Stage the second. My Schoolboy Years—1782, 1788. Schulpforta is an old monastic foundation, and many distinguished men have been educated within its walls. Here Ernesti laid the foundations of his profound and varied scholarship; here Klopstock meditated the first vast achievement of his country's muse; and here the young Fichte evinced early indications of the fiery qualities of that indomitable heart which, in the crucible of a life of many trials, were afterwards sublimated into the most abstract speculations of the brain. I could add many more names to these three, but it is not my purpose to write a history of this great institution; that has already been done both in prose and verse. All that I propose doing is, to recall a few reminiscences of Schulpforta in its more immediate connexion with my own comparatively insignificant self.
I cannot, however, refrain in this place from mentioning an incident, touching the last-mentioned of these eminent men, which occurred soon after I entered the school. It will perhaps give the reader a lively picture of the then condition of our little republic. I may remark that the system of fagging prevailed amongst us in its fullest extent—a practice which, though not without some advantages, is liable to very great abuses. However, if instances of extreme rigour on the part of the superiors frequently occurred, it also sometimes happened—as I am about to show—that condign vengeance was retaliated upon those who had reined with too tight a hand the junior section of the school. Fichte had quitted Pforta for the university a short time before I entered it, leaving behind him the reputation of a very strict disciplinarian. On one occasion he came down to visit us from Leipsic, where he was at that time a student. Never shall I forget the storm of retaliation for bygone scores with which his presence was hailed. He entered the hall while we were at dinner, and paid his respects to the tutor who was presiding. But no sooner had the scholar who had suffered under his tyranny, and who were now superiors themselves, caught a glimpse of him, than they began to shuffle with their feet and to drum upon the tables with all their might. The contagion spread like an electric shock, and a din arose almost sufficient, I thought, to have rent in twain the vaulted roof of the apartment in which we sat at meat. In vain our master entreated silence; in vain our visiter attempted, by assuming an imposing attitude, to bid defiance to the storm. His affected indifference and contempt only made us redouble our fierce vociferations. The tumult waxed louder and louder; and at length the boys, seeing that Fichte still kept his ground, began to pelt him with a shower of half gnawed bones. Our unwelcome visiter was then forced to give way, the teacher accompanying him to the door, by way of shielding him from the merciless bone-bombardment to which he was exposed. When our master returned, we prepared ourselves to receive a precious rating. and our consternation now kept us as quiet as our indignation just before had rendered us obstreperous. But he, knowing well what had given rise to this outburst of execration, contented himself with remarking, in a half humorous tone, " Well, perhaps, we ought not to have handled him quite so sharply," as if he himself had taken part in the rough reception which the quondam tyrant had met with at the hands of his victims.
When I was at Schulpforta our attention was restricted almost exclusively, and I think wisely, to the study of ancient classical literature. The schedule of school instruction is now-a-days enlarged, so as to comprehend the multifarious requirements, accomplishments, and languages of modern times. But I have great doubts whether this enlargement will be found conducive to the true interests of education, or to the effective cultivation of the human intellect. Natural and civil history, geography, physical science, and the modern languages—all these may be acquired at college or in after life; but no subsequent study can repair the want of an early and systematic grounding in the Greek and Latin tongues—an object not to be looked for, unless the whole undivided exertions of boyhood be directed to its attainment. The present popular method of instruction may give boys a smattering of many things, but it will give them, I fear, a thorough mastery of none.
Geissler was rector of the school
