Part 39 (1/2)

When we have decided upon the advantage which the student derives from the academical life, we shall then feel ourselves prompted to say a few words upon the tendency of certain inst.i.tutions of the German universities; on the scientific and moral spirit which prevails amongst the students. We shall further proceed a little to explain some singular-seeming customs and, practices, and, so far as these are concerned, as we always speak particularly of Heidelberg, to cast some glances of comparison upon other German and foreign universities. In such a parallel it is also interesting to observe how the universities, as inst.i.tutions of education, operate thus essentially on the political relations of states, and on the other hand, how they are determined in their developement by these. These proposed points are difficult; and their thorough discussion would lead us too far. We must therefore content ourselves with distinctive indications.

Justly says Thiersch--”The universities are a vastly intertwined and entangled whole, at which people and ages have laboured, in order to bring it to its present extension.”

The first and only true object of the academician is, and for ever remains, the study of science. This const.i.tutes the central point, which all intently seek, and where all find themselves, without regard to external circ.u.mstances. Knowledge, and the strife after it, are sacred to the student; and these are the anchor, which, dropped into the heart of every one, has lashed to it that internal spiritual bond which embraces the whole cla.s.s. The single aim of the academician is the free pursuit of knowledge.

It is true that the majority of those who seek the university, have the object, at a later period, of entering on state offices; and the acquisition of knowledge made at the university, places them in a condition to be able properly to discharge the duties of those offices, which are the means of their future existence. But the later practical application of this knowledge, which is so far the medium of his profession, comes before the eye of the student in the background. In the society of young people who are in the pursuit of knowledge, in the intercourse with teachers whose object is the diffusion of the same, and surrounded by external inst.i.tutions which all bear upon the advancement and the facilitation of study, he remains far from the thought that knowledge is to be regarded as a milch-cow, which will furnish him hereafter with b.u.t.ter. The unfolding of his intellectual capacity in every direction; the following out one or the other in particular, appears to him the business of life in these years. It is exactly this which essentially distinguishes the corporation of students above every thing else;--of which the student is so proud. He despises the Philistine, who, in all circ.u.mstances of his life, is only thinking of his petty gains.

It is grounded psychologically on this feeling of individual worth as a disciple of wisdom, that the Burschen honour springs up, and holds every student equally high and equally dear. As a corporation, one stands for all, and all for one; and without drawing a moral death upon it, this honour cannot suffer itself to be wounded. Study is pursued at the German universities with zeal and radicality. Proofs of this, are the great numbers of young men who every year pa.s.s through the State's-examinations, and testify their ability in all the offices of their country: proofs are, the writers of Germany, who owe their accomplishment to these inst.i.tutions: proofs, finally, are, the preponderating number of well-educated men compared with those of other countries, who draw their support from the academical foundations. But we must not go so far. Let any one compare the German student, whose acquirements are weighed by a competent judge, with the student of any foreign university.

Manifold indeed have been the complaints of the laziness of the first period of the academical life; and we can only repeat what we have said on this subject in an earlier portion of our volume. There is an abrupt transition from the studies of the Gymnasium to those of the University; and the newling at the university wastes and wears away much time, especially in the first months, and indeed during the whole first semester, before he has accustomed himself to the free condition, and the free and fresh atmosphere of the university. But is this of such mighty importance? It is the transition into a state of greater self-dependence which demands this sacrifice; and he only who has no conception of the strengthening and fortifying influence of university life,--he who does not perceive with what higher advantage this material loss is counterbalanced, can alone break out into lamentations on this head. He who is accustomed to chase youth out of one pen into another, and to begrudge every free breath, every lighter moment, every refreshment of over-pa.s.sing Muse--who trembles and shakes lest by such trivial circ.u.mstances they should have lost both body and soul; will indeed judge otherwise, but deserves, in fact, to be sent back into the school of literary and pedagogic necessity, out of which he was expelled by some mischance. That portion of the youth however, who have arrived on the threshold of the university honest and well-disposed--and this portion is so predominant that the remainder appears in comparison insignificant--this large and elect portion of the better endowed, soon pa.s.s through the first rude shock of difficulty and surprise, and through the mere pleasure-rambling in the garden of the Muses. The student zealously busied to develope his intellectual const.i.tution, healthily and in all its members, will find himself in the strongest manner supported by the regulations of the German university; and of these we will speak anon.

