and agricultural schools were established, and men of different spheres
of interests organised themselves into associations. By example and by
teaching it was endeavoured to raise the independence of the weaker,
and the great principle of association was proclaimed. In the place of
the former isolation, men of similar views worked together in every
domain of earthly activity. It was a grand labour to which the nation
now devoted itself, and it was followed by the greatest and most rapid
change which the Germans have ever effected.

Both the sound egotism of this work and the practical benevolence of
those who interested themselves in the welfare of the labouring
classes, assisted, after the year 1830, in curing the educated of their
irresolution and feebleness of character. The south of Germany now
exercised a wholesome influence on the north. Long had the countries of
the old Empire lived quietly to themselves, receiving more than giving;
they had sent to the north some great poets and men of learning, but
considered them as their special property; they had endeavoured to
protect their native peculiarities against north German influence, and
they were unwillingly, by Napoleon and the Vienna and Paris treaties,
apportioned among the greater princely houses of their country; and now
they supplied what was wanting to the north. The constitutional
struggles of their little States formed a school for a number of
political leaders, warm patriots, and energetic, warm-hearted men,
sometimes with narrow-minded views, but zealous, unwearied, fresh, and
hopeful. The Suabian poets were the first artist minds of Germany which
were strengthened by participation in the politics of their homes, and
the philosophy of southern Germany maintained a patriotic tendency in
contradistinction to the cosmopolitanism of the north. The people were
saved from becoming _blase_, and from subtle formalism and sophistry,
by warmth of heart, vigorous resolution, a solid understanding, which
was little accessible to over-great refinements, and a pleasant
good-humour. In the time from 1830 to 1848 the southern Germans were in
the foreground of German life.

This hearty participation in the life of the people found expression in
the art of the southern Germans. The morbid spirit which prevailed in
the society of the educated, drove the fine arts into the lower circles
of the people. The popular painters endeavoured to represent the
figures and occupatio