The wheelwright had already my carriage, and the surgeon my servant, in their hands. The mechanic undertook the speedy renovation of the chaise, for a hint from the all-powerful Schulze sufficed to make him lay all other work aside. The surgeon had put Kunz's arm in its place again, but it was excessively swollen, and at least a week's quiet was pronounced necessary for him. As far as I was personally concerned, I was well pleased with the delay. Engelbert and his family were well worthy of a visit on purpose. sphere of action for my mental powers. I live apart from the splendid misery of a corrupt refinement, but not from the nobler humanity. These are the great immortals! (pointing to his books.) To me lies open the bosom of Nature-the glory of God—the way of eternity What more should I ask or seek for ?? ?#{I I pressed his hand, but with some embarrassment, for I knew not well how to answer him. I might have said, You are an enthusiast. But he was in the right, and I felt it; and also that, in many of our social relations, we are abundantly absurd, and but too often sacrifice the real good of life to our conventional notions. I might have frankly admitted, You are in the right; but then I felt that he had wandered so widely from the accustomed path-his ideas and motives were so little in harmony with the ideas and motives of the age, from and with which I had been and still was acting-that a verbal acquiescence, while it was all I could give, would be of little value. Everything about this humourist interested me the more, because I was every hour more thoroughly convinced that to few mortals was assigned so large a portion of pure happiness as to him. His house, like that of every other peasant, stood in the midst of a well-ordered flower and kitchen garden. Within reigned the strictest cleanliness, and not simplicity alone, but down- I could not sufficiently admire his wonderful activity. right poverty. The sitting-room for the whole family He farmed on his own account, and took not merely a contained but chairs and tables of the plainest kind, a superintending but an actual share in the business of wooden clock, and a small looking-glass. Engelbert the farm. His office as Justice gave abundant employhimself, his wife, and children slept on mattresses stuffed ment, one might have thought, and yet it seemed to be with leaves and moss. The house linen was coarse, but merely a supplementary one to him. Every day he spent of a dazzling whiteness. The table service might have some hours alone in his study, and his two elder boys been used in a convent of Capuchins. When I insisted received instruction from him. These children were 1one one day upon dining with the family, they bade me wel- taught, all that were taught, thoroughly. The trees come, laughing, and warned me that my fare would not of the forest, the plants of the garden, the geology of the be sumptuous. The soup was excellent. We had one neighbourhood, were familiar to them, not only în appeardish of roast meat, and abundance of vegetables, young ance, but in their nature and properties. They called and well cooked. The bread was the common black them by their scientific names, for they had learned no bread; the only drink a kind of thin beer or water; and others. The prism, the magnet, the microscope, were that was the whole fare. And yet I thought I had familiar to them as their ordinary toys. The glorious never dined so well. The charming mother, surrounded map of the heavens was open to their constant observaby the five cherub heads; Engelbert, with his playful tion, and they had been early rendered familiar with the wisdom: the heartfelt happiness of all made a deep | impression on me. I confess I thought myself in Heaven, and felt provoked when Engelbert made himself merry with what he was pleased to call my sufferings as a town gourmand at his rustic table. The only expense of the house was in Engelbert's study. There he had a small but choice collection of books, maps in abundance, an electrifying machine, an air-pump, and other instruments of physical science. The study was also the school-room of the children and Augusta's boudoir, for here stood her piano, and in some of the empty drawers of her husband's cabinet she kept some finer articles of dress. starry host. var by bot As Engelbert took upon himself the education of the elder children and all out-door business, Augusta laboured in the same spirit in her department. As well as the usual household arrangements, the care and direction of all the land whose produce was destined for domestic supply; the corn, flax, hemp, &c.; the management of the horses, sheep, cattle, goats, &c., belonging to the farm, were superintended by her. Here she was absolute sovereign, and Engelbert laughingly acknowledged himself as subject. "But, after all, what I desire to know is, how you came here," said I to him one morning. I admit that all I see is admirable; yet, with your noble faculties, you might surely have done your country other and larger service than by becoming the Schulze of a paltry village.” He promised me an answer, and one fine Sunday morning, which he had promised to give up to me entirely, he came to fulfil his engagement. We went into the garden of the inn, which had been laid out in