120 IGNORABIMUS ET RESTRIXGAMUR. 



Berlin we may hope to be preserved ; in the first 

 place by the manifold differences and the many-sided 

 individuality of the German national spirit, the much- 

 abused German provincialism (Particularismus). While 

 these provincial modes of thought can never have any 

 permanent political value, nor be productive of a desir- 

 able form of government, it is beyond a doubt that 

 their outcome has been fruitful and happy for German 

 science. For it owes its splendid pre-eminence over 

 that of other countries precisely to the many centres 

 of culture which were offered by those numerous petty 

 capitals of the minor German States which strove to 

 outdo each other in eager emulation. It is to be 

 hoped that this happy decentralisation of science in 

 our politically united fatherland may continue to 

 subsist ! 



And next to this centrifugal tendency of our German 

 national mind nothing will so greatly contribute to 

 it as a vigorous opposition to the free advance of 

 science, such as is just now declaring itself in the 

 metropolis. For by just so much as Berlin is dragged 

 back by it in the mighty onward stream of free intel- 

 lectual movement, by so much will it see itself 

 outstripped by the other seats of culture in Germany, 

 which follow the stream with enthusiasm, or at least 

 without resistance. If Emil du Bois-Eeymond raises 



