whereby we ascended to the upper story. This is low, and the walls are partly covered with ragged paper, partly with rude mediæval frescoes, and partly with framed paintings, generally by Cranach and Albrecht Dürer, referring to scenes in Luther's history. They are in the quaint, curious, pre-Raphaelite style, the trees looking like toy trees drawn by school-children, with occasional dabs of leaves without any visible means of support, and the trunks sometimes failing to make a conjunction with the ground, and looking much as if they felt it was the "winter of their discontent;" and the people reaching their arms out of their breasts, as in an Egyptian wall-picture. One of them pictures the Diet of Worms under biblical forms, being divided into three compartments-that on the right showing Nebuchadnezzar (Charles V.) and the three young Jews (Luther, Spalatin, etc.), with the corpulent form of Tetzel among his councilors; that in the centre, the golden image (Popery); and that on the left, the Jews in the burning fiery furnace.

Most of these paintings are full of the bigotry of the time, Luther's sermons done in oil colors, breathing threatenings and slaughter against the Pope. They are as Luther describes himself, "rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether warlike, born to fight innumerable devils and monsters, to remove stumps and stones, to cut down thistles and thorns, and to clear the wild woods." In a little cabinet there are some coins full of the same intolerance-one of them, for instance, being so arranged that when one side is uppermost, the beholder sees Leo X., but when the other is turned up there appears a moderately correct likeness of the devil.

It will be remembered that Luther had by "the profoundly learned lady, Catherine Luther, his gracious housewife," whom he valued "above the kingdom of France or the state of Venice," six children. The eighth generation of his descendants was represented, in the male line, by Joseph Carl Luther

alone. This Joseph had seven children, of whom all except two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, were in 1867 living in Halle or its vicinity. None of them were at all distinguished, and nobody in Eisleben or anywhere else knew anything concerning them beyond the simple fact that they existed. "Sense becomes nonsense, welfare a plague: alas for thee that thou art a grandson!" says Goethe.

The memory of the mighty monk is not cherished as it deserves, either by the Prussian government of by the German people. Not in all the city of Eisleben, with its two daily newspapers, could I find a photograph of the Reformer, and it was with difficulty that I discovered in an obsure Buchhandlung one of his house. The stone step of his humble dwelling is little worn now by the tread of reverent pilgrims, and the cobwebs stretch athwart the stairs. Germany has erected a few statues in honor of genius-to Guttenberg, Faust and Schöffer, to Goethe and Schiller; but most of its statues are in apotheosis of sashed and ribboned idiocy, bestriding the horse which the Germans of all men sit most ill, and only great "by the grace of God" or the titular additions of flunkeyism. France writes on her July Column the names of all her immortals; Italy fashions from the imperishable marble, with the long patience of centuries, and places in her Pantheon at Milan, the shapes of all her illustrious sons; but Germany, which is full of bronze kings who in their generation were tyrannic idiots, plants no worthy statue to Humboldt or Luther or Beethoven, princes of science, of religion and music in all our Christian world. Peaceful as she is, in all practical matters Germany is the youngest of all civilized peoples, and, like a young girl, her imagination runs on military brass and spangles.

The next day was Sunday, and we attended service in the little chapel wherein Luther preached his last sermon. Its rough walls were cracked and crumbled away in many places, affording chinks for the chattering rooks,

and checkered around the bottom outside with memorial tablets of stone, bearing the names of deceased churchmembers. The high-backed, perpendicular seats were thoroughly of the American pioneer sort in their discomfortableness. They reminded one forcibly of the ancient and ever-to-beremembered meeting - house of one's youth, wherein one was wont to sit, listening to

"The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone

Half God's good Sabbath,"

with one's little legs projected straight forward, like a couple of marline-spikes, now sleepily blinking at the flies dancing a mad cotillon in the air, and now munching a caraway-speckled cookey, surreptitiously slipped into one's hand as a preventive against childish ungodliness.

