*0 o^ .0^^ ^xV . .N^' '^^^'^^ > 'S ^r.- G^^ A^ ,-rr\ ^i^ //]. ,■ >* f n r \ K^c '^<:' <.^,^,^^ '^^^'V #^ y & '■ v'/.'7,l -?^^v* .i;-.''^ ."^^ -; ^ .,-^" ^^y-^ V^^ o5 %i .^^' -. :^^ .^' "'^ i BUBBLES FROM BRUNNEN. IIEE II GEEIANY OR A VISIT TO THE SPRINGS OF GERMANY BY "AN OLD MAN" IN SEARCH OF HEALTH. BY SIR FRANCIS, HEAD, LATE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA. NEW- YORK : LEAVITT, TROW & CO., 191 BROADWAY. 1848. Gtft W. L. 8boem»kar PREFACE, The writer of this trifling Volume was suddenly sentenced, m the cold evening of his life, to drink the mineral waters of one of the bubbling springs, or brunnen, of Nassau. In his own opinion, his constitution was not worth so troublesome a repair ; but, being outvoted, he bowed and departed. On reaching the point of his destination, he found not only water-bibbing — bathing — and ambulation to be the orders of the aay. but it was moreover insisted upon, that the mind was to be rek^xed inversely as the body was to be strengthened. Durmg this severe regimen, he was driven to amuse himself in his old age by blowing, as he tottled about, a few Uterary Bubbles. His hasty sketches of whatever chanced for the moment to please either his eyes, or his mind, were only made — because he had nothing else in the world to do ; and he now offers them to that vast and highly respectable class of people who read from ex- actly the self-same motive. The critic must, of course, declare this production to be vain — empty — light — hollow — superficial .... but it is the' nature of Bubbles to be so. " The earth hath bubbles, as the water has. And these are of them." Macbeth, Act I , ^^Isfine 3 CONTENTS. PASS THE VOYAGE ' 1 THE JOURIVEY 11 THE REVEILLE 24 THE BATH 34 THE DIIVNER 41 THE PROMEIS-ADE . 48 THE SCHWEIX-GENERAL 57 THE LUTHER AK CHAPEL 63 THE NEW SCHOOL 68 THE OLD PROTESTANT CHURCH 75 THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE 82 THE HARVEST 86 THE SUNSET «*.... o 91 THE CROSS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM • 97 THE RENEGADE. 108 SCHLANGENB AD ; OR, THE SERPENTS* BATH 119 NIEDER BELTERS ♦ 152 THE MONASTERY OF EBERBACH 156 JOURNEY TO MAINZ 178 EXCURSION TO THE NIEDERWALD •...•.••• i «•• « 197 WIESBADEN ♦ , * • • • • . 208 LIFE IN GERMANY. THE VOYAGE. By the time I reached the Custom-house Stairs, the paddles of the Rotterdam steamboat were actually in motion, and I had scarcely hurried across a plank, when I heard it fall splash into the muddy- water which separated me farther and farther from the wharf. Still later than myself, passengers were now seen chasing the vessel in boats, and there was a confusion on deck, which I gladly availed myself of, by securing, close to the helmsman, a corner, where, muffled in the ample folds of an old boat-cloak, I felt I might quietly enjoy an incognito ; for, as the sole object of my expedition was to do myself as much good and as little harm as possible, I considered it would be a pity to wear out my constitu- tion by any travelling exclamations in the Thames. The hatches being now opened, the huge pile of trunks, black portmanteaus, and gaudy carpet-bags, which had threatened at first to obstruct my prospect, was rapidly stowed away ; and, as the vessel, hissing and smoking, glided, or rather scuffled, by Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, &c., a very motley group of fellow-passengers were all occupied in making remarks of more or less importance. Some justly prided themselves on being able to read aloud inscriptions on shore, which others had declared, from their immense distance, to be illegible ; — some, bending forward, modestly asked for information ; some, standing particu- larly upright, pompously imparted it. At times, wondering eyes, both male and female, were seen radiating in all directions ; then al 1 were concentrated on an approaching sister steamboat, which, steering an opposite course, soon rapidly passed us; the gilt figure at her head, the splashing of the paddles, and the name 2 BUBBLES. written over her stern, occasioning observations which burst into existence nearly as simultaneously as the thunder and lightning of heaven ; — handkerchiefs were waved, and bipeds of both sexes seemed to be delighted, save and except one mild, gloomy, inquisi- tive little man, who went bleating like a lamb from one fellow- passenger to another, without getting even from me any answer to this harmless question, "- whether we had or had not passed yet the men han^ina in chains ?" As soon as we got below Gravesend, the small volume of life, which, with feelings of good fellowship to all men, I had thus been calmly reviewing, began to assume a graver tone ; and, as page after page presented itself to my notice, I observed that notes of interrogation and marks of admiration were types not so often to be met with as the comma, the colon . . . and, above all, . . . the full stop. The wind, as it freshened with the sun, seemed to check all exuberance of fancy ; and, as the puny river- w^ave rose, conver- sation around me lulled and lulled into a dead calm. A few people, particularly some ladies, suddenly at last broke silence, giving utterance to a mass of heavy matter-of-fact ejaculation, directed rather to fishes than to men. Certain colors in the pic- ture now began rapidly to alter — the red rose gradually looked like the lily — brown skin changed itself into dirty yellow, and I observed two heavy cheeks of warm, comfortable, fat flesh gra- dually assume the appearance of cold wrinkled tallow. Off Margate, a sort of hole-and-corner system very soon began to prevail, and one human being after another, slowly descending heels foremost, vanished from deck into a substratum, or infernal region, where there was moaning and groaning, and gnashing of teeth ; and, as head after head thus solemnly sank from my view, I gradually threw aside the folds of my aegis, until, finding my- self alone, I hailed and inhaled with pleasure the cool fresh breeze which had thus caused me to be left, as I wished to be, by myself. The gale now delightfully increased — (ages ago I had been too often exposed to it to suffer from its effect) ; — and, as wave after wave became tipped with white, there flitted before my mind a hundred recollections chasing one another, which I never thought THE VOYAGE. to have re-enjoyed ; — occasionally they were interrupted by the salt spray, and as it dashed into my face, I felt my lank grizzled eyebrows curl themselves up as if they wished me once again to view the world in the lovely prismatic colors of " Auld lang syne." Already was my cure half eifected, and the soot of Lon- don, being thus washed from my brow, I felt a re-animation of mind and a vigor of fram.e which made me long for the moment v»^hen, like the sun bursting from behind a cloud, I might cast aside my shadowy mantle ; however, I never moved from my nook, until the darkness of night at last encouraging me, without fear of observation, to walk the deck, " I paced along upon the giddy footing of the hatches," till, tired of these vibrations, I stood for a few moments at the gangway. There was no moon — a star only here and there was to be seen ; yet, as the fire-propelled vessel cut her way, the paddles, by shivering in succession each v/ave to atoms, produced a phos- phoric sparkling, resembling immense lanthorns at her side ; and while these beacons distinctly proclaimed where the vessel actu- ally was, a pale shining stream of light issued from her keel, which, for a ship's length or two, told fainter and fainter where she had heen. The ideas which rush into the mind, on contemplating by night, out of sight of land, the sea, are as dark, as mysterious, as unfa- thomable, and as indescribable, as the vast ocean itself. One sees but little — yet that little, caught here and there, so much re- sembles some of the attributes of the Great Power which created us, that the mind, trembling under the immensity of the concep- tions it engenders, is lost in feelings which human beings cannot impart to each other. In the hurricane which one meets with in southern latitudes, most of us probably have looked in vain for the waves which have been described to be '^mountain-high;" but though the outline has been exaggerated, is there not a terror in the filling in of the picture which no human artist can delineate ? and in the raging of the tempest — in the darkness which the light- ning makes visible — who is there among us that has not fancied he has caught a shadow of the wrath, and a momentary glimmer- ing of the mercy, of the Almighty ? Impressed with these hackneyed feelings, I slowly returned to BUBBLES. my nook, and all being obscure, except just the red, rough coun« tenance of the helmsman, feebly illuminated by the light in the binnacle, I laid myself down, and sometimes nodding a little, and sometimes dozing, I enjoyed for many hours a sort of half-sleep, of which I stood in no little need. As soon as we had crossed the Brill, the vessel being at once in smooth water, the passengers successively emerged from their graves below, until, in a couple of hours, their ghastly counte- nances all were on deck. A bell, as if in hysterics, now rung most violently, as a signal to the town of Rotterdam. The word of command, " stop her !" was loudly vociferated by a bluff, short. Dirk Hatteraick-looking pilot, who had come on board off the Brill. " Stop her !" was just heard faintly echoed from below, by the invisible, exhausted sallow being, who had had, during the voyage, charge of the engine. The paddles, in obedience to the mandate, ceased — then gave two turns — ceased, — turned once again — paused, — gave one last struggle, when, our voyage being over, the vessel's side slightly bumped against the pier. With a noise like one of Congreve's rockets, the now useless steam was immediately exploded by the pale being below ; and, in a few seconds, half the passengers were seen on shore, hurry- ing in different directions about a town full of canals and spirit- shops. " Compared with Greece and Italy — Holland is but a platter- faced, cold gin-and-water country after all !" said I to myself as I entered the great gate of the Hotel des Pays Bas ; " and a heavy, barge-built, web-footed race are its inhabitants," I added, as I passed a huge amphibious wench on the stairs, who, with her stern towards me, was sluicing the windows with water : " how- ever, there is fresh air, and that, with solitude, is all I here desire !" This frail sentimental sentence was hardly concluded, when a Dutch waiter (whose figure I will not misrepresent by calling him "• garden") popped a long carte, or bill of fare, into my hands, which severely reproved me for having many other wants besides those so simply expressed in my soliloquy. As I did not feel equal to appearing in public, I had dinner apart in my own room ; and, as soon as I came to that part of the cere- THE VOYAGE. mony called dessert, I gradually raised my eyes from the field of battle, until, leaning backwards in my chair to ruminate, I could not help first admiring, for a few moments, the height and immense size of an apartment, in which there seemed to be elbow-room for a giant. Close before the window was the great river upon whose glassy surface I had often and often been a traveller ; and, flowing be- neath me, it occurred to me, as I sipped my wine, that in its transit, or course of existence, it had attained at Rotterdam, as nearly as possible, the same period in its life as my own. Its birth, its froward infancy, and its wayward youth, were remote distances to which even fancy could now scarcely re- transport us. In its full vigor, the Rhine had been doomed turbulently to strug- gle with difficulties and obstructions which had seemed almost capable of arresting it in its course ; and if there was now nothing left in its existence worth admiring — if its best scenery had vanished — if its boundaries had become fiat and its banks insipid, still there was an expansion in its broader surface, and a deep settled stillness in its course, which seemed to offer tran- quillity instead of ecstasy, and perfect contentment instead of imperfect joy. I felt that in the whole course of the river there was no part of it I desired to exchange for the water slowly flowing before me ; and though it must very shortly, I knew, be lost in the ocean, that great emblem of eternity, yet in every yard of its existence that fate had been foretold to it. Not feeling disposed again so immediately to endure the con- finement of a vessel, I walked out, and succeeded in hiring a car- riage, which, in two days, took me to Cologne, and the following morning I embarked, at six o^clock, in another steamboat, which was to reach Coblenz in eleven hours. As everybody, now-a-days, has been up the Rhine, I will only say; that I started in a fog, and, for a couple of hours, was very coolly enveloped in it. My compagnons de voyage were tri-color- ed — Dutch, German, and French ; and, excepting always myself, there was nothing English — nothing, at least, but a board, which sufhciently explained the hungry, insatiable inquisitiveness of our travellers. The black speechless thing hung near the tiller, and BUBBLES. upon it there was painted, in white letters, the following sentence, which I copied literatim : — " Enfering any conversation with the Steersner and Pilotes is desired to be forborn." On account of the fog, we could see nothing, yet, once or twice, we steered towards the tinkling invitation of a bell ; stopped for a moment — ^took in passengers, and proceeded. The manner in which these Rhine steam-vessels receive and deliver passengers, carriages, and horses, is most admirable ; at each little village, the birth of a new traveller, or the death or departure of an old one, does not detain the vessel ten seconds ; but the little ceremony- being over, on it instantly proceeds, worming and winding its way towards its destination. Formerly, and until lately, a few barges, towed by horses, were occasionally seen toiling against the torrent of the Rhine, while immense rafts of timber, curiously connected together, floated indolently downwards to their market ; in history, therefore, this uncommercial river was known principally for its violence, its difficulties, and its dangers. Excepting to the painter, its points most distinguished were those where armies had succeeded in crossing, or where soldiers had perished in vainly attempting to do so ; but the power of steam, bringing its real character into existence, has lately developed peaceful properties which it was not known to have possessed. The stream which once relent- lessly destroyed mankind, now gives to thousands their bread ; — that which once separated nations, now brings them together ; — national prejudices, which, it was once impiously argued, this river was wisely intended to maintain, are, by its waters, now softened and decomposed: in short, the Rhine affords another proof that there is nothing really barren in creation but man's conceptions — nothing defective but his own judgment, and that what he looked upon as a barrier in Europe, was created to become one of the great pav6s of the world. As the vessel proceeded towards Coblenz, it continually paused in its faijy course, apparently to barter and traffic in the prison- ers it contained — sometuTies stopping off one little village, it ex- THE VOYAGE. changed an infirm old man for two country girls ; and then, as if laughing at its bargain, gaily proceeding, it paused before another picturesque hamlet, to give three Prussian soldiers of the 36th regiment for a husband, a mother, and a child ; once it delivered an old woman, and got nothing ; — -then, luckily, it received two carriages for a horse, and next it stopped a second to take up a tail, thin, itinerant poet, who, as soon as he had collected from every passenger a sm.all contribution, for having recited two or three little pieces, v/as dropped at the next village, ready to board the steam vessel coming down from Mainz. In one -of these cartels, or exchanges of prisoners, we received on board Sir and Lady , a young fashionable English couple, who having had occasion, a fortnight before, to go toge- ther to St. George's Church, had (like dogs suffering from hydro- phobia or tin canisters) been running straight forwards ever since. As hard as they could drive, they had posted to Dover — hurried , across to Calais — thence to Brussels — -snapped a glance at the ripe corn waving on the field of Waterloo — stared at the relics of that great Saint, old Cliarlemagne, on the high altar of Aix- la-Chapelle, and at last sought for rest and connubial refuge at Coin ; but the celebrated water of that town, having in its manufacture evidently abstracted all perfume from the atmosphere, they could not endure the dirt and smeli of the place, and there- fore had proceeded by land towards Cobienz ; but, as they were changing horses at a small village, seeing our steam-boat in view, they ordered a party of peasants to draw their carriage to the banks of the river, and as soon as our vessel, which came smok- ing alongside, began to hiss, they, their rosy, fiesh-colored French maid, their dark, choeolate-colored chariot, and their brown, ill- looking Italian courier, came on board. As soon as this young London couple lightly stepped on deck, i saw, at one glance, that without at all priding themselves on their abilities, they fancied, and indeed justly fancied, that they belonged to that class of society which, in England, so modestly calls itself — good. That it vv^as not healthy society — that its vic- tims were exposed to late hours, crowded rooms, and impure air, was evident enouo^h from the contrast which existed between their eoniplexions, and that of their healthy country attendant ; how. BUBiiLES. ever, they seemed not only to be perfectly satisfied with them- selves, and the clique which they had left behind them, but to have a distaste for everything else they saw. Towards some German ladies, who had slightly bowed to them as they passed, they looked with a vacant haughty stare, as if they conceived there must be some mistake, and as if, at all events, it would be necessary to keep such people off. Yet, after all, there was no great harm in these two young persons : that, in the countries which they were about to visit, they would be fitted only for each other, was sadly evident ; however, on the other hand, it was also evidently their wish not to extend their acquaintance. Their heads were lanterns, illuminated with no more brains than barely sufficient to light them on their way ; and so, like the babes in the wood, they sat together, hand-in-hand, regardless of every- thing in creation but themselves. For running their carriage down to the shore, the brown confi- dential courier, whose maxim was, of course, to pay little and charge much, offered the gang of peasants some kreuzers, which amounted, in English currency, to about sixpence. This they refused, and the captain of the party, while arguing with the flint- skinning courier, was actually carried off by our steamboat, which, like time and tide, waited for no man. The poor fellow, finding that the Italian was immoveable, came aft to the elegant English couple, who were still leaning towards each other like the Siamese boys. He pleaded his case, stated his services, declared his poverty, and, in a manly voice, prayed for redress. The dandy listened — looked at his boots, which were evidently pinch- ing him, — listened — passed four white fingers through the curls of his jet-black hair — ^showed the point of a pink tongue gently playing with a front tooth, and when the vulgar story was at an end, without moving a muscle in his countenance, in a sickly tone of voice, he pronounced his verdict as follows '' Allez r The creditor tried again, but the debtor sat as silent and as in- animate as a corpse. However, all this time the steamboat dragging the poor peasant out of his way, he protested in a few angry exclamations against the injustice with which he had been treated (a sentiment I was very sorry to hear more than once THE VOYAGE. mildly whispered by many a quiet-looking German), and descend- ing the vessel's side into a small boat, which had just brought us a new captive, he landed at a village from which he had about eight miles to walk, to join his comrades. It is with no satirical feeling that I have related this little occur- rence. To hurt the feelings of '^ gay beings born to flutter but a day " — to break such a pair of young, flimsy butterflies upon the wheel, aflbrds me neither amusement nor delight ; but the every- day occurrence of English travellers committing our well-earned national character for justice and liberality to the base, slave- driving hand of a courier, is a practice which, as well as the bad taste of acting the part of a London dandy on the great the- atre of Europe, ought to be checked. As we proceeded up the Rhine, there issued from one of the old romantic castles we were passing a party of young English lads, whose appearance (as soon as they came on board), did ample justice to their country ; and, comparing them, while they walked the deck, with the rest of their fellow-prisoners, I could not help more than once fancying that I saw a determination in their step, a latent character in their attitudes, and a vigor in their young frames, which being interpreted, said — " We dare do all that doth become a man, He v/ho dares more — is none !" Besides these young collegians, an English gentleman came on board, who appeared quite delighted to join their party. He was a stout man, of about fifty, tall, well-dressed, evidently wealthy, and as ruddy as our mild wholesome air could make him. Not only had he a high color, but there was a net-work of red veins in his cheeks, which seemed as if not even death could drive it away : his face shone from excessive cleanliness, and though his nose certainly was not long, there was a sort of round bull-dog honesty in his face, which it was quite delightful to gaze upon. I overheard this good man inform his countrymen, who had sur- rounded him in a group, that he had never before been out of England — and that, to tell the truth, he never wished to quit it again ! '' It's surely beautiful scenery !" observed one of his au- 10 BUBBLES. ditors, pointing to the outline of a ruin which, with the rock upon which it stood, seemed flying away behind us. " Yes, yes !" re- plied the florid traveller. ^^ But, Sir ! it's the dirtiness of the peo- ple I complain of. Their cookery is dirty — they are dirty in their persons — dirty in their habits — that shocking trick of smoking (pointing to a fat German who was enjoying this pleasure close by his side, and who I rather suspect perfectly understood Eng- lish) is dirty — depend upon it, they are what w^e should call. Sir, a very dirty race!" "Do you speak the language ?" said one of the young listeners with a smile which was very awkwardly repressed. '- Oh, no !" replied the well-fed gentleman, laughing good-naturedly ; ''I know nothing of their language. I pay for all I eat, and I find, by paying, I can get anything I want. * Mangez ! cliangez P is quite foreign language enough. Sir, for wze;" and having to the first word suited his action, by pointing with his fore-finger to his mouth, and to explain the second, hav- ing rubbed his thumb against the self-same finger, as if it were counting out money, he joined the roar of laughter which his two French words had caused, and then very good-naturedly paced the deck by himself. The jagged spires of Coblenz now came in sight, and every Englishman walked to the head of the vessel to see them, while several of the inhabitants of the city, with less curiosity, occupied themselves in leisurely getting together their luggage. For a moment, as we glided by the Moselle on our right, we looked up the course of that lovely river, which here delivers up its waters to the Rhine ; in a few minutes the bell on board rang, and con- tinued to ring, until we found ourselves firmly moored to the pier of Coblenz. Most of the passengers went into the town. I, how- ever, crossing the bridge of boats, took up my quarters at the Cheval Blanc, a large hotel, standing immediately beneath that towering rock so magnificently crowned by the celebrated fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. THE JOUENEY. n THE JOURNEY. The next day, starting from Coblenz w^hile tlie morning air was 'Still pure and fresh, 1 bade adieu to the picturesque river behind me, and travelling on a capital macadamized road whi<5h cuts across the du-chy of Nassau from Coblenz to Mainz, I immediately began to ascend the mountains, whi^h on all sides were beauti- fully covered with wood. In about two hours, descending into a narrow valle}^, I passed through Bad-Ems, a small village, whi baking ; but surely, if it were possible to send one-half of the body to Iceland, while the other was reclining on the banks of Fernando Po, the trial would be exceedingly severe ; inasmuch as nature, never having contemplated such a vagary, has not thought it necessary to provide against it. In a less degree, the same argument applies to bathing, particularly in mineral waters ^ for even the common pressure of water on the portion of the body which is immersed in it, tends mechanically to push or force the blood towards that part (the head) enjoying a rarer medium ; but when it is taken into calculation that the mineral mixture of Schwalbach acts on the body not only mechanically, by pressure^ but medicinally, being a very strong astringent, there needs na wizard to account for the unpleasant sensations so often com- plained of. For the above reason, I resolved that my head should fare alike with the rest of my system ; in short, that it deserved to be strengthened as much as my limbs. It was equally old — had accompanied them in all tlieir little troubles ; and, moreover,. often and often, when they had sunk down to rest, had it been forced to contemplate and provide for the dangers and vicissitudes of the next day^ I therefore applied no half remedy — submitted to no partial operation — but resolved that if the waters of Langen- Schwalbach were to make me invulnerable, the box which held my brains should humbly, but equally, partake of the blessing. The way in which I bathed, with the reasons which induced me to do so, were mentioned to Dr. Fenner. He made no objec- tion, but in silence shrugged up his shoulders. However, the fact is, in this instance as well as in many others, he is obliged to pre- THE BATH. 37 scribe no more than human nature is willing to comply with. And as Germans are not much in the habit of washing their heads, — and even if they were, as they would certainly refuse to dip their sculls into a mixture that stains the hair a deep red color, upon which common soap has not the slightest detergent