Though a nation counting Heine and Lichtenberg among its own, it is not in the _spielende Urtheil_, as Jean Paul has called inspired sallies of wit, that German humour specially distinguishes itself; now and again there it has its moods of riotous absurdity; but where it is most characteristic is in the telling of the humorous tale, lovingly handled in its details, the pathetic verging very near upon the comic, finally succumbing in a ripple of good-natured laughter at somebody or other who is really not so very bad, but only very human, and for whose misfortunes--poor devil!--we may have a kindly feeling. Then we have a mastership in spectral stories, uncanny and imaginative, leaving the reader’s mind in a delightful condition of doubt as to their actual meaning and significance; and we have also the expression of the spirit of poetic adventure,--a determination to have fun at all hazards, either _with_ the public or else _at_ the public, if perchance it should prove too dull to be taken into partnership. There is much of this in Chamisso’s _Peter Schlemihl_, which, in the face of many dizzy structures of elucidation that have been based upon it, remains so truly humorous and so profoundly touching. It is by no means always the _funny_ element that predominates in German writings of a humorous tendency. Their office seems to be more to suggest the effect which these lighter moods of fancy have upon the serious affairs of life, and in studying the humour of Germany in a spirit of literary criticism it is indispensable to take these two aspects in their action and reaction upon each other. There is a psychical development of the individual which runs parallel to that of the nation. In confirmation of the theory of humorous development here faintly outlined, it may be said that in Germany, humorous perception is for the most part not the possession of youth. It is not until the need of a corrective to a habit of speculative brooding has been felt that imperceptibly and unconsciously healthful minds rise to those dispassionate heights whence the Occidental Brahmin gazes upon a motley world. HANS MÜLLER-CASENOV. [_For Acknowledgments to Authors and Publishers, see page 430._] THE HUMOUR OF GERMANY. _MASTER FOX, THE CONFESSOR._