... Hegel's own saying about his lectures is well known: One only of my pupils understood me, and he misunderstood me. George Bancroft, the historian, spoke of Hegel as a man of weak character, and Dr. Francis Lieber , who had been under his instruction, had the same opinion of him. In the days of the Napoleonic invasion of Germany, Lieber had gone into the field, with other young men of the university. When, re...