The congregation rose to their feet during the reading of the text, and bent their heads reverently while the Lord's Prayer was recited, as did also the pastor, removing his skull-cap. I was surprised to see, on the pulpit beside him, an old-fashioned hour-glass-surprised, because the Germans are noted for the brevity of their discourses, and are never so long-winded as were the seventeenth-century English divines, with their "sixteenthly" and "seventeenthly," elaborated with "Episcopal pertinacity," as Sydney Smith says.

There was a young editor in the town with whom I had some interesting talk. He advanced the striking but rather fanciful theory that public virtue and morality have decreased in Germany almost pari passu with the destruction of the forests. He said he was not alone in this belief, but that some of the governments had become convinced that unless the woods were replaced the people would lapse eventually into the corruption which destroyed Rome, and disappear from nations; and that they had begun, twenty or twenty-five years ago, to plant the pineries we now see growing. German throughout! Virtue before a back-log always! But one thing is certain-the scarcity of fuel on the great plateau of Prussia has a be- |

VOL. VII.-27

numbing effect on the intellects of the peasants, who consume such quantities of cold beer besides. In the cities, at least among the wealthy, the rigor of the weather is mollified by fuel enough, but the picture of a raw-blooded peasant shivering over his still, dead, smokeless peat-fire is not one suggestive of brilliant brain-work. Dr. H. P. Tappan, a distinguished metaphysician, said that when he wished to compose on a particularly abstruse topic he shut himself in a cold room; but there is no logic in an unintermitting congelation. The terrible rigors of Dun Edin are doubtless well suited to the production of steely treatises on "Fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute," if there be judicious alternations of roaring fires, but the poor, blue-nosed peasant, with never a jolly blaze before him, raps on his frosty mind and finds no foreknowledge in it at all.

In the village of Querfurt I was burdened and overwhelmed by the hospitalities of the people when they discovered I was a child of the Republic. In the evening I effected the acquaintance of a musician who had returned from our happy land with daughters and dollars, and he rallied a circle around me who kept me up till the stroke of midnight, and were rapping at my door directly after cock-crow. All that forenoon, as I remember, and until three in the afternoon, we ranged through the village, visiting the ancient round-tower and Well, I believe that was the only antiquity; but we made up for that by visiting it at various angles to complete the perspective; and each time we emerged from it we discovered an entirely new and convenient beer-garden, whereinto we entered, being weary, and rested, and refreshed ourselves with a little beer. My musical friend had indoctrinated his fellows in the American custom for this particular occasion. In The Traveling Student, Schneider has the following:

"Quiet, freshman! You are to keep still when old moss-heads speak."

"O Lord! I can't stand so much drinking of healths. It's killing me."

"Hold your tongue, freshman! You have taken only nineteen Schoppen of vile cerevisium yet. That is nothing. Study three years, and you'll bring it up to twenty-nine."

Like the luckless freshman, I thought it was a good time to stop, between nineteen and twenty-nine. But such genial and overflowing hospitality!—one cannot be boorish. What a tempting way the Germans have of arranging provisions in the show-windows, with rural scenery!-boiled hams, daisies, links of sausages, sweet-williams, sprouting pinks, sweet fountains and moss-banks. This is a glass of Maitrunk, a beverage new to Americans, and quite innocent.

"My friends, we all shakes our hands. Sausages hanging in the woods. Fine portrait of General Scott on the wall. General Scott fought for his country, and whipped the Mexicans. You throws up your hat for General Scott."

It was long after noon before I could by any means get away from the importunate hospitality of these pleasant people. Like the young editor of Eisleben, my musical friend accompanied me many miles, and insisted on carrying my traveling-bag the entire distance. It was an extremely warm day in June, and he was quite a stout little gentleman, yet he clothed himself with a heavy overcoat before he started, and, to my astonishment, wore it the whole afternoon, but laid it off directly we entered the cool hotel in the evening. Of course, after our arduous labors in exploring the round-tower, we frequently became fatigued, whereupon we would enter a little inn and refresh ourselves with a little beer. There was an inn every half mile, and my musical friend was not partial to any one. At first I kept him company, but presently I was obliged to skip every other inn, and at last to refuse, sternly and absolutely.

