686 FOUNDING OF THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 



classical philology and history were represented as well as mathematics 

 and a part of the natural sciences; and pliilosophy in the restricted 

 sense being added, this faculty gave clearest exin-ession to the uni- 

 versality of academic instruction. The philosophic faculty was the 

 microcosm, as it were, of the universitas. The other faculties were in 

 this way forced into the position of specialty schools ; even the medical 

 faculties, though frequently they possessed chairs of chemistry, botany, 

 and naturiil history, not wholly escaping this descrij)tion. The more 

 sturdily philosophy in the narrow sense of the term developed, the 

 more it seemed the center, or in fact the culmination, of scholarly study. 

 Its method was adopted as the standard for all branches. 



Philosophy first developed to magnificent proportions in Halle. The 

 Elector Frederick III founded the university at Halle in 1094, as also 

 the Academy of Arts and of Sciences at Berlin, in order, as he said, to 

 "make a human being of man, to cleanse him of the filth of barbarism, 

 and give him a home on earth."' In Halle philosophy, for the first time 

 on German soil, obtained a preeminent position. Christian Wolf gath- 

 ered numerous disciples about him, and they quickly spread the new 

 manner all over Germany. Soon, however, he aroused the suspicions 

 of the orthodox. An address, " De i^hilosophia Sinensium morale," gave 

 the occasion for a cabinet order by Frederick William I, on November 

 15, 1723, removing him from his position and punishing him with 

 immediate banishment. Thus ended this first j)romising attempt. 

 The recall of Wolf by Frederick II in 1710 was unavailing to make 

 amends. 



The glory of having secured for philosojjhy a second and long period 

 of splendor fell to the share of the University of Kouigsberg, founded 

 by Duke Albert of Prussia in 1514, to be the high school of the uu adul- 

 terated Lutheran creed. But as early as the time of the great Frederick 

 it began to lose its theologic character. Immanuel Kant, who received 

 the professorship of logic and metaphysics in 1770, became the accepted 

 teacher of central Euroi)e ; through his agency criticism replaced dogma. 

 Notwithstanding this, his authority was recognized by the ecclesiasti- 

 cal schools; even the Catholic universities in the central provinces of 

 Germany sent him students designed to serve as teachers at home. 

 The rigidity of his moral system, the absolute validity of the categori- 

 cal imperative taught by him, formed the connecting link between two 

 views of life diametrically opposed to each other at every other point. 

 Frederick William III, who had been interested in Kant's works from 

 his crown prince days, and had entered into personal relations with 

 him during his East Prussian exile, esteemed at its full value his high 

 moral infiuence. Kant's successful career contributed not a little to the 

 strengtheningof the hopes cherished in Government circles in connection 

 with the establishment of a new university. 



These hopes centered in Fichte, one of Kant's disciples, who in fact 

 gtood godfather to our university, and at its very inception impressed 



