The story of my career, as student at Freiberg and Jena, and as professor at Halle, Breslau and Berlin. With personal reminiscences of Goethe, Schiller, Schelling ... and others

Front matter

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Introduction

Heinrich Steffens was born at Stavanger, in Norway, the second day of May, 1773. He spent but a few years in his native country, and while he was a mere child his parents removed to Copenhagen, which became the home of his youth. He studied in the universities of Copenhagen and of Kiel, and became a licensed lecturer in the latter before reaching the age of twenty-five. He manifested very early a love for a certain class of metaphysical studies, — that which builds on a basis of physical science a lofty though rather sHght and unsubstantial superstructure of sentiment. Steffens had a remarkable leaning to the philosophy of rehgion, and though his was by no means a logical mind, nor one which enjoyed logical processes, yet he loved those long and vague meditations on the attributes of the Deity in which many of the German scholars indulge. He came mainly under the influence of Spinoza, and passed at a later period under that of Jacobi, Kant, and Schelling. In his mature years the last named was his master without a rival •,

m

VI INTRODUCTION.

but Spinoza was the first great genius who awoke the powers of Steffens, and shaped his n^nd, and gave direction to his aims. The young man was fortunate in his acquaintanceships, for Hensler of Kiel, Rist and Schimmehnaun, all were drawn to him, and did what they could to develop his faculties. Steffens was an admirer of the English Hterature, and Shakspeare was the poet whom he most desired to comprehend. He never was master of our language, and what he read of our literatm'e had to come to him in translations, and no good version of Shakspeare had then been made. After the verdict which has been silently passed upon Young's Night Thoughts, it is amusing to see how he struggled to get at the meaning of that ponderous and heavy performance, and attributed his failure to the profundity rather than to the real emptiness of the verbose mass. He tried to fathom Sterne's humor, but could not reach the bottom of it, and the real power of Tristam Shandy was always hid from him. Yet, Steffens had a good natural taste for the humorous, and a light play of mirth tinged the most of his ordinary conversation. His leading quality, however, was his vivacity, which was extraordinary^", and which never died out, even in the advanced old age to which he Uved. He was known as the " genial Steffens," and always wore an air of benignity mingled with nobleness. Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Albany, noticed this, and alludes to it in his

INTRODUCTION. VII

" European Celebrities," where the countenance of Professor Steffens is compared to that of Dr. Nott, of Union College, although, by a mistake in printing, the name is written Stephens, and might easily pass without being recognized as that of the physicist Steffens.

The man whose autobiography is given in the following pages has been brought a number of tunes before the reading public of this country and of England, but never excepting in a brief and unsatisfactory manner. In the letters of Humboldt, which were put in the possession of Varnhagen von Ense, and published by Ludmilla Assing, a year or two since, is one from the king of Denmark to Hmnboldt, in which his majesty expresses himself in terms of great pride in the reputation of the Danish professor resident in Berlin, though Humboldt indulges in one of those ungenerous flings at Steffens, so many of which are found in that unfortunate book, and which have done so much to tarnish the fair fame of him whom we hardly invested with the ordinary weaknesses of humanity.

But the most emphatic testimony to the value of Steffens's scientific career is to be found in a book of wide reputation, Guyot's " Earth and Man." He not only refers in the body of that work to Steffens, but in the pi^face he alludes to him and to Bitter as the two men to whom he was the most indebted for the interest which he has displayed in Physical

VIII INTRODUCTION.

Geography, and the scientific training which has directed all his researches m this new branch of knowledge. I read that passage in Guyot's work years ago, just after its pubUcation, and while I was a student at Cambridge. I knew nothing of Ritter and nothing of Steffens, but the enthusiastic devotion of their interpreter to their genius kindled an interest in my own mind which led, after the lapse of five years, to my enrolling myself as a pupil of Eitter, at Berlin, and to the translating, still five years later, a selection ^ from the voluminous works of the former, and the preparation of the work now before my readers.