The German capacity to drink beer is positively amazing. My friend appeared no whit the worse for his innumerable "potations pottle deep." And, indeed, I never saw an habitual sot, or even a drunken man, in Prussia, though the latter can be seen every Sunday in

Munich. One thing is certain the Germans are far more temperate, with their astonishing consumption of beer, than we are in America, with our smaller use of whisky.

Next day, when I parted from my stout little musical friend in Freiburg, he seemed considerably affected: his eyes moistened, his voice trembled, and before I was in the least aware of his intentions upon me, he imprinted a very warm, soft and broad kiss on my forehead. There was no doubt whatever of the sincerity of his affection, yet I confess I almost staggered with amazement. But this same man the day before, when we came upon a poor woman who had fallen in the road beneath a mighty bunch of grass which she had reaped and stacked upon her neck, passed her by with contemptuous unconcern. It did not seem to occur to him for a moment that she was the victim of an infamous domestic tyranny. So strangely susceptible are the German people of the deepest attachments known on earth, and yet so destitute of gallantry, and often so tyrannous over their women and children!

The sides of the valley in which Freiburg stands are terraced for miles above and below with vineyards, for this is no longer the region of beer, but of champagne. One of these vineyards, on a very steep hillside, was remarkable for its ancient and elaborate carvings in stone. All the terraces were fronted with perpendicular walls of natural rock, which was smoothed and ornamented with scenes chiseled in relief, almost lifesize; as, a hunter shooting a fox which his dog had chased into a leaning tree, the hunter being several inches taller than the tree; Reynard hanging from a tree by his neck, yet screwing that member over, in his last agony, to squint down at the grapes; bacchanals dancing around Apollo playing the lyre; Lot's daughters offering him wine in the cave; the two spies carrying the grapes of Eshcol, etc. The entrance was under an arched gateway elegantly ornamented with carvings, vases and flowers, all in stone, and a steep flight of steps led

up the hill, with two statues of heathen divinities at every terrace.

At Naumburg I had two hours to wait in the station, and I imprudently took out my map and papers, and began reading the war-news from Bohemia. Presently a broad-faced, stalwart gendarme, with a stout short sword in his scabbard, and trowsers which fitted his legs as if the latter had been molten and poured into them, came and gently tapped me on the shoulder. He politely asked to see my "papers," meaning my passport, but as he could read no word in it-though I could hardly keep from bursting outright with laughter at the intense and inscrutable solemnity with which the fellow perused it a while-he requested me to accompany him to police head-quarters. As nobody there could read English, we went next to the burgomaster. This personage was a blue-eyed, rather long-featured and exquisitely bland gentleman, seated behind a desk, on which was a mountain of documents bound in the inevitable blue official pasteboard covers of Prussia. He questioned me pretty sharply. He could by no means comprehend what any rational individual should be doing walking about over Prussia and writing down matters in his book (it was war-time) without some ulterior Zweck. He was deeply concerned to know what my Zweck was. "Was haben Sie denn zum Zweck?" he asked me several times. I explained to him, as well as I could, that my Zweck was to acquire useful and interesting information for myself, and also to impart the same to inquiring minds. But he was not satisfied, and presently he bethought himself to call in his wife, who could speak English. "Liebe Frau," said he, "herein."