effect, — the doctor probably feels that he would only lose his influ- ence were he publicly to undergo the defeat of being driven from a system which all his patients would agree to abominate ; in- deed, one has only to look at the ladies' flannel dresses which hang in the yard to dry, to read the truth of the above assertion. These garments having been several times immersed in the bath, are stained as deep a red as if they had been rubbed with ochre or brickdust ; yet the upper part of the flannel is quite as white, and indeed, by comparison, appears infinitely whiter than ever ; in short, without asking to see the owners, it is quite evi- dent that, at Schwalbach, young ladies, and even old ones, cannot make up their minds to stain any part of their mysterious fabric which towers above their evening gowns ; and, though the rest of their lovely persons are as red as the limbs of the American In- dian, yet their faces and cheeks bloom like the roses of York and Lancaster ; but laying all flannel arguments aside, the effect of these waters on the skin is so singular, that one has only to wit- ness it to understand that it would be useless for the poor village doctor to prescribe to ladies more than a pie-bald application of the remedy. Although, of course, in coming out of the bath, the patient rubs himself dry, and apparently perfectly clean, yet the rust, by ex- ercise, comes out so profusely, that not only is the linen of those people who bathe stained, but even their sheets are similarly dis- colored ; the dandy's neckcloth becomes red ; and when the head has been immersed, the pillow in the morning looks as if a rusty thirteen-inch shell had been reposing on iu. To the servanc who has cleaned the bath, filled it, and supplied it with towels, it is customary to give each day six kreuzers, amounting to twopence ; and as another example of the cheap- ness of German luxuries, I may observe, that if a person chooses, instead of walking, to be carried in a sedan-chair, and brought 38 BUBBLES. back to his Hof, the price fixed for the two journeys is three- pence. Having now taken my bath, the next part of my daily sentence was, " to return to the place from whence I came, and there ^' to drink two more glasses of water from the Pauline. The weather having been unusually hot, in walking to the bath, I wa^ gene- rally very much overpowered by the heat of the sun ; but on leaving the mixture to walk to the Pauline, I always felt as if his rays were not as strong as myself; I really fancied that they glanced from my frame as from a polished cuirass ; and, far from suffering, I enjoyed the walk, always remarking that the cold evaporation proceeding from wet hair formed an additional reason for preventing the blood from rushing upwards. The glass of cold sparkling water which, under the mid-day sun, I received after quitting the bath, from the healthy looking old goddess of the Pauline, was delicious beyond the powers of description. It was infinitely more refreshing than iced soda water, and the idea that it was doing good instead of harm — that it was medicine, not luxury, added to it a flavor which the mind, as well as the body, seemed to enjoy. What with the iron in my skin, the rust in my hair, and the warmth which this strengthening mixture imparted to my waist- coat, I always felt an unconquerable inclination to face the hill ; and, selecting a different path from the one I had taken in the morning, I seldom stopped until I had reached the tip-top of one of the many eminences which overhang the promenade and its heau 7?ionde, The climate of this high table-land was always invigorating ; and although the sun was the same planet which was scorching the saunterers in the valley beneath, yet its rays did not take the same hold upon the rare, subtle mountain air. At this hour the peasants had descended into the town to dine. The fields were, consequently, deserted ; yet it was pleasing to see where they had been toiling, and how much of the corn they had cut since yesterday. I derived pleasure from looking at the large heap of potatoes they had been extracting, and from observ- ing that they had already begun to plough the stubble which only two days ago had been standing corn. Though neither man, wo- THE BATH. 39 mail; nor child were to be seen, it was, nevertheless, quite evident that they could only just have vanished ; and though I had no fellow-creature to converse with, yet I enjoyed an old-fashioned pleasure in tracing on the ground marks where at least human beings had been. Quite by myself I was loitering on these heights, when I heard the troop of Langen-Schwalbach cows coming through the great wood on my left ; and wanting, at the moment, something to do, diving into the forest I soon succeeded in joining the gang. They were driven by a man and a woman, who received for every cow under their care forty-two kreuzers, or fourteen pence, for the six summer months : for this humble remuneration they drove the cows of Schwalbach every morning into the great woods, to enjoy air and a very little food ; three times a-day they conducted them home to be milked, and in the evening as often re-ascended to the forest. At the hours of assembling, the man blew a long, crooked, tin horn, which the cows and their proprietors equally well under- stood. Everybody must be aware, that it is not a very easy job to keep a set of cows together in a forest, as the young ones, espe- cially, are always endeavoring to go astray ; however, the two guides had each a curious sort of instrument by which they managed to keep them in excellent subjection. It consisted of a heavy stick about two feet long, with six iron rings, so placed that they could be shaken up and down ; and, certainly, if it were to be exhibited at Smithfield, no being there, human or inhuman, would ever guess that it was invented for driving cows ; and were he even to be told so, he would not conceive how it could possibly be used for that purpose. Yet, in Nassau, it is the regular engine for propelling cattle of every description. In driving the cows through the wood, I observed that the man and woman each kept on one flank, the herd leisurely proceeding before them ; but if any of the cows attempted to stray — if any of them presumed to lie down — or if any of them appeared to be in too earnest conversation with a great lumbering creature of her own species, distinguished by a ring through his nose, and a bright iron chain round his neck, the man, and especially the woman, gave two or three shakes with the rings, and if that lecture was not sufficient, the stick, rings and all, flew through the air, inflict- 40 BUBBLES. ing a blow which really appeared sufficient to break a rib, and certainly much more than sufficient to dislodge an eye. It was easy to calculate the force of this uncouth weapon, by the fear the poor animals entertained of it ; and I observed, that no sooner did the woman shake it at an erring, disobedient cow, than the creature at once gave up the point, and hurried for- wards. In the stillness of the forest, nothing could sound wilder than the sudden rattling of these rings^ and almost could one fancy that beings in chains were running between the trees. A less severe discipline would, probably, not be sufficient. However, I must record that the severity was exercised with a considerable pro- portion of discretion ; for I particularly remarked that, when cows were in a certain interesting situation, their rude drivers, with unerring aim, always pelted them on the hocks. Leaving the cows, and descending the mountain's side, I stroll- ed through the little mountain hamlet of Wambach. In the mid- dle of this simple retreat, there stood, overtopping most of the other dwellings, a tall slender hut, on the thatched roof of which was a wooden pent-house, containing a bell, which, three times a-day, tolled for reveille, noon-tide meal, and curfew. As the hu- man tongue speaks by the impulse of the mind, so did this humble clapper move in obedience to the dictates of a village watch, which, when out of order, the parish was bound to repair. From the upper windows of the principal house, I saw suspend- ed festoons or strings of apples cut in slices, and exposed to the sun to dry. A lad, smoking his pipe, was driving his mother's cow to fetch grass from the valley. Women, with pails in their hands, were proceeding towards the spring for water ; others were returning to their homes heavily laden with fagots, while several of their idle children were loitering about before their doors. But, as I had still another dose of water to drink from the Pau- line, I hastened to the brunnen, and having emptied my glass (which, like the outside of a bottle of iced water, was instanta- neously covered by condensation with dew), I found that it was time to prepare myself (as I beg leave to prepare my reader) for that very lengthy ceremony — a German dinner. THE DINNER. 41 THE DINNER. During the fashionable season at Langen-Schwalbach, the dinner hour at all the Saals is one o'clock. From about noon scarcely a stranger is to be seen ; but a few minutes before the bell strikes one, the town exhibits a picture curious enough, when it is con- trasted with the simple costume of the villagers, and the wild- looking country which surrounds them. From all the hofs and lodging houses, a set of demure, quiet-looking, well-dressed peo- ple are suddenly disgorged, who, at a sort of funeral pace, slowly advance towards the Allee Saal, the Goldene Kette, the Kaiser Saal, and one or two other houses, ou Von dine. The ladies are not dressed in bonnets, but in caps, most of which are quiet, the rest being of those indescribable shapes which are to be seen in London or Paris. Whether the stifF-stand-up frippery of bright- red ribands was meant to represent a house on fire, or purgatory itself — whether those immense white ornaments were intended for reefs of coral or not — it is out of my department even to guess — ladies' caps being riddles only to be explained by themselves. With no one to affront them — with no fine powdered footman to attend them — with nothing but their appetites to direct them — and with their own quiet conduct to protect them — old ladies, young ladies, elderly gentlemen, and young ones, were seen slowly and silently picking their way over the rough pavement. There was no greediness in their looks ; nor, as they proceeded, did they lick their lips, or show any other signs of possessing any appetite at all ; they looked much more as if they were coming from a meal, than going to one : in short, they seemed to be thinking of any- thing in the dictionary but the word dinner. And when one con- trasted or weighed the quietness of their demeanor against the 42 BUBBLES. enormous quantity of provisions they were placidly about to con- sume, one could not help admitting that these Germans had cer- tainly more self-possession, and could better muzzle their feelings, than many of the best-behaved people in the universe. Seated at the table of the AUee Saal, I counted a hundred and eighty people at dinner in one room. To say, in a single word, whether the fare was good or bad, would be quite impossible, it being so completely different to anything ever met with in England. To my simple taste, the cooking is most horrid ; still there were now and then some dishes, particularly sweet ones, which 1 thought excellent. With respect to the made-dishes, of which there v/as a great variety, I beg to offer to the reader a formula I invented, which will teach him (should he ever come to Germany) what to expect. The simple rule is this : — Let him taste the dish, and if it be not sour, he may be quite certain that it is greasy ; — again, if it be not greasy, let him not eat thereof, for then it is sure to be sour. With regard to the order of the dishes, that, too, is unlike anything v/hich Mrs. Glasse ever thought of. After soup, which all over the world is the alpha of the gourmand's alphabet, the barren meat from which the said soup has been ex- tracted is produced. Of course it is dry, tasteless, withered- look- ing stuff, which a Grosvenor-square cat would not touch with its whisker ; but this dish is always attended by a couple of satellites — the one a quantity of cucumbers dressed in vinegar, the other a black greasy sauce : and if you dare to accept a piece of this flaccid beef, you are instantly thrown between Scylla and Cha- rybdis ; for so sure as you decline the indigestible cucumber, souse comes into your plate a deluge of the greasy sauce ! After the company have eaten heavily of messes which it would be im- possible to describe, in comes some nice salmon — then fowls — then puddings — then meat again — then stewed fruit ; and after the English stranger has fallen back in his chair quite beaten, a leg of mutton majestically makes its appearance ! I dined just two days at the Saals, and then bade adieu to them for ever. Nothing which this world affords could induce me to feed in this gross manner. The pig who lives in his sty would have some excuse ; but it is really quite shocking to see any other THE DINNER. 43 animal overpowering himself at mid-day with such a mixture and superabundance of food. Yet only think what a compliment all this is to the mineral waters of Langen-Schwalbach ; for if peo- ple who come here, and live in this way morning, noon, and night, can, as 1 really believe they do, return to their homes in better health than they departed, how much more benefit ought any one to derive, who, maintaining a life of simplicity and temperance, would resolve to give them a fair trial ? In short, if the cold iron waters of the Pauline can be of real rerviceto a stomach full of vinegar and grease, how much more effectually ought they to tinker up and repair the inside of him who has sense enough to sue them in forma pauperis f Dr. Fenner was told that I had given up dining in public, as I preferred a single dish at home ; and he was then asked, with a scrutinizing look, whether eating so much was not surely very bad for those who were drinking the waters ? The poor doctor quietly shrugged up his shoulders, — silently looking at his shoes, — and what else could he have done ? Himself an inhabitant of Langen-Schwalbach, of course he was obliged to feel the pulse of his own fellow-citizens, as well as that of the stranger ; and into what a fever would he have thrown all the innkeepers — what a convulsion would he have occasioned in the village itself — were he to have presumed to prescribe temperance to those wealthy visitors by whose gross intemperance the community hoped to prosper ! He might as well have gone into the fields to burn the crops, as thus wickedly to blight the golden harvest which Langen-Schwalbach had calculated on reaping during the short visit of its consumptive guests. Our dinner is now over ; but I must not rise from the table of the AUee Saal, until I have made an ' amende honorable^ to those against whose vile cooking I have been railing, for it is only common justice to German society to offer an humble testimony that nothing can be more creditable to any nation : one can scarcely imagine a more pleasing picture of civilized life, than the mode in which society is conducted at these watering-places. The company which comes to the brunnens for health, and v/hich daily assembles at dinner, is of a most heterogeneous de- scription, being composed of Princes, Dukes, Barons, Counts, &c., 44 BUBBLES. clown to the petty shopkeeper, and even the Jew of Frankfort, Mainz, and other neighboring towns ; in short, all the most jar- ring elements of society, at the same moment, enter the same room, to partake together the same one shilling and eight-penny dinner. Even to a stranger like myself, it was easy to perceive that the company, as they seated themselves round the table, had herded together in parties and coteries, neither acquainted with each other, nor with much disposition to be acquainted — still, all those invaluable forms of society which connect the guests of any pri- vate individual were most strictly observed ; and, from the natural good sense and breeding in the country, this happy combination was apparently effected without any effort. No one seemed to be under any restraint, yet there was no freezing formality at one end of the table, nor rude boisterous mirth at the other. With as honest good appetites as could belong to any set of people under the sun, I particularly remarked that there was no scrambling for favorite dishes ; — to be sure, here and there an eye was seen twinkling a little brighter than usual, as it watched the progress of any approaching dish which appeared to be unusually sour or greasy, but there was no greediness, no impatience, and nothing which seemed for a single moment to interrupt the general har- mony of the scene ; and, though I scarcely heard a syllable of the buzz of conversation which surrounded me ; although every moment I felt less and less disposed to attempt to eat what for some time had gradually been coagulating in my plate ; yet, leaning back in my chair, I certainly did derive very great plea- sure, and I hope a very rational enjoyment, in looking upon so pleasing a picture of civilized life. In England we are too apt to designate, by the general term " society," the particular class, clan, or clique in which we our- selves may happen to move, and if that little speck be sufficiently polished, people are generally quite satisfied with what they term " the present state of society ;" yet there exists a very important difference between this ideal civilisation of a part or parts of a community, and the actual civilisation of the community as a whole ; and surely no country can justly claim for itself that title, until not only can its various members move separately among each other, but until, if necessary, they can all meet and act THE DINNER. 45 together. Now, if this assertion be admitted, I fear it cannot be denied that we islanders are very far from being as highly polished as our continental neighbors, and that we but too often mistake odd provincial habits of our own invention, for the broad, useful current manners of the world. In England, each class of society, like our different bands of trades, is governed by its own particular rules. There is a class of society which has very gravely, and for aught I care very pro- perly, settled that certain food is to be eaten with a fork — that others are to be launched into the mouth with a spoon ; and that to act against these rules (or whims), shows " that the man has not lived in the world,^^ At the other end of society there are, one has heard, also rules of honor, prescribing the sum to be put into a tin money-box, so often as the pipe shall be filled with tobacco, with various other laws of the same dark caste or com- plexion. These conventions, however, having been firmly esta- blished among each of the many classes into which our country people are subdivided, a very considerable degree of order is everywhere maintained ; and, therefore, let a foreigner go into any sort of society in England, and he will find it is apparently living in happy obedience to its own laws ; but if any chance or convulsion brings these various classes of society each laden with its ov/n laws, into general contact, a sort of Babel confusion instantly takes place, each class loudly calling its neighbor to order in a language it cannot comprehend. Like the followers of different religions, the one has been taught a creed which has not even been heard of by the other ; there is no sound bond of union — no reasonable understanding between the parties : in short, they resemble a set of regiments, each of which having been drilled according to the caprice or fancy of its colonel, appears in very high order on its own parade, yet, when all are brought together, form an unorganized and undisciplined army : and in support of this theory, is it not undeniably true, that it is practi- cally impossible for all ranks of society to associate together in England with the same ease and inoffensive freedom which cha- racterize similar meetings on the continent ? And yet a German duke or a German baron is as proud of his rank, and rank is as much respected in his country as it is in our country. 46 BUBBLES. There must, therefore, in England exist somewhere or other a radical fault. The upper classes will of course lay the blame on the lowest — the lowest will abuse the highest — but may not the error lie between the two ? Does it not rather rest upon both ? and is it not caused by the laws which regulate our small island society being odd, unmeaning, imaginary, and often fic- titious, instead of being stamped with those large intelligible cha- racters which miake them at once legible to all the inhabitants of the globe ? For instance, on the continent, every child, almost before he learns his alphabet, before he is able even to crack a whip, is taught what is termed in Europe civility, a trifling example of which I witnessed this very morning. At nearly a league from Langen-Schwalbach, I walked up to a little boy who was flying a kite on the top of a hill, in the middle of a field of oat stubble. I said not a word to the child — scarcely looked at him — but as soon as I got close to him, the little village clod, who had never breathed anything thicker than his own mountain air, actually almost lost string, kite and all, in an effort quite irresistible which he made to bow to me, and take off his hat. Again, in the middle of the forest, I saw the other day three laboring boys laughing together, each of their mouths being, if possible, wider open than the others ; however, as they separated, off went their caps, and they really took leave of each other in the very same sort of manner with which I yesterday saw the Land- grave of Hesse Homburg return a bow to a common postilion. It is this general, well-founded, and acknowledged system which binds together all classes of society. It is this useful, sensible system which enables the master of the Allee Saal, as he walks about the room during dinner-time, occasionally to converse with the various descriptions of guests who have ho- nored his table with their presence ; for, however people in Eng- land would be shocked at such an idea, on the continent, so long as a person speaks and behaves correctly, he need not fear to give any one offence. Now in England, as we all know, we have all sorts of man- ners, and a man actually scarcely dares to say which is the true idol to be worshipped. We have very noble aristocratic man- THE DINNER. 47 iiers ; we have the short, stumpy manners of the old-fashioned English country gentleman ; we have sick, dandified manners ; black-stock military manners ; " your free and easy mariners " (which, by-the-bye, on the continent, would be translated '^ no manners at all).'^ We have the ledger, calf-skin manners of a steady man of business ; the last imported monkey or ultra-Pari- sian manners ; manners not only of a school-boy, but of the par- ticular school to which he belongs ; and lastly, we have the parti- colored manners of the mobility, who, until they were taught the contrary, very falsely flattered themselves that on the throne they would find the " ship, a-hoy !" manners of a " true British sailor." Now, with respect to these motley manners, these " black spi- rits and white, blue spirits and grey," which are about as differ- ent from each other as the manners of the various beasts collected by Noah in his ark, it may at once be observed, that (however we ourselves may admire them) there are very few of them indeed which are suited to the continent ; and, consequently, though Rus- sians, Prussians, Austrians, French and Italians, to a certain de- cree, can anywhere assimilate together, yet, somehow or other, our manners — (never mind whether better or worse) — are different. Which, therefore, I am seriously disposed to ask of myself, are the most likely to be right ? the manners of " the right little, tight little island," or those of the inhabitants of the vast continent of i Europe ? The reader will, 1 fear, think that my dinner reflections have partaken of the acidity of the German mess which lay so long before me untouched in my plate ; and at my observations I fully expect he will shake his head, as I did when, afterwards, expect- ing to get something sweet, I found my mouth nearly filled with a substance very nearly related tc sourcrout. Should the old man's remarks be unpalatable, they are not more so than was his meal ; and he begs to apologize for them by saying, that had he, as he much wished, been able to eat, he would not, against his lAli, have been driven to reflect. 48 BUBBLES. THE PROMENADE, A FEW minutes after the dessert had been placed on the table of the Allee Saal, one or two people from different chairs rose and glided away ; then up got as many more, until, in about a quarter of an hour, the whole company had quietly vanished, excepting here and there, around the vast circumference of the table, a cou- ple, who, not having yet finished their phlegmatic, long-winded argument, sat like pairs of oxen, with their heads yoked together. It being only three o'clock in the day, and as people did not begin to drink the waters again till about six, there was a long, heavy interval, which was spent very much in the way in which English cows pass their time when quite full of fine red clover, — bending their fore knees, they lie down on the grass to ruminate. As it was very hot at this hour, the ladies, in groups of two, three and four, with coffee before them on small square tables, sat out together in the open air, under the shade of the trees. Most of them commenced knitting ; but, at this plethoric hour, I could not help observing that they made several hundred times as many stitches as remarks. A few of the young men, with cigars in their mouths, meandered, in dandified silence, through these par- ties of ladies ; but almost all the German lords of the creation had hidden themselves in holes and corners, to enjoy smoking their pipes ; and surely nothing can be more filthy — nothing can be a greater w^aste of time and intellect than this horrid habit. If tobacco were even a fragrant perfume, instead of stinking as it does, still the habit which makes it necessary to a human being to carry a large bag in one of his coat-pockets, and an unwieldy crooked pipe in the other, would be unmanly ; inasmuch as, be- sides creating an artificial want, it encumbers him with a real THE PROMENADE. 