to individuals, some sent by post, some even thrown about in the streets and public places, scattered like sparks of fire in the hope that here and there one might kindle in a patriotic heart and help to spread the mighty flame."

far to the Eastward." And then he gave me the necessary instructions as to the various persons I should have to transact business with. Though never speaking either of his relations with the Emperor of Russia or of his doings, Stein's position in Petersburg was not only that of a representative of German interests in all the Such was Arndt's work, congenial, enevents of the time, but also in some sort that of ergetic, and influential, till the great time a German dictator. We knew how, abroad, came; till, indeed, that Victory, which so every German with a patriotic soul looked for- long had sat upon the helmet of Napoleon, ward to the deliverance of his Fatherland from led him to the wilderness of ruined Mosshame and wretchedness, to the dissolution of cow, and fled away for ever, leaving his the hateful Confederation of the Rhine, and to lost battalions to stiffen in the unconquerathe demolition of the might of France. And we ble snow. Arndt himself gives an absoknew how, even in Russia, there were fighting lutely appalling description of the dread under Napoleon's standards no less 150,000 Germans, troops raised by the Confed- ing the steps of that helpless retreat, than realities of misery he witnessed, as, followeration, and auxiliaries levied from Prussia and he and the other patriotic spirits who Austria. It was our belief and hope, that if had laboured for their country in exile once the star of the mighty Attila of his time grew pale, we might move the hearts of these hastened back to help its approaching resmultitudes, driven as they had been so far from toration. Amidst all the suffering and their homes towards the East, by reminding them of the great Fatherland which still lay behind them, and for which they might rather choose to wage a holy battle than to let themselves be herded on to death by a foreign conqueror. Numbers of brave men, inflamed with noble rage and holy hope, had flocked to Russia, under the rallying cry "The German Fatherland," in order to take sword with Alexander against Napoleon, and with all their energies to stir up German youth for the liberation of their country. This was the idea of the German Legion, which was set on foot at St. Petersburg, and the care of this matter was the first business given to my charge. .

"What striking changes can be wrought by circumstances in the destinies of man! Who could have thought that I, who in Stockholm during the years 1807 and 1808 had written from the cabinet of Gustavus the Fourth (aye, and from the cabinet of my own heart), so many hard and bitter pamphlets and proclamations against Russia, should now, without changing my opinions or principles a hair's-breadth, be writing in St. Petersburg for Russia, and for the Fatherland we laboured to make ready for the strife? .

hardship, which even makes our hearts to ache in reading of after nearly sixty years, can we wonder at the exultation these returning exiles must have felt? Can we help, however we must feel for those whom the disasters of Napoleon overwhelmed so awfully, feeling a sympathy in gladness for those faithful ones to whom such great disasters gave a hope and consolation, restoring them to home and honour in a liberated fatherland? But all was not over with the failure of the Russian campaign. Every day was big with fate, and many a heart that bounded with patriotic hope was destined to be still and cold for ever before the mighty work was done. If Germany had been terrible in its downfall, it was resistless in its uprising, and the first dawn of hope soon brightened to the noon of triumph. Those were times when men's hearts were ready to be stirred, and every means to stir them was at hand. It is to this period we must refer the chief of Arndt's great patriotic songs, which we will pause a little to examine."

"And so my posture was that of a German A song is but a small thing, but it may writer (or to use a grander name, a German be the electric spark which fires the most author), who knew there were many places in destructive agents. It excites, it transEurope where his life was not secure from the mits, it kindles those sentiments which rulers of the time. And my time was occupied inflame the passions of nations; and it may to the utmost in keeping the press busy with be said with truth hereafter that a couple writings, partly dictated by my own feelings, of songs have contributed more than any partly commissioned directly by the Govern- practical cause or real political necessity ment; pamphlets, stirring appeals, calls to to the conflict which is now afflicting the arms, despatches, proclamations, contradictions, world. A national song, such as is wanted, and exposures of French statements and reports; some couched in Russian language and suiting appearing when it is wanted, expressing Russian views, others from the German (may I one national idea, whether it be the suffernot say from Stein's?) stand-point. These ing, the hope, or the courage of a nation, writings were printed from time to time in Ger- though its metre be rugged, and its words man (sometimes even in French), and published be homely, comes from the heart, speaks in various places at once; some were distributed to the heart, and stirs the blood of men.

"So weit die deutsche Zunge klingt

Und Gott im Himmel Lieder singt,

Das soll es sein!"

