schaft, contrary to the word of honor given, and in contempt of the law, will take place. Who would advocate it? 66 Suppose it should be said, 'You know the excellent purposes of the Burschenschaft; but it is impossible to attain them without the formal re-establishment of that body. Without a formal organization and establishment it will be impossible for us to hold together the students, and to lead them toward a common purpose.' "To this I would reply: I ought not, strictly, to answer you at all, for you are seeking to cause a breaking of the law, and of the word of honor. Do you propose to defend this violation of law by claiming that the government has, on its part, destroyed the just condition of affairs by its own injustice, and that, therefore, you feel yourself not bound by the law? How dare you say that law and right have not been violated by the young men themselves; and that, therefore, law and justice toward them are taken away? Have you forgotten Sand, and so many circumstances connected with him? "But, even if injustice has been committed, dare you, for that reason, declare yourself free from all civil obligations? Was Socrates, then, in your opinion, a fool, because he drank the poison unjustly tendered him, rather than to flee? Follow no principle which you can not wish all the world to follow. Try every Christian commandment by this rule, and you will feel that the world would be happy if all should obey it. But if all were to cast loose from the State on this principle of yours for when the government is unjust to one it endangers allthere would at once result a most fearful dissolution of all social bonds, a most terrific and bloody revolution. All the visionary and unbridled powers and passions of our nature would awake; hatred, envy, revenge, pride, ambition; the devil would stir up wicked hopes, and vain confidence in mere strength; and holy love would disappear in the waste abyss. Do you consider yourself powerful enough in intellect to quiet, guide, and rule these excited and rude powers and masses? Will you, a teacher and establisher of revolution, establish and maintain order? Beware of throwing out partial and frivolous words, which, as stimulants in real life, may become sad seeds of incalculable misery. Woe to you if you fool weak minds, and lead them astray with such words! And with this breach of law, the breach of word goes hand in hand. 'One word, one word—one man, one man,' our ancestors said. But, do you propose to begin the establishment of the German Burschenschaft by the violation of this truly German motto, and then to sing to your 'Union,' 'The world itself must pass away, and so the ancient proverb must? Would you, Jesuitically, shelter yourself by that abominable principle that 'The end sanctifies the means?' In this direction points the cunning requirement, that we shall give up our healthy, simple moral instincts, and, instead of them, set up principles which an honest heart can not comprehend. And let us consider more closely that purpose of the Christian German Burschenschaft which is to sanctify these means. Was it not this, that the members were to live a common, free, open, true, pure, and affectionate life? And is the first step toward the accomplishment of that end, to be a breaking of the word of honor, and of the law? Have you, like the most unprincipled diplomatists, the greater morals and the lesser morals: the latter-Christian morality-for every-day life, and the former, the greater-devilish morality for extraordinary occasions, which require lying and deceit? Are breach of one's word and of the law to be the consecrating ceremony at the entrance into the Burschenschaft? And must all the members live secretly, afraid every moment of being brought to an account, and contriving pettifogging shifts and tricks to get off with in case of need? What becomes of the simple innocence of an open and pure youthful life, with a good conscience, in whose place appears this concealed, secret, and light-shunning life? Are the young to train themselves, by such a course of life, into free Christian citizens? It is impossible. "And however shrewdly all of your arrangements may have been made, however cunningly you calculate, be sure that good German honesty is best, and will always be best. Honesty stands longest. Arndt's verses are true of the German youth: "Trust thou not to a fair outside, Lies and cheats thou canst not guide. "And in like manner will fail this trickish and secretly constituted Burschenschaft. It will soon be discovered, and broken up by expulsions. "For these reasons I consider that, at present, the formal reorganization of the Christian German Burschenschaft would be a violation of law, and of the word of honor; unchristian, un-German, unwise. "But is our youth so superannuated that it can not exist without a fixed form, without adherence to a letter? No law prevents you from living and laboring as friends in life and death, for the noblest of human purposes for a free Christian intercourse. Must friendship be replaced by mere verbal fastenings, and a living intellectual tie by a lawyer's paper one? Must that mental power by which the better or more intelligent man influences his brother in God's name, be assured to him by a constitution? "But if there are only a few individuals who are constituted capable of a profound and close association in life through love, it is better that these few should hold themselves purely and truly together, in independent friendship, than that efforts should be made to hold together, by prohibited ties, a great number of repugnant persons, and that the purpose should, at last, utterly fail. Woe to us, when our youth, even, shall be given over and consecrated to lovelessness; woe to youths who imagine that they can attain freedom by using their brethren wickedly and tyrannically, as blind tools! Oh, that our youth would purify themselves from every evil means, from every impure purpose; with a good conscience confess, before all the world, the good purpose at which they aim, and openly and freely demand from their instructors and officers, recognition and assistance in their truly holy endeavor! Who would dare oppose young men avowing their object to be a pure, active, loving life? Who can harm you if you do good? Oh, that Luther's free, and vehement, and powerful spirit could be a pattern for the German youth; that spirit which despised all