i6 pi<i-;sij>i-;.\t's addrkss. 



of Berlin, has written admitting that the form of the letter 

 signed in August, i()i4, by 93 scholars and artists was written 

 in the patriotic exuberance of the first weeks of war. and say- 

 ing that the letter did not show the real sentiments of the signa- 

 tories. He adds that he is firmly convinced that there are 

 moral and intellectual regions which lie beyond this war of 

 nations, and that ]H"rsonal rcs])cct for the citizens of an enemy 

 State is perfecth; compatible with glowing love and intense 

 work for one's own countr)-. This is a statement which recalls 

 the earlier days, graj^hicall) and sympathetically described by 

 Dr. Merz in his I/islory of liitrupcan llioiighf in the Nhictcenth 

 Coitiirx, written in the first decade of this century. " The pur- 

 suit of truth and the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, 

 as an ennobling and worthy occupation, has. during a large 

 portion of otu^ century, been the life-work of professors and 

 students alike in the (jerman universities. In the biograi)hies 

 of many of them we meet with that self-dcni.al and elevation 

 of spirit which is the true characteristic of every unseltish 

 human effort. . . . (Jnce. at least, has science, the ])ursuit 

 of pure truth and knowledge, been able to raise a large portion 

 of mankind out of the lower region of earthly existence into an 

 ideal atmosjjhere. . . . We may. perha])s. have to admit 

 with regret that this phase is passing away under the influence 

 of the utilitarian demands oi the present day; we may be 

 forced to think that another — and, we trust, not a lower — 

 ideal is held up before our eyes for this and the coming age. 

 But no really unselflsh ettort can perish, and whatever the duty 

 of the future may be, it will have to count among the greatest 

 bequests of the immediate i)ast that high and broad ideal of 

 science which the life of the German universities has traced 

 in clear and indestructible outlines." 



It was, perhaj^s, the natural rebound froni the praise which 

 used to be uttered over everything (lerman in science and the 

 deference which used to be paid to the great claims of the 

 Germans themselves that made many British scientists rush, 

 when the war broke out, to explain how little Germany had 

 done in the great pieces of research in science, and how its 

 forte had been to cari) on research when the way had been 

 opened by others. For instance, Sir William Ramsay* wrote, 

 " The ( ierman race has had an honourable share in the pro- 

 gress of science; but their influence has not been i)reponderat- 

 ing; and with some brilliant exceptions their scientiflc men 

 have rather amplified in detail the work of the inventors of 

 other nations. .Such work is very useful, and is l)v no means 

 to be decried; but it ])artakes rather of tin character of that 

 of the organ-blower, contrasted with that of the organist." 

 This attitude is, frankly, unworthy of distinguished scientists, 

 and it is one which has been modified bv time: the stream of 

 articles in newspapers and magazines tending to show that 



* Quarterly Review, April, 1915. 