49 burden, which, both on horseback and on foot, impedes his activity and his progress ; but when it turns out that this said artificial want is a nasty, vicious habit — when it is impossible to be clean if you indulge in it — ^when it makes your hair and clothes smell most loathsomely — when you absolutely pollute the fresh air as you pass through it ; when, besides all this, it corrodes the teeth, injures the stomach, and fills with red inflammatory particles the naturally cool, clear, white brain of man, it is quite astonishing that these Germans, who can act so sensibly during so many hours of the day, should not have strength of mind enough to trample their tobacco-bags under their feet — throwing their reeking, sooty pipes behind them, and learn (I will not say from the English, but from every bird and animal in a state of nature) to be clean : and certainly whatever faults there may be in our manners, our clean- liness is a virtue which above every nation / have ever visited, pre-eminently distinguishes us in the world. During the time which was spent in this stinking vice, I ob- served that people neither interrupted each other, nor did they very much like to be interrupted ; in short, it was a sort of siesta with the eyes open, and with smoke coming out of the mouth. Sometimes gazing out of the window of his Hof, I saw a German baron, in a tawdry dressing-gown and scull-cap (with an immense ring on his dirty forefinger), smoking, and pretending to be think- ing ; sometimes I winded a creature, who, in a similar attitude, was seated on the shady benches near the Stahl brunnen ; but these were only exceptions to the general rule, for most of the males had vanished, one knew not where, to convert themselves into automatons, which had all the smoky nuisance of the steam- engine — without its power. At about half-past five or six o'clock, " the world" began to come to life again ; the ladies with their knitting needles lying in their laps, gradually began to talk to each other, some even at- tempting to laugh. Group rising after group, left the small white painted tables and empty coffee-cups round which they had been sitting, and in a short time, the walks to the three brunnens in general, and to the Pauline in particular, were once again thronged with people ; and as slowly, and very slowly, they 50 BUBBLES, walked backwards and forwards, one again saw German society in its most amiable and delightful point of view. A few of the ladies, particularly those who had young children^ were occasionally accompanied through the day by a nice steady, healthy-looking young woman, whose dress (being without cap or bonnet, with a plain cloth shawl thrown over a dark cotton gown) at once denoted that she was a servant. The distinction in lier dress was marked in the extreme, yet it was pleasing to see that there was no necessity to carry it farther, the woman appearing to be so well behaved, that there was little fear of her giving of- fence. Whenever her mistress stopped to talk to any of her friends, this attendant became a harmless listener to the conver- sation, and when a couple of families, seated on a bank, were amusing each other with jokes and anecdotes, one saw by the countenances of these quiet-looking young people, who were also permitted to sit down, that they were enjoying the story quite as much as the rest. In England, people would of course be shocked at the idea of thus associating with, or rather sitting in society with their ser- vants, and on account of the manners of our servants it certainly would not be agreeable ; however, if we had but one code, instead of having one hundred and fifty thousand (for I quite forgot to insert in my long list the manners of a fashionable lady's maid), this would not be the case ; for then English servants, like Ger- man servants, would learn to sit in the presence of their superiors without giving any offence at all. But besides observing how harmlessly these German menials conducted themselves, I must own I could not help reflecting what an advantage it was, not only to them, but to the humble hovel to which, when they mar- ried, they would probably return — in short, to society, that they should have had an opportunity of witnessing the conduct, and of listening to the conversation of quiet, sensible, moral people, who had had the advantages of a good education. Of course, if these young people were placed on high wages — tricked out with all the cast-off finery of their mistresses — and if laden with these elements of corruption, and hopelessly banished from the presence of their superiors, they were day after day, and night after night, to be stewed up together with stewards, butlers, THE PROMENADE. 51 &;c., in the devil's frying-pan — I mean, that den of narrow- minded iniquity, a house-keeper's room — of course, these strong, bony, useful servants would very soon dress as finely, and give themselves all those airs for which an English lady's maid is so celebrated even in her own country ; but in Germany, good sense and poverty have as yet firmly and rigidly prescribed, not only the dress which is to distinguish servants from their masters, but that, with every rational indulgence, with every liberal opportu- nity of raising themselves in their own estimation, they shall be fed and treated in a manner and according to a scale, which, though superior, still bears a due relation to the humble station and habits in which they were born and bred. Of course, ser- vants trained in this manner cost very little, yet if they are not natually ill-disposed, there is everything to encourage them in good behavior, with little to lead them astray. They are cer- tainly not, like our servants, clothed in satin, fine linen, and superfine cloth ; nor, like Dives himself, do they fare sumptuously every day ; but I believe they are all the happier, and infinitely more at their ease, for being kept to their natural station in life, instead of being permitted to ape an appearance for which their education has not fitted them, or repeat fine slip-slop sentiments which they do not understand. However, it is not our servants who deserve to be blamed ; they are quite right to receive high wages, wear veils, kid gloves, superfine cloth, give themselves airs, mock the manners of their lords and ladies, and to farcify below stairs the " comedy of errors" which they catch an occasional glimpse of above ; in short, to do as little, consume as much, and be as expensive and troublesome as possible. No liberal person can blame them, but it is, I fear, on our heads that all their follies must rest ; we have no one but ourselves to blame, and until a few of the principal families in England, for the credit and welfare of the country, agree together to lower the style and habits of their servants, and by a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, to break the horrid system which at present prevails, — the distinction between the honest ploughman, who whistles along the fallow, and his white- faced, powdered-headed, silver-laced, scarlet-breeched, golden- gartered brother in London, must be as strikingly ridiculous as 52 BUBBLES. ever : the one must remain an honor, tie other a discredit, to the wealth of a country which (we all say unjustly) has been called by its enemy a "nation of shopkeepers." If once the system were to be blown up, thousands of honest, well-meaning servants would, I believe, rejoice ; and while the aristocracy and wealthier classes would in fact be served at least as well as ever, the middle ranks, and especially all people of small incomes, would be relieved beyond description from an unnatural and unnecessary burden which but too often embitters all their little domestic arrangements. There can be no points of contrast between Germany and England more remarkable than that, in the one country, people of all incomes are supported and relieved in proportion to the number of their servants, while in the other they are tormented and oppressed. Again, that in the one country, servants humbly dressed, and humbly fed, live in a sort of exalted and honorable intercourse with their masters ; while, in the other, servants highly powdered and grossly fed, are treated de haul en has, in a manner which is not to be seen on the Continent. The enormous wealth of England is the commercial wonder of the world, yet every reflecting man who looks at our debt, at the immense fortunes of individuals, and at the levelling, unprin- cipled, radical spirit of the age, must see that there exists among us elements which may possibly some day or other furiously ap- pear in collision. The great country may yet live to see distress ; and in the storm, our commercial integrity, like an overweighted vessel, may, for aught we know, founder and go down, stern fore- most. I therefore most earnestly say, should this calamity ever befall us, let not foreigners be entitled, in preaching over our graves, to pronounce, " that we were a people who did not know how to enjoy prosperity — that our money, like our blood, flew to our heads — that our riches corrupted our minds — and that it was absolutely our enormous wealth which sunk us." Without saying one other word, I will only again ask, is it or is it not the interest of our upper classes to countenance this island system ? Should it be argued, that they ought not to be blamed because vulgar, narrow-minded people are foolish enough to ruin them- THE PROMENADE. 53 selves in a vain attempt to copy them, 1 reply, that they must take human nature, good and bad, not as it ought to be, but as it is ; and that, after all, it is no bad compliment to the high station they hold, that the middle and lower classes will absolutely ruin themselves in overfeeding and overdressing their servants — in short, in following any bad example which such high authority may irrationally decree to be fashionable. But to return to the Promenade. From everlastingly vibrating backwards and forwards on this walk, one gets so well acquainted with the faces of one's comrades, that it is easy to note the arrival of any stranger, who, however, after having made two or three turns, is considered as received into, and belonging to, the ambulatory community. In constantly passing the people on the promenade, I occa- sionally heard a party talking French. During the military dominion of Napoleon, that language, of course, flooded the whole of the high duchy of Nassau as completely as almost the rest of Europe : a strong ebb of reaction, however, has of late years taken place ; and in Prussia, for instance, the common people do not now like even to hear the language pronounced. On the other hand, thanks to Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, and other worn-out literary laborers, now resting in their graves, our lan- guage is beginning to make an honest progress; and even in France it is becoming fashionable to display in society a literary flower or two culled from that North border, the Jardin Anglais. As a passing stranger, the word I heard pronounced on the promenade the oftenest was " Ja ! Ja !" and it really seemed to me that German women to all questions invariably answer in the aflarmative, for '^ Ja ! Ja !" was repeated by them, I know, from morning till night, and, for aught I know, from night till morning. As almost every stranger at Langen-Schwalbach, as well as several of its inhabitants, were at this hour on the Promenade, the three bruni^ens were often surrounded by more open mouths . than the women in attendance could supply. The old mother at the Pauline was therefore always assisted in the evening by her daughter, who, without being at all handsome, was, like her parent, a picture of robust, ruddy health ; and to poor withered people, who came to them to drink, it was very satisfactory indeed to see 54 BUBBLES. the practical effect which swallowing and baling out this water from morning till night had had on these two females ; and as they stood in the burning sun bending downwards into the brunnen, to fill the glasses which in all directions converged towards them, it was curious to observe the different description of people who from every point of Europe (except England) had surrounded one little well. As I earnestly looked at their various figures and faces, I could not help feeling that it was quite impossible for the goddess Pauline to cure them all : for I saw a tall, gaunt, brown, hard-featured, lantern-jawed officer, a demi solde, the sort of fellow that the French call ^' un gros maigre^^^ drinking by the side of a red- faced, stuffy, stumpy, stunted little man, who seemed made on purpose to demonstrate that the human figure, like the tele- scope, could be made portable. " What in the world (I mumbled to myself) can be the matter with that very nice, fresh, comfortable, healthy-looking widow ? Or what does that huge, unwieldy man in the broad-brimmed hat require from the Pauline ? — Surely he is already about as full as he can hold ? And that poor sick girl, who has just borrowed the glass from her withered, wrinkled, skinny, little aunt ? . Can the same prescrip- tion be good for them both ? A couple of nicely-dressed children are extending their little glasses to drink water with milk : and see ! that gang of countrymen, who have stopped their carts on the upper road, are racing and chasing each other down the bank to crowd round the brunnen ! Is it not curious to observe that in such a state of perspiration they can drink such deadly cold water with impunity ? But this really is the case ; and whether it is burning hot, or raining a deluge, this simple medicine is always agreeable, and no sooner is it swallowed, than, like the fire in the grate, it begins to warm its new mansion." Such was the scene, and such was the effect, daily witnessed round one of nature's simplest and most beneficent remedies. All the drinkers seemed to be satisfied with the water, which, I believe, has only one virtue, that of strengthening the stomach ; yet it is this solitary quality which has made it cure almost every possible disorder of body and mind : for though people with an ankle resting on a knee sometimes mysteriously pointed to their toes, and sometimes as solemnly laid their hands upon their foreheads. THE PROMENADE. 55 yet I rather believe that almost every malady to which the human frame is subject, is either by highways or byways connected with the stomach ; and I must own 1 never see a fashionable physician mysteriously counting tiie pulse of a plethoric patient, or, with a silver spoon on his tongue, importantly looking down his red, inflamed gullet (so properly termed by Johnson " the meat-pipe "), but I feel a desire to exclaim, " Why not tell the poor gentleman at once— Sir / you^ve eaten too much, you^ve drunk too much, and you've not taken exercise enough /" That these are the main causes of almost every one's illness, there can be no greater proof, than that those savage nations which live actively and temperately have only one great disorder — -death. The human frame was not created imperfect — -it is we ourselves who have made it so ; there exists no donkey in creation so overladen as our stomachs, and it is because tliey groan under the weight so cruelly imposed upon them, that we see people driving them before them in herds to drink at one little brunnen. A list of the strangers visiting Bad-Ems, Langen-Schwalbach, and Schlangenbad, is published twice a week, and circulated on all the promenades. From it, I find that there are 1200 visitors at Schwalbach alone — an immense number for so small a place. Still, the habits of the people are so quiet, that it does not at all bear the appearance of an English watering-place, and certainly I never before existed in a society where people are left so com- pletely to go their own ways. Whether I stroll up and down the Promenade or about the town, whether I mount the hill or ramble into distant villages, no one seems to notice me any more than if I had been born there; and yet out of the 1200 strangers, I happened to be the only specimen to be seen of Old England. No one knows that I have given up feasting in public, for it is not the custom to dine always at the same house, but when one o'clock comes, people go to the AUee Saal, Goldene Kette, &;c., just as they feel disposed at the moment. There are no horses to be hired at Schwalbach, but a profusion of donkeys and mules. It is a pretty, gaudy sight to witness a group of these animals carrying ladies in their parti-colored bonnets, &c., descending one of the hills. The saddles are covered vvith coarse scarlet, or bright blue cloth, and the donkey 56 BUBBLES. always wears a fine red brow-band ; nevertheless, under these brilliant colors, to the eye of a cognoscent, it is too easy to perceive that the poor creatures are sick in their hearts of their finery, and that they are tired, almost unto death, of carrying one large curious lady after another to see Hohenstein, Adolfseck, and other lions, which without metaphor are actually consuming the car- casses of these unhappy asses. The other day I myself hired one, but nat being allowed to have the animal alone, I w£ls obliged to submit to be followed by the owner, who, by order of the Duke, was dressed in a blue smock-frock, girded by a bulF belt. I found I could not produce the slightest effect on the animal's pace, but that if the man behind me only shook his stick, down went the creature's long ears, and on we trotted. By this arrange- ment, I was hurried by objects which I wished to look at, and obliged to crawl before what I was exceedingly anxious to leave behind ; and altogether it was travelling so very much like a bag of sand, that ever since I hav3 much preferred propelling myselfl THE SCHWEIN-GEJMERAL 57 THE SCHWEIN-GENERAL. Every morning, at half-past five o'clock, I hear, as I am dressing, the sudden blast of an immense long wooden horn, from which always proceed the same four notes. I have got quite accustom- ed to this wild reveille, and the vibration has scarcely subsided, it is still ringing among the distant hills, when, leisurely proceed- ing from almost every door in the street, behold a pig ! Some, from their jaded, careworn, dragged appearance, are evidently leaving behind them a numerous litter; others are great, tall, mo- nastic, melancholy-looking creatures, which seem to have no other object left in this wretched world than to become bacon ; while others are thin, tiny, light-hearted, brisk, petulant piglings, with the world and all its loves and sorrows before them. Of their own accord these creatures proceed down the street to join the herdsman, who occasionally continues to repeat the sorrowful blast from his horn. Gregarious, or naturally fond of society, with one curl in their tails, and with their noses almost touching the ground, the pigs trot on, grunting to themselves and to their comrades, halting only whenever they come to anything they can manage to swallow. I have observed that the old ones pass all the carcasses, which, trailing to the ground, are hanging before the butchers' shops, as if they were on a sort of parole dlionneur not to touch them ; the middle-aged ones wistfully eye this meat, yet jog on also, while the piglings, who (so like mankind) have more appetite than judg- ment, can rarely resist taking a nibble ; yet, no sooner does the dead calf begin again to move, than from the window immediately above out pops the head of a butcher^ who, drinking his coffee, 58 BUBBLES. whip in hand, inflicts a prompt punishment, sounding quite equal to the offence. As I have stated, the pigs, generally speaking, proceed of their own accord ; but shortly after they have passed, there comes down our street a little bareheaded, barefooted, stunted dab of a child, about eleven years old, — a Flibbertigibbet sort of a creature, which, in a drawing, one would express by a couple of blots, the small one for her head, and the other for her body ; while, stream- ing from the latter, there would be a long line ending in a flour- ish, to express the immense whip which the child carries in its hand. This little goblin page, the whipper-in, attendant, or aide- de-camp of the old pig-driver, facetiously called, at Langen- Schwalbach, the " Schwein-general," is a being no one looks at, and who looks at nobody. Whether the Hofs of Schwalbach are full of strangers or empty — whether the promenades are occupied by princes or peasants — whether the weather be good or bad, hot or rainy, she apparently never stops to consider; upon these insignificant subjects it is evident she never for a moment has re- flected. But such a pair of eyes for a pig have perhaps seldom beamed from human sockets ! The little intelligent urchin knows every house from which a pig ought to have proceeded ; she can tell by the door being open or shut, and even by footmarks, whether the creature has joined the herd, or whether, having over- slept itself, it is still snoring in its sty — a single glance determines whether she shall pass a yard or enter it ; and if a pig, from indo- lence or greediness, be loitering on the road, the sting of the wasp cannot be sharper or more spiteful than the cut she gives it. As soon as, finishing with one street, she joins her General in the main road, the herd slowly proceed down the town. On meeting them this morning they really appeared to have no hams at all ; their bodies were as flat as if they had been squeez- ed in a vice ; and when they turned sideways, their long sharp noses, and tucked-up bellies, gave to their profile the appearance of starved greyhounds. As I gravely followed this grunting unearthly-looking herd of unclean spirits, through that low part of Langen-Schwalbach which is solely inhabited by Jews, I could not help fancying that I observed them holding their very breaths, as if a loathsome pes- THE SCHWEIN-GENERAL, 59 lilenGe were passing ; for though fat pork be a wicked luxury — a forbidden pleasure which the Jew has been supposed occasionally in secret to indulge in — yet one may easily imagine that such very lean ugly pigs have not charms enough to lead them astray. Besides the little girl who brought up the rear, the herd was preceded by a boy of about fourteen, whose duty it was not to let the foremost, the more enterprising, or, in other words, the most empty pigs, advance too fast. In the middle of the drove, sur- rounded like a shepherd by his flock, slowly stalked the "Schwein- ^ENERAL," a wan, spectre-looking old man, worn out, or nearly 'ould be the smile of an approving conscience, if there was not the torment of repentance writhing under guilt ? But I will perse- cute the reader no longer with the reflections which occurred to me, as I sat in a wheat-field, gazing on the lights of Langen- Schwalbach. Good or bad, they managed to please me ; how- ever, after remaining in darkness, till it became much colder than was agreeable, I wandered back to my Hof, entered my dormito- ry, and my grey head having there found its pillow, as I extin- guished my candle, I mumbled to myself — '' There goes one of the tallow stars of Langen-Schwalbach ! — Sic transit gloria mundi !" THE SUNSET. 95 I was lying prostrate, still awake — and (there being no shutters to the window at the foot of the bed) I was looking at some oddly- shaped, tall, acute-angled, slated roofs, glistening in the light of the round full moon, which was hanging immediately above them. The scene was delightfully silent and serene. Occasion- ally I faintly heard a distant footstep approaching, until treading heavily under the window, its sound gradually diminished, and all again was silent. Sometimes a cloud passing slowly across the moon would veil the roofs in darkness ; and then, again, they would suddenly burst upon the eye, in silvery light, shining brighter than ever. As, somewhat fatigued, I lay half enjoying this scene, and half dozing, I suddenly heard, apparently close to me, the scream of a woman, which really quite electrified me ! On listening, it was repeated, when jumping out of bed and opening the door, I heard it again proceeding from a room at the distant end of the passage ; and such was the violence of its tone, that my impression was — "the lady's room is on fire !" There is something in the piercing shriek of a woman in dis- tress which produces an irresistible effect on the featherless biped, called man ; and, in rushing to her assistance, he performs no duty — he exercises no virtue — but merely obeys an instinctive impulse which has been benevolently imparted to him — not for his own good, but for the safety and protection of a weaker and a better sex. But although this feeling exists so powerfully " chez nous," yet it has not by nature been imparted to commonplace garments ; such as coats, black-figured waistcoats, rusty knee-breeches, nor even to easy shoes, blue-worsted stockings or such like ; and, therefore, while, by an irresistible attraction which I could not possibly counteract, obeying the mysterious impulse of my nature, I rushed along the passage, these base unchivalric gar- ments remained coldly dangling over the back of a chair : in short, I followed the laws of my nature— they, theirs. With some difficulty, having succeeded in bursting open the door just as a fifth shriek was repeated, I rushed in, and there, sitting up in her bed — her soft arms most anxiously extended towards me — her countenance expressing an agony of fear — sat m BUBBLES. a young lady, by no nneans ill-favored, and aged (as nearly as 1 could hastily calculate) about twenty-one ! Almost in hysterics, she began in German, to tell a long inco- herent story ; and though, with calm natural dignity, I did what I could to quiet her, the tears rushed into her eyes — she then almost in convulsions began, with her hands under the bed-clothes, to scratch her knees, then shrieked again ; and I do confess that I was altogether at a loss to conceive what in the sacred name of virtue could be the matter with the young lady, when, by her repeating several times the word " Ratten ! Ratten !" I at once comprehended that there v/ere (or that the amiable young person fancied that there were) — rats in her led / The dog Billy, as well as many puppies of less name, would instantly, perhaps, have commenced a vigorous attack ; rats, how- ever, are reptiles I am not in the habit either of hunting or de- stroying. The young lady's aunt, an elderly personage, now appeared at the door, in her night-clothes, as yellow and as sallow as if she had just risen from the grave ; — peeping over her shoulder, stood our landlady's blooming daughter in her bed-gown — Leonhard, the son, cum miiltis aliis. What they could all have thought of the scene, what they could have thought of my strange, gaunt, unadorned appearance — what they could have thought of the niece's screams — and what they would have thought had I deigned to tell them I had come to her bedside merely to catch rats — it was out of my power to divine : however, the fact was, I cared not a straw what they thought ; but, seeing that my presence was not requisite, I gravely left the poor innocent sufferer to tell her own story. *' Ratten ! Ratten !" was its theme ; and long before her fears subsided, my mind, as well