-

66

then there happened a diversion, for him Then the dancing began. First the and for the whole company. Well, just to Polonaise. Fritz Triddelsitz had the lead think what clever things an ignorant for Hear Süssmann was not yet_visible, beast will do sometimes! Banschan, Jo- and what a dance he led them! Through chen's Banschan, our old Banschan was the hall, and through the garden, and sitting with a green wreath about his through the kitchen, and the entry, and neck, and another about his tail, for the living room and the sleeping rooms, Krischan the coachman had dressed him and back into the garden again, and into up for the occasion,- on the green and the hall went the procession, until Jochen's white altar, which was behind the bridal stout relations were quite out of breath, pair, and where Gottlieb and Lining had and Brasig called out to him, why didn't married them, and he thrust his dignified he take the barn-yard by the way? And autocratic face between their heads and Jochen Nüssler danced, third couple, with licked Mining with his tongue, and struck Aunt Zaphie in her flower-pot on one side, Rudolph with his tail, and then licked and Banschan in his wreath on the other, Rudolph, and struck Mining. And when and he looked between them like a pearl he had done this, the old fellow settled in a golden setting, or an ass between two down again upon the altar with the great- bundles of hay. And when the Polonaise est dignity, looking as if he were well con- was over, David Berger played the slowest tented with the whole affair, but meant to of waltzes, Thou, thou reign'st in this sit there a little longer, for his own pleas- bosom, There, there, hast thou thy throne," ure. Jochen sprang up: "Banschan, for and another band answered out of the disshame! Down with you!" But Uncle tance: "Our cat has nine kits," and as he Brasig sprang up also, saying; "Jochen, played on: "Speak, speak, Love, I implore do you treat your best friend like that, on thee! Say, say, hope shall be mine!”. this solemn occasion?" and turning to came the answer from the distance: “So Pastor Gottlieb, he added: "IIerr Pastor, and daughter, Into the water!"--and so let Banschan alone! When the beast on, for Frau Nüssler had given orders shows his affection, here on this Christian that there should be dancing in the makaltar, the beast knows something that we cellar also, and there sat old Hartloff, with don't. And Banschan is a clever dog! I his one eye, and Wichmann the joiner, and know it; for when I heard about the love- Ruhrdanz the weaver, and all the rest; affairs, up in the cherry-tree, he heard them and Hartloff had helped them all to a good from below, for he was lying in the arbor, drink, and told them not to be discouraged, under the bench. Herr Pastor, this Ban- they could cope with such a city band as schan is certainly a marriage witness, for that, any day, and so they did their best, he was there when they were betrothed." and Krischan the coachman kept them Gottlieb turned pale at the scandalous supplied with liquor. And when the fun idea, but did not break out into a sermon was at its height, Rudolph and Mining this time, for there was suddenly a hum- came into the milk-cellar, and Mining ming and buzzing, as of a swarm of bees; danced with Krischan, and Rudolph with everybody had risen, and began to remove the cook, and the bailiff got up a hurrah chairs and tables,-"Out! out!" cried car- for the married pair, and Hartloff fiddled penter Schultz,- and dishes and platters, so madly that Ruhrdanz tried in vain to and the rector's youngest pupil tumbled down with a great pile of Frau Nüssler's china plates, and the fragments clattered through the hall, and he stood looking at his work, and feeling in his vest-pocket for treasures which were as much concealed from his own eyes as from those of other people, and as Frau Nüssler passed by and saw the performance he turned very red, and said he would gladly pay for them, but he hadn't so much by him. And Frau Nüssler patted him kindly on the shoulder and said, "Oh, nonsense! But you must be punished!" and she took him by the hand and led him to Brasig's niece Lotting, and said, "You shall dance out my plates here, this evening." And he paid his debt honestly.

keep up with him on the clarionet, and finally gave up in despair. And when the bridal pair had gone, Krischan stood behind the door with the cook, arguing the matter.

"Dürt, what must be, must."

