aywrights now living in Germany. As to his last work, _Die Ritter vom
Geiste_ (The Knights of the Spirit), of which only the first volume has
been published, the critics entertain the most contradictory opinions.
Some exclaim at its great length, which indeed is rather terrific: there
are to be nine books, and the first occupies the whole of the first
volume. Others are charmed with the skill with which the details of the
work are wrought up, and the great variety of persons who figure in the
story. The author has certainly laid out all his strength in this book,
which is designed to reproduce the present age in all the contradictions
of its doctrines and the complexity of its tendencies. But instead of
seizing these in some central and vital point, and setting them forth in
a work whose very simplicity would conceal its depth from most readers,
Gutzkow has adopted the easier and more clumsy method of multiplying his
characters and complicating the actions of his drama. Thus it is hardly
possible for it not to be tedious and a failure. But we can speak of it
more fairly when it is farther advanced.

* * * * *

Dr. NEANDER'S Library is advertised for sale by auction at Berlin, but
our correspondent thinks it will be saved from the hammer by a private
subscription, which will secure it to the University.

* * * * *

KARL SIMROCK has just brought out at Frankfort a new collection of
GERMAN POPULAR SONGS, not obsolete or artistic poems, but such as still
live among the people, and are familiar to every class. "Among
_Volkslieder_," he says in his preface, "I include only such as have
proceeded directly from the people, and still bear the tokens of their
origin, in their unsophisticated form, and simple, hearty language. The
pieces of cultivated poets which have found access and become loved with
the people, are reserved for a future collection of favorite German
songs. The distinction here hinted at between the people's songs and
popular songs is not generally understood. All previous collections have
confused the two, and some even have not a single production of the
people. For example, _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_, whose great merit must be
recognized, contains antique poems which by no means issued from among
the people." In another place he says: "The songs here collected and
arranged have been newly written down, literally from the mouths of the
people; and w