as its frail body, were placidly entranced in sleep. THE CROSS OP ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 97 THE CROSS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. To an old man, one of the most delightful features in a German watering-place, is the ease with which he can associate, in the STQost friendly manner, with all his brother and si-ster water- bibbers, %vithout the fatigue of speaking one single word. Almost every glass of water you get from the brunnen adds, at least, one to the list of your acquaintance. Merely touching a man's elbow is sufficient to procure from him a look of good- fellowship, which, though it does not inconveniently grow into a bow, or even into a smile, is yet always afterwards displayed in his physiognomy whenever it meets yours. If, as you are stretch- ing out your glass, you retire but half a stride, to allow a thirsting lady to step forward, you clearly see, whensoever you afterwards meet her, that the slight attention is indelibly recorded in your favor. Even running against a German produces, as it were by collision, a spark of kind feeling, which, like a star in the heavens, twinkles in his serene countenance whenever you behold it. Smile only once upon a group of children, and the little urchins bite their lips, vainly repressing their joy whenever afterwards you meet them. Shrouded in this delightful taciturnity, my list of acquaintances at Langen-Schwalbach daily increased, until I found myself on just the sort of amicable terms with almost everybody, which, to my present taste, is the most agreeable. In early life young people (if I recollect right) are never quite happy, unless they are either talking, or writing letters to their fellow-creatures. When- ever, even as strangers, they get together, everything that hap- pens or passes seems to engender words — even when they have parted, there is no end to epistolary valedictions, and creation itself loses half its charms, unless the young beholder has some 8 5S BUBBLES. companion with whom the loveliness of the picture may be shared and enjoyed. But old age I find stiffens, first of all, the muscles of the tongue ; indeed, as man gradually decays, it seems wisely provided by Nalure that he should be willing to be dumb, before time sentences him to be deaf: in short, the mind, however voraciously it might once have searched for food, at last instinctively prefers rumina- tion, to seeking for more. By young people I shall be thought selfish, yet I do confess that I enjoy silence, because my own notions now suit me best ; other people's opinions, like their shoes, don't fit me, and however ill-constructed or old-fashioned my own may really be, yet use has made them easy : my sentiments, ugly as they may seem, don't pinch, and I therefore feel I had rather not exchange them ; the one or two friends I have lost rank in my memory better than any I can ever hope to gain : in fact, I had rather not replace them, and at Langen-Schwalbach, as there was no necessity for a passing stranger like myself to set up a new acquaintance with people he would probably never see again, I considered that, with my eyes and ears open, my tongue might harmlessly enjoy natural and delightful repose. But there is a perverseness in human nature, which it is quite out of my power to account for ; and strange as it may sound, it is nevertheless too true, that the only person at Langen-Schwal- bach I felt desirous to address, was the only individual who seem- ed to shun every human being. He was a withered, infirm man, who appeared to be tottering on the brink of his grave ; and I had long remarked that, for some reason or other, he studiously avoided the brunnen until every person had left it. He spoke to no one — looked at no one . — but as soon as he had swallowed off* his dose, he retired to a lone bench, on which, with both hands leaning upon his ivory- handled cane, he was always to be seen sitting with his eye sorrowfully fixed on the ground. Although the weather was, to every person but himself, oppressively hot, he was constantly muffled up in a thick cloak, and I think I must have passed him a hundred times before I detected, one exceedingly warm day, that, underneath it, there hung upon his left breast the Cross of the THE CROSS OF ST JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 99 Order of St. John of Jerusalem. As, ages ago, I had myself passed many a hot summer on the parched, barren rock of Malta, — always, however, feeling much interested in the history of its banished knights, — ^I at once fully comprehended why the poor old gentleman's body was so chilly, and why his heart felt so chilled with the world. By many slow and scientific approaches, which it would be only tedious to detail, I at last managed, with- out driving him from his bench, most quietly to establish myself at his side, and then by coughing when he coughed, — sighing when he sighed,— and by other (I hope innocent) artifices, I at last ventured in a sotto voce to mumble to him something about the distant island in which apparently all his youthful feelings lay buried. The words Valetta, Civita Vecchia, Floriana, Cottonera, &;c., as I pronounced them, produced, by a sort of galvanic influence, groans — ejaculations — short sentences, until at last he began to show me frankly without disguise the real color of his mind. Poor man ! like his eye it was jaundiced — " nuUis medicabilis herbis !" I could not at all extract from him what rank, title, or situation he held in the ancient order, but I could too clearly see that he looked upon its extinction as the Persian would look upon the annihilation of the sun. Creation he fancied had been robbed of its colors, — Christianity he thought had lost its heart, and he attributed every political ailment on the surface of the globe to the non-existence of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John at Jeru- salem ! For several hours I patiently listened to his unhappy tale ; for as lamentations of all sorts are better out of the human heart than in it, I felt that as the vein was open, my patient could not be encouraged to bleed too freely : without therefore once contra- dicting him, I allowed his feelings to flow uninterrupted, and by the time he had pumped himself quite dry, I was happy to observe that he was certainly much better for the operation. On leaving him, however, my own pent-up view of the case, and his, continued for the remainder of the day bubbling and quarrelling with each other in mry mind. Therefore, to satisfy myself before I went to bed, T drew out in black and white the following sketch of what has always appeared to me to be a fair, impartial history of these — Knights of Malta. 100 BUBBLES. The Mediterranean forms a curious and beautiful feature in the picture of the commercial world. By dint of money and shipping we laboriously bring to England the produce of the most distant regions, but the commerce of the whole globe seems to have a natural or instinctive tendency to flow, almost of its own accord, into the Mediterranean Sea. Beginning with the great Atlantic Ocean, which connects the old world with the new, we know that, over that vast expanse, the prevailing wind is one which blows from America towards Europe ; and, moreover, that the waters of the Atlantic are, without any apparent return, everlastingly flowing into the narrow straits of Gibraltar. When the produce of America, therefore, is shipping for the Mediterranean, in general terms it may be asserted that wind and tide are in its favor. Across the trackless deserts of Africa caravans from various parts of the interior are constantly toiling through the deep sand towards the waters of this inland sea. The traveller who goes up the Nile is doomed, w^e all know, to stem its torrent, but the produce of Egypt and the triple harvest of that luxuriant land is no sooner embarked, than of its own accord it glides majestically towards this favored sea ; and there is truth and nothing specula- tive in still further remarking, that this very harvest is absolutely produced by the slime or earth of Abyssinian and other most remote mountains, which by the laws of nature has calmly floated 1200 miles through a desert to top-dress or manure Egypt, that garden which eventually supplies so many of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean with corn. Again, the Red Sea is a passage apparently created to connect Europe with the great Eastern world : and as the power of steam gradually increases in its stride, it is evident that by this gulf, or natural canal, much of the produce of India eventually will easily flow into the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, it might likewise be shown, that much of the commerce of Asia Minor and Europe, either by great rivers or otherwise, naturally moves towards this central point : but besides these sources of external wealth, the Mediterranean, as we all know, is most romantically studded with an archipelago and other beauti- ful islands, the inhabitants of which have the power not only of trading on a large scale with every quarter of the globe, but of THE CROSS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 101 carrying on in small open boats a sort of little village commerce of their own. Among the inhabitants of this sea are to be found at this moment the handsomest specimens of the human race ; and if a person not satisfied with the present and future tenses of life, should prefer reflecting or rather ruminating on the past, with antiquarian rapture he may wander over these waters from Car- thage to Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Rhodes, Troy, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Argos, Syracuse, Rome, &c., until, tired of this flight, he may rest on one of the ocean beaten pillars of Hercules — and seated there, he may most truly declare that the history of the Mediterranean is like the picture of its own waves beneath him, which one after another he sees to rise, break, and sink. In the history of this little sea, in what melancholy succession has nation and empire risen and fallen, flourished and decayed ; and if the magnifi:cent architectural ruins of these departed states mournfully offer to the traveller any political moral at all, is it not that homely one which the most common tombstone of our country church-yard preaches to the rustic peasant who reads it ? " As I am now, so you will be, Therefore prepare to follow me '" However, fully admitting the truth of the lesson which history and experience thus ofler to us — admitting that no one can pre- sume to declare which of the great Mediterranean powers is doomed to be the next to suffer — or w^hat new point is next to burst into importance ; yet, if a man were forced to select a position which, in spite of fate or fortune, feuds or animosities, has been, and ever must be, the nucleus of commerce, he would find that in the Mediterranean Sea that point, as nearly as pos- sible, would be the little island of Malta ; and that the political importance of this possession being now generally appreciated, it is curious rapidly to run over the string of little events which have gradually prepared, fortified, and delivered this valuable arsenal and fortress to the British flag. In the early ages of navigation, when men hardly dared to lose sight of the shore, ignorantly trembling if they were not abso- lutely hugging the very danger which we now most strenuously avoid, it may be easily conceived that a little barren island, 102 BUBBLES. scarcely twenty miles in length or twelve in breadth, was of little use or importance. It is true that on its north coast there was a spit or narrow tongue of land (about a mile in length and a few hundred yards in breadth), on each side of which were a series of connected bays, now forming two of the most magnificent har- bors in the world ; but in the ages of which we speak this great outline was a nautical hieroglyphic which sailors could not deci- pher. Accustomed to hide their Lilliputian vessels and fleets in bays and creeks on the same petty scale as themselves, they did not comprehend or appreciate the importance of these immense Brobdignag recesses, nor did they admire the great depth of wa- ter which they contained ; and as in ancient warfare, when war- riors used javelins, arrows and stones, scalding each other with hot sand, the value of a position adapted to the present ranges of our shot and shells would not have been understood, in like man- ner was the importance of so large a harbor equally impercepti- ble ; and that Malta could have had no very great reputation is proved by the fact, that it is even to this day among the learned a subject of dispute, whether it was upon this island, or upon Melita in the Adriatic, that St. Paul was shipwrecked. Now if either had been held in any particular estimation, the question of the shipwreck would not now be any subject of doubt. As navigators became more daring, and as their vessels, in- creasing in size, required more water and provisions, &;c., Malta fell into the hands of various masters. At last, when Charles V. conquered Sicily and Naples, he offered it to those warriors of Christendom, those determined enemies of the Turks and Corsairs — the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. This sin- gular band of men, distinguished by their piebald vow of heroism and celibacy, had, after a most courageous resistance, been just overpowered by an army of 300,000 Saracens, who, under Soly- man II., had driven them from the Island of Rhodes, which had been occupied by their order 213 years. Animated by the most noble blood of Europe which flowed in their veins — thirsting for revenge — yet homeless and destitute^ it may easily be conceived that these brave, enthusiastic men would most readily have ac- cepted any spot on which they could once again establish their busy hive : yet so little was the importance of Malta, even at THE CROSS OF ST, JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 103 that time, understood, so arid was its surface, and so burning was its rock, that, after minutely surveying it, their commissioners made a report to Charles V., which must ever be regarded as a most affecting document ; for although the Knights of Malta were certainly in their day " the bravest of the brave," although, by that chivalric oath which had bound them together, they had de- liberately sworn ''never to comit the number of their enemies,''^ yet after the strong, proud position which they had held at Rhodes, it was only hard fate and stern necessity that could force them to seek refuge on a rock upon which there was scarcely soil enough to plant their standard. But though honor has been justly term- ed " an empty bauble," j^et to all men's eyes its colors are so "very beautiful, that they allure and encourage us to contend with difficulties which no other advocate could persuade us to encoun- ter ; and so it was that the Knights of Malta, seeing they had no alternative, sternly accepted the hoi barren home that was offered to them, and in the very teeth, and before the beard of their bar- barous enemy, these lions of the Cross landed and established themselves in their new den.. When men have once made up their minds to stand against ad- versity, the scene generally brightens, far danger, contrary to the rules of dravi?^ing, is less in the foreground than in the perspective — difficulties of all sorts being magnified by the misty space which separates us from them ; and accordingly the knights %vere no sooner established at Malta, than they began to find out the singular advantages it possessed. The whole island being a rock of freestone, which could be worked with peculiar facility, materials for building palaces and houses, suited to the dignity of the Order, existed everywhere on the spot ; and it moreover became evident, that by merely quar- rying out the rock, according to the rules of military science, they would not only obtain materials for building, but that, in fact, the more they excavated for the town, the deeper would be the ditch of its ibrtress. Animated by this double reward, the knights commenced tlieir operations, or, in military language, they " broke ground ;" and, without detailing how often the rising fortress was jealously attacked by their barbarous and relentless enemies, or how often its half-raised walls were victoriously ce- 104 BUBBLES. mented with the blood of Christians and of Turks, it will be sufl ficient merely to observe, that before the island had been in pos^ session of the Order one century, it assumed very nearly the same astonishing appearance which it now affords — a picture and an example, proving to the whole world what can be done by courage, firmness, and perseverance. The narrow spit or tongue of barren rock which on the north side of the island separated the two great harbors, was scarped in every part, so as to render it inaccessible by sea, and on the isthmus, or only side on which it could be approached by land> demi-lunes, ravelins, counter-guards, bastions, and cavaliers, were seen towering one above another, cxi so gigantic a scale, that, as a single datum, it may be stated, that the wall of the escarp is from 180 to 150 feet in height, being nearly five times the height of that of a regular fortress. On this narrow tongue of land, thus fortified, arose the city of Valetta, containing a palace for its Grand Master, and almost equally magnificent residences for its knights, the whole forming at this day one of the finest cities in the world. On every projecting point of the various beautiful bays contained in each of the two great harbors, sepa« rated from each other by the town of Valetta, forts were built flanking each other, yet all offering a concentrating fire upon any and every part of the port ; and when a vessel laboring, heaving^ pitching and tossing, in a heavy gale of wind, now suddenly en- ters the great harbor of Malta, the sudden lull — the unexpected calm — the peaceful stillness which prevails on its deep unruffled surface, is most strangely contrasted in the mind of the stranger with the innumerable guns which, bristling in every direction from batteries one above another, seem fearfully to announce ta him that he is in the chamber of death — in a slaughter-house from which there is no escape, and that, if he should dare to offer insult, although he had just escaped from the raging of the ele- ments, the silence around him is that of the grave ! It was frona the city and harbor of Valetta, in the state above described, — it was from this proud citadel of Christianity, that the Knights of Malta continued for some time sallying forth to carry on their uncompromising hostility against the Turks, and against the corsairs of Algiers and Tripoli ; but the brilliant victories THE CROSS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 105 they gained, and the bloody losses they sustained, must be passed over, as it is already time to hurry their history to a close. The fact is, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem gradually outlived the passions and objects which called them into existence, and their Order decayed for want of that nourishment which, during so many ages, it received from the sympathy, countenance, and applause of Christendom. In short, as mankind had advanced in civilisation, its angry, savage, intolerant passions had gradually subsided, and thus the importance of the Order unavoidably faded with its utility. There was nothing premature in its decay — it had lived long enough. The holy, or rather un- holy, war, with all its unchristian feelings, having long since sub- sided, it would have been inconsistent in the great nations of Europe to have professed a general disposition for peace, or to have entered into any treaty with the Turks, while at the same time they encouraged an Order which was mercilessly bent on their extermination. The vow of celibacy, once the pride of th^ Order, became, in a more enlightened age, a mill-stone round its neck ; it attracted ridicule — it created guilt — the sacred oath was broken ; and although the head, the heart, and the pockets of a soldier may be as light as the pure air he breathes, yet he can never truly be re- ported " fit for duty " if his conscience or his stomach be too heavily laden. In short, in two words, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem was no longer suited to the times ; and Burke had already exclaimed — '^ Tlie age of chivalry has fled P^ In the year 1798, this Order, after having existed nearly 700 years, signed its own death-warrant, and in the face of Europe, died ignominiously — '-feJo de se.'^ On the 9th of June, in that year, their island was invaded by the French ; and although, as Napoleon justly remarked, to have excluded him it would have been only necessary to have shut the gates, Valetta was surren- dered by treachery, the depravity of which will be best explained by the following extract from a statement made by the Maltese deputies : — " No one is ignorant that the plan of the invasion of Malta was projected in Paris, and confided to the principal knights of the Order resident at Malta. Letters in cyphers were incessantly passing and repassing, without however alarming the 106 BUBBLES. suspicions of the deceased Grand Master, or the Grand Master Hompesch." As soon as the French were in possession of the city, harbors, and impregnable fortresses of Valetta, they began, as usual, to mutilate from the public buildings everything which bore the stamp of nobility, or recalled to mind the illustrious actions which had been performed. The arms of the Order, as well as those of the principal knights, were effaced from the palace and princi- pal dwelling-houses ; hov/ever, as the knights had sullied their own reputation, and had cast an indelible blot on their own escut- cheons, they had but little right to complain that the image of their glory was thus insulted, when they themselves had been guilty of the murder of its spirit. The Order of St. John of Je- rusalem being now worn out and decayed, its elements were scattered to the winds. The knights who were not in the French interest were ordered to quit the island in three days, and a dis- graceful salary was accepted by the Grand Master Hompesch. Those knights who had favored the French were permitted to remain, but exposed to the rage of the Maltese, and unprotected by their false friends, some fled, some absolutely perished from want, but all were despised and hated. In the little theatre of Malta the scene is about to change, and the British soldier now marches upon its stage ! On the 2d of September, 1798, the island was blockaded by the English, and the fortifications being absolutely impregnable, it became ne- cessary to attempt the reduction of the place by famine. For two years most gallantly did the French garrison undergo the most horrid suffering and imprisonment — steadily and cheer- fully did they submit to every possible privation — their stock of spirits, wine, meat, bread, dec, doled out in the smallest possible allowances, gradually diminished until all came to an end. Sooner than strike, they then subsisted upon the flesh of their horses, mules, and asses ; and when these also were consumed, and when they had eaten not only their cats, but the rats which infested the houses, drains, &c., in great numbers — when, from long-protracted famine, the lamp of life was absolutely expiring in the socket ; in short, having, as one of their kings once most nobly exclaimed, "lost all but their honor," these brave men — "THE CROSS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 107 with nerves unshaken, with reputation unsullied, and with famine proudly painted in their lean emaciated countenances — o§i the 4th ^September, 1800^ surren-dered the place to that nation which Na- poleon has since termed ^^ the most powerful, the naost constant, ^nd the most generous of his enemies." During the iong- winded game of war which France and Eng- land lately played together, our country surely never made any hotter mov-e than when she thus kid held of Malta. Even if the island had been in the rude state in which it was delivered to the knights of Jerusalem, still, to a maritime power like England, such splendid harbors in the Meditersranean would have been a most valuable conquest ; but when we not only ap- preciate their noble outline, but consider the gigantic and expen- sive manner in which this town has been impregnably fortified, as well as furnished with tanks, subterraneous stores, bomb-proof magazines, most magnificent barracks, palaces, (fee, it is quite delightful to reflect on the seiies of events which have led to such a well-assorted alliance between two of the strongest harbors in the world, and the first maritime power on the globe. If, like the French, we had taken the island from the knights, however degraded, worn out, and useless their Order might have become^ yet Europe in general, and France in particular, might always have reproached us, and, for aught we know, our own con- sciences might have become a little tender on the subject. But the delightful truth is, that no power in Europe can breathe a word or a syllable against our possession q£ the island of Malta ' — it is an honor which, in open daylight, we have fairly won, and I humbly say, long^ very long, may we wear it I With .respect to the Maltese themselves, I just at this moment arecollcct a trifling story which will, I think, delineate tlieir cha- racter with tolerable acQuracy. 108 BUBBLES. THE RENEGADE. Of all the little unhappy prejudices which in different parts of the? globe it has been my fortune or rather misfortune, to witness, I nowhere remember to have met with a deeper- rooted hatred or a more implacable animosity than existed, some twenty or thirty years ago, in the hearts of the Maltese towards the Turks. In all warm glowing latitudes, human passions, good as well as bad, may be said to stand at least at that degree which on Fahrenheit's scale would be denoted " fever heat ;" and stean> itself can hardly be more different from ice,— the Bengal tiger springing on his prey cannot form a greater contrast to that half- frozen fisherman the white bear, as he sits on his iceberg sucking his paws, — than are the passions of hot countries when compared with the cold torpid feelings of the inhabitants of the northern regions of the globe. In all parts of the Mediterranean I found passions of all sorts very violent, but,, without any exception, that which, at the period I refer to, stood uppermost in the scale, was bigotry. Besides the eager character which belonged to their latitude, one might naturally expect that the Maltese,, from being islanders, would be rather mm'e ignorant and prejudiced' than their continental neigh- bors ; however, in addition to these causes, when I was among them, they really had good reason to dislike the Turks, who during the time of the knights had been ex officio their constant and most bitter enemies. Whether these fine valiant knights of Jerusalem conquered the Turks or were defeated, the Maltese, on board their galleys (like the dwarf who fought with the giant), always suffered : besides this, their own little trading vessels were constantly captured by THE RENEGADE. 