It was and finally he indulged them with a capan- and Holofernes just erected marked, or nucci greater than any they had ever seen was meant to mark, the triumph of freedom the big bonfire of vanities, for which and the republic over tyranny. No doubt they had themselves collected the mate- by this time the heart was going out of rials. What were the exact component Savonarola's power, but popular enthuparts of this bonfire can never be known; siasm still remained; and in the piazza and doubtless as long as there is any one the blaze of the burning vanities flickered sufficiently interested to discuss the sub-red upon steadfast walls, and flower-like ject, Savonarola's enemies will reproach faces - faces bearing the look of angels, him with having destroyed precious works instead of the small demoniac crowd of art in this Carnival-offering, while his which usually discharged their missiles at apologists attempt to prove the impossi- each other round the blazing bonfire. bility of any such sacrifice. I think there Once more, the vanities were to flame can be little doubt that the latter have there within sight of a devout rejoicing the stronger case. For not only was the throng; and then another burning was to preacher a man of perfect good sense and follow, more solemn, more terrible, not of moderation, but he was himself a poet, vanities. Was he aware of this in his halfthe friend of poets and of painters, with a inspired soul, to which the idea of martyrschool of art still existing under his wing, dom had already become familiar? Anyand Fra Bartolomeo at his elbow to keep how, without attributing to him such him from committing himself. Professor distinct foreknowledge, one can underVillari thinks it most likely that the stand with what a smile, and with what a dresses, and masks, and wigs, prepared sigh, as the white lines moved on, their for the Carnival itself, formed the bulk of songs dying in the distance, Savonarola the bonfire; and a pretty heap might soon with his cowl over his head, must have have been made of these follies, did they turned away. at all correspond in 1496 with what they One more pretty scene, and work of were in 1859. And if a volume of Boc-mercy accomplished, and all the brighter caccio or a few copies of the "Canti Car- part of his greater life was over. nascialeschi" got into the mass here and on Palm-Sunday, Burlamacchi tells us, there, I do not suppose any great harm that a procession of these same children, was done. in their white robes, with garlands on George Eliot has given so admirable their heads, set forth from San Marco and so humorous a description of the on a progress round the city to open the preparations for this great bonfire, in Monti della Pietà, which at last Savona"Romola," that the writer would be bold rola had been able to institute. They indeed who would attempt to repeat the were like beautiful angels out of heaven, sketch. Those who have seen Fra Barto- Burlamacchi says; sometimes they shoutlomeo's portrait of Savonarola, and ed "Viva Gesu Cristo!" their King; marked the sweetness and benignity, not sometimes, "Viva Firenze!" the next untouched by humour, of the homely face and dearest object of every patriot's heart. there presented, will scarcely refuse to After them went many ladies, and even believe that, in the midst of his great and "many grave and noble men, full of tragic labours, a natural consciousness ability and prudence," all with the palms of the ludicrous side of this demonstra- which the Prior had blessed, and the littain may have been in the mind of the tle red cross which was his token. The great preacher, as he watched the chil-long line of the procession went round dren in their white dresses marching the city, winding through all the narrow round the great piazza, clustered all over streets a multitude following under the the Loggia of Ovcagna, and filling up, a fresh sunshine of the spring-and demerry crowd, the solemn ringhiera, under filed into the austere gloom of San Giothe grey walls of the palace, where he vanni, lighting up that solemn place, and himself was so soon to be condemned. into the cathedral, singing with lovely While the clear young voices sang their youthful voices. As they passed, the hymns, the glare of the burning lighted lookers-on wept and smiled upon the up the fresh faces, the picturesque white children, and threw alms to them for the groups, the darker Tuscan crowd around new institution. "And so much joy was them, and the dark strong Tuscan walls, there in all hearts that the glory of Parabuilt for the use of centuries, behind all. dise seemed to have descended on earth, Benvenuto's delicate Perseus was not and many tears of tenderness and devothere in those days, nor yet the huge tion were shed. They went to all the David of a greater artist; but the Judith 'four quartieri, establishing a Monte in From The Pall Mall Gazette. A WENDISH WEDDING-PARTY AND BALL. each, and securing for them a little en-wood. Scarcely have we succeeded in dowment to begin with from the alms they extricating ourselves from this entanglecollected. "E cost ogniuno poi se ne ment of boats than a succession of shots ritornò a casa molto edificato," says simple is heard, and on turning round to ascerBurlamacchi. It was almost the last tain the cause we observe a procession of gleam of gladness in Savonarola's life. kahns steering towards us along some subsidiary stream. They are crowded with Spreewald peasants, all in festival attire, and our boatman discerns at a glance that it is a wedding-party returning home from the church of Burg. The men, who continue firing off their pistols with the double object of celebrating the event and signalling the party's arrival, are decorated with sprigs of evergreen and large white favours. The women are (decked out in their gayest apparel - brilliant coloured dresses, bordered with some bright contrasting