"Eh, Krischan, what do you want?

"Dürt, we are a bridal pair too, and what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander; we must show ourselves on this occasion, they cannot take it ill of us.”

And Dürt said it was very disagreeable to her, and, if she must do it, she would rather dance with Inspector Bräsig, for she knew him; and Krischan said, for all he cared, and he would dance with the Frau. And nobody thought it anything out of the way, in the temple of art, when Kri

schan stood up with Frau Nüssler and the square rood, and if the rich Uncle Brasig with Dürt, and danced as merrily Bräsig could help them with a few thalers, as the rest. So it was, in those times, and perhaps he might marry the lovely blue 'tis a pity it is so no longer,- at least not eyes and the golden hair which looked up in many places. Great joy and profound to him so joyously, and in the confusion grief bring high and low together: why of the dance got entangled in his black should a master who wishes his laborers to coat, which was about one third paid for mourn at his funeral not share his pleasures at Kurz's shop. I only know that the only with them also? unhappy being, in the whole company, was Herr Süssmann, and he only when his eyes happened to fall upon Jochen's old blue trousers.

It was a joyful occasion, and I could not possibly describe the pleasure which filled every heart, as the young feet danced merrily about, and hands silently pressed Yes, it was a joyful occasion; but everyeach other. I only know that Fritz Trid- thing has its end; the little fairies and delsitz stood there as commander-in-chief, the shopmen and school-boys and the and that the little assessor at his side dancers, and David Berger with the musivery often blushed, and after the dance cians, drove off home, the old people ran to Louise, as if to seek her protection. I only know that the little pupil got knocked over several times, in the dance, because he was lost in arithmetical calculations, how he, when his predecessor came to be sexton, and he should be appointed school-master, might live with the greatest economy, and rent a bit of potatoland from the shoemaker at four shillings

had gone before, and Jochen placed himself at the head of his relations, and showed them to their quarters, and Frau Nüssler took the ladies to their rooms, and every married lady had her nice bed; but the ummarried ones, with Aunt Zaphie at their head, had to sleep in the great blue room, en table d'hôte.

It

THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON.- The settle-| The Red Pipe-stone Quarry (America)., ment of the outstanding disputes between the Dr. Hayden, in a work recently reviewed, gives Governments of this country and the United the following description of the above, which States that has now been arrived at, will be Mr. G. A. Lebour thinks may be of interest memorable as a precedent. It is an attempt to as it unquestionably is to every reader of determine international questions by the machin-"Hiawatha":"On reaching the source of ery of legislation and tribunals. The same means the Pipe-stone Creek, in the valley of which the that have proved successful in removing anarchy pipe-stone bed is located, I was surprised to see from among individuals are now tried, on an ex- how inconspicuous a place it is. A single tensive scale, to prevent international anarchy. glance at the red quartzites here assured me The Treaty of Washington will, therefore, be re- that these rocks were of the same age as those membered in history, not so much for the actual before mentioned at James and Vermilion Rivterms of settlement, as because it inaugurates in ers, and at Sioux Falls. The layer of pipe-stone a most complicated case a new and better way of is about the lowest rock that can be seen. dealing with international difficulties. When we rests upon a grey quartzite, and there are about contrast this peaceful solution with the costly five feet of the same grey quartzite above it, and bloody war between Prussia and France, we which has to be removed with great labour becannot but congratulate ourselves on the ad- fore the pipe-stone can be secured. . . . . The vance that this country and America have made pipe-stone layer, as seen at this point, is about in the direction of universal peace. The Joint eleven inches in thickness, only about two inches High Commission has exercised what is the only and a quarter of which are used for manufacpossible substitute for legislation an agree turing pipes and other ornaments. The rement between the parties as to the rules of con- mainder is too impure, slaty, fragile, &c. This duct by which they shall be bound, and a tri- rock possesses almost every colour and texture, bunal to determine all contested cases. The from a light cream colour to a deep red, depen lAlabama question is dealt with in that way; ing upon the amount of protoxide of iron. Some the rules affecting the responsibility of this portions of it are soft, with a soapy feel, like country are laid down, or they will be applied steatite, others slaty, breaking into thin flakes, by a tribunal of arbitrators, of whom one each others mottled with red and grey.. . . . There will be appointed by the President and the Queen, are indications of an unusual amount of labour and the other three by the King of Italy, the on the part of the Indians in former years to Emperor of Brazil, and the President of Switz- secure the precious material." It is remarkable erland respectively. that its age is not yet settled.