excellent taste for the visiters to the springs. The breakfast was prepared for us in a vine-canopied arbour, commanding a splendid view of the surrounding country. a Some coffee was brought for me, but Engelbert remained true to his rustic fare-milk and rye-bread. Jei a "And now," said he, when we had breakfasted, "I am ready to satisfy your curiosity. In the meantime, Augusta is busy with the children; afterwards we will take a walk, then we go to church. The pastor, and I left the University half a year later than you did, continued Engelbert. My guardian wished me to remain some time longer, but I put thirty louis d'ors in my pocket, and set off on a tour through Germany into Switzerland; thence I wandered into France. From Provence I crossed the sea to Naples, and came home through Rome and Vienna. Two louis d'ors, out of my thirty, I brought back with me, for I had travelled mostly on foot, lived chiefly on bread and water, with an occasional glass of wine, and slept in barns and outhouses for nothing. I returned home just as my guardian was thinking of advertising me in the newspapers. He was extremely displeased at my proceedings, but in my own opinion I had gained as much instruction in my pedestrian tour through foreign countries, as I should have done from the chair of a professor. I passed my examination: my aequirements were extolled, and I obtained an appointment in the Woods and Forests, (without salary, however,) by way of initiating me into public business. After the lapse of a year, I presented myself as a candidate for promotion in my line. My superiors eulogised my activity, but objected to my age. I was only just three-and-twenty. Good, thought I; if that be all, that is a fault that will mend every day. In another year I came again, and modestly proffered my claim to some Lilliputian office. "You have some property I understand, Mr. Engelbert?" said the President to me. "Why don't you dress better? You are really not presentable." "Your Excellency," I answered, "the State has a right to expect good service from me, but it has nothing to do with my clothes." His Excellency took my answer very much amiss, and I was dismissed with a cool bow. It happened about this time that there was a dispute between our Court and a neighbouring one respecting some secularised church property. The right was apparently on the side of the adverse, party; but I had by accident discovered in the archives of the Woods and Forests some documents which must inevitably decide the cause in our favour. I wrote thereupon a defence of the claim of our Court, printed it, together with the original document, and transmitted both to the minister to be laid before the King. My production had a great success. I received the order of merit; that is to say, anell of ribbon to dangle at my button-hole; and, as I afterwards heard, I was looked upon as a rising man. Unluckily, I did not know what to do with the ribbon, and sent it back again, with a respectful intimation that I had written neither for vanity nor any view to selfinterest, but simply from a love of justice; and that orders and ribbons were of no use to me. This brought down upon me the wrath of the whole army of ribbongivers and takers. His Excellency the President of the Woods and Forests told me plainly that he took me for a fool, that the Court was highly displeased, and that advancement was not to be thought of from that quarter. About the same time, I lost my guardian, who committed suicide when I attained my majority. The cause was made manifest soon enough, He had spent not only his own fortune, but the greatest part of mine. I was heartily sorry for the man; if he had but possessed courage enough to tell me so, he might have spared himself; I would have forgiven him freely. His property, that is to say, what remained of it, was sold. Of mine, four thousand guilders were all that fell to my share. His only child, a daughter, was sent to the orphan asylum, Poor child, her fate was a hard one! I had youth and health, vigour of mind. and body; I could easily replace what I had lost. I should have blushed to visit the sins of the father upon the child. I invested my four thousand guilders, and gave up the interest for the education of the child, or for her maintenance till she should marry. But, for the orphan-house, I would have none of it. The best orphan asylum, like all other institutions for education out of the domestic circle, is only an institution for the corruption of morals,, 1 The question was now, what I should do with myself? The State refused my services, because my coat was not to its liking. I shook the dust from my feet, therefore, in my native place, and left it to try and be useful elsewhere. I had kept money enough, according to my own view of the matter, to maintain me till I could find some employment. While yet a boy at school, I had read somewhere a treatise which had made a deep impression on me, The subject was "Of Unnecessary Necessities." I had often wondered at the numberless superfluities which men choose to consider as necessaries, and, to procure which, they wil lingly became the sacrifice of others' vices and their own folly. The fewer wants, the fewer desires a man has, the less are his fears and vexations, the fewer his