virtues, gives to the soul an habitual feeling of elevation.

In those countries where men are called upon by political nstitutions to the exercise of all the military and civil virtues which are inspired by patriotism, they recover the superiority which belongs to them; they reassume with dignity their rights, as masters of the world; but when they are condemned, in whatever measure, to idleness or to slavery, they fall so nuch the lower as they ought to rise more high. The destiny of women always remains the same; it is their soul alone which creates it; political circumstances have no influence

instinct that is really extraordinary, in prejudice of all liberal ideas, under whatever form they present themselves; and traces out, with the sagacity of a good hound, all that might awaken in the minds of the French then ancient love for light and liberty.

apon it. When men are ignorant or unable to employ their lives worthily and nobly, Nature revenges herself upon them for the very gifts which they have received from her; the activity of the body contributes only to the sloth of the mind; the strength of soul degenerates into coarseness; the day is consumed in vulgar sports and exercises, horses, the chase, or entertainments which might be suitable enough in the way of relaxation, but brutalize as occupations. Women, the while, cultivate their understanding; and sentiment and reflection preserve in their souls the image of all that is noble and beautiful.

The German women have a charm exclusively their own— a touching voice, fair hair, a dazzling complexion; they are modest, but less timid than Englishwomen; one sees that they have been less accustomed to meet with their superiors among men, and that they have besides less to apprehend from the severe censures of the public. They endeavor to please by their sensibility, to interest by their imagination; the language of poetry and the fine arts are familiar to them; they coquet with enthusiasm, as they do in France with wit and pleasantry. That perfect loyalty, which distinguishes the German character, renders love less dangerous for the happiness of women; and, perhaps, they admit the advances of this sentiment with the more confidence, because it is invested with romantic colors, and disdain and infidelity are less to be dreaded there than elsewhere.

Love is a religion in Germany, but a poetical religion, which tolerates too easily all that sensibility can excuse. It cannot be denied, that the facility of divorce in the Protestant States is prejudicial to the sacredness of marriage. They change husbands with as little difficulty as if they were arranging the incidents of a drama; the good-nature common both to men and women is the reason that so little bitterness of spirit ever accompanies these easy ruptures; and, as the Germans are endowed with more imagination than real passion, the most extravagant events take place with singular tranquillity; nevertheless, it is thus that manners and character lose every thing like consistency; the spirit of paradox shakes the most sacred institutions, and there are no fixed rules upon any subject.