the society poetry of Moore or Beranger, when Burns and Heine, with their strong natural and primary instincts and interests, are ever with us? Lenau, generous-hearted and nature-loving, was sad and unfortunate in his life. His incurable despondency did not keep him from leaving us some of the finest lyrics in modern German poetry. This poem on "The Child's Voice" is his: "A sleeping child! be still! in these calm features Its lips bespeak the joys of heav'nly creatures. "Be still, O World, with lies so loud and many, Disturb not thou the truth, of the child's fair dream! Hath, by its darkling murmurs, brought me blessing- More than when the rains fell, heath-refreshing, Or when far bells call'd me from the mountains home." Freiligrath is a poet marked by strong political tendencies, but gifted with the highest mental energy and imaginative power. Herwegh, like Freiligrath, had powerful political instincts, and his poems also are marked by much vigor, all the more, perhaps, from being political. Political strife has, however, sometimes diverted poetry in Germany from its true course. Hamerling, who stands not always at his highest, has a brilliant fancy and great descriptive power. This charming madrigal, "Many a Dream," is his : "Many birds have fled, Many flowers have bloomed, Of dreams my heart hath dream'd." These poets, with other lyrists like Scheffel, Keller, and Sturm, are sufficient to show how rich has been the recent lyrical poetry of Germany. The best productions of its recent poetry have been lyrical. And when to the lyrics we add the many conspicuous examples of excellent narrative poetry, from the sonorous strains of Freiligrath onward, we see how little justice resides in the judgment that German literature ended with the life of Goethe. Because we "open our Goethe," we need not close later volumes of lyric verse. Because we allow Goethe to be sovereign of German literature, we need not forget the after poetry to which Goethe has given form and classic mold. For not a little of that poetry has been beautiful and impressive, albeit Heine alone since Goethe has held the attention of the whole of Europe. Besides, who can doubt how much of that lyric excellence is due to the unapproached greatness of Goethe, whose lyrical power and charm are unfading? Thus it has fallen out as might have been expected; for it had been impossible that German poetry should decay while German faith and idealism remained, and came into so great poetic inheritance. Too much fine humanism, and too much "wise passiveness," remain in the German mind, before Nature and the mysteries of existence, for poetry there to fade or fall. Goethe has been for its creating, transforming, fertilizing, not for its extinction. He put upon it the stamp of Hellenic genius, and carried it out, beyond the Romantic lights, to the sanity, health, and enjoyment of the Grecian sky. That is to say, his was a natural classicism-leaning wholly on genius and Nature-which left a literary impress on his land which no country can parallel. But we are free to confess, while contending for justice to poetry since Goethe, that German literature is to-day saved by hope-the hope of an era when something better shall arise within the realm of poesy than has been hers since Heine. ARTICLE XI. THE YEARS OF PLENTY AND THE YEARS OF FAMINE IN EGYPT. BY G. FREDERICK WRIGHT. THE account of the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine during which Joseph administered the affairs in Egypt receives much light, and becomes more easily credible, from a study of the physical conditions which determine the growth of crops in Egypt. The more one studies the subject, the more he is surprised at the delicacy of the balance of physical forces which annually determines the prosperity of the Egyptian agriculturist. A friend with whom we traveled is soon to publish a work upon the pyramids, to show that they represent a series of experiments to obtain a trustworthy sun-dial from whose shadow the exact date of the winter and summer solstices could be obtained, and that this object was at last attained in the great pyramid of Cheops. The difficulty and the importance of determining this exact point of time each year are not generally appreciated. Few realize how much we owe to the astronomical observations of the ancients in determining the exact length of the year. Since this is approximately 365 days, the point shifts so imperceptibly that long observations must have been required to ascertain the exact period. But it was especially necessary to determine this in Egypt, in order that the crops might be sown at a proper time. For, if the rotation of crops each year can be properly adjusted, two crops, and sometimes three, can be secured; while, if a mistake of even a few days is made in the time of sow ing the first crop, the second one would be imperiled, and the third one rendered impossible. Our friend suggested that the successive years of plenty and famine were occasioned by the skill with which the right time for sowing the first crop was determined in the years of plenty, and the failure to observe the most favorable seedtime in the years of famine. From what has been said, it can be easily seen that, when population has reached the great density which it evidently had in Egypt, where the margin between plenty and want was so narrow, a slight mistake in astronomical observations might have produced a series of disastrous years. Indeed, our friend further suggested, that he was not sure but that the years of famine were produced by Joseph on purpose to secure for Pharaoh the nationalization of the land whereby, as now under the exact justice of English rule, the distribution of water could be regulated more readily by the central authorities. And it is evident that, where dependence is had upon irrigation, success can be obtained only by the strongest form of centralized gov ernment. But, apart from such considerations, there are certain physical elements in the problem which render a solution. easy without involving human nature in such questionable operations. It was long since surmised by Sir Robert Murchison, even before the lakes of Central Africa were discovered, that the inundations of the Nile indicated that Central Africa was shaped like a great saucer, in which the accumulating waters in the rainy season rising a few feet would serve as a reservoir to secure the prolonged highwater which was necessary for the fertility of Egypt. Now we know that this is the case. The water of the rainy season accumulates rapidly in the great central lakes of Africa, but it can pass through the constricted outlet only in a limited stream, and if this outlet should be liable to obstructions, it might occur that there would be a deficiency of outflow for a series of years, followed by an unusual abundance for another series of years, and then a still greater deficiency for a following period. It has long been known that the accumulation of vegetable matter technically known as the sudd has sometimes collected in the upper part of the Nile to such an extent as to obstruct the flow of water for a period, and produce great distress in Lower Egypt. It is probable that this was the cause of the extreme low water and drought which existed in Egypt from the year 1071 B.C. to the year 1064, when the whole country was well-nigh disorganized through the effects of the famine. An inscription in an island near the First Cataract, between Assouan and Philae, which dates probably from the third century B. C., describes a famine which occurred about 3000 B. C. occasioned by successive years of low water. In A. D. 1106, as is related by the Arabic historian Elmacin, there was a period of low water which caused great alarm in Egypt. Whereupon "the 'Sultan of Egypt' sent an envoy with magnificent presents to the Emperor of Ethiopia, begging him to remove the cause of the Nile's failure in that year, and so save Egypt from the horrors of famine. The Ethiopian monarch was ultimately persuaded 'to suffer a dam to be opened that had turned the river, which, taking its usual course, rose three cubits in one day.' The historian records that 'the envoy on his return received great honors' from the relieved Egyptians."1 In the year 1899 considerable alarm was caused by the deficiency of water coming down the Nile. In a letter to the Times, Mr. Willcocks, the eminent English engineer in charge of the irrigation works in Egypt, describes the cause, together with the remedy, in the following words: 1 Quoted by Mr. John Ward, in Pyramids and Progress, p. 265. |