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which from such an accomplished German scholar was to have been expected, but with an ease, a fluency and grace, and a richness of phrase that a Swinburne or a Browning in their happiest moments could scarcely have surpassed. Take, for instance, the following Titianesque picture from the classical Walpurgis Night, scene 4, on the lower Peneius, where Faust contemplates the array of the Nymphs in undulant procession on the bosom of those silver-swirling

waters.

I wake indeed; I see them well,
These forms of grace unmatchable,
In beauty palpable to sight!

What transports strange my spirit seize !
Can these be dreams or memories;

The shadows of an old delight?

The limpid waters, as they stray,
Through bushes green that gently sway
Above them, scarce a murmur make;
An hundred rills together meet
In one broad, clear, unruffled sheet
Of waters deep-a crystal lake:
And female forms, young, sleek, and fair,
That fill the eye with rapture, there
Are glassed within the mirror bright;
They mix and dip with merry hum,
Some swimming, shyly wading some,
And shout and splash in sportive fight.
Could these content, mine eye should find
Enjoyment here; but no; my mind
Looks farther, and with vision keen
Would pierce yon thick embow'ring roof
Of clustering leaves, whose tangled woof
Conceals the glory of their queen.
Oh! wonderful! swans bright of hue,
From leaf-screened nooks, swim into view,
With slow majestic pace.

Two and two serenely steering,

Head and crest yet proudly rearing,

As conscious of their grace.

Yet one that breasts the glassy tide,
Outstripping all, a statelier pride
And bearing seems to vaunt;
With pinions all blown proudly out,

He cleaves the waves that curl about,
And nears the sacred haunt.

Not less rich in varied strains of serene rapture from the breasts of the blessed in heaven is the closing scene, in which the neverresting aspirant after transcendental bliss is at length welcomed to the abode of eternal peace by the marshalled bands and companies of the redeemed. Through the mountain defiles, forest, and rock of the celestial precincts the chorus, with far-sounding echo, rises:

Forests, they wave around,
Cliffs overhang the ground,

Roots far their tendrils spread,

Trees interlace o'erhead;
Brooks leap and sparkle clear,
Sheltering caves darkle near;
Harmlessly gliding round
Dumb lions roam,

Honour the hallowed ground,

Love's blessèd Home.

Here we may remark, in passing, that it seems scarcely English

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to talk of the tendrils' of strong roots. Would it not be an improvement to say, Roots their long arms outspread, or fangs? But our space forbids us to expatiate on the details of this threshold of the New Jerusalem, which with the aid of music and appropriate scenery would make a most effective miniature oratorio. Only the verses sung by the angels as they bear the immortal part of Faust to its destined repose in the love of the penitent Gretchen may not be omitted, as they contain in a single stanza the poet's view of the philosophy of life and the moral of the story :

Rescued from the Evil One

Is our brother's soul here,
Who hath nobly wrestled, run,
Him can we console here;
And if 'twas Love divine's behest
That sin should not defeat him,

Then will the spirits of the blest
With cordial welcome greet him.

The concluding lines, sung by the Chorus Mysticus, contain no small difficulty, and run in the German thus:

Alles Vergängliche

Ist nur ein Gleichniss ;
Das Unzulängliche,

Hier wird's Ereigniss;
Das Unbeschreibliche,
Hier ist es gethan;
Das Ewig-Weibliche
Zieht uns hinan.

This eternally female,' which may seem strange to some readers, is no doubt quite appropriate, being significant of love, at once the dominant soul of the Christian religion, the salient feature of the poet's genius, and the pervading tone of the poem. The difficulty lies in the translation. Sir Theodore gives the passage thus:

All in earth's fleeting state,
As symbol is still meant,
Here the inadequate

Grows to fulfilment.

What tongue may utter not

Here it is done,

The woman-soul draweth us

Upward and on;

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taking, as he informs us, the phrase of the woman-soul' from Bayard Taylor's version. But this is a Germanising sort of English which, if possible, ought to be avoided; and if the eternally female' of the original to English ears sounds only a trifle less strange, perhaps we may make another trial, thus:

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Rapture unspeakable

Dwells and prevails,
Where the sweet womanly

Love never fails.