Examiner.

From The Contemporary Review. ON VARIETY AS AN AIM IN NATURE.

BY THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

IN No. 2, Vol. I. of the Journal of Travel there was an article by Mr. Wallace, applying the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection to the architecture of Birds, and professing to explain thereby the varieties and peculiarities in the structures of

nests.

which turns the origin of Species, and the whole system on which Organic Life has been developed from the lowest to the highest forms. It is according to him -out of the accidental variations which have been perpetually arising that certain varieties have been "selected," because of these being the fittest to survive. But these variations must happen before they can be "selected." And so, Mr. Darwin has been led to accumulate a mass of eviAs that explanation appeared to me al-dence to show that an inherent tendency together fanciful and erroneous, I con- to variation is a great general law of funtributed to the same Journal * a paper, in damental importance in the history of Life, which the argument of Mr. Wallace was and furnishes the only and the sufficient contested. In that paper, the following key to the rise and progress of all its passage occurs:--- -"I am more and more complicated structures. convinced that variety, mere variety, must be admitted to be an object and an aim in Nature; and that neither any reason of utility nor any physical cause can always be assigned for the variations of

instinct."

Mr. Darwin, in the work just published upon the Descent of Man, quotes this passage, and makes upon it the following comment:-"I wish the Duke had explained what he here means by Nature. Is it meant that the Creator of the universe ordained diversified results for his own satisfaction, or for that of man? The former notion seems to me as much wanting in due reverence as the latter in probability. Capriciousness of taste in the birds themselves appears a more fitting explanation."†

I respond the more readily to the challenge of Mr. Darwin, because the question which he puts to me, and the objection which he makes, involve points of the highest interest in philosophy and in theology.

Let me say, then, at once, that I meant precisely that which appears to him irreverent; I meant that variety for its own sake variety of form, of beauty, and of enjoyment has been a purpose of the Creator in His creative work. The dislike which Mr. Darwin expresses to this belief is the more remarkable considering his own idea of the rank which the Law of Variation takes in the methods and in the history of creation. The inexhaustible variety of Nature has been indeed long observed. As a fact it stares us in the face in all the phenomena of the world. But it was reserved for Mr. Darwin to fix upon an innate, universal tendency in all species to vary, as the cardinal fact upon

* No. 5, Vol. I.
↑ Part II., 230.

If this be so-if the Law of Variation be indeed of such primary importance in the work of creation - how can it be "irreverent" to hold that the establishment of this law has been an object and an aim of the Creator in the work which has been accomplished by it? The further back we push the idea of a Creator, an ! the more we conceive his "interference" to be limited to the ordaining of "laws," the more certain it becomes that in these laws at least, if anywhere, we have the expression of His mind and Will.

Înto what, then, does the objection of Mr. Darwin really resolve itself?

There seems to me to be but one answer

to this question. The objection of Mr. Darwin is founded on that disposition - so oll in the history of Philosophy, and now so much revived — to dismiss as "Anthropomorphic," every conception of the Divine character and attributes which brings them into conceivable relation with even the highest character and attributes of Man. This is part of the philosophy of Nescience, and this is the point to which I wish to direct myself in the present paper.

