750 



GERMANY. 



dress runs, to the well horn JWr.^ JVIr. R . These customs, however, are going out of use 



in some parts. There is a feminine substantive, corresponding to tiie masculine title, and the 

 wives are always addressed by the titles of their husbands ; as the Lady Professoress, the Lady 

 Counselloress of Justice, the Lady Generaless ; Gnadige Frau, or Gracious Lady, is the col- 

 loquial title of one of the nobility. The Germans use many profane exclamations, and Lord 

 Jesus, and Dear God, are heard in every one's speech. The exclamations of surprise are 

 God^s thousand, hundred-, lightning, or thunder. Thunder und Doria, taken from Schiller's 

 Fiesco, is in use with the students. When the Germans part, they say, may you live happily. 

 In a passing salute they raise their hats high above their heads. Friends, when they are about 

 to part, or when they meet, kiss each other, not on the cheek, as in Italy, but on the lips, 

 which have generally an abattis of moustaches. The German ladies have a touching voice, fair 

 and dazzling complexions, with great sensibility and fancy. Madame de Stael remarks, that they 

 " coquet with enthusiasm," not like the French and English, with pleasantry and wit. They 

 have an inveterate custom, high and low, noble and peasant, of knitting stockings, wherever 

 they are. It is as general as the custom of smoking with the sterner sex. 



The Germans though they have frequent quarrels, seldom come to blows ; a blow is an in- 

 dignity, that nothing but the offender's blood can atone, and a man in common life would appeal 

 to arms to avenge it. Hard words are applied in profusion, and to scold is a common way of 

 quarreling ; " a mode," says Russell, " that annihilates the distinction between the sexes." 

 The German character, it must be remembered, is somewhat various, in the different States ; 

 and, as has been said, it is as much parceled out as the land, though there are certain traits that 

 run through the whole. The difference is greatest between the north and the south, and the 

 literary and the commercial towns. 



The Germans of the south are, in general, less favorably distinguished for morality and intel- 

 ligence than those of the north, and much less has been done in the former section towards 

 enlightening the great mass of the people ; yet there arc many exceptions to this remark. In 

 many quarters of the country the moral condition of the peasantry is very miserable ; ignorant, 

 superstitious, dull, indolent, and dirty in their habits, and slovenly in their mode of cultivation, 

 they still bear the traces of their recent servitude. 



18. Amusements. Many of the amusements are those which are common in England and 

 France. The favorite active sport is the chase of the wild boar, and although the game privi- 

 leges may be, as in England, distinct from the soil, yet all classes are permitted to attend the 

 prince in the chase, but not otherwise to engage in the sport. Plares are exceedingly numerous, 

 and they are hunted not with grey-hounds, but with peasants. These form a large circle, and, 

 with great vociferation, close by degrees upon a centre, driving the hares before them. The 

 hunters shoot them down in great numbers, and a random shot sometimes hits one of those who 

 act as the pack. But dancing is the national amusement, and it is pursued with more enthu- 

 siasm than in France. The waltz is the national dance, and it is introduced into most of the 

 foreign figures that prevail in Germany. Fathers and sons are seen in the same dance ; all 

 classes dance, except that which has the dignity of royalty to support. Royal personages only 

 polonaise, in a light, ^\ry step, between a dance and a walk. 



19. Education. In the means of education, the north of Germany far surpasses every other 

 country. The Protestant States are more enlightened than the Catholic, and in Saxony there 

 is hardly a peasant, that cannot read and write. In Prussia, there are upwards of 20,000 ele- 

 mentary schools. The Gymnasiums of the north of Germany are celebrated ; they are schools 

 preparatory to the universities ; but the studies pursued in them are equal to those of the uni- 

 versities, in some countries. The gymnastic exercises are pursued with ardor in some, though 

 in the most tbey are discontinued. The universities of Germany are the best in the world. 

 They have students from every European nation, and from America. The universities of Gottin- 

 gen, Berlin, Bonn, Jena, Halle, and Leipsic, are the most celebrated. The 21 universities of 

 Germany art? attended by about 16,000 students ; there are at that of Berlin, 1,800 ; of Vien- 

 na, 1 ,950 : of Munich, 1 ,300 ; of Prague, 1 ,450 ; of Leipsic, 1 ,430 ; of Halle, 1 ,600 ; of Got- 

 tingen, 850 The instructions are given in a great measure by lectures, and one professor often 

 lectures on several subjects. The libraries are the best and most extensive in the world ; and 

 any student may take out many books at a time, a hundred if he will. The libraries contain all 

 that is valuable in ancient or modern science. The library at Gottingen contains 300,000 vol- 

 umes, all collected in less than a century. North of the Mayne, it is difficult to travel for a 

 day uniiout (inding a library ; at Carlsruhe is one of 70,000 volumes ; at the distance of a fevf 



