58 AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 



accounted for by the almost interminable wars of which 

 Germany down to our own times has been the theatre. 

 The effect has been, as we have said, to lend a deep im- 

 print to the notions of the peasants that their interests 

 have nothing in common with those of the classes who 

 call themselves their superiors. In a German village 

 there is no aping of the dress, manners, or language of 

 the towns. The rich Bauer is proud of his position 

 amongst his fellow-villagers, and retaliates the contempt 

 which his appearance sometimes provokes amongst the 

 townsmen, with a peculiar kind of sneering humility that 

 shows how far he is from considering it necessary to 

 study public opinion beyond the village bounds. This 

 village-public opinion, if we may use the term, is how- 

 ever an invaluable possession for Germany, and mainly 

 distinguishes the German from the French national cha- 

 racter. It is a blessing for Germany that it was pre- 

 served through the tempest of the Revolutionary war. 

 The inhabitant of a '' dorf," even on the French frontier, 

 is religiously disjjosed, and is careless of ridicule in fol- 

 lowing out his notions of right and wrong. It is not 

 easy to imagine a more independent development of 

 character individually than that of the villagers, man 

 towards man, and even of the two sexes towards each 

 other. In the courtships that are carried on for years 

 between young people that grow up together, there is as 

 much form and method, and far more security, for the 

 girl who is left to trust to her wits, than ladies find who 

 have a host of pistolled relations at their elbow. Travel- 

 lers are usually prevented from diving into the secrets of 

 village life in Germany, both by the difficulties of the 

 language and by the reluctance of the villagers to 



