spectacle to the city, enjoy themselves a day of social hilarity. We have stated that after dinner the student seeks his coffeehouse, and is not ashamed with a billiard party or with a game of cards to kill an hour or two. The last amusement particularly will many of them only too passionately pursue; and indeed Play, at the bank, as in Wiesbaden, or Baden-Baden, whither they make excursions, has plunged many of them already into great trouble. The student has invented many games at cards, which are played, partly for money, partly for beer, and bear peculiar names, as Cerevies, Pereat, Schlauch, etc. When the student has in the evening visited his kneip, whither we will presently join him, he has then brought his day's work famously to a close, and the reader will join in the chorus when he sings-- Thus we students,--you may see so,-- Daily fun-fall, blithe, uproarious, Burschen ever, could it be so! For the Bursche is ever glorious! CHAPTER XII. THE STUDENT'S EVENING PARTY, WITH ALL ITS CONVERSATIONS, STORIES, DISCUSSIONS, SONGS, AND CUSTOMS. My spirit with pleasure now fain would I fill, And blithe little images gather at will: Understand--all poetic--I'm young but the while, And most actively study the humorous style. _Renommist of Zachariæ_. At the time from which we seek to borrow these pictures of student life, there lived in Heidelberg the young musician Hoffmann. He had taken refuge in Ruperto-Carolo from the petty intrigues of the theatrical world, in which occupying a place in the orchestra, he had moved long enough in a neighbouring greater city to become thoroughly weary of it. His creative spirit, his glowing fancy, a certain poetical style, marked him out and gave promise that he would one day enrich that noble art of music, into whose depths he strove enthusiastically to penetrate, with no ordinary performances. The means only had been wanting to ripen in him, taking, as he did, the most lively interest in every artistical and scientific pursuit, to the most beautiful developement, the rich abundance of his talents. How could it then be otherwise than that he should now find himself so happy in the midst of the congenial life and movement of that university city, and in the enjoyment of its natural beauties; that he should be transported to find so many points of agreement between himself and the student youth. He felt the truth of Goethe's words:--"This academical life, even if we cannot boast ourselves of having partaken of its peculiar diligence, yet affords incalculable advantages for every species of accomplishment, since we are perpetually surrounded by men who either possess knowledge, or seek it, so that in such an atmosphere, even while ourselves are unconscious of it, we draw actual