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if that be the limit of our "matter of life," we must consult the statistics which are available, and not try to draw any conclusions from these extreme cases. What will lengthen and what will shorten life, however, becomes a question of general longevity, and this we did not propose to ourselves to discuss on the present occasion. We may, nevertheless, notice. that everything seems to show that the appliances of civilized life, and quiet and regular habits, are the chief conditions of long life. Europeans are, it seems, longer lived than other men ; and Englishmen than French, Germans, Swedes, or Belgians, as far as statistics tell us. In Lord Bacon's time there was a prejudice in favor of the wild Irishman-"Hiberni sylvestres," as he calls them, who were in the habit of smelling the fresh earth and drinking infusions of saffron. Statistics Statistics and Saxon domination have deprived Ireland of this pre-eminence in longevity. We also find from statistics, comparing the expectation of life at the age of sixty, given by various authorities, that in England agricultural laborers of that age, belonging to friendly societies, and hence sober, well-to-do men, stand first, and may expect to live eighteen years longer, whilst confirmed drunkards stand last, with only half that chance of life. The females of the aristocracy come next to the laborers, with sixteen years and a half; the male members of the aristocracy next, with only fourteen and a half; clerks follow, with twelve and a half; men in Liverpool, with twelve; miners, with eleven and three-quarters; whilst sovereigns of all countries at sixty years of age have an expectation of a little less than eleven years of life. Distinguished men live a shorter time than less distinguished, on account of their harder work; married live longer than unmarried persons, on account, perhaps, of the measured tranquillity of connubial life; women longer than men, because they lead an easier life; and the clergy longer than the other professional men, for the same reason.

From these facts it is not difficult to

After all,

draw the lesson of longevity. the prolonging of their own lives is not a thing about which men should take much thought; as long as they are careful not directly to shorten life, and careful to preserve health, longevity and centenarianism may well be left to take their own way. The celebrated Italian, Louis Cornaro, carefully weighing his egg, and measuring his wine for his daily meals, refusing to allow matters of a disturbing nature to come under his attention, and taking a thousand precautions, all to enable his pitiful old frame to vegetate a few years the longer on the earth's face, is not a pleasing figure to contemplate. True it is, that he who would save his life shall lose it; for the existence of such a being as Cornaro is not comparable day for day with that of an active man. When the element of intensity is taken into consideration, there is perhaps very much less difference between the quantities lived by various men than would appear from the simple record of time. But whilst it is not for the men of to-day to cherish the search for elixirs of life, nor to desire nor endeavor to become centenarians, there is yet a longevity which they can most materially influence-which they can check or extend by deliberate acts most directly, having it in their power to add years, hundreds of years, of life to the community-of active, vigorous life, too, not such as the common seeker of longevity would gain; and this longevity it is no less our interest than our duty to work for. Men can diminish the mortality of populations by attention to simple laws of health, and, by increasing the average longevity, give that increased happiness and prosperity which security of life and health brings.

It is in sanitary action that the elixir vita has been discovered in these days, which, though it perhaps has not as yet increased the roll of centenarians, has no limits to its operations, until the time shall have come when man will no longer, as Buffon said, "die of disappointment," but "attain everywhere a hundred years."

Fraser's Magazine.

THE LEGEND OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.

IN Germany the tale is told,

That though the Antioch waters rolled

O'er Frederick Barbarossa's head,

Not wholly then his life was fled:
But angels bore from Syria's strand
The hero back to German land:
And there, amid the mountains lone,
Close pent within a vault of stone,
With huge Kyff hair häuser o'er his head—
Sword girt, and hauberk riveted-
His seated form abides, they say,
Sleeping long centuries away;

So long, that through the granite veins
Of the rude slab on which he leans,
That russet beard, day after day,

For each stark hair hath forced a way.
Yet not forever. 'Tis averred

He doth but wait the summoning word.
In some dark day, when Germany
Hath need of warriors such as he,

A Voice, to tell of her distress,

Shall pierce the mountain's deep recess―

Shall ring through those dim vaults, and scare

The spectral ravens round his chair.

So shall the spell of ages break,

And from his trance the sleeper wake:
The solid mountain shall depart,
The granite slab in splinters start
(Responsive to those accents weird)
And loose the Kaiser's shaggy beard.
Through all the startled air shall rise
The old Teutonic battle-cries;

The horns of war, that once could stir
The wild blood of the Berserkir,
Shall fling their blare abroad, and then,
The champion of his own Almain,
Shall Barbarossa come again.

