601st ordinary GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COmnXTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, JUNE 3rd, 1918, at 4.30 p.m. 



The Cliair was taken by Professor H. Langhorne Orchard, M.A., B.Sc, 

 who explained the absence of Professor Margoliouth, and that the Council 

 had requested him to take the Chair instead of Professor Margoliouth. 



The Minutes of the Meeting l^eld on May 13th, 1918, were read, con- 

 firmed, and signed. 



The Chairman explained that, though Chancellor Lias was present, the 

 paper would b? read by Mr. F. J. Lias, son of the Chancellor. 



" GERMANISM:' By the Rev. Chancellor Lias, M.A. 



I HAVE asked leave of the Council to read a paper on Germanism 

 generally. I do not propose to make it altogether a scientific 

 paper, but largely a literary one. That is to say, I shall not 

 aim throughout at a categorical proof of what I say, but simply 

 give some general impressions of the facts drawn from a long 

 experience and not a little study. 



I have long felt that the way in which Germany has, during 

 my own recollection, been elbowed, or has elbowed herself, into 

 the front rank, and her taking the place in literature which, 

 in my younger days, was given to Italy, has not been altogether 

 a gain, and demands some explanation. I could not but feel 

 that the country of Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, Ariosto, Boccaccio, 

 and others too numerous to mention, could boast of a language 

 and literature far superior to that of Germany, though I have 

 not, unfortunately for myself, been able to give so much atten- 

 tion to Italian as to German literature. 



I ought not to leave the subject without mentioning the vast 

 superiority of Dante, in breadth of thought, in intense religious 

 and moral tone, in knowledge of history and fact, in power of 

 imaginative detail, combined with wondrous simplicity of 

 language, and in thorough independence of spirit, to any German 

 author I have come across. Tasso, again, although coming 



