50 JTitj Germans, (Essmrs, rmfo Sebicfos. [m. 



education which leads to perfection in such elegancies 

 is alone to he called culture; while the facts of history, 

 the process of thought, the conditions of moral and 

 social existence, and the laws of physical nature, are 

 left to be dealt with as they may, by outside bar- 

 barians ! 



It is not thus that the German universities, from 

 being beneath notice a century ago, have become what 

 they are now the most intensely cultivated and the 

 most productive intellectual corporations the world has 

 ever seen. 



The student who repairs to them sees in the list of 

 classes and of professors a fair picture of the world 

 of knowledge. Whatever he needs to know there is 

 some one ready to teach him, some one competent to 

 discipline him in the way of learning ; whatever his 

 special bent, let him but be able and diligent, and in 

 due time he shall find distinction and a career. Among 

 his professors, he sees men whose names are known 

 and revered throughout the civilized world ; and their 

 living example infects him with a noble ambition, and a 

 love for the spirit of work. 



The Germans dominate the intellectual world by 

 virtue of the same simple secret as that which made 

 Napoleon the master of old Europe. They have declared 

 la carriere ouverte aux talents, and every Bursch 

 marches with a professor's gown in his knapsack. Let 

 him become a great scholar, or man of science, and 

 ministers will compete for his services. In Germany, 

 they do not leave the chance of his holding the office 

 he would render illustrious to the tender mercies of a 

 hot canvass, and the final wisdom of a mob of country 

 parsons. 



In short, in Germany, the universities are exactly what 

 the Hector of Lincoln and the Commissioners tell us the 



