IOO 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS AND 

 OF SCIENCE 



The importance of maintaining good 

 will between the scientific men and the 

 men of letters of the different nations 

 is so great that we are glad to have the 

 opportunity of printing here the re- 

 marks made by Professor Ileinrich 

 Morf at the opening of his winter 

 course at the University of Berlin. As- 

 translated for us by Miss Agatha 

 Schurz, Professor Morf said: 



"On the morning of the first day of 

 August I closed these lectures on the 

 history of French literature. All hope 

 of preserving peace had not yet vanished 

 at that hour, and I belonged to the op- 

 timists. My optimism, however, was 

 put in the wrong by the course of 

 events, and w-e are now living in a state 

 Of war. 



4 'The terrible conflict of arms is also 

 a, conflict of minds. Who could pride 

 liimself — if, indeed, it were a matter of 

 pride — on having preserved his perfect 

 composure! Even those who are not 

 directly involved in the strife of arms, 

 the neutrals, take sides spiritually and 

 morally. The whole world is divided 

 and torn into two great hostile camps. 

 The greater part of the Latin world is 

 our enemy. The intellectual bridges 

 which connect nations seem to have 

 been shattered, and across the yawning 

 abyss ugly and agitated words are fly- 

 ing back and forth. The worst civil 

 war is raging in the Republica littera- 

 rum, in the domains of science and art, 

 which at other times unite all man- 

 kind and make of them world-citizens 

 of a Civitas Dei. 



"But of that civil war of the world 

 let us not speak here. We have met for 

 a labor of peace. The appeal which we 

 teachers of German universities sent 

 out into a world torn by war begins 

 with the words 'We professors at Ger- 



many's universities serve science and 

 devote ourselves to a labor of peace.- 

 As soon as your teacher has ascended 

 this platform and has closed the door 

 of this lecture-room to the outer world, 

 we shall and must turn away our 

 thoughts for an hour from that which 

 day and night oppresses our hearts, 

 and we must compel our minds to con- 

 centrate on scientific work. The pas- 

 sions of the day must not enter here: 

 we will leave them behind us. Science 

 demands of us this act of self -discipline 

 and of self-control. Whoever does not 

 feel capable of it will not be able to 

 serve science or to enter into any close 

 relation to her; he will remain unsatis- 

 fied even in this lecture-hall devoted to • 

 her service. 



"I should like to speak to you here 

 of the French culture of the past, just 

 as I have always done since I first took 

 upon myself, thirty-five years ago, this 

 task in Bern, on the borderland of the 

 French and German languages. At 

 that time I referred to Goethe, as I do 

 to-day; for he has taught us that, with 

 sympathetic interest for the culture of 

 the Latin peoples, may be combined a 

 deep love for the Teutonic, for our own. 

 For all these years I have spoken to 

 German youth of these Latin subjects 

 with a feeling born of respectful re- 

 gard for what is foreign to us, and of 

 love for what is our own. That they 

 appreciate what I have done they have 

 kindly proved to me, even in these 

 dreadful days, when friendly notes from 

 writers personally unknown to me have 

 reached me from the western front, ex- 

 pressing grateful remembrance of the 

 hours when they had here studied 

 French culture with me. 



' ' The purely scientific character of 

 these lectures, therefore, will not be 

 changed. I should like, as heretofore, 

 to train your minds to a scientific mode 