I am under no necessity of arguing with Mr. Darwin on the existence of a Creator. I have never thought that his special theories on the methods of creation are inconsistent with Theism. He himself repudiates such antagonism. "The birth both of species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. The understanding revolts at such a conclusion." * In the passage also on which I am now commenting, Mr. Darwin assumes the existence of a Creator, and assumes, moreover, that there is some standard by which

"Descent of Man," Part II, p. 396.

him by the Creator. He means only that things as they appear, not with things as the traps and triggers are, as a matter of they are "in themselves." What proof fact, so set that they do catch the probosces have we that these phenomena give us any of Moths, that these do again convey real knowledge of the truth? How inthe pollen to other flowers, by which they deed is it possible that knowledge so “relare fertilized; that all this elaborate mech-ative" and so "conditioned," relative to a anism is "as if" it had been arranged "in mind so limited, and "conditioned" by order that" these things might happen. senses which tell of nothing but sensations Exactly so; that is to say, the facts of how can such knowledge be accepted as Nature are best brought home to, and ex- substantial? Is is not plain that our conplained to, the understanding by stating ceptions of creation and of the Creator are them in terms of the relation which they all mere "Anthropomorphism"? Is it not obviously bear to the familiar operation our own shadow that we always chasing? of the mind and spirit. Is it not a mere bigger image of ourselves And this is the invariable result of all to which we are always bowing down? I physical inquiry. In this sense Nature is know of nothing in philosophy better calessentially Anthropomorphic. Man sees culated to disperse these morbid dreams, his own mind reflected in it- his own than to breathe the healthy air of physical not in quantity but in quality - his own investigation and discovery. Although fundamental attributes of intellect and, here, also, the limitations of our knowlto a wonderful degree, even his own edge continually haunt us, we gain nevermethods of operation. In particular, me-theless a triumphant sense of its certainty chanical contrivance, which he knows so and its truthfulness. Corroboration folwell, and in which he takes so much de- lows on corroboration, to assure us that we light, is one universal character of crea- have a hoid on truth. tion. It is as if the Creator had first laid down a few simple laws, that is to say, had evolved a few simple elementary forces, and had then worked from these with boundless resources of constructive skill.

It is impossible to place too high a value on the work which science is doing in this direction. It is a service which has not yet, I think, been sufficiently noticed or appreciated. Let us take an example. Up to a very recent period, Light and Sound I do not know that the discoveries of were known as sensations only. That is modern science, great as they have been, to say, they were known in terms of the and much as they are vaunted, have con- mental impression they produce, and in no tributed anything towards the solution of other terms whatever. They were not the final problems of all human specula- known "in themselves." There was no tion. These, in so far as mere speculation proof that in the sensations we had any is capable of dealing with them, seem to knowledge of the unknown reality which remain very much where the great intel- produced them. But now all this is lects of the ancient world found them changed. Science has not, indeed, bridged and left them. But, short of these final the gulf which separates Mind and Matproblems, there are two impressions which ter; it has not explained to us, and it the progress of discovery has largely never will, what is the method of contact tended to teach and to confirm. One is between the Mind and the Organism the universal prevalence of mechanism in through which the Mind is informed; but Nature and the other is the substantial it has discovered what these two agencies truthfulness of the knowledge we derive of Light and Sound are "in themselves;" from that most wondrous of all mechan- that is to say, it has defined them under isms - the mechanism of the senses. And aspects which are totally distinct from seethis last is a matter of immense import-ing or hearing, and is able to describe ance. For all that we know of Matter is them in terms addressed to wholly differso different from all that we are conscious ent faculties of conception. That which of in Mind, that the whole relations be- we call Light is a series of undulations in tween the two are really inconceivable to some ethereal elastic medium, to which us. Hence they constitute a region of undulations, or rather to a certain portion darkness in which we may easily be lost in of them, the retina is "attuned," and an abyss of utter scepticism. What proof which, when they reach that organ, are have weit has been often asked that "translated' into the sensation which the mental impressions we derive from we know. These are the words used by objects are in any way like the truth? Professor Tyndall to describe the facts. We know only the phenomena, not the They are "metaphors" only in the sense reality, of things we are conversant with in which the highest expressions of