THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



263 



they there met with a powerful intellectual organisation, the 

 German university system, in which classical and philo- 

 sophical studies had elaborated the ideal of Wissensckaft 

 of science in the larger sense of the word. Gradually, 

 and not without opposition, the exact or mathematical 

 spirit was received into this system, and has since become 

 an integral portion of it. In England the older traditions 

 which clung to the two great universities, and the higher 



the whole movement can be de- 

 fined as an educational movement. 

 Whereas in Germany about a gen- 

 eration earlier the term Wissenschaft 

 gained the upper hand and governed 

 the intellectual life of the nation, 

 purely educational movements being 

 separated from it, in England the 

 purely scientific interest has never 

 gained the upper hand, and can 

 still complain of having nowhere a 

 full and complete representation. 

 Around the writings of Whewell as 

 a centre may be grouped those of 

 A. Sedgwick ('A Discourse on the 

 Studies of the University of Cam- 

 bridge,' 1833, 5th ed., 1850); Sir 

 Wm. Hamilton (articles in the 

 ' Edinburgh Review, ' reprinted in 

 'Discussions on Philosophy, &c.,' 

 1853) ; Sir John Herschel ('A Pre- 

 liminary Discourse on the Study 

 of Natural Philosophy,' 1831) ; 

 the criticisms of Lyell ('Travels 

 in North America,' 1845), and of 

 the ' Edinburgh,' ' British Quar- 

 terly,' and 'Westminster' Reviews 

 ('Edin. Rev.,' Ap. 1849, Jan. 1874, 

 'Brit. Quart.,' Nov. 1850, 'West. 

 Rev.,' Jan. 1855). Whoever desires 

 to gain an insight into the different, 

 frequently diametrically opposite, 

 considerations which moulded and 

 governed the reconstruction of the 

 German university system on the 

 one side, and on the other side 

 widened in England the older ideas 

 of university education, should com- 



pare the documents relating to the 

 foundation of the University at 

 Berlin in the beginning of this cen- 

 tury (collected by Rudolf Kopke, 

 ' Die Griindung der Koniglichen 

 Friedrich - Wilhelms - Universitat zu 

 Berlin,' Berlin, 1860) with the writ- 

 ings referred to in this note, and 

 centering in Whewell's pamphlets 

 and essays. The personification of 

 the German scheme was Wilhelm 

 von Humboldt, of whom Bockh 

 said in his ' Logos epitaphios ' : " He 

 was a veritable statesman, pene- 

 trated and led by ideas a states- 

 man of a Periclean greatness of 

 spirit. Philosophy and poetry, elo- 

 quence, historical, philological, lin- 

 guistic erudition, were fused in 

 him into undisturbed harmony and 

 wonderful symmetry." The re- 

 forming and revolutionary ideas of 

 Fichte, the classical ideals of Wolf, 

 the historical interests of J. Miiller 

 the historian, the literary interests of 

 Schlegel, the philosophical interests 

 of Schleiermacher, were combined by 

 Humboldt into a realisable scheme. 

 Stein said of him in 1810 : "Prussia 

 has intrusted the management of 

 her educational and scientific in- 

 stitutions to a man possessed of a 

 remarkable intellect and of great 

 firmness of character, and who 

 utilises these qualities in his sphere 

 of action with glorious loyalty " 

 (ibid., pp. 61, 62). 



