396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the noisy Present, with all its glittering and dazing magnificence ? 

 Must we not, in the words of the " Schwalbenlied," exclaim, " Oh, how 

 remote from me is that which once was mine ! " In the revolution 

 which Germany has undergone within a generation, has not the good 

 been sacrificed as well as the evil ? Besides its vague longings, its 

 futile struggling, its uneasy doubts as to its own powers, has not the 

 German nation furthermore dropped somewhat of its enthusiasm for 

 ideals its unselfish striving after truth, its deep and quiet inner life ? 

 Like a dream the short-lived bloom of our literature has vanished. As 

 politics and natural science, with their harsh realities, have silenced the 

 delightful causerie of the Parisian salons, so here, too, have they given 

 poor entertainment to the descendants of the heroes of classic story 

 and of romance. Goethe himself, were he now a young man, would, in 

 all probability, leave " G5tz," and " Werther," and " Faust," unwritten, 

 and would rather practise in the Imperial Diet his power of public 

 oratory, diagnosed in him by Gall, but which, during his life, he tested 

 only w 7 ith the " birds of Malcesine." ' With all the splendor of German 

 science to-day, we painfully miss, in the rising generation, the noble 

 passion which alone guarantees the continuity of intellectual effort. 

 The recently reawakened liking of the Germans for philosophic specu- 

 lation simply proves the truth of the old saying 



" Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret ; " 



but it is not calculated to quiet our apprehensions, with regard to the 

 universally-diffused and rapidly-increasing indifference of our youth tow- 

 ard everything that they cannot see through and through, or that does 

 not bring money or advancement. 



[To be continued.] 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S ADDRESS AT THE HARVEY 



TRICENTENARY. 



MR. PRESIDENT : In attempting to fulfill the task you have im- 

 posed upon me, I am mindful that I address myself to an audi- 

 ence which is already familiar with William Harvey's claims to the 

 honor which we are assembled to show him. For, within these walls, 

 the memory of your illustrious Fellow and chief benefactor is kept pe- 

 rennially green by the customary piety of the speaker of the annual 

 oration which Harvey founded; and his merits have been placed before 

 you, with exhaustive completeness, by a long succession of able and 

 eloquent orators. Even if the time and place were fitted for a disqui- 

 sition on these topics, I could not hope to be able to add to the facts 



1 Birds in Aristophanes's sense. The allusion is not easy to explain in a few words. 

 (See Goethe's " Italian Journey.") 



