THE PRUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 77 



lost materially through improvement in methods of education and a 

 deeper and truer spiritual life. Neither he nor his advisers would ad- 

 mit that there was no future for their suffering country. In spite of 

 losses of territory and of the choicest specimens of art and sculpture 

 in the museums, in spite of the fact that even the academy had been 

 robbed of its most valuable treasures, it was in this period that the 

 University of Berlin was founded and men of the highest attainments 

 obtained as professors and also as members of the academy. King and 

 people seemed to be determined to prove to the world that the spirit and 

 pride of Frederick the Great still ruled the Prussian heart. There 

 were some who desired a union of the university and the academy, but 

 of this plan the king did not approve, although he was not averse to a 

 very close connection between them. So far as they had ability for it, 

 he wished professors to work in the academy as well as in the university. 



Upon the whole, the king favored the academy, and although he did 

 not relieve it as it requested from the burden of Lambert's presidency, 

 he gave it the four secretaries it asked for, one for each class, and 

 allowed them to direct its work. Before the royal decree establishing 

 the university had been issued, Schleiermacher, Wulff, Schmalz and 

 Fichte, through their lectures, had really laid its foundations and be- 

 gun its work. At about this time (1810) Alexander von Humboldt 

 proposed a good many changes in the constitution and rules of the 

 academy, most of which were adopted. These changes sought to pro- 

 mote equality among the members and favored the reception of men of 

 high attainments rather than of large wealth or political influence. All 

 the desired changes, however, were not adopted until they were incor- 

 porated in the constitution of 1812. 



William von Humboldt became an honorary member of the academy 

 in 1806, when he was serving the government as ambassador in Borne, 

 and an active member in 1810. His entrance speech, limited to a few 

 words, is said by those who heard it to have been delivered in such 

 words as he only could use. As minister of instruction he had rare 

 opportunity, which he did not fail to embrace, to work for the interests 

 of the academy. It needed all the aid he could give. Financially it 

 was in great straits. Although Napoleon offered to send plaster casts 

 of the objects of art the French, army had carried away, there was 

 no money with which to pay the cost of transportation. Expenses as 

 planned by its members would have been nearly $25,000 a year. The 

 request for a grant to this amount, though some of the older members 

 looked grave and shook their heads, was not at all extravagant, con- 

 sidering the salaries the academy had to pay and the fact that it had 

 to provide for the support of the library, the observatory, the botanic 

 garden, the scientific collections, the care of the buildings, as well as 

 to meet many unexpected miscellaneous expenses. At this time it was 



