30 MEMOIR OF 



Denmark, Holland, England, and Poland, point out 

 the way to other strangers in succeeding years, so 

 that by turns every part of Germany may enjoy 

 the effects of scientific communication with the dif- 

 ferent nations of Europe. 



" But although I must restrain the expression of 

 my personal feelings in presence of this assembly, I 

 must be permitted at least to name the patriarchs 

 of our national glory, who are detained from us by 

 a regard for those lives so dear to their country ; — 

 Goethe, whom the great creations of poetical fancy 

 have not prevented from penetrating the arcana of 

 nature, and who now in rural solitude mourns for 

 his princely friend, as Germany for one of hex 

 greatest ornaments ; — Olbers who has discovered 

 two bodies where he had already predicted they 

 were to be found ;— the greatest anatomists of our 

 age — Soemmering, who, with equal zeal, has inves- 

 tigated the wonders of organic structure, and the 

 spots and facidae of the sun, (condensations and 

 openings in the photosphere) ; Blumenbach, whose 

 pupil I have the honour to be, who, by his works 

 and his immortal eloquence, has inspired everywhere 

 a love for comparative anatomy, physiology, and 

 the general history of nature, and who has laboured 

 diligently for half a century. How could I resist 

 the temptation to adorn my discourse with names 

 which posterity wiU repeat, as we are not favoured 

 with their presence ? 



" These observations on the literary wealth of 

 our native country, and the progressive development 



