542 RELATIONS BETWEEN UNITED STATES AND GERMANY. 



have a favorable influence — such as good means of instruction of all 

 kinds, libraries, methods of intellectual interchange and others — 

 frequently aid in the bringing forward of men of intellectual force. 

 That is, however, easily explained. Given two muscles equally well 

 organized, the one will become more efficient that is given opportu- 

 nity to exercise and test itself, so if we take two equally endowed 

 brains the one will prove the most effective to which the best intel- 

 lectual nourishment and the most opportunity for exercise is afforded. 

 How many highly endowed heads have never attained their full 

 working j^ower because they were surrounded by barriers through 

 which they could not breaks Men of true genius, like Napoleon 1, 

 Shakespeare, Gauss, may perhaps overcome every obstacle and by 

 reason of their original creative force do without many things and 

 yet succeed, yet easily accessible aids will arouse and inspire many 

 capable men whose powers would otherwise remain obscure. 



If we now compare '" old " Europe, as we sometimes hear it called 

 over there, with the United States, we find that in both regions the 

 climatic factor is of the highest quality, although there are in western 

 North America wide areas unfavorably situated, yet there are very 

 large })ortions of the country that lie as favorably and are as well 

 formed as any part of Europe. The human type is the same, for, 

 indeed, all Europe has contributed of her best to form a large part of 

 the poj^ulation of the Union. The cultural appliances are similar 

 and in many respects better; America excels, as has been said, in 

 ease of their use and in their manifold character. With these ap- 

 pliances America will doul)tless develop in the course of time a high 

 average of capable men and women in all sj^heres of activity. The 

 advantage of such an intellectual support, equal to all the growing 

 demands of the great whole, is to be prized much higher than that of 

 an equal number of men of great corporeal strength, although I 

 certainly do not wish to undervalue such men ; there is no truer 

 saying than "Mens sana in corpore sano." The truth of this saying 

 has, however, been recognized in the education of American youth. 



It is by no means in the natural and technical sciences alone that 

 the Americans have distinguished themselves. From the excellent 

 work of H. Miinsterberg, professor of philosophy in Harvard Uni- 

 versity,* who is highly regarded on both sides of the ocean, we find, 

 together with the names of naturalists such as Audubon, Cope, Os- 

 borne, Marsh, Dana, Alexander Agassiz, Wolcott Gibbs, Rowland, 

 Newcomb, and Gould — the six last being all corresponding members 

 of our academy — the names of the political economists and jurists, 

 Charles Francis Adams and Sumner; of the historian of literature, 



a Miinsterberg, H., Die Amerikaner. Berlin, 1904. See especially Vol. II, 

 chap. 20. 