hue, black velvet corsets, or dark cloth jackets, embroidered aprons, and starched ruffs, amplitudinous as any Queen Elizabeth ever wore. All are coiffed with floral-pattern kerchiefs or quaint medieval-shaped caps, with long streamers falling behind. The bride, who is far from ill-looking, has been considerately wrapped up in a cloth pelisse, with fur tippet and cuffs, but none of the other women have any especial protection against the cold. THE modern Wends of the Spreewald are an inoffensive, kind-hearted race, noted for their piety and their probity. Music and dancing, and a passion for pleasure, are their principal weaknesses; for, laborious as they habitually are, they are always ready to abandon themselves to enjoyment on occasions of public or private festivity. Such every-day affairs as a christening or a wedding interest not merely the families concerned, but the entire neighbourhood, and in the smaller villages often furnish the pretence for several days' general holiday. An instance of this kind came under our notice in the course of our journey. est trees After leaving Leipe a belt of lofty for- On learning that the party belongs to remnants of the ancient the village Zehni-Kaupam, which chances Spreewald rises up before us, and, seen to be close at hand, we instruct our boatfrom a distance, their massive straight man to follow in the wake of the proceswhite trunks, on which the sun is shining, sion. The numerous little bridges we look like the towering columns of some pass under are lined with spectators, colossal temple. A few huge oaks stand whom the pistol-shots had apprised of like sentinels near the little village of the wedding-party's approach, and when Reiga, at the outskirts of the forest, where we near the house of the newly-married numerous winding rivulets conduct to pair the entire party disembark, and in its most secreted recesses. As we ad- the twinkling of an eye an al fresco dance vance between the centenarian trees is improvised in the open space in front, the sides of our "kahn " grate against which had already been swept clear of their gnarled roots, which the washing- the snow for this purpose. A middleaway of the loose banks has exposed to aged individual, wearing a white scarf, view. Frequently these roots are com- and called in Wendish vernacular the pletely undermined, causing some stal-Probratrka, is the bride's partner in the wart tree to topple over and fall with a dance, this happiness being invariably crash against the ponderous trunks clus- denied the bridegroom on the weddingtered together on the opposite side of the day. stream. In the midst of this woodland solitude we are suddenly startled by the sharp crack of a double rifle, and presently some sportsmen, accompanied by their dogs, emerge from the brushwood, and wade knee-deep across the shallow rivu-let. Another few hundred yards and we reach a partially cleared space, where gangs of woodcutters are engaged in felling some gigantic trees, and numerous kahns are taking in their cargoes of fire The dancing on this occasion, however, was a mere formal matter and lasted but a short time; for the company, with their appetites sharpened by the journey to church and home again, were eager to partake of the feast which is spread for them on these occasions at the house of the newly-married couple. Thither therefore they repair, with the bride and bridegroom at their head. At this repast every one, we were informed, has a portion of the different dishes We left the wedding-party feasting, served to him, which he may either eat toll. A curious incident now takes place: at the time or carry away, but on no the marriage-party direct their steps consideration, however voracious his towards the cemetery, which usually adappetite may be, is he allowed a second joins the church, and get up a lively help. Late in the evening an adjourn- dance in front of it before returning ment generally takes place to the village home. Schenke, where dancing is kept up till after midnight, when the newly-married and hastened on to Burg, at every village couple are escorted home and ceremoni- we came to passing under countless ously conducted to the nuptial-chamber. little bridges leading to timber houses The festivities, we were told, would be hidden among the trees. Just as night prolonged for three days, the friends was setting in our boatman proposed a bringing their presents on the third day, short cut across the fields as the quickest and the Probratrka pronouncing a closing mode of reaching Burg (or Burkow, as it oration in honour of all who have assist- is called in Wendish), which possesses a ed at the rejoicings. solitary vehicle, by means of which we In the Spreewald on the morning of an hoped, by taking a long round, to get out intended marriage the relations and of the Spreewald network of watercourses, friends of the betrothed assemble at the and so catch the last train from Vethouses of the respective parents, the schau. After crossing about a score of Probratrka, who is chosen by the fam-foot-bridges, constructed at angles of ilies on both sides, first presenting him- forty-five degrees, and merely a single self at the house of the bridegroom's father. Refreshments having been served, the latter addresses to his son a pious exhortation, following it up by a kind of benediction; after which the Probratrka, speaking on behalf of the young man, requests forgiveness of his parents for all the sorrow and trouble he may have caused them, and returns them thanks for the affection they have shown towards him. The company now take to their kahns, and, attended by music, enlivened by constant discharges of firearms, proceed to the house of the bride's father, where their arrival is ceremoniously announced. plank in width, we eventually arrive at the Gasthaus, which is also the postoffice and the general shop of the village, to find that the only horse