then the last, and then behold Finis itself The How like music this-like one trying the night. He will be in bed, his candle out, and and be "Oh, the sad old pages, the dull old pages! Oh, the cares, the ennui, the squabbles, the repetitions, the old conversations over and over again! But now and again a kind thought is recalled, and now and again a dear memory. Yet a few chapters more, and then the last; after which, behold Finis itself comes to an end, and the Infinite begins." "That the happy morn, he had tried to take one more breath. We think of him as of our Chalmers; found dead He sent the proof of this paper to his " dear neighbors," in Onslow Square, to whom he owed so much almost daily pleasure, with his Long years of sorrow, labor, and pain had corrections, the whole of the last paragraph killed him before his time. It was found afin manuscript, and above a first sketch of it ter death how little life he had to live. He also in MS., which is fuller and more impas- looked always fresh with that abounding silsioned. His fear of "enthusiastic writing "very hair, and his young, almost infantine had led him, we think, to sacrifice something of the sacred power of his first words, which we give with its interlineations: face, but he was worn to a shadow, and his ler From The Saturday Review. about the Duchies might be defended, the Spectator, which is ordinarily above feeble political jokes, thought it a sufficient refutation of the argument to clothe it in the form which it might have assumed if its statement had been very literally translated from a German original. We may also get rid of the great tobacco-fume argument, unless it is seriously meant that true philosophy is only compatible with the consumption of tobacco that has paid duty to the English Government. What remains is that certain political opinions are held in Germany, just as opinions of all sorts are held in England, by a number of educated men who are out of the circle of the official class, who live a life of comparative seclusion, who have plenty of leisure to form and vent their opinions, and whose main attention is given to matters of permanent rather than temporary interest. And the question is, whether the opinions of such persons on passing events are presumably foolish. THE Schleswig-Holstein question has raised a good many cries against a great variety of people, and one of the cries it has raised has been against Professors. It has been said facetiously that only one person ever got to the bottom of the question, and he was a German Professor, who immediately went mad. It has also been said more seriously that the whole movement in Germany has been got up by the Professors, and that it is only because a set of unpractical recluses have poured forth a mass of rubbish in uncouth involved sentences amidst the fumes of the tobacco-smoke with which they habitually confuse their naturally muddled heads, and have thus bewildered their countrymen into an unreal transcendental enthusiasm, that there has been any Schleswig-Holstein question at all. In this country scarcely any one has offered an explicit defence and exposition of the German views except Professor Max Müller; and of him, also, it is said that he is a Professor, and a In the first place, it is objected that ProGerman Professor, and therefore ipso facto in- fessors-living out of the world, and in a narcapable of understanding any political ques-row and quiet circle-have not got the popution in the sensible, practical way in which lar abre, do not know what the masses around Englishmen understand it. It may, therefore, them think and feel, have none of the fervor be not uninteresting to inquire what the value and enthusiasm of the people, and are, thereof the opinions of Professors is likely to be on fore, incapable of seeing what a nation wants. any subject of living and present interest, It is, we think, quite true that, in some inand it will probably be found by any one stances, there is a contrast of this sort between who makes the inquiry that, although the the position of Professors and that of persons opinions of Professors are often not much in more direct communication with the bulk better than the opinions of other people, of half-educated or uneducated people. they are at least not much worse. And, some points of view, the contrast is unfavorfirst of all, we may surely get rid of the ob- able to the Professors, but in others it is fajection to German Professors that they talk vorable. Lord Shaftesbury, for example, German. To Englishmen and Frenchmen, complained of the tyranny of Professors, and German seems a cumbrous and involved lan- he was evidently right in one way. He wanted guage, and Germans habitually use terms bor- a general, popular, ardent, unreflecting moverowed from a different philosophical system ment toward what he considered right; and, from that which Locke has made familiar to so far as such a movement produces good, it Englishmen. But if a German is to be al- is a hindrance to that good that persons aclowed to think at all, he must, it would seem, quainted with theology, whom he termed be expected to put his thoughts in a German Professors, should interrupt the swing and way, to frame cumbrous sentences, and to use force of the movement by questioning whether the philosophical terms familiar to him. It the premises on which the whole line of acis too readily taken for granted in England tion professed to be based were really true. that an opinion, stated in the manner natural It is most discouraging that, when a zealous to any continental nation, is absurd because and active man has got together a following it is not stated as an Englishman would state of Sunday-school teachers and scholars, minit. When a member of the House of Com-isters, clergymen, beadles, Young Christians, mons attempted to explain the grounds on Bands of Hope, members of Parliament, bankwhich some of the feelings of the Germans ers, and the little children who figure in tracts, In This all ready to sing, preach, rehearse, inculcate, | membered that the members of a small circle profess, subscribe to, and swear by, a favorite are naturally jealous and suspicious of each doctrine, then an educated person with a other, and that those who are afraid of their pestilent knowledge of Greek and Hebrew circle are apt to express themselves with unshould start the irrelevant but disheartening due timidity, while those who rise superior inquiry whether this doctrine is true or not. to this temptation have the air of having won And it must be acknowledged that men of a victory and of knowing that they have won thought, accustomed to secluded lives, are it. The