109 the said Turks, the crews being not only maltreated and tortured^ but often in cold blood cruelly massacred ; in short, if there was any bad feeling in the heart of a Maltese, which the history of hig island as well as every bitter recollection of his life, seemed naturally to nourish, it was an implacable hatred for the Turks ; and that this sad theory was most fully supported by the fact, became evident the instant one observed a Maltese^ on the com- monest subject, utter that hated, accursed word, " Jwrco," or Turk. The sort of petty convulsion of the mind with which this dissyllable was delivered was really very remarkable, and the roll and flash of the eye— the little bullying shake of the head — • the slight stamp of the left foot — and the twitch in the fingers of the right hand, reminded one for the moment of the manner in which a French dragoon, when describing an action, mentions that his regiment came on " sahre a la main /" — words which, if you were to give him the universe, he could not pronounce with- out grinding his teeth, much less with that cold-hearted simplicity with which one of our soldiers would calmly say " sword in hand." This hatred of the Maltese towards the Turks was a sort of cat-and-dog picture which always attracted my notice ; however, I witnessed one example of it, on which occasion I felt very strongly it was carried altogether beyond a joke. One lovely morning — I remember it as if it were yesterday — there had been a great religious festival in the island, which, as usual, had caused a good deal of excitement, noise, and fever ; and, as a nation seldom allays its thirst without quarrelling, as soon as the hot sun set, a great many still hotter disturbances took place. In one of these rows, a party of Turks, justly or unjustly, became offended with the inhabitants ; an affray occurred, and a Mahometan having stabbed a Maltese, he was of course thrown into prison ; and in process of time, surrounded by a strong guard, he was led into the Maltese court to be tried (AngUce, condemned) for the offence. As he threaded his way through the crowd which had assembled in those dirty passages and dark chambers that led to the tribunal, the women shrank back as the " Turcn^' passed them, as if his very breath would have infected them with the plague ; while in the countenances of the men, as they leant 110 BUBBLES. forwards arresting him in his progress, and almost touching him with their brown faces, it was evident that they were all animated with but one feeling and one desire, that is to say, hatred and revenge : however, nothing was heard but a very slight murmur or groan, and the prisoner was soan seen a little raised above the crowd, trembling at the bar. He was a diminutive, mean-look- ing, ill-favored little fellow, dressed in the loose Turkish costume, with a very small dirty white turban, the folds of which were deemed more odious to the Christian eye than if they had been formed by the wreathing body of the serpent. While the crowd were shouldering each other, head peeping over head, and before the shuffling of moving feet could be silenced, avvocaii, or clerks, who sat in the small space between the prisoner and the bench, were seen eagerly mending their pens, and they had already dipped them into the ink, and the coarse, dirty, rough-edged paper on which they w^ere to write was folded and placed ready in front of them, before it w^as possible to commence the trial. The court was insufferably hot, and there was such a stench of garlic and of clothing impregnated with the stale fumes of tobacco, that one longed almost as much as the prisoner to escape into the open air, while the sallow faces of the avvocaii, clerks, and every one connected with the duties of the court, showed how unhealthy, as well as offensive, was the atmosphere which they breathed. On the bench sat what one must call the Judges, but to an English mind such a title but ill belonged to those who had only lately been forced, most reluctantly, to expel torture from their code. Just before Malta fell into the hands of the French and English, my own servant, Giuseppe, had lived in the service of one of the Maltese Judges ; and among many horrors which he often very calmly described to me (for he had witnessed them until he had become quite accustomed to them), he told me that he had had constantly to pass through a court in which were those who were doomed to ride upon what was called the " cavallo di legno," or wooden horse. With weights attached to each foot, he used to see them sitting bolt upright on this sharp narrow ridge, with two torches burning within a few inches of their naked chests and backs, in order that they should relieve themselves by a change THE RENEGADE. ill of attitude no longer than they could endure the pain of leaning against the flame. But to return to the court. The trial of the Turk now began and every rigid form was most regularly followed. The accusation was read — the story was detailed — the Maltese witnesses in great numbers one after another corroborated almost in the same words the same state- ment — several times when the prisoner was ordered to be silent, as by some ejaculation he interrupted the thread of the narrative, did the eyes of every being in court flash in anger and contempt upon him, their countenances as suddenly returning to a smile as the evidence of the witnesses proceeded with their criminatory details. At last, the case being fully substantiated, the culprit was called upon for his defence. Although a poor, mean, illiter- ate wretch, it is possible he might have intended to have made a kind of a sort of a speech ; but when he came to the point, his heart failed him, and his lips had only power to utter one single word. Regardless of the crowd as if it had not existed, looking as if he thought there was no object in creation but the central Judge on the bench, he fixed his eyes for some moments upon his cold, sallow, immoveable countenance, until, overpowered by his feel- ings, almost sinking into the ground, he clasped his hands, and in an agony of expression, which it is quite impossible to describe, he asked for " Mercy !" " Nix standy ! I don't understand ye .'" said an old English soldier one day, in the Bois -de- Boulogne, to a French general, who, with much gesture and grimace, was telling him in French, that the English were acting against the law of nations in thus cutting down so beautiful a forest as the said Bois -de- Boulogne, ^' Nix standy /" repeated the ruddy- faced soldier, continuing to hack with all his might at a young tree which he had almost cut down with his sabre. The very same answ^er was strongly ex- pressed in the countenance of the Judge to the petition of the unhappy Turk, who, had he been in the desert of Africa, might just as well have asked merely fof the ocean, as, in a Maltese court, to have supplicated for mercy. For some time the Judge sat in awful silence — then whispered a few w^ords to his colleagues — again all was silent : at last, when some little forms had been 112 BUBBLES. observed, the Chief Judge pronounced a sentence on the prisoner, which he might just as well have done without his having endured the pain and anxiety of a long trial. It is hardly worth while mentioning the sentence ; for, of course, it was that the Turco, being guilty of the murder of the Maltese, was to be hanged by the neck till he was dead ; every word of which sentence was most ravenously devoured by the audience : and the trial being now over, the prisoner v/as hurried away "to his dungeon, while the crowd eagerly rushed into the hot sunshine and open air. A very considerable time elapsed between the sentence and the day fixed for execution. Where the prisoner was — what were his feelings — how he was fed — " and how he fared — no one knew, and no one cared ;" however, on the last day of his existence, I happened to be riding along Strada Forni, when I heard a bellow- ing sort of a blast from a cow's horn, which I instantly knew to be the signal that a fellow-creature was going to the gallows. In any country in the world, the monotonous moan which proceeds from this wild uncouth instrument would be considered as ex- tremely harsh and disagreeable : but at Malta, where the ear has been constantly accustomed to good Italian music, and to listen to nothing more discordant than the lovely and love-making notes of the guitar, this savage whoop was indescribably offensive, par- ticularly being accompanied by the knowledge that it was the death-march, and the dirge of the murderer — " the knell that summoned him to heaven or to hell !" As I rode towards Strada Reale, the principal street of Valetta, down which the procession was proceeding, a dismal blast from this horn was heard about every ten seconds ; and, as it sounded louder and louder, it was evident the procession was approaching. At last, on coming to the corner of the street, I saw the culprit advancing on his funeral car. The streets on both sides were lined with spectators, and every window was filled with out- stretched figures and eager faces. In the middle of Strada Reale, preceding the prisoner, were three or four mutes ; while several others were also begging in different parts of the town. These people, who belonged to some of the principal Maltese families, were covered from head to foot with long loose robes of white linen, a couple of holes being cut for their eyes. Their THE RENEGADE. 113 feet were bare, and to each ankle was affixed a chain of such weight and length, that it was as much as they could do to drag one leg after the other. In the right hand they held a tin money- box, in the shape of a lantern, with death's head and bloody bones painted upon it. A small slit in this box received the copper contributions of the multitude ; and, as these mutes passed me in horrid triumph, shaking the box every step they took (the rattling of the money forming a sort of savage accompaniment to the deep clanking of their chains), they had altogether an unearthly appearance, which certainly seemed less to belong to heaven than to hell ; however, the malefactor now approached, and as soon as he came up to the corner of my street, I, loosening my rein, rode for a few moments at his side, attracted by one of the strangest scenes which I think I have ever beheld. The man was half- sitting, half-reclining, on a sort of low, rattling, iron vehicle, of an indescribable shape, which raised his head a little above the level of the people ; and the very moment I looked him in the face, much of the secret history of what had passed since the day of his condemnation was as legible in his countenance as if it had been written there. He had been existing in some dark place, for his complexion was blanched by absence from light ; he had evidently been badly fed, for there was famine in his sunken features ; his nerves were gone, for he was trembling ; his health had materially been impaired, either by suffering of body or mind, for the man was evidently extremely ill ; and last, though not least, for some mysterious reason, either from an expectation of obtaining mercy in this world or in the next, he had evidently abjured his religion, for his dirty white turban was gone, and, very ill at his ease, he sat, or rather reclined, in the clothes of a Christian ! The car on which he proceeded was surrounded by an immense number of priests, belonging to the different churches of Valetta, and apparently to those also of all the casals and villages in the island. All angry feelings had most completely subsided ; in their minds, as well as in the minds of the people, the day was one only of triumph and of joy ; and, intoxicated with the spirit of religious enthusiasm, the priests were evidently besides them- selves with delight at having succeeded in the miraculous conver- 114 BUBBLES. sion which they had effected. Shouldering and pushing each other with all their strength, with outstretched arms, and earnest countenances, they were all, in different attitudes and voices, calling upon the malefactor to repeat the name of their own par- ticular saint ; some behind him were trying to attract his notice by pulling his clothes, while those before him, by dint of voice and gesture, were equally endeavoring to catch his eye ; and such a confused cry of " Viva San Tommaso !" " Viva San Giuseppe V " Viva San Giovanni !" " Viva San Paolo !" I will not pretend to describe. It v/as, of course, impossible for the wretch to comply v/ith all their noisy demands : yet, poor fellow ! he did his best ; and, in a low faint voice, being dreadfully ex- hausted by the jolting and shaking of the carriage, he repeated *' Viva San Paolo V &c., &c., as he caught the eye of the dif- ferent priests. He had evidently no rule in these exclamations which he uttered, for I observed that the strong brawny-shouldered priests, who got nearest to him, often made him repeat the name of their saints twice, before the little bandy-legged ones in the rear could get him to mention theirs once. As this strange con- cert proceeded, it was impossible to help pitying the poor culprit ; for, if one had been travelling from one magnificent palace to another, to be so jolted and tormented both in body and mind when one was ill, would by any of us have been termed dread- fully disagreeable ; but for all this to happen to a man just at the very moment he was going to be hanged — at that moment of all others in which any of us would desire to be left, at least for a few seconds, to his own reflections, appeared at the time to be bard indeed. After passing under the great gate and subterra- neous exit called Porta Reale, the procession wound its way across the drawbridges, and along the deep ditches, &c., of the fortification, until coming out upon the great esplanade which lies between Valetta and Floriana, an immense crowd of people was suddenly seen waiting round the gallows — at the sight of which I pulled up. The priests were now more eager than ever in beseeching the criminal to call upon the name of their saint ; the mutes, whose white robes in all directions were seen scattered among the people, were evidently shaking their boxes more violently than ever, while among the crowd there was a general THE RENEGADE. 115 lifting of feet, which showed the intense anxiety of their feelings. As the procession slowly approached the gallows, I could not hear what was going on ; but in a very short time, from the dis- tance at which 1 stood, I saw the man led up the ladder by the executioner, who continued always a step or two above him : the rope was round his neck, and resting loosely on the culprit's head there was something like a round wooden plate, through a hole in the centre of which the rope passed. As soon as the poor creature got high up on the ladder, the vociferations of the priests suddenly ceased ; for a few seconds a dead silence en- sued, when, all of a sudden, there was a simultaneous burst or shriek of exclamation from priests and populace, echoing and re-echoing the words '^ Viva la Christianita !" which the man, in a low tone of voice, had just been persuaded to utter. All caps waved — every human being seemed to be congratulating each other on the delightful conversion ; and no person seemed to pay the slightest possible attention to the poor wretch, who, with the last syllable on his lips, had been pushed off the ladder, and was now calmly swinging in the air, the executioner standing on the loose wooden plate above his head, holding by the rope, and, with many antics, stamping with all his force to break the neck, while the people, in groups, were already bending their steps home- wards. Not wishing to encounter such a crowd, T turned my horse in another direction, and passed a number of mules and asses belonging to many of the people who had come from the most remote casals to see the execution. The animals were all standing half-asleep, nodding their heads in the sun — a herd of goats were as quietly grazing near the ramparts ; and when I contrasted the tranquillity which these animals were enjoying, with the scene I had just witnessed, I could not help feeling that I had more cause than Virgil to exclaim — " Sic vos non voMs .'" In returning from my ride, I had to cross the esplanade, and as there was then no one at the gallows, I rode close by it. The figure, which was still hanging, was turning round very slowly, as if it were roasting before the sun ; the neck was so completely disjointed, that the head almost hung downwards, and as I rode by it I was much struck in observing that the tongue was out of the mouth half bitten off — a dreadful emblem, thought I, of a renegade 116 BUBBLES. to his religion ! Whether or not, the poor wretch had been induced to utter his last exclamation, from a hollow promise that it would save his life, is a mystery which will probably never on this earth be explained to us ; however, whatever was his creed, it is impossible to deny that when he swung from this world to eternity, he had but little reason to admire the practical part of a Roman Catholic's mercy, however beautifully and unanswerably its theory might have been explained to him. As soon as I got to Valetta, I put up my horse, and, strolling about the streets, soon found myself in the immense church of St. John, which, in point of size and magnificence, is only second in the world to St. Peter's, at Rome. The congregation was almost exclusively composed of the people who had attended the execution, and quantities of men as well as women, semi-shrouded in their black silk faldettes, were listening to a tall, strong-look- ing Capuchin friar, who, with great emphasis, was preaching from a high pulpit, placed at a projecting angle of one of the many chapels which ramified from the aisle or great body of the church. He was a remarkably handsome man, of about thirty, and though his face was pale, or rather brown, yet his eye and features were strikingly vivid and intellectual ; a rim or band of jet-black curly hair encircled his head, the rest of his hair by a double tonsure having been shaved at the top and from ear to ear ; his throat was completely uncovered, and as he suddenly turned from one part of his congregation to another, its earnest attitudes were very beautiful. His brown sack-cloth cowl rested in folds upon his shoulders, and the loose negligent manner in which a cloak of the same coarse material hung upon his body, being apparently merely kept together by the white rope, or whip of knots, which encircled his waist, displayed a series of lines which any painter might well have copied ; indeed, the whole dress of the Capuchin has been admirably well imagined, and above all others it is calculated to impress upon the mind of the spectator that its wearer is a man doomed to abstinence and mortification, seeking no enjoyment on this side of the grave, and never lowering his eyes from heaven, but fervently to exclaim — ** Vain pomp and glory of the world, I hate ye !** THE RENEGADE. 117 The subject of the sermon was, of course, the execution which we had all witnessed. The hard-hearted infidelity of the Turks was very richly painted and described, and the crime which they had just seen expiated was clearly proved to be the effect, and the natural eiiect, of a Mahometan's anger. The happy conversion of the infidel then became a subject which was listened to with the most remarkable stillness, and every eye was riveted upon the mouth of the Capuchin, as he minutely detailed the triumph and the conquest which had been made of the sheep which had that day, before their eyes, been added to the flock. He then ex- plained, or endeavored to explain (for it was no very easy task), that the money which had that morning been collected for the purchase of masses, proved to be just sufficient to purify the soul of the departed sinner ; but this, he very eloquently demonstrated, was only to be effected through the mediation of one whose image nailed to the cross was actually erected in the pulpit on his right hand. After expatiating on this subject at considerable length, working himself and hearers into a state of very great excitement, with both his arms stretched out, with his eyes uplifted, he most fervently addressed the figure, exclaiming in a most emphatic tone of voice — " Si f mio caro Signore ! Si .'" &c. The effect which was instantly produced in the hearts of his hearers was very evident, and the fine melodious voice, together with the strong, nervous, muscular attitude of the preacher, contrasted with the drooping, exhausted, lifeless, image above him, would have worked its effect upon the mind of any Christian spectator. As soon as the sermon was over, the congregation dispersed. The day ended in universal joy and festivity ; no revengeful ^ recollections — no unkind feelings were entertained towards him who had been the principal actor of that day ; on the contrary, the Maltese seemed rather to feel, that it was to him they were especially indebted for the pleasurable performances they had witnessed, and thus — «* In peaceful merriment ran down the sun's declining ray." IS BUBBLES. SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. Time had glided along so agreeably ever since my arrival at Langen-Schwalbach, my body had enjoyed such perpetual motion, my mind such absolute rest, that I had almost forgotten, though my holiday was nearly over, I had not yet reached the intended ne plus ultra of my travels — namely, Schlangenbad, or the Serpents' Bath. On the spur of the moment, therefore, I ordered a carriage ; and, with my wallet lying by my side, having bidden adieu to a simple-hearted village, which, for the short remainder of my days, I believe 1 shall remember with regard, I continued for some time gradually to ascend its eastern boundary, until I arrived nearly at the summit or pinnacle of the Taunus hills. The view from this point w^as very extensive indeed, and the park-like appearance of the whole of the lofty region or upper story of Nassau formed a prospect at once noble and pleasing. The Langen-Schwalbach band of wind instruments was playing deep beneath me in the valley, but hidden by the fog, its sound was so driven about by the wind, that had I not recognized the tunes I but faintly heard, I should not have been able to deter- mine from what point of the compass they proceeded. Sometimes they seemed to rise, like the mist, from one valley — sometimes from another — occasionally I fancied they were like the hurricane, sweeping across the surface of the country, and once I could almost have declared that the ^olian band was calmly seated above me in the air. The numberless ravines which intersect Nassau were not discernible from the spot where my carriage had halted, and Langen-Schwalbach was so muffled in its peaceful retreat, that a stranger could scarcely have guessed it existed. SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 119 From this elevated point the Taunus hills began gradually to fall towards Wiesbaden and Frankfurt ; but a branch road, suddenly turning to the right, rapidly descended, or rather meandered down a long, rocky, narrow ravine, clothed with beech and oak trees to its summit. With a wheel of the carriage dragged, as I glided fast down this romantic valley, the scenery, compared with what I had just left, was on a very confined, contracted scale — in short, nothing was to be seen but a trickling stream running down the grassy bottom of a valley, and hills which appeared to environ it on both sides ; besides this, the road writhed and bent so continually, that I could seldom see a quarter of a mile of it at once. After descending about three-quarters of a league, I came to a new turn, and here Schlangenbad, the Serpents' Bath, dressed in its magic mantle of tranquillity, suddenly appeared not only before, but within less than a hundred yards of me. This secluded spot, to whicli such a number of people annually retreat, consists of nothing but an immense old building, or ** Bad- Haus," a new one, with two or three little mills, which, fed, as it were, by the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, are turned by the famous spring of water, after great, fine, fashionable ladies have done washing themselves in it. When the carriage stopped, my first impression (which through life but too often, I regret to say, has been an erroneous one) was not in favor of the place ; for, though its colors were certainly very beautiful, yet, from being so completely surrounded by hills, it seemed to wear some of the features of a prison ; and when, my vehicle driving away, I was first left by myself, I felt for a moment that the little band of music, which was playing upon the terrace above my head, was not quite competent to enliven the scene. However, after I had walked in various directions about this sequestered spot, sufficiently not only to become acquainted with its locale^ but to discover that it possessed a number of modest beauties, com.pletely veiled from the passing gaze of the stranger, I went to the old " Bad-Haus " to obtain rooms from the bath- master (appointed by the Duke), who has charge of both of these great establishments. I found the little man seated in his office, in the agony of 120 BUBBLES. calculating upon a slate the amount of seven times nine ; per- ceiving, however, that instead of multiplying the two figures together, he had reared up a ladder of seven nines, which step by- step he was slowly ascending, I felt quite unwilling to interrupt him ; and as his wife appeared to be gifted with all or many of the little abilities in which he might have been deficient, I gladly availed myself of her obliging offer to show me over the two buildings, in order that I might select some apartments. The old "Bad-Haus," and Hotel de Nassau, which, being united together, form one of the two great buildings I have men- tioned, are situated on the side of the hill close to the macadamized road which leads to Mainz ; and to give some idea of the gigantic scale on which these sort of German bathing establishments are constructed, I will state, that in this rambling "Bad-Haus'' I counted 443 window^s, and that without ever twice going over the same ground, I found the passages measured 409 paces, or, as nearly as possible, a quarter of a mile !