St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-01-22
Sketches in German Universities.
ozoRA s. DAVIS. Springfield, in the Vermont
Chronicle,
II. JENA.

II. JENA.
Only an hours ride from Weimer
with it's memories Of Goethe and
Schiller, snug under the heights
on which Napoleon fought his great
battles, lies the quaint, gray old city
OF lena with its ancient university
and its few hundred merry students.
1t is one of the old places where ven
cradle customs still linger, and men
do what their fathers did with no
suspicion that a better manner has
been evolved. Here one sees the
real student life that furnishes mate
rial for the magazine writers, and
here one sits in misery on board
benches in il-ventlated rooms, as
no end OF former students have sat
there, carving the names OF their
sweethearts in the wood and hack
ing monograms all about on the
desks. Here is where the student
societies flourish in their glory, where
the fighting is fierce and the sowing
of particularly wild oats daily bus
mess. Here too, is where the great
philosophers have been professors,
where Schiller lectured, where Flchte
taught, where Hegel wrote the
"Phenomenology of the Spirit And
here today the great Dlrwinian,
Hackel, reads, the inspiring Eucken is
in the chair ofphilosophy, and Wendt
is reading theology in the chair for
merly occupied by Lizsius Those
long rambles, where the ruins Of
castles cling to the rugged cliffs,
those twilight walks along the banks
of the Saale and over the great
reaches OF odorous meadow, those
superb views from the Fox tower
with the sunset lights to purple the
hills, and that look far up ravine
to old Zegenhain, where the legend
says Boniface preached his gospel to
the hardy people long centuries ago
these are memories of merry Jena
which crowd upon one as he would
write of dry details and will find
expression. What a remark able
approach that was to the university,
across the picturesque market-pIace,
then through gray street, turning
sharply into narrow pocket alley,
where the high houses approached
each other and crumbling statues of
the Virgin yet chung to the corner
building; then into an open door at
the end of the alley, to the left of
which openeda great, yawning pass
ageway into cellar, with one dim
light feebly burning halfway down
to make the gloom more awful.
Sometimes | saw men drawing great
casks of wine out of the abyss, but
what was down there more than
that | never knew. 1t will abide
with me bound up with awful
thoughts of dark deeds and romance
unexhausted down there in the
glooms of that university wine
cellar, And then up double flight
of wooden stairs You are at last in
the university, just an ideal, close,
smelly, uncomfortable, gray, old
German building.
My objective point was the lecture
rooms OF Wendt and Eucken. Here
were only seventeen Americans and
we generally found ourselves near
each other in the lectures. The major
ity OF them were working with Rein
in pedagogy, a charming lecturer
and most delightful man. Philoso-
ply is also popular in Jena with
Americans; but there are few men
who come here for theology, for the
faculty is not very attractive. 1t is
split into rival camps. -Four old pro.
fessors, Hilgenfeld, Siegiried, Nippold
and Seyerlen stand as representa-
tives of the old Tuebingen tendencies;
while Wendt and Drews, recent add
lions to the faculty, together with
Won Dobschuetz, represent the new
Ritschlian school. The futureis with
the younger men, but meantime the
feeling is strong.
Wendt is only forty-four and one
of the strong personalities of the
university. He was pupil and
friend of Albrecht Ritschl, whose
teaching he has accepted and, in some
points, elaborated. Heis best known
in America as the author of 1.-THE
Teaching Of Jesus" and the common.
tary on Acts in the Meyer series.
Wendt is man above medium height,
somewhat slender, quick and ner-
vous, wears full beard and dresses