*T^ 
 
 Hi 
 
 GERMANS 
 
 nV THE 
 
 EEV. FATHER DIDOX 
 
 OF THE ORDER OF PREACHING FRIARS 
 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 
 KAPHAEL LEDOS DE BEAUFORT, LL.B. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIV 
 
 All Ilights reserved
 
 In compliance uiih current 
 
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 l^roducts prockicecl this 
 
 replacement xolume on pa|)er 
 
 that meets tiie ANSI Standard 
 
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 APPROBATION OF THE ORDEE. 
 
 By the coniniand of the Very Ptev. Father Faucillon, 
 Provincial Director of the Preaching Friars of the 
 province of France, we have examined the work of 
 the Ptev. Father Didon, entitled ' The Germans.' 
 We consider it worthy of publication. 
 
 Fr. Paul Monjaedet, 
 
 Preacher- General. 
 
 Fr. Ceslas Bayonne, 
 
 Bachelor of Divinity. 
 Paris, December 1882. 
 
 Imjorirn at ur — 
 
 Fr. Thomas Faucillon, 
 
 Provincial Director. 

 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 As the result of personal observation, this work, 
 notwithstanding unavoidable shortcomings, may 
 afford some interest to the reader. 
 
 That w^hich I have seen, I describe faith- 
 fully ; that which I have felt, I frankly express. 
 Neither in her press, the organ of public opinion, 
 nor still less in her foreign policy, does Ger- 
 many conceal her implacable hostility to France. 
 I, nevertheless, wish to speak of her without 
 disparagement, as I endeavour to judge my 
 own country without flattery, and without self- 
 deception. 
 
 Passionately loving France, I wish to serve 
 her dispassionately. 
 
 I know her worth, and am heartily ambitious 
 of her glory and her primacy. The misfortunes
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of my country, Ler disasters, her faults even, 
 have not caused me to doubt of her. My 
 patriotism has preserved my faith in her pro- 
 vidential mission ; and the unparalleled con- 
 vulsions of the century through which she has 
 just passed have not destroyed one atom of my 
 hope in her future. 
 
 December 1883.
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Ix the present strained relations existing be- 
 tween Great Britain and Germany, a careful 
 and impartial study of the manifold causes 
 which brought to life and developed the out- 
 burst of national activity that resulted in the 
 unity of Germany and the creation of the 
 mighty Empire which has so suddenly risen in 
 Central Europe, and so powerfully disturbed 
 the European equilibrium, may not be devoid 
 of interest for the British public. This is why 
 I now take the liberty of bringing before them 
 the translation of a work which, on the Con- 
 tinent, is causing cjuite a sensation. Though 
 a Frenchman, Father Didon's judgment and 
 power of observation have not been prejudiced 
 by his patriotism, an error so common nowa-
 
 X TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 days ; and though relating to an enemy, his 
 observations are throughout just, devoid of 
 chauvinism (that great plague of international 
 relations, too often, alas ! mistaken for patriot- 
 ism), and not likely to give umbrage to any 
 impartial judge. 
 
 As regards the translation itself, I have en- 
 deavoured, to the best of my ability, to convey 
 in their entirety the observations and the criti- 
 cisms of the author, my aim being to secure a 
 faithful rendering of the author's work, as far 
 as lay in my power as a foreigner ; and though 
 the literary merits of my translation may be 
 few, I sincerely trust the public will grant me 
 their indulgence, which I humbly request. 
 
 I think it but just to mention, that in my 
 undertaking I have been greatly assisted by 
 my friend Mr P. Varnals. 
 
 RAPHAEL LEDOS DE BEAUFORT. 
 
 London, October 1884.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Departure for Germany— Modern criticism — Matriculation in 
 Berlin University — Patriotic duty of publishing these 
 observations, ...... 
 
 II. 
 
 Antagonism between France and Germany — German chauvin- 
 ism — Its national ambition — Its mysterious origin — Its 
 onslaught on Europe, . . . . . 
 
 Ill 
 
 What first strikes one in Germany — The barrack and the 
 school — France the enemy ! — Germany and Prussia— Ger- 
 mans and Slavs — Military power in Germany — AVhat 
 Germans take pride in — Their army and their universi- 
 ties — Testimony of Dr Düllinger, . . . ,11 
 
 IV. 
 
 The temperament of nations — National genius — Indelibility of 
 races — Duality of the German brain : scheming and 
 dreaming ; positivist and active — The Italian brain, 
 practical and diplomatic ; the French, rational and im- 
 pulsive ; the German, bicephalic — Influence of brain- 
 duality upou the history of Germany, . . .21
 
 Xll CONTEXTS. 
 
 V. 
 
 Moral character of the German — His complexity — His perse- 
 verance — Frankness and reserve — Spirit of discipline — 
 Calm and orderly even in his excesses — Scene from a 
 students' banquet — Respect of hierarchy — Love of the use 
 of titles in civil life — Independence, . . .33 
 
 VI. 
 
 Public instruction and modern civilisation — The greatest 
 nation that where the organ of public instmction most 
 perfect — Tliis seen in Germany — The three degrees of 
 public instruction — Superiority of the modern world over 
 the middle ages and antiquity — Primary education — 
 Superiority of Germany — Eeligion not repudiated by her 
 — Religious instruction obligatory for children — Spread 
 of elementary tuition under the influence of Christianity 
 and democracy — Religion a necessary phase for the evolu- 
 tion of the human species and of individuals, . . 41 
 
 VI I. 
 
 Secondary education since the Renaissance — Its essential object 
 — How the Germans understood it — Gymnasiums and 
 real schools — The study of classical languages in gym- 
 nasiums — Predilection of the Germans for the French 
 tongue — Their neglect of Slavonic languages — Alsatians 
 and Poles — The revenge of justice, . . .51 
 
 Till. 
 
 Secondary education continued — Its 'preparatory character 
 wisely preserved in Germany — Literary and scientific 
 provisions — Three French prejudices injurious to sec- 
 ondary education : false positivism, irreligion, spirit of 
 criticism and precocious culture — Origin of the last of 
 these prejudices — Its disastrous consequences, . . 5S 
 
 IX. 
 
 Religious instruction in the programmes of secondary educa- 
 tion — Its necessity understood by Germans —Disregarded
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 in France — Patriotic fears about a generation educated 
 without faith — Resources of French genius, indiscipline 
 superficial, docility fundamental, . . . .65 
 
 X. 
 
 The intellectual culture dependent upon higher educatign — 
 German universities, hotbeds of universal science — Their 
 number and vitality — A university town — The hard- 
 working and merry-making student — The master — Fete 
 of the corporations of students in a university town — 
 Intellectual movement — Ties existing between the various 
 universities — Debates between the professors, . . 70 
 
 XI. 
 
 University buildings — The student in the university — The 
 master's lecture — The student late in attendance — 
 University discipline — Administrative organisation of 
 the German university — Consideration enjoyed by the 
 universities: the brain of the country — The soul of 
 Germany chiefly revealed by them — German students at 
 the inauguration of the monument of Albrecht von Gräfe 
 in 1882, ....... 83 
 
 XII. 
 
 Associations of students in the university — Based upon 
 religion, science, patriotism, and warlike spirit — Types 
 of such corporations— The Allgemeine Deutsche Burschen- 
 schaft — Its principles — Its statutes — The scene of incor- 
 poration — Patriotic advantages of these associations — 
 The leading men of Germany brought up in them, . 97 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The great power possessed by universities in Germany only 
 understood by knowledge of high education there — 
 Superior education implies universal knowledge — What 
 it was in the middle ages, what it is with the modern 
 world — Modern institutions for higher education : high 
 schools and universities — Supremacy of high schools 
 — Their double character : specialism and utilitarian is iii 
 — Universities, refuges of universal and disintcrtsted
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 science — Necessity of both institutions — Example of 
 England — Danger for a country wherein special schools 
 are flourishing and universities are on the decline, . 106 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Universality of knowledge in German universities — The old 
 division of knowledge into four faculties still preserved : 
 theology, jurisprudence, medicine, philosophy — iloditica- 
 tion of the ordinance and spirit of the ancient plan — 
 Universal character of the faculty of philosophy — Grave 
 inconveniences of our superficial division of letters and 
 sciences — Deficiency in German universities — Necessity 
 of a fifth faculty, eco?io?fttca^, . . . .116 
 
 XV. 
 
 Isolation of theology in higher education in America, in 
 Russia, in Italy, in France — Researches into the causes 
 of this phenomenon — Due to the struggle between Church 
 and State — Grievous consequences — The lowering of 
 theology in France not recent — Talleyrand-Ferigord and 
 Diderot — Advantage of embodying theology in the organi- 
 sation of the university — Necessary discussion of philo- 
 sophical and religious questions — Training of the clergy 
 in the diocese of Rottenburg in Wiirtemberg, . . 125 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Freedom of German universities — Absence of programmes — 
 -Democratic grandeur of the title of Doctor — How uni- 
 versities in Germany maintain the unity of knowledge 
 — In France, unity of knowledge is purely adminis- 
 trative — Obligation of every student in Germany to 
 attend the lectures on history and philosophy, which 
 form the logical and practical unity of sciences — Import- 
 ance and deficiencies of our normal school, . . 135 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Obligation of a democratic society to maintain the unity of 
 knowledge, and to develop higher education among the 
 ruling classes— Attempts made in France towards the re- 
 form of higher education always coincide with political
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 changes — Xarrcwness of the proposed systems — Special- 
 isatioa and intolerance — Sterility and danger of party 
 politics in the organisation of education — Influence of 
 public education on the character of a people — The three 
 princii)les which in France dominate the whole problem 
 of public education, . . . . .146 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Reigning ideas among university youth — No politics — Love of 
 the Fatherland — Passion for German unity — Theologians 
 and soldiers — Anti-Slavs and anti-Semitists — The masters 
 in philosophy — The three geniuses which rule over German 
 thought — The history of philosophy — History applied to 
 all sciences — Geography and patriotism — Ancient philol- 
 ogy — Religious sciences — Their activity — Religious belief 
 among German youth, . . . . .159 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Organisation : characteristic feature of contemporary Germany 
 — Its obstacles — Its causes — Part played by the universi- 
 ties in German unity — Necessity of again bringing about 
 in France the harmony of mind— Condition of such har- 
 mony and reconciliation of minds — Creation of a Universal 
 College at the summit of higher education, . . 177 
 
 XX. 
 
 Participation of the Church of France in the Universal College 
 of France — Its advantages — Part to be played by the State 
 — Duty of being neutral — Want of pacification of minds 
 — Guarantee of success for the new institution — Fears and 
 hopes — Immanent logic of things — Ephemeral triumph of 
 evil — Manly patriotism, ..... 188 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Patriotism the soul of a people — What it is in Germany — Sub- 
 sists despite religious divisions — The State of Wiirtemberg 
 — Patriotism and the Laics of J/n?/— Object of patriotism : 
 German unity — Consciousness of national destiny : causes 
 the greatness of a people, explains their history, and con-
 
 XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 stitutes national spirit — National spirit in Germany — Its 
 first element, militarism ; its second element, exclusive 
 interest — The centres where national spirit is reared : the 
 school, the university, the army, the associations, the 
 patriotic festivals, ..... 
 
 196 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Duties of nations : conditions of their national life — Duties of 
 France : vigilance and strength — Militarism and military 
 spirit — National unity — Means of attenuating our dissen- 
 sions : first means, liberty ; liberal laws, liberal customs, 
 liberal government — No liberty without religion — Second 
 means, religious pacification — International mission of 
 France, the first-born of free nations — Germany and 
 France, ....... 
 
 216 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 A. The Letter of Matriculation', 
 
 B. Statistik der Deutschex Universitätex, 
 
 C. SCIEXCE in GeRMAXY, IX EXGLAXD, AND IN FRANCE, 
 
 D. Science in Germany and ix France, . 
 
 E. The Tuition of Philosophy in Germany, 
 
 F. Schools and Faculties, .... 
 
 G. Organisation of Higher Education, . 
 
 H. Decree of the 24th July, .authorising Fuee Lec 
 
 TURES in Faculties, .... 
 I. Universality of the French Language, 
 J. Bibliography, ..... 
 
 235 
 236 
 
 238 
 243 
 251 
 
 261 
 276 
 
 279 
 282 
 284
 
 THE GEEMANS. 
 
 I. 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR GERMANY — MODERN CRITICISM — MATRICULATION 
 IN BERLIN UNIVERSITY — PATRIOTIC DUTY OF PUBLISHING 
 THESE OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Ix 1881, living in absolute seclusion, I applied 
 myself during many a long day to the study of the 
 origin of Christianity. He who to-day attempts such 
 a study, is, at the same time, carried away into 
 modern criticism as into the midst of the stormy 
 ocean. Everything leads him thither — the laws of 
 historical science, the study of tradition, the control 
 of original documents. 
 
 Nowhere during the last century lias modern criti- 
 cism, in its bearings upon Christianity, been more 
 patiently and more obstinately cultivated (though 
 perhaps not so clearly and successfully as elsewhere) 
 
 A
 
 2 THE GERMANS. 
 
 than in the universities of Germany. This fact led 
 me to direct my attention towards a foreign land — 
 a country anti-French. 
 
 I unhesitatingly repressed my patriotic prejudices, 
 and started with the resolution of sitting with Ger- 
 man students at the feet of their professors, at 
 Leipzig, Göttingen, and Berlin. 
 
 German universities are truly hospitable : they 
 are thrown wide open to all who wish to learn, 
 without distinction of age, language, creed, or na- 
 tionality. They are, however, closed against all 
 anonymous, idle amateurs. Xo woman crosses the 
 threshold. 
 
 This is what I found at Berlin, and this is what 
 every stranger finds who demands inscription on the 
 registers of Alma Mater. 
 
 I wrote an application to the academic Senate, 
 supported by a simple passport. A few days after- 
 wards, the secretary of the university sent me a 
 reply. It was favourable, as it always is, unless the 
 Prussian police, mistrustful and often meddlesome, 
 suspect the applicant of being a conspirator or 
 Xihilist. I was summoned for a certain day, at a 
 certain hour, to the large hall of the university 
 Senate. Punctual to the day and hour, I found 
 myself, with my curiosity rather excited, in the 
 midst of more than forty students, awaiting, like
 
 :\rATRICULATIOX. 
 
 myself, their matriculation. Most of them were 
 Germans, several Italians and Eoumanians, a few 
 Eussians, I alone a Frenchman. We took our 
 places, without distinction, on chairs ranged in order 
 in front of a long green table, where were seated 
 the rector and the university judge, assisted by two 
 secretaries. Upon his name being called, the can- 
 didate rises, approaches the rector, announces his 
 Christian name and surname, mentions his nationality, 
 and indicates the special faculty to which he wishes 
 to belong. All this is entered in the chief univer- 
 sity register. It is also recorded on a sheet of 
 paper, signed by the rector. This sheet is handed 
 to the candidate as evidence of his affiliation.^ 
 When all had been interrogated and thus enrolled, 
 under a matriculation number, in the great army of 
 students, the rector quitted the green table, and 
 advancing towards us said : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, henceforward you will be students 
 of this university. Promise to honour it, as also to 
 honour yourselves by your conduct and application. 
 Swear to be faithful to its laws." 
 
 Each of us in turn then approached the rector, 
 
 and respectfully touched his right hand as a token 
 
 of fidelity. Such, in its simplicity, in its ancient 
 
 nobility, is the rite of matriculation. That touch 
 
 ' See Appendi.x A.
 
 4 THE GERMANS. 
 
 of the hand has an air truly chivalrous : the most 
 insignificant things become majestic when conse- 
 crated by conscience and honour. 
 
 I also in turn had to press this strange hand, for 
 I felt that, above frontiers and nationalities, men 
 may, without forgetting their country, meet together 
 in peace in the worship of truth. Science is unique; 
 like God she is universal ; she knows neither the 
 Alps, nor the Pyrenees, nor the Ehine. ^Yliosoever 
 serves her, works with the same heart and with the 
 same arm for the grandeur of his country and the 
 evolution of the human race. 
 
 A triumph, though glorious as the sun of Auster- 
 litz, may have a sinister morrow ; but a step towards 
 truth is a good deed for ever. I am opposed to 
 short-sighted patriotism, moulded by egotism, ran- 
 cour, and hate. I desire only a patriotism restrained 
 by justice, stimulated only by the ambitions which 
 justice approves, and devoting itself, not to hatred 
 of its adversaries, but to the defence and glory of its 
 country. The one is a vice and a plague, the other 
 a virtue. Though in the animal hingdom, in the 
 hour of struggle for existence, victory is to force, in 
 the kingdom of humanity, intelligence and conscience 
 alone, sooner or later, ensure empire to nations. 
 
 One day I had the curiosity to open the official 
 directory of the Berlin University, in order to see
 
 PATRIOTIC DUTY. 5 
 
 the names of the students. I there saw, to my 
 regret, but four French names. 
 
 Always attached to home, it is only with reluctance 
 that we go abroad. 
 
 The foreigner — English, Eussian, Italian, American, 
 German — travels the world over, and seeks a know- 
 ledge of other nations. The Frenchman, seeing no 
 one else, will end by not even knowing himself. But 
 I have not the heart to press this reproach ; I have 
 too strongly felt how painful it is, even for love of 
 the truth, to pass certain frontiers, to hear the heavy 
 step of soldiers who have vanquished us, to pass at 
 the foot of monuments of their victories, and to 
 mourn for one's country amongst those who have 
 mutilated it. 
 
 In reviewing the observations made during my 
 stay in the various States of the Empire, and, above 
 all, in the principal universities, it seemed to me 
 that it would not be unserviceable to communicate 
 something of them to my fellow-citizens. Obliged 
 to acknowledge and to point out the merit of certain 
 of the institutions of Germany, I have not forgotten 
 the duties of patriotism. Like every passion, it has 
 its exigencies, and I have treated it with respect 
 even in its umbrageous susceptibilities. 
 
 I do not say. Let us act like the Germans ; I say. 
 Let us do better. I will not say. Let us copy their
 
 6 THE GERMANS. 
 
 universities, their schools, their army, their national 
 spirit ; I say, Let us surpass them. We need imitate 
 none. It is sufficient that we be faithful to our 
 national genius ! Let us be ourselves ! 
 
 But in nations, as in every individual, there is a 
 grand and a petty side. France will only be herself 
 when she knows how to mistrust sectarian passions, 
 and to obey the generous aspirations which always 
 move her, and which remain the honour of her ardent 
 nature. 
 
 "What good is there in exciting one's self against 
 the ruins of the old world ? They are of them- 
 selves falling to pieces. Is it not more practical 
 and grander to realise our chivalrous ideal of social 
 justice, of wise liberty, and our ambitions of truly 
 encyclopedic science ? From this point of view, 
 the foreigner — particularly if he be an enemy — can 
 sometimes give us lessons the more useful because 
 they the better arouse our emulation, by stinging 
 our national vanity to the quick. 
 
 Thus both patriotic interest and duty demand that 
 we should carefully observe German life.
 
 IL 
 
 ANTAGONISM BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY — GERMAN CHAU- 
 VINISM — ITS NATIONAL AMBITION — ITS MYSTERIOUS ORIGIN 
 — ITS ONSLAUGHT ON EUROPE. 
 
 Between France and Germany there exists a pro- 
 found antagonism. A careful observer will always 
 detect it in the reserved politeness that stamps the 
 relations existing between Frenchmen and Germans, 
 even in business pursuits, or on the still more peace- 
 able ground of scientific investigation. 
 
 Thirteen years of peace have not abated it. The 
 Ehine that flows between the two nations has become 
 a stream of blood ; and will recover its limpidity only 
 on the day when the dreadful wound of Alsace and 
 Lorraine shall have ceased to bleed. He, however, 
 would be vastly mistaken who should see in such 
 antagonism solely a question of revenge, or the oppo- 
 sition of races, deeply antipathetic. 
 
 Struggle for pre-eminence is the true name of the 
 latent war which exists between Germany and France. 
 
 It involves the displacing of the centre of the
 
 ö THE GER^rAXS, 
 
 forces which direct the world, to shift it eastward ; to 
 Berlin, to Prussia, to Germany, in the midst of the 
 races of the north. That their country should take 
 the lead of mankind is the dream of all great patriots. 
 
 Such is the dream of Germany. 
 
 She has the ambition or the pretension of being, 
 in a military, political, scientific, moral, religious, and 
 intellectual [cir^ralement) sense, the leading nation of 
 the world. Chauvinism in Germany is more than 
 a sentiment — it is a theory, a scientific dogma. 
 There, but two races are recognised — the German 
 and the Latin. As a matter of course, the German 
 is placed first, although the later arrival on the 
 scene where the leading parts are played. With 
 much abstraction, philosophers formulate the system ^ 
 at the expense of history, the erudite attempt to 
 justify it, poets laud it, and the soul of the people 
 vibrates with the lyric accents of a Schiller. 
 
 It does not become Frenchmen to decry any na- 
 tional ambition. Let them rather enlarge the circle 
 of their own, for there is not in history any mention 
 of a people whose renown was not due to the gran- 
 deur of an ideal, long cherished and ardently pursued. 
 Such ideal is the soul of a country. AVhen it leaves 
 them, nations die. But whenever they are startled 
 by some grand idea, they commence a new evolution. 
 
 ^ Fichte, 'Reden an die Deutsche Nation.'
 
 GERMAX CHAUVINISM. 9 
 
 At first only caught sight of by a few eminent 
 and far-reaching minds, the national idea inspires 
 poets, who translate it into vibrating verse for the 
 people ; it is hatched slowly in the brain of men of 
 action, but when ripe, it directs events themselves, 
 gains victories, and becomes a considerable deed in 
 the life of mankind. The idea creates the fact ; the 
 ideal rules the real. The dream of a superior aim to be 
 attained sets to work all men of thought and action. 
 
 How is it that German nationality, so obscure in 
 the eighteenth century, has suddenly awaked again 
 to consciousness ? Why, so long parcelled out into 
 small confederate states, does Germany all at once 
 burn with the desire of overruling by her arms 
 and by her politics, even by intellectual culture and 
 genius, the progress of modern civilisation ? It is 
 not easy to reply. All origins are wrapped up in 
 mystery ! By the cradle of all that breathe, nations 
 and individuals, a sphinx is seated, mute and 
 impenetrable. 
 
 Never before were national ambitions more unduly 
 excited. What a powerful drama in the competition 
 and the latent or open struggle of those two modern 
 nations ! They appear like birds of prey or wild 
 beasts wistfully watching one another ; casting fear- 
 ful and defying looks, previously to pouncing upon 
 and mutually devouring each other. The question
 
 10 THE GERMANS. 
 
 is, who shall have power, wealth, glory ? There is 
 uo room left for justice. The one idea is aggran- 
 disement and conquest by diplomatic ruse or brute 
 force. Alliances are concluded, the assertion being 
 loud and wide that universal peace is the sole object 
 in view ; yet he who contracts those alliances has 
 spent his life in unsheathing the sword and creating 
 a vast empire by dint of cannon. 
 
 I do not wish my country to become the accom- 
 plice of such ; I would rather see it isolated, seeking 
 indissoluble alliances only in conformity with justice. 
 What matter to us if Germany and her Chancellor 
 plan fresh conspiracies ? that nation is truly great 
 whose history is free from blot. If in the future 
 some great international iniquity were about to be 
 carried through, the French nation alone would still 
 find in itself enough of courage and virtue to place 
 its might in the service of right, for my country^ be- 
 longs to the proud race of knights of the crusades. 
 Glory may at times intoxicate and mislead her, but 
 she soon recovers from lier illusions, preferring honour 
 and justice to mere glory, choosing rather to fall with 
 justice than to succeed without ! 
 
 In the struggle for supremacy, victory will always 
 favour the clear-sighted ; but it is important that 
 intelligence should walk hand in hand with honesty 
 and generosity.
 
 11 
 
 III. 
 
 WHAT FIRST STRIKES ONE IX GERilAXY — THE BARRACK AND 
 THE SCHOOL — FRANCE THE ENEMY ! — GERMANY AND 
 PRUSSIA — GERMANS AND SLAVS — MILITARY POWER IN 
 GERMANY — WHAT GERMANS TAKE PRIDE IN — THEIR 
 ARMY AND THEIR UNIVERSITIES — TESTIMONY OF DOCTOR 
 DÖLLINGER. 
 
 The barrack, the school — such are, to the eyes of the 
 observer, the characteristic features of contemporary 
 Germany. 
 
 The Germans worship physical strength and in- 
 tellect. Nowhere else does military power stand 
 on more solid bases, or is science more universally 
 cultivated. 
 
 Look at Berlin : soldiers everywhere ! In France, 
 the uniform is almost concealed; in Germany, a show 
 is made of it. Irksome to us ; a kind of stiff pride 
 to them. How gorgeous a barrack is tlie capital of 
 the new empire ! 
 
 Every morning, except on holidays, regiments, on 
 their way to Tempelhof, the manoeuvring grounds,
 
 12 THE GERMANS. 
 
 march, preceded by their bands, through the main 
 thoroughfares. Before starting they call at the im- 
 perial palace, there to take their colours. On their 
 return they replace them therein. The palace is 
 indeed the store-room of colours. "When the standard- 
 bearers enter its gates, the drums beat in accompani- 
 ment to the shrill notes of the fifers and the strains 
 of the whole bands. 
 
 The old Emperor, standing at his window, nods 
 a salute to his beloved army. He seems to be the 
 first soldier of his people. What of the palace ? . . . 
 Does not that simple square edifice, with its four 
 eagles — one at each of the four corners of its roof, — 
 and its four pillars at its front entrance, remind us 
 of an imperial military guard-room ? 
 
 Barracks, chiefly in those States which grouped 
 themselves around Prussia to form the new empire, 
 are of recent construction. They may be seen, as 
 it were, in full bloom in Bavaria, in Wiirtemberg, 
 in Hanover, in Saxony : size, elegance, and strength, 
 regardless of cost. There they confront us almost 
 proudly, as the living proof of a military organisa- 
 tion unsurpassed and even unattained in any country, 
 at any time, at any stage of human civilisation. I 
 often wondered whence that nation, said to be so 
 poor, obtained the means for building palaces for its 
 two million soldiers.
 
 FRANCE THE ENEMY. 13 
 
 It is not solely to gratify their natural admiration 
 for brute force that Germans thus organise and ex- 
 tend their military power : they obey the dictates of 
 a practical necessity. The history of the past cen- 
 turies has taught them that their danger is always 
 from the West. 
 
 The phantoms of Louis XIY, and of Xapoleon I. 
 are always terrible to the German eye. Germans are 
 well aware that beyond the Ehine, between the ocean 
 and that fatal stream, powerful weapons may be 
 raised. When, in the midst of the last war. in 
 his famous journey to European Courts, Thiers, at 
 Vienna, inquired from L. de Eanke, " What is then 
 the aim of Germany? " the old historian replied, 
 " To destroy the work of Louis XIY." To-day, if 
 questioned on their object, the regulators of the 
 imperial policy might, if they frankly spoke their 
 mind, say, " Our aim is to keep in readiness for the 
 Louis XIV. or Xapoleon of the future." 
 
 What they would not disclose is the fearful mean- 
 ing they attach to their being in readiness. So long 
 as France is France will the Germans be uneasy. An 
 instinctive fear pervades their minds whenever they 
 cast their eyes towards the Ehine. Their unexpected, 
 unheard-of victories seem to them more the outcome 
 of a providential will than the result of bravery, of 
 long-prepared tactics and genius. The wise policy
 
 14 THE GERMA^TS. 
 
 that hit upon the right moment to pounce upon and 
 take unprepared France by surprise, did more towards 
 ensuring success than the octogenarian warrior. The 
 Germans, however, contrive to take a different view 
 of their triumph, and to slumber peacefully, safely 
 guarded by their great captain, and the watchful care 
 of their great statesman. 
 
 Over and over again I experienced pleasure in sud- 
 denly disturbing their tranquillity. " What will you 
 do," I inquired, " the day when Moltke and Bis- 
 marck have passed away ? " They shook their heads, 
 and smilingly replied, " Moltke cannot die ; he has 
 disciples. The army organised by his care will pro- 
 tect Germany against all emergencies." " But who 
 is to succeed the Chancellor ? Has he, like Moltke, 
 imparted his audacious genius to any disciple ? " 
 
 To that my interlocutors made no answer, and 
 resumed their interrupted slumber. 
 
 Prince von Bismarck, unlike his countrymen, does 
 not place implicit confidence in " Alexander's gen- 
 erals," His security does not lie so much in the 
 strength of his Pomeranians as in the weakness of 
 France. France powerful, — that means uncertainty, 
 peril to the Chancellor's achievements ; it means an 
 obstacle to Prussia in her work of violence, ruse, and 
 dogged cunning. I say Prussia and not Germany; 
 for Prussians are unlike a]l other Germans, whether
 
 GERMANS AND SLAVS. 15 
 
 Bavarians, Saxons, Wiirtembergers, Hanoverians, or 
 Ehinelanclers. 
 
 To-day the whole of Germany revolves in the 
 orbit marked out by Prussia ; the idea of German 
 unity binds closely together in the same ambition 
 and interest all the States of the Empire; tlie French, 
 in the eyes of any German, are still the enemy, yet 
 the Germans are particularists. Their political unity 
 is not the spontaneous result of the normal evolution 
 of their national genius, it came from without : the 
 Confederate States were, as we might say, blended and 
 kneaded together with the blood of France, and by 
 the skilful and ruthless hand of Prussia. They are 
 aware of it, and are convinced that a defeat might 
 destroy that which a victory created. A successful 
 military blow from France would suffice to destroy 
 that unity : such is the emergency to be prevented or 
 guarded against at any cost. 
 
 That fear is the mainspring of the Chancellor's 
 foreign policy. To have vanquished unprepared 
 France was not enough ; she must be mutilated. To 
 have mutilated her was not sufficient ; she must be 
 rendered powerless, isolated, or artfully embroiled in 
 distant adventures, until she could safely be, so to 
 speak, quartered and annihilated as a nation. 
 
 My country will, I trust, see through such schemes 
 and thwart their execution. The overgrown ambi-
 
 16 THE GERMANS. 
 
 tions of a national policy, wielded even by an iron 
 hand, and the coalitions of powerful empires, must 
 never succeed against a nation like France. Her 
 vitality is such that twenty revolutions have not 
 exhausted her ; divided into innumerable factions, 
 the prey to intestine dissensions, she nevertheless still 
 retains the first place among nations, she disturbs and 
 causes apprehension to her foes ; and mindful, above 
 all, of social and humanitarian progress, she, amidst 
 a thousand obstacles, opens to others the road to 
 the future. 
 
 If the destiny of France were, to become the 
 great peacemaker of the modern world ; if, seeing 
 the mistake of military vanity, the folly of conquest, 
 she were to devote her renewed genius to the gener- 
 ous development of science, to the fraternity and po- 
 litical freedom of nations, — Germany would not even 
 then sheathe her sword again. So long as the Em- 
 pire continues will Germany suffer from the effects of 
 its origin. Brought into life by brute force, through 
 that alone she is doomed to subsist. Her fortresses 
 may then be moved : they may watch the East in- 
 stead of the West ; but the ever-growing Panslav- 
 ism of the East will again impose on Germany the 
 overwhelming necessity of keeping up her military 
 power. 
 
 However superficially one may have observed the
 
 MILITARY POWER OF GERMAXY. 17 
 
 race-antipathy between Germans and Slavs, one can 
 but foresee an imminent shock between Russia and 
 Germany. Wisdom and political skill, and the fam- 
 ily ties of sovereigns, may delay the outbreak ; but 
 sooner or later will national passions burst forth. 
 Nations, like races, are exposed to certain fatalities : 
 who knows if, some day appointed by Providence, an 
 irresistible necessity may not urge Germany to seek 
 France, not for contest, but to buy with indispensable 
 restitutions, an alliance become, for her, a question of 
 life or death ? 
 
 It is not within my province to discuss military 
 matters. I am in no way competent to deal with 
 that subject, being one of those whose dearest wish is 
 to transform swords into scythes and spears into plough- 
 shares. At the same time, I beg to venture a moral 
 thought suggested to me by reflecting on German 
 militarism. We at home seem to know it but very 
 little. We see in it but an organised piece of machin- 
 ery, and we forget the invisible soul, the moral spring, 
 that sets in motion that formidable machine. 
 
 With its discipline and hierarchy, the German 
 army is but the expression of the general spirit of 
 the people, — a spirit of respect and passive obedience. 
 
 The German race has preserved that which we 
 unfortunately have lost. It does not criticise ; it 
 simply and passively obeys. The commando, as they 
 
 B
 
 18 - THE GERMANS. 
 
 have it, is always and everywhere heeded. It is, no 
 doubt, uttered by intelligent guides, and the recipi- 
 ents never discuss its merits. That phenomenon , 
 is to be met with alike in politics as in teaching, 
 in business as in the army, in public life as in home 
 circles. 
 
 Question the Germans themselves: you will soon 
 ascertain what they take pride in. Certainly not in 
 their climate : they all dream of an Italian sky. Xor 
 indeed in their soil : they all talk about the soil of 
 France, its fertility and products. They do not boast 
 of their wealth : their multitudes emigrate to America, 
 there to realise fortunes. Their marvellous fecundity 
 itself is to them no cause of pride. . . . Their great 
 boast is their army and their universities. 
 
 Chauvinism has crossed the Ehine. It rules there 
 as a master. No German is to be found who does 
 not consider his nation invincible by the number and 
 worth of its soldiers, the ability of its chiefs, the 
 superiority of its organisation and of its armaments. 
 But the learned there — and they are numerous — 
 above all extol and glorify their schools, which they 
 proclaim to be unrivalled. One of the most famous 
 German professors expressed the opinion of all his 
 colleagues throughout the empire in a brilliant but 
 rather exaggerated panegyric, which a foreigner would 
 not read without serious and legitimate reserve, per-
 
 TESTIMONY OF DR DÖLLIXGER. 19 
 
 haps not even without his feelings being ruffled at 
 the assertions therein contained.^ 
 
 The author feels amazed that, in the thirteenth 
 century, when France alone enjoyed the privilege of 
 being the school of the civilised world, " no one in 
 Germany foresaw how important it was for the 
 empire, if it wished to lay the foundation of its 
 power, and to create national unity, to possess its 
 imperial school" (p. 7). 
 
 Although Germany was the last country in which 
 universities were introduced and developed, she " has 
 to-day become their land of predilection ; and such is 
 the extension and the perfection of the scientific skill 
 they have reached, that they are to-day without 
 equal in the world, and alone worthy of their great 
 name" (p. 28). 
 
 " It is in the universities that the individuality of 
 German genius finds its most perfect expression and 
 satisfaction for its noblest aspirations. The university 
 is an integral part of the intellectual genius of Ger- 
 many ; and wherever German activity appears, there 
 appears also some imitation of her high schools " 
 (p. 35). 
 
 " To universities must be ascribed the broad views 
 of German intellect. They moulded German nature 
 
 ^ Die Universitäten, Sonst und Jest, von Dr Joh. Jos. Tegu. von 
 Dollinger : MiLuchen, 1871.
 
 20 THE GERMANS. 
 
 into the most strongly universalist type ; for in that 
 nature is to be found, in a greater variety and more 
 plentifully than in any other cultivated nation, true 
 humanitarianisiii, true cosmopolitanismi. 
 
 It would be difficult to meet with any other 
 national writer speaking with such praise of the 
 intellectu-al organisation of his o\vn country. How- 
 ever, all impartial minds are bound to acknowledge, 
 in a measure, the truth of some of those assertions.
 
 21 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE TEMPERAMENT OF NATIONS — NATIONAL GENIUS— INDELIBIL- 
 ITY OF RACES— DUALITY OF THE GERMAN BRAIN : SCHEMING 
 AND DREAMING ; POSITIVIST AND ACTIVE — THE ITALIAN 
 BRAIN, PRACTICAL AND DIPLOMATIC ; THE FRENCH, RATIONAL 
 AND IMPULSIVE ; THE GERMAN, BICEPHALIC— INFLUENCE OF 
 BRAIN-DUALITY UPON THE HISTORY OF GERMANY. 
 
 The institutions, the activity, and the future of a 
 nation depend chiefly upon its temperament, its char- 
 acter, and genius. Knowledge of these quaUties, how- 
 ever, is doubtless insufficient to form an adequate ap- 
 preciation ; it is necessary also to take into account 
 the various circumstances, the secret inspirations, that 
 determine action, as also what may be called the age 
 of such nation. These data, nevertheless, may be 
 considered as indicating the paramount factor. We 
 modern nations, in our studies of retrospective his- 
 tory, do not understand the nations that preceded 
 us, unless we succeed in unveiling their national 
 soul ; then indeed, and only then, can we succeed in 
 bringing past generations to life again.
 
 22 THE GERMANS. 
 
 For, indeed, how can we explain those colossal 
 absolute monarchies of the East — of India, Persia, 
 Egypt — if we lose sight of the submissiveness of such 
 ancient nations, moving, like so many flocks of sheep, 
 according to the mighty will of the theocratic heroes 
 whom, in those distant times, public opinion looked 
 upon, with dismal veneration, as being the very in- 
 carnation of human majesty and divine authority ? 
 '^Could we ever understand Eome, her conquests and 
 world-wide rule, if we did not bear in mind the 
 boundless ambition both of its founders and of its 
 people, their steadfastness of purpose, their powerful 
 organisation, as also that proud faith in their mission 
 which expressed itself in the famous maxim, " Par- 
 cere subjectis et debellare superbos " ? Consider the 
 nations that have passed away : the explanation of 
 their destiny is always found in their national 
 genius. 
 
 With even still more truth does that law apply to 
 contemporary nations. 
 
 To the political and diplomatic aptitude of Prussia 
 must be ascribed all her aggrandisements ; the 
 cliivalrous and ardent spirit of France prompts her 
 always to join and help any great and just cause, 
 heedless of her own interest. Xever, indeed, could 
 the national ambition which gradually laid hold of 
 Prussia, and transformed that small cramped State
 
 INDELIBILITY OF RACES. 23 
 
 into the leading kingdom of the old German con- 
 federation, have developed itself out of the quiet and 
 meek temperament of the southern German. 
 
 It is not German blood alone that flows through 
 the veins of the inhabitants of the shores of the 
 Northern Ocean and Brandenburg. Those broad 
 faces, those square skulls, that complexion, in most 
 cases brown, that proverbial osseousness (ossature), 
 remind us of another blood, — that of the Tartar 
 hordes of yore. However, without retracing the 
 origin of such races, without going too far back 
 in our historical investigations, without even turning 
 towards that Germany so attractively depicted by 
 Madame de Stael, and considering Germans only as 
 we now see them, they offer numerous characteristic 
 features which enable us sufficiently to understand 
 the mighty nation that has so suddenly risen in 
 Central Europe. 
 
 The fusion of modern nations, the frequency of 
 their intercourse, the uniformity of their moral, intel- 
 lectual, and Christian culture, may have narrowed 
 the wide gulf between them — they have not removed 
 it. Eaces are intermixed by means of alliances, 
 their fusion is cemented by mutual bloodshed, but 
 they preserve a distinction as marked as the lan- 
 guages they speak. The Slav remains Slav — the Ger- 
 man, German — the Latin, Latin ; and even under the
 
 24 THE GERMANS. 
 
 pressure of the same centralised administration, sub- 
 jecting all individuals to the same routine, despite 
 the closest political unity, in a country like ours 
 may still be traced the various races we meet with — 
 the Celt, the Gaul, the Ligurian, the Norman, the 
 Pioman. The variety of types has been preserved 
 almost entire. 
 
 Of modern nations I know few whose study could 
 be, for a Frenchman, of greater interest and higher 
 import than Germany. 
 
 For the better understanding of our qualities, 
 already too well known by us, as also for that of 
 our defects, which we too often forget, and also too 
 easily excuse, it is important that we should see our 
 own image drawn in relief, chased, on a German 
 " background." Man is so constituted that with him 
 appreciation is the result of comparison, and is in 
 proportion to the contrast between the objects com- 
 pared, whose features are more boldly brought out 
 in opposition. He who never saw the endless and 
 monotonous plain, where, from the midst of the 
 vegetation, rises the blazing and radiant sun, cannot 
 appreciate the mountain. 
 
 The better I knew Germany, the Isetter also I 
 understood France, and the more I loved her. 
 
 The study of German genius, if we consider only 
 its great philosophers and divines, its critics and
 
 DUALITY OF THE GERMAN BRAIN. 25 
 
 historians, its writers and poets, does not aftbrd a 
 clear conception of one of the most salient features 
 of that nation. I mean a fundamental fact that 
 everywhere in Germany is too conspicuous to be 
 passed over — the constant contradiction between 
 theory and its application, speculation and reality, 
 pure reason and practical reason. 
 
 The German is a dreamer fanciful and immense ; 
 but with positive wisdom, he is ever mindful of his 
 interests. His lucubrations and his dreams idealise,'^ 
 with boundless audacity, all they dwell upon ; but in 
 the management of his affairs he only follows the 
 ordinary common - sense of real life. When one 
 reads his idealist poets, one fancies the German, 
 with his blue eyes always raised towards his dull 
 grey sky, in search of stars. What a mistake ! those 
 eyes are cast on the ground in search of the best 
 path to pursue. 
 
 He passionately sings Schiller's great hymn to 
 bliss — 
 
 " Clasp each other, innumerahle phalanxes, 
 In the universal embrace ! 
 Brothers, above the starry dome, 
 A beloved Father must indeed dwell." ^ 
 
 Yet is there no people more particular, more careful 
 of its own interests, less inclined to sacrifice itself 
 
 ^ 'An die Freude,' Schiller's Werke, Band I.
 
 26 THE GERMAJS'S. 
 
 in a policy of sentiment for the brotherhood of 
 man. 
 
 A clever politician, and with a more refined prac- 
 tical sense, the Italian never wanders in abstract 
 theories. He delights in formulating his scientific 
 conduct, he studies the philosophy of law, and writes, 
 through the pen of his Machiavel, the famous chap- 
 ters of " The Prince." 
 
 No less than the German does the Frenchman in- 
 cline towards systems ; but the latter's ideas always 
 clear, his deductions always precise, preserve him from 
 the wanderings of transcendental idealism and too 
 vulgar materialism. His natural love of .clearness 
 keeps him away from problems that present no possible 
 solution. In fact, when his brain has got hold of a 
 theory, whether it relate to religion, morality, politics, 
 or business, some sort of honesty urges him on, and 
 leaves him no peace until he has made up his mind, 
 often in spite of the resistance of reality, to reduce it 
 into a tangible practicality. That is the chief source 
 of our greatness and of our failings. If speculative 
 ideas, which rule opinion on religious, moral, or 
 political questions, be correct and just, then the 
 impulse they give our fiery temperament carry us 
 to the highest summits. Are they wrong ? We no 
 longer hover in high regions, we are lowered, and we 
 obstinately persist in crawling, seeking, even in our
 
 THE GERMAX BICEPHALIC. 27 
 
 failure and our mishaps, some kind of food for our 
 fatal logic. 
 
 Instead of mistrusting the idea that leads him, the 
 Frenchman rebels against the facts that are opposed 
 to him. Instead of condemning the inefficiency of 
 his theories, he accuses all that prevents their reali- 
 sation. He denounces, excommunicates, upsets, de- 
 stroys ; until at last, bloody reality giving him the 
 lie, he acknowledges the fatal spell of preconceived 
 ideas. 
 
 The Frenchman has a brain wherein the idea 
 catches fire and expresses itself at once by an action, 
 but the German is a sort of hicephalic being. 
 
 The latter presents sometimes Kant's mighty and 
 meditative forehead, wdierein the faculties of causality 
 are developed to the extreme ; ' Goethe's olympian 
 features, full of grand poetical aspirations ; sometimes 
 a broad skull with expanded temporals and an enor- 
 mous occipital predominance, sure signs of energetic 
 though unrefined instincts ruled over by a sort of 
 common-sense. The German thinks and schemes 
 with one brain ; he conducts himself and acts, as it 
 were, with another. It is not without interest that 
 we observe that Kant, whose genius left such a last- 
 ing influence upon the spirit of the German people 
 and its philosophical education, dogmatically conse- 
 crated the distinction, the separation, the contradic-
 
 28 THE GERMANS. 
 
 tion even between the ideal speculative world over 
 which rules pure reason alone, and which, according 
 to that philosopher, teaches us indeed nothing of 
 absolute reality, and the real world of action, wherein 
 practical reason must act, subdued by God Himself, 
 by duty, by conscience. 
 
 The dualism we notice in the physiognomical 
 appearance of the German, as well as in his meta- 
 physics, is also obvious in the leading facts of liis 
 national life — in his religion, his politics, and his 
 history. 
 
