which is new, but the truly good of all times, climes, and persons, is estimated at its just value. I shall not pause to inquire how it happens that in the more southern parts of Europe, the pretended genial soil of melody, the true musical genius is comparatively so barren, and the taste and mechanism in proportion so scanty, and so partial; but, whatever may be the cause, not only is Germany the most methodical and the most learned, but she alone appears endued with the true enthusiasm, the full temperament of melody. To enumerate the great musical authors of Germany, would be to repeat a host of names familiar to all who honour sweet sounds; a small triumphant band will suffice, at the head of whom stand Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, and Weber, who have translated their art into a new language, pouring out at one moment rushing torrents of sublime eloquence, and at another gently gliding into the heart in sportive or murmuring streamlets.

As to the instrumental performers of Germany, their names abound in the catalogue of every orchestra and concert in Europe. Of great singers she has not been so fruitful, although many such have been born of German parents established in foreign countries; and I believe that the impediment of language, and the vogue of the Italian school, have contributed to keep others in obscurity. In our own time, Sontag and Schroeder Devrient have elevated the national claims to vocal distinction. the sister art of dancing, which some may, from prepossession, infer to be uncongenial to the soil, there are some most successful candidates for fame, such as Heberlé and the two Elslers; and, in short, as Germany is the home of music, so also is it the only land in which, in these later and sadder days, the dance maintains its footing as a thoroughly national pastime.

Even in

A chapter on the fine arts of Germany ought not to be closed without an incidental allusion to the state of the drama in Germany. Of the merits of the chief dramatic productions we have spoken in the account of German writers; but the present age is not more favourable to original dramatic composition in Germany than in other countries. Throughout Europe we find that opera, musical farce and splendid decorations, are making

rapid strides, while tragedy and comedy live almost entirely on the past;-in all parts of Europe, also, we observe that the theatre is gradually less frequented by the higher classes, and more attended by the lower ones. This circumstance is readily explained by the increasing mental cultivation of both ranks: the higher find more pleasure in private society and in the bosom of their families, while the latter are attracted by the growing developement of their faculties and tastes to seek for new ideas and fresh pastimes. In Germany, however, the drama still retains a firm hold on all classes of society: it forms almost an integral portion of daily existence to a large mass of the population. Very many persons repair to the theatre almost nightly to dissipate ennui; and the amusements usually commence and terminate at an early hour. The German actors are chiefly remarkable for their industry and attention; carelessness is rare; all the details are carefully studied and represented. A tendency sometimes breaks out to a sentimental whine, or a nasal twang, which is more easy to understand than to describe; but this tone is not uncommon, also, in the national conversation. The German actors resemble the English rather than the French; they are energetic in tragedy, and can frolic in the broad humour of farce. But, on the whole, the warmest encouragement is at present afforded to opera, which is nowhere else so faithfully and so earnestly exhibited, and nowhere else so judiciously appreciated.

CHAPTER IX.

Chronological Outline of the Progress of Literature, Science, Art, and Civilization in Germany, from their early Periods to the present Time.

A. D.

273. THE first vineries laid out on the Rhine.

370. Ulphilas translates the Bible.

700. The mines in Bohemia were discovered.

779. Tithes were instituted by Charlemagne, for the support of the clergy, churches, schools, and poor.

785. Germany is become a Christian country.

800. The laws of Charlemagne promulgated.

869. Ottfried, a monk at Weissenberg, introduces sacred music. 968. Silver-mines discovered in the Harz.

1016. Worms cathedral built.

1050. Commencement of the period of club-law (Faustrecht). 1167. The Freiberg mines discovered.

1180. The Vehmgerichte, or Secret Tribunal, established. The chivalric poetry of the Suabians flourished.

1190. Soldiers first paid by the emperor, Henry VI.

1248. Cathedral of Cologne built.

1260 The Hanseatic League holds its first diet at Lubeck. 1285. Cloth manufactory established at Nuremberg.

1300. Gunpowder discovered by Berthold Schwarz.

1302. Great linen manufactory established at Augsburg.

1318. Frauenlob of Mainz died, the first of the master-singers. 1331. The great fair at Erfurt established, for communication between Northern and Southern Germany.

