22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tures which might in our time, alas ! have greatly benefited us ; and 

 the more rare are phenomena which surpass mediocrity. 



To these dubious prognostications for science is added the view of 

 the transformation of human life by the later development of indus- 

 trial art, which is taking place on a far grander scale than that which 

 was inspired by the discovery of America and the inventions of gun- 

 powder and printing. The abundance of means and of forces brought 

 into play by this agency reacts through innumerable concatenations 

 on all circles and levels of society, and the final victory of utilitarian- 

 ism, whose precepts, moreover, were always clear to the multitude, 

 seems near. 



Thus an evil time is foreboded for pure science, without any defi- 

 nite hope for an immediate turn of the wheel. It is about as if one 

 lived in the midst of a gradual, constant, self -completing change, such 

 as the earth used to suffer in primitive geological times, when, in the 

 course of physical, geographical, and climatic alterations, one so-called 

 period of creation gave way to another, and as if the past of the per- 

 ishing creation fell to us. The academies would then represent, as it 

 were, transitional forms between the earlier and the new creation, with 

 the excuses for their existence growing continuously more doubtful, 

 just as we may find examples of a similar character in the vegetable 

 and animal kingdoms. In fact, one does not need an ear of extraordi- 

 nary delicacy to hear the jealous questions : For what are those stiff 

 figures in the midst of the rushing life-stream that does not regard 

 them ? Of what use is a golden book in the midst of the general 

 Democritizing ? or, to pronounce the catch- word of the times, why a 

 ring of scholars ? Such are the terms in which a modern Heraclite 

 an adept in that worldly wisdom culminating in pessimism, which is 

 praised as the newest phase of German philosophy, might express him- 

 self to-day. We Berlin Academicians may, perhaps, be permitted to 

 adhere to the optimism of our founder. 



To judge correctly concerning the present position of science, of 

 the single observer and the learned bodies, one must betake himself, as 

 it were, to a height above the clatter of the individual combats, whence 

 he can watch the course of the battle, the grouping of the advancing 

 masses, the closing circle of victory, and the unfolding of tbe j)Ian ; 

 and a modern popular contest is harder to view comprehensively than 

 a Homeric skirmish. From a proper point of view is observed the 

 comforting, exalting opposite of that which, only partially beheld and 

 imperfectly comprehended in the narrower circle of vision, was before 

 lamented. Never was science, remotely viewed, so rich in the sub- 

 limest generalizations. Never did it represent a more magnificent 

 unity in its objects and its results. Never did it advance more rap- 

 idly, with a more definite consciousness of its purposes, and with 

 mightier methods, and never did a more active co-operation exist 

 between its different branches. And, finally, never had academies 



