I. HUMAN JUDGEMENT.

A long, long time ago, when all the stones, which you now see cut into smooth squares, fixed in the walls that
encircle this limpid pond, where out of the cool element the roseate trout is springing up in the rays of the sun —
when all these stones were towered up in rough rocky masses on the banks of the Neckar — there was standing upon
that very hill, from the brow of which now so many glittering windows send their refulgence into the deep streets
of Heidelberg — in the same circus, which now is enclosed by the Ruperts-Otto-Henrys buildings, those royal master-
pieces, together with the stately new building of Elector Frederic — there throned another singularly costly little
castle, at which the shepherd but timidly raised his shy looks, as he drove his flocks through the narrow rocky pass,
which the waters of the boisterous Neckar here had broken over some blocks of granit. Full as timidly did the sports-
man avert his bold hawk's-eye, when he on the high heathenish Kings-stool descended the narrow paths of the Gäh-
berg through the thick beech-wood, towards the goats-mountain— and saw the grotesque spires and towerets of
the magic castle rise out of the encircling light-green blooming chessnut trees — for such a castle raised itself there—
no one knew how it had got there — to the terror of the aged inhabitants of the valley, who asserted, to have seen
one day those gilt spires and banners suddenly glitter thro' the morning mist, as it, waving unfurled itself like a white
sheet, and convolving itself above the tops of the mountains into a threatening thunder-cloud, sent forked lightnings
and strange coruscations down into the trembling valley; then, growing a giantlike vapoury mass, soared higher and
higher across the heathen - mountain, and sank down northward of it, in the dusky Odenwald.

Since that time, it was said, there was living within the steep walls of it an enchantress, of whose magic powers
many people could speak, though no one could boast of having seen her face, because she never quitted the limits of her
castle, and such a singular horror prevailed in the environs of it, as prevented every one from coming near the gardens,
altho' these, seen from the surrounding bills, were extremely pleasant to the view, exhibiting a profusion of golden fruit
and variously coloured flowers, and decorated with watery mirrors as bright as polished silver, which, as if ruled