n
that has received a stamp to indicate what it is worth. It is the
fallacy of the time, and many poets have frequently maintained this
fallacy, that nobility of birth is accompanied by foolishness, and
that the lower you go among the poor, the more does everything around
shine. But that is not my view, for I consider it entirely false. In
the higher classes many beautiful and kindly traits are found. My
mother told me one of this kind, and I could tell you many others.

"My mother was on a visit to a great family in town. My grandmother, I
think, had been housekeeper to the count's mother. The great nobleman
and my mother were alone in the room, when the former noticed that an
old woman came limping on crutches into the courtyard. Indeed, she was
accustomed to come every Sunday, and carry away a gift with her. 'Ah,
there is the poor old lady,' said the nobleman: 'walking is a great
toil to her;' and before my mother understood what he meant, he had
gone out of the room and run down the stairs, to save the old woman
the toilsome walk, by carrying to her the gift she had come to
receive.

"Now, that was only a small circumstance, but, like the widow's two
mites in the Scripture, it has a sound that finds an echo in the
depths of the heart in human nature; and these are the things the poet
should show and point out; especially in these times should he sing of
it, for that does good, and pacifies and unites men. But where a bit
of mortality, because it has a genealogical tree and a coat of arms,
rears up like an Arabian horse, and prances in the street, and says in
the room, 'People out of the street have been here,' when a commoner
has been--that is nobility in decay, and become a mere mask--a mask of
the kind that Thespis created; and people are glad when such an one is
turned into satire."

This was the speech of the clergyman's son. It was certainly rather
long, but then the flute was being finished while he made it.

At the castle there was a great company. Many guests came from the
neighbourhood and from the capital. Many ladies, some tastefully, and
others tastelessly dressed, were there, and the great hall was quite
full of people. The clergymen from the neighbourhood stood
respectfully congregated in a corner, which made it look almost as if
there were to be a burial there. But it was not so, for this was a
party of pleasure, only that the pleasure had not yet begun.

A great concert was to be performed, and