historical than musical interest. Hence, doubtless, it was that
during my whole stay the opera at Dresden surpassed decidedly
that at Berlin, while in the higher realms of music Berlin
remained unequaled.

Dramatic art is another field in which he takes an enlightened
interest: he has great reason for doing so, both as a statesman
and as a man.

As a result of observation and reflection during a long life
which has touched public men and measures in wide variety, I
would desire for my country three things above all others, to
supplement our existing American civilization: from Great Britain
her administration of criminal justice; from Germany her theater;
and from any European country, save Russia, Spain, and Turkey,
its government of cities.

As to the second of these desired contributions, ten years in
Germany at various periods during an epoch covering now nearly
half a century have convinced me that her theater, next after her
religious inheritance, gives the best stimulus and sustenance to
the better aspirations of her people. Through it, and above all
by Schiller, the Kantian ethics have been brought into the
thinking of the average man and woman; and not only Schiller, but
Lessing, Goethe, Gutzkow, and a long line of others have given an
atmosphere in which ennobling ideals bloom for the German youth,
during season after season, as if in the regular course of
nature. The dramatic presentation, even in the smallest towns,
is, as a rule, good; the theater and its surroundings are, in the
main, free from the abuses and miseries of the stage in