CHAPTER XIII.

Leonard and Gertrude continued-Village Reform-The New System-Trials and Successes of a Country Schoolmaster.

AFTER the introductory scenes, which are admirably calculated to give the reader a distinct impression of the leading characters, the plot of the story opens with the determination on the part of Hummel, to be revenged for Arnheim's infringement of the long-enjoyed privilege of iniquitous rule over the village. He attempts the removal of a boundary stone on one of Arnheim's estates, by which, though he cannot be benefited himself, yet he hopes, from the peculiar position of that stone, considerably to curtail the property of his master. A concatenation of unfortunate circumstances, however, aided by his own superstitious fears, leads to his detection; and while he is under the arm of justice, awaiting the sentence of the law, he, as well as several of his accomplices in former iniquities, make spontaneous confessions, some from fear, others from remorse. The discoveries successively made in the course of the inquiry, bring the mal-administration of the village, which had taken deep root during the times of his predecessor, under the notice of the young lord, who, more anxious to repair evil than to avenge it, proceeds with the utmost lenity against the offending parties; and, assisted by Ernst, the minister of the parish, undertakes a fundamental reform of the whole community, which he is the better able to carry into effect with energy, as the most influential men in the village, and those most inclined to oppose him, have by the recent revelations become liable to the most severe visitations

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of the law. Many are the intrigues set on foot with a view to defeat his object, both in the village itself, and at court, where a corrupt minister, dreading the contagion of improvement, encourages the machinations of some invidious relations of Arnheim. But all the refinement of low cunning and high-born duplicity, cannot obstruct the progress of a man, who, conscious of the goodness of his intentions, and full of zeal for the welfare of the people intrusted to his government, goes forward with a bold and decided step; and we find at the end of the work his projected reform, though not completed, yet in so prosperous a condition as to place its ultimate success beyond all doubt.

This is the short and simple outline of a story, which is kept up with the utmost interest through four octavo volumes. Its incidents are commonplace occurrences, such as the history of every village would furnish, but its characters are drawn in such perfection, that no artificial excitement of attention is needed; and the striking portraiture of national character, with which the idiomatic style finely corresponds, while it renders some parts, perhaps, less intelligible to the many, contributes greatly to heighten the interest of the narative for those who are acquainted with the originals themselves. The attractions are not to be found in the plot, but in its details; it is not the composition in itself, so much as the high finish given to the different groups, and the fine contrasts between them, that constitute its beauty. Of a work of this description, it is impossible to give any other than either a very brief, or else a very lengthened account; and the interest of the readers of the present volume will, therefore, be best consulted by the addition of a few extracts relative to the re-organization of the school in Bonnal, for which Gluelphi, a reduced officer, and friend of Lord Arnheim's, volunteers his services. Having endeavoured to prepare himself for his task by frequent conversations with the enlightened Gertrude, whose family-circle he proposed to himself as the pattern of his future school, and having been introduced to the villagers as

their new schoolmaster one Sunday after the sermon, by Arnheim and the pastor, he enters his school-room on the following morning with an agitated and apprehensive mind, in consequence of various gossips which have reached his ear on the day preceding, and which evinced no kindly disposition towards him on the part of many of the parishoners, as well as of their children.

"When he came into the room he found about a dozen of the brawlers, the most insolent that were in the village, both men and women; they saluted him much as a master does his journeyman when he comes to him into his workshop. They lost no time in telling him, in a tone which implied not the slightest doubt of their right to be there, that they were come to be present at his instruction, and to see upon what system he was going to teach. He replied, that he begged their pardon, but that he intended to have the children to himself to-day. At this the gents and their wives stared very much, for they could not at all understand, how a schoolmaster dared in their own school-room to tell them that he would not have them in it. At first they affected not to have understood him, and putting their heads together, remained in the room. But Gluelphi gave them another hint, that he intended to have the room cleared, and that he should not begin school until they were gone out. At last, when they saw that they could not enforce their presence, they went away.

"The minister had sent, on Sunday evening, to all the houses, to say that all the children were to be at the school-room precisely at eight o'clock; yet at half-past nine there were still a great many wanting, from the disorderly families, and from the houses of some of the magistrates. With the exception of those whom their parents accompanied from curiosity, the children of Gertrude, and those of another orderly family who came with her, were the only ones that arrived quite in time. Meanwhile the whole village was in the greatest suspense, till they should know what new fashions Gluelphi was going to introduce in the school, and for several days past this had been the great topic of their discussions. This was the reason too why the brawlers were so unwilling to leave the school-room. There was nothing extraordinary, however, in this general excitement, considering that a lathe, a carpenter's bench, a small forge with an anvil, a great number of workboxes, spinning-wheels, and a variety of other articles of the same kind, intended for the school, had been sent from the castle to the parsonagehouse. Indeed it had been Gluelphi's plan, from the first moment when he resolved to undertake the office of schoolmaster at Bonnal, to connect at the very onset all his instruction with different sorts of manual employment; but Gertrude soon convinced him, that it was impossible, at first, to take any thing in hand except what the children had been accustomed to, how

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ever little it might be, and however badly learned. The lathe, bench, workboxes, spinning-wheels, &c. had accordingly been left, for the present, in the parsonage house, and Gluelphi began his operations by examining the children in what they knew already. In the first instance he made them recite their prayers, texts, &c. which they had learned by heart.

