this study, he would give us the result of
his observation in a book well nourished with specific facts, his work
would be a valuable aid to the social and political reformer.

What we are desiring for ourselves has been in some degree done for the
Germans by Riehl, the author of the very remarkable books, the titles of
which are placed at the head of this article; and we wish to make these
books known to our readers, not only for the sake of the interesting
matter they contain, and the important reflections they suggest, but also
as a model for some future or actual student of our own people. By way
of introducing Riehl to those who are unacquainted with his writings, we
will give a rapid sketch from his picture of the German Peasantry, and
perhaps this indication of the mode in which he treats a particular
branch of his subject may prepare them to follow us with more interest
when we enter on the general purpose and contents of his works.

In England, at present, when we speak of the peasantry we mean scarcely
more than the class of farm-servants and farm-laborers; and it is only in
the most primitive districts, as in Wales, for example, that farmers are
included under the term. In order to appreciate what Riehl says of the
German peasantry, we must remember what the tenant-farmers and small
proprietors were in England half a century ago, when the master helped to
milk his own cows, and the daughters got up at one o'clock in the morning
to brew--when the family dined in the kitchen with the servants, and sat
with them round the kitchen fire, in the evening. In those days, the
quarried parlor was innocent of a carpet, and its only specimens of art
were a framed sampler and the best tea-board; the daughters even of
substantial farmers had often no greater accomplishment in writing and
spelling than they could procure at a dame-school; and, instead of
carrying on sentimental correspondence, they were spinning their future
table-linen, and looking after every saving in butter and eggs that might
enable them to add to the little stock of plate and china which they were
laying in against their marriage. In our own day, setting aside the
superior order of farmers, whose style of living and mental culture are
often equal to that of the professional class in provincial towns, we can
hardly enter the least imposing farm-house without finding a bad piano in
the "drawing-room," and some old annuals, disposed with a symmetrica