A real abuse, however, is the perpetual dictation-system still used by some.  For these, the three worthies in profile on the title-page of old Elzevir editions are as if they had never existed; they teach as they have been taught, perpetuating the methods in use in the days of Abelard, when books were dearer than time.  All that has been said and written against the custom will do less towards abolishing it than the recent introduction of lessons in phonography, or stenography rather, which is now taught in several universities.  The question is agitated of introducing this study into the preparatory schools.  The system is different from the English or American, being based on the etymological nature of the language.  It is fast coming into use, though as yet not general.  The old slow delivery seems little better than spelling to those that have mastered it.  The students have usually special abbreviations of their own, and so find no difficulty in taking down all the important points, even when the utterance is rapid.

Not all, by any means, go through this labor of transcription.  Many of the wealthier and high-titled attend but irregularly, and when they do, are impatient listeners.  In Berlin may be seen many a youth who, from the exquisite fit and finish of his dress, if he be not an American just from Paris, must at least be a German count The young Graf plays with his lips on the ivory head of his bamboo, as he holds it with his kid-gloved hand, sitting carefully the while, lest the elbow of his French coat should be soiled by contact with a desk ignorant of duster for many a month.  He is condemned, however, to hear, day by day, over and over, many a truth that will scarcely flatter his noble ears.  The heft and the toil of writing down a lecture are unknown to him.  He pays a reasonable sum to some poor scholar who sits behind and copies it all afterwards, while he takes his afternoon-ride towards Charlottenburg, or saunters along Unter-den-Linden, ogling the pretty English girls, and spying every chance of saluting, whenever a royal equipage, preceded by a monkey-looking lackey, rolls by.  These are, of course, exceptions, rarer in the present than formerly.  In Padua, in the sixteenth century, it became notorious that the richer students never attended in person, but always sent one of their servants who wrote a good hand.  Laws were enacted to prevent the evil, yet long after this there were still many promotions of these paper-doctors.

Many, in taking their notes, abandon the German script as too illegible, and make use of the Latin letters.  A word or two on this subject, as connected with general education.  The German script, which any one may learn in a few hours, is a constant source of vexation to a foreigner.  To write, and write fast, too, is easy enough; but then to read one’s own handwriting, not to mention the crumpled notices of the professors tacked on the blackboard in the Aula, is almost