172 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the years 1817-20 to careful study of the material in the libraries of 

 Italy, Holland, Belgium and France as a preparation for his editorial 

 work, which began in April, 1821. Although it was decided as early 

 as 1817 that an edition of Grecian inscriptions should be published, 

 nothing was actually done to bring this about till 1826. Prior to this 

 last date it had become evident that it would not be enough to publish 

 inscriptions which had already appeared, as Zumpt proposed, or were 

 in the libraries, but that all of them must be copied anew from the ruins 

 and monuments on which they were found and then patiently studied 

 and criticized by the best scholars of the day. For defraying the cost 

 of this undertaking, a grant from the government was sought and 

 obtained. A third work of very great importance interested the acad- 

 emy and received a good deal of assistance from it, the Monumenta 

 Germanise. So important was this work that the Society for the 

 Study of Old German History was organized to care for it, a society in 

 which all German-speaking countries have shown an interest. A long 

 step forward was taken by the academy in 1821, when it secured a 

 printing-press of its own, with fonts of type in Arabic and Sanscrit 

 as well as in Greek, Latin and German. Of course, there were troubles 

 with the printer, but it was now possible for the academy to watch 

 closely its own work and to send it out into the world in such shape 

 as it desired. Henceforth the 'Transactions' or 'Proceedings' ap- 

 peared in a greatly improved form. 



There were many serious discussions among the members of the 

 academy as to the wisdom of retaining four distinct classes, each with 

 its own special secretary or director. Some like Schleiermacher wished 

 the number reduced. He did not care to have the philosophical class 

 continued. He and its members preferred to be in the historical class. 

 Others thought science had been neglected, although as many men 

 prominent in its various branches as could be persuaded to come 

 to Berlin had been invited thither as members of the academy or as 

 professors in the university. Minister Altenstein in 1820 sent an 

 order to the academy to put a statement of the changes it desired into 

 writing, but with the understanding that the philosophical class would 

 be retained, and the historical class, if possible, be made more efficient. 

 That meant that the four classes would be continued substantially as 

 they were. 



Meanwhile the government had grown suspicious of Schleiermacher 

 and Savigny. They were looked upon as 'demagogues and spies.' 

 The police were ordered to listen to Scheiermacher's sermons. William 

 von Humboldt was dismissed from the cabinet as Cultus minister be- 

 cause of the liberality of his views, and the academy was rebuked for 

 publishing such papers as those of Niebuhr. A decree was issued on 

 October 19, 1819, by order of the king, which forbade any member of 

 the academy to publish anything, whether literary or scientific, without 



