in wet weather, off of the turnpikes, ruts and mud prevail. Indeed, all the roads are elegantly McAdamized. The hotels, too, are of the most accommodating kind. At many of them we find some one who can speak English, and at all of them some one who can speak French. A little French to begin a tour with, is a great deal. The image of the rolling snowball was never more applicable than to the study of French by travelling: a basis is necessary to start with. It was humorous to see four Swiss citizens of Berne in our car going to Heidelberg, trying to practise the little English they were and had been studying. We were the target, and such fires as they made. The awkward squad, tipsy with the worst "old rye," never popped at a mark with such abominable inexactitude. We hope. they will do better before they reach London, whither they are bound for the exhibition. We hope, too, that our primary efforts at French were not so convulsive to the hearer. A goodly number from Germany and Switzerland, are en route for London. The exhibition will attract more the next month than it has during any other. Prints of it are in every window of every print-shop in all the places we pass through, gazed at with open-eyed wonder, by idlers. It is a constant topic of conversation. It is the theme of every inquiry. No one was so curious as the little lass, of bright eye and dimpled cheek, who waited on us at the summit of the Simplon pass. She had helped to make, as she told me, the mammoth cheese; and was extremely anxious to know if I had not noticed it in the palace. I told her, nay; but added that I would look it up on my return. A cheese from the milk of cows that eat the grass which grows on mounts snow-topped, and 8,000 feet above the flags of the glass palace, is a cheese that is not to be passed by indifferently. To some purpose the glacier melts to irrigate the valley-to some purpose doth the grass grow upon the heights of the Alps-to some purpose the cow-bell tinkles at evening in the vale. Cheese is one of the greatest of the products of Switzerland; and every nicety and care is taken to bring its manufacture to a high state of perfection. Among the most noticeable objects in a Swiss and German landscape, is the cottage, under whose ample straw roof, both the peasant and the kine are closely housed. As much care is taken of the cheeseproducers as of the cheese-eaters. The proximity of the stable and house would not be agreeable to very refined olfactories. It is interesting to move around these homes of the Reformers, to feel the struggle they felt, to recall the risk they ran, and to glory in their triumphs. Our way northward, will be amidst such scenes. And yet while possessed of a different faith, and belonging to a country where Protestantism preponderates, we should not forget that all-embracing toleration, which our Constitution embodies and our national spirit fosters. We have seen the rude images of the Saviour hanging to the cross, along the Valley of the Rhone; have seen in Malta the priest sitting at the church door under the sign "Plenaria Indulgenzia;” have seen the Roman people kissing the silver toe of the Madonna ; and while shrinking from these modes of devotion so alien to our own education and faith, we know that GOD who seeth the heart is their judge, and HE only. XXVII. Fatherland. • Here I stand, I cannot otherwise. God help me! Amen!" ETWEEN Basle and Heidelberg, which we ran on a rail BETW road, at a cheap rate too, the country is well cultivated. Ploughed grounds, harvest fields, gardens of cabbages, and vines without measure, line the way. We begin to enter the region of castles. We stopped long enough at the capital of Baden, Carlsruhe, to admire the beautiful palace of the Grand Duke, in the centre of the city, from which all the streets run as the radii of a circle. The valley of the Rhine is wide and level until it reaches Heidelberg, where two mountains—rather small specimens after being in Chamouni-part to receive a respectable city, which, beginning in the plain, runs up between them along the Rhone. Heidelberg has associations not a few. Longfellow, in his Hyperion, has inwoven with the old castle which so majestically overlooks the enchanting scenery, some of the most pleasing sentiments; while the medieval and reformatory ages march around its University halls and invincible ramparts, with banners of heroic and classic device. Here a chapter of the Augustine order met in 1518, which Luther attended, travelling from Wittenberg afoot, drinking in the scenery, disputing with Miger, and spreading abroad his bold and then heretical doctrines. Here his timid co-reformer, the gentle Philip Melanethon, studied before he began his labors. But most is Heidelberg interesting for the castle. We have seen none like it, in associations, in beauty, in situation, in environment. We rode down the valley, before we began to ascend its heights, and stopped at an enchanting spring called Wolfbrünnen, where an enchantress called Jetta, the Cassandra of the Palatinate, was torn in pieces by a wolf. A girl amused us by throwing minnows to fish of larger fry, who dashed about in the clear waters, where they are kept as pets. The speckled trout took my fancy, as they darted out of the shadow into the sunlight, snapped a little fellow-fish, turned a flip-flap, and evanished. But this wolfy place is small game, compared to the old red walls, with their carved armed knights filling the niches, and the heavy battlements surrounding the gardens, wherein the Electors Palatine once luxuriated. The castle is a perfect specimen of the middle-age architecture, strong with its portcullis, and beautiful in its archways and lawns. Statues of the family of the Electors are around. But the most interesting part is the English palace, built for Elizabeth, granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots, who married the Elector Frederick V. He built the noble arch of triumph which may be discerned among the shadows of the trees, entwined with heavy hangings of ivy, to celebrate the nuptials. It leads to a garden which was tastefully arranged for her pleasure. The reader of Mrs. Jameson will remember Elizabeth for a Stuart of the deepest dye, as proud and as arrogant as her degradation was beggarly and severe. A thick growth of glistening ivy clusters around each old wall, and enwraps with its trunk the stones of the ruins, as with bands of iron. The view of the country, of the Kaiser's Stuhl, of the three towers of Manheim down the vale, and of the tree-clad hills toward the Oberland, is bewitching under the red glow of the sinking sun. More especially is it fine after the dim eclipse which the orb has been suffering during the afternoon, and which we, with others at our hotel, through smoked glass, and in tubs of water, have curiously observed. The height of the tower is near 1,500 feet. We passed through the prison, into the chapel, out upon the terraces of stone which overlook the vale, and afford a view of the magnificent front with its traceries of fruit and foliage, its statues and antique heads. The front rises in three portions, each capped with a statue. I should not forget the wine casks of the cellar, the largest of which contains 800 hogsheads! It is 36 feet long and 24 feet high. When it is filled, the lads and lasses have a dance upon the platform on top. With so much wine under one's heels, one ought to trip it with wonderful vivacity, if not with grace. The cask is a wonder, only exceeding by a few feet its younger sister in the room hard by. I have too much to write, and too little time to say it, to dwell long even in Heidelberg, with its students, its views, and its history. As a curious relic of the era, when Germany was united to the empire, and when the Palatinate had a large voice in the choice; of an era when chivalry poised its lance and lived in feudal towers, it stands unrivalled. An edifice, rivalling the castle in elegance, now stands in the city of Heidelberg, but it is a vulgar railroad station; and although its gardens display fine taste, its columns rise in harmony, and its rooms are decorated finer than ever was lady's bower in the feudal day-yet the soft twilight of antiquity is not on them. The coal smoke of the locomotive is not a very choice medium of beauty. A day and a half exhausted Heidelberg, and we were soon pushing onward through Darmstadt, a city situated among hills, studded with castles, where Charlemagne and his barons held their court. The vine and tobacco; (oh! Fatherland, what oblivion dwells in these your staples !) peasant women harvesting wheat with small knives, and men cutting grass with scythes that gave no bend to the body; with alternation of green and golden fields, adorned with no stake or rider, indeed no fence at all—these in fast succession are passed, until the Maine, with Frankfort upon it, and a bridge leading over it, appeared. This is a city that looks business-like. No lazy lazzaroni or sleepy Italians here. Bustle and industry indicate the old free town. Fine streets and houses indicate the presence of |