* Below this immense barrack, and on the opposite side of the road, is the new " Bad-Haus," or bathing house, pleasantly situated in a shrubbery. This building (which contains 172 windows) is of a modern construction, and straddling across the bottom of the valley, the celebrated water, which rises milk-warm from the rock, after supplying the baths on the lower story, runs f^om beneath it. No sooner, however, does the fluid escape from the building, than a group of poor w^asher women, standing up to their knees on a sheet, which is stretched upon the ground, hum- bly make use of it before it has time to get to the two little mills which are patiently waiting for it about a couple of hundred yards below. After having passed, in the two establishments, an immense number of rooms, each furnished by the Duke with white window- curtains, a walnut-tree bed with bedding, a chestnut-tree table, an elastic spring sofa, and three or four walnut-tree chairs, the price of each room (on an average from lOd. to 2s. a-day) being painted on the door, I complimented the good, or, to give her her proper title, the " bad " lady who attended me, on the plain, but useful * The Hotel de Nassau has, I understand, been just pulled down, and is to be rebuilt on a new plan. SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 121 order in which they appeared : in return for which she very obligingly offered to show me the source of the famous water, for the sake of which two such enormous establishments had been erected. In the history of the little duchy of Nassau, the discovery of this spring forms a story full of innocence and simplicity. Once upon a time there was a heifer, with which everything in nature seemed to disagree. The more she ate, the thinner she grew — the more her mother licked her hide, the rougher and the more staring was her coat. Not a fly in the forest would bite her — never was she seen to chew the cud, but hide-bound and melancholy, her hips seemed actually to be protruding from her skin. What was the matter with her no one knew — what would cure her no one could divine ; — in short, deserted by her master and her species, she was, as the faculty would term it, " given over." In a few weeks, however, she suddenly re-appeared among the herd, with ribs covered with flesh — eyes like a deer — skin sleek as a mole's — breath sweetly smelling of milk — saliva hanging in ringlets from her jaw ! Every day seemed to re-establish her health ; and the phenomenon was so striking, that the herdsman, feeling induced to watch her, discovered that regularly every evening she wormed her way, in secret, into the forest, until she reached an unknown spring of water, from which, having refreshed herself, she quietly returned to the valley. The trifling circumstance, scarcely known, was almost forgotten by the peasant, when a young Nassau lady began decidedly to show exactly the same incomprehensible symptoms as the heifer. Mother, sisters, friends, father, all tried to cure her, but in vain ; and the physician had actually *' Taken his leave with sighs and sorrow, Despairing of his fee to-morrow," when the herdsman, happening to hear of her case, prevailed upon her, at last, to try the heifer's secret remedy — she did so ; and, in a very short time, to the utter astonishment of her friends, she became one of the stoutest and roundest young women in the duchy. What had suddenly cured one sick lady was soon deemed a 122 BUBBLES. proper prescription for others, and all cases meeting with success, the spring, gradually rising into notice, received its name from a circumstance which I shall shortly explain. In the meanwhile I will observe, that even to this day horses are brought by the peasants to be bathed, and I have good authority for believing^ that in cases of slight consumption of the lungs (a disorder com- mon enough among horses), the animal recovers his flesh with surprising rapidity — ^nay, I have seen even the pigs bathed, though I must own that they appeared to have no other disorder except hunger. But to return to the ^'bad" lady. After following her through a labyrinth of passages (one of which not only leant sideways, but had an ascent like a hill), she at last unlocked a door, which v/as no sooner opened, than I saw glide along the floor close by me a couple of small serpents ! As the lady was talking very earnestly at the time, I merely flinched aside as they passed, without making any observation ; but after I had crossed a small garden, she pointed to a door which she said was that of the source, and v/hile she stopped to speak to one of the servants, I advanced alone, and opening the gate, saw beneath me a sort of brunnen with three serpents about the size of vipers swimming about in it ! Unable to contain my surprise, I made a signal to the lady with my staff, and as she hurried towards me, I still pointed with it to the reptiles, as if to demand why, in the name of ^sculapius, they were allowed thus to con- taminate the source of the baths ? In the calmest manner possible, my conductress (who seemed perfectly to comprehend my sensations) replied, " Au contraire, c^est ce qui donne la qualite a ces eaux !'^ The quantity of these reptiles, or Schlangen, that exist in the woods surrounding the spring is very great ; and they of course have given their name to the place. When full grown they are about Ave feet long, and in hot weather are constantly seen gliding across the paths, or rustling under the dead leaves of the forest. As soon as the lady had shown me the whole establishment, she strongly recommended me to take up my abode in the old " Bad- Haus;" however, on my first arrival, in crossing the promenade in front of it, I had caught a glimpse of som.e talkative old ladies, whose tongues and knitting-needles seemed to be racing against SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS BATH. 123 each other, which made it very advisable to decline the polite invitation ; and I accordingly selected apartments at one extremity ' of the new Bad-Haus, my windows on the north looking into the shrubbery, those on the east upon the two little water-mills, revolving in the green lonely valley of the Schlangenbad. The cell of the hermit can hardly be more peaceful than this abode : it is true it was not only completely inhabited (there be- ing no more rooms unoccupied), but it was teeming with people, many of whom are known in the great world. For instance, among its inmates were the Princess Romanow, first wife of the late Grand Duke Constantino of Russia — the Duke of Saxe-Co- burg — the Prince of Hesse Homburg (wiiose brother, the late Landgrave, married the Princess Elizabeth of England), a Prus- sian minister from Berlin, and occasionally the Princess Royal of Prussia, married to the son of King Frederic William. No part of the building was exclusively occupied by these royal guests ; but paying for their rooms no more than the prices marked upon the doors, they ascended the same staircase and walked along the same passages with the humblest inmates of the place. Yet within the narrow dominion of their own chambers, visitors were received, with every attention due to form and etiquette. The silence and apparent solitude which reigned, however, in this new '- Bad-FIaus" was to me always a subject of astonishment and admiration. Sometimes a person would be seen carefully locking his door, and then, with the key in his pocket, quietly stealing along tlie passage ; at other times a lady might be caught on tip- toes softly ascending the stairs ; but neither steps nor voices were to be heard ; and far from witnessing anything like ostentation, it seemed to me that concealment was rather the order of the day. As soon as it grew dark, a single wick floating in a small glass lamp, open at the top, was placed at the two great entrance doors ; and another at each extremity of the long passages into which the rooms on every floor communicated, giving the visitors just light enough to avoid running against the walls : in obscure weather, there was also a lamp here and there in the shrubbery, but as long as the pale moon shone in the heavens, its lovely light was deemed sufficient. A table d'hdte dinner, at a florin for each person, was daily 124 BUBBLES. prepared, for all, or any, who might choose to attend it ; and for about the same price, a dinner, with knives, forks, table-cloth, napkins, &c., would be forwarded to any guest, who, like myself, was fond of the luxury of solitude : coffee and tea were cheap in proportion. 1 have dwelt long upon these apparently trifling details, because, humble as they may sound, I conceive that they maintain a very important moral. How many of our country people are always raving about the cheapness of the Continent, and how many every year break up their establishments in England to go in search of it ; yet, if we had but sense, or rather courage enough, to live at home as economically and as rationally as princes and people of all ranks live throughout the rest of Europe, how unnecessary would be the sacrifice, and how much real happiness would be the result ! The baths at Schlangenbad are the most harmless and deli- cious luxuries of the sort I have ever enjoyed ; and I really quite looked forward to the morning for the pleasure with which I paid my addresses to this delightful element. The effect the water produces on the skin is very singular : it is about as warm as milk, but infinitely softer ; and after dipping the hand into it, if the thumb be rubbed against the fingers, it is said by many to resemble satin. Nevertheless, whatever may be its sensation, when the reader reflects that people not only come to these baths from Russia, but that the water in stone bottles, merely as a cos- metic, is sent to St. Petersburg and other distant parts of Europe, he will admit that it must be soft indeed to have gained for itself such an extraordinary degree of celebrity : for there is no town at Schlangenbad, not even a village — nothing therefore but the real or fancied charm of the water could attract people into a little sequestered valley, which in every sense of the word is out of sight of the civilized world ; and yet I must say, that I never remember to have existed in a place which possessed such fas- cinating beauties ; besides which (to say nothing of breathing pure, dry air), it is no small pleasure to live in a skin which puts all people in good humor — at least, with themselves. But besides the cosmetic charms of this water, it is declared to possess virtues of more substantial value: it is said to tranquillize the nerves, to SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 125 soothe all inflammation ; and from this latter property, the cures of consumption which are reported to have been effected, among human beings and cattle, may have proceeded. Yet whatever good effect the w^ater may have upon this insidious disorder, its first operation most certainly must be to neutralize the had effect of the climate, which to consumptive patients must decidedly be a very severe trial, for delightful as it is to persons in robust health, yet the keenness of the mountain air, together with the sudden alternations of temperature to which the valley of Schlan- genbad is exposed, must, I think, be anything but a remedy for weak lungs. The effect produced upon the skin, by lying about twenty minutes in the bath, I one day happened to overhear a short, fat Frenchman describe to his friend in the following words : — " Monsieur, dans ces hains on devient ahsolument amour eux de sou mcme V^ I cannot exactly corroborate this Gallic statement, yet I must admit that limbs, even old ones, gradually do appear as if they were converted into white marble. The skin assumes a sort of glittering, pho^horic brightness, resembling very much white objects, which, having been thrown overboard, in calm weather, within the tropics, many of my readers have probably watched sinking in the ocean, which seems to blanch and illuminate them as they descend. The effect is very extraordinary, and I know not how to account for it, unless it be produced by some prismatic refraction, caused by the peculiar particles with which the fluid is impregnated. The Schlangenbad water contains the muriates and carbonates of lime, soda, and magnesia, with a slight excess of carbonic acid, which holds the carbonates in solution. The celebrated embel- lishment which it produces on the skin, is, in my opinion, a sort of corrosion, which removes tan, or any other artificial covering that the surface may have attained from exposure and ill-treat- ment by the sun and wind. In short, the body is cleaned by it, just as a kitchen-maid scours her copper saucepan : and the effect being evident, ladies modestly approach it from the most distant parts of Europe. I am by no means certain, however, that they receive any permanent benefit ; indeed, on the contrary, I should think that their skins would eventually become, if any- J26 BUBBLES. thing, coarser, from the removal of a slight veil or covering, in- tended by Nature as a protection to the cuticle. But whether this water be permanently beneficial to ladies or not, the softness it gives to the whole body is quite delightful ; and with two elements, air and water, in perfection, I found that I grew every hour more and rhore attached to the place. On the cellar-floor, or lower story of my abode ('^ the New Bad-Haus"), where the baths are situated, there lived an old man and his wife, whose duty it was to prepare the baths, and to give towels, &c. I do not know whether the Schlangenbad wa- ters corrode the temper as well as the skin, yet certainly this old couple appeared to me continually quarrelling ; and every little trifle I required for my bath, though given to me with the greatest good will, seemed to form a subject of jealous dispute between this subterranean pair. The old woman, however, invariably got the best of the argument, — a triumph which I suspect pro- ceeded more from her physical than moral powers : in short, as is occasionally the case, the old gentleman was afraid of his companion ; and I observed that his attitude, as he argued, very much resembled that of a cat in a corner, w^hen spitting in the face of a terrier dog. Finding that they did not work happily together, I always managed to prevent both of them coming to me at once. The old woman, however, insisted on preparing my bath ; and, with a great pole in one hand, stirring up the water — a thermometer in the other, and a pair of spectacles blinded with steam on her nose, she very good-naturedly brought the tempera- ture of the water to a proper degree, which is said to be 27 of Reaumur. After I had had my bath, the old wife being out of the way, I one day paid a visit of compliment to her husband, who had shown, by many little attempted attentions, that he was, had he dared, as anxious as his partner to serve me. With great delight, he showed me several bottles full of serpents ; and then, opening a wooden box, he took out, as a fisherwoman would handle eels, some very long ones — one of which (first looking over his shoulder to see that a certain personage was away) he put upon a line, n' hich she had stretched across the room for drying clothes. In order, I suppose, to demonstrate to me that the reptile was harmless, he SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 127 took it ofF the rope, along which it was moving very quickly ; and without submitting his project for my approbation, he sudden- ly plaoed it on my breast, along which it crawled, until, stretch- ing its long neck with half its body into the air, it held on, in a most singular manner, by a single fold in the cloth, which, by a sort o^ contortion of the vertebrse, it firmly grasped. The old man, apparently highly satisfied with this fii'st act of his entertainment, gravely proceeded to show living serpents of all colors and sizes, — -stufTed serpents, and serpents' skins — all of which seemed very proper hobbies to amuse the long winter evenings of the aged servant of Schlangenbad, or the Serpents' Bath. At last, however, the fellow's dry, blanched, wrinkled face began to smile. Grinning as he slowly mounted on a chair, he took from a high shelf a broad-mouthed, white glass bottle, and then in a sort of savage ecstasy, pronouncing the word " B arc- met !" he placed it in my hands. The bottle was about half full of dirty water — a few dead flies and crumbs of bread were at the bottom — and near the top there was a small piece of thin wood which went about half across the phial. Upon this slender scaffolding, its fishy eyes staring up- wards at a piece of coarse linen, which, being tied round the mouth, served as a cork — the shrivelled skin of its under-jaw moving at every sweltering breath which it took — there sat a large, speckled, living ^oad ! Like Sterne's captive, he had not by his side " a bundle of sticks, notched with all the dismal days and nights he had passed there ;" yet their sum-total was as clearly expressed in the unhealthy color of the poor creature's skin ; and certainly, in my life-time, I never had seen what might truly be called — a sick toad. It was quite impossible to help pitying any living being, con- fined by itself in so miserable a dungeon. However, the old man's eyes w^ere beaming with pride and delight at what he con- ceived to be his own ingenuity — and exclaiming "• Schones wetter!" (fine weather !) he pointed to the wood-work on which the poor creature was sitting — and then he exultingly explained that, so soon as it should be going to rain, the toad would clamber down into the water- "Barojiet!" repeated the old fellow, 128 BUBBLES. grinning from ear to ear, as, mounting on the chair, he replaced his prisoner on the shelf. My first impression was " couie qui coute,'^ to buy this baro- meter, — carry its poor captive to the largest marsh I could find, — and then, breaking the bottle into shivers, to give him, what toads appreciate so much better than mankind — liberty ; but, on re- fleeting a moment, I felt quite sure that the old inquisitor would soon procure another subject for torture ; and, as with toads as with ourselves, " c^est le premier pas qui coute,'^ I thought it bet- ter that this poor heart-broken, imprisoned creature, to a certain degree accustomed to his misery, should exist in it, than that a fresh toad should suffer : it also occurred to me, that if I should dare to purchase his rude instrument, the ingenious, unfeeling old wretch of a philosopher might be encouraged to make others for sale. The old bath or " bad " man had vipers' nests, their eggs, and many other Caliban curiosities, which he was desirous to show me ; but, having seen quite enough for one morning's visit, and besides, hearing his wife's tongue coming along the subterranean passage, I left him — her — toad — reptiles, &;c., to fret away their existence, while I rose into far brighter regions above them. After ascending a couple of flights af stairs, I strolled for some time on the little parade, which is close to the entrance of the old *' Bad-Haus ;" but the benches being all occupied by people listen- ing to the band of music, and besides, not liking the artificial passages of hedges cut, without metaphor, to the quick, I bade adieu to the scene ; and, entering the great forest, with which the hills in every direction were clothed to their summits, I ascended a steep, broad road (across which a couple of schlan- gens glided close by me), until I came to a hut, from which there is a very pleasing home- view of the little valley of Schlangenbad. It is certainly a most romantic spot, and that it had appeared so to others was evident, from a marble pillar and inscription which stood on the edge of a precipice before me. The tale it com- memorated is simply beautiful. The Count de Grunne, the Dutch Ambassador at Frankfurt, having in the healthy autumn of his life come to Schlangenbad, with his young wife, was so enchanted with the loveliness of the country, the mildness of the air, and the SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 129 exquisite softness of the water, that, quite unable to contain him- self, on a black marble column he caused to be sculptured, as emblems of himself and his companion, two crested schlangens, playfully eating leaves (apparently a salad) out of the same bowl — with the following pathetic inscription : — EN RECONNOISSANCE DES DEL.1CIEUSES SAISONS PASSEES ICI ENSEMBLE PAR CHARLES C^e DE GRUNNE ET BETSI Ctesse DE GRUNNE. 1830. Leaving this quiet sentimental bower, and descending the hill, I entered the great pile of buildings of the old Bad-Haus, or Nassauer-Hof, and as I was advancing along one of its endless passages, I passed an open door, from which a busy hum pro- ceeded, which clearly proclaimed it to be a school. My grave Mentor-like figure was no sooner observed silently standing at its portal, than its master, a short, slight, hectic-looking lad, scarcely twenty, seemed to feel an unaccountable desire to form my ac- quaintance. Begging me to enter his small literary dominion, he very modestly requested leave to be permitted to explain to me the nature of the studies he was imparting to his subjects, the lit- tle creatures, from their benches, looking at me all the time with the same sort of fear with which mice look into the face of a bull- dog, or frogs at the terrific bill and outline of a stork. Having, by a slight inclination, accepted this offer, the young Dominie commenced by stating that all the children in Nassau are ohllged, by order of the Duke, to go to school, from six to fourteen years of age ; — that the parents of a child, who has intentionally missed, are forced to pay two kreuzers the first time, four the second, six the third, and that if they are too poor to pay these fines, they are obliged to work them out in hard labor, or are 10 130 BUBBLES. otherwise punished for their children's neglect ; — that the inhabit- ants of each village pay the schoolmaster among themselves, in proportions, varying according to their means, but that the Duke prescribes what the children are to learn — namely, religion, sing- ing, reading, writing. Scripture history, the German language, natural history, geography, and accounts ; — and tha- the mode of imparting this education is grounded upon the system of Pes- talozzi. This introductory explanation being concluded, the young master now displayed to me specimens of his scholars' writing — showed me their slates covered with sums in the first rules of arithmetic — and then calling up several girls and boys, he placed his wand in the hand of each trembling little urchin, who one by one was desired to point out upon maps, which hung against the walls, the great oceans, seas, mountains, and capitals of our globe. Having expressed my unqualified approbation of the zeal and at- tention with which this excellent young man had evidently been laboring, at the arduous, *' never-ending, still beginning " duties of his life, I was about to depart, when, as a last favor, he anx- iously entreated me to hear his children, for one moment, sing ; and striking the table with his wand, it instantly, as if it had been a tuning fork, called them to attention — at a second blow on the table, they pushed aside their slates and books — at a third, open- ing their eyes as wide as they could, they inflated their tiny lungs brimfuU — and at a fourth blow, in full cry, they all opened, to my no small astonishment, mouths which, in blackness of inside, exactly resembled a pack of King Charles's spaniels ! Had the children been drinking ink, their tongues and palates could not have been darker ; and though, accompanied by their master, the psalm they were singing was simply beautiful, and though their infantine voices streaming along the endless passages pro- duced a reverberation which was exceedingly pleasing, yet there was something so irresistibly comic in their appearance, that any countenance but my own would have smiled. The cause of the odd-looking phenomenon suddenly occurred to me, having, in the morning, observed several peasants, whose trowsers at the knees were stained perfectly black, by their having knelt down to pick bilberries, which grew on the forest-covered SCHLANGENBAD ; OK, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 131 hills of Nassau in the greatest profusion. The children had evi- dently heen grazing en the same ground, and as soon as the idea occurred, I observed by their little black fingers that my solution of the dark problem was <)orrect. Returning to my residence, the -New Bad-Haus, the smi, though much less wea-ry than m=yself, having sunk to rest, I sat alone for some time in one of the bowers of the shrubbery belonging to the building. OccasiGnally a humian figure, scarcely visible from the deep shade of 'the trees, glided slowly by me, hut whether that of e prince era peasant I neither knew nor cared. What interested u\e infinitely more, was to observe the fi_re-flies, vv^hi<3h, v/ith small lanterns m their tails, were either soaring close above me, or sparkling among the bushes. The bright emerald-green light which they possessed was lovely beyond description, yet appa- rently they had only received permission to display it so long as they remained on the wing — and as two young ones, gliding be- fore me, rested for a moment on a rose-leaf, at my side, the in- stant they closed their wings, they were left together in total darkness. Some (probably old ones) steadily sailing, passed me, as if on business, while others, dancing in the air,1^iad evidently no object except pleasure ; yet, whether flying in a circle, or in a line, each little creature, as it proceeded, gaily illuminated its own way, and like a pure, cheerful, well- conditioned mind, it also ■shed a trifling lustre on whatever it approached. As [ sat here alone in the dark, I could not dnve from my mind the interesting picture I had just been witnessing in the little vil- lage school of Schlangenbad. We are all, in England, so devotedly attached to that odd, easily pronounced, but difl^icult to be defi-ued word — liberty, that tliere is, perhaps, nothing we should all at once set o«r backs, our faces, and our heads against more, than a national compulsory system of 'education, similar to that prescribed in Nassau ; and yet, if law lias the power to punish crime, there seems at first to exist no very strong reason why it should not also be permitted, by educa- tion, to prevent it. Every respectable parent in our country will be ready to admit, that the most certain recipe for making his son a useful, a happy, and a valuable member of society, is carefully to att-end to the cultivation of his mind. We all believe that good 132 BUBBLES. seeds can be sown there, that bad ones can be eradicated — that ignorance leads a child to error and crime — that his mental dark- ness, like a town, can be illuminated — that the judgment (his only weapon against his passions) can, like the blacksmith^s arm, by use, be