POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 



049 



erations. Keep it and hand it on to coming 

 races, purified and ennobled if possible. 

 You have to maintain it, by each, in his 

 place, taking care that the body of German 

 students is worthy of the confidence which 

 has hitherto accorded such a measure of free- 

 dom. But freedom necessarily implies re- 

 fiponsibility. It is as injurious a present for 

 weak, as it is valuable for strong characters. 

 Do not wonder if parents and statesmen 

 sometimes urge that a more rigid system of 

 supervision and control, like that of the 

 English, shall be introduced even among us. 

 There is no doubt that, by such a system, 

 many a one would be saved who is ruined by 

 freedom. But the state and the nation is 

 best served by those who can bear freedom, 

 and have shown that they know how to work 

 and to struggle, from their own force and 

 insight and from their own interest in sci- 

 ence. 



My having previously dwelt on tho influ- 

 ence of mental intercourse with distinguished 

 men leads me to discuss another point in 

 which German universities are distinguished 

 from the English and French ones. It is 

 that we start with tho object of having in- 

 struction given, if possible, only by teachers 

 who have proved their own power of advanc- 

 ing science. This also is a point in respect 

 to which the English and French often ex- 

 press their surprise. They lay more weight 

 than the Germans on what is called tho 

 " talent for teaching" that is, the power of 

 explaining the subjects of instruction in 

 ft well-arranged and clear manner, and, if 

 possible, with eloquence, and so as to enter- 

 tain and to fix the attention. Lectures of 

 eloquent orators at the College de France, 

 Jardin des Plantes, as well as in Oxford and 

 Cambridge, are often the centres of the ele- 

 gant and the educated world. In Germany 

 we are not only indifferent to, but even dis- 

 trustful of, oratorical ornament, and often 

 enough are more negligent than we should 

 be of the outer forms of the lecture. There 

 can be no doubt that a good lecture can bo 

 followed with far less exertion than a bad 

 one ; that the matter of the first can be more 

 certainly and completely apprehended ; that 

 n well-arranged explanation, which develops 

 the salient points and the divisions of the 

 subject, and which bring* it, as it were, 

 almost intuitively before us, can impart more- 

 information in the same time than one which 

 has the opposite qualities. I am by no 

 means prepared to defend what is, frequently, 

 our too great contempt for form in speech 

 and in writing. It cannot also bo doubted 

 that many original men, who have done con- 

 siderable scientific work, have often an un- 

 couth, heavy, and hesitating delivery. Yet I 

 have not infrequently seen that such teach- 

 ers had crowded lecture-rooms, while empty- 

 headed orators excited astonishment in the 

 first lecture, fatigue in tho second, and were 

 deserted in the third. Any one who desires 

 to give his hearers a perfect conviction of the 

 truth of his principles must, first of all. know 



from his own experience how conviction is 

 acquired and how not. He must have known 

 how to acquire conviction where no prede- 

 cessor had been before him that is, ho must 

 have worked at tho confines of human knowl- 

 edge and have conquered for it new regions. 

 A teacher who retails convictions which aro 

 foreign to him, is sufficient for those pupils 

 who depend upon authority as the source of 

 their knowledge, but not for such as require 

 bases for their conviction which extend to \/ 

 the very bottom. 



You will see that this in an honorable con- 

 fidence which the nation reposes in you. 

 Definite courses and specified teachers are 

 not prescribed to you. You aro regarded as 

 men whose unfettered conviction is to be 

 gained ; who know how to distinguish what 

 is essential from what is only apparent ; who 

 can no longer be appeased by an appeal to 

 any authority, and who no longer let them- 

 selves be so appeased. Care is also always 

 taken that you yourselves should penetrate to 

 the sources of knowledge in so far as these 

 consist in books and monuments, or in ex- 

 periments, and in the observation of natural 

 objects and processes. 



Even the smaller German universities have 

 their own libraries, collections of casts, and 

 the like. And in the establishment of labora- 

 tories for chemistry, microscopy, physiology, 

 and physics, Germany has preceded all other* 

 European countries, who are now beginning* 

 to emulate her In our own university we 

 may in the next few weeks expect the open- 

 ing of two new institutions devoted to in- 

 struction in natural science. 



The free conviction of the student can only 

 bo acquired when freedom of expression is 

 guaranteed to the teacher's own conviction 

 the liberty of teaddng. This has not always 

 been insured, either in Germany or in tho 

 adjacent countries. In times of political and 

 ecclesiastical struggle tho ruling parties havo 

 often enough allowed themselves to encroach ; 

 this has always been regarded by the Ger- 

 man nation as an attack upon their sanctu- 

 ary. The advanced political freedom of the 

 new German Empire has brought a cure for 

 this. At this moment, the most extreme con- 

 sequences of materialistic metaphysics, the 

 boldest speculations upon the basis of Dar- 

 win's theory of evolution, may be taught in 

 German universities with as little restraint as 

 the most extreme deification of papal infalli- 

 bility. As in the tribune of European parlia- 

 ments it is forbidden to suspect motives or 

 indulge in abuse of the personal qualities of 

 our opponents, so also is any incitement to 

 such acts as are legally forbidden. But there 

 is no obstacle to the discussion of a scientific 

 question in a scientific spirit. In English 

 and French universities there is less idea of 

 liberty of teaching in this sense. Even in 

 the College do France the lectures of a man 

 of Benan' s scientific importance and earnest- 

 ness are forbidden. 



I have to speak of another aspect of our 

 liberty of teaching. That is, the extended 

 sense in which German universities hare ad- 



