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of a Dutch canal, and the streara twistins and turning atevery point likc some thin bluo vein pulsing languidly on tothe world's great heart — the sea.

The memories, too, linked with the banks of the Ober andMittel-Rhein are as different as the Stocks and stones them-selves.

Below the Rheingau, every mountain peak and summitis as if silvered over with the j)ale mythic light of some fairylegend, or eise blood-stained with the barbaric glory of some" robber-noble's : ' deeds.

But the rocks no sooner disappear from the river banks,and nature herseif begins to assume a less savage aspect, thanromance ceases to people the Rhine-shores with water-sprites,and brigand-barons; and the associations, as if to harmonisewith the more prosaic character of the scene, get to partake ofthe solid dignity of civilised history.

The three men who have influenced the world, perhapsmore than any other triumviri, are John Gutenbebg, BeetholdSchwaez, and Maetin Luther : the three great originators ofthe three greatest of human powers — Printing, Gunpowder,and Protestantism; powers coequal in force, and yet howdifferent in kind!—one mental, another physical, and thethird spiritual in its energy—the first designed to teach, thesecond to slay, and the last to save.

The journey along the Upper Rhine, is one long panoramaof splendid associations.

At Strasburg we tread on ground made memorable by'Gutenberg's first attempts at printing with moveable types.

At Freiburg we gaze, with a quickened pulse, upon sceneswhich serve to realize to us the Franciscan Friar's emotions ondiscovering the explosive properties of a mixture of charcoal,sulphur, and saltpetre.

VOL. IL I)