CHAPTER XXXI 



MEN OF NOTE IN BERLIN AND ELSEWHEEE 1879-1881 



MY acquaintance at Berlin extended into regions 

 which few of my diplomatic colleagues explored, 

 especially among members of the university faculty and 

 various other persons eminent in science, literature, and 

 art. 



Writing these lines, I look &quot;back with admiration and 

 affection upon three generations of Berlin professors: 

 the first during my student days at the Prussian capi 

 tal in 1855-1856, the second during my service as minister, 

 1879-1881, and the third during my term as ambassador, 

 1897-1902. 



The second of these generations seems to me the most 

 remarkable of the three. It was a wonderful body of men. 

 A few of them I had known during my stay in Berlin as a 

 student; and of these, first in the order of time, Lep- 

 sius, the foremost Egyptologist of that period, whose lec 

 tures had greatly interested me, and whose kindly charac 

 teristics were the delight of all who knew him. 



Ernst Curtius, the eminent Greek scholar and historian, 

 was also very friendly. He was then in the midst of his 

 studies upon the famous Pergamon statues, which, by 

 skilful diplomacy, the German Government had obtained 

 from the Turkish authorities in Asia Minor, and brought 

 to the Berlin Museum. He was also absorbed in the exca 

 vations at Olympia, and above all in the sculptures found 

 there. One night at court he was very melancholy, and on 

 my trying to cheer him, he told me, in a heartbroken tone, 



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