to the idea that Christmas is come, for I know that my friends in the midst of their pleasures will think of me. God bless the little one and you altogether. I shall never feel quite happy till I am amongst you again." At his time of life this journey, in such company, and for his type of mind, was the best possible school. One little drawback was the haughty temper of Mrs. Davy. Sir Humphrey, like his student, was of humble birth. He had married a rich widow, who felt it her duty to treat Faraday more as a vant than a student, and had some unpleasant ways of doing this. It seems the name of a "servant," the way she put it, hurt him more than the thing itself. They had their little quarrels, until she learned to treat him more gently. **** no small pleasure I wrote you my last ser- ""Tis the shortest and (to me) the In the continental centres of science, Faraday learned much, and kept extensive notes. How he was impressed by it the following extract of a letter to a friend tells us : After Faraday had become a noted man of science his mother became very fond of him, as what mother would not of such a son. Her excessive delight in his fame seemed to annoy him. He charged his wife not to speak much to the old lady about his honors, that she was proud enough of him without additional promptings. She would call him my Michael," did nothing without his consent or advice, and was contented and happy in his home during a large part of her life. "I have learned just enough to perceive my ignorance, and, ashamed of my defects in everything, I wish to seize From his early boyhood Faraday was the opportunity of remedying them. careful in the selection of his compaThe little knowledge I have gained in nions, and was extremely fortunate and languages makes me wish to know more faithful in his early friendships. He of them, and the little I have seen of defines "a true friend to be one who will men and manners, is just enough to serve his companions next to his God; make me desirous of seeing more; added nor will I admit that an immoral person to which the glorious opportunity I en- can fill completely the character of a joy of improving in the knowledge of true friend. A companion cannot be chemistry and the sciences, continually good unless he is morally so; and howdetermines me to finish this voyage with ever engaging may be his general habits, Sir Humphrey. But if I wish to enjoy and whatever peculiar circumstances those advantages I have to sacrifice may be connected with him so as to much; and though those sacrifices are make him desirable, reason and common such as an humble man would not feel, sense point him out as an improper comyet I cannot quietly make them. Tra- panion or acquaintance, unless his nobler velling, too, I find is almost inconsistent faculties, his intellectual powers, are in with religion, (I mean modern travel-proportion as correct as his outward beling), and I am yet so old-fashioned as haviour." to remember strongly (I hope perfectly) my youthful education." Faraday was one of the best of sons. In early life affectionate and obedient to his parents; in later life he bore with the peculiarities of his aged mother with tender forbearance. All through life he kept "no secrets from her." Shortly before his return from the continent, in 1815, he wrote: "My very dear mother: It is with All that Faraday achieved was by hard work. "Work hard, work carefully and you will succeed," was the advice he gave to a young scientist. He did more than any one man to lay the foundation of all the inventions in which magnetism and electricity are the agents. Prof. Tyndall says: "He was the recognized prince of investigators, and had the glory of holding aloft among the nations the scientific name of Eng He Over Land and Sea. BY EDWIN A. GERNANT. IV. In the Sunny Rhine Land. (Continued). land for a period of forty years." was the recipient of more than one hundred honors conferred by the different institutions of science, literature and royalty. A German correspondent addressed him as "Prof. Michael Faraday, Member of all Academies of Sciences." He bore his laurels with Three days in Bonn gave us an excelmarvellous meekness, and prized them lent opportunity to enjoy its quiet beauty, chiefly as marks of kindly appreciation. to inspect its University, and to become One day he took, when he was sixty somewhat familiar with German stuyears old, Prof. Tyndall's arm and said: dent life. The courtesy of the Rev. Dr. "Come, T., I will now show you some- Christlieb insured us every advantage thing that will interest you." He took in this direction. His prominence as a him into a certain street, and entered a theologian and his commanding position stationer's shop; led him to a little side in the University faculty would of themroom with a window facing the street. selves inspire interest, and his fine In a low and eager tone of voice he said: presence and genial manners, his rare "Look there, T.: that was my working conversational powers both in English place; I bound books in that little and German, and his lively appreciation nook." Stepping to the counter he let of America's civil and religious instituon as if he wanted to buy cards, so as to tions, these only increased my admirabave an excuse, or have a chat with the tion for one of the leading minds of saleswoman. He asked her name, and Evangelical Protestantism. On the who had been her predecessor in business first evening after our arrival he invited there. Then the next predecessor, and us to accompany him in his usual walkthe next. At length he traced back German professors are much given to the business of the place to his old mas- this form of exercise-and for an honr ter, Mr. Rieban. "He, sir, was the or two we strolled along the banks of master of Sir Michael Faraday," she the Rhine and through the city's subcontinued. "Nonsense," he exclaimed; urbs. Our newly-found friend pre"there is no such a person." Tyndall could hold back the secret no longer. When he told the woman the name of her visitor she said, "that