We cannot, perhaps, more appropriately close this cursory notice of German writers on America, than by referring to two lectures by Dr. Philip Schaff, whose fame as a Church historian, and labors as a theological professor at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, give special interest and authority to his views. When Dr. Schaff revisited his native country, in 1854, he gave, at Berlin, two discourses, part of a series by eminent scholars. Carl Ritter, and other illustrious friends, advised their publication; and this is the origin of his unpretending but comprehensive "Sketch of the Political, Social, and Religious Character of the United States of North America." It was translated from the German, and published in New York in 1855. The latter branch of the subject naturally occupies the largest space; and it is in relation to German emigration and the Evangelical Church that he chiefly discusses the condition and prospects of his adopted country. In view of the fact that, the very year of his visit to his fatherland, the emigration of his countrymen to the port of New York alone, amounted to more than one hundred and seventy-nine thousand, he descants upon the privileges, needs, dangers, and destinies involved in this vast experiment, with the knowledge of a good observer and the conscience of a Christian scholar. He laments the evil attending so large a proportion of ignorant and irreligious emigrés, and the low condition of the German press in America; but, on the other hand, anticipates the happiest results from the coalition of the American and Teutonic mind. "With the one," he observes, "everything runs into theory, and, indeed, so radically, that they are oftentimes in danger of losing all they aim at; with the other, everything runs into practice, and it is quite possible that many of the best and worst German ideas will yet attain, in practical America, a much greater importance than in the land of their birth, and first become flesh and blood on the other side of the ocean, like certain plants, which need transplanting to a foreign soil in order to bear fruit and flowers." He describes with candor the prominent traits of our country and people. The latter, he says,

"are restlessness and agitation personified: even when seated, they push themselves to and fro in their rocking chairs, and live in a state of perpetual excitement in their business, their politics, and their religion. They are excellently characterized by the expressions help yourself' and 'go ahead,' which are never out of their mouths." "The grandest destiny is evidently reserved for such a people. We can and must, it is true, find fault with many things in them and their institutions-slavery, the lust of conquest, the worship of mammon, the rage for speculation, political and religious fanaticism and party spirit, boundless temerity, boasting, and quackery; but we must not overlook the healthy vital energies that continually react against these diseases—the moral, yea, Puritanical earnestness of the American character, its patriotism and noble love of liberty in connection with deeprooted reverence for the law of God and authority, its clear, practical understanding, its inclination for improvement in every sphere, its fresh enthusiasm for great plans and schemes of moral reform, and its willingness to make sacrifices for the promotion of God's kingdom and every good work. They wrestle with the most colossal projects. The deepest meaning and aim of their political institutions are to actualize the idea of universal sovereignty, the education of every individual. They wish to make culture, which in Europe is everywhere aristocratic and confined to a comparatively small portion of society, the common property of the people, and train up, if possible, every youth as a gentleman, and every girl as a lady; and in the six States of New England, at least, they have attained this object in a higher degree than any country in the Old World, England and Scotland not excepted. There are respectable men, professedly of the highest culture, especially in despotic Austria, who have a real antipathy to America, speak of it with the greatest contempt or indignation, and see in it nothing but a grand bedlam, a rendezvous of European scamps and vagabolds. Such notions it is unnecessary to refute. Materialism, the race for earthly gain, and pleasure, find unquestionably rare encouragement in

the inexhaustible physical resources of the country; but it has a strong and wholesome counterpoise in the zeal for liberal education, the enthusiastic spirit of philanthropy, the munificent liberality of the people, and, above all, in Christianity. Radicalism finds in republican America free play for its wild, wanton revellings, and its reckless efforts to uproot all that is established. But there is unquestionably in the Anglo-Saxon race a strong conservatism and deeply-rooted reverence for the Divine law and order; and, even in the midst of the storms of political agitation, it listens ever and anon to the voice of reason and sober reflection. Despotism and abuse of the power of government make revolution; while moderate constitutional liberalism forms the safest barrier against it: radicalism, therefore, can never have such a meaning and do so much harm in England and America, as in countries where it is wantonly provoked to revolutionary reaction."

