confidential respect, he pressed it against his eyes and
brow, as well as to his mouth, how long he kept the hand, and how
slowly he released it, all this was very important, and, if possible,
well considered beforehand; any mistake committed, occasioned
afterwards probably great trouble to the guilty party. He who had to
exhibit himself before a larger assembly, took into serious
consideration the position and demeanour by which he could produce an
effect. However troubled was the young Semler when he stood before the
professor's chair for his doctor's degree, yet he did not forget "to
take a peculiar but not offensive attitude," in which he answered his
opponents so rapidly, that he scarce waited for the end of their
speech; nor did he forget to tell, how indifferent the "tender emotions
of his heart" had made him to every possible objection of his
antagonist. The women had also to study well, not only the motions of
their fans, but their smiles and the casting-down of their eyes; it was
required that they should do it unaffectedly, with grace and tact.

Undoubtedly this pressure of convenance was frequently, with the
Germans, broken through by characteristic rectitude and firmness. But
the stedfast enduring power of will, which we honour as man's highest
quality, was then very rare in Germany. It was to be gained by
experience and necessity, by the labour and practice of arduous duty;
then it broke forth with surprising energy. But this quality was
deficient in some manly characteristics. The pressure of a despotic
state had continued for a century; it had made the citizen shy, dull,
and fainthearted. This frame of mind had been promoted by Pietism. A
continual contemplation of their own unworthiness diminished in more
finely organized minds the capacity of enjoying themselves heartily, or
of giving frank expression to their own nature. The severe training and
immoderate exertions of memory of literary men, and their many night
watches in close rooms amid the fumes of tobacco, only too often
implanted disease. We may gather from many examples how frequently
consumption and hypochondria destroyed the life of young scholars. And
we find generally among the citizen families of that time, sentimental,
irritable, sensitive natures, helpless and feckless in respect of all
that was unusual to them. But that was not the worst. Not only the
will, but the certainty of their convictions and the feeling of duty
were easily extin