On the other hand, the free intercourse with his cotemporaries operates most favourably. When the youth enters the university, he steps at once into a corporation composed of the most opposite materials. Every student brings with him the peculiarities of his Fatherland, in manners and speech; and how manifold is the variety! To say nothing of the foreigners who frequent our different universities, what a difference is there yet between the different races which speak the German tongue.

What gradations from the cold, ceremonial North German, who clings fast to etiquette, and with difficulty attaches himself to others, to the good-natured South German, who, knowing little of outward forms, readily finds a friend to whom he can ally himself. Every foreigner retains the characteristics of his own land, and often takes a pride in exhibiting them, by which means he becomes a person detached from the ma.s.s. We find the strongest antagonisms of this kind; and it might make one doubtful of the reciprocating influence of this cause, had we not found by experience that the result was a favourable one. The intellectual bond of knowledge here embraces the sons of all nations; and thus these apparently heterogeneous elements can only operate auspiciously, since the advantage is not to be overlooked which the close and mutual contact affords, of learning to know foreign manners and customs, and for each to recognise his own in the true light.

And here we must again call attention to the fact, of the essential difference between the result of academical life, and that of burger life. As to the moral side of the question, there have not been wanting people who have laboured to represent the university as a gulf which swallows up the flower of the youth, as a pool out of which only a few are happy enough to escape without ruin of soul and body. These are ridiculous and malicious exaggerations. No one will attempt to deny the dangers of university life, the temptations to deviations from propriety; and according to time and situation must every university, in a greater or less degree, be exposed to these; but every one who is not blinded by excess of prejudice or enmity, knows that, besides those who give way to temptation, by far the greater number return to their friends from the High-school, as sound in body and mind as they came to it.

The hope would be idle, to chase evil quite away; such a hope is opposed to the total experience of all people and times, to the nature of advancing manhood, and to that degree of freedom, which must be allowed to youth in the years of its growing developement for the prosperous completion of this developement itself, and which every where, though it may be under different forms, will be afforded. There is no law, no precaution, which can possibly preserve the youngling on the higher steps of his career if he does not watch over himself; and one cannot forget the just observation of the old English vicar, that the virtue that needs continual watching, is not worth the cost of a sentinel. But this is the common lot of all manly youth; and we may boldly a.s.sert, that aberrations amongst the other cla.s.ses--amongst the younger ranks of the military, of the mercantile, and of other departments of trade, are not less, but probably more extensive; yes, it is satisfactory to know that in these respects the academical life is in a progressive state of steady improvement.

But if we inquire further what are those things which most particularly strike the foreigner in the student; those things which are most ridiculous, and disapproved; we find that, briefly, they are the following,--the singular dress of the student, the strong smoking, and his habits of beer-drinking and duelling.

That the student in early times, more than at present, adopted a singular costume, arose from two causes, either out of convenience or vanity. In both cases, the matter is a very innocent one, and the academical boards did wisely to permit him these fancies, so far as they were not the signs of an interdicted verbindung. The life at the university, as we have had now abundant occasion to observe, is a peculiar one. When this extends itself so far that a separate court of justice is allowed to the students, is it at all to be wondered at, that the Student who feels himself in every respect so distinct from the Philistine, should also seek to express this distinction by his costume? He only does this so long as he belongs to the High-school, and with the conclusion of this period, ceases also naturally, the occasion for this peculiarity. Considerations of _convenance_ weigh little with the students amongst themselves,--they weigh little with them towards those who surround them, as it is by no means an object of the student to seek advantage from those moving around him, nor to render himself particularly acceptable to them. Therefore in small cities these peculiarities of dress, chosen according to every individual fancy, strike the eye more; while in larger cities the student, playing a more subordinate part, unites himself more to the general ma.s.s of society, and loses himself more in family circles.

There he will surrender himself to the existing order and convenances of society, since, so soon as he enters the salon, he conducts himself strictly by the rules of etiquette. But he is no slave of fas.h.i.+on. This is repugnant to his freedom of thought; and he believes himself to have as good a right to choose his own dress, as the lawgiver of fas.h.i.+on has from the capital of France to prescribe what shall be held good ton in external appearance. He is by no means so tyrannical as that personage, since he desires from no comrade that he shall herein follow his example; since he leaves, herein to every one perfect freedom, and allows the native student to observe the stricter ceremonial of his father-city.