The autobiography of Stefiens, written in his old age, and called Was ich erlebte, or The Story of my Life, and published in Breslau some years since, is very voluminous and difiuse. Indeed, it would be perfectly correct to say that it is tedious to a degree. It would be so to a German, it is doubly so to an American or an Englishman. It is in ten volumes, and covers four thousand pages. It is dictated in all the garrulousness of old age. It is not written with a discriminating appreciation of what men wish to know, and the story of his childhood, and the accounts of his relatives and of his college friends, are just as full as the allusions to

1 Greogn'aphical Studies. From the German of Professor Carl Ritter. Beaton : Gould and Lincoln. (In press.)

INTRODUCTION, IX

the great men and the great events of his time. It made my task, as a whole, easier, for it made the labor of rejecting the useless parts a light one, and only subjected me to the pains of wading through thousands of trifling and worthless pages. Yet there were more than " the four grains in two bushels of chaff," and when I had found them, unlike the ideas of Gratiano, they were worth the search. Steffens's vivacity is reproduced in the pages of his autobiography, and perhaps nowhere in the rich treasury of German literary memoirs is to be found a gallery of portraits so graphic and yet so faithfiil as that which is opened in this work to American readers.

I have passed over the first three volumes without drawin<y a word from them, excepting the facts which are stated in the first pages of this Introduction. The life of Stefiens begins to be interesting when, at the age of twenty-five, and provided by Count Schinmaelmann, so well and favorably known fi'om the letters of Niebuhr, with a stipend from the Danish treasury to defray his travelling expenses, the young philosopher enters Germany, the fiiture theatre of his career. Schimmelmann was then minister of finance in Denmark, and Stefiens had already gained^ his favor, and was about to enter upon the enjoyment of it. With the opening of the fourth volume, where Stefiens is seen passing into Germany, my real task of collating and translating begins.

X INTRODUCTION^.

In executing this work I have tried to reproduce the easy, flowing style in which Stefiens wrote, and to draw out those passages, and those only, which I have judged would most interest cultivated readers who take an interest in the men and in the literature of Germany. The ninth and tenth chapters, on Steffens's Military Career, I find already translated, and so incorporate at second hand.

W. L. G.

Chapter I

8TEFFENS ENTERS GERMANY — JOURNEY THROUGH THE HARTZ — FOOT JOURNEY TO JENA — ERFURT AND ITS ATTRACTIVE LADIES — JENA— LIFE IN JENA— STUDENT LIFE IN JENA — FOOT JOUR- NEY THROUGH THE THURINGIAN FOREST — FIRST EXPERIENCE IN BUYING A HORSE — ASPECTS OF GERMAN CHARACTER — THE LIFE OF GERMAN MINERS — KANT, FICHTE AND SCHELLINQ — FICHTE'S METAPHYSICS — RETURN TO JENA 15

Chapter II

FIRST VIEW OF SCHELLING — FICHTE IN THE LECTURE-ROOM — LIFE IN JENA IN ITS GOLDEN TIME — SCHELLING — INTERVIEW WITH GOETHE — STEFFENS'S VISIT TO GOETHE — SCHILLER COM- PARED WITH GOETHE — FIRST REPRESENTATION OF SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN — STEFFENS'S JUDGMENT OF WALLENSTEIN — UNI- TY AMONG THE SCHOLARS OF JENA — STEFFENS'S LOVE OF THE FINE ARTS — JACOBI'8 FA3I0US LETTER — SPIRIT OF CRITICISM AT JENA 36

XI •

XII CONTENTS.

Chapter III

WANT OP ATTRACTIONS IN BERLIN — INCIDENT FROM FICHTE'S I^IPE — HIS UNSWERVING ADVOCACY OF TRUTH— FICHTE DRIVEN FROM JENA — HIS ACCOUNT OF THE USE OF HIS SYSTEM — CAR- DINAL POINTS OF FICHTE'S PHILOSOPHY — HIS ALLEGED ATHE- ISM—JOURNEY TO FREIBERG — SECOND RECEPTION BY GOETHE — INTERVIEW WITH ]\IALTE BRUN — GLOOMY ENTRANCE INTO HALLE — MORE FAVORABLE IMPRESSIONS — REICHARDT, THE MU- SICAL COMPOSER 58

Chapter IV

STEFFENS'S FIRST VISIT TO BERLIN — BERLIN — MEETS TIECK — STEFFENS IN A STRAIT PLACE — FREIBERG — WERNER, THE MIN- ERALOGIST—LIFE AT FREIBERG — VISITS DRESDEN — THE GAL- LERY AT DRESDEN — FREEDOM OF LIFE AT FREIBERG — STEF- FENS'S MANNER WITH OPPONENTS— REFLECTIONS ON ART — OLD GERMAN POETRY — DISCOVERY OF THE VOLTAIC PILE — STEF- FENS'S FIRST BOOK 74