A dream! and yet not all a dream,
So might the astonished peoples deem,
Which marked the high surpassing might
Of a roused nation in her right--
Roused at the Hohenzollern's call
When lay by Rhine the glove of Gaul.
"Have we not here," amazed they said,
As onward still the German sped
From victory to victory,

"Some power unkenned by mortal eye?
Have we not here the selfsame might
Given to the old Imperial knight?
Who else but he, that burst away
From Wörth on that tremendous day-
That caught the Frank, in grip of steel,
'Twixt red Sedan and Vionville-

Before whom Metz, the Amazon,
Must needs unbind her maiden zone-
Whose stubborn soldiers still made good
'Gainst sword and fire their onward road,
And bore the Teuton heraldry

From Rhineland to the Northern sea-
Who bade round leaguered Paris stand
The thin blue line of heart and hand,
Braving at once the fierce advance
Of winter and of armed France?
O! surely," cried the tribes of men,
"Tis Barbarossa come again."

O! gallant nation! small thy need
To rouse from rest thy heroes dead.
Leave Barbarossa in his grave:
Sleep on by that Thuringian cave
The ruthless manhood of his day,
The infuriate thirst for battle fray,
The grim revenge that would not halt
At Milan's ashes, sown with salt,
And all the scorn of life, revealed
In wasted realm and carnage-field.
While the old fighter, at this hour,
Casts on his race a spell of power :
While thou art mother of such men
(The living or the noble slain)
As served thee late, and will again-
Such heads to guide, such hearts to go,
Where honor waits them, and the foe-
O! in such deeds and in such men
The better part, believe it then,
Of Barbarossa lives again.

And so when those are passed away
Whose deeds through Europe ring to-day-
When sleeps in consecrated shrine
Among the chiefs of Conrad's line

That good gray head which bore the brunt
Of battle-storm in Gravelotte's front

(A nobler crown than gold and gem
Wrought in Imperial diadem)-

When Bismarck's might of soul and will
Hath bent to power that's mightier still,
And silent Moltke's thoughtful face
With the great "Silent Ones" hath place:
Then may some veteran proudly show
The tokens, scarred on breast or brow,
Of the hot work which them bestead

Who followed where the Red Prince led:
And tell, as round his German fire

He holds the children's listening quire,
How there were giants in the earth

When their great Deutschland thundered forth

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From king to drummer-boy, a band
Bound as one man for Fatherland.
And then, as each young German heart
Is stirred to play its manful part,
Leader or follower, prince or boor,
To do as these have done before-

While bounds the blood, and soars the aim,
At sound of each heroic name-

O! Germany, it shall be seen

How the great Dead can live again!

C. G. P.

Contemporary Review.

PROSPECTS OF THE NEW GERMAN REFORMATION.

CONSIDERING the radical differences which distinguish the Roman from the Protestant modes of thought, it is not surprising that agitations now disturbing the theological atmosphere of Germany should be inadequately appreciated by English writers in general. On the whole, indeed, I am disposed to think that Protestant journalists have displayed a very creditable amount of caution in their speculations as to the final results of the conflict already begun. It is satisfactory to read so little in the way of repetition of the old commonplaces about the scarlet lady, the idolatries of benighted Papists, and the contrast between Protestant orthodoxy and Romish Paganism. It is pleasant to see that among the most anti-Roman theologians and politicians there are many who candidly aim at a comprehension of the true facts of the case, and decline to adopt the old-fashioned divisions of parties, according to which everybody on one side was an honest man, and everybody on the other either a knave or a fool.

Still, there are few signs that the English public really understands the nature of the principles which are arrayed against one another in Bavaria, in Prussia, and elsewhere, both in Northern and Southern Germany. Every little fresh incident that occurs, in which Rome and her former obedient children seem to be in conflict, is magnified to an unreal importance. If the secular government upholds a recalcitrant priest against his bishop, or a knot of lay professors repudiate all thought of bowing the knee to Rome, or it is whispered that many of the priesthood have subscribed with unconvinced minds to the Vatican decree, it is augured that these are tokens of some tremendous religious revolution, and are the first mutter

ings of a storm which may shake the whole Roman Church to its foundations.

