r that the culture and social condition in
Protestant and Roman Catholic countries was very different; but even in
the same Protestant district, within the walls of one city, the
contrast of culture was very striking. The external difference of
classes began to diminish, whilst the inward contrast became almost
greater; the nobleman, the well-educated citizen, and the artisan with
the peasant, form three distinct circles; each had different springs of
action, so that they appear to us as if each belonged to a different
century.

The most confident and light-hearted were the nobles; there was also
some earnestness of mind in them, not unfrequently accompanied by ample
knowledge; but the majority lived a life of easy enjoyment: the women,
on the whole, were more excited than the men, by the poetry and great
scientific struggle of the time. Already were the dangers which beset
an exclusive position very visible, more especially in the proudest
circles of the German landed aristocracy; both the higher and lower
Imperial nobility were hated and derided. They played the part of
little Sovereigns in the most grotesque modes; they loved to surround
themselves with a court of gentlemen and ladies, even down to the
warder, whose horn often announced across the narrow frontier that his
lord was taking his dinner; nor was the court dwarf omitted, who,
perhaps in fantastic attire, threw his misshapen head every evening
into the _salon_ of the family, and announced it was time to go to bed.
But the family possessions could not be kept together; one field after
another fell into the hands of creditors; there was no end to their
money embarrassments. Many of the Imperial nobles withdrew into the
capitals of the Ecclesiastical States. In the Franconian bishoprics on
the Rhine, in Munsterland, an aristocracy established themselves, who,
according to the bitter judgment of contemporaries, did not display
very valuable qualities. Their families were in hereditary possession
of rich cathedral foundations and bishoprics; they were slavish
imitators of French taste at table, in their wardrobes, and equipages;
but their bad French and stupid ignorance were frequently thrown in
their teeth.

The poorer among the landed nobility were in the hands of the Jews,
especially in East Germany; still, in 1790, the greater part of the
money that circulated through, the country passed through the hands of
the nobles. On their properties they ruled as So