Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/136

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tavern bearing the sign of the "Finch!" Thither towards evening the young painters, who work in the new capital, make a pilgrimage, as likewise do those who are seeking for employment.

Some years ago, about vesper time, there was sitting in the parlour of the said tavern, a young man with a most remarkable Asiatic countenance, and of a most suspicious looking character in the eyes of the police.

By the time he had called for his second tankard of ale, he had already engaged himself in earnest conversation with the most celebrated painters of history who were then in the room.

"I can easily conceive," said he, clapping his hand over his tankard, "I can now comprehend the reason, that true reflection and the interminable misticism of art and science must flourish in this city. Oh how well I shall now understand Schelling and Cornelius!—That pensive, melan-


    would convey but little information to the mind of what the real "Philister" life is; we must have been one of them in order to comprehend the speculative and metaphysical subjects which form the usual topics of conversation in a company of German students.