Roads being now made, the peasantry of the Ban de la Roche might send their produce to market; but what produce had they worth sending? A little corn and some bad potatoes. Oberlin's work was only beginning. The bad potatoes were a sore grievance, even as respected home consumption. Before the introduction of the plant, the inhabitants of the canton had subsisted to a great extent on wild apples and pears, and many were afraid they should have to return to this primitive kind of food. In the course of years the potato had so far degenerated, that fields which had formerly yielded from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty bushels, now furnished only between thirty and fifty bushels; these were, besides, of a very bad quality. Oberlin, attributing this circumstance to its true cause, procured some fresh seed from Germany, Switzerland, and Lorraine, to renew the species. The plan was successful: in a few years the inhabitants reared the finest potatoes that could be grown, and found in Strasburg an advantageous sale for all they could produce.

Along with the introduction of a better variety of potatoes, he considerably improved the means of cultivation. The district was greatly in want of agricultural implements. Oberlin witnessed with great pain the distress of his poor flock when they had the misfortune to break any of their utensils. They were without ready money to purchase them, and they were obliged to lose much time in going to a distance to obtain them. To put an end to this evil, he opened a store of various utensils; sold every article at prime cost; and gave the purchasers credit till their payments came round.

As this may be said to finish Oberlin's preliminary measures for the improvement of his parish, we may here pause to mention a certain event which bore intimately on his own happi

ness.

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.

When Oberlin accepted the charge of the Ban de la Roche, he was unmarried. Madame Oberlin, his mother, sometimes spoke to him on the subject of matrimony, as she was aware that a country clergyman may be greatly assisted by a wife of congenial temperament; and her son declared that he would not be unwilling to enter the married state, provided she could select an object worthy of his regard. Different young ladies were accordingly proposed; but none was exactly the kind of being on whom he could set his affections. Oberlin departed for his parish still a bachelor.

About a year afterwards, his house, which was under the charge of his younger sister, was visited by Madeleine Salomé Witter, daughter of a professor in the university of Strasburg, who had been dead some years; her mother also was no more. This young lady, who was a friend of the Oberlin family, pos

sessed a sound understanding, and had a highly cultivated mind, deeply imbued with religious principles.

Oberlin was not a man who could act the part of a dangler in the delicate affair of courtship. He admired Mademoiselle Witter, but he felt diffident as to the propriety of making the young lady his wife, or of even acquainting her with the state of his feelings. On some points they did not agree, and this seemed a fatal objection. Yet, on reflection, he considered that perfect unity of disposition was perhaps not to be obtained, and that in marriage one must always risk a little. The risk, thought he, however, is in this case too great, and he accordingly tried to lay aside the idea. It would not do. A voice seemed continually to whisper in his ear— "Take her for thy partner." What a perplexity!

The day approached when Madeleine was to leave the parsonage, and Oberlin was still in a state of indecision. Next day she was to go, and, like many more in similar circumstances, poor Oberlin lay awake half the night pondering on the difficulties of a situation which his conscientiousness alone rendered difficult. At length he resolved to be guided by the readiness with which Madeleine would listen to his proposals; accepting her cheerful and instantaneous assent as a leading of Providence.

Plac

Next morning after breakfast, Oberlin found the object of so much solicitude sitting in a summer-house in the garden. ing himself beside her, he began the conversation by observing, "You are about to leave us, my young friend. I have, however, had an intimation, which I am inclined to accept as the Divine will, that you are destined to be my partner for life. If you can decide on this step, so important to us both, I hope you will give me your candid opinion of it before your departure." Madeleine, who had probably expected some such disclosure, rose from her seat, and, blushing as she approached Oberlin, placed one hand before her eyes, and held the other towards him. He clasped it in his own. The resolution to address her had been happily taken. This important matter being settled, the marriage took place on the 6th of July 1768; and neither party had cause to regret its occurrence. Madeleine's good sense led her to accommodate her views on all subjects to those of her beloved husband, and she became truly devoted to his interests, assisting him in all his labours of benevolence, and tempering his zeal with her prudence.

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS.

Oberlin's marriage took place while he was occupied with his great engineering plans, and these being completed, along with the introduction of a better variety of potatoes and better agricultural implements, a great preliminary step was achieved. There remained much to be done. The people had only been put

in the way of being improved; they were not distinctly im proved yet.

Considering what next should be done, Oberlin perceived that the introduction of trades into the canton would contribute essentially to the progress of civilisation. There were no wheelwrights, masons, nor blacksmiths in the district, nor within a considerable distance of it. He therefore selected a certain number of lads, of suitable talents, put upon them decent apparel, and apprenticed them in the adjacent towns: this scheme also was successful. In a few years good workmen were prepared in the above-mentioned trades, as well as joiners and glaziers; and these came and set up establishments in the Ban de la Roche. The consequence was, that the inhabitants got every piece of work done at home, instead of being put to the trouble and expense of having it executed at a distance. Carts, ploughs, and other articles used in husbandry were made and mended, and many comforts introduced which were formerly all but unknown.