strengthened ; and if it be thus universally admitted that education is one of the most valuable properties a rational being can bequeath to his own child, it would seem to follow that a pa- rental government might claim (at least before Heaven) nearly as much right to sentence a child to education, as a criminal ta the gallows. Nevertheless, as a curious example of the differ- ence in national taste, it may be observed, that though in England judges and juries can anywhere be found to condemn the body, they would everywhere be observed to shrink at the very idea of chastening the mind ; they see no moral or religious objection to imprison the former, but they all agree that it would be a political offence to liberate the latter. Although our poor laws oblige every parish to feed, house, and clothe its offspring, yet in Eng- land it is thought wrong to enforce any national provision for the mind ; and yet the Duke of Nassau might argue, that in a civi- lized community children have no more natural right to be brought up ignorant than naked : in short, that if the mildest govern- ment be justified in forcing a man, for decency's sake, to envelope his body, it might equally claim the power of obliging him, for the welfare, prosperity, and advancement of the community — ta develope his mind. Into so complicated an argument I feel myself quite incompe- tent to enter, yet were I at this moment to be leaving this world, there is no one assertion I think I could more solemnly maintain — there is no important fact I am more seriously convinced of — and there is no evidence which, from the observation of my whole life, I could more conscientiously deliver, than that, as far as I have been capable of judging, our system of education in Eng land has produced, does produce, and as long as it be persisted in^ must produce, the most lamentable political effects. Strange as it may sound, I believe few people will, on refiec- tion, deny that a most remarkable difference exists between a man and what is termed mankind — ^in fact, between the intelli- SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS* BATH. 133 gence of the human being and that of the species to which he belongs. If a man of common, or of the commonest abilities, be watch- ed throughout a day, it is quite delightful to remark how cleverly he adapts his conduct to the various trifling unforeseen circum- stances which occur — how shrewdly, as through a labyrinth, he pursues his own interests, and with what nimbleness he can alter his plans, or, as it is vulgarly termed, change his mind, the in- stant it becomes advisable for him to do so. Appeal to him on any plain subject, and you find him gifted with quick perception, possessed with ready judgment, and with his mind sparkling with intelligence. Now, mix a dozen such men together, and intellect instantly begins to coagulate ; in short, by addition you have pro- duced subtraction. One man means what he cannot clearly ex- plain — another ably expresses what he did not exactly mean — one, while disputing his neighbor's judgment, neglects his own — another indolently reclines his head upon his neighbor's brain — one does not care to see — another forgets to foresee — in short, though any one pilot could steer the vessel into port, with twelve at the helm she inevitably runs upon the rocks. Now, instead of a dozen men, if anything be committed to the care, judgment, or honor of a large body, or, as it is not improperly termed, a " cor- poration " of men, their torpor, apathy, and sloth are indefinitely increased, and when, instead of a corporation, it be left to that nonentity, a whole nation — the total neglect it meets with is be- yond all remedy. In short, the individuals of a community, compared with the community itself, are like a swarm of bees, compared with bees that have swarmed or clung together in a lump, and as the countryman stands shaking the dull mass from the bough, one can scarcely believe that it is composed of little, active, intelligent, busy creatures, each armed with a sting as well as with knowledge, and arrangements which one can hardly sufficiently admire. If this theory be correct, it will account at once for our unfortunate system of education in England, which being everybody's duty, is therefore nobody's duty, and which, like ** The child whom many fathers share, Has never known a father's care." 54 BUBBLES. In the evening of a long, toilsome life, if a man were to be obliged solemnly to declare what, without any exception, has been the most lovely thing v/hich on the surface of this earth it has been his good fortune to witness, I conceive that, without hesita- tion, he might reply — The mind of a young child. Indeed, if we believe that creation, with all its charms, was beneficently made for man, it seems almost to follow that his mind, that mirror in which every minute object is to be reflected, must be gifted with a polish sufficiently high to enable it to receive the lovely and delicate images created for its enjoyment. Accordingly, we ob- serve with what delight a child beholds light — colors — flowers — fruit — and every new object that meets his eye ; and we all know that before his judgment be permitted to interfere, for many years he feels, or rather suffers, a thirst for information which is almost insatiable. He desires, and very naturally desires, to know what the moon is ? what are the stars ? — where the rain, wind, and storm come from ? With innocent simplicity he asks, what becomes of the light of a candle when it is blown out ? Any story or any his- tory he greedily devours ; and so strongly does his youthful mind retain every sort of image impressed upon it, that it is well known his after life is often incapable of obliterating the terror depicted there by an old nurse's tale of ghosts, and hobgoblins of dark- ness. Now with their minds in this pure, healthy, voracious state, the sons of all our noblest families, and of the most estimable people of the country, are, after certain preparations, eventually sent to those slaughter-houses of the understanding, our public schools, where, weaned from the charms of the living world, they are nailed to the study of two dead languages — like galley-slaves, they are chained to these oars, and are actually flogged if they neglect to labor. Instead of imbibing knowledge suited to their youthful age, they are made to learn the names of Actaeon's hounds — to study the life of Alexander's horse — to know the fate of Alcibiades's dog ; — in short, it is too well known that Dr. Lem- priere made 3000Z. a-year by the sale of a dictionary, in which he had amassed, " for the use of schools," tales and rubbish of this description. The poor boy at last "gets," as it is termed, " into SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 135 Ovid," where he is made to study everything which human inge- nuity could invent to sully, degrade, and ruin the mind of a young person. The Almighty Creator of the universe is caricatured by a set of grotesque personages, termed gods and goddesses, so grossly sensual, so inordinately licentious, that were they to-day to appear in London, before sunset they would probably be every one of them where they ought to be — at the tread-mill. The poor boy, however, must pore over all their amours, natural and unna- tural ; — he must learn by heart the birth, parentage, and educa tion of each, with the biography of their numerous offspring, earthly as well as unearthly. He must study love-letters from the heavens to the earth, and metamorphoses which have almost all some low, impure object. The only geography he learns is *^ the world known to the ancients." Although a member of the first maritime nation on the globe, he learns no nautical science but that possessed by people who scarcely dared to leave their shores : all his knowledge of military life is that childish picture of it which might fairly be entitled "war without gunpowder." But even the little which on these subjects he does learn, is so mixed up with fable, that his mind gets puzzled and debilitated to such a degree, that he becomes actually unable to distinguish truth from falsehood ; and when he reads that Hannibal melted the Alps with vinegar, he does not know whether it be really true or not. In this degraded state, with the energy and curiosity of their young minds blunted — actually nauseating the intellectual food which they had once so naturally desired, a whole batch of boys at the age of about fourteen* are released from their schools to go on board men-of-war, where they are to strive to become the heroes of their day. They sail from their country ignorant of almost everything that has happened to it since the days of the * At this age I myself left my classical school, scarcely knowing the name of a single river in the new world— tired almost to death of the history of the Ilissus. In after life I entered a river of America more than five times as broad as from Dover to Calais — and with respect to the Hissus, which had received in my mind such distorted importance, I will only say, that I have repeatedly walked across it in about twenty seconds, without wetting my ankles. 136 BUBBLES. Romans — having been obliged to look upon all the phenomena of nature, as well as the mysteries of art, without explanation, their curiosity for information on such subjects has subsided. They lean against the capstan, but know nothing of its power — they are surrounded by mechanical contrivances of every sort, but under- stand them no more than they do the stars in the firmament. They steer from one country to another, ignorant of the customs, manners, prejudices, or languages of any ; they know nothing of the effect of climate — it requires almost a fever to drive them from the sun ; in fact, they possess no practical knowledge. The first lesson they learn from adversity is their own guiltless ignorance, and no sooner are they in real danger, than they discover how ill spent has been the time they have devoted to the religion of the heathen — how vain it is in affliction to patter over the names of Actseon and his hounds ! That in spite of all these disadvantages, a set of high-bred, noble-spirited young men eventually become, as they really do, an honor to their country, is no proof that their early education has not done all in its power to prevent them. But, to return to those we left at our public schools. As these boys rise, they become, as we all know, more and more conversant in the dead languages, until the fatal period arrives, when, proudly laden with these two panniers, they proceed to one of our universities. Arriving, for instance, at Oxford, they find a splendid high street, magnificently illuminated with gas, filled with handsome shops, traversed by the mail, macadamized, and, like every other part of our great commercial country, beaming with modern intelligence. In this street, however, they are not permitted to reside, but, conducted to the right and left, they meander among mouldering monastic-looking buildings, until they reach the cloisters of the particular college to which they are sentenced to belong. By an ill-judged misnomer, they are from this moment encouraged, even by their preceptors, to call each other men ; and a man of seventeen, " too tall for school,'' talks of another man of eighteen, as gravely as I always mention the name of my prototype Methuselah. What their studies are will sufflciently appear from what is required of them, when they come before the public as candidates for their degrees. At this exami- SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 137 nation, which is to give them, throughout their country, the rank of finished scholars, these self-entitled iiien are gravely examined first of all in Divinity, — and then, as if in scorn of it, almost in the same breath, they descant about the God of this vice, and the God of that ; in short, they are obliged to translate any two heathen authors in Latin, and any other two in Greek, they themselves may select. They are next examined in Aristotle's moral philoso- phy, and their examination, like their education, being now con- cluded, their minds being now decreed to be brimfull, they are launched into their respective grades of society, as accomplished, polished men, who have reaped the inestimable advantages of a good classical education. But it is not these gentlemen I presume to ridicule ; on the contrary, I firmly believe that the 1200 stu- dents, who at one time are generally at Oxford, are as high- minded, as highly talented, as anxious to improve themselves, as handsome, and, in every sense of the word, as fine a set of lads as can anywhere be met with in a body on the face of the globe. I also know that all our most estimable characters, all the most enlightened men our country has ever produced, have, generally speaking, been members of one of our universities ; but, in spite of all this, will any reasonable being seriously maintain that the workmanship has been eTJual to the materials ? I mean, that their education has been equal to themselves ? Let any one weigh what they have not learnt against what they have, and he will find that the difference is exactly that which exists between creation itself and a satchel of musty books. I own they are skilfully conversant in the latter ; I own that they have even deserved prizes for having made verses in imitation of Sappho — odes in imitation of Horace — epigrams after the model of the Anthologia, as well as after the mode of Martial ; but what has the university taught them of the former ? Has it even in- formed them of the discovery of America ? Has it given them the power of conversing with the peasant of any one nation in Europe ? Has it explained to them any one of the wonderful works of creation ? Has it taught them a single invention of art ? Has it shown the young landed proprietor how to measure the smallest field on his estate ? Has it taught him even the first rudiments of economy ? Has it explained to him the principle of 138 BUBBLES. a common pump ? Has it fitted him in any way to stand in that distinguished situation which by birth and fortune he is lionestly entitled to hold ? Has it given him any agricultural information, any commercial knowledge, any acquaintance with mankind, or with business of any sort or kind ; and lastly, has it made him modestly sensible of his own ignorance ? — or has it, on the con- trary, done all in its power to make him feel not only perfectly satisfied with his own acquirements, but contempt for those whose minds are only filled with plain useful knowledge ? But it will be proudly argued, " The University has taught HIM Divinity !" In theory, I admit it may have done so ; but, in all his terms, has the student practically learnt as much of Omnipotence as the hurricane could explain to him in five minutes ? To teach young lads the simple doctrines of Christi- anity, is it advisable to hide from their minds creation ? Is it advisable to allow them to remain out of their colleges till mid- night ? But taking leave of the university, let us, for a moment, consider the political effects of its cramped, short-sighted, narrow- minded system. On quitting their colleges, our young men, instead of being sensible that, although they have read much that is ornamental, their education has scrupulously avoided all that is useful — instead of modestly feeling that they have to make up for lost time, and to fight their way from nothing to distinction, like sub- altern officers in our army, or like midshipmen in the navy, they have very great reason to consider that, far from being literary vessels, rudely put together, they are launched into society as perfect as a frigate from its dock ! With respect to the drudgery of gaining honors, they feel that they already possess them, can produce them, and true enough, they show 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class honors, which are as current in the country as the coin of the realm ; and with respect to their education being imperfect, by universal consent, it has for centuries been coupled with the most flattering adjectives ; — it is termed polite — elegant — accomplished — good — complete — excellent — regular — classical, &c., &c. In literary creation these young men conceive that they are luminaries, not specks — orna- ments, not blemishes ! not merely in their own opinions, but by SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 139 universal consent and acclamation. Their political place is unde- niably, therefore, the helm, not before tlie mast ; they are to guide, conduct, steer the vessel of the state, not ignobly labor at its oar ! Accordingly, when they take their places in both houses of Parliament, plunging at once into their own native element, they rise up in the immediate presence of noblemen and gentlemen who not only boast of having received exactly the same education as themselves, but who, as youths, have proudly won the self-same honors which they enjoy ; and I here very humbly beg leave again to repeal, that because our Parliament maintains, and always has maintained, a front rank of men of undaunted resolution, tran- scendant abilities, brilliant natural genius, and clear, comprehen- sive, enlightened minds, it does not follow that the system of our public schools and universities must necessarily be practically good. On the contrary, it only proves that human institutions can no more extinguish the native virtue, talent, and integrity of a country, than they can hide from the world the light of the sun ; but education can misdirect, though it cannot annihilate ; it can give the national mind a hankering for unwholesome instead of wholesome food, — it can encourage a passion for useless instead of useful information. On its course high-bred lads may be trained to race against each other, until the vain object they have strived for can never in after-life re-appear, but their blood warms within them. Now supposing, for a single moment, that English education be admitted to be as useless and dangerous as I have endeavored to describe it, let us consider what might naturally be expected to be its practical political effects. In our two houses of Parliament, classical eloquence would unavoidably become the order of the day, and classical allusions, when neatly expressed, would always receive that heartfelt cheer which even the oldest among us are unable to withhold from what reminds us of the pleasures and attachments of our early days. Thus encouraged, young statesmen would feel their power rather than their inexperience ; and, with their minds stored v/ith knowledge declared to possess intrinsic value, they would not be very backward in displaying it. Language, rather than matter, would thus become the object of emulation — speeches 140 BUBBLES. would swell into orations — and, in this contention and conflict of genius, men of cleverness, ready wit, brilliant imagination, reten- tive memory, caustic reply, and last, though not least, soundness of constitution, would rise to the surface, far above those who, with much deeper reflection, much heavier sense, more sterling knowledge, and more powerful judgment, were yet found to be wanting in activity in their parts of speech. Baflled, therefore, in their laconic attempts to expound their uninteresting, ledger-like, unfashionable opinions, this useful class of men would probably, by silence or otherwise, retire from the unequal contest, which would become more and more of an art, until extraordinary talent was required to carry political questions so plain and simple, that were votes to be given by any set of humdrum men, there would scarcely be a difference in their opinions. In the midst of this civil war, a young man, scarcely one-and- twenty, would be very likely rapidly to rise to be the Prime Minister of our great commercial country ! for although, if this world teaches us any one moral, it is, that youth and inexperience are synonymous ; yet when talent only be the palm, surely none have better right to contend for it than the young ! Seated on the exalted pinnacle which he has most fairly and honorably attained, if not by general acclamation, at least by the applauding voice of the majority, he must, of course, stand against the intellectual tempest which has unnaturally brought a person of his age to the surface. Accordingly, by the main strength of his youthful genius, by his admitted superiority of talent, this beardless pilot would probably triumphantly maintain his place at the helm — requiring, however, support from those of his admirers most approaching in eloquence to himself. To obtain the services of some great orator, he would ( copying the system of his opponents) be induced to appoint a man, for instance, Secretary for the Colonies, who on this earth had never reached the limits even of its temperate zone ; another, who had not heard a shot fired, or even seen a shell in the air, would, perhaps, be created Master-General of our Ordnance ; in short, talent being the weapon or single-stick of Parliament, he would, like others before him, arm himself with it at any cost, and thus reign triumphant. SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 141 However, without supposing such an extreme case, let us fearlessly recall to mind a miserable fact almost of yesterday. In the fatal year 1825, the British government conceived the purely classical and highly poetical idea of " bringing a new world into existence !" Most people will remember with what flowery eloquence the elegant project was laid before Parliament, and how loudly and generally it was cheered — the blind were led by the blind — all our senators being equally charmed at the splendid possibility of their thus politically dabbling in creation. The truth or moral, however, came upon us at last, like the simoom upon the traveller who ignorantly ventures on the deserts of Africa. The country almost foundered, and though she has to a certain degree recovered from the shock, yet thousands of v/idows, orphans, and people of small incomes, are to this day, in indigence and sorrow, secretly lamenting the hour in which the high-flown but ignorant parliamentary project was disseminated. The charity, pater-noster system of education pursued to this day at our universities and public schools has produced other his- torical facts, which it is now equally out of our power to oblite- rate, atone for, or deny. For instance, we all know that in five years Charles II. touched 23,601 of his subjects for the evil : — that our bishops invented (just as Ovid wrote his " Metamor- phoses") a sort of heathen service for the occasion ; — that the unchristianlike, superstitious ceremony was performed in public ; and that as soon as prayers were ended, we are told, " The Duke of Buckingham hrouglii a towel, and the Earl of Pembroke a basin and ewer, who, after they had made obeisance to his Majesty, kneeled down till his Majesty had washed.^' Again, everybody knows that Amy Drury and her daughter, eleven years of age, were tried before " the great and good Sir Matthew Hale," then Lord Chief Baron, for witchcraft, and Avere convicted and executed at Bury St. Edmund's principally on the evidence of Sir Thomas Brown, one of the first physicians and scholars of his day : also that Dr. Wiseman, an eminent surgeon of that period, in writing on scrofula, says — " However, I must needs profess that His Majesty [Charles II,) cureth more in any one year than all the chirurgeons of London have done in an age.'' The above degrading facts are moral tragedies, which were 142 BUBBLES. not acted in a dark corner, by a few obscure strolling individuals — • not even by any great political faction, — but the audience was the British nation — the performers the King on his throne — the bishops, the nobility, the judges, the physicians, the philosophers of the day. In short, theory and practice, hand in hand, both prove to the whole world the double error in our system of education. Says theory — if young people, instead of being taught to look at the ground under their feet, at the heaven above their head, or at creation around them, are forced by the rod to study events that never happened, speeches that never were made, metamorphoses that never took place, forms of worship and creeds ridiculous and impious, such a nation must inevitably grow up narrow-minded, ignorant, superstitious, and cruel. Says practice — this prophecy has been most fatally fulfilled ; and in England, people have believed in witchcraft — have put savage faith in the King's touch — and, under the name of a mild and merciful religion, they have burnt each other to ashes at the stake ! The mute steadiness of British troops under fire, — the total want of bluster or bravado in our naval actions — where, as we all know, ** There is silence deep as death. And the boldest holds his breath For a time," — the laconic manner in which business all over England is trans- acted (millions being exchanged with little more than a nod of assent) — in short, our national respect for silent conduct — form a most extraordinary contrast with the flatulent eloquence of our parliamentary debates. But to return to our houses of Parliament : shall we now pro- ceed to calculate what would be the expense of such a system of government or misgovernment as that which has just been shown to have proceeded, not from the imbecility of individuals, but from the system of false education maintained by our public schools and universities ? No ! No ! for the history of our coun- try has already solved this great problem, and, at this moment, does it record to our posterity, as well as promulgate to the whole world, that the expense of a great mercantile nation, SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 143 looking behind it instead of before it — the price of its statesnnen studying ancient poets instead of modern discoveries — of mistak- ing the " orbis veteribus cognitus" for the figure of the earth, amounts to neither more nor less than a national debt of eighi HUNDRED MILLIONS of English pounds sterling ! In short, economy having fatally been classed at our universities among the vulgai arts, the current expenses of our statesmen have naturally enough been ordered to be put down to their children, just as their college bills were carelessly ordered to be forwarded to their fathers. However, so long as a nation is willing to purchase at the above enormous, or at any still greater price, the luxury of reading Greek and Latin poetry, the misfortune at first appears to be only pecuniary ; and it might almost further be argued, that a nation, like an individual, ought to be allowed to squander its money according to its own whim or fancy ; but, though this may or may not be true so far as our money be concerned, yet there is an event which must arrive, and in England this event has just ARRIVED, when a continuance of such a mode of education must inevitably destroy our church, aristocracy, funds ; in short, every- thing which a well-disposed mind loves, venerates, and is desirous to uphold. The fearful event to which 1 allude is that of the lower classes of people becoming enlightened. In spite of all that party spirit angrily asserts to the contrary, most firmly do I believe that there does not exist, in England, any revolutionary spirit worth being afraid of. In a rich commercial country, the idle, the profligate, and the worthless will always be anxious to level the well-earned honors, as well as plunder the wealth amassed by the brave, intelligent, and industrious ; but every respectable member of society, with the coolness of judgment natural to our country, must feel that he possesses a stake, and enjoys advantages, which I firmly believe he is highly desirous to maintain ; in fact, not only the good feeling, but the good sense of the country, support the fabric of our society, which we all know, like the army, derives its spirit from possessing various honors (never mind whether they be of intrinsic value or not) which we are all more or less desirous to obtain. 