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THE TIME OF EFFERVESCENCE, AND MY SCHOOL MATES.
Although the events of my school-days at Kottbus long since blended together in my memory, my life there is divided into two sharply defined portions.

The latter commences with Professor Tzschirner's appointment and the reform in the school.
From the first day of the latter's government I can recall what was taught us in the class and how it influenced me, while I have entirely forgotten what occurred during the interim.

This seems strange; for, while Langethal's, Middendorf's, and Barop's instruction, which I received when so much younger, remains vividly impressed on my memory, and it is the same with Tzschirner's lessons, the knowledge I acquired between my fifteenth and seventeenth year is effaced as completely as though I had passed a sponge over the slate of my memory.

A chasm yawns between these periods of instruction, and I cannot ascribe this circumstance entirely to the amusements which withdrew my thoughts from study; for they continued under Tzschirner's rule, though with some restrictions.