In this day, so given to materialism, pitiful rivalries, and ignoble ambitions, we want more hero-worship, a greater reverence of heroism, a more just and delicate appreciation of individual worth, the traditions of noble deeds, and the “passion of philanthropy;” and not to believe that all men are much of a sameness, and the old days in which the gods lived on earth are forever gone. There are certain great events embalmed in tradition that it will not do to question, and which, if of doubtful historical support, it is unwise to disturb, as they are so many incentives to noble deeds, and should be cherished in our hearts even as an inspiring fiction. It is easy for cynics to deride heroism, and scoff at the superiority of ideal existence over the facts of life. But it is not good to be confined to what the physical eye can see, and refuse to use the eye of faith and imagination. Enthusiasm lives and flourishes with imagination and idealism; and together they purify, as well as ennoble, every nature they touch. They paint the world and men as they should be; all that human heart can do; all of which human nature, at its highest, is capable. The craving for the real is good and healthy, but it ought by no means to be set in opposition to the craving for the ideal, for “A deeper import lurks in the legends told our infant years Than lies upon the truth we live to learn.” CHAPTER XIX. BERN. From the end of the thirteenth century Bern was the great, influential, and growing town of Switzerland; rich, enterprising, and self-asserting. For the sake of securing their friendship, it made citizens of many of the nobility who lived far from the city walls, and established guilds with many valuable privileges. Some of these guilds still exist, and a membership is quite an expensive privilege, costing from 8000 to 10,000 francs; besides the applicant must possess property to the value of 15,000 francs. In early times Bern held a firm grasp on the lands from Aargau to Lake Leman. Besides conquering them, it largely bought out the neighboring territorial nobility. It was the feudal idea, taking root and growing in mediæval times, that the right of government was as property, and the possession of landed property was looked on as carrying with it a kind of right of government. The whole early history of Bern is the greatest example in modern times of an inland city ruling over a great collection of subject towns and districts. It was an aristocratic republic, having been founded as a refuge for the inferior nobility from the oppression of powerful counts. The rapid development of industry within its substantial walls attracted also peasants, artificers, and tradesmen, who flocked in from the neighborhood. The burghers secured many privileges, and were eligible to the highest offices; but they generally concurred in the election of members of the patrician family. These young patricians were literally apprenticed to political life by the singular