cares. The freest man is he who is least dependent on custom and convenience, and, consequently, the least affected by circumstances, The essay concluded with these words:" Cleave to the essential alone, and leave to fools the melancholy pleasure of appearance." Even as a schoolboy, I had attempted to accommodate myself to this system. I did my duty in all things, but declined all praise from my masters. I often slept at night upon chairs beside my bed, instead of in it. I drank neither beer nor wine, tea nor coffee, but simply water. I never spent a fifth part of my pocket money on the trifles on which children are accustomed to waste their allowance, and was, therefore, often able to assist those of my schoolfellows who were poorer than myself with real necessities, books, maps, and the like. I was delighted to leave the university when, becoming entirely my own master, I could pursue unmolested the plan I had marked out for myself. The simplicity of my mode of living induced most of my acquaintance to esteem me poor. I was far richer than the greater part of them with double my income, for I wasted nothing, and owed nothing-many of those who pitied or blamed me set no limits to their wishes, and were deeply in debt. My views of life, however, gave prodigious offence in my native city; but I could not see why I should fare sumptuously or lie softly to please others, when I could please myself at far less cost. My dress was neat, and not out of the fashion, but I did not particularly distinguish myself by the fineness of my linen, or employ the most fashionable tailor, and, therefore, I was held unpresentable in good society. I did my duty in my vocation; but I never went to "pay my respects" taken for a runaway student; that did not concern to my superiors, and my manners were pronounced ex- me very greatly. Against my capabilities in reading, cessively unpolished. I wished to be valued in society writing, arithmetic, and singing, there was nothing to for my talents, natural or acquired, and my moral worth be said, and yet the authorities hesitated. Nor was I -the well-judging public insisted upon fine clothes, flat-greatly surprised that they did; for it is not very tery, and what it is pleased to call respect for appear-usual for a man, who upon occasion could read and • ances. I did not smoke; I did not play at cards; and speak his six languages, to become a village schoolfrequented places of public amusement but little that master. I doubt if, after all, I should have obtained was called an "affectation of singularity." My dis- the place, had there been any other candidates but myfavour with society grieved me but little, however; I self and a deaf tailor. lived and acted according to my own convictions, was content with moderate means, had the power of helping many with my superfluity, was always cheerful, and never sick-all that was wanting to my happiness was the means of becoming more extensively useful. I could do without the suffrage of the world. Woe to him whose felicity depends on others, if he cannot find it in serving them without expecting their applause. CHAPTER IX. THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER. My sound ears had the preference. "Hark you, friend," said the Examiner and President of the High Provincial School Commission; "you shall have the place, but, understand, provisionally, for one year, in the course of which we shall see if your moral conduct is approved of." My letter of provisional installation was duly delivered to me, and with it a letter to the most reverend Pastor Pflock in Hard, who was to induct me into my office. I was as happy as a king. assuming that kings are in general happier than village schoolmasters. My dwelling in Hard was a ruinous barrack, as dirty as an uncleansed stable; every window patched with paper, and my sitting room a gloomy den without a stove. The only stove in the place was in the school-room, which was to be tenanted every day by me and sixtyfive children, of both sexes. The garden was impassable from rubbish; the three acres of land offered a complete Flora Hardinensis, not a wild flower or weed growing in the whole country round but had its specimen there. Heavens! here was room and verge I spent the better part of a year in rambling about this blessed Germany of ours without finding anywhere a suitable sphere of action. Every application for fitting employment was met with a "but." It is silly enough of the people, thought I, that will have nothing to do with a man who asks no more than the means of making himself useful to the best of his ability! I had before projected a journey to London, to offer my services to explore the interior of Africa for the benefit of the world and of science; and, if they were not then accepted, to visit that part of the world on my own ac-enough for the spirit of reform to revel in. count. No sooner thought of than done; I turned my 'face to the north-west. The most reverend Paster Pflock received me with severe dignity; gave me abundance of advice; and presented me the following Sunday after service to his congregation, with much solemnity, and many sharp warnings to my juvenile troop. Pastor Pflock was esteemed a most zealous and orthodox man, who thundered every Sunday against infidels and