Such were the war-songs of Arndt-plain, patriotic bard was right about his Fatherand simple always rude and rough land, that enough at times; but songs, notwithstanding, which put before men a mighty purpose in a manly way, making those who heard and sang them feel more than ever the dignity of their manhood, the value of their freedom, and the privilege of their self-sacrifice. They were, as we have said, full of hatred. But there are two senses in which to take the word. Such a feeling was essential to the deliverance of Germany in 1813; such a feeling, taken in conjunction with the other feelings manifest throughout his writings, and in his simple unaffected noble nature, show him to have been a poet according to the grand definition of the greatest poet among ourselves :

This famous song or hymn - for, with its large scope, its confident faith, and its deep reverence, it may well be called a hymn - we abstain from giving in the original, since nearly all the readers whom our subject interests must, in some sort, be acquainted with it; and we abstain from translating it, unwilling to add another to the long list of failures in that difficult task. It is not translatable; like Luther's famous hymns, the subtle spirit evaporates when we attempt to transfuse its essence. Just in proportion as a national song is terse, direct, and vigorous,

"Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of the difficulties of its translation are multi

scorn,

The love of love."

plied. The best translations very often are happy paraphrases; but short sentences and direct statements will not adIt could not be otherwise with a man who, mit of paraphrase. The bard of battle like Arndt, was thoroughly in earnest; girds his loins to sing as he strikes; and and unquestionably it was the echo which his song, like himself, is succinct; neither his glowing songs awakened in hearts of its metre nor its method can be transferred men who hated slavery, that made those to a foreign tongue. The man must know songs so mighty in the appropriate mo- Germans, feel for Germans, see Germans, ments they were uttered, so mighty in judge their thoughts, hear their speech, forming the mind of the free Germans of learn their yearnings, before he can comto-day, and so mighty in raising the cour-prehend at all the strange power of that age and stirring the heart of the men who Fatherland song; and the more fully he have sung them once more, in this awful comprehends this, the more hopeless he year, by their watch-fires in Champagne feels is the effort to translate it.

and beneath the walls of Paris.

Such is no doubt the power of the patriotic song; but if we judge that by which Arndt is best known by ordinary poetic standards, we cannot critically praise it, unless we confound two things, and make poetic merit to consist in the mere expression of an idea. "What is the German's Fatherland?" became and remained a great song, not for its poetry, but for its patriotism. The song, with its burden "Our Fatherland must greater be," is very well suited for a nation whose purpose was plunder, whose pretext was rectification of frontiers, and whose policy was annexation; and in such case we might call it a sort of geographical catechism done into irregular metre. But for German experience and German feeling, it had another purpose. It expressed a

policy not of annexation, but of union; not of conquest, but of confraternity. It has given a motto easy of remembrance, interpreted in short and simple phrase an instinct of which each thinking German is conscious to himself; he feels that the old!

But we must not leave our reader without some specimen of Arndt's poetic power. His national songs were struck out like hot sparks, as we have said in his words, "upon the glowing anvil of the time; " and so we find most of the momentous battles, and most of the distinebrated in his fiery song. We give here guished heroes of the Liberation War celas an instance a call to combat of the date 1812, entitled "The Ancient and Modern Germans," of which we subjoin a translation:

"Our fathers of old were renowned

As valorous lions in war,

Gigantic they seemed to the weaklings,

Their swordstrokes cleft deep and swept far;

Their spears sped through horse and through rider,

Like lightning through breastplate and helm;

God only could make them to tremble,

And virtue was wisdom with them.

Poems, p. 120.

ple, and his descendants pray on the spot where | to-day. he died for his country.

"But he who fighteth for tyrants, and draweth the murderous sword against the right, his name is accursed amongst his people, and his remembrance fadeth away from among men. "He is accursed in the place where the ravens assemble themselves, and his honour is blasted on the gallows tree.

"And he who goeth forth to oppress freedom, and to enslave the innocent folk, that man raiseth the sword against the Lord God, and He that sendeth His lightnings from heaven shall smite him down."

After pointing out the sin of mere mercenary soldiering, and the error made in supposing military honour to be higher than any other, he says:

"There is only one kind of honour and virtue, and that is the same for every man on earth.

is.

"I will teach you what true soldiers' honour

"A brave soldier and warrior will fight to the death for his rightful king and master, and for the safety and honour of his country. A brave soldier will love his fatherland and fellowcountrymen above all things, and gladly shed the last drop of his blood for the sake of his endangered country.

Our notice must be brief of the remaining portion of his long career. After the fall of Bonaparte, his banishment to Elba, and the brief history of the Hundred Days, Arndt removed to Bonn, where he undertook the Professorship of History in the newly-founded and now famous university. He there married his second wife, a sister of Schleiermacher, and built the pleasant house known to so many of our countrymen, as it stands on the Koblenzer Allée, surrounded by the garden his own hands used to cultivate, and looking over the broad Rhine as it flows down from Königswinter, reflecting Would we had, as far as the external hison its bosom the beautiful Siebengebirge. tory of this true patriot goes, no further word of sorrow or of suffering to tell; that we could feel that in such a post and such a place he had found, with the approval and the thankfulness of his country, and contentment he deserved.

the

peace

But he had yet to learn the spirit and temper of the Prussian Government. He obtained his post, as we have said, in the autumn of 1817; in 1818, startled and depressed by the unworthy tendencies he already saw to be gaining ground in political circles, he published the fourth part of his "Geist der Zeit," and threw down the gauntlet before the reaction of the time. He published his book, appealing "A brave soldier will not boast himself for to the incontrovertible examples of the the sake of worldly fame, nor be puffed up with vanity, but faithfulness to his fatherland will past, to warn men from the dangers of be his highest glory, and a quiet courage his the future; fierce and firm and fiery as

"A brave soldier will always have God before his eyes, and God's law written in his heart, so that no power shall compel him to act against the law of God.

brightest ornament.