"In giving him this advice, Gertrude added, that such a proceeding would afford him, at the same time, the best opportunity of finding out what they knew, and how they knew it, and thereby of forming an estimate of their capacities, their acquirements, and their dispositions.

"This he found actually to be the case. At the first attempt of making them recite their former lessons, the miserable emptiness of their minds, and their utter ignorance of what they thought they knew, because they were able to recite it, became so evident, that before an hour had elapsed, the poor Lieutenant's patience was almost exhausted. The very contrast between their looks and the words which they pronounced, and which were obviously on their lips quite unmeaning, put him out of countenance. The child of Hallori, whose eye was full of envy and malice, stared him in the face with the greatest insolence and scorn, while reciting the words: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." But she knew neither what was meant by thyself, nor that she had a heart or a soul, nor who her "neighbour" was, except it were the "people next door."

"The child of Scraper, a great miser, repeated the text, 'Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor,' and the other, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.' But when the schoolmaster asked, whether he had ever given any thing to a poor child, he answered directly in the negative; and upon the next child whispering to him that he ought to have answered differently, he replied: 'Don't you know, 'tis what one eats one'sself that does one good.' This boy seriously did not think himself bound to give any part of what was his to any one else, and when, after school, some children told him that his answer would gain him no great favour from the schoolmaster, he said, 'his father and mother must well know what was right, and they had often told him, that he must keep to himself whatever they gave him, and that, if he carried any of it out, and gave it to others, it would be as bad as stealing.' When asked what 'treasures' meant, he knew nothing at all, except that he had heard of conjurers, who could force the devil to give up treasures which he had hid under ground. Gluelphi, who was anxious to know more about the children, listened to these and many other things of the same kind very patiently, and made scarcely any remark.

"The insolence of one boy, the son of one Hardpunch, however, threw him off his guard. He wanted not only to repeat his texts, but also to explain them; and in reciting the Ten Commandments, he added to each of

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them a comment, to show what was God's real meaning in giving such a command. Nevertheless he was careful to say nothing directly profane, however expressive his posture and countenance might be. Nor did the lieutenant reprove him, otherwise than by a look of dissatisfaction. But when he saw afterwards, while other children were reciting, that the boy kept on for more than a quarter of an hour talking to his neighbour, and laughing at the remarks he whispered in his ear, Gluelphi suddenly turned round and asked, not Hardpunch, but the other boy, what was the matter? The boy answered that Hardpunch had explained to him the real meaning of the seventh and eighth Commandments. Well, and how did he explain them? Hardpunch now began to push the other boy, and beckon to him not to tell. But he was an openhearted fellow, and said, without paying any attention to the nods of Hardpunch, that he had told him, there was a great difference between one sort of stealing and another; to rob a rich man was a very different thing from robbing a poor man; another question was, whether the man that was robbed was a good man or a wicked man, nay, perhaps, himself a rogue and a thief; 'in general,' he said, 'not all that was called stealing was really stealing. There was a great difference likewise, between a trespass and a theft. To take away wood in the forest was only a trespass; and the disciples, when they plucked ears on the sabbath-day, had certainly not taken them from their own fields, but from those of other people.' And in the same manner he explained that the seventh Commandment had various modifications, and there was no occasion for attending to every ignorant precept or injunction.'

Hardpunch now began to disclaim these explanations, saying, the other had wrested his words. But he was so confused, that Gluelphi saw clearly he was speaking untruth; and though he only bad him be silent, yet he was very much vexed with the insolence, and hardheartedness, which the boy had evinced in this distortion of scriptural truths, the words of which flowed so readily from his lips.

"Another boy, a relation of Hardpunch, and a great blockhead, had got whole chapters of the Bible by heart, and repeated as a specimen the ninety-ninth Psalm; but he pronounced hardly one word of it correctly, and in the manner he said it, there was not one verse of it that made sense; yet so proud was he of his feat of saying a whole Psalm, that it was difficult to say, whether impertinence or stupidity was the predominant expression of his face. Gluelphi could stand it no longer. He told him to stop, and said: 'What you repeat here is not the ninety-ninth Psalm; it is stupid stuff, which no rational creature will ever recognise for the ninetyninth Psalm.'

"To be sure it is the ninety-ninth Psalm, master,' replied the boy.

"Yes,' resumed Gluelphi, as it is in the book, but not as you now say it. As you say it, it is rank nonsense, and you had done better to learn "the Merry Jester" by heart, in this way, than a Psalm.'