264 ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 



estimate which he places on his task will depend on 

 how far he is followed by the appreciation of a suffi- 

 cient number of, at any rate, his more intelligent 

 hearers. The influx of hearers to the lectures of a 

 teacher has no slight influence upon his fame and 

 promotion, and, therefore, upon the composition of 

 the body of teachers. In all these respects, it is 

 assumed that the general public opinion among the 

 students cannot go permanently wrong. The majority 

 of them who are, as it were, the representatives of 

 the general opinion must come to us with a suffi- 

 ciently logically trained judgment, with a sufficient 

 habit of mental exertion, with a tact sufficiently de- 

 veloped on the best models, to be able to discriminate 

 truth from the babbling appearance of truth. Among 

 the students are to be found those intelligent heads 

 who will be the mental leaders of the next generation, 

 and who, perhaps, in a few years, will direct to them- 

 selves the eyes of the world. Occasional errors in 

 youthful and excitable spirits naturally occur ; but, on 

 the whole, we may be pretty sure that they will soon 

 set themselves right. 



Thus prepared, they have hitherto been sent to 

 us by the Gymnasiums. It would be very dangerous 

 for the Universities if large numbers of students fre- 

 quented them, who were less developed in the above 

 respects. The general self-respect of the students 