dissenters with the voice of a stentor; paint One evening, I entered the inn of a little town in my way, much fatigued. While my supper was preparing, I took up a provincial “Intelligencer," in which I saw an advertisement for a village schoolmaster; the salary was fifty guilders, with a house, firing, and the tise of three acres of land. It struck me directly that this was the very thing for me. A village schoolmas-ed the terrors of hell every fortnight, and the joys of ter! The calling, generally esteemed so humble, is in fact one of the very highest importance. I might become the reformer of a whole village, the saviour of a thousand unhappy and neglected human beings. To how many important politico-economical, moral, religious, and patriotic points of view might I not pave the way for improvement? Poor as the remuneration 'was, it was sufficient for me. Real service, in fact, can never be paid for. How can virtues of any kind be rewarded by the State? State remuneration can only be measured by the greater or less expenditure of 'knowledge and activity required. For a village schoolmastership, it is held that very little knowledge or labeur is wanting; it is a low kind of thing altogether; hence the pecuniary recompense is paltry. But, for a master of the ceremonies, or a court chamberlain, in'deed most uncommon talents and virtues are demanded; and that is no doubt the reason why more is paid for such articles than for village schoolmasters throughout the kingdom. I went and offered myself as a candidate for the vacant office. The testimonials of ability I brought with me were examined, and I found I had the honour to be heaven once a-month; and, once a-quarter, we had a vision of the last judgment. But, on the week days, and in common life, he was a common kind of man enough, who was content to let the world wag as it listed, and troubled his head very little about the sayings or doings of his peasants, provided the due offerings were made to his kitchen, and he was not forgotten at wedding feasts and christenings. His flock was ignorant, brutal, poor, and lazy; almost every one was in debt; their agriculture was wretched, their method of rearing cattle as bad as possible, and their favourite amusements squabbling, fighting, and going to law. The only thriving person in the village was the Schulze, who also kept the public house, and was a diligent fomenter of the quarrelsome and litigions propensities of his neighbours, by which he was a gainer both ways. The very exterior of the village, the rows of miserable cottages full of dirt and disorder, the coarse, lumpish demeanour of the peasants and their wives, the rude audacity of the children, their ragged and dirty clothing, all convinced me that here was my appointed sphere of usefulness-here was I called to labour in my vocation in promoting the happiness of my fellow-men. I danced for joy round the schoolroom | no man who possessed any property of his own, however like a fool, till the house shook again! small, would take such an office. Instead, like my predecessors, of accepting presents, or rather alms, from the parents of the scholars, I gave away more than any one else. No one knew what to make of me. Some were of opinion that I was a fugitive from justice, a cash-keeper who had run away with his master's It was a matmoney, or something of that sort. ter bf course that people who rarely did or thought any good themselves should think no better of me. The pastor, however, gave a good character of me to the provincial school commission, though not without adding some strictures on the system of giving rewards to the scholars. But, as giving is not so positively forbidden by the law as taking, I was confirmed in my office of schoolmaster for life. The poverty of the school fund obliged me to make the necessary repairs at my own expense, if I would have it done at all. I had the windows mended, and the walls whitewashed, and floors, tables, benches, and doors, thoroughly scoured; dug up my garden, and planted it with vegetables, and set my three acres in order with my own hands. I kept a goat in the stable for the milk; and I had common right of pasture with the rest of the village. I was soon at home in my new abode. The reverend pastor himself was not cleaner or more comfortably lodged. The villagers stared, and seemed as much surprised at my orderly poverty as I was at their nasty abundance. CHAPTER X. BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION. CHAPTER XI. PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. As soon as I was assured of my dignity, I lightened my task by dividing the school into classes, and making the elder pupils assist in teaching the younger, and by this method brought them all forward more quickly. For the poorest girls, I bought wool and knitting them what they made for their own property. This piqued the parents who were in better circumstances— their daughters should be no worse off than their companions; the knitting became general, and in time was followed by sewing. A poor woman in the village, with whom I divided my salary, undertook the instruction of the girls in needlework. In the space of a year, not only the dirty, but the torn gowns and jackets had nearly vanished from my schoolroom. In some