TEE PRUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 529 



Academy. Condorcet consented, but the new relation lasted only six- 

 teen months. 



It had at length become evident to all German scholars that their 

 academy needed new blood. Its men of fame were growing old. They 

 had done their work and had lost in a measure their ambition. The 

 king was growing old also. The changes so necessary and so greatly 

 desired came, but not till after a new king was on the throne. When 

 Frederick died, only five Germans belonged to the academy — Gleditsch, 

 Gerhardt, Eoloff, Walter and Schulze — and they had little influence 

 in its councils. It is not surprising that many felt that it was a 

 discredit to Germany that Germans should have so small a part in 

 determining the character and directing the work of one of their 

 representative institutions. It was time, men said, that Germans 

 should be at the head of a German academy of science. It had been 

 ruled long enough by absentees. Even Leibniz had resided in Hannover 

 during his presidency, though he had visited Berlin as occasion de- 

 manded and, being a German, had sought to develop the German spirit. 

 This had not been the case with Maupertuis, or d'Alembert, or Con- 

 dorcet. Hence the demand for such a reorganization of the academy 

 as would make it thoroughly German and representative of German 

 intellectual life. The change, so uniformly desired, was brought about 

 by one of its members, Minister von Hertzberg, who was made its 

 curator by Frederick William II. at the very beginning of his reign. 



Before passing to consider the history of the academy under the 

 successors of Frederick the Great, who died on August 17, 1786, and 

 in its distinctively German period, something should be said concern- 

 ing the contributions to learning and the new thought which its mem- 

 bers had made. There can be no question that the papers written by 

 the king, for the department of fine arts, and read by some one whom 

 he designated, are among the most valuable possessions of the academy. 

 This is one of the reasons which has led the academy within recent 

 years to prepare and publish a complete and worthy edition of his 

 writings. 



From the beginning the academy sought to advance science and 

 encourage sound learning in Germany. That this was so long done 

 under the direction of Frenchmen did not really affect the result. But 

 much as members of the academy were enabled to do for science and 

 literature through the publications and reports of the academy, they 

 did far more as individuals, and by private publications. Early in his 

 reign Frederick the Great expressed a wish that the members of the 

 academy would give the results of their studies and experiments to the 

 public in the shape of lectures, and, though this was not generally done, 

 lectures were given by Gleditsch, the botanist and the founder of 

 the botanic garden of Berlin, to the medical students, and, at the same 



VOL. LXIV. — 34. 



