this makes the calling of chosen men to the university chairs and the thronging of painters and musicians thither a natural and desirable result.

Of that state institution, the Lutheran Church, it is difficult to speak with respect, and its lifeless condition, with the inevitable results on the religious training of Germans in general, is nowhere more evident than in Berlin. Historically considered, much is made of religion, and it occupies a prominent place in the plan of education of all schools; confirmation is almost as obligatory as learning to read; but the churches are filled by old women and charity-schools, if filled at all, and altogether with a zeal equal, a few years back, to a positive persecution of the Roman Catholics-this State Church has about as little practical influence as can well be imagined. I do not forget those lofty-minded, intelligent supporters of the Lutheran faith, the members of the oldest families of the nobility, who, though often reduced in circumstances, and therefore in power, are loyal to their principles and form the solid backbone of the Conservative party. Exclusive of these, however, it is not unfair to say that there is no country where less real respect exists for the teachings and forms of the Church than in Germany.

This does not at all argue a desperate state of morals, for, with a greater pretence of piety, France would undoubtedly show up worse in this respect; but it does argue, and that in a startling degree, the substitution of low principles of conduct for the obligations and ideals to which humanity owes whatever elevation it has yet attained and its best hopes of the future. Among the upper middle class, the members of which furnish most of the professors and learned men, the possession of any regard for religious principles, so called, would be considered an unfailing mark of an inferior mind. A certain decency as to marriageand funeral-solemnities is the only token ever discoverable of the existence of such principles for them. I think my German friends will bear me out in this. With no desire to apply the much

contemned "English strictness," one cannot but often be startled by the Continental lightness, the truly airy manner in which falsehoods are tossed about in daily life, and by the intriguing way of dealing rife among the most refined people. The impossibility of distinguishing lying from the truth is, to say the least, often inconvenient and misleading in practical affairs.

Such religion as is still to be found among the masses in Germany is virtually that of the Prince of AnhaltDessau, "der alte Dessauer" of Frederick the Great's time,-who, before the battle of Kesseldorf, prayed, "Dear God, graciously assist me this day. But if you won't, why, then, for goodness' sake, don't help those blackguards my enemies, but stand quietly by, look on, and don't meddle. I'll manage." It is only when things get quite beyond their managing that Germans pray.

Of the four hofprediger, or preachers to the court of Berlin, two are conspicuous for their piety,-Hofprediger Bauer and Hofprediger Stöcker. To the former, and to his energetic, charming wife, no small part of the vitality of the inner life of the cathedral parish is due. Herr Stöcker, though in reality one of the gentlest of men, has acquired a reputation for pugnacity by the conspicuous part he has taken in what is generally regarded as an outburst of intolerance. Many even of those who share his views shudder at the commotion which his course of action has excited. But Herr Stöcker's denunciation of the Jews of Berlin, and eventually of Prussia and all Germany, was not a sudden outbreak: it was the result of long and careful thought and very righteous indignation. The pros and cons of this question have been much discussed of late, both in England and in America; but, notwithstanding the interesting paper of Canon Farrar, the clever articles of Miss Lazarus, and the indignant protests of American newspapers and of the friendly helpers of the Jewish refugees shipped to this emptying-place, the United States,-not

withstanding all these, one must continue to think that they who have not lived upon the spot and were not present when the question forced itself upon public attention cannot judge unbiassedly of the points at issue. Canon Farrar presupposes religious hatred against a people who, he allows, may often cheat, but who have been driven to it by the intolerance of the ancestors of those who now persecute them. Miss Lazarus, on the other hand, presupposes a race-hatred, which she very properly calls "unchristian." Neither of these suppositions covers the ground. If the Jews of Berlin had been content to pursue their own ways of life and their own religious customs, and to carry out conscientiously the principles which they profess, neither there nor elsewhere would complaint have been made against them. Canon Farrar draws his picture from the law-abiding, for the most part well-educated, and, above all, orthodox Jews of England, who are as different from the Continental and especially from the German Jews as can well be conceived. Who will not respect families like the Montefiores and the Rothschilds, who, in word and in deed, honor the faith in which they were born, who are passionately devoted to their race, and who work for an ideal condition of their people? But Germany, alas! has not one such representative Jewish family, I mean one the members of which are all devoted to their faith and work for it. It has, however, degraded tricksters, like the financier Bleichröder; ingenious wire-pullers, like the swarms of Jewish students, angling and bargaining during their whole university career for profitable places as professors and civil officers; evaders of the laws of the country which harbors them, like the judges who administer an oath of their own making, leaving ample room for the Hebrew witness to lie in a trial involving the interests of one of his coreligionists; scores, too, of those most offensive of mortals, the petty brokers of the Exchange; hundreds of the harpies who ply young officers and noblemen with enticing offers of ready money until whole family estates are in their hands; and