1348. The first German university founded at Prague.

1360. Brandy imported by Frankfort merchants from Asia.

1361. Tauler, the great Dominican preacher in the German language, died.

1365. The university of Vienna founded.

M

A. D.

1380. The Cologne school of painting flourishes.

1409. First German apothecary's shop opened at Leipsic. 1415. Martyrdom of Huss.

1428. The Hanse fleet, of 280 ships and 12,000 sailors, governs the North Seas.

1440. Copper-plate printing discovered in Germany. 1450. Club-law superseded by absolute monarchy.

The art of printing discovered at Mainz *.

1483. Date of the German popular stories, Eulenspiegel and Reynard the Fox.

1485. Death of Agricola, the first professor of Greek at Heidel

berg.

1486. The first censor appointed at Mainz by the archbishop. 1492. The Cathedral of Ulm completed.

1498. First great fair held at Brunswick.

Copernicus announces his system of astronomy about this period.

1516. The infamous sale of absolutions by Tetzel +.

Conrad Gessner born, the German Pliny, the first who formed a museum of natural history.

Watches were first made at Nuremberg about this time. 1517. Luther fastens the ninety-five Theses on the door of Wittenberg church.

1520. The German painters, Albert Durer and Oranach, flourished.

The attempt to apply the printing from blocks to the production of books, which Gutenberg commenced at Strasburg, he continued at Mainz; and it is evident that about the year 1450 he had already prepared a number of engraved blocks, when, finding himself prevented by want of means from bringing his invention to perfection, he was about to renounce all further thought upon the subject; but he was enabled by the advice and pecuniary assistance of John Fust, a citizen of Mainz, to carry his long-cherished idea into effect. (See the "Foreign Quarterly Review," April, 1837, for an interesting history of the invention of printing.)

+He was appointed to this Romish traffic by the pope, and carried it on during fifteen years; he travelled through Saxony in a waggon, furnished with two large boxes, one of which was consecrated to the letters of indulgence, and the other was to hold the money which they were sold for. He offered absolution even for murder, perjury, and adultery.

A. D.

1524. The first Protestant university was founded at Marburg. 1530. The Augsburg Confession published,

Jordens, a mason at Brunswick, discovers a wheel for

spinning flax.

1534. Luther finishes his translation of the Bible.

1541. Death of Paracelsus.

1553. The Jesuits make their appearance in Austria.

1555. Peace of Augsburg and toleration of Protestantism.

1571. Kepler born.

1576. Hans Sachs died.

1577. Rubens born at Cologne.

1592. First book-fair at Leipsic.

1614. Valentine Andrea, a native of Wurtemberg, founds the

sect of the Rosicrusians.

1619. The bank of Hamburg established.

1624. Jacob Behmen died.

1630. The Hanse Towns cease to flourish.

1637. The thermometer invented by Drebbel.

1640. The Silesian poets, Opitz and Gryphius, flourish. 1650. The air-pump invented by Guericke of Magdeburg. 1651. Potatoes first brought to Berlin.

1669. Abraham von Santa Clara preaches at Vienna.

1670. Hoffmanswaldau and Lowenstein, the imitators of the Italian poet, Marini, flourish in Silesia.

1672. The pressure of the air illustrated by the two brass hemispheres invented by Guericke of Magdeburg.

1695. The Orphan Asylum at Halle founded.

Coffee first brought to Leipsic.

Lectures first delivered in the German language at Halle. 1708. Stahl, the professor of medicine, flourishes at Halle. The great plague breaks out at Vienna.

1710. The porcelain manufactory of Meissen established. 1711. Leibnitz founds the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. 1722. Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian sect, becomes conspicuous.

1724. The poet Klopstock born at Quedlinburg.