 Protestant Germany laid down the principle of 
 the supreme authority of the Scriptures, rejecting all 
 papal domination. As a matter of fact, she obeys 
 less the Bible than synods and consistories, which 
 create an orthodoxy, and whose ruling decisions are to 
 her quite as binding as papal dictates for Eoman 
 Catholics. Theoretically, Germany maintains the 
 great unity of which every German is passionately 
 fond ; practically, she remains the most particularist 
 of nations, most attached to her local administra- 
 tion, to her provincialism — the most decentralised 
 of nations, not only in Europe, but in the whole 
 world. Theoretically, Germany has laid down the 
 most radical of doctrines as regards national and 
 humanitarian progress ; practically, there is no nation, 
 not excepting England, which has more carefully
 
 GEEMAX GENIUS. 29 
 
 preserved ancient customs, and which remains more 
 faithful to the traditions of the past. As in the 
 fifteenth century, everywhere are still to be seen 
 houses with pinion roofs and cornices in carved wood, 
 high belfries wherein the night-watcher calls out the 
 hours as they wear on, and shouts " Fire ! " in case of 
 conflagration ; ancient corporations and universities, as 
 in the middle ages. 
 
 All that was hatched in the metaphysical and 
 idealistic mind of Germans, for the last century, does 
 not bear fruit in Germany. The idea, like a seed, 
 seems to possess but latent life with that people ; 
 and it is on French soil that it thrives and that its 
 ripe fruit is often gathered. 
 
 The sceptical idealism of a Kant created, with us, 
 legions of scholars sceptical in facts ; the purely 
 dogmatical irreligion from beyond the Fthine often 
 became the generating principle of the practical 
 irreligion of the Frenchman. 
 
 A superficial observer might feel disposed to de- 
 nounce as duplicity and falseness that intellectual 
 dualism of German genius. Frenchmen, above all, 
 will hardly understand how a mind, theoretically 
 convinced, does not strictly look upon its conviction 
 as being the inflexible absolute rule of its life and 
 of its actions. 
 
 If we reflect well, we perceive, on the contrary.
 
 30 THE GERMANS. 
 
 in the fundamental distinction between the specula- 
 tive world and the world of action, a grand philo- 
 sophical and moral truth, and, for man, a guarantee 
 of wisdom. Nothing more true than the inefSciency 
 of our human systems, — nothing wiser than to doubt 
 the complete truth of our individual views, always 
 so narrow. Eeserve and circumspection w^ell be- 
 come genius ; and whatever the audacity of its 
 flight, reality leaves it far behind, constantly chal- 
 lenging it. There are always more things in heaven 
 and on this earth, and even hetwecn earth and 
 heaven, to speak like Hamlet, than our philosophy 
 ever dreamt of. 
 
 The mighty men who stir the world, create nations, 
 lay the foundations of or reform religions, never build 
 ready-made systems in philosophy, in religion, or in 
 politics ; they set to work the natural and divine 
 forces in which they put their faith, satisfied to 
 discern the facts with superior perspicacity, and to 
 serve with all their genius the panting interests of 
 their country or of mankind. 
 
 To that characteristic constitution of the German 
 brain must, I believe, be ascribed the undeniable 
 broadness of its views, and the extension — I would 
 almost say the span — of its mind. 
 
 German views are broad but confused ; ours are 
 clear and correct. Their stumbling-block is vague-
 
 INFLUENCE OF GER^rAX BRAIN-DUALITY. 31 
 
 uess, obscurity ; we must fear being too superficial. 
 They are diffuse and prolix ; we can be brief and 
 concise. They heap facts together ; we penetrate 
 the law that rules them. Patient like the ox that, 
 with indefatigable muscles, slowly ploughs the field, 
 they prepare the ground for the sower. They excel 
 in digging and unearthing documents ; they could 
 have brought to life all the hieroglyphics of ancient 
 Egypt. It is hard to decide whether they could 
 ever have produced a Champollion. German genius 
 is the result of long patience : it searches, it investi- 
 gates, it organises ; it creates not. The marvellous 
 success of its arms furnishes the proof of this. In 
 astronomy, it was anticipated by an Italian — Galileo ; 
 in experimental science, by an Englishman — Kewton ; 
 in modern philosophy, by a Frenchman — Descartes. 
 But in works, the achievement of which requires 
 tenacity and impartiality, qualities resulting from a 
 certain broadness of views, the Germans excel. Their 
 productions relating to criticism and history are 
 noticeable by the abundance of documents, and 
 profound erudition. As for the great movement 
 which, in our days, leads all scientific men to the 
 origin of species and the long-unknown world of the 
 microbes, wherein medicine will perhaps discover 
 the secret of the most fearful diseases that afflict 
 mankind, — was it, I ask, Germany that gave the
 
 32 THE GEEMAXS. 
 
 impiüsion ? Xo : it was England ; and, above all, 
 France.^ 
 
 As regards the glory of having olotained from the 
 human lyre the most powerful, the deepest, the most 
 delightful and divine sounds, the entire honour 
 belongs to Germany. In German genius harmony 
 found its immortal interpreters. 
 
 The names of Beethoven and Mozart are indeed 
 unrivalled. The neatest dreamers belongs to that 
 German race, so positivist, so realistic in many cases. 
 Those heavy-looking people are at heart, under their 
 coarse exteriors, truly and marvellously poetical ; they 
 delight in the shadow of the forests, in the sonorous 
 voices of the pines under their misty skies ; and the 
 most inveterate beer-drinker stops as bewitched before 
 his foaming tankard, when he hears the bow striking 
 a prelude from Bach, or a symphony from Beethoven. 
 
 Music has no expanding influence ^ipon the Ger- 
 man, but concentrates his emotions. Look at him 
 when under the spell ; he does not keep his head 
 erect, he drops it ; there is no flash of light in his 
 eyes, he stares or shuts them. Motionless, impassive, 
 he forgets the outside world, and seems attentively to 
 listen to that divine voice, the echoes of which Ger- 
 man music excels in awaking. 
 
 ^ See Appendix p. "^ •^ - ^cr
 
 33 
 
 V. 
 
 MORAL CHARACTER OF THE GERMAX — HIS COMPLEXITY — HIS 
 PERSEVERAXCE — FRANKNESS AND RESERVE — SPIRIT OF 
 DISCIPLINE — CALM AND ORDERLY EVEN IN HIS EXCESSES — 
 SCENE FROM A STUDENTS' BANQUET — RESPECT OF HIER- 
 ARCHY — LOVE OF THE USE OF TITLES IN CIVIL LIFE — 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 The moral character of the German is no less in- 
 tricate than his mind. I will only mention a few 
 instances of it, from among the most peculiar, con- 
 trasting most with our national habits. 
 
 I often wondered at the precocious gravity and 
 diligence of German children. They seem to be 
 born disciplined and obedient, as others are born 
 insubordinate and fickle. Their first education, at 
 home, still develops those native qualities ; it has, 
 indeed, no trouble to succeed ; for those square little 
 heads, whose quiet, almost apathetic blood is so 
 different from our fiery and excitable natures, are 
 truly better shaped for obedience than for initiative. 
 Violence, brutality even, tames and reduces them ; it 
 would revolt and exasperate us. 
 
 c
 
 34 THE GERMANS. 
 
 The Crerman is more governable than many other 
 nations ; he more easily submits to the yoke. Nothing 
 in him of the exuberance of those races over which 
 the sun shines radiantly without exhausting them. 
 The well-known proverb, in vino Veritas, does not 
 apply to those whom beer never causes to lose self- 
 control. The Germans, it may be, owe some of 
 their qualities to their national drink. 
 
 Now that science better knows the organic condi- 
 tions of passion, of sensibility, of thought even, we 
 may with reason often seek in infinitesimal things the 
 cause of phenomena of a superior order. Who knows, 
 that a little less alcohol in the veins of the French 
 people might not suffice to appease the effervescence 
 of its blood and moderate its indiscipline ? The 
 German has no cause to fear our nervous excitement ; 
 his temperament leads him to be patient, laborious, 
 and submissive. The fatality of his regime, far from 
 destroying those dispositions, confirms them. Excesses 
 themselves do not disturb the equilibrium of those 
 massive natures. " We see our Germans," says 
 Montaigne, " drowned in wine, recollect their lodff- 
 ings, the pass-word, and their rank." ^ 
 
 That is, no doubt, the cause of the perseverance 
 and of the proverbial obstinacy of the German. In 
 all he undertakes he shows those qualities ; in busi- 
 
 ^ Essays, book ii. chap. ii.
 
 MORAL CHARACTER. 35 
 
 ness pursuits, as in the carrying out of an idea ; in 
 his scientific undertakings, as in his politics ; in his 
 individual productions, as in his national wishes. It 
 is Strauss with his mythical idea, Schopenhauer with 
 his pessimism, Bismarck with his pan-Germanism. 
 
 The French are impatient and impulsive ; the 
 Germans imperturbably calm : they know how to 
 wait. An obstacle discourages the former ; the latter 
 tire the obstacle. The one cuts the gordian knot ; 
 the other might succeed in untying it. The one is 
 a spark that might set the world ablaze ; the other a 
 mass that might crush it. 
 
 If vivacity of temperament imparts frankness, 
 heaviness produces reserve. It is easy to see 
 through a warm nature that abandons itself ; it is not 
 so easy to penetrate the innermost recesses of a calm 
 nature which a deep feeling does not move beyond 
 ordinary limits. Those fair heads and blue eyes are 
 far from being candid and transparent ; and simple 
 indeed one would be not to notice, in intercourse 
 with them, much more than the phrases, polite but 
 devoid of refinement, that fall from German lips. 
 One fault of Frenchmen is, too great an excess of 
 frankness ; of the Germans, reserve to excess. We 
 speak too much, they too little ; we are eloquent, 
 they taciturn ; deceit is the exception with us, with 
 them the exception is frankness. The vivacity and
 
 36 THE GERMANS. 
 
 suppleness of our language permit of our saying any- 
 thing ; when the German speaks on certain topics, 
 though with a masterly command over his tongue, he 
 can scarcely avoid coarseness and brutality. 
 
 The French, quick to criticise, will hardly com- 
 prehend the spirit of respect, the habit of discipline, 
 and the power of hierarchy with the German people. 
 To appreciate that phenomenon, one must have lived 
 in the country, mixing with the population in its 
 everyday life — not merely have seen Prussian regi- 
 ments marching through Unter den Linden. Nothing 
 superficial in that phenomenon ; it is not the result 
 of brutal authority and of servile fear ; it is not 
 isolated and to be met with only in military life ; 
 it is universal. It exists even where authority is 
 only the result of the free agreement of all those 
 who elected it, in fetes and joyful meetings, where 
 discipline seems out of place. Of this I will give 
 an instance, the significance of which is all the more 
 striking, as the circumstances were such as authority 
 would seem powerless in and, discipline entirely at 
 the mercy of revelry. 
 
 German students are grouped in free associations 
 
 — Burschenschaft, Corps, Landsmannschaft, and various 
 
 other corporations. Such associations, entirely foreign 
 
 to politics, have, as we shall see,^ no other object than 
 
 ' See chapter xii.
 
 A students' banquet. 37 
 
 to bring more closely together the vast numbers of 
 students. As the result of German particularism 
 and of ancient traditions, their sole aim is simply 
 fellowship in the worship of honour, of religion, of 
 freedom, and of the German fatherland, or else of 
 mental association in the study of the same science. 
 Small republics of mirthful though sometimes quarrel- 
 some dispositions, they administer themselves, elect 
 their leader, and form small states within the great 
 university confederation. Their members meet weekly 
 in a private room named the Kneipe, and there, in a 
 meeting which they call their Commers, discuss the 
 business of the association. 
 
 I was never more forcibly struck than by the 
 beha\'iour of those youths, and the spirit of discipline 
 that pervades even those joyful revels where beer 
 flows recklessly. 
 
 The chairman is seated at the head of a long 
 table, round which are seated members and visitors 
 alike. Before him is a rapier (Schläger). Striking 
 the table with that, he obtains silence, and gives his 
 orders. National hymns and joyous strains follow 
 in turn at the chairman's commando ; the long toasts 
 are drunk in cadence, according to directions given 
 with the sword. When the meeting is prolonged, the 
 chairman yields his seat to the youngest of members, 
 who thus becomes Regent 'diWrin^ the last and gayest
 
 38 THE GERMANS. 
 
 hours. The Eegent, with frail authority, wiekls the 
 sceptre, allowing all a certain freedom, at which he, 
 as the youngest member, cannot rightly take offence. 
 The ties of discipline are loosened, but not severed. 
 There I again met with the same spirit of respect 
 and submission that rules soldiers, and could not 
 help thinking that such virtue must indeed have 
 deep roots in the customs of the people to permit 
 of its being respected by the exuberant mirth of 
 excited youth, and of its ruling even the frothy beer. 
 
 One of the popular signs of that respect for 
 hierarchy is the carefulness with which, in the 
 intercourse of civil life, Germans at home address 
 one another by their respective titles. 
 
 The subtleness of etiquette even distinguishes the 
 teacher {Lehrer) from the doctor {Doctor) and the 
 professor {Professor) lecturing in a university. Such 
 is not the case in Italy, a land essentially authorita- 
 tive, where hierarchy was in some way consecrated, 
 where the science of law, that is, of government, 
 reached its highest achievement, and where the 
 teacher {Maestro) conquered the first place, even in 
 the opinion of the masses. But in Italy the regard 
 entertained for the teacher only reflects that enjoyed 
 by sacerdotal hierarchy ; in Germany, it is the 
 counterpart of that enjoyed by universities. Never-
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 39 
 
 theless it would be a great mistake to conceive the 
 German, so disciplined, sometimes servile, as incapable 
 of independence and liberty. 
 
 There is now passing in Germany something which 
 deserves not only to be noticed, but to be pondered well 
 — the political struggle between the Chancellor and 
 the Parliament on the score of home reforms. The 
 unbending will of the master wants to control the 
 opinion of the deputies. He knocks repeatedly at 
 the door of the Eeichstag. What is the answer of 
 the representatives of the country ? Do they bow 
 before the power of the despot ? — do they abdicate 
 their privileges and rights before his iron will ? To 
 hear superficial observers, who, to flatter our national 
 vanity, are pleased to extol our independence, our 
 liberalism, and deprecate constantly the mechanical, 
 automatic militarism of Germany, such might be the 
 conclusion. It is an error. The practical sense of 
 his interests protects the German not only against 
 the eloquence of a tribune, but against the State 
 reasons alleged by all despots. 
 
 Discipline is the school of liberty. Obedience and 
 submission are not servility. To give way to arbi- 
 trary whims — that is servitude ; to bow before the 
 law and the authority that enacts it — such is the 
 honour of bein» free. The greatest numbers of slaves
 
 40 THE GERMANS. 
 
 ! are recruited from the ranks of those who pride them- 
 selves most in their independence, in rebellion even, 
 just as simple believers and superstitious people are 
 found amongst such as are without con\'iction and 
 without faith.
 
 41 
 
 VI. 
 
 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND MODERN CIVILISATION — THE GREATEST 
 NATION THAT WHERE THE ORGAN OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 MOST PERFECT — THIS SEEN IN GERMANY — THE THREE 
 DEGREES OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION — SUPERIORITY OF THE 
 MODERN WORLD OVER THE MIDDLE AGES AND ANTIQUITY — 
 PRIMARY EDUCATION — SUPERIORITY' OF GERMANY — RELIGION 
 NOT REPUDIATED BY HER — RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OBLIGA- 
 TORY FOR CHILDREN — SPREAD OF ELEMENTARY TUITION 
 UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY 
 . — RELIGION A NECESSARY PHASE FOR THE EVOLUTION OF 
 THE HUMAN SPECIES AND OF INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 The most necessary element in a civilised nation is 
 public instruction, as institutions meant to promote 
 the acquisition and lasting development of general 
 culture are to her the chief vital organ. Intellectual 
 superiority eventually gives a nation predominance 
 over her neighbours ; for if virtues raise us in the 
 eyes of God, science makes us higher in those of 
 men. ■Military power itself is only the result of a 
 more advanced stage in science. It is science that 
 builds fortresses scarcely protruding above ground, 
 that turns out ironclads, grinds the best swords.
 
 42 THE GERMANS. 
 
 clevises the means of mowing down the greatest 
 number of human beings, invents the art of killing 
 wholesale, and changes man, in the hour of struggle, 
 into the most bloodthirsty of carnivorous animals, if 
 justice does not control the violence and wrath of 
 his instincts. It is science which forges for the 
 nations more terrible weapons, offensive and de- 
 fensive, the use of which, though she did not create 
 them, conscience can and must decide. 
 
 These thoughts rush into one's mind when tread- 
 ing German soil, and seeing at each step the military 
 show which the Empire delights in. The wild beast 
 is quiet enough to-day ; but, though resting, she 
 watches recumbent, sharpening constantly both teeth 
 and claws, her eyes fixed on the horizon, — now 
 towards the East, now in the direction of the West 
 — chiefly there ! 
 
 The ambition of domination might alone suffice to 
 explain the universal ardour provoked by science 
 everywhere in the modern world. The question is 
 less to know the universe than to learn to master it. 
 The aim in view is not so much the satisfaction of 
 the performance of a duty as the intoxicating hope of 
 commanding all forces, the free and intelligent as the 
 brutal and unconscious. 
 
 However, there is, methinks, more nobleness in 
 such despotic views than in the sectarian plans of
 
 PUBLIC IXSTEUCTION. 43 
 
 those who constantly oppose science to religion, and 
 desire the organisation of science only the better to 
 secularise a people, as, with a new euphemism, say the 
 false priests of a humanity witliout faith, without a 
 Mediator, and without a God, A'iolent spirits can be 
 calmed down, those whom strength and power intoxi- 
 cate can also be appeased ; but what can be expected 
 from minds stamped with scepticism, incapable of lov- 
 ing truth and of lifting their eyes above this earth ? 
 
 Germany, proud of her strength, offers in her 
 national life no phenomenon of senility. Her vices 
 are rather those of barbarism than of decrepitude. 
 She presents a peculiar mixture of primitive rude- 
 ness and civilisation. Her barbarous and uncouth 
 nature proceeds from her blood itself ; her civilised 
 and superior equalities from her education. 
 
 My object in closely studying Germany is not to 
 depict her vices, in order to be agreeable to my 
 countrymen, and to purposely lessen their most 
 redoubtable adversary ; on the contrary, I endeavour 
 to examine, with a calm and impartial mind, the 
 elements of Germany's strength and vitality for the 
 information of my country, and to guard her against 
 all illusions. The secret of victory for a manly 
 people does not lie in lowering his adversary but in 
 studying him, and, once knowing him, to struggle 
 relentlessly in order to surpass him.
 
 44 THE GERMANS. 
 
 A glance over the civilised world and its intel- 
 lectual culture suffices to ascertain the constant 
 division of public instruction into three degrees — 
 primary, secondary, and superior education. 
 
 Primary education is, or nearly so, everywhere 
 identical ; it applies to the masses — to all, without 
 distinction : its object is to teach the child how to 
 read, write, and calculate. Heading, writing, and 
 arithmetic — such are, with modern as with ancient 
 nations, the A B C of intellectual culture. In that 
 light the modern world may, however, claim incon- 
 testable superiority over both the middle ages and 
 antiquity. Some centuries back a few privileged 
 men had alone the opportunity of learning. Intoxi- 
 cated with power, and satisfied with their life of 
 constant warfare, most lords and nobles glorified in 
 knowing nothing, not even to sign their own names 
 except with the sword. Others shared with priests 
 and wealthy people the privilege of being educated. 
 Nowadays, in our societies eager for knowledge, all 
 are bent on learning — all may and must learn. 
 Wilful ignorance has become an offence against the 
 law, and almost all modern States regard primary 
 education as a civic duty. The first place is for 
 those who display the greatest craving for learning, 
 and whose rulers display the keenest tact and most 
 practical intellect in satisfying that craving, without
 
 PRIMARY EDUCATION. 45 
 
 infringing on the supreme rights of conscience and 
 family influence. 
 
 The diffusion of elementary knowledge providen- 
 tially secures the full ripening of a larger number of 
 intellects — sacred germs sown by God Himself in 
 the human family, and which often are not brought 
 to light, because the selfishness of castes, or some 
 other social fatality, deprives them of the first con- 
 ditions of growth. Who can say how many of such 
 obscure germs have never arrived at maturity, having 
 been crushed and smothered in barren furrows ! 
 They only asked for a ray of light, in order to de- 
 velop themselves and thrive. Those who could have 
 made the sun shine over them left them in darkness. 
 The worst is, that there were politicians to justify 
 such a system, and look upon the ignorance of the 
 masses — that Malthusianism of the mind — as being 
 a sort of guarantee for public order and social pros- 
 perity ! No doubt, in education dangers lie hidden ; 
 but where in this world is the good without danger ? 
 Those who become frightened and who draw back are 
 the pusillanimous. According to them we should 
 suppress life, since it entails suffering and death. 
 Inundations and fires are no rare occurrences. Did 
 ever any one, asks M. de Maistre, propose doing 
 away with water and fire ? 
 
 It will not be the least honour of Christianity to
 
 46 THE GERMANS. 
 
 have brought to life a new world wherein truth and 
 liberty must some day become the ruling passions ; 
 wherein also the first duty of charity must have been 
 the universal diffusion of truth, and the wielding of 
 its first tools by the poorest and most obscure of men. 
 
 If we travel through Germany from north to 
 south, from the Ehine to the Elbe, and witness the 
 ardour with which the people frequent the various 
 schools, as also the special care with which the 
 divers Governments contrive to meet that impulse 
 and conform to popular wishes in that direction, it 
 is impossible for us to misunderstand the vitality 
 of popular instruction. 
 
 The schools are scattered all over the country. 
 The smallest village possesses its palace : it is the 
 Volkssclixdr. 
 
 That diffusion of elementary knowledge with the 
 various modern nations has had, until now, two 
 causes — the Christian and the democratic spirit. 
 Under the influence of the former, Germany, for the 
 last three centuries, has everywhere created popular 
 schools. The Bible being the oracle of all that 
 believed, it was indeed indispensable that all should 
 learn how to read. Under the impulse of the latter, 
 France has rather enlarged the limits of popular 
 instruction ; for Frenchmen, being all destined some 
 day to become electors, it was also indispensable that
 
 RELIGIOUS TEACHING. 47 
 
 they should be able to read. Under the double 
 impulse of the Christian and the democratic spirit, 
 the United States themselves have also given popular 
 instruction a wonderful impetus. 
 
 But while Germany had the wisdom to give a 
 legitimate place in primary schools to religion and 
 its ministers, while she regarded religious instruction 
 taught by a minister of religion as being an element 
 not to be dispensed with, and that, in school pro- 
 grammes, should occupy the place of honour, France 
 could not resist irreligion. She closed the school 
 door against the priest and his catechism, as though, 
 when faithful to his mission, he were a suspicious 
 and dangerous being — as though religious doctrine 
 were a worthless teaching. 
 
 The vigilance of the parents, it was alleged, could 
 be depended upon to supply that which some amongst 
 them might regard as a deficiency. Nobody respects 
 more than I the liberty of parents ; but, at the same 
 time, who knows not the want of initiative, the inertia 
 of the masses in France ? and since the State could, 
 without trespass, impose upon parents the compulsory 
 primary education of their children, it would have 
 fulfilled a patriotic duty in imposing religion as one 
 essential branch of the programme. To require chil- 
 dren to attend religious lectures contrary to their 
 parents' belief would have been an iniquity, a
 
 48 THE GERMANS. 
 
 tyranny ; but to enact that they should be brought 
 up in a belief in conformity with their parents' 
 creed would have been the work of a strong and 
 wise government. 
 
 The heads of families who, in J'rance, live without 
 any positive religion, belonging to no denomination, 
 would no doubt have exclaimed against the alleged 
 trespass on their liberty of conscience. An exception 
 to the rule might have been made in their favour, 
 for they are but a minority, and it is not for 
 minorities that laws are enacted, although binding 
 them like the rest. Indeed it is a fact, rather pain- 
 ful to acknowledge, that the greater number of such 
 fathers are either bent on, or would easily submit to, 
 seeing their children brought up devoid of faith and 
 in the ignorance of God ! 
 
 And what, in the soul of the child, will take the 
 place of religion ? If, as the positivists assert, 
 religion were only a transitory form of humanity, 
 applying to only one of the phases of its evolution, 
 religious knowledge should still be kept up in schools. 
 
 The law that rules the individual in his particular 
 evolution — the highest scientific authority teaches it 
 — is, and must be, a reproduction only of that which 
 rules the species. If, then, the species passes through 
 a certain phase, the individual must also pass through 
 it, or run the risk of ignoring one of the laws of life.
 
 RELIGIOX NECESSARY. 49 
 
 Well, then, history testifies to it, the human species, 
 at the outset of its expansion through centuries, is 
 essentially and universally religious ; therefore, ac- 
 cording to scientific data, the individual, at the 
 beginning of his short existence, should be religious. 
 Physiological law is but one of the various aspects 
 of biological law ; and as, in the transformations of 
 living creatures, the suppression of one of the links 
 leads fatally to physiological monstrosities, so in 
 moral progress, vices — that is, moral monstrosities — 
 inevitably result from the suppression of one of its 
 phases. 
 
 But, though proudly proclaiming ourselves the 
 faithful adepts of science, we seldom curb our narrow 
 prejudices before her broad teachings. "We cultivate 
 science too often in order to oppose her to whatever 
 hinders us, to whatever counteracts our vain systems, 
 to what we are unable to comprehend. We refer to 
 her to prove that man began by being but a living 
 cell that must have passed through the various forms 
 of life and animality, from the protozoan to the 
 superior vertebrate, before reaching his definite form : 
 but we refuse to learn from her that children must 
 be not only educated, but religiously educated ; that 
 the essential laws of nature are immutable, inexor- 
 able, and that their violation, either by nations or by 
 individuals, must sooner or later result in death. 
 
 D
 
 50 THE GERMAXS. 
 
 What a change if, freed from our own subjection, 
 we understood, I do not say how to use science, but 
 how to serve her ! Sectarian ideas are the greatest 
 element of disturbance in our own country ; our fatal 
 mania of making a social and political application 
 prevents our organising that modern world, so great by 
 its elements of vitality. Splendid aspirations broke 
 forth in our country : never at any time, under any 
 sky, was there witnessed such an impulse towards 
 the equality, the fraternity,- and the enfranchisement 
 of men. Why, then, should the spirit of deceit and 
 hatred have sown darnel in a field that gave such 
 expectations ? When will the comedy, which is 
 being played under the mask of those sacred prin- 
 ciples, come to an end ? The only and true way to 
 honour those principles is to sacrifice our selfishness, 
 for they are not the means, they are the aim of life ; 
 we must not make use of them, but promote them. 
 What greater satisfaction could be afforded to all 
 true patriots than to see France at last giving shape 
 and form to her grand dreams, and proudly display- 
 ing herself to her neighbours as the model of a new 
 people with whom fraternity expresses itself by uni- 
 versal benevolence, equality by the unflinching reign 
 of the law, and liberty by personal initiative and 
 larse tolerance ?
 
 51 
 
 Vir. 
 
 SECONDARY EDUCATION SINCE THE RENAISSANCE — ITS ESSENTIAL 
 OBJECT — HOW THE GERMANS UNDERSTOOD IT — GYMNASIUMS 
 AND EEAL SCHOOLS — THE STUDY OF CLASSICAL LANGUAGES 
 IN GYMNASIUMS — PREDILECTION OF THE GERMANS FOR THE 
 FRENCH TONGUE — THEIR NEGLECT OF SLAVONIC LANGUAGES 
 — ALSATIANS AND POLES — THE REVENGE OF JUSTICE. 
 
 Secondary education has been, since the Eenaissance, 
 one of the leading features in the organisation of 
 public instruction. 
 
 Since then it has constantly extended its province. 
 Its chief object is to provide youth with the know- 
 ledge that will fit it for higher education. It 
 comprises two indispensable elements — the know- 
 ledge of mathematics and natural sciences, and that 
 of dead and modern languages. Without the former, 
 how could we understand nature, weigh its forces, 
 penetrate the secret of its life, measure its immensity ? 
 The knowledge of the latter enables us to fathom 
 religion, philosophy, the life, the customs, the very 
 soul of mankind, the history of nations whose civil-
 
 52 THE GERMANS. 
 
 isation has disappeared, as well as that of contem- 
 porary peoples. 
 
 Before the Eenaissance, Latin was almost the only 
 language in use with the learned. Preoccupied with 
 himself, with his social, civil, or religious life, man 
 only cast a childish glance on nature, naively con- 
 fident in his theories, and obstinately seeking there- 
 from the secret of this great universe, instead of 
 trying to obtain it, through careful observations, 
 from the universe itself. Conversant with Latin, 
 and the most elementary notions of geometry and 
 arithmetic, young men entered universities as students 
 of the faculty of arts, thence embracing the study 
 of divinity, philosophy, jurisprudence, or medicine, 
 which then comprised all the branches of higher 
 education. 
 
 But as soon as the various tongues spoken by 
 previous civilisations unveiled to inquisitive man- 
 kind their unknown masterpieces, and the impulse 
 that urged men towards science became stronger, it 
 ^Yas found necessary to acquaint youth with the 
 various idioms, to impart* to it the knowledge of 
 Greek and Hebrew besides Latin, to teach it Sanscrit 
 and Eastern languages, dead as well as modern 
 tongues, to place in its hands all the implements of 
 experimental sciences, to initiate it into higher 
 mathematics, without which it is impossible to
 
 SECONDARY EDUCATION. 53 
 
 master astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, or 
 any other scientific knowledge of nature. 
 
 The Germans appear to me to have very practi- 
 cally understood the real aim of secondary education. 
 
 They have not, like ourselves, invented that fatal 
 bifurcation that prematurely separates the two main 
 tools of intellectual culture in the hands of adoles- 
 cence — I mean, the science of languages and mathe- 
 matics. They, by the side of real schools {Real- 
 schulen), wherein the scientific and professional 
 element predominated, created the gymnasium {Gym- 
 nasien), wherein literary pursuits occupy the leading- 
 place ; but, as M. Michel Breal very truly remarks,^ 
 " the real school is not the antithesis of the gym- 
 nasium, it is a kind of mixed gymnasium. Although 
 born from the practical and utilitarian spirit of the 
 times, it at the same time remained aesthetic and 
 scientific. History and literature therein still occupy 
 an important place, at the same time leaving plenty 
 of room for mathematics, natural history, physics, 
 and chemistry. In the higher classes the real school 
 is better adapted for scientific studies than the gym- 
 nasium, though still competing with the latter in the 
 field of literary pursuits. The chief difference be- 
 tween the two establishments is that the pupils of 
 the gymnasium, their studies once over, complete 
 1 Excursions p^dagogiques : Paris, 1882.
 
 54 THE GERMANS. 
 
 their education at the uuiversity, whereas most of 
 the others, on leaving the Realschule, at once enter on 
 the pursuits of life. Teaching at the Healschule must 
 be more varied, though in many respects not so deep 
 as that of the Gi/mnasien." 
 
 These well-defined attributions of the two German 
 institutions upon which secondary education is based 
 have been clearly and officially set forth, in Prussia, 
 by a ministerial circular of the 6th of October 1859.^ 
 
 In fact, real schools never truly succeeded in com- 
 peting with gymnasiums : it is in these that higher 
 education recruits most and the best of its disciples. 
 In my opinion, that institution is, among similar 
 institutions, that which, in all Europe, answers best 
 the true requirements of secondary education. With- 
 out neglecting mathematics or the leading scientific 
 facts, its chief object is a solid philological in- 
 struction. 
 
 I do not know schools where languages are better 
 and more carefully cultivated. Hebrew, Greek, and 
 Latin are there considered as being the classical 
 ancient tongues, and taught as such. The study of 
 the rudiments of Hebrew initiates young men into 
 the knowledge really most useful for the compre- 
 hension of Semitic languages, as for that of the 
 Bible, which plays so considerable a part in the 
 
 1 Lehrpläne für die höheren schulen, &c. : Berlin, 1882.
 
 THE FEENCH TONGUE. 55 
 
 religious life of Protestantism and of any Christian 
 scholar. The study of Greek gives the key to that 
 Hellenic world whose attraction is so great for all 
 who love aesthetics, for there it is that the human 
 ideal revealed itself under its most exquisite forms. 
 There is no modern genius that does not acknow- 
 ledge a master in artistic Greece among her poets, 
 her philosophers, her historians, her scholars, her 
 orators, or her writers. The study of the Latin 
 tongue unveils the Eoman world, and all that civil- 
 isation of which Eome was the first mighty personi- 
 fication, and which, on her disappearing, she be- 
 queathed to the barbarians, to those new nations who 
 grew and throve under the sun of God and Christ on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean, and held, and hold 
 now, under the name of the Latin races, the largest 
 place in universal history. 
 
 The study of Hebrew is optional in German gym- 
 nasiums ; but lectures are nevertheless given in that 
 branch of knowledge, which is not the case in any 
 of the secondary education establishments in other 
 European countries, or in America. All young men 
 who intend embracing holy orders, or becoming doc- 
 tors in philosophy, attend assiduously the Hebraical 
 lectures, desirous of acquiring an element indis- 
 pensable to their ulterior education. 
 
 The leading modern languages — French, I^nglish,
 
 56 THE GERMANS, 
 
 Italian, Spanish — are taught also in gymnasiums. 
 French is always compulsory ; and of all foreign 
 languages it is that which Germans learn most 
 readily. They may rebel inwardly against the 
 supremacy of French genius ; they may look down 
 from the height of their German barbarity upon 
 those whom they call the Latin races — their conduct 
 itself gives them the lie ; for the eagerness with 
 which, when children, they learn our grammar, and, 
 when older, acquaint themselves with our master- 
 pieces, proves beyond doubt our ascendancy and 
 superiority. One willingly looks up to those above, 
 as one also disdains stooping to those beneath. If 
 the Germans evince, even in their educational system, 
 such lively preoccupation concerning Latin peoples, 
 and France especially, be sure it is that they really 
 feel our worth ; and if they care little about Eussia 
 and Slavonic tongues, it is that they, wrongly perhaps, 
 fancy that no good is to be derived from such study. 
 
 The legions of German masters, merchants, em- 
 floyis, who invade the Slavonic borders, do not 
 trouble themselves much about Eussian : they pre- 
 serve intact their own tongue, theiT civilisation, and 
 their superiority ; they remain Germans, and speak 
 German ; and their devouring individuality tries to 
 absorb those whom they regard as an inferior nation. 
 
 They should nevertheless be watchful. The Slavs
 
 THE EEVEXGE OF JUSTICE. 5? 
 
 have scarcely entered the movement of modern civil- 
 isation. No one can tell where the colossal infant, 
 about which the keen-sighted Xapoleon felt rather 
 uneasy, will stop in its progress ; nor can any one 
 foresee what might be the fate of Germany if some 
 day she found herself as in the jaws of some for- 
 midable vice between Latin nations whom she taunts 
 with being senile, and the Slavs whom she delights 
 in considering as uncouth barbarians ! She might 
 then repent the crime of making the mutilation of 
 France a condition of peace and security for her 
 future, and thus preventing, by a policy of violent 
 annexation, the harmony of two great nations. The 
 Frenchmen of Alsace and the Slavs of Poland will 
 some day recover their race and nationality : works 
 of violence cannot endure. All who have lived by 
 conquest and annexation have died dismembered. 
 History does not present a single instance to the 
 contrary. The famous prophetic decree that dis- 
 turbed Belshazzar's banquet is written from century 
 to century, and by the same hand, whenever a 
 similar policy, intoxicated by similar triumphs, aban- 
 dons itself to like orgies, provoking the same ven- 
 geance. However remote may be such prospects, 
 from them a vanquished patriot can derive solid, 
 virile hopes ; for justice will, sooner or later, obtain 
 its legitimate and sacred revenge.
 
 58 
 
 VIII. 
 
 SECONDARY EDUCATION CONTINUED — ITS PREPARATORY CHAR- 
 ACTER WISELY PRESERVED IN GERMANY — LITERARY AND 
 SCIENTIFIC PROVISIONS — THREE FRENCH PREJUDICES IN- 
 JURIOUS TO SECONDARY EDUCATION : FALSE POSITIVISM, 
 IRRELIGION, SPIRIT OF CRITICISM AND PRECOCIOUS CULTURE 
 — ORIGIN OF THE LAST OF THESE PREJUDICES — ITS DISAS- 
 TROUS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Secondary education, in gymnasiums and real schools 
 thronghout Germany, has a great merit : it has pre- 
 served intact its preparatory character. The pupil 
 who, at the expiration of seven or eight years' studies, 
 undergoes his final examination {ahsohdormm) is 
 not held to have any knowledge, but simply to be 
 ready for accjuiring knowledge. The laureate proudly 
 carries his insignia — a cap and a scarf, with the 
 colours of the gymnasium or real school he has just 
 left. No difference between him and the students, 
 save his appearance, — his cheeks yet free from scars 
 — he has not yet fought any duel, — by a kind of 
 awkwardness that reminds one of recruits. In what- 
 ever esteem the examination of maturity may be
 
 PEEPARATORY CHARACTER OF EDUCATION. 59 
 
 held, it is not a patent of science, but a simple 
 testimonial, implying fitness for knowledge. Science 
 exists only in higher education, and for those who, 
 their age and culture considered, are fit for initiation 
 in philosophy. 
 
 Premature appeal to reason has many disad- 
 vantages. In its development, the mind, like the 
 body, is subject to certain normal laws ; and if the 
 child's brain cannot, without danger to its physical 
 health, be brought into activity before a certain age, 
 neither can the metaphysical and rational faculties 
 of the mind be exercised too soon, without jeopardis- 
 ing mental hygiene. The higher branches of know- 
 ledge imply the independent use of abstract reason. 
 The question is no longer belief in a teacher, but 
 seeing with one's own eyes, and being struck with 
 the same evidence. ISTot only have we to observe 
 facts likely to leave an impression on our imagina- 
 tion, we must conceive the ideal and transcendental 
 law. Such work is unsuited to youthful minds. 
 They are not yet expected to produce ; they must 
 only receive. Memory must be in full activity, 
 discreetly enriched, but not overloaded : what it will 
 have gathered will, later on, act on the volition, the 
 imagination, the reason itself, and will then become 
 the chosen aliment of the first efforts of personal 
 genius. Thus albumen, in the egg, is meant to feed
 
 60 THE CxERMANS. 
 
 the germ up to the time when, strong enough to live 
 by itself, it breaks the shell. 
 
 The study of dead and modern languages is better 
 calculated than any other to meet the requirements 
 of all the faculties of youth. Of such a study 
 memory bears the burden ; the faculties of imitation 
 and the natural curiosity of the mind are directly 
 set to work, since the question at issue is to acquire 
 information respecting the thoughts of men and 
 people foreign to one's self, as well as the best 
 manner of rendering such thoughts in one's own 
 tongue. Even then personal reason is stimulated by 
 salutary efforts, since it is obliged to grasp the idea 
 hidden in some expression often quite alien to the 
 mother tongue. 
 
 It is well, however, to call the growing reason to 
 reality ; to teach it to consider, not merely w^ords, 
 but the things which they indicate ; to excite its 
 youthful activity to easy endeavours, such as the 
 means of perfecting the result obtained by the study 
 of mathematics and the elementary notions of experi- 
 mental sciences. But let us not forget that these 
 teachmgs are, and can be, but a remote initiation 
 to true knowledge ; it is because of its having dis- 
 regarded that feature that secondary education in 
 France is becoming more and more misleading. 
 
 Three prejudices exercise over it a most disastrous
 
 FRENCH PREJUDICES. 61 
 
 influence. False positivism, injudiciously fond of 
 experimental sciences, deprecates dead languages, and, 
 considering Latin and Greek exercises as occupying 
 precious time stolen from more practical studies, it 
 deprives French youth of the necessary tools for 
 acquiring a knowledge of the great periods of civili- 
 sation, Irreligion is always contriving to lessen the 
 value of religious instruction, and at last has suc- 
 ceeded in striking it out of the programme. In fine, 
 rationalism foolishly brings about a premature mani- 
 festation of the spirit of criticism, and ignoring the 
 true law of human nature, pretends to teach youth to 
 think by itself, before learning to think through the 
 guidance of a master. 
 
 The vice of hasty formation of youth is not new 
 in Latin races ; its origin may be traced as far back 
 as the sixteenth century, when, under the influence 
 of indiscipline in the faculties of a.rts,f acultaks artium, 
 the universities declined. 
 
 The Jesuits, in order to overcome the spirit of in- 
 subordination, resorted to the celebrated system of 
 " Internat," — that is, lodging and boarding of the pu- 
 pils, — a system which soon became almost exclusive. 
 The universities in France followed in the movement, 
 even exaggerating its application, and depriving it of 
 all moral or religious counterpoise. They even went 
 farther : not satisfied with imprisoning between high
 
 62 THE GERMANS. 
 
 walls, under the vigilant and fatherly care of skilful 
 masters, a youth whose exuberance inspired fears, 
 that colleges might give a complete course of educa- 
 tion to and return to society men ready to begin life, 
 they prematurely taught their pupils that which the 
 pupils should have learnt only in the universities. 
 They wanted youths to be men at the end of their 
 classical studies. As the field of knowledge grew 
 broader, it became necessary to extend the programme 
 of study ; the student then was not only to think 
 submittingly, but to think also for himself. It was 
 thus found necessary to teach him philosophy, and 
 inform youths having no experience of life with prob- 
 lems, often insoluble, and over which conscience and 
 reason ponder painfully in the glimmer of fearful 
 realities, the brunt of which, at eighteen, young men, 
 thank God, have not yet had to bear. 
 
 The programme of the baccalaureate thus became 
 foolishly encyclopedic. Overcrowding crushed the 
 memory of the candidate, and too often succeeded 
 only in turning out superficial scholars, whose real 
 ignorance was only equalled by their vanity and pre- 
 sumption. Being conversant with every branch of 
 learning at seventeen is the sure means of being 
 ignorant of everything at forty. It is not in colleges, 
 nor in gymnasiums, above all to youth, that superior
 
 PREMATURE CRITICISM. 63 
 
 education, that is, true science, should be taught, but 
 in universities.^ 
 
 History, relying upon the experience of two centu- 
 ries, will no doubt some day tell the result achieved 
 by such a regime in countries like ours, where it 
 flourished without rival ; it will perhaps then point 
 out, a little too late, I fear, the danger of rather too 
 compressive pedagogics, and too precocious initiation 
 of the mind to sciences which it cannot grasp. 
 
 Discipline is a chain : it must moderate initiative, 
 not destroy it. Philosophy is a generous wine : do 
 not pour it into new casks, whose staves do not yet 
 closely fit. 
 
 Is it not hard indeed to see our country, France, 
 — that classical land of collegians and of elegant 
 speech, making eighteen - year - old philosophers — 
 France become the country that obeys least, and 
 where philosophy counts most sceptics ! 
 
 I was once, in France, talking with the professor 
 of rhetoric of a private college, about that defect of 
 secondary education ; I frankly declared how indig- 
 nant I felt with the development of critical spirit in 
 young men of sixteen, and spoke with the less reserve, 
 as my words met with a sympathetic echo from my 
 interlocutor. 
 
 ^ See Appendix.
 
 64 THE GERMANS. 
 
 " That tendency to premature criticism is such," 
 said he to me, " that it invades even our literary 
 studies. In examinations, candidates are always ex- 
 pected to give critical analyses. And being bound to 
 see them succeed, do you know what I am driven 
 to do ? To train them up to it. I spend the first 
 two months of the year of preparation in teaching 
 my pupils a formulary of criticism, and devote the 
 remaining eight months to teaching them how to 
 use it." 
 
 What an aberration in pedagogics ! The child 
 must believe ; nature gave it that instinct ; the young 
 man, that is, the adolescent, must admire : his age is 
 that of fancy and enthusiasm ; let us leave to men 
 the severe and difficult work of criticism. Judging 
 is the right of mature reason, able to control itself, 
 alike to resist enthusiasm, and to emancipate itself 
 from prejudices.
 
 65 
 
 IX. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN THE PROGRAMMES OF SECONDARY 
 EDUCATION — ITS NECESSITY UNDERSTOOD BY GERMANS — 
 DISREGARDED IN FRANCE — PATRIOTIC FEARS ABOUT A 
 GENERATION EDUCATED WITHOUT FAITH — RESOURCES OF 
 FRENCH GENIUS, INDISCIPLINE SUPERFICIAL, DOCILITY 
 FUNDAMENTAL. 
 