Chapter V

FREDERICK SCHLEGEL — WIT AND WITTY MEN — GOETHE'S COM- PREHENSIVENESS — NOVALIS — STEFFENS'S HUMILLVTION — HIS ACQUAINT^VNCE %VITII TIECK — EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY — RETURN TO DEN:MARK — LEAVING GER:MANY — COPENHAGEN — KIND RECEPTION — GOETHE'S INVITATION — STEFFENS COMMEN- CES A COURSE OF LECTURES — HIS MARRIAGE — MARRIED LIFE AND DESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCES — BETTER PROSPECTS.. . .103

CONTENTS. XIH

Chapter VI

EETX2RN TO HALLE — COMMENCES HOUSEKLEEPING — DARK PROS- PECTS — SCHLEIEEMACHER — SLIFE AS PROFESSOR AT HALLE — FICHTE — JOHANNES VON MULLER — ALEX. VON HUMBOLDT — POLITICAL ASPECTS — WARLIKE APPEARANCES — EXCITED FEEL- ING IN ILiVLLE — THE SEIZING OF THE CITY BY THE FRENCH — NAPOLEON AT HALLE — THE LTflVERSITY BROKEN UP BY NAPOLEON — SAD DAYS — UNSETTLED LIFE 132

Chapter VII

RETURNS TO HALLE — DISCOURAGING REOPENING OF THE UNI- VERSITY — PATRIOTISM OF THE PROFESSORS — KING JEROME BONAPARTE'S VISIT TO HALLE — INTERVIEW WITH JOHANNES VON MULLER — SHATTERED CONDITION OF GERMANY — GALL, THE FOL^NDER OF PHRENOLOGY — GOETHE AND GALL — GALL'S PHRENOLOGICAL LECTURE AT HALLE — SCHELLING-ACHDI VON ARNDI — ^VILLIAM GRIMM, THE PHILOLOGIST — FOUNDING OF THE WflVERSITY AT BERLIN — STEFFENS'S VIEWS OF NATURAL SCIENCE — LAST TRIALS AT HALLE 1C5

Chapter VIII

CALL TO BRESLAU — TRIP TO JENA AND BERLIN — NAPOLEON'S RECEPTION AT WEIMAR — GOETHE — DINNER AT GOETHE'S — HIS ONSLAUGHT AT DINNER — SCHLEIERMACHER AS PROFESSOR AT BERLIN — THE FACULTY AT BERLIN — BOECKH, BEKKER, NIE- BUHR — GATHERINGS OF BERLIN SAVANS — ARRIVAL AT BRES- LAU — STEFFENS'S LOVE OF GERMANY — COMMENCEMENT OF PROFESSORSHIP AT BRESLAU 188

XIV CONTENTS.

Chapter IX

STEFFENS'S MILITARY CAREER. — DARK POLITICAL PROS- PECTS—GENERAL GNEISENAU —PUBLIC EXCITEMENT — STIR IN BRESLAU — SCENE IN STEFFENS'S LECTURE-ROOM — HIS LETTER FROM THE KING — THE PHILOSOPHER BECOMES LIEUTENANT — STEIN — BLtJCHER. . , 207

Chapter X. Steffens's Military Career My First Sight Of

WAR — "MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE " — GNEISENAU'S COURAGE AT GROSS-GORSCHEN — SCHARNHORST MORTALLY WOUNDED — BATTLE OF LEIPZIG — STEFFENS'S RESIGNATION AND RETURN TO BRESLAU. 240

Chapter XI. ^

LABORS IN BRESLAU — AVERSION OF NATURALISTS TO METAPHYS- ICS — NEANDER — PLATONIC ATTACHMENTS — JACOBI — FRANTZ BAADER— STEFFENS'S PROFESSIONAL LIFE AT BRESLAU — RAHEL, WIFE OF VARNHAGEN VON ENSE — BETTINA VON ARMIN — DE LA MOTTE FOUQUE — STEFFENS'S RELIGIOUS FAITH — THEOLOGICAL INQUIRIES — TRANSFER TO BERLIN — CONCLUSION 264

THE

STORY OF MY CAREER.

Chapter I

8TEFFENS ENTERS GERMANY — JOURNEY THROUGH THE HARTZ — FOOT JOURNEY TO JENA — ERFURT AND ITS ATTRACTIVE LADIES — JENA — LIFE IN JENA — STUDENT LIFE IN JENA — FOOT JOUR- NEY THROUGH THE THURINGIAN FOREST — FIRST EXPERIENCE IN BUYING* A HORSE — ASPECTS OF GERMAN CHARACTER — THE LIFE OF GERMAN MINERS — KANT, FICHTE AND SCHELLING — FICHTE'S METAPHYSICS — RETURN TO JENA.

