Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 126.djvu/134

122 : it is more distant than "du" but it implies a greater consideration for the individual to whom you are speaking. In old times servants, soldiers, and all inferiors were spoken to in the third person singular, as "er;" but in the present day such a form of address would be looked upon as an outrage. Inferiors invariably use the third person plural in addressing their superiors: "Haben Frau Generalinn gerüfen? Excellenz haben befohlen. Herr Oberst sind wohl nicht unzufrieden?" The family is spoken of collectively as the "Herrschaft" by their servants (royalties are mentioned by their equerries and aides as the "hohe Herrschaft") and a lady will make use of the same formula towards a servant when speaking of the children; she will tell him to fetch the kleine Herrschaft, not "the children," home.

The language of German home life has, as most of my readers are probably aware, many a coaxing turn and caressing twist. The intimate "du" that marks near relationships, or old friendships, or nearer and dearer connections in spe, consecrates the second person singular, in a special manner, to home life. How endearing are the "chen" and "lein" of domestic language, how sweet and soft "mein Herzchen," "my little heart," from a mother to her child! — how pretty and pretecting "mein Liebchen," "my little love," from the youth to the maiden, how tender to a mother's ears the "Mütterchen" and "Mütterlien" of a dearly loved daughter! Perhaps to persons who do not know German such utterances are "hideous;" to me they are full of simple pathos and beauty: the words "Kindlein, Engelein, Magdlein," by their very sound alone call up before our vision those charming German engravings where firm outline, pure form, and vigorous conception go hand in hand; we see the candid brow, the well-opened questioning eyes, the opulent plaits, the fearless, intelligent look, and we read in a word, the poems of childhood — of maidenhood.

How pretty is the "Gesegnete Mahlzeit" ("May the meal be blest to you") of the friends whose hospitality you have shared, or of your neighbour at table, who when the meal is ended will turn to you with this graceful benediction! How warm and simple the "Grüss dich Gott" ("God greet thee") of some dear familiar friend; how charming in feminine ears the courteous ever-recurring Austrian "Ich küss' die Hand" that seems to recall the very days of chivalry! It is inconsistent (and worthy of a woman) to say that the lack of these and a hundred other such pleasant phrases makes conversation seem cold and bare, abrupt and discourteous, when, after a long residence in Germany, we return to the plain unvarnished speech of English life, whose yea is yea, and whose nay nay.

 

 From The Spectator.

Takow, 6th March, 1875. could only keep my health, I would not care how long I remained here, for the island has many attractions, and is particularly interesting, now that the Chinese have been roused up to a sense of the necessity of reclaiming the whole island, and, as a matter of consequence, to a perception of the value of the coal, metal, and timber, in which Formosa abounds. During the China New-Year holidays I had a most delightful trip into the mountains. A party of six of us (three Englishmen and three Frenchmen) started from Taiwanfoo, the capital of Formosa, lying some thirty miles to the north of Takow, and after two days and a half of very rough travelling indeed, arrived at Lak-tu-li, a village hidden away in a lovely valley among the mountains. The villagers, half Pepo-hwans, half hill-savages, flocked out to stare and wonder at us, with our enormous train of coolies and baggage-carriers — for we did not by any means intend to rough it, and the man who looked after the commissariat did his work nobly — and after they had got over their first feeling of astonishment and distrust, showed their innate good-breeding by welcoming us by every means in their power.

Offers of food, pipes, fruit, etc., were showered upon us, all of which we declined in favour of a large square table, which we placed under the shade of a convenient tree, and which was soon covered by a most substantial tiffin. You should have seen the countenances of these innocent children of nature as they watched the varied preparations for the repast. The unfolding and outspreading of the snowy table-cloth, the endless variety of plates, glasses, knives, bottles (containing vile-looking liquors), and forks (pure silver to their eyes), all seemed to be matter of endless wonder to them, and to create a hilarity among them which