few, indeed, the love of dirt and disorder seemed iradicable; like other diseases, it ran in the blood, and descended from generation to generation. As soon as I had arranged my dwelling to my liking, I began my operations on the rising generation. They drove every day in and out of the schoolhouse like a herd of swine. I began by accustoming every child to salute me on entering by giving me his hand; and those who came with them dirty were dispatched forthwith to remedy the evil at the spring be-needles, taught them to make use of them, and gave hind the house. Hands and feet I required to be as clean as the face. Very few seemed to have any acquaintance with a comb. I desired they should all be combed smooth before they came, and the little savages laughed in my face. The laughing I soon settled with the cane. I entreated the assistance of the pastor, and begged him to preach to his flock on the uses of cleanliness. His reverence opened his eyes wider than usual" What has that to do with religion, schoolmaster? Be so good as to mind your own business." However, with the assistance of the stick, I accomplished the combing also. The clothing now came under consideration. Here, nothing was to be done by force. My pupils were all ragged-that I could not help, but I insisted that the rags should be clean. I gave little prizes to those who came to school clean for a week together-needles, knitting needles, scissors, knives, and other trifles, which I bought by the dozen at the neighbouring fairs. The whole village, including the parson and the Schulze, sneered at my inno-fields, or woods, for this purpose. Every other amusevations; but I pursued my own plan obstinately. Human beings must be unbrutified before they can be educated. With the help of these small rewards, I produced a very considerable improvement in the course of the year among the youth of the village; and here and there a few of the elders began to feel some shame, when the children themselves began to notice their dirty habits. As I passed through the village or the fields, the little ones would leave their play, and come to greet me with a smile, and offer their hands. They all liked me; they were afraid of my cane, pleased with my presents, and delighted to listen to the stories which I Sometimes related to them. My liberalities made a wonderful talk in the village. In the first year I had really spent more than I received. Two of the poorest, half naked children I had clothed anew at my own cost, and these proceedings puzzled the good people extremely. A village schoolmaster was generally the poorest where all were poor; While the girls were making these advances in civilisation, their male associates were not behind hand. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, were diligently pursued; and the diligence was rewarded by the relation of stories of various kinds. It is incredible with what eagerness they would throng round me, when, on a holiday or Sunday afternoon, I took my seat in the ment was readily forsaken for this; and many, even of the grown-up lads, who had ceased to attend the school, never failed to join their younger companions on these occasions. Sometimes I gave them a lesson in natural philosophy, or history, in geography, or a moral lecture ; but always in the form of a story. The young people thought they were only amused, while I was gradually undermining their prejudices, awakening their moral sense, and enlarging their views of the world. I had not less satisfaction in the singing lessons which it was my duty, as schoolmaster, to give. I had some excellent voices among my scholars, and the vicar choral of a neighbouring town assisted me with notes and exercises. My young flock got on exceedingly well; but to amend the church singing, where the elders were concerned, was more than I could accomplish. The whole strength of their lungs was brought into play upon all occasions; they seemed to make a conscience of never sparing them. I presumed to direct the atten tion of Pastor Pflock to this subject, and asked him to use his influence with his worthy congregation that they should not bellow so unmercifully. festation, he surprised me by a proposal to bestow on me in marriage a young person who lived in his house in some dependent capacity. He promised a good por tion with her. I had no inclination to listen to or "Eh what do you mean by that ?" said the Pastor. "I let every one give free course to his devotional feel-repeat village scandal, but I could not be ignorant that. ings; let them cry aloud, and spare not. Lukewarm singing, lukewarm Christianity, in my opinion." Apparently he had communicated my ridiculous, my unchristian censure, as he called it, to his whole flock; for I soon remarked that they roared more pitilessly than ever, and came out of church red-hot with their exertions, and as hoarse as ravens. I found I must be on my guard with these good people, with whom I was very evidently anything but popular; and with my singing, sewing, washing, combing, and story-telling, passed for an innovating, mischievous busy-body. For this judgment, I was not a little indebted to the pastor, to whom I was not sufficiently submissive; and to the Schulze still more largely, because I never spent anything in his house, and