ce was first established. In 1400 the famous cannon,
fourteen feet in length, was cast at Cologne; and in 1472 Vindelin de
Spire printed his Bible. A new world was making its appearance; and,
strange to say, it was upon the banks of the Rhine that those two
mysterious tools with which God unceasingly works out the civilization
of man--the catapult and the book--war and thought--took a new form.

The Rhine, in the destinies of Europe, has a sort of providential
signification. It is the great moat which divides the north from the
south. The Rhine for thirty ages, has seen the forms and reflected the
shadows of almost all the warriors who tilled the old continent with
that share which they call sword. Caesar crossed the Rhine in going from
the south; Attila crossed it when descending from the north. It was here
that Clovis gained the battle of Tolbiac; and that Charlemagne and
Napoleon figured. Frederick Barbarossa, Rudolph of Hapsburg, and
Frederick the First, were great, victorious, and formidable when here.
For the thinker, who is conversant with history, two great eagles are
perpetually hovering ever the Rhine--that of the Roman legions, and the
eagle of the French regiments.

The Rhine--that noble flood, which the Romans named "Superb," bore at
one time upon its surface bridges of boats, over which the armies of
Italy, Spain, and France poured into Germany, and which, at a later
date, were made use of by the hordes of barbarians when rushing into the
ancient Roman world; at another, on its surface it floated peaceably the
fir-trees of Murg and of Saint Gall, the porphyry and the marble of
Bale, the salt of Karlshall, the leather of Stromberg, the quicksilver
of Lansberg, the wine of Johannisberg, the slates of Coab, the cloth and
earthenware of Wallendar, the silks and linens of Cologne. It
majestically performs its double function of flood of war and flood of
peace, having, without interruption, upon the ranges of hills which
embank the most notable portion of its course, oak-trees on one side and
vine-trees on the other--signifying strength and joy.

[Footnote A: From "The Rhine." Translated by D.M. Aird.]

FROM BONN TO MAYENCE[A]

BY BAYARD TAYLOR

I was glad when we were really in motion on the swift Rhine, and nearing
the chain of mountains that rose up before us. We passed Godesberg on
the right, while on our left was the group of the seven mountains which
extend back from the Drachenfels to the Wo