 While religious instruction is almost absent from 
 educational programmes in France, it is being care- 
 fully preserved in Germany as the indispensable 
 element of the gymnasiums and of all secondary 
 education. Eead the diploma of maturity delivered 
 in any gymnasium to the pupil who has satisfac- 
 torily passed his final examination : the first words 
 are, " We hereby testify that the pupil of Eoman 
 Catholic — or evangelic — faith is efficient in religious 
 knowledge." They do not ask a being of eighteen 
 to give a critic's opinion about the great religious 
 problems, and to have an opinion of his own ; but 
 they demand that he should know the traditional 
 teachings of the faith of his ancestors. 
 
 This is, however, what can be read in the circular
 
 66 THE GERMANS. 
 
 of the Ministers of Public Instruction in Prussia, 
 relative to the branches of knowledf^e to be taught 
 in high schools : " Eeligious instruction shall com- 
 prise, — 1st, The history of the Bible, but chiefly of 
 the iSTew Testament ; 2d, The Catechism, with the 
 Scriptural passages and traditions which explain it ; 
 3d, The Ecclesiastical Year-book, and complete 
 knowledge of the principal hymns ; 4th, Knowledge 
 of the main facts contained in the Scriptures, chiefly 
 in the New Testament (reading of various passages 
 selected from the original text) ; 5th, Fundamental 
 points of dogma and morality ; 6th, Knowledge of 
 the most important dates of the history of the 
 Church, of eminent personages, and of the lives of 
 the principal saints." ^ 
 
 Not a word of • philosophy. No apologetics. No 
 premature discussion ; positive, elementary, well- 
 defined teachings, such as become intellects yet 
 fresh, and which must be strengthened by doctrine 
 and not prematurely destroyed by criticism. 
 
 In Germany, as in all other countries of the 
 civilised world, reason has brought about great pub- 
 lic controversies respecting the various creeds ; and 
 perhaps no people have carried on such debates 
 
 1 Lehrpläne für die höheren Schulen, nebst der darauf bezüglichen 
 circularverfügung des Königlich. Preussischen Ministers der geist- 
 lichen. Unterrichts und Medicinal Angelegenheiten. Vom 17 
 März 1882.
 
 RELIGIOUS IXSTRUCTION. 67 
 
 with more profoundness and tenacity than the Ger- 
 mans. But the men of mature years, who have the 
 direction of national education in Germany, did not 
 even conceive that the door of gymnasiums should 
 be left open for the introduction of those terrible 
 controversies, suited only to intellects already capable 
 of personal reflection. Youth there is brought up in 
 some faith. No doubt the native docility of the 
 German race renders this easy. What could we not 
 obtain from a race impulsive, witty, critical, and 
 even cynical like ours, if we only knew how to 
 curb it by religious discipline, and if, instead of 
 fostering in it precocious incredulity, we taught it at 
 the outset respect for a creed ! What ignorance of 
 human nature ! How very foolish and imprudent ! 
 In our land of common-sense, is it not lamentable to 
 see the lay masses, the society of the ruling classes, 
 doing their utmost to foment everywhere, with the 
 mob as with the youth of the higher classes, incre- 
 dulity and scepticism, and — still more dreadful — 
 organising public instruction on such a footing that 
 religious faith, if ever it could perish, might be 
 doomed to decadence and death ? What can be 
 obtairied from a race without faith ? and what other 
 faith could ever replace the Gospel in societies raised 
 by it to such an ideal of justice as no other religion 
 — not excepting the Jewish — could ever satisfy ?
 
 68 THE GERMANS. 
 
 When man, in the maturity of his mind, rejects 
 the dogmas, he preserves the morality of his de- 
 stroyed faith ; in spite of himself he still retains in 
 his implacable criticism his conscience, such as edu- 
 cation and religious instruction made it — he fells the 
 tree and keeps the fruit. But what remains if the 
 tree itself has been destroyed in the germ ? We 
 shall see, when under our eyes the race of beings 
 devoid of conscience and ideal are grown up and 
 have multiplied. 
 
 Science may teach us what is terrestrially useful ; 
 it will not give us the habit of sacrifice, nor will it 
 make us unyielding in the performance of duty. We 
 may make laws ; we shall not have the strength to 
 obey them ; and those laws themselves will always 
 be deficient from lack of justice, for they will rather 
 be the expression of sectarian ideas than the formula 
 of general interest. 
 
 Everywhere complaint is made of the indiscipline 
 so noticeable, of all peoples, among the French. To 
 hear certain detractors one would suppose that inca- 
 pacity for obedience is with us a constitutional vice. 
 I do not share in this opinion. I know my blood 
 — the blood of my countrymen — it is generous, capa- 
 ble of the noblest impulses and of the most manly 
 virtues ; but care must be taken not to vitiate it. 
 Xowhere, not even in that Germany whose passive
 
 PATRIOTIC FEARS. 69 
 
 obedience is so much belauded, did I meet with more 
 docile natures, easier to control, than in France — 
 nowhere a more obliging, sometimes even more com- 
 plete abdication of personal independence, in politics 
 and religion alike. But that docility proceeds more 
 from sentiment and from the heart than from the 
 head and reason ; then sentiment is fragile and fickle, 
 reason alone is firm and consistent. Let us not mis- 
 lead or enervate our French reason ; it is the neces- 
 sary brake and moderator of a nature too easily 
 excited and too freely communicative. May we not, 
 however, inquire if it is not being perverted — 
 poisoned with the venom of criticism, of scepticism, 
 of irreligion ? 
 
 Shall I be pardoned for addressing these reproaches 
 to those who lead the opinion of the country through 
 such nefarious paths ? My remarks are prompted not 
 only by wounded faith, but by the ardour of a far- 
 seeing patriotism. The violation, the mere disregard 
 of the essential laws of human nature in a nation, 
 will eventually and fatally lead that nation to ruin. 
 When sectarian passion succeeds in dividing the 
 people, in inspiring the laws, in ruling even the 
 institutions, it is not only civil war of minds, it fore- 
 bodes the close, the inevitable decomposition of society.
 
 70 
 
 X. 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE DEPENDENT UPON HIGHER EDUCA- 
 TION — GERMAN UNIVERSITIES, HOTBEDS OP UNIVERSAL 
 SCIENCE — THEIR NUMBER AND VITALITY — A UNIVERSITY 
 TOWN — THE HARD-WORKING AND MERRY-MAKING STUDENT 
 — THE MASTER — FETE OF THE CORPORATIONS OP STUDENTS 
 IN A UNIVERSITY TOWN — INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT — TIES 
 EXISTING BETWEEN THE VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES — DEBATES 
 BETWEEN THE PROFESSORS. 
 
 The degree of intellectual culture attained by a 
 country is the measure of that country's worth, 
 and there is no better criterion of such desree of 
 culture than the state of its higher education. Per- 
 using books and programmes, asking competent men, 
 professors or rectors, young or old students, for in- 
 formation, is not enough to form a correct idea of 
 the vitality of such education ; one must see with 
 one's own eyes the working of those institutions 
 where it is in operation. 
 
 In Germany those institutions are called uni- 
 versities. 
 
 To know Germany, one must have seen those
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION. 71 
 
 powerful foci of universal science which train the dite 
 of thinkers and of learned youth, and whence spring 
 the ideas that stir opinion. It is with such ideas 
 that I travelled through the country. 
 
 I ^^sited the venerable Saxon university at 
 Leipzig, founded in 1409, and where neo-Luther- 
 anism built the bulwark of its orthodoxy. Close 
 to Leipzig the Prussian university at Halle still 
 shows with pride the schools founded by Francke 
 and Lange. There it was that the most fanatical 
 pietism and rationalism fought their hardest battles. 
 Despite th§ popularity of Wolff, rationalism did not 
 prevail. Halle followed in the university of Witten- 
 berg, where Luther and Melanchthon delivered their 
 teachings, and Wittenberg is now a famous school 
 of divinity, where more than 400 students annually 
 attend the lectures. 
 
 I saw the young and mighty university of Berlin. 
 Founded at the beginning of this century, it now 
 surpasses, by the number and fame of its professors, 
 and by the reputation it acquired in a few years, all 
 the other universities in Germany. Few are the 
 students who do not deem it a great honour to spend 
 a few quarters in that celebrated school, and to 
 inscribe in their book {Arwieldungs Bäche) the name 
 of some of its teachers. I also saw the Hanoverian 
 university of Göttingen, justly renowned by its
 
 72 THE GERMAXS. 
 
 faculty of law, and to-day so proud to reckou the 
 great Chancellor of the Empire as one of its quarrel- 
 some students. I went to the gorgeous Bavarian 
 university at Munich. The vanity of a king took 
 pride in giving its buildings a more than princely 
 majesty, and sheltering that queen, whose name is 
 Science, under a roof bearing the appearance of a 
 royal abode. I also visited the university of Tübin- 
 gen, in Wiirtemberg. There the two Catholic and 
 Protestant faculties of divinity live peaceably side by 
 side like two sisters ; 150 Catholic students of di- 
 vinity and 300 Protestant students there display a 
 fraternity unaltered by difference of doctrine. Noble 
 example, to which the sectarian minds of many other 
 countries might well be directed ! 
 
 Germany is to-day the classical land of univer- 
 sities.^ There are, no doubt, elsewhere elementary 
 schools, colleges, lyceums, professional and special 
 schools, lectures on high political studies, even facul- 
 ties that Germany might envy, but nowhere can we 
 meet with universities equal to hers. In the Empire^ 
 to-day there are twenty-two : thirteen in Prussia and 
 the duchies or annexed provinces ■ — Berlin, Bonn, 
 Braunsberg, Breslau, Fribourg, Greiswald, Halle, 
 Heidelberg, Kiel, Königsberg, Marburg, Münster, 
 
 ^ Deutsches Universitäts- Kalender : Berlin, 1882. 
 ^ See Appendix B.
 
 VITALITY OF UNIVERSITIES. 73 
 
 and Eostock ; one in Saxony — Leipzig ; one in the 
 duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha — Jena ; one in the 
 grand duchy of Hesse — Giessen ; three in Bavaria — 
 jMunich, Wurzburg, Erlangen ; one in Wlirtemberg — 
 Tübingen; one in Hanover — Göttingen; one in Alsace 
 — Strasbourg. 
 
 These twenty-two universities are so many active 
 centres wherein science is perpetually mooted. They 
 mean a staff of more than 2000 teachers, and an 
 army exceeding 25,000 scholars. The identity of 
 organisation, and the fraternity existing between all 
 the universities of the Empire, allow of the stvidents 
 passing from one university to another, to repair to 
 Berlin, to Leipzig, to Munich, to Halle, or Tübingen, 
 there to listen to the greatest professors, and thus, 
 as the companions of diity, to make the tour of the 
 Fatherland, as those in our own country pass from 
 workshop to workshop, when making what is termed 
 their tour through France. 
 
 Such is in Germany the vitality of university 
 institutions, such is the cultivation of knowledge, 
 that the university is sufficient of itself, and by the 
 power of the interests over which it rules, can itself 
 create a town. 
 
 Just as there are industrial and artistic towns, 
 military towns, and purely religious, maritime, com- 
 mercial, and manufacturing towns, so there are beyond
 
 7-4 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the Ehine — and that is a characteristic feature — 
 towns purely academical, — Göttingen, Jena, Tübingen, 
 for instance. 
 
 It is in such cities that we must sojourn if we 
 wish to examine closely and alone the peaceful 
 whirling of intellectual life in the educated youth 
 of Germany. In Berlin, in Vienna, as in Paris, 
 scientific activity, though very considerable, is lost 
 in the buzzing and bustle of life ; the noisy laughter 
 of those who enjoy life, or the painful groans of those 
 who exhaust their strength in earning bread, are 
 better heard than the deep buzzing of labouring 
 thoughts ; there the attention is more easily dis- 
 turbed by the game of worldly intrigues or political 
 ambitions than by the persevering and intelligent 
 labour of man struggling with the unknown, winning 
 victories over ignorance and error, and silently train- 
 ing disciples who will walk after him in the ways of 
 light and truth. The mind perceives well that only 
 which stands alone, detached, in relief, on a quiet 
 horizon. 
 
 I never better comprehended true scientific activ- 
 ity than in those small German cities, peopled with 
 professors and students, and where the university 
 is everything. 
 
 They are generally ancient cities, of medieval 
 appearance, with their stronghold, their houses with
 
 A UNIVERSITY TOWN. 75 
 
 two or three storeys protruding one above the other, 
 and their steep pinioned roofs, pierced with a score 
 of bull's-eyes. The ditches of the old ramparts are 
 filled in and transformed into green gardens. Gigantic 
 trees cover them, and the patrol pathway is now a 
 shady promenade, where meditative minds may medi- 
 tate as they please. The old fortress is dismantled ; 
 it has lost its ruthless appearance ; it is no longer 
 the shelter of the warfaring lord and of his armed 
 followers ; it has become, as at Tübingen, a library — 
 the arsenal of science. Do not conclude, however, 
 that military force has disappeared ; it has only 
 changed its aspect and tenement. Look at the plain 
 below, a short way from the little city ; you see that 
 large edifice, which combines the appearance of a 
 palace with that of a fortress : it is the barrack. 
 
 The university city is quiet and gay. The Ger- 
 mans resisted the French mania of enrolling, of 
 secluding all. The student is left free ; without, 
 as with us, entering the worldly whirling, lie has 
 preserved his gaiety and the genius of his twenty 
 years. He is free from the sneering scepticism of 
 those prematurely old, who never had either an ideal 
 or a belief. He is a dreamer and a realist, little 
 caring about austerity, and preferring to obey nature 
 rather than to control it. German students are 
 quarrelsome, and far from abstemious — in fact, in-
 
 76 THE GEEMANS. 
 
 capable of bearing a grudge to their beer even for 
 a day : that beverage is severe enough to those who 
 abuse it ; but the Germans are free from a spirit 
 of revolt. 
 
 Certain university towns are notorious for the 
 turbulence of their students — Heidelberg and Göttin- 
 gen, for instance. There duels are of frequent occur- 
 rence ; more than a hundred are yearly recorded. 
 They are a deep-rooted custom, remains of the war- 
 like barbarity of the people. "Take care when in 
 Göttingen," smilingly said to me a Berlin student, 
 " not to elbow in the street, even accidentally, a Bursch- 
 enschafter." Quarrels between students are settled at 
 the half-yearly vacation, before the holidays. The 
 last weeks are indeed weeks of blood. On Wednes- 
 days and Fridays, carriages are seen at dawn starting 
 for some neighbouring village, carrying the champions ; 
 they return with drawn blinds, bringing back the 
 wounded. 
 
 The ordinary Mensur very seldom endangers the 
 life of the duellists, who are provided with a steel 
 scarf and a metallic network, protecting both the 
 neck and the eyes. The rapier is not pointed at the 
 adversary, but wildly brandished, so as to strike the 
 skull and gash the cheeks. The nose, being the most 
 prominent part, is in great jeopardy. If it come un- 
 scathed out of the contest, it considers itself lucky.
 
 DUELLIXG. 77 
 
 However large the cut — such is the peculiarity of 
 opinion — it is an ornament in which the student 
 takes pride. He does not conceal it ; he proudly 
 shows it as a sign of bravery, and as authentic proof 
 of his having received the baptism of the sword. 
 
 In the university town, restaurants may be found 
 everywhere. The inhabitants seem to be entirely 
 devoted to the professors and students, and to con- 
 sider themselves born solely to lodge, feed, and quench 
 the thirst of their guests. ÜSTothing can be more in- 
 teresting to an observer than the inspection of the 
 halls where youth and its teachers regularly come to 
 spend several hours daily. There are met with all 
 sorts of persons. Two well-defined types, however, 
 are noticed among the students — those ivhose sole 
 object is mirth a7id enjoyment, and the harcl-VJOi^JdiKj 
 and laborious youths. The former, quarrelsome, with 
 martial features, cheeks full of scars, wear small, 
 peakless, coloured caps, stuck over the eyes, and go 
 about flourishing their sticks, always followed by their 
 lion-dogs ; the others, impecunious, saving, and dili- 
 gent, inelegantly dressed, wear their hair long, do not 
 trim their beards, and live upon fifteenpence a-day, 
 get up early, attend five or six lectures, and deserve 
 by their assiduity to become the favourite disciples 
 of some celebrated professor. The one type dwells 
 on its adventures, its duels, its feasts ; the other only
 
 78 THE GERMANS. 
 
 talks of science, of examinations, of its dreams of 
 the future. 
 
 Two types are also noticeable among professors : 
 the one, taciturn, reads his paper and gravely empties 
 his glass in silence ; the other resumes, at the restau- 
 rant, before a small circle of disciples, his lecture on 
 philology, Arabic, old French, or history. Some live 
 retired in a lonely house ; you see them pass every 
 morning, at the same hour, through the same streets, 
 on their way to their university, and every evening 
 taking a quiet walk under the big hospitable trees, 
 that seem to have grown there purposely to shade 
 them. 
 
 Thus, a century ago, lived Kant, in a little street 
 at Königsberg. 
 
 " I don't believe," says Henri Heine, " that the big 
 clock of the cathedral went through its visible task 
 with less passion and more punctuality than its 
 compatriot, Emmanuel Kant. To get up, drink his 
 coffee, write, deliver his lecture, take a stroll, — every- 
 thing had its appointed hour, and the neighbours knew 
 it was exactly half-past two o'clock when Emmanuel 
 Kant, clad in his grey coat, his Spanish reed in 
 hand, followed the road leading to the little avenue 
 of lime-trees, which, to this day, in remembrance of 
 him, is still called the philosopher's avenue." ^ 
 ^ De I'Allemacme.
 
 A UNIVERSITY FATE. 79 
 
 A life devoted to science requires an almost mon- 
 astic regularity. No one more resembles a Benedic- 
 tine friar or a monk than a true savant. Science is 
 like God from whom it proceeds ; it absorbs and 
 isolates those who love it. 
 
 Some fine morning the little town becomes ani- 
 mated. All the houses are decorated with flags ; from 
 every window emerges bunting of various colours. The 
 stranger, surprised, wonders who is the official party 
 about to visit the place. Gala carriages, in which 
 are seated students serious and silent as state min- 
 isters, cross at full gallop the streets ordinarily so 
 quiet. It is the fete of some university association. 
 On such occasions, everybody drinks, eats, sings, and 
 enjoys himself, from the tenth hour to sunrise next 
 morning. The old students being invited, rush from 
 all parts of Germany ; and during the two days the 
 feast continues, you may see old fellows with grey 
 beards wearing the red, green, or blue caps as at 
 twenty, and fraternising with the young Fuchs. 
 
 Nothing can sever the ties of fellowship existing 
 between German students. Those whom wealth or 
 talent has placed in high positions do not forget 
 their less fortunate companions. Not a few, I dare- 
 say, to-day congratulate themselves upon having worn 
 the same brick-red cap that adorned the head of the 
 Chancellor, when he already displayed at Göttingen
 
 80 THE GERMANS. 
 
 his good luck and quarrelsome disposition by fighting 
 scores of successful duels ! 
 
 The students who have become somebodies are not 
 forgotten in the university town. The houses where 
 they lived are pointed out, their memory preserved 
 from generation to generation. The landlord takes 
 care that a marble slab, where the traveller may 
 delight in reading the name of a great man and the 
 date at which he was studying, shall be fixed to the 
 wall. Not one of the celebrated men of Germany of 
 the last century — Goethe, Heine, Müller, Humboldt, 
 Fichte, Hegel, Bismarck — but has his commemora- 
 tive stone. 
 
 Those working cities, in the widest acceptation of 
 the word, seem to assist the work of thought. There 
 are found the calmness of solitude and a bracing 
 intellectual atmosphere ; there laborious students 
 love to live ; there, slowly, patiently, far from the 
 agitation of public opinion, so oppressive in many 
 places, are achieved those works of criticism, of 
 philosophy, of philology or science, which do not 
 always solve questions, but often present them in a 
 peculiar light — works truly independent, bearing only 
 the stamp of the free genius of their author and of 
 his indomitable patience. 
 
 The art of vulgarisation, so developed with us, is 
 hardly cultivated beyond the Ehine, for it requires a
 
 INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT. 81 
 
 communicative nature and a lucid mind — qualities 
 seldom met with in Germans. In France, we write 
 for the masses ; scholars in Germany write only for 
 that small public likely to feel an interest in their 
 works and to judge them with a competent mind. 
 Their works, important by reason of the subjects 
 treated, are not elegant in style ; they are, as a rule, 
 the result of long study. So testify the productions 
 of such philosophers as Wolff, Kant, Jacobi, Fichte, 
 Schelling, Hegel, Herbart ; of divines and critics 
 such as Paulus, De Wette, Schleiermacher, Sertorius, 
 
 3 
 
 Xeander, Bruno, Bauer, Ewald, ]\Ioehler ; and of 
 historians like Müller, De Eanke, De Preller, and 
 Mommsen. The writings, the books, are but the 
 means of scattering abroad the master's word — of 
 diffusing and spreading his teachings, and of winning 
 over fresh disciples from other rival universities. 
 
 When a master-mind reveals itself by the power 
 of its word, and chiefly by originality and newness of 
 conception, it quickly rallies around it the young and 
 impulsive. If the new doctrine shocks received 
 ideas of religion, of philosophy, or of criticism, the 
 war breaks out, fruitful mental war, in which the 
 passions sometimes delay the progress of truth, but 
 wherein also truth in the end succeeds in de- 
 stroying the reign of obstinate routine, of false tra- 
 ditions as well as the tyranny of personal sys- 
 
 F
 
 82 THE GERMANS. 
 
 terns, systems always narrow, even those followed by 
 genius. 
 
 The battle-field is sometimes one university only, 
 sometimes several rival universities, and even the 
 whole of Germany. Eival professors carry on the 
 contest from afar, and the numerous learned reviews 
 are opened alike for defence as for attack. The 
 German — unless he belong to the ideal race of his 
 great poets or great thinkers — is ignorant of niceties 
 of form, of delicate irony, and of hidden meanings. 
 Wlien his heavy temperament enters the arena, 
 violent words accompany his arguments, and are 
 rapidly hurled, in the midst of polemics, like so many 
 heavy stones. The champions have the appearance 
 of wrestlers in a country fair. Their genius does not 
 always preserve them from such displays of violence, 
 and three centuries of culture and civilisation have 
 not altered the actuality of the ' Table Conversations ' 
 of a Luther, which to this day have remained classical 
 in the fatherland of the man whom Germans delight 
 in styling their great reformer.
 
 83 
 
 XI. 
 
 UNIVERSITY BUILDIXGS — THE STUDENT IN THE UNIVERSITY — 
 THE master's LECTURE — THE STUDENT LATE IN ATTEND- 
 ANCE — UNIVERSITY DISCIPLINE — ADMINISTRATIVE ORGAN- 
 ISATION OF THE GERMAN UNIVERSITY — CONSIDERATION 
 ENJOYED BY THE UNIVERSITIES : THE BRAIN OF THE 
 COUNTRY — THE SOUL OF GERMANY CHIEFLY REVEALED BY 
 THEM — GERMAN STUDENTS AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE 
 MONUMENT OF ALBRECHT VON GRÄFE IN 1882. 
 
 The buildings devoted to science in Germany — from ■% 
 the Volksschule, where the child of the people learns 
 to read, to the university itself — attract attention. 
 
 The university is sometimes an old convent, as at 
 Leipzig ; a princely palace, having the appearance of 
 a fortress or vast mausoleum, as at Berlin ; a modern 
 monument of high style, as at Göttingen, at Tübingen, 
 at Munich. Under these different appearances the 
 university always preserves a lordly air. It has the 
 calmness of a convent, and never loses that religious 
 silence which so well befits those assembled to think 
 or to pray. 
 
 Thousands of students rush throush the Ions
 
 84 THE GERMANS. 
 
 corridors at the lecture-hours, no more disturbing the 
 quietude of the place than do laborious swarms of 
 bees that of their hives. Eound the edifice are 
 enclosed flower-beds — lilac and laurel-thyme bowers, 
 large chestnuts and lime-trees — reminding one of the 
 gardens of Academus. The lecture over, the student 
 does not find himself in the streets ; he may at leisure 
 walk through the beautiful promenade destined for 
 his use, there to discuss with his comrades the lecture 
 just delivered and its problems. At Berlin and at 
 Leipzig, during the academic quarter of an hour {aka- 
 dcjiiische Viertel) between two lectures, he may, at 
 about nine or ten o'clock, take a breath of fresh air 
 before resuming his morning task. 
 
 The porter's lodge is a kind of silent restaurant ; 
 there the student quietly plays a game of dice, writes 
 his letters, chiefly towards the close of the quarter, 
 when his purse begins to feel light, and eats a slice 
 of bread and ham, to which he adds a matutinal glass 
 of beer. The most diligent, anxious to secure seats 
 near the professor's chair, bravely bring their own 
 breakfasts, which they eat there, no surprise being 
 excited by it, so natural does it appear to Germans 
 to eat and drink when feeling hungry or thirsty. This, 
 among a thousand others, is a feature that displays 
 in the German race a complete lack of the sense of 
 propriety, of what we in France term the convenances.
 
 THE MASTERS LECTURE. 85 
 
 The German acquires in individual freedom what he 
 loses in civility. He takes no notice of his neigh- 
 bour, and feels no offence at a breach of propriety in 
 which he would be the first to indulge. 
 
 This rule holds good except in the case of students 
 who happen to arrive late. The lecture once begun, 
 the door is not considered open. He who then enters 
 does not break any written regulation, but he seems 
 to defy opinion, and runs the risk of being received 
 with murmurs. Most students, by timidity or by 
 respect, refrain from incurring such reprobation. 
 The words of the professor and the attention of the 
 pupils seem as inviolable as a sacrifice in a temple. 
 Gradually the lecture-room gets filled. The students 
 come in, their portfolios under their arms. They 
 always sit at the same numbered table, crossing over 
 tables and seats to reach it, and open their writing- 
 books, prepared to write at the dictation of the pro- 
 fessor. The professor enters last, without any cere- 
 mony. He hangs his hat and coat on the same 
 hooks as his disciples. The usher with the bright 
 chain of office is unknown here. The chair is a 
 simple platform. No glass of sugary or even pure 
 water ; only a piece of white chalk, to illustrate the 
 lecture on the black-board, which is always placed 
 close to or behind the teacher. No phrases. He 
 resumes his subject where he left it off the day be-
 
 86 THE GERMANS. 
 
 fore, only anxious to teacli, desirous to satisfy the 
 avidity of those who listen to him, expecting not to 
 be amused but to be taught. 
 
 The German student requires facts, not words. 
 No similarity between him and the Athenian with 
 curious ears. He, so musical, who delights in the 
 harmony of his great composers, does not seem to 
 suspect that speech is a melody. Science for him is 
 a mute algebra ; it is composed of equations, and all 
 he asks from the professor is to set free the unknown 
 quantity. He at times applauds by violently stamp- 
 ing both feet on the ground, like the beating of 
 drums. For my part, I prefer our clapping of hands, 
 more noisy, perhaps, but more noble. 
 
 Those hundreds of young men, stooping over 
 their note-books, listen rather than judge, — they be- 
 lieve their master rather than discuss his teachings. 
 Their mind is docile ; they practise the words of 
 
 Aristotle — 
 
 " Oportet addiscentem credere." 
 
 To seize and appreciate all this one must be Vol- 
 taire's countryman. I never could discern in their 
 eyes or on their lips the least sceptical or sneering 
 smile. It is true that the organisation of univer- 
 sities in Germany enables the student to attend the 
 lectures of any professor he may choose. He is the 
 free pupil of a free master of free science. No
 
 DISCIPLINE. 87 
 
 obstacle debars him from the apprenticeship of high 
 culture : neither regulations, nor customs, nor even 
 money. He can cheaply enough spend his univer- 
 sity years in any of the cities of the Empire, from 
 Breslau to Munich or Vienna, from Heidelberg to 
 Leipzig, and take his seat beside any chair at his 
 pleasure. 
 
 The partisans of university tutelage can hardly 
 understand that school of German freedom, neverthe- 
 less it trains some of the most docile students I have 
 ever seen. 
 
 The more I like and admire independence of mind 
 and character in a man who, by dint of work and 
 maturity, of enlightenment and virtue, has become 
 worthy of it, the more foppish and disastrous in its 
 consequences do I consider that precocious Voltair- 
 ianism that causes young minds of twenty to criticise 
 and rebel against all that is taught them. Tliese 
 newly enfranchised ones, ardent to judge all and to 
 shake off all yoke, are not long in sowing their wild 
 oats ; it is then not unusual to see them, in their 
 weakness, embrace the pseudo-wisdom of those sap- 
 less believers who, devoid of vigour, are afraid to 
 think for themselves, and of those citizens who, 
 wanting in courage, describe as order their surrender 
 into the hands of absolute power. 
 
 All the greatest scholars have begun by being dis-
 
 88 THE GEEMANS. 
 
 ciples : they believed in a master whom their genius 
 sometimes surpassed. All the greatest figures of 
 history placed their energy and their faith at the 
 service of some noble and holy cause : they learned 
 to obey ! 
 
 The student is sometimes ticklish on the score of 
 patriotism. On one occasion at Berlin, a professor 
 of philosophy was lecturing on the history of educa- 
 tion in Prussia. He dwelt, with that impartiality 
 which is the first duty of a historian, on the parsi- 
 mony of a Prussian king, whom he was blaming for 
 having during his reign too much stinted the budget 
 of public instruction. Some expressions of discontent, 
 rather discreet, were heard. The professor, speaking 
 more slowly, went on in an impassible tone, his eyes 
 fixed on the malcontents. The lecture over, the bulk 
 of the students — they were more than two hundred — 
 greeted him with an ovation, — their protest against 
 intolerance and chauvinism, in favour of liberty and 
 science. 
 
 The teacher in the university does not limit his 
 task to public lectures ; he takes care at more inti- 
 mate meetings to assemble around him the most 
 diligent students. The object of these groups of 
 the äite is not only the teaching of science, but of 
 scientific method itself. The question is no longer 
 that of becoming acquainted with acquired results.
 
 DISCIPLINE. 89 
 
 but being trained to scientific investigation and the 
 practice of tuition. At these meetings, the ordinary 
 name of which is seminaries (seminar), the master lets 
 the pupils speak ; he teaches them, if the study be 
 history, how to decipher ancient dociMients, — if the 
 subject be old French or old German, how to inter- 
 pret the texts. It is the application to the various 
 branches of knowledge of that which is common 
 with us in regard to physiology, anatomy, or chem- 
 istry ; it is the professor throwing open his laboratory 
 or his hospital to some preferred disciples, and initi- 
 ating them more closely into his methods of research 
 and the processes of his personal genius. 
 
 The student receives from the university not only 
 his intellectual formation, but the character of his 
 public behaviour. He is more than a citizen of the 
 German fatherland, he is the son of Alma Mater. 
 With his title of student he receives his code of 
 school-discipline. If he misbehave ; if, in any way, 
 he dishonour the dignity of his rank ; if he insult 
 his comrades or his masters; if, perchance, in an 
 inebriated state, he has occasioned a public scandal, — 
 if, in fine, during the half-year of study he has been 
 absent for any length of time, and without the rector's 
 permission, from the university town, he must answer 
 for all before the rector, the syndic, and the univer- 
 sity senate.
 
 90 THE GERMANS. 
 
 The punishments vary from a simple warning to 
 formal exclusion. Between these two extremes there 
 is a fine not exceeding a pound, imprisonment, and 
 threat of temporary exclusion. 
 
 On the waUp of the vestibule and the large hall 
 of the university are hung four large black-boards 
 {Schwarzes Brett). The first is for matters of interest 
 to the students, and announcements emanating from 
 the students themselves ; the second bears the names 
 of the various professors, and indicates in which hall 
 they lecture ; the third the subject of each professor's 
 lecture ; the fourth is used for official communications 
 issued by the university authorities. On the last- 
 named are posted the juridical verdicts applying to 
 the conduct of ofi'ending students. Every morning 
 w^hen the stream of students pours afresh into the 
 university, they gather round the black-board ; read 
 the news ; the dates of elections for the various as- 
 sociations ; the invitations from one university to 
 another ; the hour, the day ; the name of the hall 
 wherein is to take place that which the students 
 call their Commers or meeting. The black-board is 
 the official gazette, the record, the organ of the 
 university. 
 
 These details are sufficient to show that the Ger- 
 man university forms in the State a corporation en- 
 dowed with a real autonomy. It is not a vast
 
 UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION". 91 
 
 machine wherein the professors, entirely at the mercy 
 of an autocratic minister, and compelled to follow 
 programmes which alike prevent the flight of thought, 
 and slowly dig the track of routine, are reduced to 
 the condition of mere springs. It is a moral being. 
 It enjoys the right of property; is empowered to 
 recruit its members as it pleases — to administer its 
 own interests, under the control of the State ; and 
 can, as shown above, exercise over the student a 
 disciplinary action of rather vast extent. 
 
 The administrative organisation of the university 
 is repubKcan in form, elective and aristocratic — the 
 highest authority being the academic Senate, at the 
 head of which is the rector, who represents it, and is 
 its executive power. The rector and the members of 
 the Senate are alike elected by the universal suffrage 
 of the teachers. The administration of the finances 
 and of justice, however, is intrusted, under the juris- 
 diction of the Senate and the rector, to three special 
 functionaries, elected for life — the judge, the secre- 
 tary, and the quaestor. To these secondary agents 
 belongs the care of collecting the fees of matricu- 
 lation, and of the various registrations and examina- 
 tions, and the sharing of them amongst the various 
 teachers.^ 
 
 ^ Cf. De la reforme de I'enseignement Siiperieur. K. Hildcbrand. 
 Paris, 1868.
 
 92 THE GERMANS. 
 
 The true autonomy of those republics, as Herder 
 used to call them, would be misconceived, were the 
 positive ties of subjection and of subordination which 
 unite them to the State unacknowledged. 
 
 Fundamentally the university is a State institution. 
 The imperial shadow hovers above it. Every uni- 
 versity has its curator, its chancellor, its commissary, 
 selected usually from among the notabilities of the 
 province. The curator seldom interferes with the 
 internal administration of the university : his duty 
 is to plead the cause of the university before the 
 State, and to secure in its favour the liberality of the 
 Central Government. Princes — kings themselves — 
 do not disdain the patronage of a university. The 
 Grand Duke Charles Alexander is rector of the uni- 
 versity of Jena ; the Crown Prince of Germany and 
 Prussia, a most munificent rector of that at Königs- 
 berg; and the King of Saxony, a most generous 
 rector of the university at Leipzig. 
 
 The public esteem in which universities are held 
 in Germany extends to the doctors whom they create. 
 Nothing can be compared with the respect which 
 surrounds the doctor, and more especially the Herr 
 Professor. Tliat feeling not only exists in ideal pur- 
 suits ; it finds expression even in public life. Public 
 opinion sees in them the enlightenment of the coun- 
 try: it sends numbers of them to the higher chamber
 
 PUBLIC ESTEEM TOWARDS UNIVERSITIES. 93 
 
 among the representatives of the empire. If we con- 
 sult the directory of the deputies to the Reichstag, 
 we shall find, amongst four hundred members, more 
 than eighty doctors. The doctors thus represent in 
 Parliament the aristocracy of intelligence, as others 
 represent that of the soil, of birth, of fortune, or of 
 commerce. 
 
 Here we discover an instance of the evolutionist 
 tendency of the Germans. When social forces are 
 set in operation in the country their tendency is not 
 all-absorbing. The mania, the fury of centralisation — 
 that disease of all young nations like the Slavs, as 
 also of old ones like oriental races — is not yet prev- 
 alent in Germany. There custom has not sacrificed 
 power to ideas. The State would never presume to 
 violate the traditional autonomy of the learned cor- 
 porations — to assert towards them a right of supervi- 
 sion, of dismissal, of suspension, or of appointment to 
 the various professorial chairs. The internal life of 
 our French Academy gives a pretty correct idea of 
 that of German universities. It seems as if German 
 people considered universities to be the brain of the 
 country. At home, we daresay, the brain of France 
 is a city, Paris, caring little as to where are the heart 
 and the arms of our country. Paris is more than 
 the brain ! it is the universal motor. In German 
 universities is the brain of Germany. The heart is
 
 94 THE GERMANS. 
 
 everywhere, wherever patriotism breathes. As for 
 the arm, it is of iron : it is authority armed and ad- 
 ministrative, waging no struggle against the various 
 social forces to absorb or exclude them. No force 
 must be destroyed : all are sacred. The supreme 
 law of life is that they should harmonise together 
 and concur — indissolubly united in the universal 
 progress of nations and of mankind. In Germany 
 that law has received its practical application. Ger- 
 many did not become feverishly excited by the power- 
 ful expansion of the forces which take the lead of 
 modern civilisation and humanity — science, liberty, 
 and commerce. No other cause but her national 
 ambition can cause her serious anxiety. 
 
 Of this ambition German universities are not the 
 least ardent foci. Thus to know the soul of Ger- 
 many, the life of that active people which the uni- 
 versity attracts — which she recruits from among all 
 classes of society, amongst which she establishes re- 
 lations of absolute fraternity — must be carefully 
 watched. The superior culture of science, without 
 destroying the natural distinctions of birth and for- 
 tune, creates above them a higher unity, wherein the 
 first places are occupied by the most diligent and the 
 most intelligent. And when, on the day of some 
 university festival, those youths, with their martial 
 appearance, march in solid ranks under the banners
 
 ALBRECHT VON GRÄFE. 95 
 
 of their twenty corporations, escorting their masters, 
 the people rush to the windows as on parade-days, — 
 as on the days of grand military reviews, — not less 
 proud to contemplate the youth of their dite than 
 their Emperor, their princes, or their soldiers. 
 
 This I observed at Leipzig at the anniversary of 
 the King of Saxony, and at Berlin in 1882, on the 
 occasion of the unveiling of the statue of one of the 
 university and medical celebrities of Germany.^ 
 
 That last spectacle is still present to my memory — 
 more than four thousand advancing in columns, with 
 unfurled banners. The leaders of each association, 
 with drawn sword in hand, opened the march, mounted 
 on white steeds. The bands filled the air with their 
 warlike harmony. After assisting at the inauguration 
 of the statue, the corUge in silence took the way to 
 Königsplatz, where stands the column commemora- 
 tive of the victories of Prussia in 1864, in 1866, in 
 1870. The bands had then ceased playing. A 
 national song,^ grave and deep, suddenly broke the 
 silence, pouring forth from a thousand throats, upon 
 
 ^ Doctor Albrecht von Gräfe. 
 
 " Hab und Leben Our fortunes and our lives 
 
 Dir zu geben To give thee 
 
 Sind wir allesammt bereit. We are ready. 
 
 Sterben gern zu jeder Stunde, Death is always nigh, 
 
 Achten nicht des Todes Wunde, We disdain death, 
 
 Wenn des Vaterland gebeut. If our country call us. 
 
 — Allgemeines Deutsches Commers Buch. Lahr, 1882
 
 96 THE GERMANS. 
 
 a sign given with the sword, the national song was 
 succeeded by the song of the students, with the gay 
 burthen — 
 
 " Gaudeamus, juvenes dum sumus.'' 
 
 The crowd then immediately dispersed in silence. 
 
 That scene wrung my heart with unspeakable 
 anguish. In my patriotic sadness, I was thinking 
 of the youth of my country. I asked myself why 
 it was that our youths at home did not, like Germans, 
 range themselves in line of battle, under the flag of 
 true science, round the monuments of our glories, or 
 at the foot of some mourning statue of our lost 
 provinces ; and I considered how, in a near future, 
 our younger people could be formed into a family 
 united closely in the worship of truth, of freedom, 
 and of the fatherland.
 
 97 
 
 XII. 
 
 ASSOCIATIONS OF STUDENTS IN THE UNrV'ERSITY — BASED UPON 
 RELIGION, SCIENCE, PATRIOTISM, AND WARLIKE SPIRIT — 
 TYPES OF SUCH CORPORATIONS — THE ALLGEMEINE DEUTSCHE 
 BURSCHENSCHAFT — ITS PRINCIPLES — ITS STATUTES — THE 
 SCENE OP INCORPORATION — PATRIOTIC ADVANTAGES OF 
 THESE ASSOCIATIONS — THE LEADING MEN OF GERMANY 
 BROUGHT UP IN THEM. 
 
 The grouping of students in divers associations is one 
 of the most interesting characteristics of university 
 life. It is only in those associations that such life 
 is seen in full activity ; and it is by going deeply 
 into the secret of their organisation that we shall 
 acquire a correct idea of the spirit that animates 
 German youth.^ 
 
 Of these associations I counted large numbers in 
 every university — twenty-five at Göttingen, twenty 
 at Halle, more than thirty at Berlin, and more than 
 forty at Leipzig. To the ensemble of the university 
 they are what the various arms are to the army of 
 
 1 Geschichte der Pädagogik. Karl von Raumer, 4 Band. Güter- 
 sloh, 1874. 
 
 G
 
 98 THE GERMANS. 
 
 a country. Their variety Joes not impair their 
 unity, it nourishes it ; indeed, religion, science, and 
 fatherland, such is the sacred tripod on which they 
 all rest. 
 
 The idea and the sentiment of the fatherland are 
 predominant in the Burschenschaften, and in the 
 Corps which are recruited among wealthy and titled 
 students. Particularism met with its stanchest 
 adepts in the Landsmannschaften, to-day wholly on 
 the decline. Their star has been dimmed as the sun 
 of the Empire has risen. 
 
 The cultivation of science gave birth to literary, 
 mathematical, philological, medical, and other asso- 
 ciations, composed chiefly of diligent students, future 
 scholars and professors. The religious idea itself 
 brought about the development of theological and 
 Christian associations, such as the Wingolf the 
 Missions, the Suevia, and the Ascania, which rally 
 together the Catholic students of Germany. 
 
 Instead of declining with time as institutions out 
 of date, these associations multiplied themselves. 
 Those of which science is the main object have 
 attained a wonderful stage of development ; and 
 though the last born, they occupy to-day the first 
 rank among universities. 
 
 I had the curiosity to peruse the statutes of the 
 one that has played the most prominent part, from
 
 students' associations. 99 
 
 the beginning of this century — I mean the Allgemeine 
 deutsche Burschenschaft, which might very correctly 
 be termed the German universal brotherhood. Its 
 constitution, which dates from the year 1818, affords 
 an idea of all the others — patriotic, religious, and 
 martial spirit being therein most forcibly set forth. 
 The following are its principal clauses and by- 
 laws : — 
 
 ^ 1. The German universal brotherhood is the free 
 association of German youths scientifically trained in 
 the higher schools of the country ; its basis is the 
 relation of German youth to the future unity of the 
 German nation. 
 
 § 2. The German universal brotherhood, being a 
 free corporation, adopts as the pivot of its collective 
 action the following universally acknowledged bases : 
 a. Unity, liberty, equality of all the brothers 
 amongst themselves ; equality of rights and 
 duties. 
 h. Application of all mental or physical forces, 
 German and Christian {christliche, deutsehe), 
 for the service of the fatherland. 
 ^ 3. The communion of all the brothers {Bursche) 
 in the spirit of its principles presents the highest 
 idea of the German universal brotherhood — viz., the 
 union, in the same spirit and the same life, of all 
 the German members.
 
 100 THE GERMANS. 
 
 S 4. The association will thrive only when it has 
 best realised the image of the fatherland, free and 
 united, when its members, brought together in one 
 free alliance, in accordance with equality and the 
 requirements of national life, have obtained such a 
 knowledge of life as to fully realise the majesty of 
 its original beauty. 
 
 The corporation is ruled by a president, whose 
 assessors in the management of business are : an 
 orator or speaker (Sprecher), whose chief duty is to 
 speak in the name of the association, to convene its 
 meetings and preserve order in the sittings ; a secre- 
 tary (Schreiber) ; a president of the school of arms, 
 charged with the maintenance of order in fencing 
 practice, and the care of the flags and w^eapons 
 belonging to the association ; a hall-president, who 
 selects the places of meeting for the Commers and 
 the banquets ; a treasurer, who watches over the 
 financial interests of the association ; and the Pfleger, 
 whose functions are the welcoming of strangers, the 
 showing of hospitality to them, and the seeing to 
 the wants of the sick. 
 
 The incorporation has an air of ancient solemnity. 
 
 The candidate must be of German nationality, a 
 Christian, thoroughly honourable, guiltless of any 
 offence against the civil law or the by-laws of the 
 brotherhood. He must not belong, or have belonged.
 
 THE SCENE OF INCORPORATION. 101 
 
 to any association whose principles and objects are 
 opposed to the principles and objects of the Burschen- 
 schaft. He addresses a written application to the 
 secretary. That official communicates the same to 
 all the members at a general meeting, and, in order 
 that all may be informed of the fact, causes it to be 
 posted in the meeting-hall. It is the right and tlie 
 duty of every brother to inform the president of any 
 objection to the acceptance of the candidate. If, in 
 the course of a fortnight, no opposition is offered, 
 the incorporation is proceeded with. 
 