One other point in his patriotic writings may be noted, the absolute unselfishness with which he gives honour where honour is due, even though to do so he has to yield up old prejudices and modify old judgments. If he was outspoken always in his opinions, fearless of giving offence where he felt frankness to be needed, he seems, on the other hand, to have had a perfect exultation in giving praise where it was deserved. We have but to read his songs of Schill, of Blücher, of Gneisenau, of Scharnhorst, of Stein, of "the valiant King of Prussia," to see how fully he could abandon himself to e fine impulse of generous apprecia

on.

But we must bring our paper to a close. We have lingered perhaps too long over the earlier half of his life, but after all it was the part of his existence and the time of his activity most influential upon the opinions and character of men in the great crisis of German history in which we stand

ever, the honest man delivered his conscience; but the spirit of the time which he exposed was against him. In January, 1819, an order of the Cabinet, censuring him for his writing, as unsuitable to his calling as an instructor of youth, threatened him with deprivation of his post, unless, in fact, he would consent to wear a muzzle. Worse was to come. His papers were seized in the summer, and in the autumn he was suspended from the exercise of his office. A so-called statetrial followed, conducted in the most unfair and irregular manner, which dragged its slow length along till the summer of 1822. It proved nothing against him, but it acquitted him of nothing; his papers remained in the hands of the police, and he himself was still condemned to inactivity. For one and twenty years! He was fifty when his post was given; he exercised his office for a year and a half, and only when over threescore years and ten was it permitted to one of the truest patriots that ever lived, to prove to absoÎute demonstration his innocence of the

charge of disloyalty which had been laid broken indeed, from what he had been, as upon him. "All's well that ends well"- men must be who pass so far the allotted possibly; but if in all those many years span of life, but still a marvel of vitality of undeserved suspicion and unmurmuring and faith and heartiness. And even then patience his heart had broken in unutter- there was a day of triumph for him upon able sorrow, and his wasted vigour been earth. His ninetieth birthday was the ocparalyzed in death, the world would have casion of rejoicings and congratulations to lost the model of a brave and honest man, him from every part of the great Fatherand the country he loved and lived for land. Deputations of every sort, bands would have earned irreparable shame. of military music heading a great procesHappily he was spared to clear the name sion of soldiers, civilians, faculties, stuhe had made, and, in the self-justification dents, professors; rapturous acclamations, which the restoration of his papers en- answered by a last burning speech from abled him to publish, to show how deeply the soul-stirred veteran himself; multiturooted in his own heart and life were the dinous gifts from anonymous donors, and principles of freedom, honour, and self-numberless telegrams in honour of the sacrifice, of trust in God, and patient en- day; such were the sights and sounds durance of suffering which he had preached to all his fellow-men.

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. ascended the Prussian throne in the year 1840; to his honour be it said that one of his first spontaneous acts was to restore the wronged and suffering Arndt to the full exercise of his office; and any readers who knew Bonn at that time will remember the jubilation to which this tardy reinstatement gave occasion. He was immediately elected Rector or Head of the University for the following year, amidst the unexampled enthusiasm of the students, and was spared to live another twenty years in surprising vigour and activity of body and mind, and to die as much lamented as he had lived useful and famous.

We saw him last in his ninetieth year,

that moved the aged Arndt to the deepest depth of his comprehensive heart. This was on the 26th of December, 1859. Before the end of the following month another vast procession, less jubilant but as impressive, followed the dead hero to his quiet grave, and over his rest crowds of sorrowing compatriots sang one of his own touching hymns.

Thus simple, brave, and honest, without pride or pomp or wealth, yet rich in peace, in honour, and his country's love, this remarkable man lived and died. "He rests from his labours;" and we have but to look around to-day, and see how, reflected in the conduct of countless myriads of his people, the spirit that moved him is moving, to add the additional words the Scripture suggests" and his works do follow him.”

SOMETIMES the merry-making on these baptismal journeys was suffered to lead the company astray, and cause them to forget the cause and object of their undertaking. A baptismal company was once crossing the mountains between Largie and Saddell, and rested on the road to take a refreshment of bread and cheese and whisky; after which they proceeded on their way, and arrived at the manse. The minister had begun the ceremony, when they found that the infant was not present. "Where is the child?" was the question; and "Have you it?" "Have you it?" the females were asking one another, but no child could be found. At last, the one who had been carrying the child up to that place where they had stayed on their way for refreshment called to mind that she had laid it down among the heather, and had supposed that some one else must have