The University lectures, as given by Professors Aagesen and Gram, were
appalling; they consisted of a slow, sleepy dictation. A death-like
dreariness brooded always over the lecture halls. Aagesen was especially
unendurable; there was no trace of anything human or living about his
dictation. Gram had a kind, well-intentioned personality, but had barely
reached his desk than it seemed as though he, too, were saying: "I am a
human being, everything human is alien to me."

We consequently had to pursue our studies with the help of a coach, and
the one whom I, together with Kappers, Ludvig David and a few others,
had chosen, Otto Algreen-Ussing, was both a capable and a pleasant
guide. Five years were yet to elapse before this man and his even more
gifted brother, Frederik, on the formation of the Loyal and Conservative
Society of August, were persecuted and ridiculed as reactionaries, by
the editors of the ascendant Press, who, only a few years later, proved
themselves to be ten times more reactionary themselves. Otto was
positively enthusiastic over Law; he used to declare that a barrister
"was the finest thing a man could be."

However, he did not succeed in infecting me with his enthusiasm. I took
pains, but there was little in the subject that aroused my interest.
Christian the Fifth's _Danish Law_ attracted me exclusively on
account of its language and the perspicuity and pithiness of the
expressions occasionally made use of.

With this exception what impressed me most of all that I heard in the
lessons was Anders Sandoee Oersted's _Interpretation of the Law_.
When I had read and re-read a passage of law which seemed to me to be
easily intelligible, and only capable of being understood in one way,
how could I do other than marvel and be seized with admiration, when the