flaunting, loud-voiced wives and daughters, filling concert-rooms and galleries and currying favor with the great. All these Germany has, but very few of the true-hearted Israelites who have done nothing to bring upon them the opprobrum that Germans hurl at them. Far be it from any one to uphold the uproarious demonstrations raised by the students of Breslau and other university towns against these people. But equally far be it from foreigners to cast reproach at the Germans for their determination to put an end to those corruptions in the state and in society for which the Jews, and the Jews alone, are responsible, and which they steadily work to maintain. No right-minded citizen ought to sit by and see them go on. No courageous citizen will do so. All honor to the clear-headed-if hot-hearted-men who care too much for their Fatherland to have it become a Hebrew broker'sshop and an Israelitish sham!

Of all the types of Germany's life represented at the capital, the imperial pride may be said to centre in that portion of her magnificent army stationed within and about Berlin. Long experience and study of the principles of war and the protection of her borders have taught Germany the essential points of strength in a military force,-viz., numbers, and the special perfection of each member of the whole force; and so admirably managed, so perfectly drilled, so constantly replenished and improved, is this vast body, that it is, and fittingly, the wonder of the world. No amount of taxation or of enforced service is spared. Every German, if not physically disabled or morally disqualified (as in the case of felons) to stand under arms, and not in the navy, belongs to the active army for seven years,-i.e., from his twentieth to his twenty-eighth year. "During the first three years" (I quote from the regulations) "he belongs to the standing army; during the last four, to the reserve.'

For five years

after this, however, he is a member of the landwehr, and until the age of forty-two he must serve in the landsturm. The entire nautical population

the use of slates and the dimness of the outlines traced upon them; but neither American, French, nor English children are conspicuous for their use of eyeglasses, and they all, as far as I know, make use of slates in one form or another. A far more likely cause of this weakness is the lack of fresh air in sleeping- and study-rooms, and the excessive consumption of beer on the part of their

ancestors.

One grievous defect this all but perfect German system of education has: it in some way fails to develop that faculty of "common sense" which in American and English boys is so prominent. German boys seem incapable of forming a spontaneous, healthy judgment. Throughout their whole career at the university and into mature life, Germans are strikingly lacking in robust, honorable manliness. No peculiarity is more noticeable to a foreigner than this. A wellknown member of the Parliament, writing in the "Rundschau," says, Education in the schools begins upon a broad basis; the contraction of that basis begins at once and abruptly at the university. The university," he says, "splinters itself into special departments. Each special subject is broken into minute particulars. He who has gone through his course in medicine gets no general survey of the many branches of study necessary for his calling; he has explored but one, and all subjects beyond his professional range are absolutely closed to him. The law-student knows nothing of the human body; the surgeon nothing of the elementary ground-work of law and justice. The first principles of social economy, literature, ethnology, history, and all those matters which every educated man ought to know something about, are, in a terrible degree, strange to those studying in special departments."

In the education of girls, Berlin has always shown deep interest. Perhaps the decided strides onward in this direction taken during the present reign are due to the thorough culture and love of study possessed by the empress Augusta. Certain it is that several of