opinions of Professors are therefore often bad judges of what can be done in ac-apt to be either tame and colorless, or else too tion, cannot keep steady to a point, and over-positive, fierce, and arbitrary. But then rate difficulties. But that Professors are both these errors represent something that is universally, or even generally, on the unpop- good, and the good they represent makes itular side, and stand aloof from the nation to self felt in the opinions of Professors when which they belong, is a very strong assump- looked at in a mass. The timidity and hesition. In Germany, it may at least be said tation of some Professors, although often for the Professors that the nation is as mad springing from nothing better than personal as they are, and that, if all the movement has weakness, sometimes proceeds from that recome from their muddled brains, they have luctance to pronounce decisively, which all at least managed to stir the popular mind to persons feel who have inquired deeply, who its depths, and to carry conviction to a great have set the complexity of great political and majority of Germans, although they had the social problems fairly before them, and see disadvantage of addressing their auditors in how nicely-balanced any expression of opintheir native language. Professor Müller, too, ion ought to be. There is one thing which used some arguments which were not very no one can refuse to see in university and satisfactory to Englishmen; but they were professorial society, and that is a proper apnot satisfactory for the precise reason that preciation of the difficulty of things. they were thoroughly German arguments and has even led to many faults of character and not accommodated to our history. When he manner, and more especially to that gentlespoke of a small sovereign having a sacred and manly habit of bland whispers, accompanied divine right to ascend a ducal throne, like the by a smile, which is so truly excruciating. right of a private heir to occupy his paternal If, however, we look to general results and acres, he was addressing in vain a nation not to the manners of individuals, it is a great that owes its liberty and prosperity to having thing that there should be in English society sent its legitimate sovereigns into poverty and a centre of thought where the weight and exile; but he was employing an argument burden of judging is profoundly felt, and that would go straight to German hearts, and where the necessity of reservations, of guarded bis mistake, such as it was, arose from his and tentative judgments, of looking to remote being too much imbued with the notions consequences and to indirect modes of action popular in his own country. and influence, is thoroughly acknowledged. But Professors are not all of one sort, and when they are not timid, dubitative, and guarded, they are often rash and vebement. They chafe at the bands in which their colleagues are content to live, and they proclaim their liberty by bold assertions and hazardous opinions. Very often the opinions they utter under the pressure of such feelings are not worth much, are formed on imperfect data, and are wholly unpractical. But at least these opinions come from independent and honest minds, and this is a great thing. There is life and activity, and a general tendency to keep moving forward, wherever there is this personal fearlessness and this The opinions current in the two English universities afford as good a standard of the opinions of Professors as could be found. For it is impossible to say that German Professors are more unlike Germans, or French Professors more unlike Frenchmen, than the resident Fellows and Tutors of an English university are unlike Englishmen. Differences exist in all three instances; but they are not differences which erect professorial opinions into a class by themselves. The conversation of Fellows and Tutors of colleges is not generally lively; but then the conversation of all sets of men who meet every day is apt to be dull. It must also be re disregard of personal losses and sacrifices in |ernments, who are in the constant habit of order to promote a cause which has thoroughly enlisted the sympathics of its adherents. writing on political questions, and who know that if they are negligent, or ignorant, or Then, again, if the worth of the opinions confused, or reckless in their criticism, they of Professors is to be rightly valued, it must will at once fail to satisfy the demands of the be clearly understood whose are the opinions educated public for whom they write or to that are likely to be better. A Professor may whom they speak, have the advantage over make great mistakes, and be too argumenta- Professors of doing systematically, and as a tive or dubitative, or too peremptory and rash matter of business, what the Professors do in the judgments he passes, but, at the very occasionally, by fits and starts, and at their least, his opinions are as likely to be right own pure pleasure. Even then it must be as those of his baker or his butcher. And if allowed that Professore-that is, educated they are better than the opinions of his local men living in a society that is not the official butcher or baker, they are not likely to be and governing society of a capital, and is not inferior to those of bakers and butchers else- immediately connected with such a circlewhere. We may go a step further, and say have the superiority which greater freedom that they are as likely to be right as the opin- and independence, and less necessity of passing ions of most professional persons. What some sort of judgment quickly on everything does a country doctor or attorney know of that comes up, cannot fail to give. Profesthe Schleswig-Holstein question that a Pro-sors are at liberty to make ten hazardous shots fessor should not feel the hope of rivalling at truth, where men more closely bound him? Even in Germany, where Professors up with the actual course of government are are so numerous and of so many different afraid to make any, and of these hazardous grades, the Professor is at least as good a shots one in ten may hit the mark. But as man for a political opinion as most of his a general rule, and with reference to the great neighbors. He does not talk more hopeless majority of political subjects, the opinion of and confused German than they do, and his a leading member of Parliament, or of those pipes are not more numerous or powerful. enjoying his intimate acquaintance, or of perIt is true that there are persons who are more sons qualified by position and natural gifts qualified to give a sound opinion on political and habit to pass a judgment whether in the questions than Professors