 The scene merits description. 
 
 The brothers are seated at a table in shape like 
 a horse-shoe. The book of the constitution, Commers 
 Buch, is placed, closed, in front of each member. A 
 motion of the sword commands silence. The speaker 
 of the corporation rises and addresses a few words of 
 welcome to the new member, who stands up before 
 the meeting. 
 
 The secretary rises in turn, and, in a slow 
 clear voice, reads the usual words of reception : — 
 " You are now in the presence of the honourable 
 assembly to pronounce the vow that will introduce 
 you into our midst. I, the secretary, ask you, in 
 the name of the association, solemnly and publicly, 
 Do you recognise the thought and spirit which ani- 
 mate our constitutional charter ? Do you recognise
 
 102 THE GEEMAXS. 
 
 the thought and spirit which guide our fundamental 
 laws and give them power and credit ? Do you 
 belong to the German nation, and do you acknow- 
 ledge that, without a patriotic life, without personal 
 participation in the good and evil fortune of the 
 fatherland, our association could not achieve its aim ? 
 Do you declare yourself ready to defend with your 
 body and soul, within and without, the principles 
 and existence of the brotherhood, so that, if required, 
 you would not hesitate to stand or fall with the 
 brotherhood and the German people ? ... If so, 
 place your pledge in the hand of the Sprecher!' 
 
 The new member, extending his hand to the 
 representative of the corporation, replies " Yes." 
 Henceforth he belongs to the society of Burschen- 
 schaften. 
 
 The equality is absolute between titulars. They 
 are brothers. They " thou " and " thee " one another. 
 They assist one another as seconds in their duels. 
 The only differences between them are those of 
 experience and the length of time during which 
 they have been members. At the end of a year 
 and a half, their acceptation is definitive ; at the 
 end of the second year, they may be elected members 
 of the bureau; and, after three years' membership, 
 president. Such differences do not lead to the sub- 
 jection of young members by the old ; the worth of
 
 PATRIOTIC ADVANTAGES. 103 
 
 the individual is reckoned, not the duration of Ins 
 membership. 
 
 Every member is bound to take fencing lessons 
 twice each week at the school of arms. 
 
 The duel is the mode of settling all questions of 
 honour between students and those bodies which 
 have not abandoned fighting. It is thus the duty 
 of every member to be able to defend himself, to 
 protect his comrades, and to fight for them or for 
 the association. 
 
 The corporation holds fetes, the object of which is 
 to assemble, at least once a-year, all scattered mem- 
 bers, and to rekindle the patriotic, religious, and 
 fraternal feelings of the brotherhood. 
 
 These customs, like the spirit that gave them 
 birth, are still as vivid in the midst of German 
 universities as on the morrow of Jena. Certain of 
 them have grown old, but the spirit remains young. 
 The new Burschenschaft lately created has preserved 
 the characteristics of the old one ; its sole object is 
 the removal of abuses, duelling, the oppression of the 
 young members by the old, and certain excesses of 
 student life. 
 
 I have just been reading a recent pamphlet ^ and 
 some numbers of the ' Universal Gazette ' of the 
 German brotherhood. Therein are set forth the 
 
 ^ Die neue Burschenschaft, von Eug. Wolff: Berlin, 1883.
 
 104 THE GERMANS. 
 
 same principles, patriotic and moral, scientific and 
 warlike, which presided over the foundation of the 
 first Burschenschaft. Observe them in their sober 
 eloquence ! 
 
 1. Promotion of the national spirit, without party 
 politics. 
 
 2. Study of student history. 
 
 3. Scientific spirit. 
 
 4. Principles of moral conduct. 
 
 5. To live according to one's means, and never 
 break one's word of honour. 
 
 6. Development of bodily exercises : gymnastics, 
 fencing, swimming, &c. 
 
 7. To work as much as possible for the suppres- 
 sion of duels. 
 
 As we see, patriotism is still warm as ever, and 
 the taste for the sword quite as vivacious ; religion 
 remains in honour, and science occupies a larger 
 place only to inspire fresh ardours and a new reli- 
 gious exercise. 
 
 Not a few, perhaps, will think this simple and 
 archaic ; but with what are we to replace the father- 
 land, religion, science, martial spirit ? "Wlien religion 
 disappears, negations, indifference, and scepticism 
 take its place ; science may still progress, but her 
 terrestrial flash will not prove sufficient to light up 
 the void left by the disappearance of God. To ener-
 
 THE LEADERS OF GERMANY. 105 
 
 vated patriotism succeed destructive political pas- 
 sions, and to martial spirit effeminate customs. 
 
 The men wlio laboured for German unity, who 
 enlisted all their soul, all their force, all their genius 
 in the service of that cause, were members of the 
 universal hrotherhood. 
 
 I have deemed it useful to give such information 
 to my fellow-countrymen, and to describe the cradle 
 in which our enemies, the great men of Germany, 
 grew, and in which to-day are growing those whose 
 ambition it is to become the heirs of such men.
 
 106 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT POWER POSSESSED BY UNIVERSITIES IN GERMANY 
 ONLY UNDERSTOOD BY KNOWLEDGE OF HIGH EDUCATION 
 THERE — SUPERIOR EDUCATION IMPLIES UNIVERSAL KNOW- 
 LEDGE — WHAT IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, WHAT IT IS 
 WITH THE MODERN WORLD — MODERN INSTITUTIONS FOR 
 HIGHER EDUCATION : HIGH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES — 
 SUPREMACY OF HIGH SCHOOLS — THEIR DOUBLE CHARACTER : 
 SPECIALIS.^ AND UTILITARIANISM — UNIVERSITIES, REFUGES 
 OF UNIVERSAL AND DISINTERESTED SCIENCE — NECESSITY OF 
 BOTH INSTITUTIONS — EXAMPLE OF ENGLAND — DANGER FOR 
 A COUNTRY WHEREIN SPECIAL SCHOOLS ARE FLOURISHING 
 AND UNIVERSITIES ARE ON THE DECLINE. 
 
 To thoroughly imderstanJ the high civilising power 
 of the universities in Germany, it is indispensable to 
 form a correct idea of higher education in the modern 
 world, as also of the institutions wherein it is being 
 taught and imparted. 
 
 Higher education comprises the universality of 
 science ; it embraces all human knowledge, whatever 
 its object ; the phenomena and the laws of nature 
 which experimental reason observes and declares. 
 It embraces man, intelligent, active, and free, and
 
 GREAT POWER OF EDUCATION. 107 
 
 God Himself, whom metaphysical reason and con- 
 science reveal and explain. Divinity and philo- 
 sopliy, metaphysics and positive sciences, systems 
 and facts, doctrine and history, literature and lan- 
 guages, individuals and societies, all belong to its 
 truly encyclopedical province. Nor is this all ; 
 certain arts of a more ideal order, or more necessary 
 to human life, the practice of which often requires 
 minds of the first class : painting, sculpture, archi- 
 tecture, music, agriculture, warfare, are also comprised 
 in the boundless kingdom of higher education, such 
 as it is understood in our civilised societies. That 
 kingdom, in fact, contains all branches of knowledge 
 likely to form leading minds. 
 
 It is the bright atmosphere whence emerge the 
 dite of thinking humankind ; the labourer who tills 
 the soil and makes it fruitful, embeds the streams 
 and the seas, digs tunnels and pierces isthmuses, 
 makes inland seas or" grows palm-trees in the desert, 
 shortens distances and brings nations into closer 
 contact ; the learned, who know how to calculate, 
 to measure, to weigh the various forces, to fathom 
 the earth or unveil the mystery of the skies, to 
 discover the great law of universal evolution, to 
 surprise the secrets of life and the means of curing 
 its miseries ; the historian, who brings the past again 
 to life, and shows us its forgotten features ; the
 
 108 THE GERMANS. 
 
 philosopher, who gradually discovers the laws of the 
 mind and of truth, of cesthetics and of the beautiful, 
 interprets human beliefs and the arcana of God Him- 
 self ; the jurists, who seek for immutable justice in 
 human intercourse ; the great artists themselves, who, 
 by harmony and light, transmit to the ear or to the 
 eye of man the emotions whose ideal excites and 
 intoxicates him. 
 
 In the middle ages intellectual culture was much 
 more limited, men having then but a feeble idea of 
 the immensity of the universe and of the power given 
 them to conquer it ; nevertheless, viewing the pro- 
 grammes and the organisation of universities in those 
 days, no doubt can arise that the middle ages had 
 foreseen the universality of higher education. 
 
 All knowledge was then comprised in the four 
 faculties, the synthesis of which formed the great 
 universe of science — the faculties of arts, divinity, 
 law, and medicine. The first, with its famous trivium 
 and quadrivium} is a remote sketch of the various 
 sciences that gradually germinated in the fruitful and 
 always extending field of human intellect. Grammar 
 became philological studies in Greek, Latin, San.skrit, 
 Zend, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Ethiopian, 
 Egyptian, French, German, English, &c. Arithmetic 
 
 ^ The trivium comprised grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. The 
 quadrivtum, arithmetic, music, geometr}', and astronomy.
 
 MEDIEVAL AND MODERN EDUCATION. 109 
 
 gave birth to algebra, differential and integral cal- 
 culus ; geometry has been completed by trigonometry ; 
 and astronomy, elevated to the superb function of 
 celestial mechanics, is no longer satisfied with observ- 
 ing the transit of the stars through the meridian, but 
 fixes and ascertains their trajectory through immen- 
 sity. Music has been increased by the adjunct of all 
 the great arts that belong to aesthetics, and affords to 
 cultivated minds the noblest of emotions. Medicine, 
 since the great discoveries in biology, has unveiled 
 quite an unexplored world which our forefathers did 
 not even dream of ; theology itself, which we might 
 fancy immutable, has reached wonderful proportions. 
 Essentially dogmatical in the middle ages, it first 
 became exegetical, when new-born philology put in 
 quite a fresh light the text of Holy Scriptures, then 
 historical, when historical research in its investiga- 
 tions into tlie life of the various nations and of man- 
 kind at large, brought to light the universal and 
 perpetual phenomenon of religion. 
 
 Nothing shows better the progress of the culture 
 of the mind than this simple comparative glance at 
 higher education amongst ancient and modern nations. 
 They both consider it as universal ; but what a differ- 
 ence in the universality of each ! With the ancients, 
 education may be likened to a lake, the banks of 
 which being limited, are easily explored ; with us it
 
 110 THE GERMANS. 
 
 is like a shoreless ocean — the farther you explore it, 
 the vaster it appears. Genius is no longer a beacon 
 on the shore ; it is a star, shining above the reefs, in 
 the immensity of the skies : it no longer shows the 
 port — the port no longer exists. It only shows the 
 way through the rolling and stormy waves. Know- 
 ledge is infinite ; man who pursues it dies in the midst 
 of the immensity. "What he explored is nothing, be- 
 ing easily measured. What remains to be discovered 
 is unlimited : in fathoming it, imagination and reason 
 draw back confounded. Xevertheless mankind goes 
 on without rest. Some irresistible attraction carries 
 it towards truth. It lives only in order to learn, and 
 learns only to rule over this world, the prey given by 
 God to its devouring and sublime curiosity. 
 
 There are now among enlightened nations, two 
 kinds of public institutions for the diffusion, the cul- 
 ture, and the progress of higher education — the high 
 schools and the universities.'^ 
 
 High schools present everywhere a double char- 
 acter — they are special, that is, exclusively limited to 
 certain branches of general knowledge ; utilitarian, 
 that is, having in view some more or less immediate 
 practical object. Their tendency is to 'obtain increas- 
 ing influence in modern civilisation. From year to 
 year their number increases, as the province of know- 
 
 ^ See Appendix F.
 
 UXR'ERSITIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS. Ill 
 
 ledge extends its limits, as men become more energet- 
 ically intent upon learning, as the utility of science 
 becomes more obvious through the increase of wealth, 
 security, and comfort. Agriculture and commerce, 
 forestry and mining, mathematics and history, litera- 
 ture and political economy, fine arts and warfare, 
 inspire all nations with growing interest. Special 
 schools are everywhere founded for training men 
 capable of directing and managing the forces at work 
 in the field open to their activity. 
 
 Universities differ from high schools precisely in 
 these two respects, — instead of one branch of know- 
 ledge only, their aim is to reach all its branches, to 
 constitute a synthesis thereof : instead of giving to 
 studies a professional direction, they aspire to pure 
 science, and instead of cultivating the latter in view 
 of some practical application, they cultivate it for 
 itself. 
 
 Knowledge and ability : these two words explain 
 the aim of human life. The one might be engraved 
 on the frontispiece of the Alma Mater, the other be 
 written over the doors of all high schools. In uni- 
 versities are trained great speculative minds, in higli 
 schools great workers. In the former, discoveries are 
 made ; in the latter, they are usefully applied. The 
 first is the realm of enlightenment, the second that of 
 activitv.
 
 112 THE GERMANS. 
 
 The ideal perfection of the organisation of higher 
 education with civilised nations depends upon the 
 prosperity of universities and high schools. Alone 
 universities could not succeed in achieving practical 
 training ; but they excel in raising man to the level 
 of general knowledge, without which the cleverest 
 specialist will always, even in his own pursuits, be 
 wanting in broadness of views and solidity. 
 
 The example of England testifies to the disadvan- 
 tages of a want of equilibrium between the profes- 
 sional education given in high schools and the more 
 theoretical teacliing of universities. 
 
 In that country, the land of traditional and haughty 
 aristocracy, there are two famous universities wherein 
 education, divested of all professional character, is 
 limited to high literature, to pure mathematics, to 
 philosophy, history, and theology. Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge are aristocratic schools, chiefly frequented by 
 wealthy and titled students, who receive there a 
 general culture — a kind of universal and disinterested 
 science. The middle classes, through want of means, 
 are obliged to avoid the university, and to enter at 
 once the schools which give professional training for 
 the various liberal careers of barrister, doctor in 
 medicine, engineer, &c. The positive spirit of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race thus remains deprived of counter- 
 poise in classes wherein ideal is like unto an untilled
 
 SUPREMACY OF HIGH SCHOOLS. 113 
 
 soil. In Great Britain there are, no doubt, clever men 
 in all professions ; but, as a rule, there is a complete 
 absence of philosophical tendency, the result of which 
 is general mediocrity. 
 
 The fashion to-day is professional and high schools. 
 All nations, Germany excepted, seem to obey that 
 fashion. Everywhere — in England, in America, in 
 Italy, in France, in Eussia — high schools are founded 
 and multiplied. Evidently modern nations feel the 
 necessity of subdividing labour in order the better 
 to carry it out. They fully grasp the immense task 
 assigned to their activity ; they know full well that 
 of themselves they can do but little, but that in 
 applying with intelligence the boundless forces of the 
 universe to the earth, wherein they display them- 
 selves, they will be enabled to transform that earth 
 and to rule it. 
 
 With that object it is that schools of agriculture 
 are founded, and that all States endeavour to train 
 up, under the denomination of engineer, the great 
 worker, the true Titan, armed no longer with muscles 
 and tools, but with the very forces of nature — elec- 
 tricity, steam, motive power. 
 
 As nature gives up its secrets, and genius pene- 
 trates the mechanical physico-chemical conditions of 
 life, specialists are required for such studies. So we 
 see appearing schools of botany, zoology, general 
 
 H
 
 114 THE GERMANS. 
 
 physiology, of organic chemistry, of histology. Medi- 
 cine is compelled to subdivide itself into twenty dif- 
 ferent branches. The same remark applies to liter- 
 ature, history, philosophy, political economy. The 
 study of one language alone, from its origin, is enough 
 to absorb the life of any stubborn investigator. 
 Knowledge not only widens but deepens. Each point 
 requires for its treatment a phalanx of searchers. 
 
 Such is, in my opinion, the primary cause of the 
 extension of special high schools. 
 
 If we observe this intellectual impulse of con- 
 temporary society, we shall soon come to the con- 
 clusion that it will eventually and fatally result 
 in the breaking up of the vast unity of general 
 knowledge ; and that in fostering too energetically the 
 practical applications of science, it will gradually 
 dry up the inspirations of genius, to which theoretical 
 science alone can give wings and flight. 
 
 Great discoveries are but the work of enterprising 
 theorists, who lead the way for men of action. No 
 specialists were they — mathematicians like Leibnitz 
 and Descartes ; geometricians like Pascal ; a-priorists 
 or fathers of audacious hypotheses, like Lavoisier, 
 Lamarck, Geoffrey, Ampere, Claude Bernard. I am 
 certainly not simple enough to suppose that we 
 could ever have a nursery wherein to plant and grow 
 great men at will ; still, it is the duty of those who
 
 UNIVERSAL INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 115 
 
 organise education to prepare the ground for those 
 germs which are God's reserve. And the best ground 
 for ensuring the development of the mind is universal 
 education. 
 
 Do not let us prematurely restrain the horizon of 
 the mind : however remarkably gifted a man may be, 
 his tendency will always be to limit his task. The 
 work that his genius is destined to produce is like 
 the Pyramids, large at the basis, narrow at the sum- 
 mit : as it proceeds it becomes limited. Nothinc^ 
 can ever make up for the want of a vast primary 
 culture; that is why universities must be kept up 
 side by side with special schools. 
 
 In my travels through Germany, I tried to ascer- 
 tain how far that country had succeeded in solving 
 the problem of universal intellectual culture. 
 
 These dissertations are, in short, the result of 
 impartial observations.
 
 116 
 
 XIV. 
 
 VN'IVERSALITT OF KNOWLEDGE IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES — THE 
 OLD DIVISION OF KNOWLEDGE INTO FOUR FACULTIES STILL 
 PRESERVED : THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE, MEDICINE, PHILO- 
 SOPHT — MODIFICATION OF THE ORDINANCE AND SPIRIT OF 
 THE ANCIENT PLAN — UNIVERSAL CHARACTER OF THE FAC- 
 ULTY OF PHILOSOPHY — GRAVE INCONVENIENCES OF OUR 
 SUPERFICIAL DIVISION OF LETTERS AND SCIENCES — DEFI- 
 CIENCY IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES — NECESSITY OF A FIFTH 
 FACULTY, ECONOMICAL. 
 
 It must be freely granted that in no people in the 
 world, among the most intelligent and the most 
 learned, is universality of knowledge so carefully cul- 
 tivated as in Germany, nor does it possess, for its 
 practical furtherance, better organised or more power- 
 ful institutions. Nowhere do universities better 
 justify their traditions, their grand old name of 
 Studium generale, of Alma Mater. 
 
 These works of a century, full of aspirations ; these 
 living cathedrals of Christian science, the style of 
 which is still more daring and grandiose than the 
 masterpieces of Gothic art — the domes of Cologne,
 
 THE FOUR FACULTIES, 117 
 
 Westminster, and Notre Dame ; this organisation of 
 the omnis rei scihilis, which once made Paris, verily, 
 the scliool of the world, — are still extant on tlie other 
 side of the Ehine. 
 
 The decline of the middle ages, in which they were 
 born, did not lead to their ruin ; whilst the advent 
 of the modern world renewed and strengthened them. 
 Nothing could prevail against them : neither religious 
 struggles, nor the Eeformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, nor the incredulity of the philosopher kings, nor 
 rationalism, nor free-thought, nor the gigantic strides 
 of modern science, nor political transformations. They 
 went on prospering in spite of all ; and when we 
 examine the intellectual life of Germany, the twenty- 
 two universities of the Empire appear to the observer 
 like the culminating summits of its learned organ- 
 isation. These twenty -two summits form, in the 
 region of the mind — like a distant group of lofty 
 mountains dominating the plain below — real water- 
 sources wherefrom are filled the higher reservoirs of 
 modern thought, and which, by means of properly 
 embanked canals, distribute to the lower regions the 
 spring-water of universal science. 
 
 To-day, as in the middle ages, the whole of human 
 knowledge is, in German universities, divided into 
 four chief faculties — theology, jurisprudence, medi- 
 cine, and philosophy.
 
 118 THE GERMANS. 
 
 At first sight one is puzzled to understand how 
 these simple special titles can contain the whole 
 world of higher knowledge. It is obvious that, 
 obeying the instinct of preservation so conspicuous 
 in their genius, the Germans wished to faithfully 
 preserve the traditions of their forefathers. This 
 classification calls to mind those works of Gothic art, 
 less correct than expressive, which express grand 
 ideas and divine sentiments by awkwardness of atti- 
 tude and incorrectness of outline. In the middle 
 ages theology represented the severe harmony of 
 divine and human science ; jurisprudence was but 
 Eoman law imported by the Church and purified by 
 canon law ; medicine, a great deal more than now- 
 adays, imposed itself upon poor mankind, always 
 trembling before suffering and death ; the faculty of 
 arts represented all the scientific knowledge of those 
 days. Then, such a curriculum was thought to be 
 sufficient ; to-day, that curriculum would be thought 
 far too restricted. To us it only seems like the 
 cradle wherein mankind slept its first sleep and 
 attempted its first steps. Being now fully grown, 
 it requires space and a larger field of action. 
 
 This is what the Germans have fully understood : 
 they have, in consequence, thoroughly modified and 
 extended the ancient educational frame. Instead of 
 using the saw and the axe, they have gathered fresh
 
 ANCIENT UNIVERSITY ORGANISATION. 119 
 
 materials ; instead of sapping and destroying, they 
 have completed and repaired the old edifice ; instead 
 of building a new one, they have merely enlarged 
 the old. 
 
 Should we see in this an intelligent devotion to 
 the past, or the irresponsible instinct of conserva- 
 tion ? I know not. The Germans have respect- 
 fully preserved alike their institutions and their 
 monuments of the past. To slowly transform, to 
 destroy nothing, such seems to be their rule of 
 conduct. Go through Germany, almost everywhere 
 you will meet with the old town-hall with its belfry, 
 the old church and its tower. And if fancy leads 
 you to the top, you will still see there the old watch- 
 man in his cell open to the four winds : as in the 
 past, he still strikes the hours and sounds the alarm 
 in case of fire ; this, the only difference, he no longer 
 uses the horn, as of old, but the telephone and the 
 electric wire. 
 
 These quiet processes of transformation would 
 hardly suit our enterprising and impatient genius ; 
 in bringing them under notice, it has not been my 
 object to present them as models for imitation. I 
 am no critic, I am but a faithful and sincere artist ; 
 I abstain from admonishing or blaming ; I am satis- 
 fied with describing the picture as I saw it. All 
 things carry with them their own teachings.
 
 120 THE GERMANS. 
 
 German universities have preserved the numerical 
 elements, the titles, the etiquette of their ancient 
 organisation, though they have pretty thoroughly 
 modified its ordinance and its spirit. 
 
 Thus the faculty of philosophy, which now corre- 
 sponds with that of arts, is not, like the latter, a kind 
 of preparatory faculty to the three great professional 
 faculties of theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. 
 It now obtains a footing of equality with them. It 
 has even assumed an encyclopedic character. The 
 great hierarchy of sciences, based upon mathematics, 
 and developing themselves, like the world itself, 
 according to the rules of increasing complexity, from 
 the inorganic kingdom, subjected to number, weight, 
 and measure, to the kingdom of the highest form of 
 life, such as exists amongst the higher orders of 
 animals and with man himself, from chemistry to 
 anthropology and sociology, — all this immense syn- 
 thesis belongs to philosophy properly speaking, and 
 constitutes that fourth faculty which contributes the 
 most in giving to German universities their character 
 of universality. 
 
 In Italy, as in France, the truly material dis- 
 tinction of sciences and letters has been adopted : 
 pure mathematics, physical and natural sciences, or 
 rather experimental and positive sciences, have been 
 grouped under the heading of sciences; and phüo-
 
 DEFICIENCY OF GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 121 
 
 sophy, history, literature, and languages, under that 
 of letters. 
 
 It is in vain that vre seek for a meaning, or for 
 some kind of profound idea, in this aimless classifi- 
 cation. Its only result, it seems, has been to break 
 up the great logical unity of knowledge, and to 
 contribute to the spreading amongst people of the 
 prejudice that true science is only experimental, all 
 the rest belonging to ideology, or to vain, idle fancy. 
 
 There is, on the contrary, profound wisdom in 
 considering all superior knowledge as a tree, whose 
 infinitely multiplied brandies proceed from a common 
 trunk — philosophy. 
 
 Does not, indeed, every science, carried to that 
 degree of profoundness requisite to its cultivation and 
 teaching in higher education, revert to philosophy? 
 
 What is philosophising, if not seeing from above 
 and from afar, seizing the first principle and the 
 remote conclusion ? As there is a universal, abstract, 
 metaphysical philosophy, so there is a philosophy of 
 each science, and for all science in general. Philosophy 
 mingles with everything, and science is only perfect 
 as enlightened by philosophy. Confined to its tech- 
 nical processes, any science may be the object of a high 
 school ; but, if entering the great university unity, 
 it must assume the higher character of philosophy.^ 
 ^ See Appendix E.
 
 122 THE GERMANS. 
 
 AVliat would be thought of a literature content 
 with admiring that which of yore was termed the 
 literary beauty of a work ? It may appropriately 
 enough be praised as an art, as a branch of aesthetics, 
 but not as a science ; it is a matter of taste, of 
 artistic feeling. Taste, then, is cultivated and trained 
 by education ; it is no more susceptible of being 
 taught than is genius. 
 
 We have, indeed, at times experienced all that is 
 conventional, arbitrary, empty, in that process which, 
 wanting both scientific and philosophical method, 
 can easily be misled, — that is why we gave belles- 
 lettres and their study a more positive impulse, truly 
 scientific and instructive, that removes even the very 
 appearance of propriety in the wrong classification of 
 sciences and letters. Literature is now more than a 
 question of taste ; it has become learned criticism. 
 Instead of simply admiring the production, the mas- 
 terpiece of a century, we now endeavour to explain 
 philosophically the conditions and the law of its 
 genesis ; and instead of applying to the ancients 
 modern feelings or contemporary ideas, we have suc- 
 ceeded in bringing to light their true physiognomy, 
 without any addition of features foreign to them, and 
 in them we have at last recognised the human mind, 
 the same now as it was then. 
 
 The three professional faculties of theology, juris-
 
 ECONOMICAL FACULTY. 123 
 
 prudence, and medicine, have simply been preserved 
 in German universities. They meet three of the 
 greatest requirements of social life. Everywhere 
 there must be priests, legislators, and physicians. 
 
 In new-born and illiterate societies the priest pre- 
 sides only over worship ; the legislator is but an 
 arbitrary judge, cutting gordian knots with the sword ; 
 and the physician is but an empiric, ignorant of dis- 
 ease and how to cure it. Among civilised nations 
 the priest is also a scholar, knowing what he believes, 
 why he believes, and being well able to persuade or 
 refute the ignorant ; the legislator possesses the 
 science of law and justice ; the physician is a true 
 savant, initiated with the mechanism of life — he knows 
 how the clock gets out of order, also how to repair it 
 if the springs be not broken. 
 
 The modern world has enlarged itself; it does not 
 exist solely under the direction of priests, legislators, 
 and physicians, it also obeys the impulse of all those 
 great workers whose object is to improve the earth and 
 to adapt it scientifically to all the wants of civilised 
 mankind. 
 
 How was it that the Germans, who so practically 
 and wisely preserved and improved, strengthened and 
 extended, tlie old educational frame of medieval times, 
 did not add a fourth faculty to the three professional 
 faculties ?
 
 124 THE GERMANS. 
 
 By true intuition of genius Leibnitz had foreseen 
 its necessity ; he dreamed of a new faculty, amidst 
 contemporaries little able to understand him. He 
 called it the economical faculty {faculU 4conomique). 
 Its province was to embrace the whole programme of 
 our polytechnic and central schools, mechanical arts 
 and mathematics in their generalities, as well as all 
 that concerns the food of man and the commodities 
 of life.^ 
 
 Leibnitz's dream has not yet been realised on this 
 point : routine has prevailed in the organisation of 
 public education amongst all nations. 
 
 Since Germany herself has not followed the inspi- 
 ration of one of her greatest men, I trust France, in 
 one of those hours of initiative, the secret of which 
 she sometimes has, may add to her faculties of sciences 
 and of letters an economical facility, such as was 
 demanded by the great German thinker. 
 
 ^ Nouveaux essais sur rentenderaent humain.
 
 125 
 
 XV. 
 
 ISOLATION OF THEOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA, 
 IN RFSSIA, IN ITALY, IN FRANCE — RESEARCHES INTO THE 
 CAUSES OF THIS PHENOMENON — DUE TO THE STRUGGLE 
 BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE — GRIEVOUS CONSEQUENCES — 
 THE LOWERING OF THEOLOGY IN FRANCE NOT RECENT — 
 TALLEYRAND - P^RIGORD AND DIDEROT — ADVANTAGE OF 
 EMBODYING THEOLOGY IN THE ORGANISATION OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY — NECESSARY DISCUSSION OF PHILOSOPHICAL 
 AND RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS — TRAINING OF THE CLERGY IN 
 THE DIOCESE OF ROTTENBURG IN WÜRTEMBERG. 
 
 If Germany was wrong in not completing the old 
 university organisation, other modern nations com- 
 mitted a much more serious fault — they reduced it. 
 
 In Russia as in America, in France as in Italy, 
 almost everywhere, the faculties of theology have been 
 eliminated from the encyclopedic organisation of know- 
 ledge. I am wrong : theology has not been suppressed ; 
 it has been made, like the military art, a professional 
 faculty : it has not been destroyed ; it has been shut 
 up and isolated in schools — closed to the life of the 
 general public.
 
 126 THE GERMANS. 
 
 This phenomenon, which it would be difficult to 
 bring to light, has had numerous, often quite opposite 
 causes. On the one hand, the Church, at the sight 
 of modern life, rising like a flood, did as Noah — she 
 contrived to build her own ark, therein to shelter the 
 race of her elect, her fighting phalanx, her divine 
 book, all the treasures of tradition. On the other 
 hand, growing unbelief refuses more and more to 
 acknowledge the highly scientific characte]j of the 
 Christian doctrine and of Catholicism ; by a sort of 
 secret instinct it has guessed that the safer means of 
 throwing discredit on religion and depriving it in our 
 new civilisation of the consideration that attaches to 
 all that is intellectual, is to reduce the priest, the 
 teacher of eternal truth, to the position of a minister 
 of worship. 
 
 In reality it was the struggle between Church and 
 State that contributed most to separate theology from 
 human sciences. In the Church, the spirit of pre- 
 servation commingled with a feeling of unheeded or 
 wounded dignity ; in the State, incredulity and abso- 
 lutism have always brought about the same results. 
 
 Wherever the regime of the union of both powers 
 exists — wherever the Church and the State, as subject 
 or as mistress, remains united, in Austria, in Germany, 
 in England — religious science continues to be an in- 
 tegral part of higher knowledge, and theology occupies
 
 ISOLATION OF THEOLOGY. 127 
 
 the first place in universal organisation. "With nations 
 where the struggle has been more hardly fought, it 
 tends to disappear. In Italy, theology has been ex- 
 cluded from the twenty-one new universities of the 
 young kingdom, and has been obliged to seek refuge 
 in large seminaries or in half-ruined cloisters. In 
 France, official and public opinion have but little 
 regard for supernatural science, but men of talent 
 there often reawaken the honour of faith by their 
 eloquence and their culture. We still possess five 
 faculties of theology ; but those faculties, frequented 
 only by amateurs, have no influence on the training 
 of the clergy ; they are but the ghost of a great name, 
 the last threatened debris of an old regime that is fast 
 falling to pieces. 
 
 In the United States — that country where prac- 
 tical reason is everything, and where, as a matter of 
 course, religion is looked upon as one of the highest 
 'social forces — religious science could not succeed in 
 becoming an integral part of university teaching, 
 because of the innumerable variety of denominations 
 which rule over the conscience. The university of 
 Yale at New Haven, and that of Harvard at Cam- 
 bridge, are the only ones possessing a faculty of 
 theology. The former is Unitarian, the latter Con- 
 gregationalist. Religious science is everywhere taught 
 in large ecclesiastical colleges, usually founded by
 
 128 THE GERMANS. 
 
 iiiembers of the same denomination and adherents 
 of the same belief. The States number more than 
 eighty-three theological seminaries for the intellectual 
 training of doctors and preachers. 
 
 Placing ourselves outside of all narrow views, con- 
 sidering only the prosperity of the State, of religion, 
 and general culture, we shall regret the fatal con- 
 course of events which in most modern States gradu- 
 ally deprives modern religious science of its traditional 
 place. The State thereby loses, for it is altogether 
 profitable to possess an intelligent clergy in close 
 communion with national life ; but religion also loses, 
 for, after virtue, nothing in the eyes of the modern 
 world honours it more than true science ; general cul- 
 ture also loses, for it counts one branch the less in 
 the tree of universal science. 
 
 The new professorial chairs, under the name of His- 
 tory of Beli(jions, can no more fill the void than the 
 history of medicine can supply the study of medicine 
 itself. 
 
 The decadence of theology in the organisation of 
 universities is not of recent date. To retrace its 
 progress, we must go back a century ; and in order 
 to discover what a narrow idea of religious science 
 existed in governmental regions in France at the 
 time of the Eevolution, we must peruse attentively 
 the Speeches and Reports on Public Instruction {Dis-
 
 ISOLATION OF THEOLOGY. 129 
 
 cours et Rapports sur V instruction publique), pro- 
 nounced and read in the National Assembly during 
 1791 and 1792, and in the Convention.^ As an 
 instance, let us take the passage in the report of 
 Talleyrand-P^rigord ^ relating to schools for the min- 
 isters of religion. 
 
 Isolation of theology, reduction of divine science 
 to vulgar professional science, the lowering of the 
 functions of the priest, which become purely political, 
 like those of any public official — nothing is wanting 
 in the statement of the sceptical bishop. " Theology," 
 according to him, " ought not to be regarded as a 
 science. Sciences are susceptible of progress, experi- 
 ments, discoveries ; theology, that can only be the 
 knowledge of religion, is foreign to all this ; like 
 religion, immutable, it is averse to any innovation. 
 The object must be, not to extend its province, but 
 to keep it within its own limits, beyond which subtle 
 ambitions too often endeavoured to go in times of 
 ignorance." 
 
 Diderot went even further. " A country wherein 
 theology is not reduced to two pages," says he, in 
 the midst of his blind philosophical prejudices, " is 
 threatened with tlie greatest disasters." ^ 
 
 ' ' L'Instruction publique en France pendant la Revolution,' by 
 C. Hippeau. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 73. ' Pensees inedites.
 
 130 THE GERMANS. 
 
 These strange ideas have been spreading. They 
 have flourished, to the detriment of peace and 
 truth ; and, thanks to the patronage of a sectarian 
 policy and a sectarian science, have succeeded in 
 persuading the largest numbers that religion is an 
 obstacle to the free and intellectual evolution of 
 man. 
 
 However imperious their reign be now, I cannot 
 submit to their tyranny. What I observed in Ger- 
 many enables me to foresee what a well-balanced 
 society should be composed of. 
 
 Freedom remains the only true solution of the 
 greatest difficulties with which we are beset. 
 
 It is she who rules over everything in the univer- 
 sities beyond the Ehine. 
 
 The State does not pretend to teach there its ow^n 
 theolog}^ its own philosophy, its own science, its own 
 politics. It authorises the teachings required by 
 public opinion or by the wants of the population, 
 with the welfare of which it is intrusted. Are the 
 Catholics in a majority ? they possess, as at Breslau, 
 their own faculty of theology. Are the Protestants 
 in a majority ? they, in turn, have their Protestant 
 faculty. Are the numbers equal ? then, as at Tübin- 
 gen, Protestants and Catholics alike have their own 
 faculty. 
 
 As regards scientific and philosophical liberty, it
 
 FREEDOM IN UNIVERSITIES. 131 
 
 is seen at work in the faculty of philosophy. All 
 practical interests are thus taken into account. Doc- 
 trines may, at will, battle against one another. 
 
 Are we to deplore this ? By no means, if men 
 respect themselves. The discussion of philosophical 
 or religious truths has become, with us, a social 
 necessity ; and universities are the fit arenas for 
 such debates. 
 
 If that noble arena, wherein the elevation of mind 
 ensures the elevation of the contest, be not thrown 
 open, discussion will seek others : it will descend 
 into the tumult of the press and of the street. 
 Quickly envenomed by the blast of party passion 
 and hatred, it will soon lose, with its serenity, its 
 consideration and its grandeur. We see that in 
 France : no elevated question can ever now be de- 
 cided. Violence alone commands attention. Insult 
 and sarcasm having the last word, reason can but 
 hold its tongue. 
 
 The best, the sure means, to withdraw religious 
 questions from the discussion of the streets, is to give 
 them the shelter of universities. 
 
 Must we, therefore, do away with seminaries in 
 our own country ? I do not think so ; but, no doubt, 
 valuable advantage would accrue from their being 
 completed by regular faculties of theology, wherein 
 the future priests, sent there by their bishops, would
 
 132 THE GERMANS. 
 
 come to study. Divine science would once more 
 find itself in vivifying contact with all human 
 sciences. Like them, it must live ; and to do this, 
 it must commingle with the progressive life of human 
 things. Isolated, it remains unmoved in its rigid 
 formulae — it crystallises. Cast into the ground, the 
 formula becomes a living germ ; it shoots, grows, 
 transforms itself, assimilates. In passing through 
 the ideas of Greek philosophy, what did not these 
 simple words, " Son of God," theologically commented 
 upon, produce ? and what wealth did not Christian 
 philosophy heap up, solely by the contact with ori- 
 ental metaphysics, and by the sole development of a 
 cultivated reason which knew how to draw logical 
 conclusions from revealed principles ? 
 
 This necessity the Germans have duly recognised. 
 Nothing interested me more, from this point of view, 
 than the system adopted for the training of the 
 clergy in the diocese of Eottenburg, in Würtemberg. 
 
 The child destined for an ecclesiastical career pur- 
 sues his classical studies at the gymnasium, or at the 
 episcopal school, known under the name of Nieder 
 Co/ivid, and corresponding with our French lower 
 seminaries {petits seniinaires). On leaving either, the 
 youth is ripe for the university; he is inscribed on the 
 books of the faculty of theology, and goes to Tübingen 
 for hiüh theolodcal instruction. There he finds a
 
 TRAINING OF THE CLERGY. 133 
 
 house, founded and endowed by the late King of Wlir- 
 temberg, where young theologians without means 
 receive board and lodging gratuitously, and live to- 
 gether under the guardianship of a director and several 
 tutors {Repetent), who watch over their labours and 
 their conduct. It is neither our system of indoor 
 pupils (internat), with its severe seclusion, nor that 
 of outdoor pupils (extcrnat), with its unrestrained 
 liberty ; it is a medium system, where a young man 
 can, without danger, begin his apprenticeship of 
 freedom, live as a brother with his colleagues of the 
 other faculties, and form with them intellectual and 
 cordial relations which, later on, will facilitate the 
 discharge of his pastoral duties. 
 
 At the expiration of his eight half-years — that is, 
 four years of hard study — the theologian who wishes 
 to join the ranks of the clergy repairs to the high 
 episcopal school at Eottenburg. Here he only spends 
 one year under stricter discipline, and in seclusion. 
 It is his higher seminary {grand s^minaire). When 
 deemed worthy, he receives all the orders ; he is taught 
 the professional science of priests, the liturgy, and the 
 ministration of the sacraments. At twenty-five years 
 of age he is ready to enter upon his pastoral functions. 
 If he should be observed to possess aptitude for 
 higher intellectual culture, he is sent back to the 
 university as tutor, there to undergo the doctor's
 
 134 THE GERMANS. 
 
 examination that will open a university career to 
 him. The priest thus enjoys the consideration that 
 everywhere, in Germany, is attached to the title of 
 doctor, and even to all who have received the baptism 
 of academic science. 
 
 In this is to be seen one of the most active causes 
 of the superiority with respect to erudition and 
 science of the German clergy over the clergy of other 
 nations. Similar conditions would everywhere pro- 
 duce identical effects ; and we could not hope too 
 much in the future, if the organisation of higher 
 university education were again to favour Spain, 
 Italy, and France with those great minds who were 
 at once the lights of their Church and the honour of 
 the literature of their own countries.
 
 135 
 
 XVI. 
 
 FREEDOM OF GERMAN UNIVERSITIES — ABSENCE OF PROGRAMMES 
 — DEMOCRATIC GRANDEUR OF THE TITLE OF DOCTOR — HOW 
 UNIVERSITIES IN GERMANY MAINTAIN THE UNITY OF KNOW- 
 LEDGE — IN FRANCE, UNITY OF KNOWLEDGE IS PURELY 
 ADMINISTRATIVE — OBLIGATION OF EVERY STUDENT IN GER- 
 MANY TO ATTEND THE LECTURES ON HISTORY AND PHILO- 
 SOPHY, WHICH FORM THE LOGICAL AND PRACTICAL UNITY 
 OF SCIENCES — IMPORTANCE AND DEFICIENCIES OF OUR 
 NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Let us dwell upon one of the most important features 
 in the pedagogic system of German universities — 
 freedom. 
 
 The student is as free in Germany as the soldier 
 is disciplined. In the university organisation, the 
 individuality is as free and as much respected as it 
 is crushed in the military organisation. In the army, 
 passive obedience, blind, automatic, unswerving ; in 
 the university, spirit of initiative under broad rules, 
 to the advantage of the last arrived student as to 
 that of the first of the masters. If the army may be 
 compared to a colossal machine, all the motions of
 
 136 THE GERMANS. 
 
 which are geometrically regulated, the university- 
 may be considered as an organised living being, 
 moving of itself. 
 
 No programme. Science is free, method is free, the 
 choice of a subject is free, the professor is free, the 
 student himself is also free. Freedom animates, 
 vivifies, affranchises all. 
 
 Twice a-year the senate of the university selects 
 and appoints the subjects to be treated by the pro- 
 fessor, as also the lecture-hours. The teacher informs 
 the students of this decision by means of a simple 
 bill, written and signed by himself, and affixed to the 
 black-hoard. The students thus warned must choose 
 the lectures they wish to attend : they call at the 
 quaestor's office to give in their names, and to pay 
 the master whom they prefer. After this, they need 
 only call upon him once to get their books signed. 
 Thenceforth they are entirely free to be faithless or 
 assiduous. 
 
 The eight half-years of the university career are 
 crowned by the thesis, the examination, and title of 
 doctor. Those who feel tempted by such glory find 
 in that attraction the stimulus of a labour the more 
 praiseworthy and fruitful that it is free. 
 
 The value of the doctorship is purely scholastic, 
 but the very fact of its being optional adds still more 
 to that value. Although it facilitates the entry into
 
 THE TITLE OF DOCTOR. 137 
 
 most professional careers, it is not a necessary con- 
 dition. Purely honorific in its nature, it is only 
 indispensable in medicine or for a professorship. It 
 is simply the grand seal with which the university 
 impresses those who, being initiated into higher 
 knowledge, are thenceforth to belong to the intel- 
 lectual aristocracy of the country. True title of 
 nobility, the least of the people's sons may carry it 
 as proudly as the son of a baron, of an earl, or of a 
 duke carries his own. 
 
 This is a trait of true and truly great democracy. 
 None can help admiring it, however little exclusive 
 castes may be deprecated, and though intellect but 
 scarcely secure its right place — below virtue, no doubt, 
 but far above birth, fortune, and other things which 
 men most boast of. 
 
 The consideration granted by public opinion to all 
 the acknowledged servants of truth and science is 
 one of the best points of modern civilisation in Ger- 
 many. They are no longer the luxury of a court, 
 the Maecenas of an Augustus, some sort of Chinese 
 mandarinate : they belong to the country itself, and 
 are the independent members of a popular and inde- 
 pendent class. 
 
 Might not such freedom be a danger for French 
 youth ? It is to be feared. The vivacity, the 
 feverish ardour of our blood, requires, perhaps, the
 
 138 THE GERMANS. 
 
 yoke of programmes ; and study gains with us by 
 being stimulated at frequent examinations by self- 
 love and emulation. 
 
 If only, whilst the student is controlled, the master 
 were left free ; if he were not condemned to move in 
 the narrow circle prescribed by the programme, to 
 lecture without leaving the stipulated routine ! But 
 no ; he is forbidden to choose the subject best in 
 keeping with his tastes, to search the field whereto 
 his inspiration calls him. Such freedom of action is 
 only countenanced with the professors of our facul- 
 ties ; and why ? Because, having no pupils, they need 
 not follow any programme, or coach up for any exam- 
 ination. And as one servitude will bring another, 
 the result is that science itself is enslaved. 
 