My long-cherished wish now approached its fulfilment, and Europe lay before me. Yet, while every country in it was attractive to me, Germany was the one nearest to my heart and claimed my first attention. Free from care, happy and full of hope, I was now in a condition to turn my steps whichever way I would. As a naturalist, or rather as a mineralogist, I had received a certain sum for travelling expenses from my government, but a deep and real interest in my scientific pursuits filled me. Philosophical speculation was not what would be called my specialty ; I would not be a stranger

to this department, but it did not meet all the dels mands of my being. I had a kind of premonition of the nature of the epoch which was just opening in all directions. I saw old authorities losing their value, and I comj^rehended quite well that on one side Goethe and on the other Philosophy were setting all the scientific elements into a ferment. I saw that I must be a man of the new time just opening. I had attempted much, and in almost all dejjartments of human knowledge I had sought to attain clear views. What Spinoza had been to mo I have already stated, — the casket which contained all the riches that the future seemed to hold in store for me. Fichte had taught me that the glory of man's self-determining will finds its only worthy equipoise, and, indeed, its more than equivalent, in the inward activity of the mind itself ^ut it was to be Schelling who should transfer me to a new stand-point, one which should give an interpretation to the whole previous course of my life from childhood up. A new existence seemed to be opening to me, and I addressed myself to the task .of grouping what is deepest and noblest in knowledge, and of comprehending the harmony which exists between all the conflicting elements of nature. But, full of joy as this rich future made me, it did not hinder me from giving myself unreservedly to the delight of the present.

It is not easy to conceive how imposing to the (^Q of a North European are the mental conflicts which are going forward in the heart of the continent. The distant murmurs have an enchanting tone in his ear, and every name which cohies to

STEFFENS EyTEIiS GERMANY. 17

him seems surrounded with a halo of glory. The petty animosities, the literary and scientific squabbles, are lost in the great whole, and the scholars of Europe are elevated in his eyes into high-priests of knowledge. A cultivated German can hardly visit Italy or Greece or the East with more interest than I felt in approaching Germany. What they seek is a dead Past, which must be strange and distant even were they to live in its very midst. I was looking for a glorious Future in which I might live and have a share, — a future which should absorb the entire activities of my nature. It would kindle my every power, and unfold to me, as to the world, a new and brigjht era.

As we approached Brunswick, and the beautiful environs of the city began to appear, I tried to descry away beyond the buildings the outlines of the Hartz Mountains. My longing for mountainous scenery had been much increased by my recent sojourn in Norway. We stopped at the Blue Angel Inn, which had pleasant associations for me in connection with the author Knigge. But when we left Brunswick, as we journeyed in the fairest weather and thi;ough ^le most delightful scenery, and in the neighborhood discerned Wolfenbiittel, and later the towers of Halberstadt, and soon after passed Quedlinburg, which, although it did not come in sight, yet was not far away, well-known names and old recol-- lections came thronging in ujoon me, and a bright sun within me seemed to emulate the outer one in giving a charm to the whole landscape. All the chords of my being resounded in harmony. Lessins: bad lived in Wolfenbiittel, and Gleim's house at Hal])erstadt had been a favorite resort of almost all the leading poets of the time. Gotze had lived his busy, calm, retired, naturalist's life in Quedlinburg, and his name brought a charm of namelct^s but real interest upon the whole village. I saw Lessing in his library, revolving great thoughts on the past, and at last giving expression to them with his matchless skill. And from Halberstadt rung out the sonjTs like those which once sounded from the Wartburg. Gotze, and with him Rosel, Gleichen, Schofer, strode through the fields, lost themselves in the forests, made observations in the gardens, while the blossoms reached out to them as to old friends, and the cheerful insects seemed to leap from the grass to bid them welcome. Thus was the whole district peopled to my imagination, and almost seemed to me like classic ground. In this happy frame of mind, in which everything outward as well as inward united to make me cheerful, I passed a day never to be forgotten. It was about midnight, dark and late, when we arrived at Blankenburg.

The Hartz Mountains, through wbose ni)rthern spurs we were now passing, I have since traversed many times in all directions ; and there are so many pleasant associations connected with those journeyings, that the Hartz Mountains, small as they are, fill quite a prominent place in my life. They have had to serve mo as an example of mountain chains in general, and from them I have been compelled to draw most of my geognostical theories and illustra-

JOURNEY THROUGH THE HARTZ. 19

tions. The spurs towards the north, east, and south, are indeed charming, often imposing.