the best sjte, or institutes for girls, have the patronage and untiring interest of the empress to thank for their prosperity. Far on as American women are supposed to be in matters of study, I venture to say that the German girl is better grounded, better drilled, and far more logically taught than they. She is undoubtedly less able to make use of her knowledge, seldom does make the most of it, and upon her entrance into society is womanish rather than womanly; nevertheless, the fact remains indisputable that until her seventeenth year her education is based upon a system thorough, progressive, comprehensive, which, if pursued until the age of twenty-one, would make the women of the upper classes of her country the best-instructed women of our time. I speak, of course, of the system in its perfection, not of a Saxon or any other corrupted form of it. Startling as this may seem to those who are accustomed to think of the Deutsche Frau as the household drudge which the authoress of "German Home-Life" paints her, and true in its main facts as is the description of that writer, yet the reason of her becoming a drudge does not lie in the education which she receives at school, but in that to which she is subjected, by precept and example, between the close of her school-life and her marriage. Although girls nominally leave school at the age of seventeen, it is becoming an almost universal custom for schools to have extra classes made up of pupils of the ages of nineteen and even twenty-two or three, who pursue special courses in languages, painting, music, and literature. It is the habit of the daughters of professors in Berlin to study Latin, and frequently, though not so often, Greek, out of school-hours, at the Victoria Lyceum, an institution most admirably conducted by Miss Archer, an enthusiastic, indefatigable Scotchwoman, who, with the aid of the crown princess, has given an impetus to the higher education of women in all Prussia. The townschools are divided into private schools and "Höhere Töchterschulen," and the

plans of study marked out by them extend over ten years, beginning with the seventh year. In these plans the absence of Latin and Greek is noticeable; but the time between the ages of sixteen and twenty is, I think, fairly to be reckoned as the period when in American colleges and schools for girls most attention is given to Latin and Greek and to the higher mathematics. Should, therefore, the German girl extend the time of her actual education to the age of twenty or twenty-one, she will already have studied both Greek and Roman history, and two foreign languages, French and English, and will be adding to a basis in other branches which, I repeat, cannot be surpassed by that of any country.

With education like this, and with very delightful natural gifts, it is strange that the women, even in cosmopolitan Berlin, should be, as a rule, uninteresting, often appear stupid, and become chiefly housekeepers for their husbands; and only one reason can be assigned for it, that is, the slight intercourse which sisters have with their brothers, the lack of intellectual sympathy between husbands and wives, and the wide chasm which yawns between young ladies and gentlemen. Herein, too, is undoubtedly to be found the cause of that coarseness in the constitution of German men, so painfully noticeable to foreigners. A German woman (and this is especially true of Southern Germany and the provinces) at her marriage drops instantly all occupations and interests save those pertaining to her Haushalt. Custom demands of her to be first a good domestic. "Matrimony in Germany," a clever writer has said, "is like iodine ointment for the absorption of muscle. It acts upon a woman as solvent to all that should give vigor to her character."

In life at Berlin there is no more potent contributor to its interest than the stage. With twenty theatres and a popular intendant over the Royal Theatre and Opera-House, it would be strange indeed if the care and culture bestowed upon the production of the

plays did not yield the best results. Since the early part of the eighteenth century, endeavors to improve plays, to purify scenes, and to make actors respected and self-respecting have gone steadily forward; though not till Eckhoff's time did a decided and extended influence in the right direction make itself felt. In provincial towns theatres are managed by the town authorities, or they belong to a company; and even here the manner of conducting them is beyond all praise. At the residence of a court there is an officer called the Intendant, —a man of rank, taste, and culture,appointed by the government, whose duty it is to see that every piece put upon the royal stage is suitable, that it is legally acquired, that the costumes are appropriate to the date of the play, etc. The stage is therefore made a genuine means of education. Shakespeare is acted oftener in Berlin than in London; and Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and hosts of the authors of the day, are constantly represented. In tragedy German actors are, perhaps, as a whole, weakest; though Ludwig Barnay may be fairly counted one of the great Hamlets of the day. It is in pure comedy that the modern German actor seems most at home; and here he is indeed perfect. In private life the members of the Berlin stage are for the most part well-educated, respectable people, living well-ordered lives, and frequently mingling in the society of the town.

Of the operatic stage, the world has heard much since Wagner burst upon his countrymen with his innovations, his dictatorial egotism, and his magnificent gifts; and no singer has done more to make his Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, and the Meistersänger intelligible to the musical world than Herr Niemann, the principal tenor of the Royal OperaHouse. Indeed, until a few years since, no other performer possessed in so wonderful a degree the combination of voice and dramatic power necessary to a complete representation of such characters as Lohengrin. But of late years the huskiness formerly occasional has become almost habitual, and Niemann's