And is his, really as it often is a most fantastic costume, more singular or more contrary to nature, than the fas.h.i.+onable attire in which many show themselves in the capitals of the whole world, and above all, in which they present themselves to the eyes of the public in the fas.h.i.+onable watering-places? Is he indeed the only one who herein overleaps the bounds of etiquette? They who have seen the grotesque paraphernalia in which the foreigners from beyond the Channel suffer themselves to appear in Germany, will certainly not a.s.sert this.

And these do this in a foreign country; the student only in his German Fatherland. Are there so many sects too, who distinguish themselves by their peculiar dress, and shall this be so sharply objected to in the student?

The smoking of tobacco is an accusation which the student shares in common with the other cla.s.ses of the community, and which only looks the more striking in him. We will not defend this practice, on which so much has already been said, nor that of beer-drinking; but we must again take leave to observe, that in all this there is no compulsion.

The reader has probably alarmed himself by perusing the Beer-code, which we have given at the end of this volume. It is well known that in older times much more was drunken at the university, and that this pernicious custom, especially in some of the German universities, prevailed to a most lamentable degree. In those times many of these beer-laws might be of great advantage, insomuch that they restrained from greater excesses. As they now exist, no student is subjected to them, who does not voluntarily submit himself to them, by a.s.sociating himself with the companies that a.s.semble at the kneip. And even here it is at his perfect option, at any moment, to declare that he will drink no more, only he cannot break this declaration without paying the penalty.

We are as little disposed to defend the duel. A reconciliation of disputes between contenders, by the exertion of and through the means of reason, either in the disputants themselves, or through their friends; or if this were found impracticable, through the establishment of a court of honour amongst the students, or through an appeal, in serious cases, to the academical court, would certainly be a more civilized proceeding. We may, indeed, hope that this will be accomplished in time, and the more so, because the number of duels at the universities, compared with former times, is already so much diminished, and as the voices of many students are now raised against this practice. Yet we must not judge the students too hardly on account of the duel, but ought to take into the account the following considerations in mitigation of our opinion.

No one is compelled to fight, who in the commencement declares that it is contrary to his principles. Let it be recollected, that in the university cities, more than elsewhere, young people are crowded together, and compelled briskly to push and jostle each other, as it were, in their course. Let it be remembered, that though we may p.r.o.nounce of the bulk of them, that they are well-educated youths, yet at the same time, in comparison with the circ.u.mstances of other young people, it is undeniable that far more frequent and greater occasions for antagonist attrition occur amongst them--in part, no doubt, on account of the greater pecuniary means in their possession, and still more on account of the unavoidable necessity of social life amongst themselves, especially in the lesser university cities, in which they cannot mingle with the family circles.

The foreign universities, where the duel does not exist, cannot be brought in evidence on this head, because they want other peculiarities of the German universities, which are of apparently great advantage.

The const.i.tution of the English universities, in particular, is totally different to ours, and more resembles that of our seminaries, where the students enjoy no such freedom. It must also be remembered that the regulations of our universities make them accessible to those without property, and who spring out of the lower cla.s.ses, while in England only the rich young men, and those out of the higher cla.s.ses of society, can possibly exist, with a few exceptions, at the great universities of England. The advantage of the German universities in this respect no one can deny, if he only turns his regard on the great number of the most distinguished of the learned men of Germany, whose talents have, through this very accessibility of the universities, been made beneficial to the public.

On the other hand, one cannot expect from the student who has sprung from one of the lower grades of society, the same degree of refinement as graces those of a higher stand. Thus, no wonder, if through these who have been accustomed to move in a ruder sphere of society, occasions for contentions are more readily created. It must be remembered that the student, be he who he may, regards himself on an equality with his fellow-student; but on that account so much the more jealously watches over his own honour, and on that account also more readily believes himself insulted. Hence the customary formula of a challenge, ”Stupid youth!” which inevitably draws a duel after it, is characteristic, as it clearly indicates that the feeling of burschen-honour is grounded on the dedication to knowledge, whose disciples can naturally in no way be so insulted as by the epithet ”stupid,” which implies that he is totally unfit for a priest of Minerva.

Let these facile occasions of strife be borne in mind, and then let persons of practical experience be asked how many young people of other grades are wounded and even killed in scuffles and cudgellings, they will then be induced to judge more leniently of the duel amongst students, and rather pardon the extremes of a feeling of honour, than that the chance should possibly arise of a provoked student becoming in effect the homicide of his fellows.