I think with delight on that fair summer's day when we wandered on foot through the woods at the base of the Ilartz, discovered Wernigerode and the bold Castle of the Mountain, visited the steep rocks in the Ilsethal, and climbed the next day to the ruins of Hartzburg. All was beautiful ; man, landscape, sunshine, air, forest, and mountains, combined to throw us into the happiest of moods. We had been told that the way to the Brocken through the Ilsethal was the most difficult, and so we selected it for that very reason ; but what its difficulties were we never could discover. Ascending by this route, the Brocken in its solitude had a look which was really imposing. We spent the night in a mean little hut on Heinrichshohe, and in the twilij^ht the Brocken reminded me somewhat of the Norway mountains, yet the German landscape was so lovely that the difference in favor of the Hartz scenery was immense. That night was to me one of perfect delight. My companion was a dear friend, a thorough proficient in botany, and so I had in his accurate knowledge a source of happiness which I had not enjoyed wdien journeying through my own country, and obliged to depend wholly upon my own attainments.

Tlie view of the Ilartz from the Brocken is in no way imposing. The neighboring heights have no attractive features ; it is only the distant prospect and the general harmony of the whole picture that give it its fame. Nine times I have ascended the

Brocken from different directions. Once I had the good fortune to see the famous Spectre from the Tower of the Brocken House. I have often admired tlie shadows which j^layed over the level land at the base, when the sun went down, as one of the most attractive features of the landscape. But at evening there arises almost always a mist which obscures everything. Yet at my first visit the atmosphere was entirely clear. The shadows extended eastward as for as the horizon, and even prolonged themselves into the distant sky, so that the summit of the mountain, the Brocken House, the Tower, and we, the wondering observers, swam as shadows in the air.

The ancient solitude of the Hartz has wholly passed away. For the witclies there no longer remains a place. Ladies and gentlemen riding, travellers of all kinds, from a distance as well as from the neighborhood, singing journeymen and shouting students, met us whenever we turned in to visit shaded dells and desolate ravines. Where we expected the spirits of the mountains, we encountered servant-girls, and the throng of people threatened to wear smooth even the craggy heights themselves.

And yet I must confess that even this cheerful gathering-place of so many, who all feel happy, has its own peculiar charm. Even nature seems subordinate to life, when mountain chains share a part in the merriment of men. Where T had seen them in the cold North, they commune silently among themselves, and the human voice is lost in their oppressive stillness.

^ FOOT JOURNEY TO JENA. 21

When we came back to Blankenbiirg I could not repress the desn-e to go alone and on foot to Jena. I took a shirt in one pocket, a map in the other ; even the thought that I might lose ray way had something attractive for me. My outside garment was a light kerseymere overcoat. In my hand I carried a long, clay j^ipe. So, towards evening, without having wandered at all out of my way, I came to Stolberg. I stepped into a tavern, which seemed fitted up for travellers by the coach. The landlady received me rather coolly, and when I asked for some supper she gave me a seat in tlie corner of the room, and placed before me some tripe soup. This whole proceeding seemed singular, and threw me into great perplexity how to act. I thought of the Norwegian peasants, who would have considered an unwillingness to partake of food that they might offer a personal offence to themselves, and yet, hungry as I was, I could not bring myself to taste of the vile dish. The landlady noticed my perplexity ; but, instead of feeling hurt, she began to look upon me with new fivor. "Ah," said she, "the gentleman is piobably not used to such fare." I then received something better. The best chamber in the house was put at my disposal, and I enjoyed the luxury of a perfectly clean bed. On the next day, I passed through the whole of the charming valley to Rottleberode, and that walk remains in my memory as one of the pleasantest I ever enjoyed. I wholly forgot that I was on a journey. I spent a great part of the day in the valley. I lived over again the days of my childhood. I studied all the flowers I met, and was even pleased to fall in with new ones which reminded me that I was no longer in my native land. I pursued dragon-flies and linnets, or rested by the side of a swittly-runiiing, shaded brook. I could scarcely tear myself from the valley ; steep banks on both sides shut it closely in. It seemed to me as if one of the fair landscapes of Denmark lay before me, with its back-ground of Scandinavian mountains.

The rest of the journey I do not remember so well. Sonderhausen, where I spent a night, seemed a pleasant village ; Erfurt I distinctly remember. I stopped at the "Roman Emperor;" and at this house, as elsewhere on the whole journey, I was received without the exhibition of a prying curiosity. This fine old German town made a very agreeable impression upon me. I visited the great bell in Dalberg's palace.

