H. C. Andersen

O. T., a Danish Romance H. C. Andersen

There is a happiness which no poet has yet properly sung, which no lady-reader, let her be ever so amiable, has experienced or ever will experience in this world. This is a condition of happiness which alone belongs to the male sex, and even then alone to the elect. It is a moment of life which seizes upon our feelings, our minds, our whole being. Tears have been shed by the innocent, sleepless nights been passed, during which the pious mother, the loving sister, have put up prayers to God for this critical moment in the life of the son or the brother. Happy moment, which no woman, let her be ever so good, so beautiful, or intellectual, can experience?that of becoming a student, or, to describe it by a more usual term, the passing of the first examination!