as soon as she saw him running about the shop-she felt-though she did not know whythat it must be Sir Michael Faraday." Thither he came as an errand boy, almost fifty years ago. Instead of trying to conceal his humble origin, he loved to speak of it. The sound of the hammer on the anvil was music to his ears. He said: "I love a smithshop, or anything relating to smithery; my father was a smith. " When Noble, a noted sculptor took his bust, and, producing a rattling noise with his tools, he noticed a look of thoughtfulness in Faraday's face, and asking him whether the noise annoyed him, he replied: laying his hand on the sculptor's shoulder: "No, my dear Mr. Noble, but the noise reminded me of my father's anvil, and took me back to my boyhood." sented the good and bad effects of the union of church and state in gloomy colors, and was pronounced in his admiration for the freer and, as a consequence, more spontaneous church life prevailing in the United States. Owing to the rigorous restrictions placed upon all denominations, but intended chiefly as a check to the rendering of Peter's Pence by over-zealous Romanists, the benevolence of the Evangelical church has been much crippled. There is no regular free-will offering, except by special permission of the government, setting forth the object of the contributions at each particular occasion. The University at Bonn is much favored by the noble and wealthy classes. The grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm pursues his studies here, and one evening we saw this sprig of royalty on the balcony of his pension. Duelling still flourishes among the students, as their scarred and often horribly disfigured faces too plainly showed. They are for the most part divided into circles, fraGod's heart is opened to men in Christ. ternities if you please, wearing distinct caps and colors, and broad tri-colored case, too numerous to allow a proper ribbons across their shoulder and breast. enjoyment of the trip. Many of them lead a reckless, rollicking It has been fashionable lately to affect life, wholly without restraint and ever disappointment with the Rhine scenery, seeking to provoke a quarrel which may and Americans especially are prone to end in a so-called duel. I say so-called, make unfavorable comparisons with for there is nothing mortally dangerous their own beautiful Hudson. "Were in these highly honorable encounters. it not," says a writer of some note, "for The breast and body are securely the historical association of the ruins padded, and heavy buckskin gloves, and castles and for the poetical fancies gauntletted to the shoulder, protect the of Byron and Southey, we think that hands and arms. The one only purpose the Rhine would never have obtained is to slash the face of your opponent, the fame it has enjoyed." Perhaps not, and yet this distinguishing and by no but the glamour of historical romance is means beautifying mark is itself re- not illegitimate, and, however largely it garded as an honor. It is said, indeed, may have contributed to the attractions that these scarred faces are so dearly of the Rhine, the fact of its unequalled valued that "when the wound is not beauty remains. Nor can we easily deep they keep it festering with nitrate overestimate the worth of this same hisof silver until there is an assurance that torical and poetical flavor. Other things it will leave its mark." Nor is this sur- being equal, that landscape or mountain, prising in view of the fact that not un- that lake or river which has been the frequently a disfigured face is the pass- scene, real or imaginary, of martial gloport to any lady's favor; a miserable ry and heroic deed, of love's last extretravesty this of the doctrine that faint mity, or hatred's bloody pursuit, receives heart should not win. Duelling is of thereby a lease of fame, a new and course more or less restricted to the Eu- spiritual beauty which unaided nature ropean students. Americans are not could never have secured to it. The regarded as cowardly if they refuse to presence of man is thus the crowning be enrolled in one of the numerous fenc- feature in all real beauty. What were ing-schools. And as a rule all theologi this world of ours without the last great cal students may, if they so prefer, steer creation to give meaning and character clear of the code. to the whole? And it is the enkindling genius of man that must give to nature that living charm which we can all feel though we may not all be able to understand it. Nor is this all. The presence of man in his historical unfolding, whether in peace or war, in romance or song, is so far forth the presence of a continual inspiration which makes every tour a pilgrimage, and every exclamation of enjoyment an act of devotion. And right here do we find the key-note to all the complex harmony of Rhine enthusiasts. My experience on the classic waters of the noble Rhine is intimately associated with my recollections of Bonn. On a bright and cloudless morning the twenty-seventh of July-we took the train for Bingen-зeventy miles farther to the south. But, notwithstanding this fact of latitude, we really went UP to Bingen, for it will be remembered that the Rhine flows north. It is not easy to grow accustomed to this, and many are the mistakes in consequence. In Ireland, when driving, you are expected to turn to the left. This custom has given rise We had taken passage on board the to the truly Hibernian adage-"when steamer "Triede," fitly so-named for this you go left you go right, and when you day at least. Bingen, which we have go right you go wrong. But for the just left, is situated at the mouth of the too thoughtful and serious character of Nahe, a comparatively small stream the Germans, this contrariness of their forming the boundary between Prussia grand old river would doubtless have and Hesse Darmstadt, and has a popuoriginated an analogous witticism. At lation of nearly seven thousand. The Bingen we took an early dinner, and re- old castle of Klopp overshadows it. turned by steamer