rather to have sobered them down a little since the year 1898 began, and to have led to a less hostile attitude toward Great Britain. Sentiments adverse to militant aggressiveness abroad are indeed held by many Germans, if not the majority of them, at least in all the States but Prussia; but personal liberty is at a lower ebb in Germany now than it is in very Russia. Even letters received from Germany show signs of extreme caution. The Germans have always been a timid race, though never lacking in courage to fight for their liberties in a defensive way. They are so overawed by the police and by military despotism that the great thinkers, the scholars, the millionaires, the rising geniuses are little better than a pack of skulking schoolboys with their eyes furtively turned up at the master's cane. In Russia, God knows, the arm of Government is evident enough, and in the hands of indiscreet officials often becomes tyrannical and unjust; but there at least we have ignorant masses to deal with, and a conscientious paternal master. Alexander III. was one of Nature's gentlemen in feeling and sympathy, in loyalty, and in honor. Nicholas II. has also, so far, comported himself with a prudence and correctness which compel respect. If the Czar's agents occasionally fail him, it is not always the fault of the Czar, nor even of his Ministers. At least the Government strains every nerve to improve the position of its shaggy flocks: no question of personal vanity, craven submission to foreign allies, or family pique comes in. As in the case of M. de Witte, the humblest Russian may aspire to become a ruler. But the Emperor of Germany can only preserve even public respect for his personality by confiscating an issue of Kladderadatsch and imprisoning professors for lése-Majestè; he scarcely ever opens his mouth publicly but what an amused smile spreads all over Europe. There is little or nothing of the true hero in him. He estranges his relatives, gives away his Imperial dignity, and is apt to make the actors upon the stage which he directs feel thoroughly ashamed both of their own parts and of himself. But the Emperor is not by an means the German nation, though he himself often appears to think so. The Germans of course vary, and a Prussian is not the same as a Bavarian or a Saxon. But, taking them all round, the Germans left to their own better judgment, free from police espionage and bullying, are a quiet, reasonable, sympathetic, plodding people; rather more animal in their pleasures than we are; not so gentle as the Russians; but more timid, and nearly as kind; gross and uncouth in manners; either religious enthusiasts or religiophobes; somewhat sour-tempered; greedy, unless restrained; less humorous than the Russians, less witty than the French; careful, exact, and, if harsh, generally as strong in character as in physique. The nature of the German is envious rather than jealous; he has none of the frank, generous hospitality of the Russian; he is essentially a selfish man; rancorous, underhanded; but not vengeful in the Corsican sense. A great many of his less beautiful characteristics are also ours; but what the German essentially lacks is our sense of fair play and our personal pluck. He has plenty of gregarious courage under discipline, and the German officer is full of fire and "honor” when a defenceless civilian insults him; but, man for man, the German has not the personal courage of either the Russian or Frenchman. He is the sort of man in his evil moments to hit you when you are down, which a Russian will not do at any time. It will be noticed that the shape of the average German's head is totally different from that of any other people in Europe. His character, in short, is one which easily degenerates into aggressive acquisitiveness, or relapses into patient docility, according to the influences which which work upon it, and according to the pects of gain without risk, or punishment without escape, which seem to him imminent. The recent behavior pros of Germans in the Austrian Reichstag is a good instance of what civilized human beings of the German type may become under the provocative influence of race hatreds and disappointed expectations. Yet there is no reason why we should not be as successful in conciliating the Germans as in conciliating the French and the Russians. Setting aside the personal rancor nourished by the Emperor himself, traceable in most cases to wounded vanity, there is no solid German interest which clashes with ours except the interest of commerce. German commerce enjoys exactly the same privileges in English colonies that British commerce does. When Germany was not yet in a position to protect herself abroad, she never on any occasion ran any risk of injustice at British hands; indeed, her policy was always the comfortable one of taking refuge under the wing of the British pioneer, who never once failed her. In the Far East British officials were always as ready to protect unrepresented Germans as to protect their own nationals. And since the volume of German trade has increased things have not changed: even though (largely through the fault of self-sufficient Englishmen themselves) German traders have by their superior suppleness encroached upon the British trade preserves, and to a certain extent aroused the alarm and jealousy of British traders, yet there has never been any change in British policy. German trade is as safe abroad as ever it