for those who
surround him. A firm feeling of duty is only formed under the pressure
of strong law. Whoever overrides it will find it easier to do great
things, but incomparably more difficult to do permanently what is
right.

At an earlier period the life at courts was rough, often wild, now it
had become frivolous and dissolute. The combination of refined luxury
with coarse manners, and of strict etiquette with arbitrary will, makes
many of the characters of that time especially hateful.

The sons of Princes were now better educated. Latin was still the
language of diplomacy, to that was added Italian and French; and
besides all knightly arts--in so far as they still existed--military
drills, and above all, _politesse_, the new art which rendered men and
women more agreeable and obliging in society. Some knowledge of state
affairs was not rare, for there were still quarrels with neighbours to
be brought before the supreme court of judicature and the Imperial
Aulic Council, and solicitations to his Imperial Majesty, and
complaints to the Diet, without end or measure. But the person who
exercised most quiet power in the country was the lawyer, who was
generally at the head of the administration; and occasionally a
power-loving court preacher.

The ladies also of the princely houses had the advantage of some degree
of instruction; many of them understood Latin, or at least were
acquainted with Virgil (from a bad translation into German
Alexandrines), and Boccaccio in the original. Quarrels about rank,
ceremonials, dress, the love affairs of their husbands, and perhaps
their own, formed the daily interest of their lives, together with
trivial intrigues and gossiping: the stronger minded conversed with the
clergy on cases of conscience, and sought for consolation in their hymn
book, and occasionally also in their cookery book. But German
literature was little adapted to ennoble the feelings of women, and
such as those times did produce, seldom reached them in their elevated
position; a tasteless court poem, an Italian strophe, and sometimes a
thick historical or theological quarto sent by a submissive author in
hopes of receiving a present of money. The marriage of a princess was
concluded upon reasons of state, and it frequently happened that she
was burdened from the very first day with a dissolute husband.
Undoubtedly not a few of them were consigned to their royal vaults with
most choice and solemn pomp, on whom t