No greater contrast can be conceived than that which exists between Empress Frederick and her daughter-in-law, the empress-regnant. Far less brilliant than either her husband's mother or grandmother, she has nevertheless managed to achieve, as I have remarked before, not only an infinitely greater degree of popularity, but likewise a more extensive influence upon the German people. Experience and history show that ordinary sense on the throne is far more beneficial to the population than a lofty order of intellect, and Empress Augusta-Victoria merely offers another illustration of the truth of this assertion. None of the queens of Prussia, nor either of the first German empresses, can be said to have left any impress upon the subjects of their respective husbands. There is no doubt that the so celebrated Queen Louise of Prussia was the cause of Prussia's receiving infinitely harsher treatment at the hands of Napoleon than the kingdom would otherwise have experienced; while the consort of old Emperor William, a pupil of Goethe, and famed for her culture and accomplishments, was disliked by the people, and was just as little in touch with them as her still more talented daughter-in-law, Empress Frederick. For Empress Augusta-Victoria, however, a most profound sympathy extends throughout the length and breadth of Germany. Every housewife, every mother, looks to her as to a model, knows that she is satisfied to excel in her purely domestic duties, and that she does, not strive to render herself superior to her sex by intellectual brilliancy and scientific attainments. Thanks to this sympathy which she inspires, and to the fact that she is looked upon by men and women alike in her husband's dominions as the ideal of what a German "_hausfrau_" should be, she has been able to exercise an influence of infinitely greater importance upon the nation at large than any other consort of a Prussian sovereign can have boasted to achieve. It is to this estimable woman, whom some were disposed at first to denounce as narrow-minded and witless, that must be attributed the very strongly developed religious revival apparent throughout Protestant Germany since the present emperor came to the throne. Prior to the present reign, church-going was as a rule eschewed by the male sex, women constituting the backbone of the congregation, while the clergy of the Lutheran persuasion was looked down upon, being treated by the territorial nobility much in the same way as upper servants, that is to say, on a par with the farm bailiffs, the stewards and the housekeepers In a word, religion and everything pertaining thereto was not considered fashionable.