To whom shall first our thanks be pealed? To God's most high and wondrous name, Who in our shame's long night revealed, Arose before us all in flame. Who blasted all our foes' disdaining; Our strength and beauty all restored; Who on the stars for ever reigning, Sits there from age to age adored.
Our second wish--to whom then flies it? To Fatherland's high glory whole. Perdition seize all who despise it, Hail! he who yields it life and soul! Through virtues pass it still be-wondered; Beloved for honesty and right, Proud from year-hundred to year-hundred, In strength and honour ever bright.
To joys of German men,--a measure! One third--in clearer joy and thanks; For freedom is the German pleasure; For freedom leads our German ranks. For it to live, for it to perish,-- Each German bosom burns for this; For this the hero-death to cherish, Is German honour, German bliss.
The fourth--in solemn consecration,-- Hands, hearts aloft together go! Thou ancient truth--and of our nation, Thou faith, united--"live ye hoch!" With these all doubts and fears we banish, These of our bond are rock and shield; The world indeed itself must vanish, When men their plighted word shall yield.
Close in,--the sacred circle throng now, And raise the clash of triumph strong; From heart to heart, from tongue to tongue now, Like lightning send this joyful song:-- The Word that knits our bond for ever; The Good no fiend can from us rend,-- Nor tyrant villany can sever,-- Believe!--maintain it to the end!
The afternoon and evening were dedicated by them to joyous entertainment at the Feurstenkeller, and with testimonies of love and respect towards their teachers, that remarkable and distinguished day terminated. The sacred celebration of the peace-festival on the part of the university, was held on Sunday, the 21st February. The church service itself was very simple, but highly solemn, and worthy of the high thoughts which the celebration of such a day could not fail to call forth. There remained nothing to desire, but that the noble spirit and sterling sentiments which had every where displayed themselves so luminously on that day, should continue to be the universal ruling ones.
So details a newspaper of the time, the celebration of this beautiful festival. But the concluding wish found not its fulfilment in the following year--for in the year 1817 was held the festival on the Wartburg; in the next year the congress of the Burschenschaft at Jena; and in 1819 transpired the bloody deed of Sand, a warning sign of the progress of political fanaticism from its innocent commencement, to that act which found its just reward on the scaffold.