is lame. Under these circumstances we are recommended to proceed on foot to Oldendorf, where there is both a vehicle and a sound horse. The landlord pretends that it is impossible to miss the road; still we stand out for a guide, and eventually a couple of young Wends going in the same direction undertake that office. With the view of acknowledging our obhgations we ordered a bottle of wine, and were not a little surprised at the name of Château Léoville, one of the grand Bordeaux crus, appearing on the label. scarcely necessary to say, however, that the wine was not genuine. It is Here pretended negotiations, giving rise to no end of homely jokes and amusing incidents, are opened between the Probratrka (acting on behalf of the bride- Quitting the Gasthaus in company with groom) and the bridesmaids, for the pur- our young Wendish guides, who scud chase of the damsel from her friends. along in their clattering sabots, we folThese concluded, the bridesmaids deco-lowed the banks of one watercourse after rate the bridegroom's companions with another, crossing some rickety bridge nosegays and favours, and the Probratrka, speaking on this occasion for the bride, asks her parents' forgiveness for her past faults, and returns them thanks for the affection of which she has been the object. The entire company now proceed in their kahns to the church, and at the termination of the marriageceremony walk in procession before the altar, depositing on it gifts of money as they pass. As they are about to leave the church the young girls of the village, who have stationed themselves in readiness before the door, bar the passage by holding ribbons across, and every one has to pay a groschen or so by way of every few minutes, and arousing all the dogs at the neighbouring houses, causing them to bark furiously the instant they heard us approach. After half an hour's rapid walking we reach Oldendorf, only to find that the desired vehicle is on some journey and will not return until late. All that remains for us is to avail ourselves of such rough accommodation as the Schenke furnishes, and stay there for the night. We do this the more willingly, as we learn there will be singing and dancing later in the evening. We are conducted to the family apartment, where the landlord's young wife, in all the hues of the rainbow, is seated nursing her baby, and where guests drop in for their Presently a large room extending along the entire front of the house is lighted up, and some musicians, provided with a fiddle, a couple of horns, and a guitar, arrive and take their places in a raised orchestra partitioned off at one end of the apartment, round the walls of which long forms are ranged. Guests commence to drop in, the men with "more of cheek and less of brow than they ought to have " either close shaven or at most wearing a small moustache, while all smoke long china pipes. The sturdy belles, who come unaccompanied by cavaliers, seat themselves in a body apart and exhibit a certain coyness of demeanour, which, however, wears off under the influence of a proffered glass of beer. The favourite beverage is Weissbier, the Kühle blonde of the Berlinese, which in the Spreewald is drunk out of tall narrow glasses a foot high, instead of the orthodox monster tumbler in use in the oldfashioned Berlin Weissbier-Stuben, and which certainly no genuine lover of the Weiss could consent to dispense with. which in summer time they do not scruple to punt themselves to church barefooted. We returned to Oldendorf in the evening, and this time secured the vehicle to drive us to Vetschau which we missed obtaining the night before. It was a rude country cart, called a spanner. The tall bay mare which was harnessed to it appeared to know all the intricacies of the roundabout road more winding than the watercourses- by instinct, and turned the corners with remarkable neatness, now to the right and then to the left; and, although the night was almost pitch-dark, never once stumbling and capsizing us, as we every moment expected she would do, into some rivulet. Every now and then we heard the voice of passers-by saluting our driver, who, as the fortunate possessor of the sole vehicle in the place, was recognized in the dark by the mere sound of his cartwheels. From The Spectator. EARLY RETIREMENTS. Songs are sung both in Wendish and MR. GLADSTONE's very partial retireGerman, and then preparations are made ment at the age of sixty-five from public for the dance, which commences by slow, responsibilities, a retirement which, if he measured movements, and eventually ter- remains in Parliament, as probably he will, minates in a maddened whirl, the partners will leave upon him more than the ordilinking their hands together above their nary responsibilities of ordinary members, heads while going through a series of rapid-heavy correspondences, eager literary twistings and turnings which the eye in work, and the position of the chief povain attempts to follow, toes and heels litical consultee of a great party, will meanwhile clattering loudly on the pol-probably make a great many people conished floor, and short skirts flying, as the sider afresh the comparative advantages sparks do, upwards. During the pauses between the dances more songs are sung, and the customary philandering is indulged in by the younger couples, and it is far into the night before the party breaks up. as of reserving a retired leisure for their latter days, or of "dying in harness." Charles Lamb thought a retirement so complete that he boasted in his glee of not knowing the day of the month or of the week, and of having no occasion to Next day, being Sunday, we walked know it, by no means too early or too comover to Burg, arriving there the plete at the age of fifty. Mr. Gladstone scattered inhabitants were assembling is fifteen years older, and "retires " only from all parts on their way to church. from that