Thus prepared with artisans, Oberlin's next solicitude extended to the houses of his poorer parishioners. They were generally cavernous, damp dwellings, partially sunk in the sides of the mountains, and without cellars sufficiently deep to preserve potatoes, the staple winter food of the inhabitants, from the frost. It was evident that the people could neither be cleanly nor healthful, nor even be in a fit frame of mind, religiously speaking, while daily exposed to the humidity and the discomforts of such dens. There can be no expectation of moral improvement while the human being is treated, or treats himself, like a brute. The sagacity of Oberlin detected this important fact in social economics ere he had been long in the Ban de la Roche-a fact only now beginning to dawn on the more intrepid minds of Britain and other countries high in civilisation. To render the dwellings more airy, light, dry, and cheerful, and consequently more healthful both to body and mind, was now Oberlin's selfimposed duty. As in every other effort, there was some degree of opposition; but it all disappeared before the kindly influence of the good pastor. In a short time, neat cottages with glazed windows, chimneys, and dry flooring, were substituted for the old dismal huts; each provided with closets, to contain earthenware and other useful articles; and having a frost-proof cellar, in which potatoes could be safely stored. The improved health and appearance of the people soon justified all his benevolent anticipations of this important measure.

While engaged in these operations, he was also able to push forward the practice of horticulture and other branches of rural economy. His attention was particularly directed to the planting of fruit-trees, the improvement of the breed of cattle, the management and the increase of manure, the growth of natural and artificial grasses, and the more extensive culture of potatoes,

and likewise of flax-the two productions most suitable to the sandy soil of the district.

Little as the people were now inclined to question the propriety of Oberlin's projects, they could not readily enter into his ideas of improving on the growth of fruit-trees; that being a subject on which he, a native of a town, could not be expected to know so much as themselves. As practical proof seemed therefore necessary, he commenced operations on two gardens belonging to his own residence, and so close to a public pathway that all could observe his labours. With the assistance of a favourite and intelligent servant, he dug trenches, four or five feet in depth, and surrounded the young trees that he planted in them with the species of soil which he considered best adapted to promote their growth. He likewise procured slips of apple, pear, plum, cherry, and walnut trees, and made a large nurseryground of one of his gardens, which he prepared for the purpose. The expectations of the reverend horticulturist were not disappointed. The trees planted with so much care, grew and flourished in a manner never before seen in the canton; and the peasantry, who had frequent occasion to pass the spot, could not help being surprised at the contrast between the scanty supply of their own and the rich produce of their pastor's grounds. Guided by a desire to have equally fine crops of fruit, they now inquired how they should proceed, and Oberlin, with great willingness, not only explained the process for them to adopt in laying out their gardens and in planting them, but gave them young trees and grafts from his nursery. Thus the taste for planting fruittrees was happily diffused, and became a favourite employment in the canton. The change for the better was very remarkable. Cottages which had been hitherto bare and desolate in their aspect, were surrounded with little orchards and gardens; and in place of indigence and misery, the villages and hamlets gradually assumed an air of rural elegance and felicity.

To stock the gardens with vegetables more suitable to the soil and climate than what had hitherto been cultivated, was also a wish of Oberlin; and he did not rest till he had introduced a variety of herbs serviceable for food, or of value in the arts. The method of obtaining oil from beech-nuts was also one of the useful practices which he at this time extended throughout the district. Both for the sake of rotation in cropping, and for winter fodder for cattle, he introduced the growing of clover from seed imported from Holland; and to give materials for clothing, he encouraged the growth, as well as the dressing of flax.

Having, by his various plans, considerably meliorated the prejudices and enlightened the minds of his parishioners, he now formed an agricultural society, composed of the more intelligent farmers this association he connected with a society at Strasburg, which, by way of encouragement, placed at his disposal the sum of 2500 francs, to be distributed among the peasants as

prizes in horticultural operations. The beneficial effect of this measure induced Oberlin to institute a prize, to be awarded to those who should rear the finest ox; and he likewise took measures to induce the farmers to convert the least productive grass lands into arable fields, and by means of the clover, already noticed, to feed the beasts in their stalls. By this last mentioned practice he hoped to increase the amount of available manure, for the sake of the arable land; nor were his hopes disappointed. Attention to manures he knew to be one of the primary principles in agriculture, and on this subject he spared no pains to enlighten the people. He induced the practice of gathering together all vegetable refuse, such as the leaves of trees, the stalks of rushes, moss, and fir cones-all which, when fermented in heaps, might be converted into a useful compost. Acting on his favourite maxim, that nothing should be lost, he also, to increase the compost heaps, instructed the children to tear old woollen rags into shreds, and to cut up old shoes; for all which he paid them sixteen sous, or eightpence, for a bushel, and one sou for the smallest quantity they could collect. A short time afterwards, in order to induce the rising generation to persevere in the course of improvement which had been begun in the district, he commenced the plan of lecturing, for two hours every Thursday morning, on agriculture, vegetable physiology, and other useful branches of science.

It will readily be supposed that these various enterprises were interspersed over a pretty long series of years. Unlike an ordinary class of improvers, who act with great zeal for a time, and then, when they have either satisfied a whim, or gained some paltry meed of applause, relax, if not altogether cease their efforts, Oberlin was animated by an unwearying and ever buoyant spirit of social melioration. Nor, while giving so much time and anxiety to the temporal welfare of his flock, did he neglect the more weighty matter of religious instruction. The earnestness of his clerical ministrations was almost unexampled; and this, coupled with the amiableness of his character and his boundless benevolence, gained for him from his parishioners the title of Papa Oberlin, or Cher Papa (Dear Papa), by which he became universally known.

Hitherto we have said nothing of Papa Oberlin's benevolent and judicious schemes for training the young. These, however, early engaged his attention. He was most solicitous of erecting a school-house in Waldbach, which might answer as a model for one in the other four villages; but the raising of the requisite funds for this undertaking was a matter of some difficulty among a poor population; from his own income, which was never above 1000 francs (L.40) annually, and already burdened with many claims, he could also derive little assistance. There were no landed gentry to whom he could apply; but, as in former cases of urgent necessity, friends at a distance extended a helping