We may note, finally, in Sir Theodore's version of this passage that the practice of forming a double rhyme out of two separate words such as still meant,' however justified by the example of the Brownings, and however appropriate in Don Juan, and our British Aristophanes, Punch, is, in our opinion, for several reasons, not suitable to the genius of lofty lyric poetry. But, however this be, no fair critic, considering the extreme difficulty of the undertaking, will be willing to look with a severe eye on rhythmical shifts of this kind, but will rather say with Horace:

Ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendar maculis.

Sir Theodore, in the happy termination of this great work, can boast an achievement which, along with his versions from the great Roman poets, will secure him a place in the front line of our translated literature so long as the English language lasts.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE.

THRIFT AMONG THE CHILDREN.

A FEW weeks ago, when I was talking with an influential friend about writing an article for this Review on Thrift among the Children,' he seemed rather surprised, and asked me what I meant-in what form thrift did or could exist among children. But when I began to tell him that thrift among the children had been inculcated and developed to such purpose in France that, since 1874, over twenty-three thousand School Savings Banks have been opened, numbering, in January 1885, no less than 488,624 depositors, with deposits amounting in the aggregate, formed of the bonâ fide pocket-money of the children, to a sum of 11,285,046 francs-viz. 451,000l.-he at once seized the wide issues involved in the question.

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And when I went on to say that, though in the matter of ordinary Savings Banks we had led the way for all countries through the perfection of our Post-Office Savings-Bank system, out of the 18,761 elementary schools of England, with their four million children, less than two thousand-that is, 1,979-have school banks attached to them; and that this is the case, notwithstanding that the adoption of school banks is strongly advocated by the Education Department, and so far enforced that, in assessing the merit grant, her Majesty's Inspectors are instructed that those schools only are entitled to the mark Excellent' that, where circumstances permit, have their own Savings Bank; and when I further explained that, from evidence in my own possession, I was led, broadly speaking, to attribute our backwardness to the importance of the question not having been sufficiently brought home to people of all classes, as well as to the difficulty of getting at concise, comprehensive information on it, because such information is for the most part either scattered about or buried in the works of educationalists and specialists-he became anxious that the subject should be discussed in this Review; which, with the permission of the Editor, it may be.

The subject was first brought under my notice by a practical demonstration of the educational value of school banks, and of the aptitude of the poor to appreciate the advantages they afford, the moment they are put within their reach.

A month or two back a school bank was started in my own neighbourhood, through the initiation and efforts of the Clapham branch of the Society of St. Elizabeth of Hungary-one of those societies of

ladies that in their particular sphere are doing almost as much for the education of women in the practical affairs and realities of daily life as Mr. Gladstone, in his now historic Manifesto, anticipates for the public education of the country from the reform of local government.

Without any special knowledge of School Savings Banks, their number, working, or results, the president of this Society was led by her observations amongst the poor to anticipate important results if she could succeed in establishing one in a large girls' school of her district. Having made sufficient inquiries to justify the experiment, she sought and obtained the permission and co-operation of the school authorities to start a School Savings Bank, in connection with the Post-Office Savings Bank, for the girls and infants of St. Anne's Schools.

In September last the bank was opened by the Secretary of the National Thrift Society. On the opening day, out of one hundred children thirty-four became depositors: the deposits amounted to 88. 6d., showing that they were the bonâ fide pocket-money of the children. Which is a thing to be noted, as there is frequently danger, especially at starting a school bank, of the parents making the children the medium of saving their own money; a proceeding that is fatal to the special object and permanent success of a school bank. I may add that in the month of November a Penny Savings Bank was opened for the mothers of the district, which removed all risk of neutralising the educational value of the children's bank by its being made a mere convenience for the family savings.

These facts, when they became known to me, struck me as a remarkable indication of the most hopeful possibilities: they promised great things. I began to make inquiries myself about the extent and working generally of the system of school banks. I made inquiries at the Education Department; I made inquiries about England, in Liverpool and Birmingham; also in Ireland; and then abroad-in Belgium and, above all, in France.

The result of my inquiries was strangely varied: by the side of what I had almost called the strongest confirmation of antecedent probability, strengthened by the short experience of St. Anne's Schools, I met profound apathy or complete ignorance of the whole subject. Without clear proof, this contradictory state of things would be incredible. But having the great good fortune to be brought into communication with M. de Malarce, whose authority on the question of school banks is second to none, I came to see, through his experience, why we are at present so far behind France in a matter of such grave practical consequence.

M. de Malarce may be said to have been inspired with the resolution of initiating a scheme of school banks on the basis of a definite and precise scholastic institution or educational system by the Hungarian patriot Francis Deak.

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