 Where, indeed, can it be free if it be fettered on 
 the lips and in the mind itself of the master, whose 
 function should be to impart it in its freshness to 
 the youth of a country ? 
 
 What difficulties do not liberal ideas meet with 
 in order to get acclimated in our midst ! So long 
 as science be a prisoner, nothing can be affranchised. 
 The liberty of science does not essentially consist in 
 the destruction of the State monopoly, — it consists 
 practically in the freedom of action of the teacher. 
 In every country where universities are open to all, 
 where the professor may teach as he pleases, how
 
 UNITY OF SCIENCE. 139 
 
 aud when he pleases, without having forced upon 
 him a plan, a programme, a method, or a hand-book, 
 — science is free. 
 
 It matters little that the State considers such in- 
 stitutions as being under its rule, if, whilst claiming 
 that monopoly, it does not interfere to enforce its own 
 ideas, the doctrines of a minister or of a party ; and 
 if the student is not compelled to submit to a tuition 
 that shocks his tastes, his convictions, or his belief. 
 
 Such is the case in Germany. 
 
 Nowhere, in the university, did I see even the 
 shadow of an oppression of the mind or of the con- 
 science. Free from all programme, the mind of the 
 young man may freely aspire. The teachings he is 
 about to receive are free themselves ; they are not 
 the last words for the pupil. Science knows no last 
 word. The proudest genius only leaves landmarks 
 in the great road of truth. 
 
 As knowledge extends, and the immensity of 
 science is unveiled, the mind anxiously endeavours 
 to discover its unity. It follows the unique and all- 
 powerful CaiLse, — hidden key of the numberless 
 phenomena that take place before it ; but that in- 
 accessible Cause cannot be penetrated, and man must 
 resign himself to know but the harmony of pheno- 
 mena, to understand but the ever simple law accord- 
 ing to which they unroll themselves ; yet such is the
 
 140 THE GERMANS. 
 
 length of their chain, that it is not given to any one 
 mortal to hold alone the beginning, the middle, and 
 the end thereof. It is, however, possible for a group 
 of men to associate in \'iew of attempting that gigan- 
 tic labour. Universities were the result of such 
 associations, of the great want of intellectual unity. 
 Just as the circumvolutions of the brain are coiled 
 up together and form the organ of thought, so the 
 various sciences unite to form the faculties closely 
 grouped together in the university, thus establishing 
 the great organ of collective and national science. 
 
 That largely comprehensive unity is the pheno- 
 menon which particularly struck me in all German 
 universities. In no other country does it reach such 
 a state of perfection. 
 
 In France, the unity of knowledge is purely ad- 
 ministrative : it does not imply the living, organic 
 correlation of all the branches of general science. 
 The university of France is simply the hierarchical 
 battalion of teachers, from the Minister himself, who 
 holds absolute command, to the school-teachers, who 
 are like corporals. Can those subordinate agents, 
 scattered all over the country, contribute towards the 
 unity of science ? Our organisation by faculties 
 hardly succeeds in bringing together the few profes- 
 sors who are intrusted with the various lectures of 
 the faculty.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE. 141 
 
 As for the pupils, it is liardlj worth while to 
 mention them. Those amateurs who frequent the 
 lectures chiefly of the faculty of letters, are generally 
 a great deal more anxious for fine speech and elo- 
 quence than for science and erudition. There exists 
 no companionship between those conventional or 
 chance students, who are past the age of enthusiasm, 
 and whom no rivalry can bring together at an exam- 
 ination or at a competition. They do not exchange 
 ideas : they elbow one another, but never form an 
 acquaintance. 
 
 The German university does, on the contrary, 
 eiiicaciously co-operate to the unity of universal 
 science. The vast material organisation which as- 
 sembles under the same roof, at the same hours, all 
 the students for the various lectures in the four 
 faculties, within which is involved universal culture, 
 provides the professors with opportunities of knowing 
 each other, of exchanging their views, and of placing 
 at each other's service the mutual help of the science 
 in which each excels. These relations become still 
 closer, seeing that each professor in the university is 
 called upon to arrange with his colleagues for the 
 election of the rector, and that he may belong to the 
 academic Senate, to the intellectual judiciary authority 
 of the corporation. He is truly the living member 
 of a living association ; his colleagues are not for him
 
 142 THE GERMANS. 
 
 unknown individuals, -whom he may pass without 
 seeing ; they are necessary co-operators in the grand 
 work of higher education. 
 
 The same is true of the students, as regards neces- 
 sary intercourse. In Germany we do not see those 
 almost insurmountable barriers which in France 
 isolate the students of the various faculties. There 
 physicians, jurists, philologists, theologians, mathema- 
 ticians, fraternise without distinction : they sit at the 
 same Kneipe on Commers day, and between them 
 there is not only an exchange of pleasant sayings, 
 but a close contact of ideas that enriches the know- 
 ledge of all. I many a time witnessed those free 
 and jovial conversations between theologians, philol- 
 ogists, mathematicians, and jurists, and I always 
 ascertained that, in such intercourse of minds sub- 
 mitted to different cultures, ideas are enlarged, fresh 
 horizons are unveiled, and the brain is fecundated. 
 
 Indeed, the concentration of various studies in the 
 same establishment enables a diligent and anxious 
 student to learn to attend the most varied faculties — 
 from the lectures on dogmatical theology. Christian 
 morality or exegesis, to those on Eoman law, history, 
 ancient or modern philology, or mathematics. 
 
 How many young men thus find their true 
 vocation ! 
 
 The wish of the parents, some awkward influence,
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY. 143 
 
 the birthplace, caprice, often causes a young man to 
 engage in studies or to embrace a profession for 
 which nature did not intend him. If he be at a 
 special school where only one science is treated, or 
 one group of homogeneous sciences, he can only 
 follow one path. His intellect is, perhaps, misled 
 for ever, and his future seriously jeopardised. 
 
 Whereas in the university, all sciences being in 
 close union, all the divers professions being there 
 represented, the hesitating young man will the more 
 easily discover his vocation, and, to obey it, he will 
 only have to alter his plan of studies. 
 
 And in order that this grand idea of the unity 
 of higher science may not remain a vain word, but 
 be faithfully carried into effect, it is necessary that 
 each student be bound to enter for attendance a 
 course of philosophy and history. 
 
 Philosophy and history are, indeed, the indissol- 
 uble tie of all sciences. As soon as, in any speci- 
 ality, law or philology, medicine or mathematics, we 
 rise to the philosophy of those particular sciences, 
 — as soon as, leaving aside the narrow limits of the 
 purely actual point of view, we search the past to 
 write the history of a science, — we enter the very 
 region where all specialities meet. Philosophy brings 
 us to the study of the human mind, where all 
 sciences have their primary source, and history
 
 144 THE GERMANS. 
 
 shows US the vast stage of mankind where sciences 
 only appear as part of general culture. 
 
 Thus in philosophy sciences find their logical, 
 psychological, ideal unity, as in history they display 
 their practical and real unity of action. 
 
 In France we possess a higher school, where, 
 despite obvious lacks, there appears in the unity of 
 the same institution that beautiful universality of 
 science, such as is seen in the twenty-two German 
 universities. 
 
 The Ecole normale is no doubt the richer soil of 
 French intellectual culture, the nursery where are 
 reared the most learned minds : it is that which 
 provides the faculties with their professors, literature 
 with writers, science with pioneers, history with the 
 erudite, and philosophy with thinkers. It owes all 
 this still less to the excellence of its professors, to 
 the diligence and the intellect of its pupils, than to 
 a certain feature of its own organisation. 
 
 Of all French schools, there is not one that has 
 united so many divers sciences within the same pre- 
 cincts. Such a gathering brings forth some sort of 
 luminous atmosphere wherein the mind breathes more 
 freely, and that increases tenfold the original vitality 
 of the collected sciences. 
 
 The French higher normal school, compared with 
 German universities, presents, nevertheless, a double
 
 THE " ECOLE NORMALE." 145 
 
 inferiority : in the first respect, it does not, like them, 
 possess a faculty of theology ; secondly, it is a board- 
 ing-school, open only to a few privileged persons. 
 
 Therefore religious science is no longer represented 
 in the c4nacle of French scholars, and thus the pupils 
 of a school with narrow doorway easily succeed in 
 forming a narrow Church. It is not easy, even for 
 the largest minds, to escape from the results of the 
 ignorance of an essential part of knowledge, or to 
 help considering themselves as a race of dite, solely 
 because they possess a cerebral circumvolution more 
 developed than the rest.
 
 146 
 
 XVIL 
 
 OBLIGATION OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY TO MAINTAIN THE UNITY 
 OF KNOWLEDGE, AND TO DEVELOP HIGHER EDUCATION 
 AMONG THE RULING CLASSES — ATTEMPTS MADE IN FRANCE 
 TOWARDS THE REFORM OF HIGHER EDUCATION ALWAYS 
 COINCIDE WITH POLITICAL CHANGES — NARROWNESS OF THE 
 PROPOSED SYSTEMS — SPECIALISATION AND INTOLERANCE^ 
 STERILITY AND DANGER OF PARTY POLITICS IN THE ORGAN- 
 ISATION OF EDUCATION — INFLUENCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION 
 ON THE CHARACTER OF A PEOPLE — THE THREE PRINCIPLES 
 WHICH IN FRANCE DOMINATE THE WHOLE PROBLEM OF 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 
 
 In a country of growing democracy like France, 
 where public opinion tends more and more to be- 
 come paramount, too much importance could not be 
 attached to the organisation of science in all its 
 branches, and to the broad education of minds in the 
 full light of reason, without prejudice against belief 
 or against reason itself. 
 
 The errors which prevail in the course of a cen- 
 tury, and the passions which those errors have at 
 times kindled in the public life of a nation, can often 
 be ascribed to no other cause but the ignorance and
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 147 
 
 false systems of the ruling classes. And as nothing 
 favours more that learned ignorance and those false 
 systems than the narrowness of superior instruction, 
 we must, if we love our country, endeavour, to the 
 best of our ability, not only to extend popular know- 
 ledge, but to organise truly superior knowledge, in 
 its freedom, universality, and unity. Should we, to 
 obtain that aim, need even to borrow from Germany, 
 it matters little. The virtue of an energetic patriot 
 cannot hesitate; for, when national interest is at 
 stake, there is no room for vanity. 
 
 It is nearly a century since those difficult debates 
 on public education were opened and produced either 
 in the parliaments or in the opinion of our country 
 — a century of attempts at organisation. Whenever 
 France was shaken by some political or social com- 
 motion, the question of primary, secondary, or higher 
 education broke forth anew, plans of reform multi- 
 plied themselves everywhere. On that ground parties 
 engaged in the most relentless struggle, as though 
 some secret intuition warned them that a triumph 
 in that direction would bring about their ultimate 
 victory. 
 
 That problem was, in turn, examined and studied 
 by the National Assembly of 1789, the Convention, 
 the First Empire, the Eestoration, the monarchy of 
 July, the second llepublic, the second Empire, the
 
 148 THE GERMANS. 
 
 third Republic ; but none of the proposed solutions 
 have yet fully satisfied opinion. 
 
 After a century of efforts, of attempts, and of 
 progress, the question of public education is still 
 pending. Even to-day there is not a man, anxious 
 for the highest interests of his country, who has not 
 a vague consciousness of the thousand desiderata 
 suggested by the actual solution. 
 
 We should be wanting in justice towards our 
 country if we did not acknowledge the flight of 
 public education in France during the last century. 
 
 Popular education is being widely diffused. The 
 school is everywhere ; it is more and more the table 
 served for all, and at which the son of the poor has 
 his place, assigned and compulsory. 
 
 Two classes of beings formerly lived without intel- 
 lectual culture — the masses and the women: the 
 masses, on account of their poverty ; the women, 
 because of their weakness ; both, on account of their 
 servitude. The masses are still poor, but education 
 costs nothing. Woman remains feeble, but truth 
 raises her from bondage, and henceforward it will 
 depend upon heiself, upon the efforts of her mind, 
 combined with her virtue, whether she becomes, in 
 growing equality, the enlightened companion of man. 
 
 General culture has extended its limits beyond 
 those assigned to it in dreams.
 
 DEVELOPMEXT OF EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 149 
 
 "What a discrepancy between the programme which 
 the Great Alcuin drafted out for Charlemagne, and 
 that imposed to-day upon any bachelor of arts ! How 
 vast the distance travelled in eleven centuries ! How 
 broad has thought become ! What surprising enlight- 
 enment in our world of ignorance and darkness ! 
 "VYhat a wonderful display of activity in all the 
 branches of higher education ! How numerous the 
 new fires that have been kindled ! How learned the 
 division of labour, as the growing work of science 
 required more numerous and more special workers • 
 
 We might doubtless speak with much reserve 
 respecting the intricate causes which urged on the 
 diffusion of education, prompted the indefinite exten- 
 sion of programmes, and brought about the necessity 
 of instituting fresh chairs and special schools : this 
 fact will nevertheless remain — minds are incontest- 
 ably more enlightened. Our sky is brightening. 
 Science is in superb evolution. JMan is devoured 
 with the passion of knowledge ; his eye is surveying 
 all horizons ; his endeavours to penetrate the secret 
 of all that is, of all that lives, is truly prodigious. 
 He possesses true method, and, in his struggle with 
 the unknown, not an effort is lost. 
 
 It will be seen that I am far from denying the 
 merits of our public education in France. However, 
 I should not act up to my convictions if I did not
 
 150 THE GERMANS. 
 
 also mention its defects. It is a painful duty for me 
 to expose them. 
 
 Primary education is deprived of religion. 
 
 Secondary education is foolishly encyclopedical. 
 
 Higher education is specialist in the extreme. 
 
 These are grave aberrations. They will produce, 
 they have already produced, like all that is false, 
 baneful fruits. The child without God never will 
 become a man. The youth, crammed with an educa- 
 tion without limits, will remain, in most cases, with 
 but a superficial mind ; and the specialist, on leaving 
 the schools wherein he has been cloistered, will 
 always be wanting in that broad and lofty spirit 
 without which it is hard to conceive manly and 
 superior reason. 
 
 As for the servitude that causes all our systems 
 of education to be bent under the yoke of inexorable 
 programmes, what regrets, what complaints does it 
 not extort from all free-minded men ! It is well to 
 think of this. Programmes, in France, are a chain 
 which lays hold of the child almost from the cradle, 
 and grows with him, without leaving him for an 
 instant, until when, become a man, he is considered 
 fit to exercise some public profession. From the 
 village school to the licence, programmes are there, 
 strict, pressing, implacable. If they but bound the 
 pupil — but thev hold the master fast in their claws.
 
 NARROWNESS OF FRENCH SYSTEMS. 151 
 
 And so long as the master is not free, tuition is en- 
 slaved. No more disinterested science ; no more 
 initiative. Is it, then, surprising that, in this country 
 where natures have so much spring and vivacity, little 
 by little even the sense of spontaneity and originality 
 is eventually lost ? Self-thought and self-action are 
 leading qualities which, sooner or later, disappear if 
 not submitted to delicate culture. 
 
 We still live under the university organisation 
 devised by Napoleon the First. The whole genius 
 of this man is embodied in his works, with its wants 
 and its excesses, its militarism and its absolutism. 
 
 The corporation of teachers is but a branch of the 
 great administration of the country; it is but some 
 sort of army, with its commanders-in-chief, its gene- 
 rals, its colonels, its captains, and its sergeants under 
 the liigh authority of the Secretary of State. Official 
 programmes are its war code. No initiative, either 
 for the professor or for the pupil. The one has but to 
 teach according to official programmes that wliich 
 the other has but to learn. There is no autonomy 
 in the staff of that army of workers. They are 
 recruited according to the orders of the central ad- 
 ministration. Is there a vacant post ? The minister 
 alone is empowered to fill it : he is the great engineer. 
 If one of the wheels of the machine gets broken, a 
 fresh one is put in its place. This is what the body
 
 352 THE GERMANS. 
 
 of teachers is reduced to in a country where liberty 
 is indeed found in the vocabulary, but can hardly be 
 said to have as yet entered the habits of the people, 
 and seems but the theme of speeches, or weapon in 
 the hands of minorities or of parties anxious for 
 tyranny and absolutism. 
 
 Strange ! this country, so fond of liberty, only 
 succeeded in producing an organisation subjected to 
 the State, to power, without the least independence. 
 Those legislators whose dream was to train modern 
 man by imparting universal culture, only succeeded 
 in creating more or less narrow specialities. This 
 nation, the first among all to extol tolerance as a 
 civic virtue, and to inscribe liberty of conscience in 
 its code of principles, could not be brought to see in 
 national education anything other than the means of 
 ensuring the predominance of such or such doctrine, 
 and, above all, of uprooting the religious faith of old. 
 
 It is impossible to point out more shocking con- 
 tradictions. On seeing them constantly renewed, 
 we ask ourselves in anguish, must we not despair 
 of a country where practical sense meets with such 
 affronts, and where errors, far from being corrected 
 by experience, take deeper root, so as to become 
 indestructible routine ? 
 
 However little we may be accustomed to search 
 into the phenomena presented in the life of a peo-
 
 INFLUENCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 153 
 
 pie we never hesitate to look for them in national • 
 institutions. 
 
 Do you wish to know why the French mind is as 
 we see it to-day ? Study the mode of organisation of 
 public education. Man always becomes what we 
 make him. Is not the mind of French youth the 
 result of our regime of national education ? Its 
 qualities, as its defects, have no other source. The 
 doctrines which rule a whole generation can be traced 
 to public schools. He who wishes to ascertain why 
 such a generation thinks this or that, need only inquire 
 what were the teachings of its masters. 
 
 For nearly half a century, French youth being 
 imbued with spiritualist and rationalist philosopliy, 
 France remained spiritualist and deistical. 
 
 Eeligious science being banished from official pro- 
 grammes of public education, France became ignorant, 
 indifferent to religious matters. 
 
 It is now more than thirty years since the larger 
 half of our youth, in conformity with the system of 
 hifurcation, was weaned from philosophical studies : 
 the majority of cultivated Frenchmen fell insensibly 
 into philosophical indifference ; and positivism was, 
 for a time, enabled to pretend to rule opinion, and 
 to take the place of those high metaphysical doctrines 
 which always were the honour of the French mind. 
 
 We devised the famous distinction of sciences and
 
 154 THE GERMANS. 
 
 letters, become with us the fundamental division of 
 our public education, as though literature could exist 
 without science, or science be conceived without 
 literature : then sprang up in our midst a whole 
 tribe of individuals whose pretension it was to know 
 how to write. Write what ? They do not trouble 
 themselves about that. Like those ancient sophists 
 who posed as masters in the art of devising argu- 
 ments, they give themselves out as artists in that of 
 putting words together. The former used to discuss 
 for discussion's sake ; the latter write for the sake 
 of putting pen to paper. Their style is sonorous, 
 resounding ; their thought empty and vague. The 
 garments are superb ; the body they cover is a shape- 
 less doll. Nowhere more than in France will you 
 meet with those hollow professors of style, writing and 
 speaking the more since they have nothing to say ! 
 
 For the last few years, our youth has received an 
 education whose circle, constantly widening, finally 
 became universal, encyclopedical — the consequence 
 of which was soon produced. The number of super- 
 ficial minds, of sciolists, is on the increase ; and 
 never at any time were there to be found men who 
 had studied so much and knew so little. 
 
 In the organisation of public education considera- 
 tions of freedom were totally ignored. The result 
 soon followed — the initiative of the mind was soon
 
 HISTORY OF FRENCH PUBLIC EDUCATION. 155 
 
 paralysed ; and now nothing is so rare amongst us 
 as an intellect capable of self-will and self-thought. 
 Lastly, the various branches of higher education 
 were more and more subdivided, sometimes isolated, 
 sometimes opposed, in special faculties, in high 
 schools and establishments for indoor pupils : in- 
 tellect soon followed suit, and became subdividing, 
 isolated, and grouped into sects, political or religious 
 parties. 
 
 To a judicious observer our country seems to be 
 suffering from epilepsy — that mysterious and fearful 
 disease whose outward manifestations are frightful 
 convulsions, and whose secret cause is to be found in 
 a deficient cerebral co-ordination. 
 
 It is truly distressing to acknowledge such infir- 
 mities. It is not without intense pain that a true 
 patriot free from delusion sees the evils from which 
 his country suffers, knowing at the same time his 
 inability to relieve them. If austere truths were not 
 preferable to all, I would espouse blind Chauvinism, 
 that declines to acknowledge the evil, or the sim- 
 plicity of those credulous minds which believe a 
 speech or a book to be sufficient to cure everything. 
 
 If we glance over the history of public education 
 in France, we see it divided into two separate 
 periods : — 
 
 The first, that of the old r^jime, terminated at the
 
 156 THE GERMANS. 
 
 time of the Revolution with the old regime itself, 
 having lasted nearly twelve centuries. As regards 
 its corporations of teachers, its essential character 
 was the predominance of the Church and of the 
 clergy : the method itself, according to which educa- 
 tion was then organised, betrays that predominence. 
 The ensemble and the synthesis of science was placed 
 under the absolute sovereignty of theology, which 
 ruled and inspired all inferior science. As for the 
 institution itself, its character was really that of a 
 corporation : it formed a sort of autonomous power, 
 recruiting its own members under the high patronage 
 of kings, bishops, and popes — sometimes even check- 
 ing their authority. 
 
 The second period dated in reality only from the 
 constitution of 1808, whereby the despotic and mili- 
 tary genius of the Emperor changed the university 
 corporation into a sort of militia, and made it an 
 administration of the State, under the name of the 
 Imperial University of France. 
 
 From 1789 to 1808 the ardent genius of the 
 Revolution did not remain inactive : the problem of 
 public education and its fresh orijanisation was beins 
 constantly mooted, either in the Legislative Assembly 
 or in the National Convention. But theory, new 
 prejudices, the ignorance of practical wants and re- 
 quirements, misguided the mind.
 
 THE PRINCIPLES THAT RULE FRENCH EDUCATION. 157 
 
 There were litterateurs and writers — not politicians 
 nor men of action. They enacted laws, as one writes a 
 book : they were the Jean Jacques, not the Lycurgus, 
 of their time — simple enough to believe that a people 
 could be made by dint of laws. They acted as though 
 France did not exist before them, and as though the 
 old regime could have been annihilated by a decree. 
 j\Iore bent upon destroying than upon building, upon 
 ^t^. pre venting an offensive reaction of the monarchical 
 world than upon serving political truth and their 
 country without prejudice — they ignored that which 
 is eternal in human nature, and, proclaiming the rights 
 of men, they never dreamed of reminding them of 
 their duties ; they saw only the man of their fancy, 
 not the man of reality, with his miseries and his 
 vices, his criminality and his pride. 
 
 To be convinced of this it is only sufficient to read 
 the three reports of Messieurs de Talleyrand, de 
 Condorcet, and Daunou.^ In these three documents 
 which the new spirit inspired, and wherein are seen 
 panting the tumultuous passions with which the 
 world was and is still upset, it is easy to recognise 
 the principles which even to this day rule in France 
 all the organisation of modern education, — the omni- 
 potence of the State, the servitude of education, the 
 
 ' ' L' Instruction publique eu France pendant la Revolution,' by 
 C. Hippeau.
 
 158 THE GERMANS. 
 
 rupture of the great unity of knowledge, the increas- 
 ing predominance of the scientific element in educa- 
 tion over the literary and religious element. 
 
 What changes would occur if, instead of the omni- 
 potence of the State, we could have the neutrality of 
 the State — not indeed a neutrality synonymous with 
 indifference, but one blending itself with justice, and 
 ensuring the true reign of liberty and the exercise of 
 common rights ; if we only knew how to reconstitute 
 the vast synthesis of universal science, and re-establish 
 harmony between experimental sciences, philosophy 
 and letters, theology and faith ! 
 
 I willingly cherish that hope, though, at the same 
 time, I dare not believe it will ever be realised. I 
 know the fatal immobility of public institutions once 
 established ; and it is not necessary to have a long 
 experience of life to know to what extent, every- 
 where, perhaps in France more so than anywhere 
 else, routine tyrannically rules.
 
 159 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 REIGNING IDEAS AMONG UNIVERSITY YOUTH— NO POLITICS — 
 LOVE OF THE FATHERLAND — PASSION FOR GERMAN UNITY — 
 THEOLOGIANS AND SOLDIERS — ANTI-SLAVS AND ANTI-SEMIT- 
 ISTS — THE MASTERS IN PHILOSOPHY — THE THREE GENIUSES 
 WHICH RULE OVER GERMAN THOUGHT — THE HISTORY OF 
 PHILOSOPHY — HISTORY APPLIED TO ALL SCIENCES — GEOG- 
 RAPHY AND PATRIOTISM — ANCIENT PHILOLOGY — RELIGIOUS 
 SCIENCES — THEIR ACTIVITY — RELIGIOUS BELIEF AMONG 
 GERMAN YOUTH. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance to know the political 
 reigning ideas to-day in Germany, and especially in 
 universities the preferred doctrines in philosophy, 
 the sciences of predilection, the religious beliefs. 
 Assiduous intercourse with the university youth en- 
 abled me to satisfy my legitimate curiosity. 
 
 Here is the result of my observations. 
 
 Politics find no room amongst the students. With 
 them there is neither Socialist nor Conservative, 
 neither Unitarian nor Particularist, neither Liberal 
 nor Clerical. Do you not belong to some political 
 party ? I often inquired. My question only provoked 
 surprise. They did not seem to understand me.
 
 160 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Germany is still far from having politicians twenty 
 years old. Moreover, in that country I never re- 
 marked that morbid precociousness which is perhaps 
 the most deplorable result of our French pedagogics. 
 
 On the other hand, I always found amongst German 
 youth a lively love of their native land. I still re- 
 collect the enthusiasm with which a student spoke to 
 me about his town of Meiningen in Saxony, and 
 another of his mountains of Harz in Hanover, — with 
 what simple joy they both cherished the hope of 
 seeing them again at the next vacation. 
 
 This love of the native soil does not enthral their 
 ideas nor restrain their impulse. Their country does 
 not in their eyes and during life constitute the whole 
 universe : it is a halting-place where they rest them- 
 selves from the fatigue of the journey, and gather 
 fresh strength for advancing farther. I have never 
 observed the dream of German youth to be the 
 possession of a very little spot of ground where 
 supreme felicity would be enjoyed in sowing their 
 own cabbages and potatoes, and calmly passing away 
 under the shadows of their oaks and firs. 
 
 German unity, such is the ardent passion that stirs 
 all the university folks. It is patriotism in all its 
 pride, its ambition, and its effervescence. The parti- 
 cularism of the various confederate states, though 
 quite apparent in the nation, does not in any sensible
 
 THEOLOGIAXS AND SOLDIERS. 161 
 
 degree modify the patriotism of trans-Ehinan youth 
 inflamed by the very name of the German Fatherland 
 {Deutsches Vaterland). 
 
 The idea of any kind of humanitarian cosmopoli- 
 tanism finds no favour with them. 
 
 If you mention the United States of Europe to 
 these positive natures, they do not smile — Teutons 
 cannot smile — they burst out laughing. They con- 
 sider the future without illusion. They foresee men- 
 acing struggles right and left. But knowing that in 
 this world strength is the main factor of triumph, 
 they cultivate strength. 
 
 That cultivation of brute force is displayed by 
 all literate youth, in their quarrelsome customs, 
 the frequency of duels, the practice of violent 
 physical exercise, and, above all, their military pre- 
 dilection. 
 
 Every student wishes to be, and feels himself to 
 be, a soldier. 
 
 I do not believe there is any nation amongst whose 
 literate youth militarism is more universal, more 
 p-jrennial. Eeligious feeling cannot restrain this. 
 Theological students are, like their comrades, enlisted 
 into the army of the country. I remember having 
 seen at Tübingen, during the vacations of 1882, more 
 than twenty students of the Catholic faculty of the- 
 ology taking part in the autumn manoeuvres, thus 
 
 L
 
 162 THE GERMANS. 
 
 devoting their time of rest to a patriotic duty, which 
 in Germany suffers no exception. 
 
 The regiment, on its way through Tübingen, spent 
 the Sunday in the little university town. The 
 twenty students called on their masters, and, wearing 
 the military uniform and helmet, observed with them 
 that Sunday, as they were wont to do in the students' 
 frock-coat and cap. 
 
 Is it because of their being so used to obedience ? 
 Is it the love of their country and their taste for 
 arms ? Is it reservedness of character ? These are 
 C[uestions which I cannot answer ; but I never heard 
 any complaint against that rigorous law which 
 brings every German under the colours. 
 
 Patriotic passion, amongst youths as amongst the 
 people, generally fosters certain ardent sympathies 
 or antipathies. In this respect, the students are the 
 faithful image of the whole nation. The hatred of 
 the Slav may already be detected. The Jewish 
 question, Semitism and anti-Semitism, is heard with 
 resounding echo amongst them. 
 
 Germans consider themselves at once as a nation 
 and as a race. If they regard the Jew and Slav 
 with repulsion, if they view the Latin with envious 
 jealousy, it is that in them they see different and 
 rival races. 
 
 The special hostility which Jews meet with even
 
 AXTI-SLAVS AXD AXTI-SEMITISTS, 1G3 
 
 from literate youths seems to proceed from patriot- 
 ism and religious feeling. The Israelite is, by nature, 
 mixed with all, yet distinct from all. To me he 
 appears a being of a parasitical essence. He will 
 always be treated as an enemy by the organised 
 beings upon which he implants himself; and the 
 opposition he will meet with will be the more bitter 
 as those collective beings shall have a more distinct 
 perception of their own unity. This explains the 
 importance of the anti-Semitic movement in Paissia, 
 in Hungary, in Germany, as also the indifference it 
 meets with in our own country. 
 
 Philosophical ideas did not seem to me to have a 
 very strong hold over the mind. The era of masters 
 is over. None now can be said to have opened a 
 new school ; none, as in the days of Kant, of Wolff, 
 of Hegel, of Fichte, or of Schelling, exercise sway 
 over a whole generation. Throughout the whole 
 world, indeed, without excepting any nation, philos- 
 ophy is passing through a period of decline. Where 
 is the powerful mind which opens new prospects 
 to contemporary thought by tlie creation of new 
 systems ? 
 
 The believers look back to the middle ages, and 
 are compelled to go back five centuries to find a 
 master. With much trouble they endeavour to make 
 scholasticism appear younger, and to fecundate it with
 
 164 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the light of modern sciences. In Italy, some great 
 minds, like Eosmini and Gioberti, have hardly suc- 
 ceeded in renewing ancient philosophy ; in Spain, 
 Balmes has made no school ; in France, it is with 
 much trouble that the high traditions of Cartesian 
 spiritualism are still preserved ; in England, positiv- 
 ism has deliberately shut the door against meta- 
 physical researches having as their object Him whom 
 it calls the Unhnowahle, and the province of philos- 
 ophy is limited to the Experimental. In Germany, 
 Lotze is the last of philosophers who enjoyed general 
 renown in universities. Most professors now follow 
 Herbart's doctrines. 
 
 All German philosophical thought is, in my opinion, 
 dominated, and its bearings directed, by three great 
 geniuses — Spinoza, Leibnitz, and Kant. 
 
 Pantheistic tendencies, which seek unity at all 
 costs, and delight in erecting a system, belong to 
 Spinoza. The prevalence of vast erudition and of 
 a conciliating eclecticism is inspired by Leibnitz. 
 As for psychological and critical problems, they 
 originated with Kant, whose mighty works ponder- 
 ously weigh upon the intellects which they divide 
 into two contrary schools : the idealists, who, scorn- 
 ing experience, consider, like Hegel, their superb 
 theories as the absolute measure of things ; the 
 realists, who, subordinating the suhjective to the oh-
 
 THE RULERS OF GERMAN THOUGHT. 165 
 
 jective, borrow from reality the rule of their specu- 
 lations. 
 
 I fancy that to-day the university youth, which to- 
 morrow will form the ruling opinion of the country, 
 inclines to realism, to a certain unconscious panthe- 
 ism from which German minds scarcely ever liberate 
 themselves, — and, above all, to an eclecticism based 
 upon serious erudition. 
 
 In Germany, as in France, philosophy is influenced 
 by the development of experimental sciences. 
 
 Psychology is fond of borrowing from physiology ; 
 and the antagonism brought about by Kant between 
 ideal and real, subjective science and objective science, 
 no longer troubles the mind ; but scientific material- 
 ism has found more than one clamorous interpreter.^ 
 Nevertheless these misguided intellects have suc- 
 ceeded less in leading German youth than in pro- 
 viding learned French materialists with weapons, at 
 a time when it was fashionable with us to believe in 
 the infallibility of German science. 
 
 The history of philosophy occupies the most pro- 
 minent place : this alone suffices to show that pro- 
 fessors are much more intent on exposing the various 
 systems than on teaching some personal one. This I 
 observed at Leipzig, at Berlin, at Göttingen. 
 
 In high university chairs, materialist or positivist 
 
 ^ Büchner, Karl Vogt, Molescott, Fischer.
 
 166 THE GERMANS. 
 
 doctrines are left unrepresented. The rash specu- 
 lations of thought are not nowadays viewed with 
 high favour ; philosophical tradition is, however, 
 faitlifully preserved. 
 
 Superior geniuses are not always given to a nation, 
 to a century, or to a particular science. When they 
 appear, all gather round their light and listen to 
 their voice ; and truth progresses. "When they dis- 
 appear, everything seems plunged into darkness. The 
 honour of man is, then, to preserve the living tradi- 
 tion of their inspirations, at the same time preparing, 
 by dint of work and exertion, the way for the genesis 
 of a master. 
 
 I was struck with the extreme importance given 
 to history in all particular sciences^ and even in all 
 questions — literature, law, philosophy, theology, phil- 
 ology, or exegesis. 
 
 Erudition is, for the German, a point of honour, 
 almost a sort of scientific coquetry. In the solution 
 of a problem, his aim is not only to satisfy his per- 
 sonal conviction ; he further wishes to know since 
 when and by whom the problem was propounded, 
 and what various answers it obtained : he thus makes 
 the history of the question that of the solutions ; and 
 it is only after this double preliminary work that he 
 propounds his personal idea. 
 
 Such a method appeared to me to be singularly
 
 IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY. 167 
 
 wise, and apt to enlarge the mind, to prevent its be- 
 coming intoxicated by its own thought, and to enrich 
 it with the thought of others. 
 
 Being trained to that intellectual process, students 
 soon contract the habit of applying it to everything. 
 I often liad occasion to admire in them a breadth 
 and moderation of judgment, which, I doubt not, 
 proceeded from the large part assigned to history in 
 the method of public education. 
 
 Sedentary habits are as injurious to the develop- 
 ment of the mind as are stay-at-home customs to 
 that of nations. History causes the mind to make 
 journeys, by compelling it to put aside its own 
 thoughts, by bringing it into contact with other in- 
 tellects, in other countries, with past civilisations in 
 bygone centuries. 
 
 Therefore is history abundantly and profusely 
 taught beyond the Ehine. 
 
 The following were the subjects of the various lec- 
 tures at Berlin during the summer term of 18S2 : — 
 
 Greek history, from the fourth century before Christ. 
 
 Modern history, from the sixteenth century to the Peace 
 of Utrecht, in 1648. 
 
 Explanations of certain monuments, with bearings upon 
 history and art. 
 
 Eoman history and Latin epigraphy. 
 
 The history and topography of Greece and the Pelopon- 
 nesus.
 
 1G8 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Greek mythology, with the interpretation of the art 
 
 works of the royal museum. 
 Latin and Greek palaeography. 
 History of the Babylonians and of the Assyrians. 
 Interpretation of Assyrian inscriptions. 
 History of Germany from the interregnum to the 
 
 Reform. 
 On the form of international alliances. 
 History of Europe from 1789 to 1815. 
 History of German art from the sixteenth century to the 
 
 present time. 
 Geographical history of Germany. 
 History of Prussia from 1786 to 1815. 
 Modern history. 
 
 Such quotations need no commentary. 
 
 One of the sciences whose cultivation is foremost 
 is higher geography. 
 
 At Göttingen, in the year 1882 — to mention only 
 one instance — more than 200 students flocked to 
 the lectures of Professor Wagner. He was then 
 lecturing on the formation of the soil on the German 
 shores of the North Sea. The method of the master 
 appeared to me well worthy of remark. He taught 
 as much by drawings and charts as by speech. All 
 he said he illustrated with various-coloured chalks. 
 In this way the constitution of the various strata 
 of the soil, the sources of streams, the woods, the 
 peopling of countries, were all made clear. Geolog-
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND PATRIOTISM. 1G9 
 
 ieal laws were fully displayed on a small scale on 
 one of the points of the planet, to the great admi- 
 ration of the young listeners, who followed this sci- 
 entific exposition as they would the various phases 
 of a drama. 
 
 "What a healthy food for patriotism are those lec- 
 tures on profound science, by which youth learns in 
 what providential ways the soil of the country was 
 gradually formed ! 
 
 Patriotism is also, not quite so obviously perhaps, 
 the soul of another science held in high honour — 
 philology. 
 
 Xo idea can be formed of the ardour with which 
 the universities cultivate the study of old German. 
 Erudition is not the only object, the sole fruit, of 
 those archaeological studies. Intercourse with the 
 old authors preserves the freshness and youth of 
 patriotism. The national genius existed already fully 
 developed in those writers, who were the fathers of 
 the language, and who, in immortal strains, recited 
 the history and the legends of a nation, its victories 
 and its disasters, sang of its dreams and its ambitions, 
 expressed its feelings and its higher thoughts. 
 
 Eeligious science holds a distinguished place in 
 most universities, not only because it occupies the 
 leading place in programmes, but also, and above all,
 
 I'O THE GERMANS. 
 
 because, under the influence of esteemed and often 
 famous teachers, it rallies a youth numerous and 
 ardent. 
 
 There are more than 4000 theological students, 
 scattered among the twenty-two universities of the 
 empire, who in the mass of students form the most 
 serious and diligent group. They it was who founded 
 the Christian Association, whose members are dis- 
 tinguished by their white caps, with black, white, 
 and golden stripes. 
 
 The activity of theological science cannot be 
 denied. Every professor treats at least two different 
 subjects. And as the smallest faculty of theology 
 does not possess fewer than six professors, there are 
 thus at least twelve lectures. At Leipzig, where the 
 faculty of theology numbered fourteen professors, 
 twenty-five subjects were being treated in the same 
 half-year. 
 
 These are the titles of the various subjects studied 
 during the summer vacation of 1882 :^ — 
 
 History of the Church, 
 Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 Moral theology. 
 Epistle of Saint James. 
 Compared symbolics. 
 The Psalms. 
 
 1 Verzeichniss der im Sommer Halbjahre 1882 auf der Universität 
 Leipzig zu haltenden Vorlesungen.
 
 RELIGIOUS SCIENCES. 171 
 
 The Messianic prophecies. 
 
 Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 Life and Doctrine of Schleiermacher. 
 
 Introduction to the Old Testament. 
 
 System of practical theology. 
 
 Biblical theology of the Xew Testament. 
 
 Messianic prophecies of the Old, and tlieir fulfihnent in 
 
 the Xew Testament. 
 The prophet Isaiah. 
 
 The idea of the covenant in the Xew Testament. 
 The minor prophets before the exile. 
 Hebrew poetry. 
 History of Avorship among the Hebrews, and its bearings 
 
 upon the criticism of the Pentateuch. 
 History of Christian architecture compared with the 
 
 requirements of the present time. 
 Tlie Gospel of Saint John. 
 
 Add to this the practical labours accomplished in 
 the various associations of theological students — the 
 Theological Association, that of Preachers, that of 
 Missions, the Homiletic Seminary, the Catechetic and 
 Exegetic Associations, the Society of Ecclesiastical 
 and Archaeological History — and some idea may be 
 formed of the prodigious intellectual movement of 
 which, in Germany, every faculty of theology is a 
 centre. 
 
 The encyclopedia of religious science is thus ap- 
 proached from all sides ; and the students, who are 
 excited by an ardent wish for study, live under the 
 cross-fire of the thousand rays of the same science.
 
 172 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Of special religious sciences the most cultivated 
 are, beyond doubt, exegesis and history. 
 
 Dogma in Protestant faculties appeared to me 
 subjected to a thousand fluctuations, and to endless 
 indecision. It varied from university to university, 
 often even from chair to chair. The divers con- 
 sistories endeavour in vain to preserve their recip- 
 rocal orthodoxy ; the professor keeps his freedom of 
 action, so long as he does not irritate public opinion 
 — a condition which he always finds easy to fulfil, 
 if he but succeed in devising a formula preserving 
 the basis of Christian faith. 
 
 One fact will give an idea of the extraordinary 
 theological activity of German faculties. For the 
 last century the life of Christ has produced more 
 than sixty important works, amongst either Catholics 
 or Protestants. 
 
 The following are the principal Lives of Christ 
 published in Germany : — 
 
 J. G. Herder. — The Saviour of ]Men according to our 
 first three Gospels. Eiga, 1796. 
 
 The Son of God, Saviour of the World, according to the 
 Gospel of Saint John. 1797. 
 
 J. J. Hess. — History of the Life of Jesus. Zurich, 1822. 
 
 J. V. Reinhard. — Researches concerning the plan con- 
 ceived by the Founder of the Christian religion for 
 the welfare of mankind. "Wittemberg, 1830. 
 
 A. BoDENT. — The first and the holiest of human his- 
 tories — Jesus of Xazareth. Historical and Critical
 
 ACTIVITY OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCES. 173 
 
 Treatise as regards Greek, Roman, and Jewish re- 
 ligion. Gemund, 1818. 
 
 H, E. G. Paulus. — The Life of Jesus, as basis of the 
 History of the Origin of Christianity. Heidelberg, 
 1828. 
 
 K. Hase. — The Life of Jesus. Leipzig, 187.5. 
 
 Dr Fr. Strauss. — The Life of Jesus. Tübingen, 1835. 
 
 The Life of Jesus for the German People. Leipzig, 1874. 
 
 A. Xeander. — The Life of Jesus in its Historical Rela- 
 tions and Development. Hamburg, 1837. 
 
 J. KuHx. — The Life of Jesus from a Scientific point of 
 view. Mainz, 1838. 
 
 C. H. Weisse. — Evangelical History, from a Critical and 
 
 Philosophical point of view. Leipzig, 1838. 
 Jx. Hartmaxx. — The Life of Jesus. Historical Treatise 
 
 according to the Gospels. Stuttgart, 1837-39. 
 A. Riegler. — The Life of Jesus. Critical, Historical, 
 
 and Practical Expose. Bamberg, 1843. 
 J. X. Sepp. — The Life of Jesus. Ratisbonne, 1843. 
 
 Augsburg, 1862-65. 
 J. P. Laxge. — The Life of Jesus according to the 
 
 Gospels. Heidelberg, 1844-47. 
 J. A. H. Ebrard. — Scientific Criticism of Evangelical 
 
 History. Frankfurt, 1842. 
 H. Ewald. — History of Christ and his Time. Göttin- 
 gen, 1867. 
 Ch. J. Biggenbarch. — Lessons on the Life of the Lord 
 
 Jesus. Bale, 1858. 
 
 D. ScHEXKEL. — The Portrait of Jesus. Wiesbaden, 1873. 
 The Portrait of Jesus according to the Apostles and post- 
 apostolical times. Leipzig, 1879. 
 
 Fr. Schleiermacher. — The Life of Jesus. 
 J. Langen. — The Last Day of the Life of Jesus. Fri- 
 burg, 1864.
 
 174 THE GEltMANS. 
 
 Tn. Keim. — The Life of Jesus according to the results 
 
 of actual Science. Zurich, 1882. 
 r. Clemexs. — Jesus the Xazarean. Berlin, 1874. 
 P. ScHEGG. — The Life of Jesus. Friburg, 1874. 
 Xaumaxx. — The Life of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. 
 
 Prag, 1875, 
 E. ]\Iarius. — The Personality of Jesus in connection 
 
 with Mythology and the Mysteries of Ancient 
 
 Peoples. Leipzig, 1879. 
 B. Weiss.— The Life of Jesus. Berlin, 1882-83. 
 
 This list might be lengthened, if the enumeration 
 already extended did not amply justify what has 
 been already said of the incredible activity of re- 
 ligious thought in Germany. 
 
 What parallel can we offer with our five faculties 
 of theology and our eighty-nine higher seminaries ? 
 
 Philosophy is not treated less abundantly and 
 less liberally than religious science. 
 
 Piead the announcement of lectures during the 
 summer of 1882, in the faculty of philosophy of 
 Berlin, for instance — more than twenty varied and 
 interesting subjects : — 
 
 Critical and literary history. 
 
 Philosophy of laAV. 
 
 Logic and theory of knowledge. 
 
