Sandt.—­We will leave the shrew where we find her:  she certainly is better with the comedian than with the philosopher.  But this indistinctness in the moral and political line begets indifference.  He who does not keep his own country more closely in view than any other, soon mixes land with sea, and sea with air, and loses sight of every thing, at least, for which he was placed in contact with his fellow men.  Let us unite, if possible, with the nearest:  Let usages and familiarities bind us:  this being once accomplished, let us confederate for security and peace with all the people round, particularly with people of the same language, laws, and religion.  We pour out wine to those about us, wishing the same fellowship and conviviality to others:  but to enlarge the circle would disturb and deaden its harmony.  We irrigate the ground in our gardens:  the public road may require the water equally:  yet we give it rather to our borders; and first to those that lie against the house!  God himself did not fill the world at once with happy creatures:  he enlivened one small portion of it with them, and began with single affections, as well as pure and unmixt.  We must have an object and an aim, or our strength, if any strength belongs to us, will be useless.

Kotzebue.—­There is much good sense in these remarks:  but I am not at all times at leisure and in readiness to receive instruction.  I am old enough to have laid down my own plans of life; and I trust I am by no means deficient in the relations I bear to society.

Sandt.—­Lovest thou thy children?  Oh! my heart bleeds!  But the birds can fly; and the nest requires no warmth from the parent, no cover against the rain and the wind.

Kotzebue.—­This is wildness:  this is agony.  Your face is laden with large drops; some of them tears, some not.  Be more rational and calm, my dear young man! and less enthusiastic.

Sandt.—­They who will not let us be rational, make us enthusiastic by force.  Do you love your children?  I ask you again.  If you do, you must love them more than another man’s.  Only they who are indifferent to all, profess a parity.

Kotzebue.—­Sir! indeed your conversation very much surprises me.

Sandt.—­I see it does:  you stare, and would look proud.  Emperors and kings, and all but maniacs, would lose that faculty with me.  I could speedily bring them to a just sense of their nothingness, unless their ears were calked and pitched, although I am no Savonarola.  He, too, died sadly!

Kotzebue.—­Amid so much confidence of power, and such an assumption of authority, your voice is gentle—­almost plaintive.

Sandt.—­It should be plaintive.  Oh, could it be but persuasive!

Kotzebue.—­Why take this deep interest in me?  I do not merit nor require it.  Surely any one would think we had been acquainted with each other for many years.