THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
so far that one day Mme. Petit and her daughters asked me to visit him in his room, as he had come home the night before much intoxicated, and was now, it seemed, seriously ailing. I complied with this request at once and found my friend in that condition which at the German university is designated as a deep “Katzenjammer.” The young man confessed to me that he was heartily ashamed of his behavior, but he thought if I knew the cause of it I would not think so ill of him. Then he told me, with great gravity, that he had for some time tried to study the German philosopher Hegel, and he had found in his works many things that had tormented him with doubts as to the soundness of his own mind. Therefore he had tried to amuse himself, and as the Germans, of whom he believed that Hegel's philosophical works were their favorite reading, liked to drink beer, he had also made an effort to facilitate the Hegel studies by accustoming himself to the same beverage. The good boy talked so seriously and so honestly that I refrained from laughing, and assured him with equal seriousness that many a German, too, had nearly become insane in studying Hegel, and that the drinking of beer did not help them. Now, if Hegel, in the German language, produced such effects upon German heads, what effect could be expected upon my friend of a French decoction of Hegel? This seemed to quiet my good Provençal very much. I advised him now to give up Hegel, as well as the excessive drinking of beer, and to devote himself again to the study of medicine, like the well-behaved, serious, and diligent man he had been before. He promised this, and he did it really; and on the day of my farewell from Paris we took leave of one another with the sincerest regret. As this story may seem somewhat extravagant and improbable, I cannot refrain from concluding it with the assurance that it is literally true.
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