The system of student life in Germany with its duelling, its
associations into Korps, its festivals, and its rabid tenacity to
tradition, has frequently been pronounced ridiculous by European and
American writers, though it does not appear that those who laugh at it
have entered into Korps life themselves, even when they have resided
during a considerable time at a German University. There is, however,
much to be said in favour of its existence in the only country where it
has taken root as a permanent institution; and since it is necessary to
follow Greif's history from the time when he was still a student, some
explanation of a matter generally little understood may not be out of
place at this point.

Every one knows that a German University has no resemblance, even in
principle, with what English-speaking people generally understand by
the word University. The students do not live in communities, nor in
any set of buildings appropriated for their dwelling. The University,
so far as its habitation is concerned, means only the lecture-rooms.
Instructors and pupils live where they please and as they please,
according to their individual fortune or pleasure. The students are
differently situated from other members of society in one respect. They
are not amenable to the police for any ordinary offence, but in such
cases are brought before the University authorities, and are liable to
be confined in the University prison, attending the lectures belonging
to their course, during the period of their detention, for which
purpose they are let out and shut up again at stated hours. This
corresponds to some extent with the English system of 'gating.'

A very large body of young men, of various ages, find themselves almost