swallow up, to devour. But here it means to neglect, not to pronounce distinctly; fig. Vorwürfe und Schimpfreden verschluken, to pocket reproaches and affronts; to put up with them without any reply, or without taking notice of them.

990. Durch die Bank, is an adverbial expression : taken in the lump, all together, without any exception, one like the other: Sie taugen durch die Bank nichts; they are all, one like the other, good for nothing. Sometimes it means, one with another :" Die Pferde der Leibgarde kosten durch die Bank jedes Funfzig Pfund Sterling; the horses of the body-guards cost one with another (upon the average) fifty pounds sterling each. Die Gurgel, sub. fem. the throat. It differs from Kehle, sec. 386, which is both the windpipe and the gullet, by denoting rather the exterior throat, or that part of it which is seen when the mouth is wide open. It may be derived from the Latin guttur, or more probably from the French gorge: but the adj. guttural, and die gutturales, as we have lower down, are not German words, though we call guttural buchstaben those letters which, like ch, h, and k, are spoken from the throat. The real German name is Kehlbuchstaben.

991. Gestehen Sie deswegen der Italiänischen Sprache den Rang über die ihrige ein? do they on that account allow to the Italian language the precedency before their own? The ein at the end belongs to gestehen, with which it forms the sep. comp. verb. eingestehen, to concede, to allow, to admit, to own, to confess. Gestehen Sie mir nur das ein, only concede that to me. Energie, sub. fem. is again a French word, for which we have Kraft, fem. Vollkraft, fem Strebkraft, fem. and Nachdruck, sub. masc. Brav, adj. and adv. is not always the English brave, courageous; but often, good, perfect; and in the moral sense, as here, it answers the French in the expression, c'est un brave homme, an honest, excellent man.

992. Amüsiren is another French word unnecessarily employed. We have belustigen, ergötzen, unterhalten, vergnügen.

993. Pfui interj. fie! shame! It is expressive of aversion, disgust, indignation. In Upper Germany they say, pfu, pfuch, and in Switzerland, pfud, pfudi.

994. Das Bisschen, sub. neut. or das Bisslein, sub. neut. the little bit. Both words are diminutives of der Bissen, sub. masc. the bit, the morsel; and serve to express a

very small quantity, a modicum. In Silesia, they say, ein Bissel. We say familiarly, warten sie nur ein Bisschen, wait only a little. Er kann ein Bisschen Deutsch; he knows a little German.

995. We had bange, sec. 305; the word Himmel, "heaven," is familiarly, and perhaps rather vulgarly added, to increase the intensity of the expression. Mir ist Himmelbange; I am very much afraid, I am under great apprehensions!

996. The Germans are too modest and unassuming to pretend to obtain a preference for their language in other countries. They rather study the idioms of their neighbours, in order to derive from their travels among them that extent of information which cannot be attained without such a knowledge. Unlike the Frenchman, the German studies the language of every country which he happens to reside in; whilst a French author justly observes of his countrymen : "Le François doit en grande partie l'accueil froid dont il souffre si souvent à son impardonnable ignorance de toutes les langues. On traite d'insultante vanité l'humeur paresseuse et legère qui ne lui fait envisager qu'avec effroi toute étude grammaticale. D'ailleurs à cet égard enfant gâté de l'Europe il reconnoit les accens qui lui sont familiers dans les cours, chez les savans, même au

fond des plus modestes demeures." And this was really the fact in Germany in particular, as we observed before. A Professor Thiébault, in a work replete with blunders, which has been too much extolled by a celebrated northern review, says, in his Mes Souvenirs de vingt ans de Séjour à Berlin, “J'étois encore nouveau venu à Berlin lorsque le Comte de Reichenbach m'invita à souper, où j'eus pour compagnie une douzaine des officiers les plus instruits du même corps. On ne parla que de littérature. Quelques uns des convives vantérent extrémement ce Mr. Ramler, qui déjà en ce tems là passoit pour un des plus grands poëtes de l'Allemagne. M. de Reichenbach se leva de table, alla prendre un volume d'Odes toutes composées par ce poëte, et en le présentant à la compagnie, il pria ses convives de vouloir bien lui expliquer et rendre intelligible la première strophe d'une de ces Odes. Le volume passa par

Z

les mains de tous ces messieurs; on discuta beaucoup et longtems, et l'on finit par convenir unanimement qu'il n'y avoit ni construction ni sens." It probably was that Ode of Ramler to his physician, which begins thus

"Mein Arzt, mein Freund, o lass mich ihn entsiegeln
Den Hochheims edle Kelter zwang,

Und jenen, alt als ich, der einst auf Tarzal's Hügeln
Die Morgensonne trank."

Now any Englishman acquainted with the elliptical turns of expression in the German language, will readily discover that the word wine (der Wein, masc. instead of bottle, contentum pro continente) is understood. Here is a literal translation, and every English student of German may judge of the knowledge which Count Reichenbach, and the officers of his regiment, must have had of their national language:

My physician, my friend, oh! let me unseal this (wine), which the noble presses of Hochheim (the village on the Rhine, where the best Rhenish wine, Old Hock, grows) squeezed

out:

And that yonder, as old as myself, which once on Tarzall's bills (in Hungary; Tarczal, one of the Hegy-allya mountains, produces wine almost equal to the far-famed Tokay),

Inhaled the morning sun."

There is not a schoolboy at present in Germany who could not explain this strophe with the greatest ease.

997. The German language possesses a double interest for Englishmen ; first in a commercial point of view on account of the great trade which is carried on between Great Britain and the ports of the North Sea and of the Baltic; and secondly, on account of its rising literature; and the great light which it thows upon the native beauties of the English language. There are as yet but few elementary books to assist its study. The first to begin with is Boileau's " Key to the German Language and Conversation," containing common expressions on a variety of subjects, with an easy introduction to the German Grammar. This may be followed up by Wendeborn's German Grammar, which, in spite of its defects, has the advantage of prac

tical Exercises and cheapness. Dr. Noehden's Grammar is preferable for the classical student, but it is expensive, and the Exercises must be purchased separately. And to those who wish to enter still deeper into the genius of the German language, and to have a foretaste of the beauties which distinguish its literature, we can safely recommend the "Nature and Genius of the German Language," displayed in a more extended review of its grammatical forms than is to be found in any grammar extant, and elucidated by quotations from the best writers. Crabb's extracts from the best German authors, and die Prosaische Anthologie der Deutschen, may be used for beginners; but we should prefer for young persons Campe's "Robinson Crusoe" (Robinson der jüngere), and the "Discovery of America" (die Entdeckung von Amerika), by the same author. To these may be added, Historisches Magazin für Verstand und Herz; Archenholtz' Geschichte des Siebenjährigen Krieges in Deutschland; and Schiller's Dreissig Jährigen Krieg. These are books which the English student of German may easily procure in London: but his own inclinations, taste, and pursuits, ought to lead him to select such works, for his farther improvement, as convey at the same time solid information, and are best calculated to repay him for the trouble of having applied his mind to the study of the language. He will do well, besides, to confirm himself in his knowledge by frequently looking into a grammar entirely German, such as either Reinbeck's or Heinsius', which are the most modern.

THE END.

WILSON & SON, Printers, 57, Skinner-Street, London.