ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 255 



in books and monuments, or in experiments, 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 laboratories for chemistry, 

 microscopy, physiology, and physics, Germany has 

 preceded all other European countries, who are now be- 

 ginning to emulate her. In our own University we may 

 in the next few weeks expect the opening of two new 

 institutions devoted to instruction in natural science. 



The free conviction of the student can only be 

 acquired when freedom of expression is guaranteed to 

 the teacher's own conviction the liberty of teaching. 

 This has not always been ensured, either in Germany 

 or in the adjacent countries. In times of political and 

 ecclesiastical struggle the ruling parties have often 

 enough allowed themselves to encroach ; this has 

 always been regarded by the German nation as an 

 attack upon their sanctuary. 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 Darwin's theory of evo- 

 lution, may be taught in German Universities with as 

 little restraint as the most extreme deification of Papal 

 Infallibility. As in the tribune of European Parlia- 



