ong, as if they had "learned it listening to the birds" that
is to say, to the birds in the woods, not, like one of the new branch
schools of romantic miniature poets, to the birds singing their sickly
songs in gilded cages in a parlor.

The forest alone permits us civilized men to enjoy the dream of a
personal freedom undisturbed by the surveillance of the police. There at
least one can ramble about as one will, without being bound to keep to
the common patented high road. Yes, there a staid mature man can even
run, jump, climb to his heart's content, without being considered a fool
by that old stickler, Dame Propriety. These fragments of ancient
Germanic sylvan liberty have happily been preserved almost everywhere in
Germany. They no longer exist in neighboring lands which have greater
political freedom but where annoying fences very soon put an end to an
unfettered desire to roam at will. What good does the citizen of the
large North American cities get out of his lack of police surveillance
in the streets, if he cannot even run around at will in the woods of the
nearest suburb because the odious fences force him, more despotically
than a whole regiment of police, to keep to the road indicated by the
sign-post? What good do the Englishmen get out of their free laws, since
they have nothing but parks inclosed by chains, since they have scarcely
any free forest left? The constraint of customs and manners in England
and North America is insupportable to a German. As the English no longer
even know how to appreciate the free forest, it is no wonder that they
require a man to bring along a black dress-suit and a white cravat, in
addition to the ticket-money, in order to obtain entrance to the theatre
or a concert. Germany has a future of greater social liberty before her
than England, for she has preserved the free forest. They might perhaps
be able to root up the forests in Germany, but to close them to the
public would cause a revolution.

[Illustration: AN OFFICIAL DINNER IN THE COUNTRY (painting by) BENJAMIN
VAUTIER]

From this German sylvan liberty which peeps forth so strangely from
amidst our other modern conditions, flows a deeper influence upon the
manners and character of every class of the people than is dreamed of
by many a stay-at-home. On the other hand, in a thousand different
characteristics in the life of our great cities we perceive how far the
real forest has withdrawn from these cities, how alienated