generally are, but field of journalism or elsewhere, have a better then these persons are few. Those who have and more accurate opinion than Professors the advantage of being concerned in the actual ordinarily have. This is saying nothing more administration of affairs, who are obliged to than that persons who stick to a trade as think carefully before they act, because their professionals are ordinarily superior to amamistakes are followed generally by such quick teurs. But among amateurs-among the outretribution, who have access to the best and siders of political life-few persons have such most recent information, and who have that good pretensions to form opinions worth lisappreciation of their position forced upon tening to and seriously discussing as those them which comes from constant intercourse who approach the consideration of the more with the leading men of other nations, have important events of the day with education special opportunities for judging not only to guide them, with leisure for ample conwhat it is desirable, but what it is possible sideration, and with no strong personal bias to do. Those, again, who make it their busi- and no prospect of immediate gain or loss to ness to watch and criticise the conduct of gov-influence their decisions. From The Spectator, 5 March. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY IN LOUISIANA. who are holding unruly States, levying conscripts among men of hostile opinions, organizing frontier clans,-for opinion can create a clan as well as pedigree,-feeding armies who THIS war, if it lasts much longer, will have outnumber the population, arming whole popone compensation. It will give to North ulations without money, and building fleets America à generation of statesmen. Nothing without trained artificers-these men escape, has been more remarkable throughout its of course, English attention. How is any course than the way in which the somewhat one of us all, unless he happens to his misforgelatinous intellect of the men of the North-tune to think a black a human being, or to ern States, soft because never annealed by imagine that a Yankee can be saved, or to irresistible external pressure, has been grad- believe it possible that politics may exist west ually hardening-acquiring, as it were, bone of long. 11 degs., or to be subject to some and substance, and sharp, almost angular, fanaticism of the same kind, to leave the definition. We do not despair, should it last Times and the share list and Professor Max six years, of finding an American who doubts Müller, and study what General Saxton is whether the Constitution came down from doing in the Carolinian swamps, or note what heaven ready engrossed, who can understand progress has been made in turning the right principles as well as the verdicts of the Su- bank of the Mississippi into a region habitapreme Court, who perceives that the argu-ble by men who do not wear revolvers? Still ment our people feel" is not precisely a few men are visible even to English eyes equivalent to moral law. Abraham Lincoln's who are becoming entitled to rank among proclamations, rough-hewn as they still are statesmen, and one of the very first among in thought, and wholly unshapen in form, are them is the officer in command in Louisiana. beginning to have in them a quality apart We never remember to have read-this from the sturdy uprightness which was al-generation most certainly has never seen—a ways there, one which, if it were but a little document more remarkable than the order by more polished in expression, all England which General Banks revolutionizes the sowould recognize as statesmanship. Mr. Sew-cial arrangements of the great State of Louisiard, of course, is unteachable, for opposition ana. It contains one clause of which we most though it elicits cannot impart capacity; but cordially disapprove, as at once futile and tyMr. Welles, though he has not built a War-rannical, and two or three more the expediency rior, has organized the blockade of three thou- of which we seriously doubt, and it is written sand miles of coast, and mosquito fleets which throughout in that vile semi-literary style, control ten thousand miles of river; Mr. full of talk about "the yellow harvest wayStanton, though not a Carnot, keeps half a ing over the crimson field," which we abanmillion of soldiers well armed, well fed, and doned when we gave up knee-breeches and colwell contented; and Mr. Chase, though not ored raiment. But apart from the one evil a heaven-born financier, has induced a people clause, and the blemishes which are purely of impatient of taxes to double their taxation, form, it is an order of which the boldest to contemplate quadrupling it, to bear with statesmen in Europe might well feel proud, an inconvertible paper currency, to run up a an order full, not only of that audacity which national debt equal to that of France, and to only revolutions and aristocracies breed, but distribute that debt in morsels so small that of that constructive capacity, that force which a proposal to repudiate would provoke a civil belongs to Founders, which is too apt to be In 1858 there was not a man in the miserably absent from both. Just realize for Union outside the little circle of Southern one moment the task before General Banks. leaders who really knew what "government Here was a vast State as large as a Eumeant, who had ever considered for ten min- ropean kingdom, barely subdued into a utes how to hold down a hostile population, seeming quiescence, occupied and owned by or what manner of resources a great war men at heart hostile to his règime, tilled by would require, or in what way opinion could a race who a year since were slaves and are be made an armed as well as an executive not yet freemen, impatient of labor, burning force. Even Englishmen can now check off a with new hopes, believing that in some dim dozen such men upon their fingers, and Eng-way Utopia was for them about to arrive. lishmen naturally miss all but those few leaders who have enjoyed opportunities of touching the national imagination. The scores of generals, governors, commissioners, and politicians, who are learning in the old States, in the West, in the Border Land, and on the Southern coast, the difficult lesson of administration among a people not all of one mind, war. The collision between the two sets of ideas, between white and black, capital and labor, slave and slave-driver, had ended in ruining both, in the cessation of cultivation, and, except where troops were detached at enormous cost to maintain some appearance of order, in the suspension of social life. There was no crop and no revenue, New Orleans was fed by |