inner life. He continued to lay bare the
foundations of his statesmanship.

"I owe the firmness which I have shown for ten years against all
possible absurdities only to my decided faith. Take from me this
faith, and you take from me my fatherland. If I were not a believing
Christian, if I had not the supernatural basis of religion, you
would not have had such a Chancellor.

"I delight in country life, in the woods, and in nature," he said,
in the course of the conversation. "Take from me my relation to
God, and I am the man who will pack up to-morrow and be off to
Varzin [his farm] to grow my oats."

The surprise with which these revelations of a statesman's inner
life are read is due to their singularity. Neither history nor
biography is so full of instances of statesmen confessing their
faith in God and in Christianity, at a dinner-table surrounded by
"free-thinkers," as to prevent the reading of these revelations from
being both interesting and stimulating.

"I live among heathen," said the Chancellor, as he concluded this
acknowledgment that his religion was the basis of his statesmanship.
"I don't seek to make proselytes, but I am obliged to confess my
faith."

Prince von Bismarck was born in 1813. His political history is
similar to Emperor William's, which I related at our last meeting.
The Emperor and his Chancellor, in matters of state, have been as
one man. Each has aimed to secure the unity of the German empire.
Each has sought to disarm, on the one hand, that branch of the
Catholic party who give their allegiance to Rome rather than the
government, the so-called Ultramontanes; and the Socialists, on the
other hand, who would overthrow the monarchy. The two strong men
have ruled with a firm hand, but with much wisdom. Germany could
hardly have a more liberal government, unless she became a republic.

The stories of the evening were chiefly selected from Hoffman. They
were too long and terrible to be given here. Among them were "The
Painter" and "The Elementary Spirit." In introducing these stories,
Mr. Beal related some touching and strange incidents of their author.

HOFFMAN.

Hoffman died in Berlin. His career as a musical artist had been
associated with the Prussian-Polish provinces, where he seems to
have acquired habits of dissipation in brilliant but gay musical
society.

Hoffman had exquisite refinement of taste, an