THEIR LOTE OF HOME.

10.5

is merely the place for himself and his wife and children tosleep in, and certainly not the spot in which all liis affectionsare centered.

In Prussia the same thing holds good, though hardly tothe same extent; for Society, in the Rhenish capital at least, isupon the same low and degraded footing as it was with ussome hundred years ago, when even our gallants and our witsspent the night at taverns, and scarcely a husband or a fatherthroughout the nation dreamt of passing the evening amongthe members of his own family.

These remarks upon continental habits and manners, itshould be added, refer only to the middle classes, for withwhat are termed "the higher" we profess no acquaintance.Moreover, the middle class of every country affords the fairestnotion as to the State of the nation; for not only are all com-moditics reducible into necessitics, comforts, and luxuries, butthe several classes of society admit of being divided in thesame manner,—into the necessitous, the comfortable, and theluxurious: so that, by attending to the middle State, we areenabled to discover the real amount of civilisation and refine-ment in the land, the extremes giving us no more idea as tothe social condition of the race than the hottest and coldestdays afford us as to the average temperature of the climate.

The Prussian homes we havo already shown to be no veryinviting places; hence it is not astonishing to find the peopleindulging in those gross customs which prevailed with us be-fore the houses of our merchants and tradesmen had beenrendered more attractive and agreeable than many a continentalpalace—viz. of retiring, almost as soon as the day's businesswas ended, either to some tavern-club or favourite beer-shop,to smoke and drink away the evening. In England, however,such habits appertain nowadays only to working-men and the