consciousness of his own goodness of purpose, he believed that he deserved such a distinction, which in truth was neither lawful nor customary. Therefore, when his proposal was rejected, he fell into ill-humour and disgust, vowed that he would never accept any office, and in order to make it impossible, obtained for himself the title of an imperial councillor, which the chief magistrate and seniors of the court bear as a special honour. Thus he had made himself the equal of the highest functionaries, and could not begin again at the bottom. The same motive also induced him to propose for the eldest daughter of the chief magistrate, by which he was excluded also on this side from the council. He now belonged to the retired, who never can combine into a society. They stand as isolated with regard to each other as to the whole; and the more because in this separation the peculiarity of each character becomes always harsher and harsher. My father had perhaps been able to gain in his travels, and in the open world which he had seen, the conception of a more elegant and liberal mode of life than perhaps was common among his fellow-citizens. In this, however, he had forerunners and companions.

The name of Uffenbach is known. A magistrate, Von Uffenbach, lived at that time in good repute. He had been in Italy, had applied himself particularly to music, sung an agree able tenor; and as he had brought back with him a fine collection of music, concerts and oratorios used to be performed at his house. Now, as he sung in these himself, and favoured musicians, it was thought not altogether worthy of his station; and the invited guests, as well as the other neighbours, permitted themselves many jocose remarks on the subject.

I remember, moreover, a Baron Von Hackel, a rich nobleman, who being married but childless, inhabited a handsome house in the Antoniusgasse, furnished with all the appurtenances of a dignified existence. He also possessed good pictures, engravings, antiquities, and much else which usually accumulates in the hands of collectors and amateurs. From time to time he invited the more distinguished persons to dinner, and was beneficent in a thoughtful way of his own, clothing the poor in his house, but retaining their

former rags, and giving them a weekly alms, only under the condition that they would always present themselves clean and neat in the clothes which he had bestowed on them. I remember him but indistinctly, as a friendly, wellmade man. But I recall far more clearly his auction, which I attended from the beginning to the end; and partly by my father's direction, partly from my own impulse, bought many things which are still in my collections.

Earlier, so that I scarcely saw him, John Michael Von Loen gained a good deal of attention in the literary world as well as in Frankfort. Not a native of the city, he had settled himself there, and was married to the sister of my grandmother Textor, whose family name was Lindheim. He knew the world of courts and politics, enjoyed a revived nobility, and obtained a name by having the courage to take a part in the different excitements which arose in Church and State. He wrote the Count of Rivera, a didactic romance, the contents of which are obvious from the second title, or the Honest Man at Court. This work was well received, because it required morality even at a court, where in general only prudence is at home; and thus his labour brought him applause and estimation. A second work would, therefore, be the more dangerous for him. He wrote The only True Religion, a book which had for its object to promote toleration, especially between Lutherans and Calvinists. By this he got into controversy with the Theologians, and a Dr Benner of Giessen wrote particularly against him. Von Loen answered; the controversy became violent and personal, and the unpleasantness springing from it led the author to accept the place of President at Lingen, which Frederick II. offered him, thinking he discerned in him an enlightened man, not disinclined to the novelties which had already gone much further in France, and one free from prejudices. His former fellowtownsmen, whom he had left in some anger, maintained that he was not contented there, nay, could not be so, because a place like Lingen bore no comparison to Frankfort. My father also doubted the happiness of the President, and asserted that his good uncle would have done better not to connect

himself with the King, because it was in general dangerous to come too near him, extraordinary prince as beyond doubt he was. For it had been seen how ignominiously the celebrated Voltaire had been arrested in Frankfort at the requisition of the Prussian resident Freitag, though beforehand he had stood so high in favour, and been regarded as the King's instructor in French poetry. On occasion of such events there was no want of reflections and examples, as warnings against courts and the service of princes, which indeed a born Frankforter could hardly conceive.

I will mention only the name of an excellent man, Dr Orth, because it is not here so much my business to erect a monument to deserving Frankforters, as merely to notice them so far as their reputation, or they themselves, had some influence on my earliest years. Dr Orth was a rich man, and also belonged to those who never took a share in the government, although his knowledge and views would have well entitled him to do so. The antiquities of Germany, and especially of Frankfort, were much indebted to him. He published the remarks on the so-called Frankfort Reformation, a work in which the statutes of the Imperial Town are collected. In my youth I studied diligently its historical chapters.

