74 Notes of the Month on [JAN. 



simpler expedient of murdering every body about him. This monster's 

 name was Hentig, and we hope that he was a German. No member of 

 the Tugendbund, no professor of mysticism and a community of wives, 

 no Rationalist of theology, could have done the thing in a more philoso- 

 phical and Teutonic style. He shot his wife dead he then called up his 

 cook-maid, and would have shot her if a brace of bullets could do it. 

 He then set fire to his house for the benefit of giving his neighbours a 

 fellow-feeling of his inconveniences; and finally shot himself. But even 

 here he had not reached his full ambition. 



It appears by the statement of the cook, that six days previous to his 

 death, Hentig caused two cakes to be made for his sons, and that, 

 contrary to his usual habits, he had asssisted in making them ; other 

 circumstances connected with this affair, induce the belief that the un- 

 fortunate man put arsenic into the dough. He was particularly anxious 

 that the cakes should go safely, and went with them on board a vessel 

 about to sail for Hamburgh. In all probability, the cakes have arrived, 

 and it is more than possible that the children will share their present 

 with the other boys of the school ; so that the most fatal result is dreaded. 

 As soon as the discovery was made, means were taken to advise the 

 schoolmaster of the circumstance ; but, as the vessel had sailed ten days, 

 there is but little chance of the messenger arriving in time. It 

 appears that Hentig had been unfortunate in his speculations. He 

 had married the unhappy companion of his fate against his father's 

 express commands. His father, however, subsequently advanced him 

 7,000/., which he lost in business. The senior Mr. Hentig had refused 

 him any farther assistance, and had not for a long time been on kind 

 terms with him. Very recently, however, a reconciliation took place ; 

 but it is found that the son's affairs are in a very embarrassed state, and 

 it is supposed that he dreaded exposure so much as to produce that fatal 

 change in his mind which led to the distressing event of his own and 

 his wife's death. 



This is the statement, painted in the softest colours. The true colours 

 would paint a furious, moody wretch, outrageous at the coming privation 

 of indulgences forbidden to millions round him, and in the spirit of a 

 swindler, evading his debts, and in the spirit of a fiend, gratifying his 

 hatred of society, and his scorn of Heaven, by plunging all round him 

 into an unprepared grave. 



To cloak this hideous transaction under the name of lunacy, is absurd 

 and even criminal. It is a denial of the truth to say that this man was 

 more mad than any other murderer is mad, in his defiance of law and 

 religion. 



Some of the divines on the spot might well occupy their leisure in 

 examining the habits and studies that led to this act of horror. We are 

 much mistaken if they will find Hentig the sole wanderer in the way to 

 his catastrophe. We are equally mistaken if the search would not disco- 

 ver that tens of thousands who are reading the very same atrocious and un- 

 principled publications, are enveloped in the very same practical contempt 

 of Christianity, and are fevered by the same gross personal indulgences, 

 which prepared Hentig for bathing his hands in slaughter. Cir- 

 cumstances will, of course, in the great majority of instances, check 

 the practical progress of the great majority, be they as infidel as 

 they may. But the preparation is there ; and the investigator cannot be 

 too expeditious or too sincere. 