144 BUBBLES. But if those who wear these honors degrade themselves — if our upper classes culpably desert their own standards — if they shall continue to insist on giving to their children an elegant, useless education, while the tradesman is filling his son with steady useful knowledge — if our aristocracy, with the Ghoul's horrid taste, will obstinately feed itself on dead languages, while the lower classes are greedily digesting fresh wholesome food — if writing, arithmetic, modern geography, arts, sciences, and dis- coveries of all sorts are to continue (as they hitherto have con- tinued) to be most barbarously disregarded at our public schools and universities, while they are carefully attended to and studied by the poor — the moment must arrive when the dense population of our country will declare that they can no longer afford to be governed by classical statesmen ; and, with an equally honest feeling, they will further declare, they begin to find it difficult to look up to the people who have ceased to be morally their supe- riors. That the lower orders of people in England are rising not only in their own estimation, but in the honest opinion of the world, is proved by the singular fact, that the wood-cuts of our " Penny Magazine^^ (so rapidly printed by one of Clowes's great steam presses) are sent, in stereotype, to Germany, France, and Belgium, where they are published, as with us, for the instruc- tion of the lower classes. The same Magazine is also sent to America (page for page) stereotyped. The common people of England are thus proudly disseminating their knowledge over the surface of the globe ; while our upper classes, by an in- fatuation which, without any exception, is the greatest pheno- menon in the civilized world, are still sentencing their children to heathen, obscene, and useless instruction ; and, though it has beneficently been decreed " Let there be light !" our universi- ties seriously maintain that the religious as well as moral wel- fare of this noble commercial country depends upon its continuing in intellectual darkness. It is now much too late in the day to argue whether the educa- tion of the lower classes be a political advantage or not. One might as well stand on the Manchester Rail-road to stop its train as to endeavor to prevent that. The people, whether we like it or not, WILL be enlightened ; and therefore, without bewailing the SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS^ BATH. 145 disorder, our simple and oi-^ly remedy is, by resolutely breaking up the system of <3ur public schools and universities, to show the people that we have nobly determined to become enlightened too. The English gentleman (a name which, in the army, navy, hunting-field, or in any other strife or contention, has always shown itself able to beat men of low birth) will then hold his giound in the estimation of his tenants, and continue to inhabit his estate. The English nobleman and the noble Englishman will continue to be synonymous — ^a well educated clergy will con- tinue to be revered— the throne, as it hitherto hath been, will be loyally supported — our mercantile honor will be saved — the hopes OF THE RADICAL WILL BE IRRETRIEVABLY RUINED and, whcn the misty danger at which we now tremble has brightened into intellectual sunshine, remaining, as we must do (so long as we continue to be the most industrious), the wealthiest and first com- mercial nation on the globe, we shall remember, and history will transmit to our children, that old-fashioned prophecy of Falcon- bridge, which so truly says, *•* Naught shall make us rue, If Enorland to itself do rest but true." I had retired to rest much pleased with Schlangenbad and all that belonged to it, when about midnight I was awakened by a general slamming of doors, windows, and shutters, occasioned by a most violent gale of wind, and on opening my eyes, the bright moonlight scene, which, without even moving my head, I beheld, was mysteriously grand and imposing. Although the moon, which had just risen, was, as I lay, not discernible through my windows, yet its silvery light beamed so strongly that the two lit- tle whitewashed mill-cottages in the valley seemed to be even bright- er than I had observed them during the day. But what particu- larly attracted my attention was the apparent writhing of those great hills which, as if they had only just been rent asunder, hemmed me in. Every tree on them was bending and waving from the violence of the squall, and as cloud after cloud rapidly hurried across the moon, sometimes obscuring and then suddenly restoring to my view the strange prospect, the uncertainty of this 11 146 BUBBLES, undulating movement gave a supernatiiral appearance to the scene^ which more resembled the fiction of a dream, or of a romance, than any possible efTect of wind on trees. The clean, glistening foliage seemed scarcely able to stand against, the gale, which still continued to increase, until a loud peal of thunder, followed by a few heavy drops, announced a calm, which Avas no sooner estab- lished than the light of the moon appeared to be converted by na- ture into a heavy deluge of rain. For some few moments I listened, I believe, to the refreshing sound, and to the rushing of the stream beneath me, but as the darkness around me increased, my eyes closed, and I again dropped off to sleep. The little society of Sehlangenbad, like that of most of the towns and villages in this part of Germany, is composed of Luthe- rans, Catholics, and Jews. The former sects have each a place of worship allotted to them in the Old Bad-Haus or Nassauer-Hof, and their two chambers, standing nearly opposite to each other, remind me very strongly of those twin- roads which in England often lead from one little country town to another. On each is the stranger invited to travel — one boasts that it is the nearest by half a quarter of a mile, the other brags that " it avoids the hill." Such is the distinction between the two Chris- tian sects at Sehlangenbad ; — both start from the same point — both strain for the same goal, and yet they querulously refuse to travel together ! After having spent two or three days in rambling up and down the valley, searching for and admiring its sequestered beauties, like Rasselas, I felt anxious to scale the mountains which surround- ed me, and accordingly inquired for a path, which, I was told, would extricate me from my happy valley ; however, after I had con- tinued on it some way, fancying I could attain the summit by a shorter cut, I attempted to ascend the mountain by a straight course. For some time I appeared to succeed pretty well, feeling every moment encouraged at observing how high I had risen above the grassy valley beneath ; however, the mountain grew steeper and the trees thicker and larger, until I began to find that I had a much heavier job on my hands than I had bargained for : never- theless, upward I proceeded, winding my way through some mag- nificent oak timber, until at last I attained actually the top of the SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 147 mountain : yet so surrounded was I by trees, that, very much to my disappointment, I found it impossible to see ten yards before me. For a considerable distance I walked along the ridge, hop- ing to fmd some gap or open spot which w^ould enable me to get a glimpse of the country beneath me, but in vain ; for, go where I would, I was like a reptile crawling through a field of standing corn ; in short, nothing could I see but trees, and even they ap- peared to be of no value, as a great number of stately oaks were in every direction rotting just as if they were beyond the reach and ken of mankind. As I was winding between these timber trees, hoping, at least, to see deer or wild game of some sort, it began to rain, and though I had no disposition on that account to abandon my object, yet absolutely not knowing where to seek it, I was almost in despair, when it suddenly occurred to me to climb one of the trees ; and the idea had no sooner entered my head, than I felt quite angry with myself for not having thought of it before : however, I was some little time before I could find one to suit, for to swarm up the large body of one of the great oaks would have been quite impossible. As soon as I found a tree adapted to my purpose and my powers, I climbed it in spite of the rain, and I was no sooner in the position of King Charles the Second, than I witnessed one of the most splendid views that can be well conceived. Beneath me was the Rhine, glistening and meandering in its course, while nearly opposite and beneath me lay Bingen, which appeared to be basking on the banks of a lake. Almost every one who has travelled on the Rhine speaks in raptures of this part of it, yet the view I enjoyed, seated on the limb of my tree, was altogether superior to what they could have witnessed, because at one view I beheld the beauties that they had only successively ad- mired. The hills on which I was placed were clothed to their summits with foliage, feathering down to the very water's edge ; and instead of the little portion of the river, which, as one niggles along, is seen bit by bit from the steam-boat, its whole course seemed to be displaying itself to my view. The opposite shore was comparatively flat, and as far as I could see, a boundless fertile wine country appeared to extend there. The shower which was still falling in heavy drops upon my tree, only belong 148 BUBBLES. ed to the mountain on which it stood, for the whole country and river beneath were basking in sunshine. It was really delightful to enjoy at once the sight of so many beautiful objects, and I hardly knew whether to admire most the lovely little islands which seemed floating at anchor in the Rhine, or the vast expanse of continent which was prostrate before me ; but without continu- ing the description, any one who will only look on his map for Bin- gen, and then imagine an old man seated in the clouds above it, will perceive what a salient angle I occupied, and what a magni- ficent prospect I enjoyed. As soon as I had imbibed a sufficient dose of it, I commenced my descent, which was of course easy enough when compared with the fatigue I had suffered in attaining the object. The trees were dripping, and the mossy surface of the ground made my feet equally wet ; however, rapidly descending, T soon got first a glimpse of my own window in the New Bad-Haus, then a peep at the little quiet mills whose wheels I saw slowly turning under the clear bright water that sparkled above them ; and really when I at last got down to the green secluded valley of Schlangenbad, I felt that I would not exchange its peaceful tranquillity for the possession of all the splendid objects I had just witnessed. Yet in viewing this humble scene, as well as in revelling over that magnificent prospect where space and wood seemed to be in- finite, the very air smelling of health and freedom, there was a small feature in the picture which often gave me very painful re- flections. There are, perhaps, many who will say, that two or three peasants' roofs are specks, which (whatever sad secrets may lie hidden beneath them) ought not to disturb the mind of the spectator, being objects much too insignificant to be worthy of his notice ; yet the more I admired the splendor of the mountain scenery, — the more the verdant valley seemed to rejoice, — the more the wild deer, dashing by me, appeared to enjoy the rich gifts of creation, — the more difficult did I find it to forget the ab- ject poverty of the two or three poor families which were inhabit- ing this smiling valley ; and (on the principleof not muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn) it certainly did seem to me hard, that, surrounded as these poor people are by an almost boundless forest of timber trees, quantities of ^vhich, stag-headed, are actu- SCHLANGENBAD ; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 149 ally returning to the dust from which they sprung, they should, by the laws of their country, be rigidly forbidden to collect fuel to cheer the inclemency of the winter, or even with their fingers to tear up a little wild grass beneath the trees for their cow. Considering that the storm, like the wind, cometh where it list- eth, afflicting the poor man even more than the well-sheltered rich one, it seems hard, in districts so nearly uninhabited, that when the oak tree is levelled with the ground, the mountain pea- sant who has weathered the gale should be prevented from plun- dering this wreck of the desolate forest in which he has been born. Nevertheless, that such is the case, will be but too evident from the following short extracts from a very long list of forest penal- ties, rigidly enforced by the Duke of Nassau : — FOREST PENALTIES. Fine. T^ 1 J r J ^ a child , 34 kreuzers.* For a load of sear wood < r^T ^"^^*''' X ui a iuau ux ocai vvv^uci ^ groWIl-Up perSOH ', 54 do. If it be green wood, the fine is doubled. T-, 1 J \c J J 1 (a child 26 to 28 kreuzers. For a load of dead leaves ^ g,„,^„.„p p,,,^^ 46 t„ 48 For a load of green grass ( a child 30 do. torn up by the hand. ( grown-up person 50 do. Should a sickle or scythe be used, the fine then becomes doubled ; like- wise for a second trespass ; for a third, imprisonment ensues. It is against the Duke's law to take birds' nests ; even those of birds of prey cannot be taken without the permission of the keeper of the forests. For a nest taken of common singing birds, 5 florins. For nightingales 15 do. Should the nest be taken out of a pleasure ground, the fine then becomes doubled. It may appear to many people quite impossible that these pen- alties can be enforced in desolate districts so nearly uninhabited : nevertheless, by a sort of diamond-cut-diamond system, the Duke's forest officers have various cunning ways of detecting those who infringe them ; and the fact is, that fuel and wild grass are very often wanting in a solitary hovel absolutely environed by both. I myself was one day told that I had become liable to be fined * Three kreuzers make one penny English ; sixty kreuzers (or Is, 8d.) make one florin. 150 BUBBLES. eighteen kreuzers, because in a reverie I had allowed a rough pony I was riding to bend his head down and eat a few mouthfuls of grass ; and another day, seeing a man who was driving the ass I was riding rub with mud the end of a switch he had just cut, I w^as told by him, in answer to my inquiry, that he did so that it might not be proved he had cut it. However, lest these trifling data should not be deemed sufficient proof, I will at once add, that I have myself seen the peasants lying in the Duke's prison for having offended against these petty laws. I took some pains to inquire what possible objection there could be to the poor people collecting a few dead leaves, or the rank wild grass which grows here and there all over the forest, and I was told that both of these by rotting are supposed to manure the trees, yet, as I have already stated, quantities of the largest timber are to be seen decaying in every direction. In a crowded, populous country, all descriptions of property must be clearly distinguished and most sternly protected, but in a state of nature, or in districts so nearly approaching to it as many part of Nassau, the same rule is not applicable — the same neces- sity does not exist ; and under such circumstances the punishment inflicted upon a child for tearing up for his mother's cow wild grass with his hands most certainly is (and who can deny it ?) greater than the oflence. It is with no hostile or bad feeling towards the Duke of Nassau that I mention these details : he is a personage much beloved in his duchy, and I believe with great reason is he respected there, yet his forest laws no one surely can admire ; and though custom certainly has sanctioned them — though the humbler voice of those who have suffered under them has hitherto been too feeble to reach his ears, — and though those about his court and person are but little disposed to awaken his attention to such mean complaints, — yet no one can calmly see and foresee the state of political feel- ing in Germany without admitting that the most humble traveller (and why not an English one ?) may render the Duke of Nassau a friendly service, by bringing into daylight, unveiled by flattery, an act of oppression in his government, which, while it has most probably escaped his attention, is seditiously hoarded up by his political enemies to form part of that fulcrum which they are SCHLANGENBAD; OR, THE SERPENTS' BATH. 151 secretly working at, in order to effect by it, if possible, his down- fall. A grievance, like a wound, often only requires to be laid open to be cured ; whereas if, deeply seated, it be concealed from view, like gunpowder imbedded in a rock, when once the spark doss reach it, it explodes with a violence proportionate to the power which would vainly have attempted to smother it in .he eartk. 152 BUBBLES. NIEDER-SELTERS. Having in various countries drunk so much and heard so much of the celebrated refi'e&hing Selters or Selzer water, I determined one lovely morning to exchange the pleasure of rambling about the woods of Schlangenbad for the self-imposed duty of visiting the brunnen of Nieder-Selters : accordingly, I managed to procure a carriage, and with three post-horses away I trotted, sitting as up- right and as full of exuberant enjoyment a& our great departed lexicographer in his hack chaise. The macadamized road on which I travelled, with the sight of men and boys sitting by its side, spitefully cracking with slight hammers little stones upon flat big ones, might easily have reminded me of old England ; but five women, each carrying on her head sixteen large stone bottles of Schlangenbad water to wash the feces of the ladies of Schwalbach — the dress of three peasants with long pipes in their mouths — a little cart drawn by two cows — the Prince of Saxe Coburg in a I'ough carriage pulled by horses without blinkers and in rope harness — an immense mastiff, driving before him to be slaughtered a calf not a week old, and scarcely as high as him- self — all these trifling incidents, combined with the magnificent outline of wooded hills which towered above the road, constantly reminded me that I was still under the political roof, and in the dominions of ^' The Duke/^ On arriving at Schwalbach, I learned that the remainder of the journey, which was to occupy six hours, was to be performed on roads which, in the English language, are termed so very properly " cross." Accordingly, passing under the great barren hill appropriated to the Schwein-General of Langen-Schwalbach^ we followed for some time the course of a green grassy valley. NIEDER-SELTERS. 153 the herbage of which had just been cut for the second time ; and then getting into a country nauch afflicted with hills, the horses were either straining to ascend them, or suffering equally severely in the descent. In many places the road was hardly as broad as the carriage, and as there was generally a precipice on one side, I might occasionally have felt a little nervous had it not been for sundry jolts happily just violent enough to prevent the mind think- ing of anything else. Passing the Misenhammer, a water-mill lifting an immense hammer, which forges iron by its fall (a lion v/hich the water- drinkers of Schwalbach generally visit), I proceeded through the village of Neuhof to Wurges, where we changed horses, and, what was still more important, bartered an old postilion for a young one. For a considerable time our road ascended, passing through woods and park-like plantations belonging to the Duke of Nassau's hunt- ing seat '- Die Platte ;" at last we broke away from these coverts which had environed us, traversing a vast, undulating, unen- closed country, furrowed by ravines and deep valleys, many of which we descended and ascended. The principal crops were potatoes, barley, oats, rye, and v/heat, — the three former being perfectly green, the two latter completely ripe ; and as it hap- pened, from some reason or other, that these sets of crops were generally sown on the same sort of land, it constantly occurred that the entire produce of some hill wore the green dress of spring, while other eminences were as wholly clothed in the rich dusky garments of autumn. The harvest, hov/ever, not having commiCnced, and the villages being, generally speaking, hidden in the ravines, the crops often seemed to be without owners. Descending, however, into valleys, we occasionally passed through several very large villages, which were generally paved, or rather studded with paving stones ; and as the carriage-wheels hopped from one to another, the sensation (being still too fresh in my memory) I had rather decline to describe : suffice to say, that the painful excitation vividly expressed in my countenance must have formed an odd contrast with the dull, heavy, half-asleep faces, which, as if raised from the grave by the rattling of my springs as well as joints, just showed themselves at the windows, as if to scare me as I passed. From poverty, their thin mountain 154 BUBBLES. air and meagre food, the inhabitants of all these villages looked dreadfully wan, and really there was a want of animation among the young people, as well as the old, which it was quite distress- ing to witness ; the streets seemed nearly deserted, while the mud houses, with their unpainted windows, appeared to be as dry and cheerless as their inmates : here and there were to be seen child- ren, with hair resembling in color and disorder a bunch of flax — but no youthful mierriment, no playfulness — in short, they were evidently sapless chips of the old wooden blocks, which were still gaping at me from the window- frames. At one of these solemn villages the postilion stopped at a '• gast-haus " to bait his horses. Odd as it may sound, it is never- theless true, that German post-horses have seldom what we should term bridles. Snaffle-bits, ending with T's instead of rings, being put into their mouths, are hooked (by these T's) to iron billets in the head-pieces of common stable-halters, by which arrangement, to feed the animals, it is only necessary, without taking them from the carriage, to unhook one end of the bits, which immedi- ately fall from their mouths ; a slight trough, on four legs, is then placed before them, and the traveller generally continues, as I did, to sit in his carriage watching the horses voraciously eating up slices of black rye bread. In England, there is no surer recipe known for making a pair of horses suddenly run away with one's carriage, than by taking off their blinkers to allow them to see it ; but though our method decidedly suits us the best, yet in Germany the whole system of managing horses from beginning to end is completely different from ours. Whether there is most of the horse in a German, or of the German in a horse, is a nice point on which people might argue a great deal ; but the broad fact really is, that Germans live on more amicable terms with their horses, and understand their dis- positions infinitely better than the English : in short, they treat them as horses, while we act towards them, and drill them, as if they were men ; and in case any one should doubt that Germans are better horse-masters than we are, I beg to remind them of what is perfectly well-known to the British army — namely, that in the Peninsular war the cavalry horses of the German legion NIEDER-SELTERS. 155 were absolutely fat, while those of our regiments were skin and bone. In a former chapter I have already endeavored to explain, that instead of reining a horse's head up, as we do, for draught, the Germans encourage the animal to keep it down ; but besides this, in all their other arrangements they invariably attend to the tem- per, character, and instinct of the beast. For instance, in harness they intrust these sensible animals (who are never known to forget what they have once seen) with the free use of their eyes. Their horses see the wheel strike a stone, and th-ey avoid the next one ; if they drag the carriage against a post, they again observe the effect ; and seeing at all times what is behind them, they know that by kicking they would hurt themselves ; wben passengers and postilion dismount, from attentive observation they are as sensible as we are that the draught will suddenly become less, and conseqiently, rejoicing at being thus left to themselves, instead of wishing to run away, they invariably are rather disposed to stand «till. As soon as, getting tired, or, as we are often too apt to term it, ^^ lazy," they see the postilion threaten them with his whip, they know perfectly well the limits of his patience, and that after eight, ten, or twelve threats, there will come a blow : as they travel along, one eye is always shrewdly watohing the driver — the moment he begins the beavy operation of lighting his pipe, they immediately slacken their pace, knowing, as well as Archi- medes could have proved, that he cannot strike fire and them at the same time *: every movement in the carriage they remark ; :and to any accurate observer wbo meets a German vehicle, it must often be perfectly evident that the poor horses know and feel, even better than himself, that they are drawing a coachman, and three heavy baronesses with their maid, and that to do that on a hot summer's day is — no joke. When their driver urges them to proceed, he does it by degrees ; and they are stopped, not as bipeds, but in the manner quadrupeds would stop themselves. Now, though we all like our own way best, let us for a mo- •fpent (merely while tlie horses are feeding)