Von Ochsenstein, the eldest of those three brothers whom I before spoke of as our neighbours, had not become remarkable during his life, owing to his secluded habits. But he was the more remarkable after his death, by leaving a direction that he was to be carried to the grave by working men, quite early in the morning, and without company or attendants.

It was

so done; and this event excited much notice in the city, where there was the custom of pompous funerals. All those to whom usage gave important functions on such occasions, rose up against the innovation. But the stout patrician found imitators of all classes; and although such funerals were called in derision Ochsen burials, yet, to the gain of many ill-provided families, they became usual, and the pompous funerals gradually disappeared. I cite this fact, because it presents one of the earliest symptoms of those tendencies to humility and equality, which, during the second half of the

last century, spread from above downwards in so many ways, and broke out in results so unexpected.

There was also no want of lovers of antiquity. There were cabinets of pictures, collections of engravings; and especially old curiosities of our own country were zealously sought and hoarded. The older enactments and mandates of the imperial city, of which no public collection had been established, were carefully searched for both in print and manuscript, arranged chronologically, and preserved as a treasure of our native rights and usages. The likenesses also of Frankforters, which existed in great numbers, were brought together, and formed a particular department of the cabinets.

My father seems in the main to have taken such men as his models. He wanted none of the qualities which belong to a respectable and esteemed citizen. Therefore, after building his house, he brought his acquisitions of all kinds into order. An excellent collection of maps by Schenk and other geographers then eminent, those above-mentioned enactments and mandates, those portraits, a case of ancient weapons, a case of curious Venetian glasses, cups, and goblets, natural objects, ivory-works, bronzes, and a hundred other things, were separated and displayed; and whenever an auction occurred, I gained permission to make some purchases towards the increase of his treasures.

I must still speak of one considerable family, of whom, from my earliest youth, I heard great singularities, and from some members of it learned to experience myself much that was wonderful. It was that of Senkenberg. The father, of whom I can say little, was a wealthy man; he had three sons, who, even in their youth, made themselves uniformly conspicuous as oddities. This, in a limited town, where no one must put himself forward either for good or evil, was not well thought of. Nicknames, and strange stories, which long remain in the memory, are commonly the fruit of such oddity. The father lived at the corner of the Hasengasse, [Hare Street,] which had its name from the one, or perhaps even three Hares, represented on that house. Thus, these three brothers came to be called only the three Hares-a nickname which, for a long time, they

could not shake off. But as great qualities often announce themselves in youth by something extravagant and awkward, so also was it here. The eldest was the Imperial Court Counsellor Von Senkenberg, afterwards so celebrated. The second was admitted into the magistracy, and showed distinguished talents, which however he subsequently abused in pettifogging, nay rascality, if not to the injury of his native city, yet certainly to that of his colleagues. The third brother, a physician, and man of great integrity, but who practised little, and only in the highest houses, had even until his extreme old age a somewhat whimsical appearance. He was always very neatly dressed, and was never seen in the street otherwise than in shoes and stockings, and with a curled wig, and his hat under his arm. He walked on quickly, but with an odd wavering, so that he was now at one side of the street now at the other, and his course formed a zig-zag. Mockers said, that by this irregular movement he endea voured to avoid the departed souls which might perhaps follow him in a straight line, and that he imitated those who are afraid of a crocodile.

But all this jesting, and many jocose stories of him, gave way at last to respect, when he devoted his handsome residence, with court, garden, and all its appurtenances, on the Eschenheirner Street, to a medical foundation, where, beside an hospital de signed only for citizens of Frankfort, a botanic garden, an anatomical the atre, a chemical laboratory, a considerable library, and a house for the director were established, in a way which no University need have been ashamed of.

Another eminent man, who had an important influence on me, not so much by his presence as by his effect upon the neighbourhood, and his writings, was Charles Frederick Von Mo

ser.

He was always talked of in our country for his activity in business. He, too, had an essentially moral character, which, as the vices of human nature often gave him much trouble, inclined him to the so-called pious. Thus, as Von Loen tried to do with the life of courts, so he would have introduced into that of business a more conscientious principle. The great number of small German courts produced a multitude of princes and

dependants, of whom the former desired unconditional obedience, and the latter for the most part would act and serve only according to their own views. Thus there arose a perpetual conflict, and rapid changes and explosions; because unrestricted procedure becomes on a small scale much more quickly noticeable and mischievous than on a large one. Many great families fell into debt-imperial debtcommissions were appointed. Others found themselves travelling slower or quicker on the same road, while the agents either dishonestly made their own profit, or honestly rendered themselves disagreeable and odious. Moser wished to be employed in politics and business; and in these his hereditary talent, cultivated to the point of professional skill, gave him a decided advantage. But he also wished to act as a man and a citizen, and to relinquish as little as possible of his moral dignity. His Prince and Servant, his Daniel in the Lions' Den, his Reliques, represent throughout the condition in which he always felt himself-not indeed tortured, yet confined. They indicate also his impatience in a state to which he could not reconcile himself, yet could not get free from it. From this mode of thinking and of feeling, he was often, in truth, obliged to seek other services, which his great ability made it easy for him to find. I remember him as an agreeable man, active, and at the same time gentle.

