New York Tribune

The lack of novelists of the first order in Germany is discussed by The Spectator, of London, which says that there is one circumstance that must strike even the most ordinary observer, and that is the frequent absence from the German mind of a sense of humor. For the want of this quality must preclude a writer from perceiving and delineating those delicate shades which make up the varying and lifelike features of the human character. A German may, indeed, be a poet: his ideas and writings may soar far higher than the comprehension of the ordinary English; but he will be incapable of appreciating a Mrs. Poyser, much more of creating one.