With all my heart I wish that I could share these interpretations of the phenomena of the hour. With all my knowledge of the personal merits of not a few of the Roman laity and clergy, my conviction of the fatal influences of the intellectual and moral despotism, which is the vital essence of the Roman system, is so strong, that I hail every fresh defection from her communion as so far a gain to the ultimate triumph of what I believe to be the truth. But it is in vain to allow "the wish to be father to the thought," in this, as in all other matters of doubt and difficulty. Sincerely and cordially as I venerate the great leader of the new movement, I cannot think that he and his friends, some of whom are my own friends also, will be able to make good their position, or that any permanently extensive religious organization is about to be established, either in Bavaria, or in any other part of Germany. That great good will come from the resistance which Dr. Döllinger is offering to the Papal autocracy I do not for a moment question. That this resistance is also a real step towards the final overthrow of the Roman power, which is destined some day to be accomplished, I do not in the least degree doubt or deny. On the contrary, I am satisfied that it has a distinct tendency in this direction. But, in the mean time, I am satisfied that the attitude taken up by the "Old Catholic" party cannot possibly be maintained; and that the attempt to set up a new Catholicism, minus the Papal autocracy, must utterly and rapidly collapse and vanish away.

I will attempt to explain my reasons for thus thinking, so briefly as not to ex

ceed the limits to which I must confine myself. In the first place, here are none of the elements which have invariably been present in every previous case of vast religious revolution with which we are acquainted. In order that a theological movement may spread widely among the masses of the people, and overthrow existing ecclesiastical organizations, it is necessary that it should be directed against certain moral abuses or manifest religious impostures, such as the popular understanding can comprehend and the popular feeling can detest. The world will never rise in anger against abstruse questions of history, or philosophy, or theological criticism. If the people are to be roused, they must be touched to the quick of themselves. The scandals against which reformers preach must be open, intelligible, and outraging such notions of right and wrong as the multitude holds dear. And the dogmas which it is proposed to substitute for the dogmas denounced must be simple, and must rest upon some basis which the most ignorant can comprehend, and about which there is no dispute what

soever.

Such were the elements of the revolution accomplished by Moses, when he brought the Jews out of Egypt, and finally established the Hebrew race as an independent people, organized upon the basis of a pure monotheism. Such were the conditions of the new creed preached some hundreds of years afterwards by Buddha in India. Such, looking at the propagation of Christianity itself under its more human aspect, was the reform accomplished by Christ and his Apostles after Him. Such was the extensive revival of practical religion which was wrought by Dominick and Francis of Assisi in the Middle Ages. Such, again, was the Reformation itself, when Rome presented certain frightful abuses as the mark for the blows of the reformers, and one or two special and simple doctrines served as the shibboleth of the party of revolt. It was the same, still later, in England, when Wesley and Whitefield took the field against the absolute paganism and debasement of the lowest and lower middle classes of English society, and preached their easily intelligible dogmas of regeneration and justification. In all these cases the reformers had some monster of ignorance or corruption to strike at, and some practical

substitute for existing belief which all men could understand and personally adopt as their own.

But what is this that the "Old Catholic" party in Germany are fighting for? A highly subtle theological distinction, resting upon recondite historical inquiries, and pre-supposing an acquaintance with remote facts, of which the world in general knows little, and for which it cares nothing. Monstrous as is the Papal claim to infallibility when tested by the old maxim of Vincent of Lerins, that nothing is to be regarded Catholic which has not been believed semper, ubique, et ab omnibus, how is it possible that the vast mass of the Roman Catholic world, both clergy and laity, and even in learned Germany itself, should enter with heartiness into any such dispute? The world was never yet revolutionized on a question of history. No saying was ever more true than that of Thucydides, when he wrote that the multitude are indisposed to the search after truth, and that they love convictions which come ready to their hand. When Dr. Döllinger and his supporters and sympathizers imagine that mankind are to be moved to enthusiasm for the quod semper, quod ubique, quod omnibus, they are imputing to ordinary men and women that passionate love for truth, and especially historical truth, which they them selves feel, but about which the enormous majority of religious people are supremely indifferent. To argue with sincerely devoted adherents to the Pope that he cannot be infallible, because the dogma originated in forgeries several hundred years ago, and because Popes have taught flagrantly inconsistent doctrines, is only a fresh example of that passion for trying to cut blocks with a razor, which is so far from uncommon with acute and learned minds.

Whatever, again, may be thought on the matter by English Protestants, the Roman Church does not exhibit, as a rule, those flagrant scandals which are of a nature to arouse popular indignation, and which give life to the arguments of controversial assailants. In Germany especially, as in England, Ireland, France, and America, the Roman clergy are, as a body, men of respectability; the members of religious orders live quiet lives in their convents and monasteries, or if they are known in the world, it is as zealous teachers or as

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