162 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



3. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion of the 

 German uni- 

 versities. 



It is not my intention to dwell on the history of the 

 German universities, on the gradual growth of the univer- 

 sity system ; though every stage in that history is interest- 

 ing and important if we wish to understand the inner work- 

 ing and usefulness of this great organisation. Neither do 

 I wish to do more than just mention, as an equally impor- 

 tant subject, the geography of the German universities ; 

 how through nearly fifty larger or smaller towns, in the 

 course of six centuries, learning and higher education have 

 been spread over the German-speaking countries of Europe. 

 These figures alone suggest the intricacy of the subject, 

 the many springs, the continual ebb and flow of the rising 

 tides of ideas, the many courses of thought, the many 

 schools of learning, the internal conflicts, the unavoidable 

 friction, the healthy competition and rivalry, the repub- 

 lican spirit, the impossibility of any creeping stagnation 

 of life, the absence of any lengthened tyranny of doctrine, 

 of an oppressive hierarchy, or of idols of opinion and 

 belief. I leave it to my readers to indulge in comparisons 

 easily suggested by these different aspects, to fasten upon 

 the strong and upon the weak points of this great system 

 of the German universities.^ What I wish to emphasise 



^ The migration of students as 

 well as of eminent professors from 

 one university to another is one of 

 the most important features of 

 German academic life. Thus we 

 find the imaginative tendencies of 

 the southern intellect represented 

 by Hegel and Schelling in philo- 

 sophy transplanted into the midst 

 of the encj-clopsedic and logical 

 sciences of the North, or into the 

 centre of industrial Switzerland in 

 the person of Vischer ; the theo- 

 logical criticism of the Tubingen 

 school wandering northward to 



Marburg and Berlin in Zeller ; and 

 the philological criticism of Gott- 

 fried Herrmann locating itself in 

 Zurich in his celebrated pupil and 

 biographer Kochly, and in Bavaria 

 through Thiersch. Jacobi came from 

 the lower Rhine to Munich, where 

 also Liebig formed a centre of mod- 

 ern scientific celebrities. Savigny 

 in Berlin and Thibaud in Heidel- 

 berg represent the historical and 

 philosophical schools of German 

 jurisprudence. Vienna for a long 

 time was the most celebrated Ger- 

 man training - school of practical 



