that I might keep up the resemblance; and as to imitating their ungraceful roundabouts, by joining in a waltz, I would rather be a tetotum at once, or one of the front wheels of Mrs. C—y's carriage. Thanks to the Goddess of fashion, fickle as she is foolish, our ball-room misses have at length ceased to be twisted and twirled in this unmerciful manner, and our spinning jennies are again pretty nearly confined to Manchester and Glasgow. Tired as I was of sitting like a spondee, with my two long feet hanging idle on my hands, (as a noble Viscount would say) I began now to entertain hopes of again planting my exploded heel upon a chalked board. But, alas! I was doomed to experience, that there are as many disappointments between the toe and the ground, as between the cup and the lip. France, my old enemy, was upon the watch to export a new annoyance: the Genius of Quadrille started up from amid the roses painted on a ball-room floor, and my discomfited legs were again compelled to resume their inglorious station beneath the benches. I could not put them into a go-cart, and begin all my steps again: I could not make a toil of a pleasure, rehearse beforehand, and study my task by card and compass, merely to make an exhibition of myself at last. It was too like amateur acting; the constraint of a ballet, without its grace or skill-the exertion of dancing, without its hilarity; and it was moreover an effort, in which I was sure to be eclipsed by every boarding-school miss or master, who would literally learn that by heart, which I, in my distaste to these innovations, could only expect to learn by foot. In this melancholy and useless plight, do I wander from one ball-room to another, dancing nothing but attendance, and kicking nothing but my heels; sometimes, like a tripod that has lost a leg, leaning disconsolately against the wall, because I cannot stand up in my proper place; and sometimes beating time to the music with my foot, which is as bitter a substitute for genuine jumps, as is the coculus Indicus for real hops. Oh, for the days that are gone!—the golden age of cocked hats; the Augustan era of country-dance; the apotheosis of minuet! How well do I remember the first night I ventured upon the latter, that genuine relic of the old French court. What an awful recollection have I of the trying moment, when, with a slow and graceful curve of my arm, I first deposited the triangular beaver upon my powdered locks, pressing it down upon my forehead, with a firm determination to look fierce and fascinating, and yet with a tender and sympathetic regard for the economy of my elaborate curls; somewhat in the style recommended by old Isaac Walton, when in instructing you to im pale a worm for angling, he bids you handle him tenderly withal, and treat him like a friend. The scented pulvilio, which the untwisted hairs reproachfully effused, still seems to salute my nose, and flutter between my eyes, and the dipping and swimming figure of my partner. With what pride, I led her to her seat, and what a bewitching bow I flattered myself I had made, when she blushed into her chair! In those happy days, the next operation was a regular and persevering set-to, at the genuine old English country-dance; and the amusements of the night were invariably wound up by the Boulanger, or Sir Roger de Coverley. One of my nieces played me those exploded tunes a few days ago, and what a flush of rosy recollections did they conjure up! Their music seemed to penetrate into the quiet caves and grottoes of memory, awakening ideas that had long slumbered undisturbed. Methought they issued from their recesses like so many embodied sprites; and, fastening their flowery wreaths to the spokes of Time's great wheel, they dragged it rapidly backward, until the days of my youth became evolved before me in all the fidelity and vividness of their first existence. Then did I again behold the rich Miss B-, the sugar-baker's daughter, whom my parents invariably urged me to engage for the supperdances, with many a shrewd hint that a partner at a ball often became a partner for life; nor was her corpulent mother omitted, who carried vanity so far as even to affect a slight degree of palsy, that the motion of her head might give a more dazzling lustre to the magnificent diamonds, with which it was thickly studded. I see her now, at her old place in the cardroom, shaking and sparkling like an aspen-tree in the sunshine of a white frost. I behold, also, the bustling little old man her father, receiving the tickets of admission in all the pomp of office, with his snuff-coloured suit, and the powdered and pomatumed peak coming to a point in the centre of his bald head. I hear him boasting, at the same time, of his wealth and his drudgery, and declaring that, with all the hundreds he had spent upon his hot-houses and plantations at Hackney, he had never seen them except by candle-light. As for the daughter, thank Heaven, I never danced with her but once, and my mind's eye still beholds her webby feet paddling down the middle, with the floundering porpus-like fling she gave at the end, only accomplished by bearing half her weight upon her partner, and invariably out of tune. Often have I wondered at the patience of the musicians, in wasting rosin and catgut upon her timeless sprawls. She was obtuse in all her perceptions, and essentially vulgar in appearance: in the consciousness of her wealth, she sometimes strove to look haughty, but her features obstinately refused to assume any expression beyond that of inflexible stupidity. Moreover, she had thick ancles, puddingy hands with short broad nails, and in laughing she shewed her gums! She was too opulent, according to the sapient calculations of the world, to marry any but a rich man; and she succeeded, at length, in realizing her most ambitious dreams. Her husband is a yellow little nabob, rolling in wealth, and half suffocated with bile. She has three rickety children, whom she is ashamed to produce. With no more ear than a fish, she has a box at the Opera, and gives private concerts. In short, there is no luxury she is incapable of relishing, which her fortune does not enable her to command; and no enjoyment really adapted to her taste, in which her imagined gentility does not deter her from indulging. Poor What a contrast was the accomplished, the fascinating Fanny with her lovely features irradiated with innocent hilarity, yet tempered with sentiment, and deep feeling. She was all intelligence-spiritual-ethereal; at