THE PRUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 179 



constant guest at his table, through whom he kept himself informed 

 as to the progress of science in Europe and the special needs of the 

 academy. He favored the new learning and the new methods of study, 

 but he did not favor radical measures in politics nor changes in the 

 creeds or in the methods of governing the church. Yet he brought 

 the Grimms, llaupt and Mommsen to Berlin, radical as he knew them 

 to be in their political opinions, and secured their election to the acad- 

 emy. From him came the money for the publication of the Latin 

 inscriptions and for the beautiful and complete edition in thirty vol- 

 umes of the works of Frederick the Great, Vol. I. appearing in 1846 

 and Vol. XXX. in 1856. He interested German scholars in Egyptian 

 research and made it possible, by private gifts, for Lepsius to spend 

 the years from 1842 to 1845 in the study of its monuments and its 

 curious learning. He helped Agassiz to come to America, Rosen to 

 go to the Caucasus, Petermann to Syria, Palestine and Arabia Petrea, 

 and Peters to South Africa. He aided Graff on his Old High Dutch 

 collection and Schwartze in his Coptic studies. He provided means 

 with which Dove pursued his meteorological researches and for the 

 establishment of institutes in connection with the universities for the 

 training of teachers. In 1842 he founded the order pour le merite 

 and the Verdun prize to be given once in five years for the best Ger- 

 man book issued during that period. It is interesting for Americans 

 to know that this prize was awarded to the late Professor von Hoist 

 for his 'Constitutional History of the United States.' And yet the 

 relation of the academy to the government was not quite so pleasant 

 as it had been during the ministry of Altenstein. The new ministers 

 were not all so profoundly convinced of the usefulness of the academy 

 as was the king, but they did not fail to aid it or cease to advise the 

 king to sustain it. At his death the great work on German inscrip- 

 tions, to which he had given much thought, was approaching completion. 

 In passing, it may be observed that the first written word ever sent 

 the academy by Mommsen was in a letter of thanks, dated April 2, 

 1843, for a grant of a little less than $120 for aid in his studies of 

 Latin inscriptions in and about Xaples. One of his last reports was 

 read in the academy in 1903. Xot only was the academy with great 

 difficulty persuaded to undertake the publication of the Latin inscrip- 

 tions, it was with still greater reluctance that it entrusted the gather- 

 ing and arranging of them to so young a man as Mommsen. He was 

 backed by men like Savigny and Lachmann, and the first installment 

 of his work proved even to those who had doubted it his fitness for 

 the undertaking. Yet it was not till seven years had passed, called 

 by Gerhard his 'seven years' war.' that Mommsen was finally given 

 entire control of the work, with power to choose his own assistants and 

 proceed in his own way. Meanwhile he had sent the academy 450 

 inscriptions, most of them copied with his own hand, 100 of which 



