The appearance of the Red Fisherman in our last chapter has brought before our mind's eye some other of the creatures of the students, to whom we cannot better devote a brief chapter than in the present place. These are the _Binsen-Bube_, the _Hofrath Dieh_, and the _Frau Gottliebin_. And we would have the renowned Red Fisherman to understand, that we mean not in bringing these personages into connexion with his name to bring his dignity into question, nor for a moment to place in comparison with him the two former of these individuals, over whose heads he looks down from the clouds of fame. The _Binsen-Bube_, or as he is also called, the _Blumen-Bube_, that is, the Rush-boy, or the Flower-boy, will figure in another part of the volume, and therefore must first stand forth the Herr Hofrath Diehl, or in pure English, the Privy Counsellor Diehl, an individual on whom many foreigners must have stumbled in Heidelberg. This individual has served for some thirty years to amuse the rackety young men by his original nonsense; and we lament to be obliged to say that the students of a former time were not wholly guiltless of originating the condition in which he now finds himself. He is a melancholy example of a student scathed in his career; and who has, from one unfortunate hour, sunk continually deeper and deeper into the depths of misery and insignificance. What part he played as a student we are not able precisely to state; but this must be certain, that he never could have been enlightened by the sun of reason as men on the average are, and now it is with him an everlasting eclipse. According to the opinions of some, he must unluckily have been walking under a great umbrella when reason was rained down from heaven. He thus early became a plaything in the hands of men who were base enough to abuse his simplicity. He received a forged letter, containing the intelligence that he was appointed a privy counsellor of the Hesse Darmstadt court, and the scoundrels who deceived him advised him to use some peculiar kind of pomatum, which should give to his head a look of official dignity. The upshot of this infamous business was that he lost nearly all his hair by this application, and was brought back from Darmstadt, whither he had gone to take possession of his office, to the university a crazed man. From the consequences of this lamentable history he has never recovered. His mind, weak before, has since remained hopelessly confused. He has continued to occupy a small chamber, where he employs himself busily in scheming and maturing plans for the improvement of the world; for the maintenance of the European balance of power; for the better pursuit of philosophy, and for bringing it into a better connexion and alliance with other branches of education; and in the discovery of an elixir of longevity. The results of his profound meditations are laid down in vast masses of manuscripts, which, alas! like the Journey from Stolpe to Danzig,[22]