THE SCIENCE OF THE PRESENT PERIOD. 29 



of the societies and institutions associated with it. The opinion that 

 its influence was never greater than at this moment will be fully con- 

 firmed by the creditable series of these reports. 



The first of all the academies, that Platonic one of which Herr 

 Curtius lately gave an eloquent sketch in this place, arose in a free 

 state. Since its birth no republican commonwealth has brought forth 

 a lasting and important work of the kind. According to M. de Can- 

 dolle's statistics, Switzerland has, from the middle of the last to the 

 middle of the present century, contributed, relatively, the largest con- 

 tingent of the foreign and corresponding members of the Paris and 

 Berlin Academies and of the Royal Society ; it has itself not founded 

 any academy. The origin of the Royal Society is lost in the storms of 

 the Commonwealth ; but it was not Cromwell's Puritans who prepared 

 a place for human knowledge, and the name of the young society be- 

 trays the effort to lean upon monarchical institutions. That popular 

 rule is not kindly to academies is shown by Bailly's and Lavoisier's 

 bloody heads, and by Condorcet's sad end. Certainly there would be 

 no place for the Academy in a social democratic state, which recognizes 

 no principle but that of common utility. 



Not only because in Prussia crown and state have always been 

 one does our body, maintained, protected, and supported by the state, 

 bear the title of royal with better right than many so-called learned 

 societies. None of them have had so close relations to the ruling 

 house. The Hohenzollerns' own peculiar creation, borne on the hands 

 of Prussia's kings through good and evil times, the Berlin Academy 

 has likewise numbered the greatest among its fellow-workers. Grate- 

 ful expressions of thanks have often been given here for these recol- 

 lections ; to-day a word appears to be in place which it is our proud 

 prerogative to speak. 



To praise the Emperor William, as the victorious hero, the restorer 

 of the empire of the German nation, the arbiter of the Continent, the 

 mighty warrior and the real prince of peace, as one of the most re- 

 markable figures described by history, is the task of others. It is for 

 us to say, what finds but a slight echo in the world, but what signifies 

 to the minds of those who are interested in affairs of the intellect an- 

 other laurel-leaf in his crown, that in this culmination of his life, in 

 the pressure of so important affairs of state, under the load of such 

 consuming cares, in the grasp of such world-stirring questions, the 

 Emperor William, true to the spirit of his house, has always had a 

 friendly, open ear for his Academy of Sciences. 



