The periodical press is entirely want- tian religion) and containing obscene ing. There is only the organ of the illustrations and invitations to assassiempire (Tzin Bao) which publishes the nation. There were also a number of official nominations and from time to anecdotes directed against the Christime items and pieces of news entirely tian religion and its representatives. false. On the other hand the Chinese Since the year 1861, M. Korostowietz have a rich collection of romances, in tells us, China has been endowed with a which impossible legends and narra- college where they teach the French, tives play the principal role. Instead English, Russian, German, and Chinese of journals, the Chinese circulate a languages, and such positive sciences as great number of handbills, circulars, chemistry, astronomy, etc. The course and little political pamphlets. These lasts eight years. But this is the astonpamphlets appear most frequently on ishing fact for Europeans: the pupils the eve of sanguinary events, of which receive salaries instead of paying the Europeans are always the victims. professors. They commence by receiv Thus China was recently flooded with ing twelve francs a month, and end a series of pamphlets entitled "Death with one thousand francs a year. to the Religion of the Demon" (Chris

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LIGHTNING AT SEA.. For some time of last year the old words of command for past it has been remarked that ships at sea altering the helm-viz., "starboard " or are far less often damaged by lightning now 'port"-have been given up on board the than was formerly the case when wooden ships of the North German Lloyds and the ships were so much in vogue. This has Hamburg-American lines, and the order been noticed even under the tropics where "right" or "left" substituted. It is diffiviolent storms are very frequent. Accord-cult to break with old customs, and seamen ing to some returns made of the statistics in especial are conservative; it is, therefore, that have been accumulated since 1879 by not a matter of wonder that many old the German authorities, this must be attrib- sailors look with great disfavor upon this uted to the general use which is now made latest innovation. On board the steamers of wire rope for rigging purposes as well as of the two great lines mentioned above, to the fact that the hulls of ships are usu- however, the change has been made obligaally constructed of iron or steel. Thus the tory, and, according to a report forwarded whole ship forms an excellent and continu- to the directors by one of their oldest capous conductor by means of which the elec- tains, who was himself opposed to the idea, tricity is led away into the ocean before it has been attended with the happiest results. has time to do any or serious damage. As soon as the order "right" is given, the Captain Dinklap, who has had charge of telegraph is moved to the right, the wheel the commission appointed to investigate is revolved to the right, the ship turns to this question, states that no case has been the right, the rudder indicator points right, recorded where a ship rigged with wire rig- the rudder itself moves right, and the steerging has sustained any damage from light-ing mark on the compass as well; and so ning, except in a few instances where con- vice versa when the order "left" is given. tinuous connection had not been made with Nothing can be simpler, and no possibility the hull. But wooden ships rigged with of mistake can arise. The objection has ordinary rope rigging still show the same been raised that the new words of command percentage of casualties as formerly, when are not international, and are therefore they are not properly fitted with lightning illegal. This statement, however, will not rods and the proper precautions taken to hold good, as both English and American maintain their efficiency. pilots, in whom every one has confidence, have made no difficulties in using the new words of command when piloting ships of the two before-mentioned companies.

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66

I shall always hold you fast,
I shall never set you free,

You are mine, and I possess you
Long as life shall last;
You will comfort me,
I shall bless you.

Shall flow; his words, in cadence sweet Yet loudlier thee than many a lavish host

From The Contemporary Review. GOETHE AS A MINISTER OF STATE.

new

place in the equal community of his fellows, who will listen to his opinions on all serious subjects with the polite indifference with which the doctors of lunatic asylums listen to their patients. It is not merely that the average man feels an Aristophanic distrust of the man of words, for he allows himself to be governed mainly by rhetoric. He is haunted by an uneasy suspicion that a poet is not quite a serviceable person, and that he ought to be spending his time on business of more distinct utility. He is dimly conscious of the same kind of dissatisfaction as prompted the essayist, himself far removed from the common utilitarian position, to write of Shakespeare : "The best poet led an obscure and profane life, using his genius for the public amusement. The world still wants its poet-priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle with Shakespeare the player, nor shall grope in graves with Swedenborg the mourner.