was, and so long as the impulsive Emperor refrains from unjust aggression, it will remain so. Germans prefer the freedom of England to the prying police domination of their own administration. German merchants are fully represented in English banks, English municipalities, English steamship companies; German employés are as much appreciated as ever in English commercial houses. In short, if we put aside the inevitable commercial jealousy, which after all is no greater between German and English houses than between rival English houses themselves; if we leave out of consideration the evil but transient national effect produced by the Emperor's numerous foolish individual acts, there remains nothing to justify the persistent harboring and cultivating of national resentment. That we have colonies and Germany has not is no just ground for complaint, for we had those colonies long before she became a Weltmacht, and she is, and always will be, able to utilize them freely, just as if they were her own, for all commercial purposes. As a colonist the German (under his own rule) is even more hopeless than the Frenchman: he seems to find it impossible to conceive any form of government but the domineering police-bully type. Let us hope that of Herr von Bülow is serious, and that a new start on honestly liberal principles will be made at Kiao Chao. The picture of Heligoland as it now is -native populace forbidden to stand in groups; dancing and concert rooms only open twice a week; 2,000 natives superciliously treated by the police and military; bathing visitors coming across from Hamburg rarely and for days, instead of regularly and for months-all this (though Heligoland is not exactly a colony) is typical of the German official's impracticable ideas, and contrasts sadly with the good old days when six unarmed British blue-jackets formed the sole "force" of the island; when the town swarmed all the season with happy German families enjoying a whole summer's liberty; when the inoffensive inhabitant spent their lives in groups examining the sea with their telescopes, preparing the skins of seafowls, taking service as pilots, and enjoying absolute freedom. Just as there is no chance whatever of our joining Germany and her allies (with neither of whom we have any bone to pick) in order to protect ourselves against France and Russia, so there is no chance of our joining the Dual Alliance in order to inflict an injury upon Germany. That is, in each case, unless we are wilfully forced to do so. Let German trade go on increasing: we may be jealous; but we shall do our best in a legitimate way to redress the balance. War can never break out between Germany and ourselves, except by the deliberate act of Germany herself; and this is an extremely improbable event so long as the resolutions taken in the Fatherland are left to the good sense of the German people themselves, and so long as they have the courage to resist the unwise caprices of a ruler who may drag them to destruction, and perhaps the rest of Europe too. At present, Germany is more of a despotism even than Russia. In Russia there is an honest desire to develop the country and do no harm to any one beyond it; and in any case Absolutism has the excuse that 95 per cent. of the populace are illiterate. But in Germany we have the singular spectacle of the best educated and in many respects most capable nation in the world led helplessly at the heels of a monarch whose personality is regarded with infinitely less respect than that of either of his predecessors. Have the people of Ba varia, Saxony, and the other kingdoms. and duchies of the Empire no right to speak? Have not the rulers of these States as well-founded a stake in the Empire as the King of Prussia? What is the satisfaction in life if it is to be at the mercy of the spy and the policeman forever? Security is not a sufficient plea, for life in a prison might be justified on the same grounds. The future of Europe really lies with the German people, quite as much at least as it lies with the supposed autocracy of the Tsar and the supposed desire for revenge of the French. If the German people would only shake themselves up and insist upon their supreme ruler confining his action within constitutional bounds, there would be no question of preponderance and alliances, and the evil suspicions which now force the Continental nations to waste all their resources upon armaments might gradually fade away and leave the course open for an era of arbitration.-Contemporary Review. THE "RUBA'IYAT" OF OMAR KHAYYAM. AMONG the books which have most influenced the minds of educated Englishmen during the second half of this nineteenth century I should assign the place of honor to Edward Fitzgerald's "Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayvám." A portion of the mystery in which that fascinating work was enveloped has recently been dissipated. It was understood from the first that Fitzgerald's work was an equivalent rather than a translation, and those with no knowledge of Persian, by which I mean all but a few English Orientalists, were exercised by the question how much was Omar and how much Fitzgerald. The publication of Fitzgerald's letters did little to clear up the doubt, which was quickened when the prose translation of Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy saw the light. * Nutt. Not only were the well-known quatrains in Fitzgerald to which no single. quatrain