flames.

"Such was the end of John Huss, the Savonarola of Constance.

"We made an excursion upon the lake. The appearance of the old city
from the water is one of the most beautiful that can meet the eye. It
seems more like an artist's dream than a reality,--floating towers in
a crystal atmosphere.

"'Girt round with rugged mountains,
The fair Lake Constance lies.'

"The lake is walled with mountains, and wears a chain of castle-like
towns, like a necklace.

"It would be delightful to spend a summer there. Excursions on the
steamers can be made at almost any time of the day. One can visit in
this way five different old countries,--Baden, Wuertemberg, Bavaria,
Austria, and Switzerland."

* * * * *

Mr. Beal's succinct account of the old city led to a discussion of the
gains of civilization from martyrdoms for principle and progress. He
was followed by Master Lewis, who gave the Class some account of

BISMARCK AND THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

In the eyes of the multitude, Bismarck is a great but unscrupulous
statesman, intent upon uniting Germany and making it the leading
nation of Europe. As a man, he seems hard-headed, self-willed, and
iron-handed. As a ruler, he is looked upon as the incarnation of the
despotic spirit,--a believer in force, an infidel as to moral
suasion.

Many persons who sympathize with his policy censure the means by
which he executes it. They do not consider that so long as that
policy is threatened from within and without, the Chancellor must
trust in force; nor do they read the lesson of the
centuries,--_Force_ must rule until _Right_ reigns.

The fact is not apprehended by the unthinking multitude, that the
work of grafting a statesman's policy into the life of a nation
requires, like grafting a fruit-tree, excision, incision, pressure,
and time.

But it is not of Bismarck's policy I would first speak, but of that
which few credit him with possessing,--his moral convictions.
Strange as it may seem to those who know only the Chancellor,
Bismarck is not only a religious man, but his religion is the
foundation of his policy.

Dr. Busch, one of the statesman's secretaries, in a recent book,
"Bismarck in the Franco-German War," narrates incidents and reports
private conversations which justify this assertion.

On the eve of his leaving Berlin to join the army, the Chancellor
partook of the L