dtshafter_, or Electric
Affinities; and as it introduced a young girl filled with the same wild
passion for another woman's husband that Bettina affected to feel for him,
letter by letter was sedulously studied, to give a new touch, either of
tenderness or originality, to his contemptible Miss Ottilie. But we have
already in this Magazine expressed our opinion of that performance, and of
the great Goethe in general; so that we shall not return to the subject on
the present occasion. Pleasanter it is to follow the fairy-footed Bettina
in her scramblings over rock and fell, her wadings through rivers, and
sleepings on the dizzy verge of old castle walls that look down a hundred
fathoms of sheer descent into the Rhine. And pleasanter still, to hear her
give utterance to sentiments--unknown to the pusillanimous, unpatriotic
heart of the author of _Werther_--of sympathy with the noble Tyrolese in
their struggles for freedom, and her generous regard for them when they
were subdued.

Nothing, perhaps, is more astonishing in these letters--considering the
date of them, 1809-10--than the utter silence maintained on the state of
public affairs. The French are mentioned once or twice--but generally in
praise--Napoleon as often; but not a word to show that there was any
stirring in the German mind on the subject of their country or
independence. There they went on, smoking and drinking beer, writing
treatises on the Greek article, or poems on Oriental subjects, in the same
prosy, dull, dreamy fashion as ever, with the cannon of Jena sounding in
their ears, and the blood of Hofer fresh upon the ground. Well done, then,
beautiful, merry, deep-souled, tender-hearted Bettina! From her windows at
Munich, she saw the smoke of the burning villages in the Tyrol; and her
constant wish is for men's clothes and a sword, to go and join the
patriots, and have a dash at the stupid, dunderheaded Bavarians. But our
clever little friend is not alone in her good feelings. Count Stadion, a
dignitary of the church, and Austrian ambassador, is her sworn ally; and
few things are more beautiful than the descriptions of the reverend
diplomatist and the fiery-eyed little Bettina being united by their
sympathy in what was then a fallen and hopeless cause. But there was still
another sympathiser, and the discovery of his feelings we will let Bettina
herself describe:--

Next day was Good-Friday. Stadion took me with him to read me mass. I told
him, with man