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THE SHIPWRECK.
The state of health in which, still with a slight fever recurring every afternoon, I returned to Gottingen was by no means cheering.
Besides, I was obliged at once to undergo the five days' imprisonment to which I had been justly sentenced for reckless shooting across the street.
During the day I read, besides some very trashy novels, several by Jean Paul, with most of which I had become familiar while a school-boy in the first class.
They had given me so much pleasure that I was vexed with the indifference with which some of my friends laid the works of the great humorist aside.
There were rarely any conversations on the more serious scientific subjects among the members of the corps, though it did not lack talented young men, and some of the older ones were industrious.
Nothing, perhaps, lends the life of the corps a greater charm than the affectionate intercourse which unites individuals.
I was always sure of finding sympathizers for everything that touched my feelings.
With regard to the results of my nocturnal labour the case was very different.

If any one else had "bored" me at the tavern about his views of Feuerbach and Lotze, I should undoubtedly have stopped him with Goethe's "Ergo bibamus." There was one person in Gottingen, however, Herbert Pernice, from whom I might expect full sympathy.

Though only five years my senior, he was already enrolled among the teachers of the legal faculty.

The vigour and keenness of his intellect and the extent of his knowledge were as amazing as his corpulence.
One evening I had met him at the Krone and left the table at which he presided in a very enthusiastic state of mind; for while emptying I know not how many bottles of Rhine wine he directed the conversation apparently unconsciously.
Each of his statements seemed to strike the nail on the head.
The next day, to my great delight, I met him again at Professor Baum's.
He had retreated from the ladies, whom he always avoided, and as we were alone in the room I soon succeeded in turning the conversation upon Feuerbach, for I fairly longed to have another person's opinion of him.
Besides, I was certain of hearing the philosopher criticised by the conservative antimaterialistic Pernice in an original manner--that is, if he knew him at all.