I'm a great philosopher, of the school of Hegel,
And his system follow I to the life.
The Beadle is upset, the Philistine is teased;
Goes all wrong--the Prorector is appeased.
Spoken.--"Well, Sir! last night you have again cudgelled and floored five watchmen; and for this you must spend four weeks in the Carcer."--"Your Magnificence, I think nothing of that!"--"You will go on cudgelling watchmen till you get the Consilium abeundi."--"Youth must sow its wild oats;--that's an old rule. Your Magnificence was young once: certainly it's a good while ago; but spite of this, I hope one of these days to become an honest, brave fellow, and do service to my Fatherland, and become a special honour to your Prorectorate."
Thereupon drops he a tear;
Thinks of his youth--"Ah! it was dear!"
Gives me an examen summa cum laude.
An unbounded jollity, etc.
Happy are they who carry on with them this free and cheerful disposition into after-life, which for most of those who now live so gaily and happily at the university, brings an arduous succession of labours loaded with cares and fatigues, which, however, sometimes leave as their reward at the end of their career of life, a consciousness of having discovered a certain portion of truth, and of having been able to benefit their fellow-citizens. Student-life thus belongs to those things which can come only once in our existence, but which are on that very account the fullest of happiness, and must often extend their influence so far as at least to refresh by their memory a later, solemn, and joyless life. The songs of a happy youth accompany him who has entered on the more serious path of his existence, and their melody is able to bring him back for a moment now and then into the dream of his young years. With a song of sorrow the student too, follows to the grave the brother who departed this life, and then turns from the image of death, and rejoices that he yet longer can enjoy the happy Burschen period.
[GAUDEAMUS IGITUR.]
Gaudeamus igitur