to Bonn. The day Here Henry the IVth was imprisoned was delightfully warm, and the passen- in 1195. Between Bingen and Coblentz gers were not, as is so frequently the the Rhine is at its best. There is a bewildering succession of attractions. their little store was not worthlessly conThe river rolls in quiet majesty through fiscated. a wildly beautiful mountainous district, The vine-clad hills must be seen to be so that you scarcely know on which side appreciated. Down to the water's edge of the boat to place yourself for fear this and often up to the very brow of apparcastle or that nymph-crowned promon- ently inaccessible cliffs, the living fruit tory may escape you. It is well to confronts the eye. Long stretches of carefully study your guide book and comparatively level, gently-sloping tracts determine upon a few main points of are succeeded by acres of rock-terraced interest along the route as deserving of formation. The hardy peasantry have your especial attention. Then let the thus turned every inch of ground into glorious never-to-be-forgotten panorama account. Indeed, where there was no pass. And please don't be too matter- soil at all, there now fertile vineyards of fact. There is a certain kind of abound. What nature had denied skillcommon sense so frightfully common ful husbandry supplied. that no sense remains. I sometimes wish we were all a little more given to dreaming. "How sweet it were, hearing the downward deposited. Veritable hanging gardens, stream, Low walls were erected at varying distances all over the hill side and between and upon them the ground, carried in baskets from the valleys below, was carefully unlike those of Babylon, constructed not for beauty alone, but as a means of subsistence and revenue to their owners How sweet (while warm airs lull us, blowing as well. Of a truth, however, the inlowly) With half-dropt eyelids still, Beneath a heaven dark and holy, dustry of these peasants has not merely supplied their own individual wants and To watch the long bright river drawing slowly contributed to the nation's wealth. The His waters from the purple hill- vine To watch the emerald-color'd water falling Through many a woy'n acanthus-wreath divine!" attractions of the Rhine are very sensibly increased thereby, and thus again the presence of man does not mar, but complete the picture. Who has not read the oft-told legend of the Lorelei, nor dwelt with loving interest upon the romantic story of the May it not be that our poverty of Liebenstein? The still-enticing rocks imagination is after all a consequence of of the former are beautiful beyond dethe fall, and that, as the work of our re- scription. The medieval siren's song generation goes on, the phantasy asserts itself more and more as the heavenly undertone of the divine in us, as the mysterious twilight of an ever-dawning spiritual day? And now for some distance ruin follows ruin, legend is piled upon legend. In these castles once ruled feudal barons. "Rich in some dozen paltry villages, Strong in some hundred spearsmen," were needed to induce one's admiration, and yet as our steamer rounds the cliff, and a wierd silence falls upon one and all, I can understand, with Heine, the dangerous spell of such a "wündersame, gewaltige melodie." The silvering glory of a western sun rests upon the summit, and I look in vain for the white arms and gleaming shoulders of the golden-haired Lorelei. But although this far-famed German nymph no longer now entices the mariners of the Rhine, we were favored with an example of the way in which the Loreleis of the nineteenth century enslave their devotees. A short distance below Bingen a young couple came on board and continued with us until our steamer touched at Coblentz. They took seats near us and a few moments'. with their vassals and retainers cluster- They were betrothed. This relation, which so-called society holds so lightly in America, is of significance in Germany, where the banus are still publicly announced by the pastor, after which a certain amount of intimacy is expected and allowed. A blue-eyed Saxon beauty of graceful form and carriage, a lover almost as homely as she was beautiful, a little hand resting confidingly in his whilst they talked of the river and themselves, her unconfined flaxen hair yielding to every breeze-I could not help wishing for "Tony," the artist of our class in college. But Sægerstown, alas, was well-nigh four thousand miles from this picture. It was nearly evening when we again reached Bonn. The grounds of our hotel ran down to the banks of the Rhine in a succession of lovely terraces and parterres of bloom. As we strolled along here the sound of sweet music reached our ears. A few steps brought us to the concert garden of Boun. We will enter, if you please. In the centre of a well-kept, tree-shaded, gardenabout an acre in extent-an orchestra of some ability reveals the source of the music above referred to. Around and about, at little tables under the trees, men, women and children are seated in evident enjoyment. Here are fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, entire families, young and old, professors, clergymen, and mechanics. Some are drinking coffee, some wine, others in the The majority-beer. Each little group maintains its individuality. There is no commotion, no noise. Conversation itself is carried forward in subdued tones. And, except on the part of three or four University students, there will in all probability be no intemperance. strains of Beethoven and Meyerbeer steal across the lawn and bury themselves in the gently-rolling waters of the Rhine. What now shall I say of all this? Well, it is perhaps better to let the readers of the "GUARDIAN" determine for themselves. But remember, please, that the scene is laid in Germany. Do not on the one hand grow unduly enthusiastic, nor on the other criticise too harshly. There are questions of morality-I use the word in its literal sense and expediency concerning which the wisest and best of Christians need not necessarily agree. |