 History and encyclopedia of philosophical studies. 
 
 System of philosophy as an exact science. 
 
 Criticism of the principles of Hegel's philosophy.
 
 IlELIGIOUS BELIEF AMONG GERMAN YOUTH. 175 
 
 General history of pliilosopliy. 
 
 Comparative mythology. 
 
 History of public education in (rermany. 
 
 History of modern philosophy in relation to the develop- 
 ment of modern civilisation. 
 
 Explanation of Schopenhauer's world, in relation to 
 volition and idea. 
 
 Principles of ethics among the ancients according to 
 Aristotle. 
 
 Politics and testhetics of Hegel. 
 
 English moral philosophy of the present time. 
 
 Explanation of Kant's Criticism of Pure Eeason. 
 
 Psychology. 
 
 What an accumulation ! What a rich heap of 
 enlightenment ! And what country in the world — 
 Spain, Italy, England, America — could öfter anything 
 equal to it ? 
 
 In trying to fathom the youthful mind in Ger- 
 many, so as to appreciate the state of its religious 
 belief, I was confronted with the great problem of 
 the conflict between science and faith — the latter 
 represented by the Bible, the former by criticism. 
 
 It is the famous dilemma of Strauss : either divine 
 things did not occur as recorded in the Bible, and 
 then the Bible is no divine book ; or they did take 
 place as stated in the Bible, and then are not divine.^ 
 
 Thanks to the intelligence and the zeal of culti- 
 
 ^ Straus«, ' Vie dc Jesus,' Preface.
 
 176 THE GERMANS. 
 
 rated masters, the problem obtains relative solutions ; 
 and to the public influence of such masters must, I 
 think, be ascribed the persistence of Christian faith 
 among the literate youth of Germany, and the con- 
 sideration still enjoyed by theology amongst the 
 enlightened. This fact is worthy of notice, if we 
 consider that Germany is not only, like Latin 
 countries, subjected to the attacks of rationalism, 
 but deprived of the principle of religious authority, 
 and delivered over to the dissolving action of Pro- 
 testantism. 
 
 This, in a few words, is what appeared to us to 
 constitute the intellectual life and tendencies of the 
 universities beyond the Ehine.
 
 177 
 
 XIX. 
 
 ORGANISATION : CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE OP CONTEMPORARY 
 GERMANY — ITS OBSTACLES — ITS CAUSES — PART PLAYED BY 
 THE UNIVERSITIES IN GERMAN UNITY — NECESSITY OF AGAIN 
 BRINGING ABOUT IN FRANCE THE HARMONY OF MIND — CON- 
 DITION OF SUCH HARMONY AND RECONCILIATION OF MINDS 
 — CREATION OF A UNIVERSAL COLLEGE AT THE SUMMIT OF 
 HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 Once again in France, I often looked back to Ger- 
 many SO as to judge it better, seeing it at a distance, 
 through calmer recollections and better considered 
 impressions. Proximity is useful to those who wish 
 to see details, but the ensemble is better judged from 
 a distance. 
 
 If anybody were to ask me what, in my opinion, 
 is the most salient feature of Germany, I should say, 
 organisation. 
 
 For a people, organisation means power and 
 vitality; whereas a want of organisation means 
 weakness, sometinJes decadence and death. In Ger- 
 many all social forces, religion, science, army, fortune, 
 nobility, seem so arranged as to ensure the greatness 
 
 M
 
 liS THE GERMANS. 
 
 of the country. Parties are numerous, in religion as 
 in politics, in theological or philosophical schools as 
 in the Eeichstag ; but their movements and their 
 struggles do in no wise shake public order : the form 
 of government secures the respect of all, escapes all 
 discussion ; and the love of the German Fatherland 
 dominates, and, in case of necessity, silences all 
 discord. 
 
 What indomitable vitality does not a country like 
 ours require, a prey to the antagonism of irrecon- 
 cilable parties competing for power ! How is it that, 
 under the blows of the foreigner or the victim of its 
 own dissensions, it does not fall to pieces ? 
 
 The phenomenon of organisation in Germany is 
 the more worthy of remark, that the country, by its 
 geographical situation, is less predisposed to unity. 
 
 Its eastern and southern territories are not strictly 
 delineated : it does not, like ours, possess two oceans 
 and two mountain-ridges as natural frontiers ; it is 
 thrown open to invasions and conquests. Con- 
 querors are formed there, and there also invaders 
 can penetrate. 
 
 Could Poland ever have been dismembered had 
 it, like Switzerland, been surrounded with lofty 
 mountains ? These are not only the cradle of in- 
 dependent races, they are the very ramparts of their 
 independence.
 
 OBSTACLES TO GERMAN UNITY. 179 
 
 The German race has no more unity than the soil 
 upon which it multiplies ; it is grouped in most 
 varied nationalities as regards types and aptitudes, 
 and its spirit is particularist to the extreme. Have 
 those who spoke of unity of race forgotten that the 
 German soil, opened to the four points of the horizon, 
 underwent the infiltration of most divers races — the 
 Latins in the south, the Slavs in the east, and the 
 Tartars in the North ? 
 
 Despite the preponderance of Protestantism over 
 Catholicism, religion, in Germany, is far from fostering 
 harmony and organisation. In this respect Germany 
 is worse off than most European nations. It does not, 
 like England or Eussia, possess a State Church ; and 
 Lutheranism, which, under the name of the Evan- 
 gelical Church, is the form of worship of the majority, 
 is divided into many confessions which are far from 
 being united. 
 
 In Germany, Jews are more numerous than any- 
 where else in the world ; they there found a second 
 Fatherland, and they also furnish a powerful element 
 of division. Their progress gives uneasiness to more 
 than one German. Anti-Semitism is often the cause 
 of riots and bloodshed among the German or Slav 
 populations, and only by dint of political skill and 
 firmness does the German Empire succeed in quelling 
 such dissensions. It leaves the Jews free to thrive
 
 180 THE GERMANS. 
 
 in finance or in literature, but excludes them from a 
 military career. Many Frenchmen will be surprised 
 to hear that the body of Prussian officers does not 
 number a single Jew. 
 
 Language alone does not vary in Germany ; and 
 whereas in our country the political power gradu- 
 ally succeeded, from century to century, in blending 
 the various idioms and creating unity of language, 
 the reverse occurred in Germany : unity of tongue 
 was the basis of national ambition, and the pre- 
 text of a deferred, and, I believe, fragile political 
 unity. 
 
 In spite of all these causes, which precluded its 
 organisation and unity, Germany has achieved both. 
 
 "What, then, can liave brought about a work whose 
 importance and power cannot be denied ? 
 
 Must we only see in this the result of great 
 victories and of learned intrigues ? Xo. Prussia's 
 militarism and her diplomacy can only explain the 
 mode after which the national unity- was brought 
 about : they only explain why such unity was 
 realised under the hegemony of Prussia, and not 
 under that of Austria — under the imperial and non- 
 republican form ; but they do not reveal the soul of 
 such unity — that soul which, when independent 
 observers living in the country itself, we feel throb- 
 bing everywhere beyond the Pthine.
 
 GERMAN UNITY AND THE UNIVERSITIES. 181 
 
 In closely studying German youth, I soon came 
 to the conclusion that the love of the mother 
 country, the consciousness of its destinies, and the 
 ambition of its future glories, had been chiefly de- 
 veloped in the universities. 
 
 In my opinion, the universities were the key- 
 stone of the German Empire. 
 
 There it >vas that, in spite of the want of unity in 
 territory, in race, in doctrines, in religion, despite the 
 particularism of the minor States, German patriotism 
 was hatched and reared ; there it was that the daring 
 workmen of the glorious though bloody task were 
 trained; there all men of worth in Germany, at the 
 age when Ideal inspires enthusiasm, met to hear and 
 to be moved by the word of the same masters. 
 
 The Chancellor's work may fall to pieces, for it 
 does not bear the immortal stamp of justice ; but the 
 deep achievement of the universities has a great 
 future before it. Whatever disasters may some day 
 befall Germany, the universities will be to her the 
 ark wherein, during the crisis, her genius will take 
 refuge. Besides, it must bs. acknowledged that 
 neither the imperial form, nor Alsace and Lorraine, 
 are indispensable to German unity : in this light 
 such unity cannot in any way offend or wound our 
 patriotism. 
 
 The more I studied the learned intellectual orcran-
 
 182 THE GERMANS. 
 
 isation of Germany, and thus became initiated into 
 the secret of her national unity, the more convinced 
 I grew that no country in the world could equal ours 
 if it had the courage, the virtue, and the science of 
 self-organisation. 
 
 Examine one by one all the elements of modern 
 civilisation, — labour, wealth, science, military genius, 
 justice, religion ; compare what they are with our 
 neighbours and with us : an impartial mind will at 
 once acknowledge that we have no reason to fear the 
 comparison. 
 
 Nations are not all, in the same degree, predes- 
 tined to harmony. 
 
 The geographical configuration of our territory 
 illustrates that predestination, and whosoever studies 
 the French temperament soon notices in it an un- 
 equalled power of expansion, a craving for fraternal 
 concord that verges on passion. Our history testifies 
 to it, and shows to what remarkable extent we were 
 meant for unity. AVherever national harmony exists, 
 we are in that respect without rival, irresistible. 
 Our great national, ^lilitary, political, social, intel- 
 lectual, literary, or scientific triumphs, all, without 
 an exception, occurred in the hours of powerful 
 unity ; whereas the hours of our dissensions and dis- 
 cord always sounded the knell of our reverses, of our 
 disasters, of our decadence. Our temperament is, no
 
 NECESSITV OF FREXCH HARMONY OF MIND. 183 
 
 doubt, full of vigour, which is noticeable even in our 
 excesses, in our intestine struggles ; but we should 
 not too much abuse our energy. It is a game that, 
 in the long-run, will exhaust even the strongest. 
 
 The time seems to have come when we should 
 think of our pacification, and try to promote it. 
 
 It is a patriotic duty, the necessity of which is 
 obvious to every Frenchman who closely studies 
 Germany, and, as I myself endeavoured to do, ac- 
 quaints himself, in the very heart of the country, 
 with its strength and its ambition. 
 
 The first condition to ensure national harmony is 
 to realise it, first of all, in the ruling classes. And 
 as the true rulers of a nation are those who are 
 possessed of the highest culture, it is amongst them 
 that concord is needed. The masses, always passive 
 and docile, will follow their leaders. But how can 
 concord be brought about between people who do not 
 know one another ? And, strange to say. Frenchmen 
 do not know one another. Divided into what I will 
 call small Churches, confined in close sects, they 
 sharply wage war against, whilst at the same time 
 unacquainted with, one another. If perchance they 
 meet, it is too late in life, at an age when the forms 
 are, so to speak, ossified, when feelings are cooled 
 down, when, having joined some party, they no 
 longer belong to themselves. I feel convinced that,
 
 184 THE GERMANS. 
 
 in order to reconcile themselves with, to always re- 
 spect and often understand, one another. Frenchmen 
 need only get better mutually acquainted. 
 
 On what common ground, then, could reconciliation 
 take place between the cultivated minds who, by their 
 culture itself, are destined to preside over the country's 
 destinies ? 
 
 On religious ground ? Eeligious unity is broken up. 
 
 In a moral or philosophical system ? The unity of 
 philosophy is still less intact than religious unity. 
 
 In politics then ? It would indeed be futile to ex- 
 pect it: political parties seem enraged with one another. 
 
 We must then be content with the aspect of com- 
 mon law, guaranteed by the law itself and by the 
 State in some high institution of higher education. 
 
 But it is vainly that we look in the organisation of 
 higher education in France for an institution likely 
 to secure such a concourse of minds. The general 
 study we made of it proves our assertion superabun- 
 dantly. As it is now, our organisation isolates instead 
 of bringing into close contact. 
 
 I ask for the complement of that organisation. 
 
 The supreme object to be realised would be to 
 assemble in the same establishment the various 
 branches of higher science at present scattered every- 
 where — to bring together the elite of students who 
 cultivate them, and the professors who teach them.
 
 RECONCILIATION OF MINDS. 185 
 
 The new institution would offer a twofold advan- 
 tage : without in any way disturbing the existing 
 system of public instruction, it would in no distant 
 future bring about the harmony, the pacification of 
 minds, national unity. 
 
 Why, for instance, not take the College of France 
 as the groundwork, enlarge it, and transform it into a 
 Universal College of France ? Why not teach there 
 the various sciences composing higher education ? 
 They might be grouped into five faculties — 
 
 Faculty of religious science. 
 
 Faculty of law. 
 
 Faculty of medicine. 
 
 Faculty of philosophy, comprising literature and 
 natural and mathematical science. 
 
 Economical and political faculty, embracing all 
 sciences applied to the development of material and 
 social interests.^ 
 
 The course of studies might occupy four years, at 
 the expiration of which candidates could be required 
 to produce some original work in the form of a thesis 
 to be orally defended. 
 
 To provide for the recruiting of the College, why 
 not decree that henceforth none shall be promoted to 
 
 1 We are happy to notice, according to official documents, that the 
 reform of higher education, in the sense of liberty and icnily, is now 
 engrossing the attention of Government, as well as that of the supe- 
 rior council of public instruction. See Appendices G, H.
 
 186 THE GERMAN'S. 
 
 high administrative functions, or be appointed to any 
 of the chairs of the higher Parisian education, if not 
 furnished with the diploma of doctor from the Uni- 
 versal College of France ? 
 
 In order to let the whole country share in the 
 advantages of the new institution, every student hav- 
 ing spent four years in any faculty could, after a 
 year's study in the Universal College of France, be 
 entitled to submit and to defend his thesis. 
 
 So as to ensure the freedom of tuition and that of 
 teachers, to stimulate the progress of science, besides 
 the official chairs there might be instituted free lec- 
 tures, the direction of which might, under the control 
 of the administrators of the College, be intrusted to 
 any applicant deemed by them worthy of the task, 
 although the said applicant might have no academic 
 degree. 
 
 The administrative unity of public instruction in 
 France would thus be left in its entirety, for the 
 administration of the Universal College would be 
 intrusted to a council recruited among the titular 
 professors, under the high control of the Minister. 
 
 This simple and cursory sketch is sufficient to 
 indicate our thoughts, and to mark the degree of 
 improvement required by our system of public in- 
 struction.
 
 THE UNIVERSAL COLLEGE OF FRANCE. 187 
 
 Wliat happiness for the country if such a scheme 
 were to enter the brain of some Minister, and to tempt 
 the ambition of a man able to transform projects into 
 decrees ! 
 
 He would have nothing to destroy, and could com- 
 plete all.
 
 188 
 
 XX. 
 
 PARTICIPATION OP THE CHURCH OF FRANCE IN THE UNIVERSAL 
 COLLEGE OF FRANCE — ITS ADVANTAGES — PART TO BE 
 PLAYED BY THE STATE — DUTY OF BEING NEUTRAL — WANT 
 OF PACIFICATION OF MINDS — GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS FOR 
 THE NEW INSTITUTION — FEARS AND HOPES — IMMANENT 
 LOGIC OF THINGS — EPHEMERAL TRIUMPH OF EVIL — MANLY 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 It is to the State (for in it is vested the power of 
 modifying, transforming, completing our system of 
 public instruction) that we submit this programme 
 and our wishes. "VVe should also like to lay them 
 before public opinion, for, without that, the State is 
 a power deprived of authority. 
 
 How much is it to be wished that Catholic 
 hierarchy should accept its free place as well as a 
 brilliant representation of its doctrine in the Uni- 
 versal College of France ! What truth most re- 
 quires is to be known. Xo doubt religious truth is 
 not wanting in propaganda in our country : it has 
 popular catechisms which impart it to childhood, 
 eloquent apostles who win for it the sympathies of
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE UNIVERSAL COLLEGE. 189 
 
 the people, ardent apologists who brilliantly protect 
 it against the attacks of sophisms and prejudices ; 
 but, considered as a higher science, it is wanting in 
 diffusion and publicity. 
 
 It remains isolated in its special schools, in its 
 seminaries. Such a situation procures certain ad- 
 vantages to theology, notably that of being preserved 
 intact ; but it cannot furnish it with the conditions 
 of normal development. So long as this rdjinie 
 shall last, Catholicism will be unable to expound to 
 the world the splendour of its doctrine. It will be 
 known by its worship, its deeds of charity, its hier- 
 archy, its virtues even ; but not by its superior 
 philosophy. It will be difficult for it to enforce 
 respect from that modern opinion which science 
 fascinates so much, and to gather round itself minds 
 of a high culture, which doctrinal splendour alone 
 can conquer. It will no longer attain those powerful 
 developments which are stimulated only by great 
 struggles, and which it only obtained in days already 
 distant, when in the medieval and renaissance uni- 
 versities it found itself in intimate contact, sometimes 
 even in conflict, with ever-active human science. 
 
 It would not be sufficient for the Church of France 
 to have its chairs nominally in tlie Universal College ; 
 it would require those chairs to be surrounded by 
 numerous students.
 
 190 THE GERMANS. 
 
 It would be the bishops' care to select them in 
 their respective dioceses. This dite of the candidates 
 for holy orders would form in the Universal College 
 of France the higher normal school of the clergy. 
 Thus would be brought about an intercourse so neces- 
 sary between the men of worldly science and the men 
 of divine science, both destined to be the guides of 
 mankind. 
 
 There could, besides, be no objection to these young 
 men living in some boarding-house, and thus being 
 afforded refuge against the whirlpool of the great city, 
 enabling them to consult the very sources of any 
 science without danger to their moral life. 
 
 We express these wishes, we sketch these thoughts, 
 with discretion and respect, not forgetting that our 
 part is limited to giving expression to wishes which 
 the Church and its hierarchy alone are empowered 
 to carry out. 
 
 The day when we shall see in France, above our 
 faculties and our high special schools, a great focus 
 of universal science, we shall find nothing to envy in 
 learned Germany. But the scheme in question would 
 be a dead letter, if, realising at last its high functions, 
 the State did not once for all give up the doctrinal 
 attitude it always assumed till now. Its duty, in our 
 societies so deeply divided in opinions, is to observe a 
 wise and equitable neutrality, thus ensuring the free
 
 FEARS AND HOPES. 191 
 
 exposition of doctrines. The State is not competent 
 to judge doctrines ; but it has the direct mission of 
 ensuring the security of persons. 
 
 The university of France made of spiritualist ration- 
 alism a sort of orthodoxy, and it was gradually attacked 
 — on the one hand by the Church, on the other by the 
 partisans of more radical doctrines. Hence, without 
 contest, arose the truceless war that was so long 
 waged, and is still raging, between the University and 
 the Church. Hence the discredit that among the 
 public was eventually cast upon the spiritualist doc- 
 trines ruling in the University. What has become 
 of Cousin's eclecticism, of the deistical rationalism of 
 our philosophers of twenty years ago ? Public edu- 
 cation was too often but a tool in the hands of the 
 various sects and parties. Ministerial reforms were 
 not prompted by the progress of universal science, 
 but rather by that of party science. If the idea of 
 State neutrality does not eventually prevail, instead 
 of promoting the union of minds the institutions of 
 public education will be constantly threatened with 
 becoming the instrument of triumph for private 
 opinion and political coterie. 
 
 I would cherish better hopes. 
 
 Some sort of inherent logic controls the evolution 
 of forces in peoples and in individuals alike. When 
 its time is come, everything must bend before it — the
 
 192 THE GEEMANS. 
 
 policy, the material interests, even the soul of nations. 
 And then, since our country requires pacification, it 
 will no doubt discover the most likely means of bring- 
 ing it about. 
 
 When we consider the progress of public education 
 in France, we quickly observe that it was always in- 
 spired by some new sentiment, some new passion, 
 some new idea. 
 
 What gave birth to popular education ? Demo- 
 cratic passion. 
 
 What was the cause of the bifurcation of secondary 
 studies, as of the creation of those large establish- 
 ments where science is the ruling sovereign ? The 
 attraction of science kindled in our midst by won- 
 derful discoveries. 
 
 What provoked those great struggles of which 
 education in every degree was the object ? Religious 
 ideas and the passion for liberty. 
 
 What most contributed to the giving of such a 
 privileged part in our programmes to the literary 
 element ? The taste of Frenchmen for external form 
 and eloquence. 
 
 What for the last sixty years has stamped our 
 public education with such a truly spiritualist char- 
 acter ? The natural attraction of our race for the 
 great philosophy that proclaims human liberty and 
 the personality of God.
 
 EPHEMERAL TRIUMPH OF EVIL. 193 
 
 Men to-day seem to be longing anxiously for peace 
 and fraternity. They are tired of their fratricidal 
 struggles : after a century of dissensions and hatred, 
 they at last wish for a truce, for an armistice, for 
 mutual respect of rights. The ardent wish of honest 
 minds is to see science and faith living in harmony, 
 the State and the various Churches upon good terms, 
 and all opinions received with tolerance. Political 
 parties will, I am aware of it, still go on with their 
 agitations ; but, without and above them, would it 
 be so difficult for a Government to close its ears 
 against the clamours of sectarians, to listen to the 
 voice of national conscience, and to become the 
 jealous guardian of the rights of all ? 
 
 This sublime end the Government will attain that 
 creates the Universal College of France as the crown- 
 ing institution of our higher education. 
 
 Some will perhaps consider such a college, shelter 
 of all doctrines, as a regular Babel of minds : I 
 myself rather see in it the triumph of the evangelical 
 spirit of liberty and fraternity. 
 
 It is certainly idle to expect here below the abso- 
 lute union of minds. This earth is an arena con- 
 stantly filled with the formidable noise of human 
 disputes. All we can look for is a mutual respect 
 of feelings, calmly and justly surveying that merci- 
 
 N
 
 194 THE GERMANS. 
 
 less strife of doctrines. From whom can we expect 
 such manly virtue if not from the dite of a country 
 whose first care is liberty, and from a Church whose 
 supreme precept is charity ? 
 
 If even parties refused to give up arms, if violent 
 men persisted in obstinately carrying out their fratri- 
 cidal war to the bitter end, I should still request the 
 creation of the Universal College of France, seeing in 
 it a refuge for minds desirous of seeking calmness in 
 universal science, above the stormy regions wherein 
 fanatics and sectarians devour one another. Thence 
 could be prepared the country's harmony and its 
 greatness. 
 
 Let us conclude. 
 
 The organisation of our high education is defective. 
 It fatally conduces to division in the intellectual 
 order of things, and, in consequence, in political and 
 social matters. So long as that organisation is left 
 without reform, no progress, no powerful impulse, will 
 ever lead the country into fresh and better ways. 
 Tossed about, a prey to narrow sects and parties, it 
 will lose its strength in internal struggles, and forego 
 great national ambitions, along with the virtues they 
 promote. Mediocrity will pervade everything, and 
 we shall see rising amongst us a generation prosaic 
 and positive, for which " I " means the universe ; 
 business, the only aim of activity ; applied utilitarian
 
 MANLY PATRIOTISM. 195 
 
 science, the last word of culture ; wellbeing and 
 enjoyment, the supreme object of life. 
 
 I cannot reconcile myself to such deplorable pros- 
 pects, nor believe that error and evil will last for 
 ever. In religion as in politics, in practice as in 
 theory, their reign is limited. It may sometimes 
 last over centuries — paganism, Mohammedanism, her- 
 esies, and schisms, go far to establish it ; but some day 
 or other such reign is terminated. Those institutions 
 wherein error incarnates itself eventually grow old : 
 truth alone has the privilege of youth and eternity. 
 
 These convictions give us firmness and consolation 
 in our ephemeral life, — we who die too soon, and 
 who, lighting against evil and witnessing its triumph, 
 do not assist in its defeat. 
 
 We would hardly, however^ understand our duty 
 were we to resi satisfied with such remote hopes. 
 We must have enough of courage to point out what 
 is to be done, when we only have the pen and the 
 tongue at our disposal ; and we must have sufficient 
 energy to carry it out, despite all impediments, 
 when we are invested with the necessary authority 
 and power to do so.
 
 196 
 
 XXL 
 
 PATRIOTISM THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE — WHAT IT IS IN GERMANY — 
 SUBSISTS DESPITE RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS — THE STATE OF 
 "WÜRTEMBERÜ — PATRIOTISM AND THE LAWS OF MAY — OBJECT 
 OF PATRIOTISM : GERMAN UNITY — CONSCIOUSNESS OF NA- 
 TIONAL DESTINY : CAUSES THE GREATNESS OF A PEOPLE, EX- 
 PLAINS THEIR HISTORY, AND CONSTITUTES NATIONAL SPIRIT 
 — NATIONAL SPIRIT IN GERMANY — ITS FIRST ELEMENT, MILI- 
 TARISM ; ITS SECOND ELEMENT, EXCLUSIVE INTEREST — 
 THE CENTRES WHERE NATIONAL SPIRIT IS REARED : THE 
 SCHOOL, THE UNIVERSITY, THE ARMY, THE ASSOCIATIONS, 
 THE PATRIOTIC FESTIVALS. 
 
 Tatriotism is more than a passion, more than a 
 virtue — it is the very soul of a people. 
 
 When that soul is full of vitality, the people 
 thrive ; if it suffer or pine, the people themselves 
 are stricken. It is death that approaches : the exact 
 moment might almost he foretold. 
 
 How is it that, with certain nations, patriotism 
 loses its energy and its aim ? how can it be cured 
 and revived ? There is not a Frenchman to-day who 
 does not appreciate the importance of such problems,
 
 PATRIOTISM IN GERMANY. 197 
 
 and who does not, with bitter anguish, ponder and 
 meditate over them. 
 
 When we leave our native land to see the life of 
 other peoples, these problems become still more pain- 
 fully striking. During the whole of my stay in 
 Germany, I constantly endeavoured to ascertain the 
 true state of patriotism witli our neighbo^irs, con- 
 vinced, as I have always been, that I could not have 
 a correct idea of their national life unless I discovered 
 their soul itself. 
 
 The first effect of patriotism with a people is its // 
 moral unity. 
 
 Patriotism must teach us to prefer ourselves, 
 according to justice, to the foreigner, whoever he 
 may be ; to place the country above ourselves, and to 
 sacrifice all for it, that it may become strong, pros- 
 perous, glorious. 
 
 AVhen at Eome the consuls and the generals, the 
 triumvirs and the duumvirs, applied their genius to 
 the obtention of power, they assuredly placed the 
 Republic above all, — though they placed themselves 
 above the Republic, and the latter died, not for want 
 of individuals, but because there were no more men 
 capable of forgetting and sacrificing themselves in its 
 service. 
 
 In Germany, the determined pride with which 
 Germans boast of belonfdns to the leadimj race and
 
 198 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the first nation in the world struck me less than the 
 abnegation with which they devote themselves to the 
 glory and development of the German Fatherland, 
 
 God knows, however, what cruel sacrifices that 
 hard-hearted parent requires from its sons ! The 
 most terrible is, no doubt, military service without 
 exception. Many Germans emigrate to escape it. 
 So it may be ! I prefer these emigrants who leave 
 their father's roof to those insurgents who, in other 
 countries, remain at home, there to foment dissension 
 and hatred. In withdrawing, one accuses his own 
 want of courage alone, and may yet take away with 
 him the blessings of the native hearth ; whereas, 
 though revolted, the other chooses to remain in the 
 country, always an element of discord and dissolu- 
 tion. In this case the famous dilemma, submit or 
 resign, finds an application. 
 
 In the month of September 1882 I was at Eott- 
 weil, in Wiirtemberg, living in a bourgeois family. 
 
 It was about the time of the autumn manoeuvres. 
 
 A regiment of the Baden cavalry was passing 
 through the little town, where it was about to 
 halt for a day. One of the troopers was billeted in 
 the house where I lived. Nothing more simple, 
 more respectful, more cordial, than the hospitality 
 he received there. As though he were the child of 
 the house, there awaited him fresh water and clean
 
 PATRIOTISM AND RELIGIOUS DIVISION. 199 
 
 linen — which rather surprised me in a country where 
 cleanliness does not always flourish — and he sat 
 himself at the family table as though he were one of 
 the sons. 
 
 I kept looking at the soldier and at our hosts. 
 
 Not a word, not the slightest sign of discontent 
 on the part of the hosts : not a complaint on the 
 soldier's lips. Just arrived in a pouring rain, he 
 most unaffectedly told us he had not eaten any- 
 thing for the last twenty hours. He merely ob- 
 served that, being a horse-soldier, it did not much 
 matter. 
 
 " Horsemen," said he, " eat only half as much as 
 foot-soldiers. It is not unusual for us, during the 
 manoeuvres, not to touch anything before two o'clock 
 in the afternoon. Foot-soldiers only have them- 
 selves to think of, whereas we must first look to 
 our horses." 
 
 This simple fact, borrowed from ordinary life, can- 
 not fail to be of interest to the observer. 
 
 "What most attracted my attention in Germany 
 was the persistence of ardent patriotism, despite 
 religious division. 
 
 I often theoretically had wondered whether a 
 country divided between different and sometimes 
 adverse beliefs could preserve intact its patriotism. 
 The small state of "VVlirtemberg, composed of Catho-
 
 200 THE GERMANS. 
 
 lies and Protestants, illustrates the possibility of sucli 
 a thing. How quiet and patriarchal is Souabe ! At 
 Tübingen, both faculties of theology. Catholic and 
 Protestant, live quietly side by side ; the inhabitants' 
 intercourse is truly fraternal. I once questioned a 
 brave Würtembergese on the difficulties and un- 
 pleasantness likely to arise from the diversity of 
 creeds. " There is none of that here," said he ; " we 
 are all the sons of the German Fatherland. Do you 
 wish for an instance of it ? A few years ago the 
 Catholics had no place of worship : to obtain the 
 necessary funds, they organised throughout the whole 
 world a collection ; the Protestants contributed to it. 
 To-day the Protestants are repairing their temple, 
 our old church : they, in turn, are making a collec- 
 tion. We give to them as freely as they gave to us." 
 
 This was neither indifference nor weakness, but 
 rather the practice of wise tolerance and the fraternal 
 respect of beliefs. 
 
 What would become of that little quiet kingdom, 
 were the Protestants to apply their power to the 
 oppression of Catholics ; if the Catholics, become a 
 boisterous and restless minority, were preoccupied 
 only with the idea of getting power so as to proscribe 
 dissenters ; and if the militant Freemasons organised 
 some educational league in order to oppose Christian 
 faith as a superstition ?
 
 THE LAWS OF MAY. 201 
 
 This would be the reign of discord and the death 
 of patriotism. 
 
 A remarkable and extraordinary phenomenon hap- 
 pened in Prussia in connection with the famous 
 Latus of May. The persecution that so ruthlessly fell 
 upon the Catholics, chiefly striking at their chiefs, 
 did not alter their patriotism. They remained Ger- 
 mans — Germans to excess ; and on various occasions 
 I was enabled to observe that German Catholics 
 preserve against France the most bitter animosity. 
 What can be the cause of this ? Obviously the 
 anti-religious and intolerant attitude obstinately 
 assumed by our Government, of which, among all 
 nations, it is sadly vain. 
 
 Besides, all in Germany, kings and emperors, 
 chancellors and ministers, warriors and literary men, 
 students and working people, all have but one aim — 
 the Fatherland. Their byword is the country above 
 all things. Their patriotism leaves no room for dis- 
 cussion. They do not boast of it as of some glorious 
 title. I am not aware that any German could be 
 suspected of nourishing his ambition on the fortune 
 or the blood of his country. 
 
 This social virtue is not, with them, a vague sen- 
 timent ; it is a force moving towards some grand 
 and precise object. Such object leaves no one in- 
 different, it does not shock any belief : it requires
 
 202 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the sacrifice of certain particularisms, the abdica- 
 tion of the military and economical autonomy of 
 several small states ; but its light and its magnetic 
 power, without distinction of faith or race, attract all 
 Germans. 
 
 Here is the great German unity. 
 
 An energetic attraction brings the Germans to- 
 gether, and slowly labours to conglomerate around 
 the same sceptre, under the same constitution, in 
 the furtherance of common interests, states, peoples, 
 races of German tongue. As feudalism in France 
 was gradually transformed into a monarchy through 
 the asoendancy obtained by the most powerful of the 
 barons, so the German confederation was metamor- 
 phosed into an empire through the pre-eminence 
 which, by dint of perseverance, ability, political in- 
 telligence, and violence, Prussia acquired. 
 
 That aspiration for unity stirs to the innermost 
 recesses of popular conscience. It is the nerve of 
 patriotism. 
 
 No national life is possible for a people, if, at some 
 time, it be not taken up with the pursuit of some 
 grand ideal. 
 
 Why is England so full of life, so powerful ? She 
 aims at colonising the whole world ; she is craving 
 for the rule of the seas. 
 
 \VTiy, despite so many causes of ruin, has Eussia
 
 NATIONAL DESTINIES. 203 
 
 herself a great future before her ? She dreams of 
 the unity of a vigorous race, the Slavs. 
 
 Why, in spite of the revolution brooding within 
 herself, has Italy grown up to the size of a first-class 
 kingdom ? She has the passion of unity. 
 
 Why does the great Eepublic beyond the seas, Amer- 
 ica, astound the Old World by its indomitable activity ? 
 It has a whole continent to people and to fecundate. 
 Why, notwithstanding the authority of her tradi- 
 tions, is Austria so anxious, so uncertain, about her 
 future ? She lacks some great aim. She lost the 
 hegemony of Germany, and hesitates to become an 
 oriental power. 
 
 Why does Spain struggle in vain in the midst of 
 internal convulsions ? She has no longer the clear 
 consciousness of her rule, as a nation, in the European 
 concert. 
 
 Why is France the victim of endless agitations ? 
 It must, no doubt, be partly attributed to the politi- 
 cal, social, and religious transformations of which she 
 is the theatre ; but still more to the want of some 
 grand national object that would rally all French- 
 men, whatever the diversity of their opinions and 
 the antagonism of their interests. 
 
 The hegemony in the federation of European 
 powers was wrenched from France with the integrity 
 of her territory : since then, her restless activity is
 
 204 THE GERMANS. 
 
 being foolishly spent, at home, in party struggles. 
 The desire to reconquer our lost provinces could not 
 prevail against oiir discords ; and we exhaust the 
 best of our energies in tearing one another to pieces. 
 
 I shall never forget my indignation and my an- 
 guish on reading in Germany our papers from France. 
 I often found in the columns of a certain section of 
 the press more insults against my country than in 
 the whole of the voluminous Berlin Gazettes. 
 
 True national spirit develops itself, in a people, 
 under the influence of a destiny largely understood. 
 It is, in fact, but the primitive spirit of the race, 
 modified in its ideas, its wishes, its passions, its in- 
 clinations, and its customs, according to the require- 
 ments of the aim in view. 
 
 If you do away with that aim, national spirit can 
 no longer be conceived, and the history of a people 
 remains an enigma. The power or the suppleness 
 with which they adapted their temperament to their 
 destiny, is the secret of their successes or of their 
 reverses. The vanquished were those who, without 
 the majority knowing it, having ceased to be in pro- 
 found harmony with their providential end, saw the 
 decline of their national spirit ; the victors, on the 
 contrary, those with whom that spirit was preserved 
 in full force. If a man's virtue consists in fashion- 
 ing himself according to eternal moral law, that of
 
 NATIONAL SPIRIT. 205 
 
 a people is, under the same law, to be in full con- 
 formity with the role of its ambition. 
 
 So long as religious fatalism leaves the wandering 
 masses in the hands of their prophets, and a war- 
 like spirit arms them with irresistible weapons, those 
 masses are a powerful people : they even belong to 
 a civilisation not devoid of grandeur. But when 
 military spirit is failing, when fatalism dwindles 
 away, that enervated civilisation falls to pieces. 
 
 Why is the Ottoman Empire suffering from a 
 mortal disease ? Why is it decomposed by powerless- 
 ness and senility ? Is it wanting in races, in men, 
 in vigorous and sound blood ? No. It still possesses 
 its proud mountaineers of Anatolia, its robust Ar- 
 menians, its wild and uncurbed Arabs. But no head 
 seems capacious enough to conceive some new and 
 great aim, no soul warm enough to impart enthusiasm 
 and ensure victory. It is a body without a soul, and 
 which can no longer have one : the corpse is destined 
 to become food for the vultures and the eagles. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that, for the last century, 
 Germany has had the merit of giving free and power- 
 ful scope to her national spirit. There lies the secret 
 of her fortune. 
 
 German unity could not be accomplished without 
 force and violence : it implied on the part of Prussia 
 that policy of ruse and audacity consisting of the
 
 206 THE GEKMANS. 
 
 skilfully preparing of conflicts, in playing the part of 
 the offended one, and in risking the future in a game 
 of dice with victory. 
 
 Mankind follows a path of blood. Murder and 
 violence are mixed with everything — with the evolu- 
 tion of peoples, the expansion of races, the foundation 
 of religions as well as that of empires. 
 
 Hence that militarism in Germany, the formidable 
 power of which we have described. It is part of 
 the national spirit ; it is even its predominating ele- 
 ment. It has been carried on so far that Germany 
 is now but a vast intrenched camp. Every German 
 is a soldier by the sole fact of his being a man, a 
 male and adult child of the German Fatherland. 
 
 But what crimes, what passions, what injustices, 
 what hypocrisies, what ruins under the glittering 
 rubric of the country's grandeur ! 
 
 Bitter revenge, provoked by the first Napoleon's 
 victories, hatched, as a germ, the national spirit in 
 the sands of Brandenburg. Formidable wars nursed 
 it and caused it to come to maturity ; and to-day 
 inexorable fate urges Germany on to new and more 
 sanguine struggles. 
 
 The aim is not attained : the unity of the German 
 Fatherland is only relative. Pan-Germanism cannot 
 rest satisfied with the rule of Northern Germany — it 
 wants all Germans without exception.
 
 Germany's ambitiox. 207 
 
 Who dares trust to a peaceful policy to realise 
 this colossal unity ? What keen observer does not 
 see Austria eventually and invincibly driven to the 
 south, thrown back to the east towards the Balkans, 
 and, so to speak, expelled from Germany ? Who 
 does not see Eussia forced upon annexing all the 
 Slavs of Europe, and doomed to some unavoidable 
 conflict with German policy the day when the 
 Turks, expelled from Europe, shall have crossed the 
 Bosphorus ? 
 
 The temple of Janus is not on the eve of being 
 closed in the modern world ; the era of momentous 
 contests seems about to open more threatening than 
 ever. I hope that, in that crossing of swords, 
 my country may still preserve the mighty vigour of 
 her arm, and be possessed by the holy passion of 
 justice. 
 
 Though disinterestedness be more common with 
 individuals than with nations, honesty and morality 
 exist for the latter as for the former. The history 
 of a people is not necessarily a tissue of crimes, 
 and national spirit an unruly force. Among all the 
 nations of the world, France is perhaps the only one 
 which, on solemn occasions, honoured her national 
 spirit by her justice and her abnegation. Certain 
 countries found the last word of their glory in a 
 struggle for independence ; the French nation never
 
 208 THE GERMANS. 
 
 hesitated to shed the blood of her sons for tlie 
 triumph of truth and the independence of friendly 
 nations. 
 
 Interest, personal interest, exclusive interest : such 
 is the motive that rules the military force of which 
 Germany made the first element of her national 
 spirit. 
 
 I never could detect, among the Germans of to-day, 
 even at an age when the mind is most open to chival- 
 rous ideas, the least impulse whose scope was beyond 
 the interests of the Fatherland. Those interests are 
 the unique preoccupation of all Germans. Interest is 
 their ruling law. The great statesmen are but utili- 
 tarians of genius. Their selfish policy, more eager 
 for profit than for glory, never, in the country that 
 passively and blindly accepts their oracles, provoked 
 the slightest reprobation. 
 
 They make allies, but not friends. Those whom 
 they fetter are only subdued by interest or dread, 
 always fearful of the fate that awaits them. How 
 is it possible not to fear, when placed at the mercy 
 of powers whom justice does not inspire, and when 
 selfish force reigns supreme ? 
 
 So long as Germany is animated by such a spirit, 
 wiU the whole of Europe persist in keeping on a 
 war footing. Men will talk of peace, but every- 
 where the arsenals will be in full activity, and
 
 MILITARISM AXD EXCLUSI\T: INTEREST. 209 
 
 nations, being placed under the law of the strongest, 
 will be chiefly occupied in threatening and checkincr 
 one another. 
 
 Prussia, mistress of Germany, — Germany armed 
 and preponderant in Europe, — means universal mili- 
 tarism, the reign of dread, of force and interest. 
 
 I often tried to discover in Germans some sym- 
 pathy for other nations. In this object I failed. 
 
 The national spirit beyond the Ehine does not 
 cross the frontiers. Germans are never seen to grow 
 fond of another people, sharing its ideas, borrowing 
 its customs, its science, its industry. Always ex- 
 clusive and positive, they silently, by dint of labour 
 and steadfastness of purpose, imitate what to tliem 
 appears useful ; and in this process, peculiar to Ger- 
 man genius, is to be seen a fresh characteristic of the 
 national spirit. 
 
 In no other country of Europe is that spirit, soul 
 of the country, cultivated with more care or perse- 
 verance. Xowhere do the people apply themselves 
 with a more steady sagacity, and a clearer conscious- 
 ness of the aim to be reached, to these social and 
 patriotic pedagogics. 
 
 It begins in the very schools. 
 
 An accomplished woman with whom I once, at 
 Göttingen, was talking about the iniquitous annex- 
 ation of Alsace and Lorraine, looked at rae rather 
 

 
 210 THE GERMANS. 
 
 surprised, <and, though appreciating my wounded 
 patriotism, did not seem to understand the indigna- 
 tion of my conscience as a just man, " But," said 
 she, " we were from our birth brought up with that 
 idea, not of the annexation, but of the eventual re- 
 trocession of Alsace to the mother country. The 
 Alsatians are Germans." 
 
 Evidently she knew the patriotic song — 
 
 "The Fatherland extends not only to the Rhine, 
 Where blossoms the vine, 
 But as far as the German tongue is heard, 
 Singing, under the sky, its hymns to God." ' 
 
 It is by means of such insensible action upon the 
 feelings, the memory, and the first dreams of a child, 
 that national spirit is cultivated. 
 
 As the child grows up and passes from the school 
 to the gymnasium, and from the gymnasium to the 
 universities, the action becomes more intense ; in the 
 university i: reaches its full energy. 
 
 The more I studied the Alma Mater, the more 
 firmly I grew convinced that, of all the institutions 
 of the empire, it is that which contributes with 
 matchless efficacy to make the German Fatherland. 
 If drill makes the soldier, the university makes the 
 chiefs. In the one the arm is used, in the other 
 
 ^ Allgemeines deutsches Cmnmershtch. Das deutsche Vaterland, 
 von Ernst-Moritz Arndt.
 
 UNIVERSITIES AXD NATIONAL SPIRIT. 211 
 
 the head. In the university, the young man ac- 
 quaints himself with the genius of his race, enters 
 in communion with the poets, the scholars, the 
 thinkers, and all the mighty individualities who are 
 the highest personification of the Fatherland. He 
 learns the history of his ancestors, and hears with 
 enthusiasm from the lips of his professors the pro- 
 phecy of the glorious destinies of his race and people : 
 there it is that plainly the soul of Germany lives, 
 throbs, grows, and recovers itself. 
 
 This was seen in 1813. 
 
 When, victorious, Napoleon the First overran Eu- 
 rope and paraded through Germany his thundering 
 armies, binding the princes of the Pthine Confeder- 
 ation to his audacious fortune, what was the force 
 that snatched those princes from the fascination and 
 oppression of the Emperor ? Patriotism excited in 
 the universities by the irresistible and fiery words of 
 the masters. 
 
 Fichte, at the time, wound up a lecture on duty 
 with the following words : " This lecture will be 
 deferred until the issue of the campaign. We shall 
 resume it when our country has recovered its liberty, 
 or — we shall have fallen dead for the defence of her 
 freedom ! " 
 
 Nationalism surrounds, penetrates, inspires all the 
 doctrines taught in the various faculties — theology,
 
 212 THE GERMANS. 
 
 law, medicine, philology, literature, history, geography, 
 natural science. All bear the German stamp. 
 
 Foreign authors, professors, and geniuses are only 
 mentioned in the appendices ; and in their relation 
 with the geniuses, the masters, and the authors of 
 Germany : they are only aliment for that taste for 
 erudition so keen beyond the Ehine. They leave no 
 mark on the intellect. The Germans learn from 
 foreigners, they even imitate them ; but they never 
 assimilate their discoveries. Frenchmen, more simple, 
 more impressive, absorb foreign elements with re- 
 markable ease. This is why national education is 
 so much more difficult and delicate in France than 
 in Germany. What young Frenchman does not grow 
 enthusiastic over Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel even, 
 in philosophy ; over Goethe, Schiller, or Lessing, in 
 literature ? I never met with any young German 
 taken up with Descartes or Malebranche, with Pascal 
 or Bossuet. Many, it is true, delight in reading old 
 French works ; this is but one treasure more added 
 to their erudition. 
 