I do not know whether Erfurt is really celebrated for pretty girls ; I only know that the matrons and the maidens whom I saw were charming. I had had enough of foot-journeying, and was going to take the stage-coach to Weimai*'. Having nothing to do, I looked out upon the square in front of the hotel. By good fortune I saw three or four ladies of the burgher class, who attracted my attention by their genteel figures, fair skins, and fine features. The costume of the Saxon ladies, the mantle lightly thrown over the shoulders, and the graceful caps, may have contributed to render them attractive in my sight. I turned to the landlord and cancelled my order for the stage, and declared that I

ERFURT— ITS ATTRACTIVE LADIES. 23

would spend some days in Erfurt, taking no pains to conceal my reason. He smiled, and when I asked him if he would not introduce me during my stay to some families where these angels lived, he promised his kind help. In the afternoon he took me to a garden, and introduced me to some families, who were drinking tea there, as a Norwegian. I had expressly stipulated that these should be none of the learned classes, for on this journey I would bid a temporary adieu to all learning.

Here I at first experienced an advantage which has since stood me iu great service when introduced to strangers. It has always been a whim of mine never to take letters of introduction with me. When I went to Germany I had none, and I was foolish enough to believe that my own bearing would be my best passport. But I soon found that what called attention to me was not my bearing, but my birthplace. Even at the hotel the landlord looked at me with great astonishment when I announced myself as a Norwegian. And in the families, too, the same cause procured me much consideration. People had fanciful conceptions of my native land in the remote North. Norway was then little visited ; it lay on one side of the great course of travel, and a journey thither was regarded in almost the same light as one to the coasts of Asia or Africa. And so here in Erfurt my foreign extraction awakened much interest. My faint and indistinct pronunciation and abundant errors in German were a source of great amusement. Many

24 THE STORY OF MY CAHEEP..

agreeable days I passed in Erfnrt, and then in the happiest of moods took the coach for Jena.

So in this place I had arrived at last, and what liad driven me thither was so clear in my mind that Jena almost seemed the goal of my journey. I indeed remembered that in my own country I was regarded as a mineralogist, and that it was expected of me that I should hasten directly to Freiberg to study in the famous school of mineralogy, of which Werner was then at the head. But it would have been impossible for me to pass by the real centre of intellectual life in Germany. The little city of Jena in its lovely valley was very attractive, and after a few days I felt quite at home.

I did not, indeed, intend to spend the summer months before me in Jena. I reserved these for a geological tour in the Thuringian forest, and wliat drew me specially in that direction was Heim's work upon the mineralogy of that district, which would serve me as an instructive companion at every step. I was not one of those young men who have the boldness to crowd themselves without any reserve upon distinguished scholars. To visit Goethe, in Weimar, did not occur to me, interesting as it would have been to have approached him. I left it to time and to circumstances, and reckoned safely upon these that they would ultimately bring me into contact with him. I had already heard that Schelling liad received a call to Jena as Professor Extraordinarius. His arrival was expected in the autumn.

I alighted at the Black Bear, and on the evening

STUDENT LIFE IN JENA. 25

of my arrival I experienced a touch of the exceeding roughness of the Jena students.

A city in which one proposes to tarry for a little while, and which may even have some relation to our future career, has a certain impressive aspect at the outset. It seems to inclose even the secret of our destiny. At the hotel I found my friend, who had arrived some days before me. He found a great deal of fault with the bad fare, which in truth for us men of the Xorth, who were used to hearty and nourishing food, seemed execrable. We entertained each other with much lively talk, for we had been separated some time, and had enough to tell of. It grew dark. I looked out into the neighborhood so strange to me, and a restless suspicion of what was to come ran through my mind. Then we heard in the distance a loud shoutinsr like the voices of a number of men, and nearer and nearer they seemed to come. Lights had been brought shortly before, and, as the uproar was close upon us, a servant burst in to warn us to extinguish them. We asked, with curiosity, why, and what the shouting mob wanted. We suspected, indeed, that it was students. The servant told us that they were on their way to the house of Professor A., who was unpopular with them, — I know not why, — to salute him Tvith their Pereat, or college damnation. The cry of some hundred students grew plainer and plainer. "Out with lights" was called, and just then we heard the panes of glass clatter, when the warning was not quickly enough complied with. I confess that this circumstance, occurring so soon after my arrival, filled me with a kind of gloom. It was not such things as this that had called me to Jena ; these Avere not the voices which I wished and expected to hear, and my first night was a sad one.