least, I often thought so, as her sylph-like form seemed to be treading upon air, while it responded spontaneously to every pulsation of the music, like a dancing echo. "The course of true love never did run smooth:" Fanny was portionless-I was pennyless; yet even despair did not prevent my loving her; and, though my tongue never gave utterance to the thought, I am well aware that she read it in my eyes, and gave me in return her pity. With this I was contented in the romance of a first love, I thought it would be delightful to die for her, and I sent her the inclosed song, but she never noticed my effusion, though she never returned it. Fanny she fell a sacrifice to one of those pests of society, a dangler, a male coquet; who paid her his addresses, won her affections, changed his mind, and married another-the scoundrel! Her pride might have borne the insult, but her love could not be recalled-her heart was broken. Her fine mind began to prey upon itself-the sword wore out the scabbard-her frame gradually faded away, and a rapid decline at length released her from her uncomplaining misery. I followed her to the grave; and how often did I return to the spot to bedew it with my tears! Many a vow have I made to suppress my unavailing grief, and refrain from visiting the place of her burial; when, in the very midst of my resolutions, my feet have unconsciously carried me to it again. Most truly might I have exclaimed with Tibullus, "Juravi quoties rediturum ad limina nunquam? Years have since rolled away, and I can now think of Fanny without Forgive me, Mr. Editor, but a tear has fallen upon the very spot where I was about to make a boast of my stoicism. I may, however, without emotion declare, that of all the girls I ever knew, Fanny Psha! another tear! I will not write a word more upon the subject, SONG. TO FANNY. When morning through my lattice beams, For still I dream of thee. When wit, and wine, and friends are met, Still does my heart confess thy power, And fondly turn to thee. When night is near, and friends are far, And, through the tree that shades my cot How do I mourn my lonely lot, And, Fanny, sigh for thee! I know my love is hopeless-vain, Will make it break for thee! H. GERMANY-PAST AND PRESENT. "Armorum sonitum toto Germania cœlo VIRGIL. Georg. BEFORE the wars of the French Revolution, the political and social face of Germany was marked by features, that widely distinguished it from every other country in Europe, and which the convulsions of later days have rather softened down and shaded off, than obliterated or effaced. It displayed, in grotesque and singular variety, all the peculiarities and anomalies of a constitution, in which feudality might be said to have run to seed. The Germans, in comparison with the English or the French, still appeared a people of the middle ages. They dwelt enveloped in forests, sands, baronial castles, walled and gated towns, rigid ceremonies, and impregnable barriers of rank and title. Chivalry had left behind it a rough military spirit; aristocracy produced the most inflexible separation of ranks; and superstition and legendary lore were now replaced by dreaming mysticism and wild metaphysics. The mailed knight was succeeded by the mustachioed hussar; the feudal sovereign by the count armed with parchments and pedigrees; and the magnetical doctor, and the metaphysical professor, were the legitimate descendants of an intrigue between the cabalistic monk of the 15th century, and the white nymph of the fountain or the forest. The political constitution, and the social system, had alike become a tangled labyrinth of complicated ranks, titles, rights, privileges, prescriptions, and usages. The spirit of improvement, and the activity of talent, were fettered and cramped on every side, by the artificial mounds of despotic power or aristocratic privilege. Every thing remained stagnant and motionless, because none of the restless energies of character or mind, which give the first impulse to improvement, had room to expand themselves. The great origin of the sluggish obtuseness of this system, and the source of most German peculiarities, from the subdivided despotism of the state, down to the petty ceremonies and etiquette of the saloon, was undoubtedly the singular predicament of the body politic. From the early periods of German history down to the French Revolution, the bane of this fine country had always originated in the subdivision, the isolation, and the conflicting animosities of its states, and its interests. With the exception of the religious wars in the 14th and 17th centuries, and some few European struggles, the history of Germany is made up of feuds and contentions, solely arising from its anomalous constitution, and the incongruous materials, of which it was composed. Eternal disputes concerning the election of emperors; the precedence and dignities of dukes and princes; the family compacts, marriages, partitions, and inheritances of the princes; the aggressions and reprisals of litigious neighbours; the privileges of nobles; and the claims of reigning cities-are the never-ending incidents of German history. Germans were eternally engaged in making war upon Germans, till the bonds of country and brotherhood were destroyed, and seeds of indelible hatred sown between Prussians and Austrians, Bavarians and Saxons, Wirtembergers and Hessians. The institution of the Imperial Chamber, in the 16th century, as a great national tribunal, where one prince might bring his action (as in our Court of King's Bench) against another, instead of leading his troops into his territory; and the institution of the Austregues, or arbitrators, to whom these illustrious litigations might be referred, tended much to civilize the system: often, however, the Directors of the Circles, who answered to the bum-bailiffs and tipstaves of humbler tribunals, and were charged with executing the terrors of the law, were not potent enough to enforce submission from sovereign delinquents, at the head of some thousand hussars. About the commencement of the last century, the consolidated weight and superiority of Prussia, Austria, and one or two other powers, kept the smaller reigning fry in order and awe, and generally engaged them as auxiliaries, on one side or the other, in hostilities of more important dimensions, if not of more rational object. The ascendancy of Frederic of Prussia then rebuked the genius of more fiminutive heroes; and he became the great model, after |