ed more, those at Leipzig and Berlin, or those at Oxford.
There were intermediate years in Paris, but during my stay there I saw
but little of students and student life. I was too much oppressed with
cares and anxieties about my present and future to think much of
society and enjoyment. At Oxford, these cares had become far less, and
I could by hard work earn as much money as I wanted, and cared to
spend. In Paris, I was already something of a scholar and writer; at
Oxford I became once more the undergraduate.

This young society into which I was received was certainly most
attractive, though that it contained the germs of future greatness
never struck me at the time. What struck me was the general tone of
the conversation. Of course, as Lord Palmerston said of himself when
he was no longer very young, "boys will be boys," but there never was
anything rude or vulgar in their conversation, and I hardly ever heard
an offensive remark among them. Most of my friends came from Balliol,
and were serious-minded men, many of them occupied and troubled by
religious, philosophical, and social problems.

What puzzled me most was the entire absence of duels. Occasionally
there were squabbles and high words, which among German students could
have had one result only--a duel. But at Oxford, either a man
apologized at once or the next morning, and the matter was forgotten,
or, if a man proved himself a cad or a snob, he was simply dropped. I
do not mean to condemn the students' duels in Germany altogether.
Considering how mixed the society of German universities is, and the
perfect equality that reigns among them--they all called each other
"thou" in my time--the son of a gentleman required some kind of
protection against the son of a butcher or of a day-labourer. Boxing
and fisticuffs were entirely forbidden among students, so that there
remained nothing to a young student who wanted to escape from the
insults of a young ruffian, but to call him out. As soon as a
challenge was given, all abuse ceased at once, and such was the power
of public opinion at the universities that not another word of insult
would be uttered. In this way much mischief is prevented. Besides,
every precaution is taken to guard against fatal accident, and I
believe there are fewer serious accidents on the _mensura_ than in the
hunting-field in England. When I was at Leipzig, where we had at least
four hundred duels during the year, only two fatal accidents hap