THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTION. 233 



The thews and sinews of German men were not given 

 by German universities. The steady fortitude and 

 valiant laboriousness whjch have fought against, and 

 triumphed over, the gravest natural disadvantages are 

 not the result of university culture. But the strength 

 and endurance which belong to the German, as a gift 

 of race, needed enlightenment to direct it; and this 

 was given by the universities. Into these establish- 

 ments was poured that sturdy power which in other 

 fields had made the wastes of Nature fruitful, and the 

 strong and earnest character had thus superposed upon 

 it the informed and disciplined mind. It is the coales- 

 cence of these two factors that has made Germany 

 great ; it is the combination of these elements which 

 must prevent England from becoming small. We may 

 bless God for our able journalists, our orderly Parlia- 

 ment, and our free press; but we should bless Him 

 still more for ' the hardy English root ' from which these 

 good things have sprung. \Ve need muscle as well as 

 brains, character and resolution as well as expertness of 

 intellect. Lacking the former, though possessing the 

 latter, we have the bright foam of the wave without its 

 rock-shaking momentum. 



Our place of study was the town of Marburg in 

 Hesse Cassel, and a very picturesque town Marburg is. 

 It clambers pleasantly up the hillsides, and falls as 

 pleasantly towards the Lahn. On a May day, when 

 the orchards are in blossom, and the chestnuts clothed 

 with their heavy foliage, Marburg is truly lovely. It 

 has, moreover, a history. It was here that Saint Eliza- 

 beth shed her holy influence and dispensed her mercies'. 

 The noble double-spired church which bears her name, 

 and contains her dust, stands here to commemorate her. 

 On a high hilltop which dominates the town rises the 

 fine old castle where, in the Kittersaal, Luther and 