Dr. Schaff sketches the size, growth, polity, social life, and religious tendencies and traits of America, in a few authentic statements, and expresses the highest hope and faith in the true progress and prosperity of the nation. “ "To those," he remarks, "who see in America only the land of unbridled radicalism and of the wildest fanaticism for freedom, I take the liberty to put the modest question: In what European state would the Government have the courage to enact such a prohibition of the traffic in all intoxicating drinks, and the people to submit to it, as the Maine liquor law? I am sure that in Bavaria the prohibition of beer would produce a bloody revolution."

Education in America, and the state of literature and science, are ably discussed and delineated. The press there is fairly estimated; and the Church, as an organization and a social element, analyzed with remarkable correctness as to facts and liberality as to feeling. The influence of German literature in America is duly estimated, and the character and tendencies of foreign immigration and native traits justly considered. Without being in the least blind to our national

faults, Dr. Schaff has a comprehensive insight as to our national destiny, and a Christian scholar's appreciation of our national duties. "The general tendency in America," he observes, "is to the widest possible diffusion of education; but depth and thoroughness by no means go hand in hand with extension. A peculiar phenomenon is the great number of female teachers. Among these are particularly distinguished the 'Yankee girls,' who know how to make their way successfully everywhere as teachers-as in Europe the governesses from French Switzerland. Domestic life in the United States may be described as, on an average, well regulated and happy. The number of illegitimate births is perhaps proportionally less than in any other country. The American family is not characterized by so much deep good nature, and warm, overflowing heartiness, as the German; but the element of mutual respect predominates."

No foreign writer has more clearly perceived or emphatically stated the moral and economical relation of America to Europe than Professor Schaff. His long residence in this country, and his educational and religious labors therein, gave him ample opportunity to know the facts as regards emigration, popular literature, social life, and enterprise; while his European birth and associations made him equally familiar with the wants of the laboring, the theories of the thinking, and the exigencies of the political classes. "America," he writes, "begins with the results of Europe's two thousand years' course of civilization, and has vigor, enterprise, and ambition enough to put out this enormous capital at the most profitable interest for the general good of mankind. America is the grave of all European nationalities; but it is a Phoenix grave, from which they shall rise to new life. Either humanity has no earthly future, and everything is tending to destruction, or this future lies, I say not exclusively, but mainly in America, according to the victorious march of history, with the sun, from east to west.” *

*"America, Political, Social, and Religious," by Dr. Philip Schaff, New York, C. Scribner, 1855.

CHAPTER IX.

ITALIAN TRAVELLERS.

NATIONAL RELATIONS: VERRAZZANO; CASTIGLIONE; ADRIANI; GRASSI; BELTRAMI; D'ALLESSANDRO; CAPOBIANCO ; SALVATORE ABBATE E MIGLIORI; PISANI.

FROM the antiquated French of the missionary Travels, and the inelegant English of the uneducated and flippant writers in our vernacular, it is a vivid and pleasant change to read the same prolific theme discussed in the "soft bastard Latin" that Byron loved. Although no Italian author has discoursed of our country in a manner to add a standard work on the subject to his native literature, America is associated with the historical memorials of that nation, inasmuch as Columbus discovered the continent to which Vespucci gave a name, and Carlo Botta wrote the earliest European history* of our Revolution; while the great tragic poet of Italy dedicated his "Bruto Primo," in terms of eloquent appreciation, to Washington; and the leading journal of Turin to-day has a regular and assiduous correspondent in New York, who thus made clear to his countrymen the cause, animus, and history of the war for the Union, and whose able articles on the educational system and political condition

* Botta's "History of the War of the Independence of the United States of America," translated by Otis, 2 vols. 8vo. in 1.