202 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



25. But it is my object at present not so much to dwell 



Spirit of ex- 



^researcu upon specific ideas or doctrines as on the growth, the 

 diffusion, and the general character of scientific thought, 

 as this has been established by the separate contributions 

 of the three nations in the course of the first half of our 

 century. I therefore cannot leave the subject of German 

 science without still more precisely noting the peculiar 

 character which scientific thought has assumed under 

 the influence of the German university system. As 

 we saw before, when the spirit of exact research, mainly 

 through the influence of the great French mathema- 

 ticians and physicists, became diffused in Germany, 

 and entered the pale of the German universities, it was 

 met there by that peculiar ideal of learning which the 

 German language terms Wissenschaft. This encounter 

 did not everywhere produce a favourable reception for 

 the new school ; but in the end it led, like every con- 

 troversy, to a firmer establishment of the true princi- 

 ples of research. The life of the German universities 

 had in the earlier centuries begun with classical studies ; 

 it had been reformed under the influence of the theo- 

 logical and juridical requirements of the Protestant 

 Governments ; and ultimately it had been entirely re- 

 newed under the influence of the classical and philo- 

 _ sophical studies centred in the fourth or philosophical 

 faculty. These classical and philosophical studies com- 

 bined to create the ideal of Wissenschaft, or science, in 

 the broadest sense of the word. This ideal formed the 

 central conception in the new scheme of a higher and 

 general education of the nation ; it accompanied the 

 great revival in art, poetry, and literature. In the 