excess of work which makes Kahns kept continually arriving at the the difference between a public post of a nearest landing-place, and scores of very laborious, and one of a comparayoung girls in distended wing-shaped tively easy character. However, all retireruffs, fastened with a large white bow, ments are relative, and it is likely enough and more or less gorgeous headgear, that relatively to his vitality and powers tripped gaily ashore. To-day they wear of production, Mr. Gladstone is laying mauve or magenta woollen stockings and down what will give him almost as much sabots, instead of the white stockings and sense of regained freedom at sixty-five, coquettish leather shoes which are de as Charles Lamb at fifty. Except, howrigueur in summer. These, however, are ever, for very short periods of time, the only put on by the Spreewald damsels just man who retires judiciously, has almost before they land from the kahns, in as much to do after his retirement as - even before, and probably hardly more sense of life, duties of this kind, which are not of a large personal discretion as to the intrinsically fascinating, may be exdistribution of his tasks than he had be- changed for duties of another kind, which fore. He has different things to do, but are. No doubt it is some feeling of this they seem to him just as incumbent on sort which has actuated Mr. Gladstone. him as the tasks he has escaped. At He has enjoyed politics, but never without least, if he has not, it is pretty certain feeling that he could enjoy thorough rethat he must have made a blunder in not search on one or two great subjects, preferring to "die in harness." How on theology, and on Homer, often do we hear of men dying just be more. The notion may be a mistaken cause they have given up the only thing one, because a mind that has once acthey could do, and found no other stim- quired, in its highest intensity, the habit ulus to exertion in its place, like the of turning all its mental stores into moral, horse whose case interested Mr. Pick- or social, or political influence, is very wick so much, which was kept up by the apt to find the very difficult and embar shafts in which it worked, and collapsed rassed, and often indeterminate field, of when removed from them. It may fairly pure intellectual research, comparatively be laid down as a good general rule that tame and flat. But be that as it may, the unless there are a great many alternative only legitimate motive for retiring from duties waiting for a man who retires from work which you are still competent to do, his wonted occupations, duties which is, that there is other work which you are directly they succeed to their place in even more or equally competent to do, the inheritance of his time, will seem to and from which you have been debarred him almost as peremptory and engross- by the engrossing claims of your regular ing as their predecessors, he is making calling. Even so, unless it be work on a mistake in retiring at all. Of course which you feel sure you can leave a mark we do not mean that the aged ought to useful for those who are to come after try and do as much as they did in middle you, indeed one even more useful for life. As a rule, it will be found that the purposes of guidance, than you can on approach of age shows itself in the com- that of your main calling, we doubt the parative slowness with which the judg-policy of early retirements. People with ment is concentrated and the intellect many interests who have passed by with applied. There are few men who can do regret, from sheer want of time, many equally well half as much at seventy-five courses of study and lines of investigaas they could have done at forty-five. tion for which they feel themselves not We mean only that it is the greatest pos- without capacity, are apt to forget that sible mistake to suppose that life with- the chances are very much against their out engagements, and engagements which taking up, with much effect for the world we feel obliged to undertake, is rest. at large, at a late stage of life, a study to There is very often real rest in the ex-which others have devoted themselves change of one class of engagements for from the very first. No doubt they say another, in exchanging, for instance, to themselves that it is not for the purengagements which consist in transact- pose of teaching others, but for the puring business, or at all events, in influen- pose of making up their own minds, that cing people's actions directly, for engage- they desire to enter at the tenth or ments which consist chiefly in reconsid- eleventh hour on these studies. But that ering the premisses or data of action, i.e., has always seemed to us a questionable chiefly in influencing people's thoughts; motive. Those who believe in personal or, to take a more common case of retire-immortality must feel the most perfect ment, in exchanging the duties which confidence either that they will obtain chiefly affect strangers, such as com- much more completely in a future state mercial duties, for duties which chiefly the knowledge they crave, or else that affect one's own intimates and family. the significance of that knowledge will be Almost all practical men's lives involve merged in that of other and larger knowla good deal of business which cannot by edge, so that the value of it will be superits very nature interest them deeply, ex-seded; while those who do not believe cept so far as every right-minded man in a personal immortality, must feel that has a healthy pride in thorough work, it matters exceedingly little whether they and every ambitious man a pleasure in die with a little more or a little less successful work, and every needy man an knowledge on a subject which they caninterest in profitable work; and it may not hope to make completely their own. well happen that, towards the latter part | If, then, a man has the choice between |