Thus we may regard the duel, under its regular form, as a sort of discipline which the students exercise amongst themselves, and thus banish every ruder and not seldom dangerous explosion of pa.s.sion. We say the duel in its regular form, and thereupon recall to the reader's memory the following particulars. According to the regulations for the arrangement of duels in Heidelberg, every challenge must be withdrawn when the opponent declares that he gave the insult in a state of intoxication. Every duel shall, before it is undertaken, be made known to the Senior-Convention, and by it an accommodation shall be attempted.

When these regulations are violated, this does not arise from the regulations themselves, but from the partisans who have neglected to demand from the seniors the execution of their own laws. The completion of the duel, according to the Comment regulations, by sword stroke and not by lunging, and with defensive costume, which covers almost every exposed part of the body, renders any dangerous consequences almost impossible. There is no instance, from time immemorial, of any such regularly and formally completed duel in Heidelberg, being attended with fatal consequences, or one which rendered life thereafter a burden, as is only too frequently the case at universities where the duel in _every_ form is punished more severely than as a breach of discipline, and where, on that account, more dangerous but more easily concealed weapons are resorted to.

By these observations we would by no means defend duels, but merely, in some degree, excuse them. Laws against such customs, which are fast rooted in old prejudices, are seldom very effectual. As little as the fist-law could by power and at once be extirpated, so little, according to our opinion, can this be accomplished with the duel. It is true that there lies in the hands of the German governments, by means of the State's-examination, a power of punis.h.i.+ng and suppressing this practice which foreign realms do not possess. They might, it may be said, pa.s.s a law, that whoever had been engaged in a duel, should forfeit his right to the State's-examination, and thereby state service. But it must be answered, that this would be in the highest degree severe for a small offence, which in itself the regular duel really is; thus, to punish a young man in such a manner that this one folly should put an end irrevocably to the whole of his life's prospects and career. Further, it has been seen, that exactly at those times when the duel of every kind was the most strictly interdicted and repressed, the most dangerous duels by lunge and shots became more than ever frequent. And yet these draw a punishment after them which has often made a young man miserable for the remainder of his life. So long as it is not the general opinion amongst the students, that the duel cannot be held as satisfaction, so long will they, in case of actual insult, not be deterred by the most stringent punishments from resorting to it. Till then, would it not be the most reasonable course to visit the most dangerous kinds of duelling with the most severe punishments of the law, but to pursue the ordinary and less dangerous not so harshly? If this alone remains to the student, he will by degrees convince himself of the ridiculousness of such a sham-fighting, and the duel will, as it is already become less piquant, cease altogether. It will be the duty of the teacher to promulgate better views upon the nature of duelling by speech and by writing, and thus to conduct their pupils out of the spirit of it. This the greater number of them have even taken suitable opportunities of doing. As an example we quote a part of the speech which the Obermedizinalrath and Professor Dr. J. N. Ringseis delivered on the 3d of December, 1828, in the hall of the High-school at Munich, at a time when the duel there had become exceedingly predominant and reckless.

”It is a sign of a n.o.ble mind to regard true honour as the highest good, as higher than life itself. He only who does not fear death, really possesses life. We will all strive after higher honour; and every one of us must be prepared at any hour to sacrifice our life for it. It is a duty through n.o.ble manners to honour ourselves; he only who maintains a n.o.bility of conduct himself, can respect the manners of another. It is honourable to belong to a brave union; more mightily works the spirit of every one in union. It is honourable to love your native place, be it on the Isar, the Danube, the Rhine, or the Main, since what German territory has not a host of glorious recollections?

It is an honourable, proud feeling to be able to wield the sword skilfully, as if it were a member of our body. But he who honours himself, his society, his native home, honours this feeling in another; he who recognises the sacred destiny of the sword to be the protection of the highest good of mankind, dishonours it not by unholy aims. The officers of our army covered themselves with evergreen laurel,--how rare is the duel amongst them! The hero youth of the universities of North Germany performed miracles of bravery in the memorable Liberation war; and the duel was, amongst those who returned, almost without example. Rare indeed is it in the circles of the highest society; to the n.o.blest nations of antiquity, the Greeks and Romans, it was wholly unknown.