Warum küssen sich die Menschen? S'ist nicht Hass, sie beissen sich nicht, Hunger nicht, sie fressen sich nicht. S'kann auch kein zweckloser blinder Unverstand sein, denn sie sind sonst Klug und selbstbewusst im Handeln; Warum, also, frag' umsonst ich, Warum küssen sich die Menschen? Warum meistens nur die Jüngern? Warum diese meist im Frühling? Ueber diese Punkte werd' ich Morgen auf des Daches Giebel Etwas naher meditiren. In the delineations of the various characters of the 'Trompeter' Scheffel exhibits a gift of true poetical conception, a warmth of feeling, and a power of description, equalled by few of our modern poets; indeed, the characters rise before our mind with such truthfulness, as the idealized types of the people in that corner of Germany, that one might almost believe one had met all of them during one's wanderings in the Black Forest, whether it be Werner, the merry trumpeter, or the crusty old baron, or Anton, the respectable 'Hausknecht.' Scheffel did not remain long in Säckingen. He quitted the Government service, and, after passing some time in travels in South Germany, settled at Donaueschingen as Keeper of the Archives of Prince Fürstenberg. This town is likewise exceedingly small, the environs are bare and not to be compared with the romantic scenery of the Upper Rhine; but at the court of the refined princes of Fürstenberg there were at all times remarkable men, and the library afforded, in MSS. and documents, ample means for the study of Old German history, language, and literature.