“Herr Settembrini, I am only a student as yet, I am just beginning.”

“Certainly. It is the beginning that is hard. But all work is hard, isn’t it, that deserves the name?”

“That’s true enough, God knows⁠—or the Devil does,” Hans Castorp said, and the words came from his heart.

Settembrini’s eyebrows went up.

“Oh,” he said, “so you call on the Devil to witness that sentiment⁠—the Devil incarnate, Satan himself? Did you know that my great master wrote a hymn to him?”

“I beg your pardon,” Hans Castorp said, “a hymn to the Devil?”