E. T. A. Hoffmann on Ptolemy Philadelphus and the students in “Little Zaches”

O my dear reader, you have already noticed that one may be a great scholar and yet know nothing of the commonest phenomena, and on the strength of things known to the whole world indulge in the strangest of fancies. Ptolemaeus Philadelphus applied himself to the sciences and did not even know about students; describing to his friend an occurrence which in his head had turned into a rare adventure, he did not even know that he was in the village of Hoch-Jakobsheim, situated, as is well known, not far from the celebrated University of Kerepes. The good Ptolemaeus took fright on meeting the students, who were strolling cheerfully and carefree outside the town for their own pleasure. What terror would have seized him had he arrived in Kerepes an hour earlier and chance had led him to the house of the professor of natural sciences, Mosch Terpin. Hundreds of students, pouring out of the house, would have surrounded him, disputing noisily, and from this commotion, from this bustle, his mind would have been thrown into still stranger fancies.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Little Zaches, Called Cinnabar