 Thanks to this natural disposition, and to this 
 pan-Germanistn of education, young Germans leave 
 the school pure, true Germans. 
 
 Once entered in public life, the country does not 
 fear to lose them. It incorporates them in the 
 democratic organisation of inexorable militarism.
 
 ASSOCIATIONS. 2 1 3 
 
 The German knows that the blood which flows in 
 his veins is his country's, and that he may, at any 
 time, be called upon to shed it for his country. 
 
 Associations play a great part in the culture and 
 the preservation of national spirit. In Germany, 
 they are innumerable. Without speaking of those 
 of students, which form the great brotherhood of all 
 the literate men in the country, there are, besides 
 musical associations, those of ex-soldiers, shooting 
 societies, societies of gymnasts, &c. The last-named 
 comprise eighteen clubs, and form the great deutsche 
 Turner Schaft, in which more than 200,000 gymnasts 
 are incorporated. 
 
 IVIusic, which in Germany is to be met with 
 everywhere, gives expression in these societies to 
 the love of the mother country, and, by giving it 
 harmonious expression, revives and increases it. 
 
 Neither has national painting been neglected. 
 
 I was struck, at Berlin, with the patriotic import- 
 ance of the gallery created some years ago, and whose 
 foundation dates from the 2d March 1876. It is 
 called the National Gallery. Entrance to it is free. 
 There is not a provincial from Brandenburg or 
 Pomerania that does not go there to see the pictures 
 of his artists. Naturally battle-painting is prevalent. 
 Everywhere are to be seen episodes of the combats 
 fought by Prussia since 1864.
 
 214 THE GERMANS. 
 
 The French dragoons, with their helmets and their 
 horse-hair mane, play therein the great part — of 
 vanquislied, of course. 
 
 The art is still young — masterpieces are indeed 
 few ; but the love of country, in its anxious exclusive- 
 ness, and with its warlike airs, seems to have guided 
 every pencil. 
 
 I observed the visitors a great deal more than I 
 admired the artists. They were mostly peasants and 
 provincial people. With what native simplicity did 
 they stare at those battles, of doubtful artistic value ! 
 It is thus that the people learn : they must have 
 images, living canvases wherein they find the halo 
 of their victorious chiefs. A great national painter 
 is a sublime teacher. Pictures are books which those 
 even who never learned can read ; they, under some 
 striking and popular form, preserve the memory of 
 the heroes, of the brave men who knew how to 
 conquer. 
 
 An idea of high national education and of sagacious 
 policy guided the selection of the Prussian collection. 
 iSTo picture is to be found therein likely to shock the 
 simplicity or the innocence of the people ; all are 
 designed to impress upon its conscience the greatness 
 and the love of their country. 
 
 As a means of patriotic education must also be 
 mentioned the national fetes in Germany — the anni-
 
 PATRIOTIC FESTIVALS. 215 
 
 versary of the Emperor's birthday, the birthdays of 
 kings and princes, as also the commemoration of 
 great victories. 
 
 These fetes mean carousing for the whole popula- 
 tion. No brawls, no discordant sound disturbs the 
 people's mirth. Those I witnessed, often with a 
 saddened heart, were animated by the most ardent 
 love of country. 
 
 The anniversary of Sedan, which I witnessed at 
 Augsburg, is still present to my memory : flags and 
 bunting hanging from every window, people rushing 
 about in their Sunday clothes, everywdiere music and 
 concerts ; in the square before the church, the funeral 
 monument raised to the memory of the soldiers killed 
 in the war of 1870 was totally hidden under wreaths, 
 laurels, and immortelles. " How passionately those 
 people love their country ! " said I to myself, my soul 
 quite upset. 
 
 Thus is German patriotism preserved and de- 
 veloped, enveloping all things, animating every insti- 
 tution, bringing in close contact and unity all the 
 sons of the German race. 
 
 It is important that we should know and take 
 heed of it.
 
 216 
 
 XXII. 
 
 DUTIES OP NATIONS : CONDITIONS OF THEIR NATIONAL LIFE — 
 DUTIES OF FRANCE : VIGILANCE AND STRENGTH — MILI- 
 TARISM AND MILITARY SPIRIT — NATIONAL UNITY — MEANS 
 OF ATTENUATING OUR DISSENSIONS : FIRST MEANS, LIBERTY ; 
 LIBERAL LAWS, LIBERAL CUSTOMS, LIBERAL GOVERNMENT — 
 NO LIBERTY WITHOUT RELIGION — SECOND MEANS, RELIGIOUS 
 PACIFICATION— INTERNATIONAL MISSION OF FRANCE, THE 
 FIRST-BORN OP FREE NATIONS — GERMANY AND FRANCE. 
 
 Xatioxs, like individuals, have duties to perform ; 
 for if there be such a thing as individual conscience, 
 there is also a national conscience. 
 
 At certain times duties become pressing ; fulfilling 
 them is for nations a question of life or death. The 
 greatest misfortune is perhaps not so much to violate 
 as to ignore them. Violation leads to disasters which, 
 thunderlike, awake slumbering consciences : full of 
 dismay, people may yet repent and flee. But ignor- 
 ance brings about the same ruin. Nations pine away 
 unwarned by their conscience : they die, not know- 
 ing why. 
 
 It is impossible for a Frenchman to watch the life
 
 France's duties. 217 
 
 of neighbouring nations, of Germany above all — even 
 to follow at a distance the movement of European 
 peoples, the game of their ambitions and of their 
 interests — without being startled, as though some 
 vague danger threatened, and without being alive to 
 patriotic duties. 
 
 France has indeed urgent patriotic duties to per- 
 form. In the midst of the agitation of all European 
 nations, she has her part to play ; in the stormy 
 whirlpool of large agglomerations, whatever the vicis- 
 situdes of their destinies, she has her place to keep. 
 
 None in the country, rulers or subjects, have the 
 right to withhold themselves from those sacred duties 
 without forfeiture. 
 
 Allow me, before closing these pages, having lived 
 away from my country, to state how I understand 
 the duties of manly and vigilant patriotism. 
 
 Before all things, let us watch and strengthen 
 ourselves. The law of preservation requires it. 
 
 Whatever sympathy our nation may inspire in 
 others, whatever gratitude it may be entitled to, 
 we must not depend either upon sympathy or upon 
 gratitude. Such feelings are no doubt noble, but 
 too fragile, especially in politics, where interest has 
 the first and last word. 
 
 Besides, we must not forget that Germany fears 
 us, is jealous of us, and hates us.
 
 218 THE GERMANS. 
 
 She is afraid of us, because, being victorious, she 
 mortally wounded our feelings by mutilating us. 
 
 She is jealous of us, because she sees in us the 
 only redoubtable rivals ; and though she may have 
 succeeded in defeating France slumbering and effemi- 
 nated, she has everything to fear from France ■watch-' 
 ful and resolute. 
 
 She hates us, because she is fully aware that, in 
 the execution of her programme, pan-Germanism will 
 fatally meet with still more hostility on the part of 
 France than on that of Eussia. 
 
 If such feelings were only platonic, we could 
 afford to disdain them ; but they take expression in 
 a whole plan, and in public deeds whose ultimate 
 object is our isolation, the diminution of our prestige, 
 perhaps our dismemberment. Everything which fear, 
 jealousy, and hatred may suggest to a race anxiously 
 watching for its interests, and which cannot be sus- 
 pected of chivalrous abnegation, German policy prac- 
 tises against France. 
 
 For us vigilance and strength are therefore a 
 patriotic duty. Eespect for justice is indeed a 
 divine thing, — honour to the great countries which 
 preserve that sacred fire ; but justice requires an 
 energetic arm to defend and to strike, to protect 
 and to avenge. 
 
 To watch and arm, when aware of being threat-
 
 MILITARY SPIRIT IX FRANCE. 219 
 
 ened, are instinctive acts : nations, like individuals, 
 obey this instinct. This is the explanation of the 
 labours accomplished during the last twelve years in 
 our country, to increase our military resources and 
 keep the country ready for any eventuality. What 
 must not be the energy of our national instinct ? 
 Never at any time, perhaps, did military spirit grow so 
 cool with us, and never also did we reckon so manv 
 troops. But numbers, less than valour, give strength 
 and power to armies ; and in spite of our compulsory 
 military service, we should betray our country did 
 we neglect the great art of war, and, misled by vain 
 utopire, were we to forget the divine mission of force 
 upon this earth, where justice needs a shield. 
 
 We are born knights. It does not become us to 
 take off our cuirass or to shorten our sword. " You 
 are born classical," said the keen-sighted and sceptical 
 Henri Heine, speaking of us, — one of the rare Ger- 
 mans who have understood and loved France — " you 
 know your Olympus. Among the merry divinities 
 that sip up nectar and regale themselves with am- 
 brosia, you perceive a goddess who, in the midst of 
 these sweet leisures, nevertheless always preserves 
 her cuirass, her head covered with a helmet, and a 
 lance in her hand — 
 
 " It is the goddess of wisdom." ^ 
 
 ^ De rAlk-iiiat'iie.
 
 220 THE GERMANS. 
 
 But, however we may increase the numbers of our 
 soldiers and develop our military spirit, we shall be 
 strong only when we have succeeded in being united 
 in the same national spirit. 
 
 Such is the law of unity. As the consciousness of 
 some personal aim is the first condition which, con- 
 centrating all the efforts, all the faculties, all the 
 energies of the individual, makes him a powerful be- 
 ing, so the consciousness of a national aim is the first 
 necessity for promoting unity in a nation, and making 
 it invincible. 
 
 The consciousness of such an aim seems at tlie 
 moment wanting in the country. 
 
 It is absorbed by problems of internal organisa- 
 tion — painful problems, whose solution is always 
 awaited, and which keep the mind in suspense and in 
 relentless struggle. 
 
 Some deprecate democracy, and universal suffrage, 
 its logical consequence ; others acclaim both. The 
 majority are in favour of a republican form of govern- 
 ment ; the others regret monarchy and long for its 
 restoration. The former want to lessen, to circum- 
 scribe, perhaps to destroy, religious influence in the 
 country ; the latter wish to uphold it. Some are for 
 
 the Concordate, others for the separation of Church 
 
 * 
 
 and State. One party aspires to religious and poli- 
 tical peace; the other, impatient to see the triumph of
 
 LIBERTY. 221 
 
 their party, keep up the fray. Some in despair talk 
 about the end of France — finis G all ice ; others, trust- 
 ing to the end, cannot give up their hopes of a 
 country that withstood tlie most fearful trials. 
 
 Such have been, during a century, the divisions in 
 the midst of which France is yet struggling, with the 
 ardour and the violence characteristic of our impetu- 
 ous race. 
 
 So long as the country is thus distracted, we must 
 resign ourselves to seeing it anxious, fretful, power- 
 less. It will be deficient in the concentration in- 
 dispensable to the vitality of a people. When the 
 hour of appeasement arrives, our country will again 
 have faith in itself, and pursue the accomplishments 
 of its destinies. 
 
 The most urgent of patriotic duties would then be 
 to endeavour to attenuate the causes of our internal 
 struggles. 
 
 There is, methinks, but one means of bringing back 
 peace, and of preparing the solution of the problems 
 that so much occupy public opinion — liberty. 
 
 But liberty having power only when inscribed in 
 the laws, we must have wisely and thoroughly liberal 
 views ; and as laws are not much without customs, 
 ours must become liberal also. And lastly, as botli 
 laws and customs find their highest representation 
 in the Government, the country must have a liberal
 
 ^22 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Government. If laws have influence over customs, 
 these also possess influence over laws ; but the latter 
 enjoy full authority only amongst nations whose 
 chiefs set the example, and are the flrst to act accord- 
 ing to their commands. In the old monarchies, 
 peoples resemble their kings ; in democratic societies, 
 the multitude reflects its mandatories. 
 
 Such a spirit of liberty does not involve indiffer- 
 ence to truth, still less the abdication of personal 
 convictions ; it is rather the respect of adversaries, 
 and implies even the highest faith in the intrinsic 
 power of truth. That which succeeds only through 
 human skill is always ephemeral : whatever is sup- 
 ported only by violent passions is always doomed to 
 unforeseen reactions ; but that which is based upon 
 conscience and truth, like them is immutable. 
 
 Still, I cannot refrain from saying the reigu of 
 liberty, understood in that light, will never be pos- 
 sible in France or anywhere else without religion, 
 and Catholicism is the only form of religion likely 
 to exercise its full influence over individuals. 
 
 In a country indifferent to religious matters, sec- 
 tarians have a fine game : boisterous and restless, they 
 will easily succeed in oppressing inert and thought- 
 less masses, alive only to their own interests. With 
 an irreligious people respect disappears. Where God 
 is insulted, how can we expect man to be honoured ?
 
 RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 223 
 
 Is not religion the highest form of conscience ? What 
 law will enforce obedience with a nation whose con- 
 science is not free ? 
 
 Thus without religion liberty is not possible. 
 Let impatient people — those who are incensed at 
 the miseries, the abuses which assail religion — bide 
 their time. Their wrath is useless against those who 
 are no longer animated by the living Spirit of God. 
 Violent men are like M-ood-fellers, who cut down the 
 tree in order to clip its dead branches. 
 
 Besides, the law, equitable law, could control all 
 recalcitrants ; and there is not a patriot, whatever be 
 his creed, his convictions, and his profession, who 
 would refuse to abide by it. Eeligion would be a 
 paramount motive, for submission to God implies 
 submission to men. 
 
 It is thus a lofty obligation for a would-be liberal 
 Government to show in what esteem it holds, I will 
 not say every religion — for religion is susceptible of 
 truth and error, even of falsehood and crime — but 
 true religion, that whose basis is the spiritualism of 
 which French philosophy gave to the modern world 
 the most precise formula ; that whose Christianity is 
 the highest expression, and which found in Catholi- 
 cism its most perfect social organisation. 
 
 In acting thus, a Government would, no doubt, turn 
 against itself many a sectarian, but it would be sure
 
 224 THE GERMANS. 
 
 to meet a powerful echo in the heart of the country. 
 What spiritualist could refuse it his adhesion ? And 
 how many sober minds could we find in France heed- 
 less of God's name ? 
 
 "Without this is the fall of French genius, scepti- 
 cism, interest, — but selfish interest, as ultimate law, 
 positive reason blinded by facts ; the death-blow to 
 the ideal, without which no people can flourish. 
 
 I am surprised that intelligent republicans have 
 not thought of making that experiment, — that they 
 should not have understood that irreligion never 
 founded anything durable : their patriotism has not 
 been stronger than the vain systems whose yoke they 
 had to bear. Had they loved their country better, 
 their hearts would have been clearer-sighted than 
 their reason. 
 
 I dare affirm, that before ten years had elapsed the 
 democracy and the Eepublic would have rallied 
 minds in unity and peace, had their leaders known 
 how to give all believers legitimate satisfaction,^*— to 
 open in the soul of the masses those sources of abne- 
 gation and sacrifice, of consolation and hope, which 
 Christianity alone possesses, and which no other 
 doctrine or system can ever replace. 
 
 Great politicians they be who will pacify con- 
 science, and succeed in teaching the country that 
 simple fact — the identity of liberty and respect.
 
 FRANCE -VXD GERMANY. 
 
 Modern nations are not simply primitive and 
 savage tribes, whose relations are only those of hostile 
 or friendly proximity ; they are the living members 
 of the same civilisation that has succeeded in em- 
 bracing the whole of mankind, and that sees, above 
 petty private interests, the general progress of the 
 world towards liberty, justice, and truth. A country 
 is great according to the part it takes in this sublime 
 task ; and when endeavouring to develop its national 
 spirit, it co-operates more efficaciously in the prooress 
 of mankind at large. 
 
 Some nations are selfish by temperament and by 
 will, others are generous by vocation and by "enius. 
 
 Than ours, no country more clearly understood, 
 and pursued with a more ardent enthusiasm, this 
 ideal which dominates human evolution. For the 
 last century, in spite of revolutions at home, of wars 
 abroad, it was constantly possessed with such ideal. 
 France became the most democratic of countries, 
 even under absolute imperial sway ; and to-day even, 
 in spite of divisions aggravated by the contention of 
 parties and religious dissensions, nowhere has liberty 
 provoked so much passion. The general interest 
 remains still the main object of our people. It in- 
 spires our men of science and our writers, it occupies 
 a place in the combinations of our business men, and 
 even of our statesmen. 
 
 P
 
 226 THE GERMANS. 
 
 France cannot and will not live for herself ; she 
 wishes to live for others also. 
 
 It is her honour to be a humanitarian nation. 
 
 This honour is a jewel which no nation, and Prus- 
 sian Germany less than any other people, could claim 
 from us. It survives all our disasters. France does 
 not only carry it on the point of her victorious 
 sword ; it belongs to her genius itself, to her pecu- 
 liarities of mixed and crossed race. It seems as 
 though our territory were meant by God to be as 
 a select vase in which all mankind had dropped a 
 little of the blood that flows in the veins of its prin- 
 cipal races of the North and the South, of the East 
 and the West. Even to our tongue, at the same 
 time so clear, so forcible, so supple — that native 
 tongue of common-sense and universal intelligibility, 
 as it was called by Henri Heine, — that also betrays 
 the predestination of our people for its grand human 
 mission.^ This view enters so completely into the 
 national conscience, that betimes it leads us to lose 
 sight of our own life, of our patriotic interests. It is 
 the stumbling-block of all generous natures. "VVliat 
 blunders, what prodigality, in our European, Asiatic, 
 and American policy, even in this century ! There 
 IS not a living nation, even Germany, that has not 
 ^ See Appendix I.
 
 RELIGIOUS FAITH. 227 
 
 experienced to its advantage French generosity and 
 abnegation. 
 
 The idea of humanity should not, however, eclipse 
 that of the mother country ; neither should the love 
 of the latter lessen in us that of the family. 
 
 Besides, let it be again repeated, the national in- 
 terests of France mean those of the world at large. 
 In working for herself she works for all. 
 
 What a victory would it not be for France if, 
 faithful to the spirit of justice and liberty that moves 
 her, she at last appeared before the modern world as 
 the predestined nation which succeeded in breaking 
 up for ever the yokes, the fetters, the stubborn rule 
 of tjTanny ! 
 
 Let those who startle at the thought of such glory 
 forget their dissidences and come closer together ; let 
 them rule noisy and sectarian minorities ; let them 
 secure for themselves the respect of all by their 
 equity, their breadth of view, and their tolerance ; in 
 a word, let them reign. 
 
 Germany has her national pride ; let us have ours. 
 Her sword frightens those even whom it protects ; let 
 ours inspire confidence in all, weak and strong : the 
 sword of a knight should only be dreaded by 
 oppressors. 
 
 To become a free nation, in which individuality
 
 228 THE GERM ANS. 
 
 guaranteed by the laws, may enjoy the greatest expan- 
 sion ; to be, in tliis worhl, still curbed under so many 
 servitudes, the first-born among nations, — this is cer- 
 tainly the ideal that most becomes our people, who 
 raised the most sincere and the loudest cry in favour 
 of liberty — so loud, indeed, that it shook the earth. 
 
 When fondly, like the physician stooping over his 
 patient and by means of auscultation trying to dis- 
 cover the forces likely to thwart the disease, we 
 consider our country and examine its national and 
 moral life, it is impossible not to detect in it many 
 a proof of vitality and of a future. The hope of true 
 patriots lays hold of these proofs, which then become 
 the motive of manly hopes. 
 
 The first symptom of life is our indomitable religi- 
 ous faith. 
 
 In spite of all the efforts to diminish, and even to 
 annihilate it, faith resists and still takes root. False 
 science has not yet succeeded in doing away with the 
 strong race of believers. Everywhere they still pos- 
 sess vigorous offsets, — among the laity or the clergy, 
 the ignorant or the scholarly. 
 
 Belief in Christ and in His Church is like unto a 
 fortress invested and assailed. The works of human 
 defence may here and there be dismantled, and the 
 engines of terrestrial policy reduced to powerlessness ; 
 but the citadel remains on the divine, unshakable
 
 FRANCE AXD GERMANY. 229 
 
 rock. The ranks of soldiers are thinned down, l>ut 
 the staff of officers is ever increasing ; and in the 
 hierarchy of the chiefs no such inviolable and indis- 
 soluble unity was ever witnessed. Human science, 
 which placed itself at the service of faith, has grown 
 old ; but faith remains young. Political privileges 
 have vanished, often making room for persecution ; 
 but in order to live, faith requires liberty, sometimes 
 even trials. 
 
 The first treasure of a nation is its religious faith : 
 and France displays sublime stubbornness in the cour- 
 age shown by great numbers of patriots in preserving 
 the integrity and the honour of such faith. 
 
 Germany saw the rise of a new Christian sect : 
 France kept intact the unity of her faith. Politics 
 alone divided Christians ; and much is to be ex- 
 pected from the time when, having set aside their 
 divisions, they will meet together in harmony, the 
 forerunner of victory ; much is to be hoped from 
 the time when, reconciled, they will, by their 
 moderation, their virtues, and their faith, inspire 
 that sympathy which French opinion never refused 
 to all that is frank, legal, respectful to others, and 
 disinterested. 
 
 The great French university corporation, despite its 
 wants, despite its faults — which, in the course of this 
 work, we have had the courage to reveal — has re-
 
 230 THE GERMANS. 
 
 mained the most spiritualist of all the teaching bodies 
 of the various peoples. 
 
 Xone held higher or with a firmer hand the banner 
 of mighty reason. The existence of God, liberty, and 
 immortality have nowhere met with more eloquent 
 defenders. Let some great agitation in favour of 
 faith again lay hold of mankind, — it is not in Ger- 
 many, not in Spain, not in Italy, not in England, not 
 in America, but in France, that will be found the best 
 evangelical preparation. The great geniuses of Greece 
 — Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato — have met in France 
 their true posterity. 
 
 Every people has its national passions. 
 
 Two of these are noticeable in France — equality 
 and liberty. 
 
 Why refuse them deep sympathy ? 
 
 Because of their faults and violence ? 
 
 They preserve in the great mass of French people 
 their noble dignity and their generosity. 
 
 What hopes are there not latent in these vivacious 
 forces, upon condition of being mutually tempered 
 and better controlled ! 
 
 Democratic passion would become one of the most 
 powerful stimulants of modern civilisation, if, less 
 strictly equalising, it strove more to exalt and 
 strengthen the humble and the weak, than to lower 
 the strong and the powerful.
 
 FRANCE AND GERMANY. 231 
 
 The passion of liberty would be one of the glories 
 of our people, if, always respectful of a neighbour's 
 rights, it were subservient to justice, instead of being 
 the agreeable and cringing servant of malcontents 
 who ignore obedience, and a perpetual menace to 
 authorities who cannot enforce tlieir commands. 
 
 Democratic passion is equalising in its essence ; 
 abandoned to its instincts, without counterpoise, it 
 has a levelling tendency that degenerates into medi- 
 ocrity. Liberal passion is its brake. On the other 
 hand, liberty is of hierarchical essence, since, allowing 
 full flight to all individualities, it preserves the latter's 
 true rank in the great national life and its true place 
 in natural hierarchy, based not upon arbitrary con- 
 ventions, but upon merit and virtue. 
 
 Such passions are the moral riches of a people. 
 
 He whom no passion bestirs may be calm and easy 
 to rule ; but such calmness is rather inertia than 
 peace : it is more the sign of pining life than the 
 proof of vitality. Wherever energies, even violence, 
 are seen, we may, by co-ordination, reckon upon great 
 results ; but when everything is indolent and indif- 
 ferent, what hopes can be conceived ? 
 
 Every force, when uncontrolled, is dreadful. What 
 victims did not the material forces, heat, light, elec- 
 tricity, make before being subdued ! Social forces 
 are more terrible still : capital and labour, donocratic
 
 232 THE GEEMAXS. 
 
 and liberal passions, not to mention others, will dis- 
 turb many a century, upset many a State, before they 
 have reached their equilibrium. 
 
 We must not curse them, people of little faith, we 
 must cultivate them. We must not suspect them, 
 but courageously try an experiment with them, and 
 believe in their virtue. We must not conceive a bad 
 opinion of peoples who feel the startling effects 
 of those forces ; we must rather devote ourselves to 
 them, as to those vigorous children whose indiscipline 
 and errors of youth show their vitality. 
 
 It is henceforth idle to look back towards the by- 
 gone times when such passions were still slumbering, 
 just as it would be to regret the days when the 
 forces of nature were still unknown. Our duty is 
 to conform ourselves to the new times, such as, in 
 the course of general evolution. Providence is pleased 
 to send us.
 
 APPENDICES
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 THE LETTER OF MATRICULATION 
 
 QUOD FELIX FAUSTUMQUE SIT 
 
 AUSPICIIS ET AUCTORITATE 
 
 AUGUSTISSIMI AC POTENTISSIMI DOMINI 
 
 G U I L E L M I 
 
 IMPERATORIS GERMANICI 
 B0RUS30RUM REGIS 
 
 RECTO RE 
 
 ERJ^ESTO CUETIUS 
 
 PHIL030PHI.E DOCTORE PR0FES30RE P. O. CET. 
 
 vir juvenis ornatissimus 
 
 Henricus Didon 
 
 Francogallus 
 
 Studiosus philosophice 
 
 data dextra iurisiurandi loco legibus magistratibusque aca- 
 demicis fidem, obedientiam, reverentiam poUicitus, numero 
 civium TJniversitatis Fridericöe Guilelma; Berolinensis 
 legitime adscriptus est. Cuius rei testes hasce litteras sigUlo 
 TJniversitatis munitas et Rectoris manu subscriptas accepit. 
 
 D. Berolini d. XX mens. Maji anni mdccclxxxii. 
 
 Curtius.
 
 236 
 
 THE GERMANS. 
 
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 238 THE GERMANS. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The following is, according to an American scien- 
 tist/ the state of science in Germany, in England, and 
 in France : — 
 
 The direction of the scientific movement belongs, for the 
 present, to three countries — Germany, England, and France. 
 The scientific writings of each of these possess a special 
 characteristic and qualities of their own. 
 
 Germany takes to-day the lead in the scientific world : 
 at the beginning of the century that part was played by 
 France, but now German influence is greater than French 
 influence ever was. 
 
 Students who used to go to Paris go now to Germany, 
 whence they come back imbued with German doctrines, 
 and having but one aim — that of imitating these doctrines 
 and of spreading them. 
 
 It is thus they have been diff'used through the world, 
 and are being accepted in most European countries. They 
 take the lead in Switzerland, in Eussia, in Italy, in Poland, 
 in Belgium, in England, and in the States of America. 
 But in France, in Spain, and Portugal, their influence is 
 hardly felt. 
 
 Holland and the Scandinavian States have of late years 
 produced such remarkable works, that their development 
 accompanied rather than followed that of Germany. 
 
 Germans have qualities of their own ; their researches 
 have a lofty aim, well formed to entice high intellects; 
 their labours bear quite a professional stamp. The German 
 scientific man is above all a searcher. This is required, 
 
 1 Translation of an article written by an American savant in the 
 journal 'Science.'
 
 APPENDIX. 239 
 
 under penalty of losing the scientific rank they occupy, and 
 which they only owe to their original discoveries. In order 
 to secure success, they must have made some useful dis- 
 covery, to do which they must thoroughly know all that 
 lias been done before. ^loreover, to surpass all their 
 fellow savants, they cannot afford to neglect any item of 
 knowledge : they must be possessed of all methods, be 
 acquainted with all new facts, all improvements. "With 
 very few exceptions, German scientific works all contain 
 something new and original : every contribution means 
 scientific progress, not of very great importance, perhaps, 
 but that still increases the bulk of our knowledge. Do 
 you wish for a striking and characteristic illustration of 
 this perfection ? Germans who are thoroughly acquainte«! 
 with the state of science have a very keen and very judi- 
 cious perception of the problems which are being discussed, 
 of the questions to be solved, of the discoveries to be 
 attempted, of the gaps to be filled up. 
 
 They are thus in a fit position to do useful work. And 
 we know how many scientific attempts have failed for 
 having been badly conducted. 
 
 German scientific writings, though remarkable as regards 
 the subject they treat, are generally deficient in point of 
 style and exposition. In spite of some admirable literary 
 productions, the Germans, as Avriters, seldom rise above 
 mediocrity : they are too often, indeed, utterly incapable 
 of drafting a memoir. Conciseness and clearness are quali- 
 ties to be acquired by dint of labour; but, as a rule, a 
 German savant little cares about form. He is nearly 
 always diffuse to excess, and obscure. 
 
 This defect is met with, in various degrees, in all the 
 scientific writers of Germany. Some are satisfied with an 
 illogical co-ordination ; others, among the most esteemed, 
 drift into the most incredible confusion. Lastly, a curious
 
 ^ 
 
 240 THE GERMANS. 
 
 and frequent variety of the same defect : if we consult only 
 the heading of chapters or of paragraphs, a work seems to 
 be very well arranged ; yet in each of its chapters the 
 subjects will be found confused, as though some copyist 
 had amused himself with disposing the documents at 
 random, under any rubric that offered, without order or 
 method. 
 
 It may be said that, as a rule, German mind is wanting 
 both in method and clearness. jS'o doubt there are remark- 
 able exceptions. The Germans believe they possess special 
 dispositions towards philosophy ; they fancy they possess 
 profound ideas on all subjects. It must be acknowledged 
 that in this they are quite mistaken, for their minds are 
 more mystical than deep, more cloudy than vast — and yet 
 the chief quality of a philosopher is to think clearly. It 
 is a fact worthy of remark, though it has been remarked 
 but little, that Germany has not contributed much to sci- 
 entific generalisations. She produced neither Linne, nor 
 Darwin, nor Lyell, nor Lavoisier, nor Descartes — geniuses 
 whose conquests increased the domain of posterity — and yet 
 she gave the world great results ; but these results proceed 
 from the accumulated labours of those searchers. 
 
 The German does not understand certain absurdities : for 
 him they constitute an obstacle and a stumbling-block. See, 
 for instance, some of Kant's theories. It would be impos- 
 sible to make any German savant understand them ; you 
 might as well try to explain to the sun what shadow is. 
 In a word, German science is but a professional research of 
 details, which drift but slowly into generalisations. 
 
 Very different from this is English science — a science of 
 amateurs rather than of professors. Some, wrongly, as we 
 think, will call it insular. In fact the searcher had not, 
 until lately, any well-defined place in English social organ- 
 isation ; scarcely was he received in the universities, where
 
 APPENDIX. 241 
 
 were wanted only professors able to teach, researches and 
 discoveries being considered but as accessories. The Eng- 
 lish, their education once finished, leave the universities 
 never to re-enter them. Hence the character noticeable 
 in their productions, which, as a rule, are generally well 
 arranged and in good style ; they seldom weary us by the 
 accumulation of their developments, 
 f The main characteristic of English science lies in the 
 I taste for generalisations : this is the result of qualities 
 special to the nation. A simple teacher draws a general 
 conclusion by a process of individual effort quite diflerent 
 from the democratic method of the Germans, who generalise 
 in bringing together the efforts of all. 
 
 Might it not be permitted to say that the English and the 
 Scotch are the Greeks of modern science 1 
 
 French science is essentially a science quartered in the 
 country; it remains isolated, possesses but an imperfect, 
 uncertain knowledge of what is being done abroad, feels no 
 interest in the original researches made beyond its frontiers. 
 AVhat a time was required to understand and accept 
 Darwin's theories ! although to eliminate from biology the 
 theory of evolution, is equivalent to doing away with the 
 mainspring of a watcL French scientific articles are well 
 written, the subject is well classed, everything perfectly 
 clear. The keenness and the artistic sense of the race 
 freely display themselves therein, but these qualities induce 
 the author to present general views which overstep the aim 
 in view : his taste for artistic arrangement of the subject 
 prompts him to intersperse his work with irksome digres- 
 sions, principles of trifling interest, facts long ago well 
 known, and something worse still when fancy and imagina- 
 tion are set to work. 
 
 Many scientific men hold in certain suspicion French 
 works. This feeling of distrust is increased in presence of
 
 242 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the almost systematic neglect which Frenchmen express for 
 the researches of the Germans. Such hatred causes the 
 impartiahty of Frenchmen to be suspected in the domain 
 of science. We do not think that the level of French 
 science ever stood so low as it now does. 
 
 Italy still follows France, but she now learns at the 
 school of Germany, and her progress is already sensible. 
 
 "VVe are convinced that the actual state of French science 
 will take a turn the day when France shall have resolved 
 to depart from her voluntary isolation. 
 
 Frenchmen stay at home ; in the past they travelled 
 much : let us wish that they may resume their old habits, 
 and take up once more the intellectual relations they used 
 to maintain with other countries. France possesses sci- 
 entific men esteemed throughout the whole world. May 
 their numbers be rapidly increased ! 
 
 America hardly contributes to the progress of science by 
 the number or the importance of her works ; compared 
 ■with those of Germany they are insignificant. Researches 
 are not deeply worked out ; they do not indeed enjoy the 
 esteem or the consideration to which they are entitled. In 
 the United States there are in all but 6000 professors : 
 in that number hardly 150 active investigators could be 
 found. The day is still remote when the American pro- 
 fessor will have become a searcher. 
 
 The severity and the injustice of these apprecia- 
 tions as regards our country have been victoriously 
 taken up by M. Charles Eichet in the ' Eevue Scien- 
 tifique ' of November 30, .1883. "VVe do ourselves 
 the pleasure of quoting the article, as documentary 
 evidence, in the following appendix.
 
 APPENDIX. 243 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 SCIENCE IN GERMANY AND IN FRANCE. 
 
 Paris, 'IM November 1883. 
 
 A week ago we gave the translation of an article first 
 published by an American paper (' Science '), then repro- 
 duced by the English paper, *K"ature.' The object of this 
 article was to compare the state of science in France, Ger- 
 many, and England. This evil-disposed and even unjust 
 appreciation must have appeared rather hard to many of 
 our countrymen. 
 
 But our mission is not confined to presenting our readers 
 with praises and congratulations. We must also be in- 
 formed of what is being said of us beyond our narrow 
 frontiers. The world is not limited by the Pyrenees, the 
 Alps, and the Vosges. There are, near or far, judgments 
 borne about us which, however unpleasant, we must needs 
 be acquainted with. 
 
 Children dislike being told certain truths. When told 
 a story, they beg not to be imposed upon. Ostriches, 
 when on the point of being caught by huntsmen, fancy 
 they will escape all danger by hiding their heads in the 
 sands. It is not thus we must act, but rather try to ascer- 
 tain what is being thought, what is being written, what is 
 being said about us. Our vanity and our patriotism may, 
 perhaps, chafe at such knowledge. But that will matter 
 little if we know how to profit by the advice so sourly 
 given us, and by attacks whose violence knows no bounds. ■ 
 
 Silly vanity alone could lead us to ignore the apprecia- 
 tions of foreigners, under the pretence that they are want- 
 ing in amenity. It is more useful and more manly to
 
 244 THE GERMANS. 
 
 endeavour to ascertain whether such opinions are •well or 
 ill founded. 
 
 Let us then revert to the judgment passed upon us by 
 the American press. "What it says concerning French 
 scientific men may be summed up in three propositions : — 
 
 1. Frenchmen are unacquainted with what is being done 
 abroad, chiefly in Germany. 
 
 2. They do not progress. 
 
 3. xVt no period of its history did ever French science 
 stand so low as now. 
 
 As regards the first reproach, it appears to us peculiarly 
 unjust. It may have been correct some twenty years ago : 
 to-day it is quite unfounded. Everywhere in France, and 
 in all sciences, we study, with increasing ardour, the works 
 of the English, of the Italians, of the Russians, and, above 
 all, of the Germans. Xever before did French scientific 
 men bestow so much attention upon the productions of 
 their German colleagues. The latter's newspapers, books, 
 reviews, the bulletins and periodicals of their scientific 
 .societies, are analysed, consulted, quoted, &c. Open any 
 French scientific work that may chance to come across you, 
 and you will see that most of the authors referred to are 
 German. 
 
 There is, perhaps, some excess in that biographical 
 wealth. German works, however useful, are rather the 
 quantity than the quality : that is why our tendency to be 
 conscientious prompts us to bring to the same level any 
 small German essay, of no value whatever or nearly so, and 
 any French work of considerable merit. 
 
 Another proof of the interest we take in German storks 
 is the quantity of translations of such works into French. 
 Their enumeration could hardly be exhausted : the mere 
 titles of those translated within the last few years only, 
 would constitute a regular catalogue. The ' Treatise on
 
 APPENDIX. 24-5 
 
 Physiological Chemistry,' by Gorup-Besanez ; the ' Physio- 
 logical Chemistry ' of 'SL Hoppe-Seyler ; the ' General Phy- 
 siology ' of ]\r. Preyer ; the ' Treatise on Zoology,' by 'M. 
 Clauss ; the ' Treatise on Botany ' of ^L Sachs ; the ' Trea- 
 tise on Physiology ' of M. "Wundt ; the ' Urine,' by ^Messrs 
 Xeubauer & Vogel ; the * Treatise on Physiology,' by M. 
 Hermann ; the ' Treatise on Colouring Matters/ by MM. 
 Bolley & Kopp ; the ' Practical Hand-book of Essays,' by 
 the same authors ; the Treatises on Chemical Analysis, by 
 Fresenius (6th edition), by Post, by Fleicher ; the Treatises 
 on Histology, by Frey, by Kolliker ; the Treatises on In- 
 dustrial Chemistry of Wagner, AValkhoff, Balling, Rose, 
 Fittig ; the * History of Physics,' by Poggendorff ; the 
 works of !M. Helmholtz ; the publications of the Inter- 
 national Scientitic Library (^lessrs Helmholtz, Vogel, 
 Kosenthal, Bernstein) ; the works of M. Haeckel, of M. 
 Büchner ; the ' Diseases of Children ' of Steiner ; ' ]\tental 
 Diseases,' by M. Griesinger, &c., &c. 
 
 We will end here our enumeration. He would possess 
 a fine library indeed, who could bring together all the 
 scientific works translated from German into French within 
 the last six years. 
 
 And still we are taunted with taking no account of 
 German works ! Might it not be truly said that numbers 
 of such works were not worth translating, and that some 
 among them answer no better purpose than many excellent 
 French works 1 
 
 No matter : people will still go on saying that we affect 
 systematical partiality or blind ignorance as regards any- 
 thing but French. Let them talk. A reproach hurts but 
 little when undeserved. 
 
 So much for the first reproof. Let us now examine the 
 second. 
 
 We are told that we do not produce anything new.
 
 246 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Our writings are devoid of originality. Xo doubt the 
 American journalist who expressed this opinion never hap- 
 pened to notice a publication with which his director, M. 
 Graham Bell, is perfectly acquainted — the ' Comptes rendus 
 de I'Academie des Sciences.' 
 
 If he have any leisure, let him peruse one of these 
 weekly publications, and he will, I expect, feel rather sur- 
 prised to see such a paper — a regular volume — replete with 
 new facts. Of course, every notice does not refer to first- 
 class discoveries. Such discoveries are scarce : three or four 
 of them are made in a century. Still, the subjects of each 
 notice published in the ' Comptes rendus ' are of themselves 
 truly small discoveries. 
 
 Is there in the whole world a publication that can bear 
 any favourable comparison, as regards its abundance of 
 fresh facts, with the ' Comptes rendus de I'Academie des 
 Sciences ' 1 Such is the question I take the liberty of 
 submitting to the readers of ' Science ' and ' Xature.' 
 
 I am anxious to come to the general, dreadful, and dis- 
 tressing conclusion, " At no former time was ever French 
 science so low as it now stands." 
 
 In order to fuUy grasp the subject, let us give a few 
 instances. 
 
 Among the leading scientific men still living, there are 
 three who will leave behind them a luminous trace — M. de 
 Lesseps, M. J. B. Dumas,^ M. Pasteur. These are three 
 Frenchmen, three great Frenchmen.- 
 
 The first named, though he be not an engineer, a sarant 
 properly speaking, conceived that colossal work, which all 
 believed chimerical and absurd, of uniting two seas, of doing 
 
 ' M. J. B. Dumas died at the beginning of 1S84. 
 
 ' Numbers of others we could mention, and in every branch of 
 science. But we only quote the names of those whose glory is un- 
 deniably superior to that of any other contemporary savant.
 
 APPENDIX. 247 
 
 away with the boundaries erected by nature, of removing 
 an anomaly that prevented free passage from Europe into 
 Asia. Later, he undertook the same grand Avork for unit- 
 ing the Atlantic and the Pacific, and alone he did more for 
 civilisation than twenty generations of engineers could 
 have done in aU the countries of the civilised world. 
 
 M. J. B. Dumas sets chemistry on fresh bases; assembles 
 in a body of doctrine the scattered facts whose law had 
 escaped investigation ; points out the relations of atoms and 
 their mutual substitutions; groups simple bodies into series; 
 gives birth to modern chemical science ; opens the way 
 in which for the last forty years thousands of savants 
 have laboured, "walking in the furrow laid out by the 
 master. If M. Dumas cannot, like Lavoisier, boast the 
 glory of having created a science, he so much enlarged the 
 field of chemistry that he has almost become its second 
 initiator. 
 
 As regards its origin, that science may therefore be con- 
 sidered doubly French, 
 
 As for M. Pasteur, has he not by himself, and by his sole 
 genius, brought about in medical science a revolution such 
 as the course of centuries offers few instances of % The 
 theory of contagion by microscopic beings, of the dissemi- 
 nation of germs, of microbe and vaccine virus, of anti- 
 septics, &c., — all this triumphant doctrine, which, in spite 
 of powerless criticisms, is dauy more widely spread, M. 
 Pasteur alone created it in its entirety. He rigorously set it 
 forth, and, thanks to the strictness both of the experiments 
 and of the demonstrations, it was accepted. There is not a 
 country wherein M. Pasteur's works are not used as guides 
 for investigation. Open any medical paper — German, 
 English, or Italian — almost every line in it ülustrates the 
 influence of our glorious countryman. His works, his dis- 
 coveries, are the universal guides of contemporary medicine.
 
 248 THE GERMANS. 
 
 And this is how French science has reached the last 
 stage of decadence ! ^ 
 
 Is it not truly unjust to talk about the decadence of 
 French science, when among the men of science living at 
 the present day, none anywhere in Europe could stand 
 comparison with these three great men? 
 
 Is this all 1 Xo. Are we to consider as totally ground- 
 less the opinion expressed by Science ? Xo. For French 
 science there is a threatening and daily increasing danger. 
 
 Though the genius of some French savants be superior, 
 though their influence be all-powerful, this is still not 
 sufficient for re-establishing our scientific supremacy of old. 
 "We lack numbers, and these we must have. 
 
 We do not possess a very keen taste for disinterested 
 and abstract studies. The young men who in France de- 
 vote themselves to scientific careers and work in labora- 
 tories are not numerous enough. Science is with us 
 represented by an army well officered, but whose soldiers 
 are rather few. Xo savant gathers around him a numerous 
 group of disciples who follow his direction, execute the 
 labours prepared and indicated hj him, accept his advice, 
 listen eagerly to his words, imitate his example. The 
 recruiting of the professors of pure science meets daily with 
 greater difficulties. 
 
 The reverse is the case in Germany, where in every 
 branch of science the workers are reckoned by legions. 
 Consult their scientific publications, and you will soon per- 
 
 1 No doubt Darwin is entitled to matchless glory, and the theory 
 of descent is to-day universally accepted. No doubt also, Mayer 
 gave the mechanical theory of heat. But however great these two 
 men, we have had Lamark, we have had Carnot ; no one has the 
 right to ignore their names. We then can claim a share in the 
 triumph of these two admirable theories — natural selection and the 
 equivalence of forces ; theories which, so to speak, stand at the very 
 summit of modern science.
 
 APPENDIX. 249 
 
 ceive that a vast number of important researches have been 
 made by many obscure and unknown persons, diligent and 
 docile young men, fleissig, who, having applied themselves 
 to some special investigation within very narrow limits, 
 succeed after more or less time and trouble in effecting 
 work, original and important in some respects. Such work, 
 if it do not leave a very striking mark in the history of 
 science, will nevertheless complete, rectify, improve the 
 data already possessed. In any case it constitutes a pro- 
 gress, however small. 
 
 With us a scientific career is, unfortunately, the rare 
 exception. Few young men are fond of studying science 
 for the sake of science alone. As a rule, their chief object 
 is to pass their examinations satisfactorily ; and their main 
 care is to find a more fruitful, more lucrative, more agree- 
 able profession than the sole love of truth could procure. 
 
