PKEFACE.

5. The Family Customs: such as those usual at birth, mar-riagc, and death, and the feelings uniting the several members oftlie " housc,"—father with sons, husband witli wife.

6. The Opinions, Sentiments, and Creed of tlie people: theOpinions setting forth their intellectual condition, the Sentimentsindicating their moral State, and the Creed showing the amount ofenlightened religion among them.

Now to those who are in the habit of hurrying through Ger-many at the same rate as Queen's messengers, and whose know-ledge of the people is limited to such as are seen in Anglicisedhoteis, the view here given of the national character may perhapsappear somewhat harsh and prejudiced; whilst bookworms (whoin their estimate of the German mind reflect the light of suchintellects as Jean Paul Richter, Goethe and Schiller — Kant,Hegel and Fichte — as well as Schlegel and Niebuhr—Liebig,Argelander, and Bessel, over tlie whole people, and bolieve everyGerman to be a small philosopher and great sceptic) will doubt-lessly find cause to quarrel with us about the low mental averagowo have Struck for the entire nation. It should be borne in mind,however, that the great body of English people are neitherShakspeares nor Newtons ; nevertheless, it is but due to ourselvesto add, that our opinions on the thoughts and manners of thepeople have been drawn chiefly from the more enlightened por-tion of the middle classes— such as professors, teachers, andprofessional men in general; for with the aristocracy of thecountry we profess no acquaintance, and with the artizans andlabourers we may probably deal on a future oecasion.

Finally, the general reader may fancy, that in the chapterscomparing the intellectual condition of the Rhenish Prussianswith that of our own people we have gone upon the fabularprinciple that " there is nothing like leather," and attributed toomuch to the influence of the English press in the formation ofthe English character. But when the social condition of thiscountry at the present time is contrasted with that prevailing atthe latter end of the last Century, and the question asked, " What