Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/124

 that of the benign Nathan of Sanct Goarshausen, under the shadow of the Loreley-rock, who welcomed every Franconian under his roof as an own child. Oh, how we reveled in the poetry of those friendships, which more than all else made youthful years so happy! The mature man should never be ashamed of the emotions that once moved him to wind his arm around his friend's shoulder and to dream of inseparable brotherhood. Thus I shall never be ashamed of the feelings which I showed as exuberantly as my companions, whenever at the close of the semester some members dropped out of our circle never to return, and when at leave-taking our glasses rang to the echo of the farewell song:

Even now I cannot listen to this song without a throb in my heart, for I see before me the dear fellows as their eyes filled at the moment of parting and they again and again embraced. Oh, these careless, sunny, university days, with their ideals and enthusiasms, their sentimentalities and their felicities! How soon they were to be overshadowed for me by the bitter earnestness of life! It was at the beginning of the winter semester of 1847-8, at Bonn, that I made the acquaintance of Professor Gottfried Kinkel—an acquaintance which for my later years became one of fateful consequence. Kinkel delivered lectures on literature and art-history, some of which I attended. I also participated in his course of rhetorical exercises. This brought me into close personal contact with him. He was at the time when I first