and disappointments inseparable from the task of building up a new commonwealth, was as much due to Benjamin Franklin as to George Washington; and that Poor Richard's Almanack, with its maxims, proverbs, and teachings, had almost a biblical tendency in moulding the character of the young colonists. When troubles hovered over many an American household, Poor Richard's advice was resorted to as their dearest solace.

Brief, beautiful, and yet how expressive, is the old adage- from the most ancient collection of proverbs—“ A word spoken in due season, how good is it."

THE MEN WHO HAVE INFLUENCED

MODERN GERMAN THOUGHT.

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF LIVERPOOL,

ON MARCH 20тH, 1876.

BY

BARON LOUIS BENAS.

ON THE MEN WHO HAVE INFLUENCED

MODERN GERMAN THOUGHT.

AMONG the nations that take rank in all that concerns the true civilisation of the present age, the Teutonic race does not occupy the lowest position; and yet, of all the great human families that have contributed to the vast domain of art, science, literature and philosophy, the German people were the last to achieve prominence. Whilst Spain was revelling in the philosophic lore of her high schools in Cordova, Granada, Toledo, and Sarragossa; whilst Byzantium treasured up for itself the relics of the classic ages, and the wise men of Constantinople were sought by all the aspiring youth of Europe; whilst Italy had her poets, painters, lyrics, and historians; whilst France had her troubadours, minstrels, authors, and philosophers; aye, and whilst this England of ours had its grand dramatists, poets, and thinkers, Germany possessed not even an intelligible language. These are very strong epithets, but I repeat that Germany did not even possess an intelligible language. A barbarous, rough, uncouth jargon, split into fifty dialects, served for the Teutonic race as a medium of conversation. The Suabian could not understand the Saxon dialect; the Saxon was totally different to the Hanoverian; the Hanoverian, again, was unintelligible to the Borussian; whilst the Borussian was almost a stranger to the dweller of the North Sea borders. As in all early races there were bardic effusions that served for the period as the chronicles of the times, so the Germans had their Meister-sangers, their Minnesängers, their Niebelungenlied,

their Heldenbuch, wild compounds of love, war, and romance, such as Macpherson has presented us in the book of Ossian; but even these effusions were the offspring of the Suabians, and the seat of the Meister-sangers was held in the cities of Mainz, Nuremberg, and Strasburg, where a little of the dulcet sounds of Italy and France could easily be wafted across the borders. Hans Sachs, one of these minstrels, wrote rhyme by the yard, but it contains the merest germs of true poetry.

Germany never took kindly either to Rome or Roman influence; from the days when Varus was defeated by Arminius in the Teutoburg forest, and caused the imperial Augustus to cry, "Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!" to the present day, there has been a continual struggle, both physically and mentally, with Latinism. The Christianity which Boniface preached to the Germans, but which was more effectually introduced by the sword of Charlemagne, had a very loose hold upon the popular mind. The belief in sprites, cobolds, nixes and elves, was everywhere prevalent among the Teutons. Every grove had its geist, every dell was haunted by a fairy, every crag was infested by cobolds, the powers of which were never doubted, but at best thought to be neutralised by a Christian formula, a cross-hilted sword, or a sainted relic; and, as even now in Africa, where the Obeah priest and the medicine man have such powerful influence upon the ignorant multitude, so the reputed witch, for many centuries after the introduction of Christianity, shared with the priest not a little of the popular dread or favour.

Split up, as the Teutonic races were politically, under numerous little potentates, it was impossible for one ruler to make a supreme effort for their regeneration. What was law in one little domain was ostracised in the neighbouring

one,