in Omar Khayyam corresponds, there were some scarcely a suggestion of which was supplied. The publication of Mr. E. Heron-Allen's edition of the "Ruba'iyat"** explains the matter. Not seldom a quatrain of Fitzgerald answers to two or more. stanzas of the original. Before beginning his translation of Omar, however, Fitzgerald had been studying the "Mantik ut tair" of Ferid ud din Attar, a work to which his attention might well have been called by M. Garcin de Tassy, who gave an analysis of it, accompanied by extracts, in the Revue Contemporaine for 1856. Whatever is not found in the "Ruba'iyat" of Omar Khayyám may, Mr. Heron-Allen tells us, be sought in this work. ** H. S. Nichols. Therein accordingly we have to look for the original of the two famous quatrains beginning respectively, "Heaven but the vision of fulfilled desire," and "Oh, Thou! who man of baser earth did make." One mystery, then, is solved; and though the matter is not yet of general interest, there are few students of "Omar" who will not be glad of the intelligence. A chief object of Mr. Heron-Allen in his book is to supply the original of the finest and most authoritative text of Omar Khayyám at present accessible. This is a manuscript in the Bodleian to which Fitzgerald had recourse, discovered by Professor Cowell in 1850 among the uncatalogued manuscripts of the Ouseley collection. This has been reproduced in photographic facsimile, and followed by a transcript into modern Persian and a translation. The original, which dates from the year 865 of the Hegira, corresponding with the year A.D. 1400 of the Christian calendar, is late, but is carlier than any manuscript of Omar in the British Museum, the Paris Biblothèque Nationale, the Cambridge University Library, and other collections. No manuscript calculated to be regarded as a "Codex" and "serve as the point of departure for the student," has as yet rewarded research. It is, I am told, an extremely beautiful work, written in a cursive hand upon thick yellow paper in purple-black ink, thickly powdered with gold. The reproduction is handsome, and the volume has strong attractions for Eastern scholars. To one further point will I draw attention. The exact signification of "Ruba'iyat" has been a puzzle to me, and doubtless is to some of my readers. From Mr. Heron-Allen I learn that the word "ruba'i," common to more than one Oriental language, signifies simply signifies simply "quatrain." A Persian letter, soft "gh," as in our word "high," follows, its absence being denoted by an apostrophe; the terminal "at" is an artificial form of plural borrowed from the Arabic.-Gentleman's Magazine. AT SUNSET. A SOUNDING rain at dawn to-day And draggled birds no longer sang. But now at eve the sounding rain, Which fell at dawn, like silver ringing, Returns in pomp to heaven again; Purple and gold adorn its train, And all the happy birds are singing. ECLECTIC MAGAZINE MONTHS after the rise of Japan, the importance of that event was still uncomprehended. Not everywhere, however. Not in the higher and more silent regions of statesmanship, as we know from the immediate action of certain Continental Governments; and especially of one which for generations has surpassed all the rest in watchfulness, sagacity, and resolution. There the response was as ready as the flow of waters at the tilting of the bed of a stream; but among ourselves, for example, and to the common intelligence in other countries, an event which marked a change in the whole course of history seemed for a long time more curious than momentous. But strange as it was that a little toy people, with infantile genius and infantile passions, should suddenly come out as an ambitious naval Power, the change was presently seen to be far more momentous than curious: a discovery which should have sharpened apprehension for any similar development. And a similar development was at hand. Every one remembers now that for years past the American people have shown increasing signs of discontent with a rather undistinguished place in the scale of nations. Boundless energy, ingenuity, vigor, audacity, a vast population in a great range of country, and NEW SERIES.-VOL. LXVIII., No. 3. yet little that could be called national distinction were it continued for a thousand years. The diffusion of enlightenment is not all an affair of conquest and colonization. Religion and philosophy agree that the American Republic has within its own pale opportunity and space enough to work out all the nobler ambitions, including those that need the aid of great wealth or that great wealth rewards; and it may be added that, so far, those ambitions have been handsomely served. But, for all that, it is a national life that does not satisfy. It does not satisfy, spite of the grand consideration that it is carried on with the utmost possible security for peace. In point of fact, it is there that our cousins feel the rub. Something irrepressible and apparently immortal in human nature murmurs, "Utmost possible security for peace, and utmost possible denial of adventure. The portion of the home-keeping youth. Rejection, rejection by a people sixty millions strong, of the dominion and the glory by which great races are honored and remembered. Choice of a back seat in history, and even to-day behind every living Englishman, Frenchman, Dutchman." There is a great heart of the United States as well as a great heart of England; and the ear that could 19 |