He derived great pleasure, in after days, from poetical composition, and although he ardently devoted himself to science from the very first, yet among the poems lying before us many a gay song bears witness to the vivacity of his youthful spirit.
LEIPSIC.
The elder Lepsius kept most of the letters which his son wrote him from Leipsic, where he began his studies. They show how earnestly he took hold of the matter from the start, and how attentively the president of the court at Naumburg watched not only the practical daily life, but also the scientific activity of his son. The methodical official wished to be informed as to the expenditure of every groschen which he allowed his son, and the accounts accompanying the student’s letters show us how cheaply it was possible to live in Leipsic some fifty years ago. A good dinner, with soup, roast, and salad or compote, cost three groschen, Richard thought the morning coffee too dear at a groschen, the beer at dinner for fourteen days came to seven groschen, a room at the inn for one night was three groschen, a pat (half-pound) of butter was two groschen, three pfennigs. However, the hard-working student seems to have been absolved from this exact rendering of accounts in the third term, but it had been of great advantage to him, for it would have been impossible for him to bring the greatest of his subsequent works to such a successful issue, or indeed to produce them at all, without the strict sense of order which he had acquired both by inheritance and training. For example, after his return from Egypt he was able without the slightest error to join and fit into their proper places the thousands of sheets of paper with which he had taken impressions of the inscriptions. This shows a painstaking exactness in the marking and numbering of each leaf such as had been practised by no previous traveller, not even by Champollion and Rosellini, in whose works errors are by no means rare.
From the first, it was clear to him that he wished to study philology, but he hesitated for some time as to what course he should pursue afterwards. He had presented himself at the proper time, but in those days the professors took things easily. Godfrey Hermann, of whom he had the highest expectations, only began to lecture after Whitsuntide, “most of the others, such as Beck, Rost, Nobbe, Weiske, only at the beginning of June.” The first course of lectures which he attended was Wachsmuth’s “Universal History.” “I was much pleased,” he writes to his father, “with his introduction, in which he expressed his views on the exposition of the general conception, on the division and proper treatment of history. He has besides an agreeable fluent delivery, and a very pleasant voice. Yet his public lectures on Roman History, which followed immediately, were almost more interesting to me. Here his discourse is perfectly unfettered, because he has already laid his foundations in the preceding lectures on Universal History. Roman History is a department to which he has given special attention, and in the treatment of which he repeatedly differs from those views of Niebuhr’s which have introduced a new epoch. On this account it is very interesting to hear him criticise Niebuhr, of whom, however, he speaks with the greatest respect.”
The philosopher Krug he had imagined as quite a different person and much younger. He writes to his father of him: “He has the face of an old philosopher, and it is so beset with solemn wrinkles that at first I could not reconcile it with the biting satirical wit which one finds in his writings. His eyes, however, are very brilliant, and they wander perpetually over the ceiling as if he were unaware of the presence of auditors, during the quiet almost monotonous, but pointed discourse, in which he never blunders or hesitates for a syllable.”
From what might be called the more fortuitous selection of the other courses of lectures which he attended, it is apparent with how little consciousness of his ultimate goal he began his studies, and he makes his father the confidant of his indecision. The interesting letter of the seventh of August, 1829, which we give herewith, shows the young aspirant for the right path in the best light, and proves that he had just discerned in the great philologist, Godfrey Hermann, the man in Leipsic from whom he had most to gain.
