ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 



The professors have, however, the strongest motives 

 for securing to the faculty the best teachers. The 

 most essential condition for being able to work with 

 pleasure at the preparation of lectures is the con- 

 sciousness of having not too small a number of intelli- 

 gent listeners ; moreover, a considerable fraction of the 

 income of many teachers depends upon the number of 

 their hearers. Each one must wish that his faculty, as 

 a whole, shall attract as numerous and as intelligent a 

 body of students as possible. That, however, can only 

 be attained by choosing as many able teachers, whether 

 professors or docents, as possible. On the other hand, 

 a professor's attempt to stimulate his hearers to 

 vigorous and independent research can only be suc- 

 cessful when it is supported by his colleagues; 

 besides this, working with distinguished colleagues 

 makes life in University circles interesting, instructive, 

 and stimulating. A faculty must have greatly sunk, 

 it must not only have lost its sense of dignity, but also 

 even the most ordinary worldly prudence, if other 

 motives could preponderate over these ; and such a 

 faculty would soon ruin itself. 



With regard to the spectre of rivalry among Uni- 

 versity teachers with which it is sometimes attempted 

 to frighten public opinion, there can be none such if 

 the students and their teachers are of the right kind. 

 In the first place, it is only in large Universities that 



s 2 



