Setting aside the Austrian universities, which are no longer what they were formerly, the teaching in these higher schools, whatever the State restrictions may be, is eminently free,—­freer than in France,—­freer than in England,—­in many respects even, however it may sound, freer than in the United States.  As a result, the land is a hot-bed of the boldest philosophical systems and the wildest theological aberrations.  There is no branch of speculation that does not find its representative.  In law, in medicine, in philology, in history, the old methods of study and research have been revolutionized.  But the State stands before the innovators, firm and conservative in its practice.  And in the end it has been found, that, whatever wild theories may spring up in theology and in philosophy, the corrective is nigh at hand, and truth will make its way when the field is open to all.

It must be remembered that the German university is no preparatory school; those who enter it have gone through studies and a mental training that have made them capable of judging for themselves.  They hear whom they please.  Their chief study, whatever they acquire in the lecture-room, is done when alone.  They attend on an average for three or four hours a day, spending as much time in the libraries, from which they have the privilege of taking out books.  As a completion to their lectures, the professors generally have Seminaren once or twice a week, or Exercitationes in history, philology, etc., in which the Socratic method of teaching in dialogue is made use of.  Museums and scientific collections are richly provided in the larger institutions.  In some of these lectures are held:  thus, Lepsius explains Egyptian archaeology in the Egyptian halls in Berlin.  The libraries provided by the State, and to which all have access, are often considerable:  thus, Goettingen has 350,000 volumes; Berlin, 600,000; Munich, 800,000.

As for the expenses of study, they are inconsiderable; thirty or thirty-five dollars the term will cover them, as there are generally several courses public.  The students often attend for months as guests, hospitanten.  As they say,—­“The Fox pays for more than he hears, and the Bursch hears more than he pays for.”  The lecturers take no notice of those present; and, provided the matriculation-papers have been taken out, the beadle has nothing to say.  There is the fullest liberty of wandering from room to room, and hearing, if only once or twice, any one of the professors.  As for the expenses of living, they vary.  To one who would be satisfied with German student-fare and comforts, four hundred dollars a year will answer every purpose, even in the dearest cities:  many do with much less.  In Southern Germany, life is simpler and cheaper than in Northern, and the saying is true in Munich, that a Gulden there will go as far as a Thaler in Prussia.  There are poorer students, who are exempted from college-fees, and support themselves by Stipendia, whose outlay never exceeds a hundred dollars a year.