Before the end of his first term he writes to his father in this letter:
“It will naturally be far more difficult for me to give you a satisfactory explanation of my position regarding science, than regarding practical affairs, since I will not even boast of having come to fixed views on the subject myself. Indeed I consider it a main point during the first part of my stay at the University, and one by no means easily or quickly settled, to come to an understanding with myself about this, and to take a steady survey of my whole course in life, but particularly of my studies. For I feel more and more this important distinction between the school and the university, that here one is suddenly deprived of all guidance and special instruction as to the direction which one should pursue. The many beginnings made at school, without any definite aim in view, must be either continued or abandoned, either pursued more zealously or regarded as a side issue, according to one’s own choice and judgment. On this account, too, I do not reproach myself that as yet I have no unalterable plan nor perfect system in my studies, since scarcely anyone could have made such a decision so quickly, or, were such a hastily formed scheme adopted, it might lead to a one-sided development which should be most foreign to philology especially. Altogether, there is no science in which this question can be more important and at the same time more difficult, than in ours, since we have no positive series of lectures to observe, like the lawyers, doctors, and theologians, but each must choose and trace out his own road over the boundless field of philology, according to his own powers and individual character. Now, so far as my purely scientific education is concerned, from the very beginning two main paths present themselves, between which most students make a voluntary or involuntary choice; namely, philology proper and archæology. Naturally, they are so closely connected that one can never be entirely divorced from the other, but nevertheless every one devotes himself more to one than the other. Indeed either of the two departments alone is sufficiently extensive to demand all the powers of one person. This distinction between, and this independence of, the two branches have been most fully illustrated in our two greatest philologists, Hermann and Böckh, each of whom has formed his own school, entirely distinct from the other. I would think it rash and foolish at present to wish to decide in favor of either, since I know too little of either to make such a decision from my own conviction and independent judgment. In any case it is well for me at first, as far as possible, to attach myself to the school of Hermann, and apply myself entirely to languages, for an accurate knowledge of languages is an indispensable foundation in every other branch, and certainly there can nowhere be found a more accomplished teacher than Hermann, even if there actually are more learned men, which I will not dispute. I learn daily to admire more his incomparable clearness and acuteness in the exercise of the soundest criticism. I listen attentively and with pleasure to his lectures, and perhaps in time will try to become a member of his Greek club, which has already trained eminent philologists and given the first impulse to many learned works....
“Some time ago Graser[1] was in Leipsic, only in passing through, but he let himself be persuaded to remain here several days in order to have the pleasure of seeing Hermann. He went to Hermann’s lectures regularly, and was quite enthusiastic about him. At six o’clock he went as a guest to the Greek club, of which he had previously been an honored member. I too went as a guest. There was a discussion concerning a paper on several passages from Plato De legibus, and it was not long before Graser broke in, with a prodigious flood of compliments by way of preface, but with much learning and great acuteness, and gave his opinion on several of the passages. Hermann received it very well. Then they fell to making panegyrics upon each other, and Graser was so inspired by Hermann’s rejoinders that time after time he exclaimed, with every gesture of admiration: Admiror, admiror ingenii tui acumen praestantissimum, vir illustris, venerande, and so on, so that the members were all in a great state of amazement over it. But he spoke good, fluent Latin, and what he said was very scholarly and clever. Finally, Hermann made another little eulogium upon him. These two hours gave me far more pleasure than if I had spent an evening at the theatre, for it is not every day that one can see such enthusiasm as was expressed here for Hermann; it was so genuine, and yet in its whole essence so intelligent and clear.”
This letter, certainly unusually mature and thoughtful for a lad of eighteen, is followed by many others, from which we may see how judiciously Lepsius knew how to divide his time, with what diligence he not only attended lectures, but also twice a day read Greek and Roman classics with his friend Schweckendieck for hours, and still found time to practise music, play chess and visit socially, a welcome guest, among families of good standing in Leipsic. Shortly before the outbreak of the revolution of July, there was a significant fermentation among the German students. After the momentous Carlsbad Decrees, and in consequence of the “Executive Order” carried through by Metternich, the University was placed under political supervision “for the security of public order.” Thus it became not only dangerous to take an active share in the movement for liberty, but even to have any close intercourse with a fellow-student who was suspected of having taken part in “seditious intrigues,” and what were not so styled by the wretched oppressors of political liberty during the supremacy of Metternich’s influence?