Though it was from a distance, the name of Klopstock had already a great effect upon us. At first people wondered how so eminent a man could have so strange a name. But habit soon got over this, and the meaning of these syllables was forgotten. In my father's library I had found as yet only the earlier poets, particularly those who, in his time, had gradually risen into celebrity. All these had used rhymes, and my father held rhyme indispensable for poetical works. Canitz, Hagedorn, Drollinger, Gellert, Brenz, Haller, stood in a row, in handsome calf volumes. these were joined Newkirch's Telema chus, Koppen's Jerusalem Delivered, and other translations. I had from my childhood diligently read, and in part committed to memory, all these volumes, whence I was often called upon to amuse the company. A vexatious period, on the contrary, began

Το

for my father, when, through means of Klopstock's Messiah, verses which seemed no verses to him, became an object of public admiration. He had himself taken good care not to buy this work; but the friend of the family, Councillor Schneider, smuggled it in, and slipped it into the hands of my mother and her children.

The Messiah, immediately on its appearance, had made a powerful impression on this active man of business, who read but little. Those feelings of piety, so naturally expressed and yet so beautifully ennobled that delightful language, considered even as nothing more than harmonious prose, had so won the dry man of business, that he considered the ten first books, of which indeed alone we are here speaking, as the best of devotional works. Every year during Lent, in which he contrived to free himself from all business, he read them through in retirement, and so refreshed himself with them for the whole year. At first he attempted to express his emotions to his old friend. he was much amazed at finding an incurable dislike to a work of such precious substance, on account of what appeared to him an immaterial outward form. It may well be supposed that the conversation on this subject did not fail to be repeated; but both parties separated further and further from each other. There were violent scenes, and the complaisant man at last prevailed on himself to be silent about his darling work, that he might not lose at once a friend of his youth and a good Sunday dinner.

But

To make proselytes is the most natural wish of every man; and how well did our friend feel himself rewarded in secret, when he discovered, in the rest of the family, hearts so open to his Saint. The copy, which he used for only a week in the year, was devoted to us at all other times. My mother kept it concealed, and we, her two children, took possession of it when we could, that in leisure hours, hidden in some corner, we might learn by heart the most striking passages, and particularly might impress the tenderest on our memories as quickly as possible. We rivalled each other in reciting Porcia's Dream, but divided

the parts between us in the wild despairing dialogue between Satan and Adramelech, who had been cast into the Red Sea. The former character, as the strongest, had fallen to my share. The other, a little more mournful, was taken by my sister. The alternate, frightful indeed, but well-sounding curses, flowed only in this way from our mouths, and we seized every opportunity of saluting each other with those infernal modes of speech.

It was a Saturday evening in winter-my father always had himself shaved over night, that on Sunday morning he might have leisure to dress himself comfortably for church -we sat on a cushion behind the stove, and while the barber put on the lather, murmured in a low tone our usual imprecations. And now Adramelech had to seize Satan with iron hands; my sister caught me violently, and recited softly enough, but with increasing passion

Help me! thee I implore, I worship, if this thou demandest;

Thee, O measureless fiend! thee, darkest worker of evil,

Help me! I suffer the woe of avenging infinite death-pangs.

Once in the days gone by, with fiercest of

hate could I hate thee,

This can I now no longer! and this too is fearfulest horror.

Hitherto all had gone on tolerably; but loud, with dreadful voice, did she utter the following words :

Oh! what torment is mine! The good surgeon was alarmed, and spilled the basin of lather on my father's breast. Then there was a great disturbance; and a severe enquiry was made, particularly on account of the mischief that might have happened if the process of shaving had been actually begun. In order to avert from ourselves all suspicion of quarreling, we confessed our diabolic parts; and the misfortune occasioned by the hexameters was so evident, that they were of course anew condemned and banished.

Thus do children and the people turn the grand, the clevated, into a sport, even a jest ; and how else would they be able to confront and endure it!