purloined, as he considered it, some of his customers, with my Sunday story-telling. I might have experienced more active efforts of the ill-will of this last dignitary and his partisans, had I not been, in some measure, defended from them by the warm attachment of the children, who never failed to give me warning in time of any conspiracy against me. But what contributed more than all to keep me scatheless from their malice, was a kind of superstitious belief in my powers of mischief-a belief which, being first induced by the old women of the village, had found ready admittance with all. the girl's conduct was not irreproachable, and Pastor Pflock knew it full well. Of course, I gave a direct and immediate refusal; perhaps I was somewhat too abrupt. From that time forward he never preached a sermon without launching forth into invectives against all profligate innovators and "infidels." If I had had any doubt as to whom these thunders were directed, his looks would have speedily enlightened me and everybody else, but I despised them too heartily to take any notice of them. By and bye, I received notice that complaints had been lodged against me with the School Commission. I was charged with immoral conduct; I was unfit to be trusted with the instruction of children. I demanded a hearing; I demanded the names of my accusers, which could not well be refused me; and I never rested till the accusation and its cause had been traced home to Pastor Pflock. The motives for his extraordinary proposal were now clear enough, and I succeeded in making them appear so to the Commission. From bullying, the unworthy pastor descended to supplication, that the business might not become generally known. It transpired, nevertheless; before many days were over, everything that had passed in the justices room was known to every man, woman, and child in Hard. In another quarter of a year Pastor Pflock was removed, and another, Pastor Bode, replaced him. The latter, a pious and excellent man, somewhat advanced in life, and well acquainted with the world, in every attempt for the improvement of the people, and laboured zealously in his own calling for the object. He went from cottage to cottage to give advice, warn but a scanty harvest with all his toil. His preaching was not half so much attended or admired as Pflock's had been, the customary offerings to the parsonage kitchen much scantier. The good people of Hard main tained stoutly that Pastor Bode "did not preach the They took me, in short, for a conjuror, or something of the kind. To this wise conjecture, my extra-without being corrupted by time, supported me warmly ordinary liberality, taken in conjunction with the scantiness of my apparent means, might have partly contributed, and partly that I had found out and frustrated more than one or two spiteful tricks intended to being, help, and consolation. I grieve to say, he reaped played on me. It happened several times that I received a private visit from one or the other individual whose cow gave bad milk, or who had lost anything in house or field, to request that I would cut the cards, or make a spell of some kind, to discover the criminal. It was in vain that I tried to reason them out of this preposte-right sort of religion; he was half an infidel, he did not rous folly, and refused the offered money. They remained firm in their faith, that "I knew more than I should." Even my poor three acres brought me under suspicion, because, from being the worst, they were now the best and most productive in the parish. Although every one with their own eyes saw, or might see, that the elder lads helped me in the cultivation of the land, and the younger ones took it by turns to weed for me; although I offered them the plainest and simplest rules to obtain a like result with my own, they preferred their own solution of the enigma, "I knew more than I should," "the devil had a hand in it," &c. I saw that the elder part of the population were not to be converted. My best hopes rested on their children, who were in a great measure under my influence. I had done much in the course of five years, when a scandalous attempt on the part of the pastor threatened the destruction of my whole plans of reformation. One day the pastor sent for me, received me with extraordinary and unusual civility; and while I was endeavour ing to find out his motive for such an unexpected mani believe in hell," &c. &e. And then they shook their heads, and sighed for the high-seasoned homilies of Pastor Pflock, and the discourse usually ended with the ejaculation, "Ah, he was the man, his was something like sermons! Hard will not see his like again in a hurry!" CHAPTER XII. THE COLONY. About this time a certain Baron Von Lösecke paid a visit to Hard, on account of some forest land which he inherited in the neighbourhood, and which he wanted to dispose of again, as he did not mean to live in this part of the country. The Government had declined the purchase, because wood was not at all wanted here, and there was no navigable river to aid in its disposal elsewhere. The Baron next offered it to the parish of Hard, as the forest lay so conveniently at hand. But the parish was poor and in debt; it was not in any par ticular want of wood; and if it were, preferred greatly |