on,
while, when out of the channel, he instantly became uncertain, and from
diffidence, especially in the presence of Edwin's intellect and
knowledge, he easily yielded, and ceased firing his heavy rhetorical
artillery.

But it was not only Edwin's superiority that attracted him. He had
become warmly attached to his old friend for a very different reason.
That he should now find the latter--whom as the petted child of parents
in comfortable circumstances, he had always beheld on the farther side
of a wide social gulf--dependent on his own exertions, and living
almost as plainly as he himself lived, secretly afforded him pleasure,
much as he wished him all possible prosperity. It threw down the
barriers between them and placed him on the same footing as his former
schoolfellow, but he was completely melted when Balder, whom he had
known and petted as a little boy, joined his brother, and with his
turning-lathe took up likewise the character of a "workman" in the true
sense of the word. According to his father's desire he himself had
studied law and had passed his first examination very creditably.
But as soon as old Franzelius closed his eyes, Reinhold with his
Gracchus-like scorn, became faithless to his career, apprenticed
himself to a printer, and regularly served his time. Now for the first
time his heart burst its bonds. He felt himself, in affliction, the
equal of his brothers "the workmen," and resolved to devote all his
energies to the improvement of their lot.

While at the university he had devoted himself to the study of
political economy and various similar subjects, albeit in his somewhat
cursory way; so now, for the furtherance of his object, he embodied in
small pamphlets or sometimes even in single sheets brief discussions on
what he considered the vital questions of the proletarian. These
impetuous essays, written sometimes in a very _dilettante_ style, he
composed and printed himself in his leisure hours and distributed
gratuitously among the working population, over which by degrees he
obtained great influence. He brought the brothers also these little
"fire brands," as he called them, with which he endangered the fields
of the Philistines, and was delighted when Balder, in his gentle way,
examined each one, though often arguing against them, while Edwin
accepted the pamphlets with a good natured jest, but could rarely be
drawn into a discussion.

For Edwin was sincerely attached to the worthy fel