course, as a boy, attentively followed the course of the Crimean war,
which my French uncle, on one of his visits, had called the fight for
civilisation against barbarism, although it was a fight for Turkey! now,
as a student, I followed with keen interest the Italian campaign and the
revolt against the Austrian Dukes and the Neapolitan Bourbons. But the
internal policy of Denmark had little attraction for me. As soon as I
entered the University I felt myself influenced by the spirit of such
men as Poul Moeller, J.L. Heiberg, Soeren Kierkegaard, and distinctly
removed from the belief in the power of the people which was being
preached everywhere at that time. This, however, was hardly more than a
frame of mind, which did not preclude my feeling myself in sympathy with
what at that time was called broad thought (i.e., Liberalism). Although
I was often indignant at the National Liberal and Scandinavian terrorism
which obtained a hearing at both convivial and serious meetings in the
Students' Union, my feelings in the matter of Denmark's foreign policy
with regard to Sweden and Norway, as well as to Germany, were the same
as those held by all the other students. I felt no intellectual debt to
either Sweden or Norway, but I was drawn by affection towards the Swedes
and the Norsemen, and in Christian Richardt's lovely song at the
Northern Celebration in 1860, _For Sweden and Norway_, I found the
expression of the fraternal feelings that I cherished in my breast for
our two Northern neighbours. On the other hand, small as my store of
knowledge still was, I had already acquired some considerable impression
of German culture. Nevertheless, the increasingly inimical attitude of
the German people towards Denmark, and the threatenings of war with
Germany, together with my childish recollections of the War of 1848-50,
had for their effect that in the Germany of that day I only saw an
enemy's country. A violent affection that I felt at sixteen for a
charming little German girl made no difference to this view.