2S0 Baron Humboldt''s Speech at the opening of 



same field of science. It is the immediate, and therefore more 

 obvious interchange of ideas, whether they present themselves 

 as facts, opinions, or doubts. It is the foundation of friendly 

 connection which throws light on science, adds cheerfulness to 

 life, and gives patience and amenity to the manners. 



In the most flourishing period of ancient Greece, the dis- 

 tinction between words and writing first manifested itself most 

 strongly amongst a race, which had raised itself to the most 

 splendid intellectual superiority, and to whose latest descen- 

 dants, as preserved from the shipwreck of nations, we still con- 

 secrate our most anxious wishes. It was not the difiiculty of 

 interchange of ideas alone, nor the want of German science, 

 which has spread thought as on wings through the world, and 

 insured it a long continuance, that then induced the friends of 

 philosophy and natural history in Magna Graecia and Asia 

 Minor to wander on long journies. That ancient race knew 

 the inspiring influence of conversation as it extemporaneous- 

 ly, freely, and prudently penetrates the tissue of scientific opin- 

 ions and doubts. - The discovery of the truth without differ- 

 ence of opinion is unattainable, because the truth in its great- 

 est extent can never be recognized by all, and at the same time. 

 Each step, which seems to bring the explorer of nature nearer 

 to his object, only carries him to the threshold of new laby- 

 rinths. The mass of doubt does not diminish, but spreads 

 like a moving cloud over other and new fields ; and whoever 

 has called that a golden period, when difference of opinions, or, 

 as some are accustomed to express it, the disputes of the learn- 

 ed will be finished, has as imperfect a conception of the wants 

 of science, and of its continued advancement, as a person who 

 expects that the same opinions in geognosy, chemistry, or phy- 

 siology, will be maintained for Several centuries. 



The founders of this society, with a deep sense of the unity 

 of nature, have combined in the completest manner all the 

 branches of physical knowledge, and the historical, geometri- 

 cal, and experimental philosophy. The names of natural his- 

 torian and natural philosopher are here, therefore, nearly syno- 

 nymous, chained by a terrestrial link to the type of the lower 

 animals. Man completes the scale of higher organization. In 

 his physiological and pathological qualities, he scarcely pre- 

 sents to us a distinct class of beings. As to what has brought 