low, stealthy, secret tricks and practices, and through divine and open confidence in itself, was unconquerable and irresistible !" I was soon convinced that my appeal could not resist the force of the influence at work on the students. All confidence in the authorities was entirely at an end; for the students had experienced from them opposition, not assistance; and the opinion prevailed, that in order to realize the ideal of the Burschenschaft, it would be necessary no longer to co-operate with the authorities, but to oppose them; and that, on radical political principles, whatever stood in the way of that ideal must be removed. It was fancied that the "Young Men's Union" would lift the world to the condition of the angels. We have seen that the Union was actually a nonentity. It was a fit subject for Aristophanes. But the times were too bitterly in earnest for this; and irritable and wicked consciences could neither understand nor endure any sport. The Union came to a tragical end. I had foretold, in my admonition, that if the prohibited Burschenschaft should be reorganized, it would soon be discovered, and broken up by expulsions. But the "Young Men's Union," in thinking to surpass the morality and lawfulness of the original Burschenschaft, foolishly passed beyond the sphere of its activity among young men, and attempted to interfere with the relations of actual life, of which it knew nothing, and which it was far from being competent to regulate or to change. Thus it happened that its members had to do, not with the paternal academical disciplinary court and the academical penalties, but with a criminal court and its severe sentence; that they were measured with the measure of the government, the existing state of which they had permitted themselves to attack. On the 25th of March, 1826, the High Court of Breslau passed sentence upon twenty-eight members of the Union, all of whom, except a few, were condemned to from two to fifteen years' imprisonment.* This was the tragic end of the "Young Men's Union." In 1822 my stay at Halle became unendurably painful to me. still saw the same students whom I loved so well, but yet they were changed. I afterward found the names of twelve of them in the list of those condemned as just mentioned. There was also a second reason, which had long annoyed me. I had been begging for three years that a collection of minerals might be purchased for the university, as the existing one did not at all fulfill the purposes of instruction. My request not being complied with, it was impossible for me to properly perform my duty as professor of mineralogy. During this period of great uneasiness, my friend Rector Dittmar, while on a visit to me from Nuremberg, at Easter, 1822, invited me to take partial charge of his institution at that city. In October following I went to Nuremberg, examined the school, and consented. On returning to Halle, I applied to the two ministries under which I was an official-as mining councilor and as professor-for a dismission. I desire to commemorate the friendly manner in which the two ministers, Schuckmann and Altenstein, returned me my request, and advised me to recall my decision. But I had taken my resolution too firmly, and repeated my application. I received, May 30, 1823, through the ministry, the royal cabinet order which dismissed me. "In consequence," said the accompanying letter from the ministries, "the undersigned ministries do free you from your official duties, both in the university at Halle, and in the High Council of Mining, with thanks for your exertions there, and with the best wishes for your future prosperity." I left Halle with very sad feelings. It was as if I were bearing to the grave all the wishes and hopes that I had nourished for ten years, ever since the year 1813, and for whose accomplishment I had fought and labored. *Ten of them were imprisoned for fifteen years. Most of the twenty-eight were Prussians, but many other members were punished elsewhere. Most of them were, however, pardoned before the end of their term. UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA III. GUSTAV FRIEDRICH DINTER, GUSTAV FRIEDRICH DINTER, whose life was a beautiful illustration of his noble declaration in a letter to Baron Von Altenstein-" I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not provide for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide "was born, Feb. 29, 1760, at Borna, in Saxony, where his father was a lawyer, with the title of ChamberCommissary. Dinter describes him in his autobiography as a cheerful and lively man, whose most prominent trait was always to look upon the bright side of things, and to oppose all moroseness. In accordance with this character was the bringing up which he gave his five sons; and particularly he would not endure any timidity in them, for which Dinter was always grateful to him. He also obliged them to strict obedience. His mother was a woman of strict religious character, careful foresight, and some vanity, which made her particular about appearances. His father employed a private tutor for him; but this instructor knew little or nothing of pedagogy or didactics, and his teaching looked to nothing except the good appearance of his scholar at examinations. This was very well for the memory; but his head and heart would have received little benefit, had it not been for the assistance of his intelligent mother. For example, Dinter had, when twelve years old, to read, translate, and commit to memory, Hutter's" Compendium Theologia," and then recite it; and to learn the texts quoted from the New Testament, in the original Greek. April 27, 1773, he was examined for the national school at Grimma, where he found valuable teachers in Rector Krebs, Conrector Mücke, and Cantor Reichard. Mücke cultivated carefully the religious feelings which the boy's mother had implanted within him; and Reichard was not only his teacher, but his loving friend. While yet at school, his excellent mother died; whose loss he mourned even when grown up. In April, 1779, Dinter left the school at Grimma, and passed the interval of time, before entering the university at Leipzig, partly with his brother, and partly with his godfather, Superintendent Rickfels. In Leipzig, he almost overburdened himself with hearing lectures, during his first two years: attending, especially, Dathe, Ernesti, Morus, and Platner. For want of a competent guide, |