WITHIN the last thirty years or less the criterion by which the value of the poetic life is estimated among people of authority has obviously changed. Our fathers were inclined to decide the merits of a poet's conduct of life by a standard which has become obsolete to us, though in its day it really added a terror to the poet's existence. There has, indeed, always been abundant cause for poetic lamentations over the slights to which the poet's trade is exposed. But in earlier times the satiric shaft was aimed chiefly at the poet's obscurity and poor estate. His dulness was sometimes hinted at, but it was his hunger which appeared most ridiculous. For this century, whose chief glory it is that in it hunger has at last ceased to be a reproach-for this century it was reserved to discover a fresh taunt, hardly less galling than the old. At the time when the formulæ of But, in a leader of modern thought, civic progress and prosperity were how antiquated all such criticism would almost as dominant in literature as in now appear! Linger as it may, it is economics, this further burden was none the less a thing of past history, to added to the poet's ancient woes, that be remembered only as an inevitable he knew himself to be regarded with and rather disagreeable phase of hususpicion as a being of doubtful utility man thought. The tide of judgment by leaders of thought, whose philan- has set quite the other way, and already thropy was set on improving human conditions. The poet had often but little of definite importance to show in justification of his manner of life; and it was obviously absurd for him to plead that his productions, as a member of society, contributed to the greatest hap-tributors. Uselessness may be the founpiness of even a considerable number. dation of the next ethical system. Has In the popular mind something of this not its fine uselessness done much to reproach, no doubt, still lingers; for, revive religion itself? And in the having once grasped a philosophic sphere of art also, the Puritanism unformula, we are loth to let it go, and spiritualized which once played the we always hope for finality. The aver-censor in the name of utility, is in realage plain man still smiles when the word "poet" is mentioned. To his mind the poet evidently still suggests a useless decorative luxury, or else an idler of the ditch and gutter. The man who devotes his life to poetry, and spends the margin of his income on the publication of his poems, is still not only an easy mark for tea-table satire, but must be prepared also to lose his

has borne us so far that mere uselessness has almost become a test of excellence, even in conduct. It is its uselessness which maintains true learning. A society for the diffusion of useless knowledge would find many con

ity dead. We are now taught to assume the artist's uselessness, and to delight in it. The artist's individuality, not his use, is of sole importance. Let him live his own life, careless of laughter or reproach. Whether it is a useful life or not is no concern of ours, nor even of his, save in so far as that may 1 Emerson: Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.

affect his personality.

The presump-|a poet take upon himself the trivial tion, indeed, is that if a poet has chosen labors of privy councillor, minister of to pursue a useful life, according to war, of finance, of education, chief accepted definitions, his admirers will commissioner of mines and of roads, now have to stand on the defensive. and amateur fireman ? And all for the And, in that case, it will not count a sake of a State which may be estimated single point to the poet's credit that he by the size of its standing army, amounthas worked at charities, or drained a ing to one small battalion of foot and town, or controlled an empire, or even one small troop of hussars. It was not elaborated a metaphysical system. The such a country that Milton served; and only possible line of defence must be yet, to some critics, even Milton's politinternal, must vindicate the growth of ical life seems one long mistake of powthe poet's inmost soul, must establish ers misapplied. When it is remembered individuality; else no justification can further that Goethe performed all these be pleaded. diverse functions with such minute exactness that some of his friends admired

for his poetry, it is only natural for the modern critic to assert that the poet sold his birthright for a mess of political philanthropy.

A remarkable instance of this complete alteration in the basis of our judg-him more for his business capacity than ment on men and things is afforded by the gradual change of tone in all the many hostile criticisms which have appeared upon Goethe during the sixty years since his death. It used to be a And, indeed, Goethe himself recogcommonplace to accuse him of a refined nized his danger, and in certain moods egoism, a narrow and selfish devotion was tempted to chafe against the limits to his own culture, as though such of his position. In the mid activity of things were criminal. Many used to his public life, when he was on the point sympathize with Emerson's indignation of undertaking large new duties, he when he wrote that, if he had been uttered many complaints about the stress Duke of Weimar, he would have cut the of his official work. And as an old poet's head off rather than let him con- man he looked back with a regret very tinue to lead that "velvet life," and rare in his reminiscences to his labors retire to arrange his coins. Our fathers in the petty fields of State. "How were irritated by the story of such a grievously," " he cries, 66 was my creative career, for they regarded it as inactive power disturbed, limited, and hemmed and perhaps immoral-a story convey-in by my external position! If only I ing no lesson in conduct, no stimulus to had held back from public affairs and the formation of upright character. It business matters, and been able to live was against such charges that Carlyle more in solitude, I should have been had to defend him, and in his defence happier, and have produced more as a he drew that great picture of his ideal poet." & It is the saddest of lamentapoet, which he presented to the English tions. Like the tyrants under the Ropeople under the name of Goethe. But man poet's curse, he seems blighted by to us the reproaches against which Car- the vision of a virtue he had lost. Had lyle had to contend have an unreal and he been a born reformer as well as a antiquated sound, like the dimly re- poet the case might have been different. membered outcries of an enemy long ago silenced. The attack has lately come from a very different side. We now hear that Goethe frittered away his time and powers on political and social occupations - parochial services, as, in the case of little Weimar, they must be called. By what right, it is asked, did

1 Carlyle and Emerson: Correspondence, Nov. 20, 1834.

But he had an artist's natural horror of reformers, whose zeal destroys so much to which association has given beauty. He had studied the processes of nature too closely to believe in the likelihood of rapid transformation or in the efficacy of tender methods. One of his fears for the future of the world was that it 3 Letters to Frau von Stein, early in 1779.

3 Conversations with Eckermann, Jan. 27, 1824.