His university career was even more irregular and stormy, but now his native capacity for leadership and a certain rugged eloquence in public speaking began to reveal themselves. For five years, dating from April 27, 1796, he was a student in the University of Halle. In obedience to his father’s wish he undertook the study of theology; but it was not in his nature, nor had his imperfect preparation fitted him, to take one of the usual professional courses. Prussian and German history and the German language and literature, subjects generally neglected at that day but dear to his own heart from childhood, absorbed more and more of his time and thought. Thus, after three years we find him selling, for ten thalers, the manuscript of a small treatise on “The Promotion of Patriotism in Prussia,”[42] a glorification of that state and its rulers, and a plea for more attention to the study of Prussian history in the schools and universities as a means of developing love of country. The purchaser published the work a year later, with his own name on the title page. Meanwhile Jahn’s habits of study continued to be desultory. Although he attended lectures, and in the philological seminar of F. A. Wolf won that scholar’s commendation for his “language instinct,” few of the courses begun were completed in orderly fashion, and his work was interrupted by frequent excursions on foot to various parts of Germany. Another disturbing factor was the war which he soon declared against the student clubs and associations of fellow-countrymen known as _Landsmannschaften_, the predecessors of the present _Corps_. The sectional character of these “circles” is evident from their names—Westphalians, Pomeranians, Silesians, Magdeburgers, Anhalters, etc.; and it seems to have been their spirit of narrow provincialism, coupled with the dissolute life and constant duelling of their members, which roused him to an almost fanatical opposition and was the occasion of incessant brawls. His increasing difficulties with the Landsmannschaften and the effort to unite against them all students outside their ranks brought him at length into conflict with the academic authorities, and he left Halle to continue the same passionate struggle for a time at Jena, where his eloquence gained him a considerable following among the students. Apparently it was a desire to study the Northern languages that carried him next into what was then Swedish Pomerania, where he was received into the University of Greifswald May 31, 1802, enrolling himself under a false name. Here, too, in spite of poverty, he soon became a recognized leader. It was rumored that he belonged to the proscribed secret order of Unitists. However this may have been, before many months had passed certain wild student pranks and the violent outcome of a factional feud resulted in his appearance before the academic authorities, by whom he and a fellow student were given, on February 7, 1803, the _consilium abeundi_.