the proper way to state the question," replied
Clodwig. "Is this an age which can concede any special duties, and with
them any special privileges, to the nobility? This is the day of equal
rights; there are no more members of a privileged class. There are but
two classes of men, men of renown and men without renown. The nobility
which claims to rest upon hereditary honor is effete; it is
incontestably a dying institution. Of what use are coats of arms? Of
none but to be embroidered on fire-screens, sofa cushions, and
travelling-bags. The equal, universal duty of bearing arms furnishes
the reasonable claim to nobility. Science, art, business, are the
factors of our time, which the whole people without distinction is
equally bound to take part in. We stand in opposition to history. The
nobleman was of importance so long as landed property was the
foundation of the nation's power. That time is passed, since those high
chimneys have reared themselves into the air; since the power of
movable property, ideal possessions--for all state securities are but
ideal possessions--has surpassed that of landed estates, those days
have been no more. One advantage of this personal property is, that it
cannot be clutched by the dead hand; the hand of inheritance is a dead
hand. I am not opposed to having the nobleman of the present day give
his name to business transactions; there are better things than titles
and orders by which not only money, but influence, can be gained. I
thank the noble Jacob Grimm for exposing, as he does in his essay on
Schiller, the folly of supposing that Goethe and Schiller can be
ennobled. The nobility of to-day means nothing but a name, a
desolation; we go so far as to bestow it even upon the Jews."

"But you, certainly," interrupted the Banker, "would not deny the equal
rights of the different religions, the moment this equality of rights
knocks at the emblazoned door of nobility?"

"Equal rights!" exclaimed Clodwig. "Quite right, my friend descended
from an ancient race. But is it not an absurd perversion to use equal
rights for the abolishment of equal rights? If anybody can become a
noble, without the necessity of having been born so, of course the Jews
can; but they ought not to desire it, they ought to see the disloyalty
of it. So far as I see, the Jews--I am speaking now with no reference
to their religion--are a living lesson to us not to judge of men by
what they believe, but by their progress in v