This lady spoke English very sweetly, and it was all the more delicious from her exquisite musical and liquid German accent. It was worth more than an hour's arrest to be questioned by such a charming inquisitor. At his command she perused my note-book pretty thoroughly, but when she found, instead of descriptions of fortresses intended for the use of the wicked Austrians, such peaceful and innocent observations as, for instance, that the king of Prussia squinted when he laughed, and that two gallons of goat's milk in Eisleben made a pound of strong cheese, she smiled feebly and handed the note-book back. To convince her I was an American, I handed her some letters. She turned them over and over, and then looked at me with a puzzled and dubious expression. "But they are not opened,' she said, with the faintest tone of expectant triumph in her voice.

The burgomaster also looked at me more sternly than he had hitherto done, as if demanding that this dark mystery should be solved at once.

I squeezed one a little in my hand, causing it to gape open at the end, where it had been merely slit. They were both so chagrined that such a simple device should have escaped them that they at once dismissed the case. The lady explained to her lord that the contents of my note-book were not dangerous, and that she was convinced I was by no means an incendiary person, a roaring democrat going about seeking helpless monarchs to devour; and so at last they sent me away, with very sweet and bland apologies and expressions of regret. I had barely time to catch the train for the Wartburg. STEPHEN POWERS.

WHAT

HAT else but water, if we look for the enjoyment of good health, freedom from many diseases and increased probability of long life? will be the reply of the temperance man. The preferred drink, exclaims the advocate of alcohol, will be, of course, that which contains the inspiring element, to gratify the palate, exhilarate and impart additional strength to body and mind, promote good fellowship and confer immunity from various physical and moral ills. The question is one of the most momentous that could be presented when examined under its diversified aspects of health, morals, social order, private and political economy, public prosperity and national weal; for under all these is it constantly forced on the attention of every impartial observer. Putting aside the pleas of appetite, custom and long precedent in favor of alcoholic liquors as contrasted with the universal indispensable use, from all time, of the aqueous regimen, it will be our aim on the present occasion to show in a necessarily brief statement the grounds on which the answer to our question should be made.

WATER, in addition to its use internally for drinking and externally for ablution, serves many other important purposes in the animal economy in preserving the structure and vitality of the human body. This fluid dilutes the food in the processes of mastication and digestion, and is necessary to the performance of all the functions, whether these consist in the appropriation of new substances or the elimination of those which are worn and effete. Water is the chief constituent of animal bodies: it forms four-fifths of the nutrient fluid, the blood, and three-fourths of the entire body it gives bulk and the necessary fullness and outline to each part, and as a solvent it serves for the conveyance of various substances to the several textures and organs. The loss

of it in great quantity soon puts a stop to vital action, the lower animals and human beings soon becoming moribund from the exhausting discharge of the watery constituent of the blood. On the other hand, some animalcules, in which all appearances of life have ceased on their being deprived of it, will revive on its being applied to them again. Liebig shows how water contributes to the greater number of the transformations which take place in the living structure. Of the predominance of the aqueous over the strictly solid parts of the entire body a striking proof was exhibited in a case mentioned by Blumenbach, the eminent physiologist, of the dry mummy of an adult Guanche, which, with all the parts belonging to it in life, did not weigh more than seven pounds and a half. Of the different substances, animal and vegetable, used for food, most people will be surprised to learn that four-fifths consist of pure water. This fluid, then, it will be seen imparts to the solid constituents of the human frame that peculiar flexibility and power of extension so characteristic of the animal organs. Prout, in his Bridgewater Treatise, speaks of water as one of the alimentary or primary staminal principles. In milk we find in a state of combination the four great staminal principles-viz., the aqueous (as water), constituting, even without the gratuitous addition by milk-venders, nearly So per cent.; the saccharine or amylaceous (sugar of milk); the oily (butter); and the albuminous (casein, the chief constituent of cheese).

There are well-attested cases of persons who have lived on water alone while abstaining from all customary food. Dr. McNaughton, of Albany, relates an incident of this kind* in the person of Reuben Kelsey, whose sole drink and food was water during a period of fifty-three days. For the first six weeks * Transactions of the Albany Institute, 1830.