e was very curious to
know whether Lord Cromwell were yet alive, or the king of England's
head put on again. I did my best to satisfy him on these interesting
topics; but I doubt whether I succeeded; for on my assuring him that
there was no Lord Cromwell, and that the head of William IV. had never
been cut off, he eyed me with a glance of peculiar distrust.

Thus passed a day at Shatzlar,--heavily enough, it must be allowed;
for, ardent as my admiration of Wordsworth's poetry is, I confess that
I have not succeeded in imbibing so much of his philosophy as to feel
as he would doubtless have felt in a similar situation. Both mine and
my companion's overwrought limbs, however, derived no slight advantage
from the halt, and well it was that they did so, for the task which
awaited them on the morrow was a hard one. After repeated consultations
with the burgomaster, which ended invariably, on his part, with an
entreaty that we would not think of an enterprise so Quixotic as
crossing Schnee-Koppee at this early season, and without a guide, we
made up our minds to go in direct opposition to his counsels, and after
gaining the summit, to descend by the other side, and sleep at
Schmiedeberg, or some other town in Prussian Silesia. Just, albeit
sharp and cutting, is the aphorism of Madame de Stael, that there is no
country in the world where the expression, "It is impossible," comes so
frequently into use as in Germany. Propose to a German any undertaking
which he has either never tried, or which might break through his
every-day habits, and he will assure you that the thing is not to be
accomplished. Urge him to increased exertions, or accelerated speed,
and he will tell you that to do more, or move faster, is impracticable.
And as to learning any new method of performing a given task, be it
even the dressing of a dish for dinner, I question whether you could
prevail upon him to attempt that by any influence short of positive
compulsion. Yet in war the Germans are an enterprising people, and
among the arts of peace they can boast, with truth, that some of the
most important discoveries ever effected were effected by their
countrymen. How strange that their domestic habits should be so
thoroughly in contradiction to such qualities as enterprise in war and
ingenuity in the application of mechanics.

Of this strange predilection to create difficulties for themselves and
others, which, beyond all doubt, attaches to the German charac