vindicate
the morality of these Novels. For with us this is esteemed, not only by
most well-disposed readers, but by almost all our periodical critics
great and small, a very essential point in a work of fiction, and it is
therefore usual for a novel-writer, who wishes to secure their
approbation, to indicate, either in the title or at the conclusion, the
branch of morality to which his work is to be referred. But the best
German writers have some strange notions on this subject; they believe
that a tale may have a high value, though its moral essence cannot be
extracted in a precept or an aphorism; they even think it the better
for having no didactic object, and Goethe goes the length of saying that
a good tale can have none. Such being the case, it would not have been
surprizing if in these Novels the moral lesson had been somewhat
obscure, and had required some ingenuity to deduce. The Translator then
has reason to congratulate himself, that it is as obvious and striking
as if the Author's main end had been to convey it, and that he has even
been spared the trouble of construing it. He will therefore no longer
detain the reader from better company.

THE PICTURES.

"Have the goodness, Sir, in the meantime to step into the picture
gallery," said the servant as he let young Edward in; "my master will
come to you directly."

With a heavy heart the young man entered.

"With what different feelings," thought he to himself, "did I once pace
through this room with my worthy father! It is the first instance of my
descending to such a step as this, and it must be the last too. That it
really must! And it is time for me to take a different view of myself
and the world."

Setting down a covered picture against the wall he advanced farther
into the room. "How a man can have patience with these lifeless
pictures, and exist in and for them alone!" so he continued his silent
meditations. "Does not it seem as if these enthusiasts lose themselves
in a realm of enchantment? For them art is the only window through
which they catch a glimpse of nature and the world; they have no means
of knowing either except as far as they compare them with their copies.
And yet so it was that my father too dreamt his years away; whatever
was foreign to his collection gave him no more concern than if it had
fallen out at the pole. Strange how enthusiasm of every kind tends to
confine our existence and all our f