 This is the evil from which French science suffers. The 
 public does not understand, does not love science. Demo- 
 cracy dreads it, as it dreads all that is not Avithin the grasp 
 of every understanding, And then, true savants become 
 tlie exception. The regular savant is with us an anomaly 
 that tends to disappear. We look upon science in the 
 light of a curiosity, an agreeable pastime. Few men de- 
 vote to its service the whole of their lives. In Germany 
 it is otherwise. 
 
 And why with ns these desertions 1 Why do we profess 
 so much indifference for the grand facts of science? Why 
 have we become utilitarian to such excess ] Why also do 
 the Germans have so many pupils destined to scientific 
 pursuits, when we ourselves possess so few ] 
 
 Whatever the explanation of such a contrast, the con- 
 clusion is obvious and inexorable. It is that with us, 
 higher teachers are too parsimoniously endowed. Much 
 has been done for primary education. The schools and
 
 250 THE GERMANS. 
 
 teachers have been well cared for. That is well. But now 
 the time is come to think at last of laboratories and savants, 
 — of those whose profession is not lucrative, and whose only- 
 care is to enlarge the domain of general science. To such 
 men must be secured not only food and shelter, but also the 
 _poule au pot and some of the comforts of life. 
 
 In Germany the scientific material (laboratories, institu- 
 tions, museums) is infinitely superior to what it is with 
 us. What else, then, is the question of material if not a 
 question of budget, and therefore easily soluble 1 A few 
 millions more devoted to higher education will raise our 
 great scientific establishments to the same level with those 
 beyond the Ehine. 
 
 A few millions more. The country must make this 
 sacrifice. A nation where scientific studies are neglected, 
 and where high intellectual culture is looked upon as being 
 a useless luxury, — such a nation, I say, is not far from gi'V'ing 
 way to material enjoyment. 
 
 Is it wise to admit but immediate interest, and to forego 
 science under the futile pretence that its profits are but 
 uncertain and remote 1 By no means ; and it is wrong 
 calculation to neglect science. It Avill very soon have its 
 revenge. In a country where science is considered as super- 
 fluous, agriculture, industry, commerce, soon go to ruin. 
 Who knows if, as a legitimate compensation, science will 
 not ensure the country's wealth, when the country shall 
 have made to higher education the requisite sacrifices 1 It 
 is not only in conformity with justice that we must take 
 these steps, it is also in the interest of our own prosperity. 
 
 It is more useful to create savants, and to give theni 
 daily bread, than to open railways and to dig canals. 
 And yet we have spent tliree millions on railways and 
 waterways. 
 
 But it is not enough to reconstitute chairs and labora-
 
 APPENDIX. 251 
 
 tories. Something else is required ; but unfortunately 
 decrees and orders are in this respect of very little avail. 
 It is difficult to change the morals and the progress of 
 ideas. 
 
 What we want is a numerous youth, diligent, hard- 
 Avorking, and applying itself to disinterested scientific 
 investigations. 
 
 The love of science is with us the passion of very few 
 men. 'No doubt these men do their very best to keep up 
 France's glory, and France will never forget them. But 
 their numbers are too small. This is why we must exert 
 ourselves to the utmost so as to swell their ranks. 
 
 Charles Eichet. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 THE TUITION OF PHILOSOPHV IN GERMANY. 
 
 Every year, says M. Gabriel Seaille — in an article of 
 which we do not endorse all the views, but which contains 
 some excellent information — the principals of the higher 
 schools [Gymnaden and Realschulen) of each province 
 assemble to discuss certain pedagogic problems. Each 
 principal represents " the college of the professors " of his 
 school, whose views he interprets. In 1881 the question 
 of the " philosophical propaedeutics " was the order of the 
 day of the conference of the principals of the schools of the 
 province of the Ehine. Twenty-eight gymnasiums had 
 sent representatives and forwarded reports drawn after dis- 
 cussion : in order to ascertain the opinion of the German 
 pedagogues, we cannot do better than consult the official 
 account of that meeting. The secretary first complained of
 
 252 THE GERMANS. 
 
 the diversity of opinions. " For the last sixty years," said 
 he, " a whole literature has dwelt upon this subject, and 
 one may truly assert that each opinion found a defender." 
 The first question is to decide whether or not philosophical 
 propaedeutics are to be kept up in the programmes : out of 
 the twenty-eight representatives of the gymnasiums, twenty- 
 three are in favour of propaedeutics — that is, eighty-two 
 per cent. This first point being settled, we must state of 
 what sort those propaedeutics are to be. It is chiefly here 
 that the views expressed are widely opposed. Psychology, 
 logic, ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics, history of philosophy, — 
 each of these sciences has its partisans. From the diversity 
 of opinions, the secretary has, however, been able to select 
 certain ideas more generally admitted. 
 
 " Philosophical propaedeutics are considered as having for 
 their object to bring the pupil who has thought naturally, 
 instinctively, to reflect upon the nature of thought, and to 
 observe that it is submitted to general laws." This aim 
 assigned to the tuition of philosophy shows at the same 
 time, says the secretary, how necessary it is, and what it 
 must be. The object is not to cram the mind with fresh 
 knowledge, but to cause the pupil to reflect upon what he 
 knows, to arrange methodically the ideas acquired by his 
 previous studies. 
 
 The question is thus transformed into a more simple 
 problem : "Which among philosophical sciences are the more 
 likely to impart to the mind the consciousness of the laws 
 by which it is ruled when it works spontaneously 1 To 
 put the question is to solve it. Some of the delegates have 
 accorded much importance to psychology : they maintain 
 that the pupil feels much more interest in it than in logic, 
 and that, by revealing the nature of the mind, it alone 
 made its laws intelligible. But, studied in all its branches, 
 psychology would be a new science ; it would go beyond
 
 APPENDIX. 253 
 
 the subordinate part to be played by propjedeutics. Besides, 
 it would raise difficult and dangerous problems : "What is 
 the nature of the souH of its faculties'? What are the 
 relations existing between physical and moral things 1 
 Psychology must therefore remain empii-ical, be chiefly 
 studied in its logical parts, and limited to the enumeration 
 of the elements of thought, and of the immutable laws 
 according to which these elements are combined (association 
 of ideas). Nearly everybody agrees to prefer logic to 
 psychology. And this is not without reason : logic forms 
 a whole ; and still more so than empirical psychology, by 
 the study of the laws of deductive reasoning and of in- 
 ductive methods, it enables the pupil to ascertain the laws 
 according to which the mind acts. 
 
 What motives can justify the exclusion of the other 
 branches of philosophy] First of all, we must bear in 
 mind that our object is not to acquire fresh knowledge, but 
 to class that which is already acquired. Some delegates are 
 in favour of aesthetics, chiefly as far as concerns literature : 
 science is not advanced enough, it is wanting in uncon- 
 tested principles. This objection applies with stul more 
 truth to metaphysics : let us consider the theories of me- 
 chanism, of organism, of space, of time. " Science in an 
 unripe state is not fit for school." As regards the history 
 of philosophy, it does not answer the end in view : it would 
 form a fresh subject of study, and would give proptedeutics 
 a part which it cannot be allowed without increasing still 
 the weight which many a pupil is unable to bear.^ There 
 remains morality. Two of the delegates have energetically 
 
 1 A professor in the TJiomasschuJe at Lei{)zig once told me, " Our 
 higher classes are regular lazarettos." If this does not apply to ours 
 in France, it is that, with our system of indoor and competitive 
 education, the best half of the pupils are but ciphers which tuition 
 cannot fatigue, since they pay no attention to it.
 
 254 THE GERMANS. 
 
 advocated the introduction of the tuition of morality in 
 gymnasiums. But objections are not wanting; the follow- 
 ing claim peculiar originality. " I had occasion to notice," 
 says one of the delegates, " that, specially with highly gifted 
 natures, moral feeling is very weak, very uncertain, subject 
 to errors ; while, on the contrary, intellectual faculties are 
 fully developed." Conclusion inevitable : ethics do not 
 agree with tuition. Other objections are most specious. 
 There are no such things as philosophical ethics ; there are 
 the ethics of this or that philosophy. But the decisive 
 argument is, that the study of morality is useless and 
 dangerous : useless, since religious tuition is already a 
 teaching of morality ; dangerous, since the professor of 
 philosophy and that of religion might contradict one 
 another, and, thus disturbing the mind, weaken it by 
 scepticism. 
 
 The conference of principals sums up its opinion in the 
 following " protocol ": — 
 
 1. Philosophical propaedeutics must bring to their own 
 consciousness intellectual faculties already long ago brought 
 into exercise, and give the comprehension of their laws and 
 relations. It also serves as a preliminary study to scientific 
 terminology. 
 
 2. The teaching of philosophical propaedeutics is of 
 absolute necessity in the higher establishments which pre- 
 pare for academic studies (universities). 
 
 3. The tuition of propaedeutics must not be accidental ; 
 a certain number of hours regularly appointed must be 
 devoted to it. (Some delegates in their reports had pro- 
 posed not to make of propaedeutics a separate branch of 
 tuition ; the professor would have had to call the attention 
 of his pupils to the laws of the mind, in referring to con- 
 crete examples : it is really what is now being done in most 
 gymnasiums.)
 
 APPENDIX. 255 
 
 4. The teaching of propaedeutics involves the elements of 
 logic and the chief principles of psychology (empirical). 
 
 5. Even within these limits the professor will as much 
 as possible confine fresh knowledge. 
 
 6. On the contrary, he will have to take as much advan- 
 tage as he can of the knowledge already acquired by pupils ; 
 his examples wül be drawn from it, and he will thus group 
 and co-ordinate them, and point out their unity. 
 
 7. The teacher may, as he thinks fit, indicate some 
 hand-book to his pupils among those which he thinks best 
 (but it is understood that compilations under the teacher's 
 dictation can in no wise be accepted, being looked upon in 
 Germany as irreconcilable with the laws of pedagogics). 
 
 8. This tuition will be given in Unter-Prima and Oher- 
 Prima ; two hours every week for twelve weeks, placed at 
 the beginning of the second half-year. 
 
 9. According to the actual organisation of our higher 
 schools, such hours must be taken from those devoted to 
 German tuition. 
 
 10. For the ivi^ facultas docendi in German, the proof of 
 a philosophical education sufficient for the tuition of pro- 
 paedeutics should be required. 
 
 "VVe know what the most competent men in Germany 
 think of the teaching of philosophy in gymnasiums. Eut 
 they have reasons different from our own for thinking so. 
 One of the delegates says, " The study of morality is of too 
 small importance to be admitted in gymnasiums " ! An- 
 other, whose opinion has already been quoted, utters this 
 monstrous sentence : " Moral conscience being but poorly 
 developed even amongst the best gifted of natures, it is 
 unnecessary to learn ethics." But before giving way to 
 surprise, we must first try to understand. How is it pos- 
 sible to write, " Ethics are not of such importance that they 
 should be studied in gymnasiums " ? It is tliat scholars
 
 256 THE GERMANS. 
 
 receive a very high moral tuition ; it is because the pro- 
 fessor of religion is a professor of morality. One of the 
 delegates writes, " The teaching of morality is useless ; it 
 would answer a purpose already provided for; it has not 
 to be introduced, since it already exists." Therefore one 
 readily understands the strange argument which we just 
 MOW pointed out : its author considers ethics as a science, 
 and, thinking rightly or wrongly that the mind of young 
 men is unfit for such a study, he deems it a waste of time 
 to enforce it. He speaks of morality as a disinterested 
 man, — he treats it as a science. But what is the true reason 
 that philosophy is excluded ? Really because it does not 
 agree with the plan of studies in gymnasiums ; because it 
 is opposed to their scheme of education. Christianity 
 alone must reign in gymnasiums, it must rule everything. 
 Philosophy is doomed because it admits of discussion ; 
 because it means the independence of the mind ; because it 
 regards as problems questions which must be considered as 
 indisputable dogmas. 
 
 The training of youth in Germany does not only mean 
 cramming into one mind as much knowledge as possible; it 
 also means the training of natural dispositions — the pre- 
 paring of man for the future. The citizen is foreseen in 
 the scholar, and they bring him up to discipline, — not to 
 external discipline, but to a moral discipline to which he is 
 submitted without his suspecting it, and which, Avithout his 
 being aware of it, must become the essence of his mind. 
 Let, then, those who think that all moral and philosopliical 
 teaching is banished from the schools of Germany, be dis- 
 abused of the idea ! This teaching does not only exist in 
 gymnasiums, it exists everywhere — in the Realschule, in 
 the Bürgerschule, even in the primary school. It is not in 
 a grave and serious country where, teaching youth the dis- 
 position of the nervous ganglions of the most obscure of
 
 APPENDIX. 257 
 
 mollusca, they would avoid telling it what it must think 
 or do. It may be said that the teaching of philosophy 
 begins in the lower forms, and is uninterruptedly continued 
 up to the Oher-Prinia. The only philosophy taught is 
 Christian philosophy. Whatever be the private ideas 
 entertained on this subject, it must be acknowledged that 
 this resume of the standard thoughts of the philosophers of 
 antiquity has a high moral value. Do not object that there 
 is nothing common between this religious teaching and 
 moral and philosophical teaching. It is given by a pro- 
 fessor, not by a minister ; it is part of the plan of studies ; it 
 finds its sanction in examinations. It is a regular study, 
 kept up without being left to individual fancy, but whose 
 logical and progressive development is foreseen and settled 
 by programmes. In order to give an idea of what is reli- 
 gious teaching, we cannot do better than translate the 
 programme of one of the gymnasiums {Thomasschule of 
 Leipzig).^ 
 
 Sexta~Z hours weekly. Biblical records of the Old 
 Testament (Kurtz Bibl. gesch. 17182). The last fragments 
 and the verses relating to it are being studied and com- 
 mented upon (Memoriers to fF. 163). Eight hymns. 
 
 Quinta— Z hours. The Life of Jesus up to the Passion. 
 The second part, with the verses referring to it, are being 
 learned and commented upon. Seven fresh hymns are 
 being learned, and those which were learned in the sexta 
 are being recalled to memory. 
 
 Quarta— ^ hours. The Passion of Jesus; Progress of 
 Christianity in the time of the Apostles, according to 
 Kurtz; Biblical history ; eight hymns. 
 
 Unter-Tertia—-2 hours. General introduction to the 
 study of the books of the Old and Xew Testaments— the ■ 
 
 1 Every year the principal must sum up in a published pro- 
 gramme what has been done in his sdiool duri.i- the year of study. 
 
 K
 
 258 THE GEKMANS. 
 
 4th, 5th, and 6th parts are being committed to memory 
 and commented upon ; the hymns previously learned are 
 being read over again. ^ 
 
 Oher-Tertia — 2 hours. History of divine service in 
 Israel; the Psalms and the Prophets. 
 
 Unter-Secunda — 2 hours. The beginnings of the history 
 of Christianity, according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew. 
 
 Oher-Secunda — 2 hours. The history of Christianity 
 according to the Gospel of Saint John, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and the Epistle of Saint Paul. 
 
 Unter- Prima — 2 hours. The History of the Christian 
 Church according to the Apostles. 
 
 Oher-Prima — 2 hours. Theory of Faith in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 WHioever will take the trouble to read and attentively 
 examine this programme, will soon acknowledge that it is 
 animated with a logical spirit, and well meant to gradually 
 bring pupils to the understanding of Christianity. In the 
 three lower forms faith is being developed, simple credulity 
 is being appealed to, morality is being symbolically taught 
 by legends, precepts become examples, the dove and the 
 imitation of Jesus Christ is the full extent of duty. Dur- 
 ing the five subsequent years the history of Christianity, 
 its origins and development, are being studied : thus the 
 mind penetrates the spirit of religious traditions ; to simple 
 faith efforts are made to add the already intelligent belief, 
 the historical evidence. Finally, the last year spent by 
 scholars in gymnasiums is devoted to imparting their belief 
 with some intimate and personal reflection. According to 
 the idea of Protestantism, the dogma is not an arbitrary 
 decree that authority imposes upon the mind, but an inner- 
 most truth that emerges spontaneously from the depths 
 
 1 The indications refer to Kutry's Hand-book, which is in use in 
 
 most higher schools.
 
 APPENDIX. 259 
 
 of religious conscience. Thus with every man takes place 
 the miracle of Eevelation. Prepared by quietude, by faith, 
 by history, reason must find religious truth as soon as its 
 own consciousness is awakened. 
 
 Thus, philosopJnj is not taught in gymnasiums because 
 there a iMJosophy is taught. Young men of twenty are 
 not thrown into life without moral belief. Instruction is 
 unanimously regarded as of necessity subordinate to edu- 
 cation. Young men, on leaving the gymnasiums, possess 
 a whole ensemUe of ideas of life, of man, of his relations 
 with the world and with God. Of these ideas it is con- 
 trived to make moral habits powerful enough to control 
 and guide youth with almost instinctive sway. I do not 
 say this aim is always reached, but it is undeniably the 
 aim in view. 
 
 The writer concludes :- — 
 
 The men who are actually the leaders of Germany have 
 a very clear perception of what they mean to do. In the 
 midst of her preoccupations, Prussia never separated the two 
 great forces which give power to a people— education and 
 the army. The school takes the child young and gives him 
 habits ; of ideas themselves it makes habits almost mechan- 
 ical, leading man without his being aware of it. Ideas 
 are man himself ; it is in schools that are being prepared the 
 citizens of the future and the soldiers of the armies destined 
 to keep up the conquered supremacy. The object is to 
 found the unity of the German land by the unity of national 
 spirit. This end is pursued with a very clear consciousness 
 of the results to be obtained. A very solid religious tuition 
 is given ; stdl no distinction is made between the idea of 
 Christianity and the idea of the Fatherland : the endeavour 
 is made to blend religious sentiment with national senti- 
 ment ; to strengthen the one by the other. Christian civil-
 
 260 THE GERMANS. 
 
 isation or German civilisation, these two expressions are 
 used as identical ; it is thus tried from childhood to exalt, 
 to increase one by the other, two of the most powerful in- 
 stincts of human life — religious instinct and patriotic in- 
 stinct. Germany takes up the theory of the ancients : the 
 ancient city possessed its gods, which were its strength and 
 its hope, — gods that belonged but to it. Henceforth Chris- 
 tianity belongs to Germany, and, if we are to believe her, 
 always did belong to her. It was not chance that raised 
 the struggle against the Catholics, that fostered persecution 
 against the Jews, — it is the system that developed its con- 
 sequences according to spontaneous logic from which we 
 try to escape. "Whatever surprises the future may have 
 in store for us, it must be granted that a people which, by 
 education, endeavours to give its own children a uniform 
 conscience, to create among them powerful ideas, and to 
 symbolise in the Fatherland the moral and religious ideas 
 it takes pride in, is likely to become strong. Germany 
 endeavours to preserve her strength by justifying and still 
 increasing it ; to succeed in which, she endeavours to rest 
 that material strength on a moral strength, developed and 
 created by religious and national education. It is not here 
 my object to compare our system with that of Germany. I 
 will merely inquire what generation of men we shall have 
 to oppose to the strong generation of Germany, if we bring 
 up our children in prisons where they will be subjected to 
 some brutal discipline, but where they will never hear any- 
 thing concerning what they owe to their country and to 
 the world. It is urgent, it is most indispensable, that we 
 should start a moral tuition which, in all the forms of our 
 lyceums, of our schools, would have the importance of re- 
 ligious tuition in German schools. France has a morality ; 
 she, moreover, possesses the same faith and ideas : they 
 must find expression; children must be inculcated with
 
 APPENDIX. 261 
 
 habits and instincts, — they must be taught to love their 
 country, by associating in their young minds, with these 
 habits and these instincts, the idea of superiority and ex- 
 cellence of which P' ranee, in this world, ought to be the 
 symbol "We must pursue this aim with the same con- 
 science and perseverance that the Germans display in the 
 pursuit of their own. The philosophical form {rlasse fie 
 pliilosophie) must not be abolished : in it, however, moral- 
 ity, the history of moral and political ideas, the part played 
 and to be still played by France in the drama of the 
 human mind, must all occupy a larger place. 
 
 [Extract from 'La Revue Internationale de I'Enseignement.' — 
 1883.] 
 
 APPEXDIX F. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND FACULTIES, 
 
 There are words whose signification seems almost iden- 
 tical, but which nevertheless, when examined a little more 
 closely, express entirely different ideas, facts, and even 
 forms, in the progress of our history. 
 
 We believe we are justified in classing in that group of 
 words, at first sight synonymous, the two terms school and 
 faculty, often indifferently used to mean the same thing, 
 but which express two quite different ideas, and which 
 could not, without seriously altering the fundamental 
 notions of higher education, be mistaken. 
 
 In ordinary conversation we indifferently use the words 
 school and faculty to signify the public establishments in 
 which instruction is given by professors, who represent and
 
 262 THE GERMANS. 
 
 control higher studies in the special group of science in- 
 trusted to them. Thus we speak of the schools of law, of 
 medicine, of fine arts, of agriculture, &c.; and to distin- 
 guish this kind of establishment from preparatory schools 
 of all kinds, we comprise them under the general accepta- 
 tion of institutions of higher education. These words higher 
 education mark at the same time a line of demarcation 
 between the schools for higher studies and those of a less 
 elevated type, such as lyceums, athenreums, gymnasiums. 
 In appearance these divers denominations seem very clear ; 
 in making use of them people think they perfectly know 
 what they mean to say : the aim of higher schools is 
 clearly expressed, and anybody can form an idea of what 
 we will call the public functions of these large institutions. 
 They mark the boundary of public education. The young 
 man who has satisfactorily finished his studies is hence- 
 forth abandoned to his own forces : he may, if he choose, 
 search the science to whose study he devotes himself, en- 
 large the circle of his knowledge, raise himself up to the 
 higher spheres, and if he can, if he will, reach the loftiest 
 summit of science. In a word, the terms school and faculty 
 signify those public establishments which mark the limit of 
 studies and the debut of a career. 
 
 And nevertheless, whatever analogy these two terms may 
 offer, people would rather hesitate before giving the name 
 of faculty to schools such as those where agriculture or fine 
 arts are being taught. Faculty of agriculture, faculty of 
 fine arts, these words do not sound well. And since the 
 word seems improper to us, it is only natural that we should 
 ascertain whether it is not the meaning that precludes the 
 use of the word. The essence of the thing cannot be the 
 same, since custom, and even the sentiment of the exact 
 propriety of the expressions of our language, would consider 
 as a trespass and violence upon the meaning of words,
 
 APPENDIX, 2G3 
 
 to confuse in expression what we often confuse in our 
 thought. 
 
 And this is not a petty grammatical quibble ; neither is 
 it a question of etymology, the explanation of which could 
 be sought in the history of our language. We are in pre- 
 sence of two entirely different institutions, of two principles 
 of study quite distinct, and referring to various phases in 
 the history of our public education. A faculty is not only 
 a school, and a school is not a faculty. Under these words, 
 which ordinary conversation too often confuses, are con- 
 cealed profound discrepancies concerning the plan and the 
 aim of education, as well as respecting the organisation 
 and the rights of tuition. These two terms seem, in our 
 opinion, to sum up the main differences existing between 
 the University of France, the colleges and universities of 
 Great Britain, and the United States and German univer- 
 sities. Sometimes language seems to crystallise, so to speak, 
 in certain words, ideas for Avhich the mind cannot account, 
 or, at least, which it does not clearly conceive. Attentive 
 examination of such words is sometimes conducive to a 
 regular discovery of ideas. Every idea creates, in the 
 language of science, a fresh word for its use ; and when 
 between words the mind, without carrying identity to its 
 remotest consequences, finds a certain analogy, it is well 
 that it should carefully examine the point, and ascertain if 
 there were not deeply rooted causes that preserved in the 
 language that which is believed to have disappeared, but 
 will never disappear. The reason we call the attention of 
 the readers of the ' Review ' to this idea, and why also we 
 bring together, in order to show their distinction, the two 
 terms school and facnltij, is that we are convinced that in 
 France chiefly some advantage can be derived from a little 
 essay upon the historical and formal sense of these two 
 words.
 
 264 THE GERMANS. 
 
 But here we meet a question which is precisely the very 
 one that forms the principal object of this study — What, 
 then, is a school 1 The system of three stages of higher 
 education does not by itself imply schools. The school 
 is a thing that suffices to itself, and is not too diffi- 
 cult to define : it is a public or private institution where 
 instruction is being given ; it is the gymnasium of the 
 mind. 
 
 There are also three categories of schools — primary, 
 secondary, higher ; and it is hardly possible to mistake the 
 signification of these three categories of schools even by 
 adding to them more numerous distinctions, such as higher 
 school of chemistry, of painting, &c. These words are 
 easily understood to mean, not different degrees, but various 
 subjects, of study. Apparently nothing can be more simple. 
 And yet, as we observed, one would not readily make use of 
 the term faadtij of chemistry, of painting. As soon as we 
 pronounce the word faculty, we experience the somewhat 
 confused feeling of something different from that other 
 general expression, school. It is true we might simply 
 banish altogether the word faculty from the pedagogic dic- 
 tionary; but Xapoleonian codification did not do away with 
 it, but the contrary. It may perhaps be argued that this 
 word only possesses historical importance ; still, all political 
 systems of education have preserved it. The word faculty 
 must then have a peculiar meaning, and perhaps owing to 
 that meaning itself it survived all political and social revo- 
 lutions, as well as those in science and education. "What 
 is, then, its true sense 1 And how is it that England does 
 not possess faculties but colleges, and that Germany, which 
 has so thoroughly reformed its education, has not only kept 
 up the word but the organisation of its ancient faculties, and, 
 at the same time, set up, by their side and on their model, 
 higher schools, without, however, applying the same word
 
 APPENDIX. 265 
 
 of faculties to the institutions similar to these in so many 
 respect-s ? 
 
 It will perhaps be objected that, in its historical sense, 
 the word faailtij implies the idea of a teaching corporation 
 similar to German universities. But there are faculties 
 that did not belong to universities, such as, for instance, 
 the faculty of medicine at Montpellier, or the faculty of 
 law at Orleans, when the University of Paris did not teach 
 Eoman law. 
 
 Besides, German universities of the present day form still 
 regular corporations, and possess faculties in the strictest 
 sense of the word. What is, then, the distinction between 
 a school and a faculty 1 In order to form a correct idea of 
 the difference that exists between the two, it is important 
 to say a few words about the nature of science, of which 
 the faculty is, as it Avere, the native land, and the high 
 school the chief application. 
 
 It is superfluous to state that no science exists by itself; 
 that all sciences are correlated and developed simultaneously, 
 like the various parts of the same organism, and that the 
 progress of each contributes to the development and pro- 
 gress of all the others. \Ve only call to mind this lande- 
 niable truth so as to deduct, as a consequence, that for all 
 the applications of science to human life, it is necessary to 
 possess a previous ensemble of knowledge relating to each of 
 them. "Whoever embraces a career is obliged to acquire 
 the knowledge and the limit where, if we may say so, the 
 province of his scientific education will at first be defined, 
 not by the idea of science in itself, but by the requirements 
 of the career he wishes to embrace, such as jurisprudence, 
 medicine, philology, theology. Besides, these sciences and 
 branches of knowledge may very well exist by themselves : 
 jurisprudence does not require theology, nor medicine phil- 
 ology ; and every one of these sciences may be conceived as
 
 266 THE GERMANS. 
 
 forming a whole, while its various parts are being developed 
 and begin to create special sciences. It is thus only natural 
 that, at the outset of the preliminary tuition of a vocation 
 {Berufsbildung), education be limited to an ensemble of 
 knowledge of a double nature : on the one hand, all the 
 special branches contained in the whole of every science, 
 with their special progress ; on the other hand, special 
 sciences themselves, considered outside of all logical and 
 philosophical unity, according to the nature and the par- 
 ticular wants of each vocation. It is easy to form teaching 
 bodies for each of these sciences of vocation {Berufswissen- 
 schuften) that will involve all the special branches of that 
 science special in itself — such as, for instance, civil law, 
 criminal law, and the law of nations for jurisprudence. 
 
 If, then, any calling whatsoever, like that of a judge 
 require special instruction for the discharge of public 
 functions, it will at first sight be sufficient to expect from 
 the future magistrate but that special instruction acquired 
 by him in view of his vocation — jurisprudence; that is, 
 civil law, criminal law, the law of nations. It would, then, 
 be idle to organise an ensemhle of tuition, in some measure 
 disinterested, and only related to one another by a mere 
 philosophical tie ; it would be far wiser to take into 
 accoim.t only special vocations, and the practical aim which, 
 for instance, the jurisconsult has in view. It seems as 
 though society would be perfectly satisfied with tuition 
 understood in this light. And these institutions, limited 
 to their practical object — living, so to speak, their own life, 
 having no contact with the other sciences, satisfied to go 
 deeply into the special object of their studies useful to life, 
 foreign to the doubts that assail those who investigate 
 scientific ideas outside their curriculum, — these institutions 
 are the higher schools. 
 
 It is therefore easy to understand that a good system of
 
 APPENDIX. 2G7 
 
 tuition may be devised by the means of as many higher 
 schools as there are, we will not say ideal parts of a logical 
 system of sciences, but careers useful to society and to the 
 practical wants of existence. And, in fact, with all civil- 
 ised peoples, there will be as many such higher schools as 
 there will be leading vocations acknowledged as indispens- 
 able by society. This is what explains the existence of 
 higher schools of agriculture, of music, by the side of the 
 schools of jurisprudence and medicine. These high schools 
 meet imperious social wants. Still they are not scientific 
 institutions. And, this distinction once admitted, it must 
 be acknowledged that in these schools, at least in principle, it 
 is less a question of science, of the great unity of knowledge, 
 of the croffiLa of the Greeks, than of the practical and honour- 
 able applications of what these same Greeks termed the 
 ri)(yaL, the arts, the liberal arts (to make use of a medieval 
 expression, these in the middle ages being sometimes classed 
 with handicrafts). 
 
 And judging these high schools from the standpoint of 
 primary, secondary, and higher education, such higher 
 education would involve the whole of higher schools, for 
 which secondary education would form a sort of prelim- 
 inary stage (Vorbildunfj); so that, as in France, the uni- 
 versity would comprise the whole system of higher and 
 secondary schools organised and hierarchised according to 
 the same principles and under the same administrative 
 control. Each science would then possess its organisation, 
 its lectures, its professors, its examinations, — the whole of 
 this in view of a special career. Could not an organisa- 
 tion of this nature suffice for both the development of the 
 human mind and the necessities of practical life 1 
 
 In the middle ages there were high schools of jurispru- 
 dence and medicine in several parts of Europe, in Italy as 
 well as in France ; but we see everywhere, at the same time,
 
 268 THE GERMANS. 
 
 a movement of centralisation that tended to group the 
 various schools in a certain unity, misunderstood at first, 
 quite formal, and without any really scientific tie, but that 
 succeeded in securing all the forces of such unity, in giving 
 birth to its organisation, to its rights, in appointing its 
 ruler, under the name of university. It is true that in the 
 beginning, and even after several centuries, men experi- 
 enced great trouble in giving a correct idea of a university. 
 Boullaj'e, in his ' Histoire de I'Universite de Paris,' fur- 
 nishes frequent proofs of it in the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries ; and we also possess the historical proof 
 that, in the sixteenth century, in Germany, they could 
 not at all account for the nature and the special function 
 of a university, or for the difference existing between 
 academies, lyceums, gymnasiums, and universities. We 
 thus read, in 1502, in the statutes which the Emperor 
 Maximilian gave the University of "Wittemberg, since then 
 so famous by the reform that it gave birth to, — " Ut 
 Studium generale sive universitatem, aut gj^mnasium insti- 
 tueremus." ^Maximilian II., in the statutes of the Univer- 
 sity of Helmstadt (1579), said, — " Privilegiis et immuni- 
 tatibus studii universalis seu gymnasiL" The privilege of 
 the University of Halle contains the following words, — 
 " Tale sublimius gymnasium sive academiam ; " and that of 
 Göttingen, — " Sublimius gymnasium sive academiam et 
 Studium universale," &c. The first writer who tried to 
 define the true nature and meaning of a university, com- 
 pared with academies and lyceums, is, to the best of our 
 knowledge, Meiners, one of the celebrities of the University 
 of Göttingen, who, towards the close of the last century, 
 published a work " on the constitution and administration 
 of higher schools," and, a short time afterwards, a ' History 
 of the Foundation and Progress of Higher Schools,' four 
 volumes (1802). But he did not fully grasp the nature of
 
 APPENDIX. 269 
 
 universities : for him, their characteristic feature lies solely 
 iu their co-operative element, in their constitution, their 
 jurisdiction, their privileges, their rights of conferring 
 scientific degrees ; whereas, in the very words that recite 
 their ancient privileges, he ought to have read the proof 
 that the nature of these universities proceeded chiefly from 
 the Studium generale at Paris, Padua, Vienna, Prague, &c., 
 and that the organisation and the privileges of these great 
 corporations were indeed but the consequence of their 
 functions, that led them to bring together in a body, as 
 Studium generale, all the studies of higher schools, to meet 
 the unity claimed by the ensemble of sciences, — a union 
 that justifies for each university the glorious title of Alma 
 Mater. 
 
 What was to be understood by these words — general 
 or more sublime study 1 Was it something else than the 
 particular study of separate sciences in the high schools 
 extant] Could these universities add any fresh knowledge 
 to that already taught in the special schools'? Could, for 
 instance, the University of Paris cultivate Roman law better 
 than the high school of law at Orleans, or medicine more 
 successfully than Montpellier] And yet it was felt that 
 there was something more grand and more vivifying in the 
 unity of those higher schools, with their professors, masters, 
 bachelors, and licentiates. The universities attracted the 
 high schools, they blended them into one body : the latter 
 renounced their independent existence by incorporating 
 themselves with the university whole ; their discipline, as 
 well as their organisation, became an integral part of the 
 university, and in that union they lost the name of scliool 
 to take that oi faculty. We know this is the history of the 
 formation of faculties ; and we again inquire. Where lies 
 the great principle that brought about that transformation — 
 as also, for what motive, in the midst of the modern organ-
 
 270 THE GERMANS. 
 
 isation of education in Europe, we preserve the name and 
 the idea of an institution, which, at first sight, only pos- 
 sesses a historical right to exist in a civilisation that has 
 developed sciences and their tuition in a measure of which 
 bygone centuries had certainly no idea 1 
 
 And yet it does not seem very difficult to us to show 
 precisely the nature of high schools compared with the 
 faculties, which were mostly but high schools joined to a 
 university. 
 
 We now hope it will be easy to find the true sense of 
 the great difference which, in our opinion, exists between a 
 higher school and a faculty. Every higher school is limited 
 by its discipline and its object, and it does not concern 
 itself with anything beyond these limits : we thus say that 
 all superior instruction in higher schools is, by its nature, 
 a practical teaching. On the other hand, every faculty, 
 though containing in its instruction all that a higher school 
 offers to its pupils, claims by its nature a study of philos- 
 ophy and general history, and theoretical conception as the 
 complement of practical discipline. The higher schools 
 lead always to experiments, whereas the faculty leads to 
 systems. The former gives what is necessary for social 
 life; the latter, though ensuring the same advantage, re- 
 quires every vocation to have a point in which it rises 
 above those narrow limits which immediate utility ascribes 
 to it. The higher school is satisfied with laying before its 
 pupils that which is certain ; the faculty teaches its dis- 
 ciples to search and to comprehend that which is true. 
 The higher school dismisses its pupils when they have 
 learned all they require ; the faculty insists upon their 
 learning also that of which they may never have to make 
 a direct application. If the value of a higher school con- 
 sists in practical knowledge, that of a faculty lies in the 
 conception of the unity of all human knowledge and dis-
 
 APPENDIX. 271 
 
 cipline. Both follow a system often the same ; but the 
 system of a higher school is limited by its practical object, 
 whereas that of a faculty considers each actual state of a 
 practical system as being part of a whole belonging to tlie 
 development of the general civilisation of mankind. And 
 this is why the organisation of higher schools has a char- 
 acter distinguishing it from that of faculties — character that 
 reappears, so to speak, by the innate force of things, and 
 which sometimes subsists without our being aware of it. 
 We may found as many higher schools as we please ; every 
 one of them will take its name from its special object, and 
 the organisation of its studies and of its discipline may be 
 quite the same as that of faculties. But these higher schools 
 do not require to be united in a common teaching body, — 
 every one of them may and can exist for itself; it suffices 
 to itself, because its function is filled by its object and its 
 aim. But it is impossible that a faculty could exist iso- 
 lated from other faculties, because in giving all a higher 
 school can and intends to teach, the faculty expects besides 
 from its students a study at least elementary of philosophy 
 and general history. If the higher school is the teaching 
 of nature, of special forces and their object, the faculty pre- 
 sents a scientific teaching based, at the same time, upon all 
 sciences. A faculty is unable to exist for itself; it still 
 contains precisely what the ancient statutes of the univer- 
 sities meant by the words studium generale, studium snb- 
 limius. So soon as faculties sprang up, they blended 
 themselves in the unity of some great body, where high 
 disciplines are not only in juxtaposition, but where they 
 rise to the dignity of science by philosophical and historical 
 studies ; and so soon as such union takes place in a body 
 common to all sciences, the great principle of the division 
 of labour becomes obvious. Each group of studies becomes 
 a faculty, and the faculty of philosophy becomes distinct
 
 272 THE GERMANS. 
 
 from that of theology, the faculty of law is separated from 
 that of medicine. 
 
 Thus were born the four faculties, and it is not legis- 
 lation or administration of public instruction, — whatever it 
 may be, it is the superior force of things, or rather, the 
 nature of the life of the mind itself, — which created that 
 system of faculties — faculties which, by their union in a 
 common body, and by the powerful unity that history and 
 philosophy stamp upon the tuition of all sciences, became a 
 university. This is why higher schools do not, and never 
 will, form a university ; whereas, as already seen, faculties 
 cannot exist outside of a university. And this explains 
 why the difference is so great between higher schools, 
 although they may bear the same name, whereas univer- 
 sities are all alike ; and the innate difference between the 
 faculties and the higher schools is so great, that it alone 
 suffices to enable us to understand why language and liter- 
 ature, and even legislation and administration, do not feel 
 themselves free to apply the name of the one to the organ- 
 isation of the other. It is impossible, or rather it "would 
 sound very odd, to speak of a faculty of painting, of agri- 
 culture, even of chemistry or literature ; whereas even the 
 most systematic of legislation on public instruction, French 
 legislation, could not entirely do away with the word 
 faculty for the great groups of science. This was the start- 
 ing-point of our observations ; I think it is as well that 
 we laid them before our readers : and if the notion of 
 science be clear, that of faculty, distinct from the idea of 
 higher school, will none the less be so. 
 
 Nevertheless, we confess our observations are somewhat 
 rather abstract. The union of faculties by the unity of 
 sciences in a university is an organic, and, at the same time, 
 historical fact ; but if we are to deduct from this fact 
 practical consequences for the organisation of education,
 
 APPENDIX. 273 
 
 this fact itself must not only exist, but also be brought 
 into exercise : if not, the distinction between faculty and 
 school must remain, like the idea of faculty and that of 
 university itself, a theoretically highly interesting concep- 
 tion, though of no application in practice. We have, then, 
 a right to inquire how and under what form it was enabled 
 to impose itself upon the great system of education. 
 
 We must take care not to overstep the limits of an essay, 
 which, perhaps, is already too long. We will, then, con- 
 fine ourselves to saying that it is history itself which gave 
 the answer to this question, and that the public law of 
 university tuition in Germany, as in Austria and in Scan- 
 dinavia, has, from the beginning of our society, formulated 
 this answer in the positive order of studies and the exam- 
 inations of universities. However true and beautiful may 
 appear the theory of faculty and university, the ancient 
 studiimi sublimius cannot be left to the fancy of students. 
 The greater number of these study science in view of some 
 special career, and care little about philosophy and history, 
 — and, if it were not for the system of examinations, the 
 philosophical faculty, with all its laboratories and its lec- 
 tures, would perhaps be deserted by most students. This 
 the university system has well understood: it never was 
 willing to leave science to the mercy of young men, and 
 compel them only to the study of positive discipline. 
 Thus the general rule is that every student, during the 
 eight half-years of his studies, must attend at least one 
 course of lectures on philosophy and one on history, and 
 that his studies are not considered as complete if he fail to 
 enter his name for these two courses of lectures. On the 
 other hand, it is also this nature of faculties which gave 
 birth throughout Germany to the system of examinations. 
 These are divided into two groups — theoretical and prac- 
 tical. The theoretical examination follows university 
 
 S
 
 274 THE GERMANS. 
 
 studies, and requires not only a certain knowledge of 
 philosophical ideas, relating chiefly to the various phases 
 of the history of philosophy, but also historical notions, 
 mainly in the history of the special branch of study relat- 
 ing to the profession to which the student intends devoting 
 himself. It is true that medicine is an exception, and that 
 the examination of medical students, upon their leaving 
 the university, is, at the same time, practical and theo- 
 retical ; but the other faculties always insist upon the ele- 
 ments of pliilosophical and historical notions, and they are 
 sometimes rather severe in this respect. 
 
 This university or theoretical examination is, through- 
 out Gennany as in Austria, followed by a practical ex- 
 amination, but which only takes place at the end of a 
 few years, after the introduction of the young man into 
 practice. It is only then that candidates are expected to 
 be conversant with all the positive and practical notions 
 which theologians, barristers, and functionaries need to 
 be acquainted with. And since the university exam- 
 ination is the preliminary condition of being allowed 
 to go up for the practical subsequent examination, young 
 men are bound, at least within certain limits, to attend 
 the philosophical and historical lectures, and they would 
 hardly dare appear before any examining board without 
 possessing at least some pretty complete notion of these 
 elements of a university education. The great difference 
 between the scientific education of Germany and that of 
 the other countries of Europe lies precisely in the fact 
 that every educated young man brings away with him 
 from the university at least a general idea of science, 
 besides the positive knowledge necessary for the career 
 he is about to embrace ; and if he has not learnt many 
 things, beyond the limits of his special instruction, he, at 
 least, is enabled to learn that even of which he has no
 
 APPENDIX. 275 
 
 material need, and even to respect a little that which he 
 has not understood. And this is why he loves his uni- 
 versity, because the impression it imparts to his youthful 
 mind, the development of his ideas beyond the limits of 
 his professional knowledge,— all these constitute so many 
 recollections that are always present to his mind: they 
 are the great ties that unite him in communion of ideas 
 with the general life of the past as well as with the 
 eternal labour of the human mind : he looks upon them 
 as priceless treasures that keep him company even in 
 the loneliness of an existence that at times is despairingly 
 empty. 
 
 And to wind up these theoretical observations by a very 
 practical one for positive studies themselves, we must point 
 out that the serious consequence of this principle of univer- 
 sity tuition in faculties as compared with higher schools 
 is, that philosophy and history being, in the former, in- 
 tegral parts of higher education, become themselves studies 
 of vocation (professional studies). There is a thin^^ a 
 force, with which, at momentous periods, human life cannot 
 dispense without feeling the want of an essential element, 
 upon which depends sometimes the last success, and from 
 which proceeds the power of combating indiiference and 
 egotism, those two enemies of all that is grand and beauti- 
 ful : it is ideal. And history and philosophy are the 
 sources of that force : alone, ideal never forsakes us ; we 
 must give it as a friend and inseparable companion to 
 youthful minds still capable of understanding the value of 
 that which has ceased to be useful. 
 
 Dr Lorenz de Stein, 
 Profesnor in the Vienna Universily. 
 
 [Extract from the ' Revue Internationale de rEnseignement.' 
 
 18S2. Massen.]
 
 276 THE GERMANS. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 ORGANISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 Before leaving tlie Ministry of Public Instruction to 
 take the Portfolio of Foreign Affairs, M. Jules Ferry sent 
 to the various rectors of the University the following im- 
 portant circular note, respecting the organisation of higher 
 education : — 
 
 ]\[0NS1EUR LE ReCTEUR, 
 
 The various measures which, for the last five years, I 
 have been taking concerning the faculties, were amply 
 sufficient to evince the paramount importance I ascribe to 
 all that is likely to foster in higher education the sentiment 
 of responsibility, the habit of self-rule. "\Ve should have 
 attained a great result indeed if we could some day consti- 
 tute universities bringing together the most varied teachings 
 that they might reciprocally help one another, administering 
 themselves their own affairs, appreciating fully their duties 
 and their mission, inspiring themselves with the ideas 
 peculiar to each part of France within the limits required 
 by the unity of our country, competing with neighbouring 
 universities, associating in their rivalry the interest of their 
 own prosperity with the desire of great cities to surpass one 
 another, and thus acquiring special merits and titles to 
 honour. I do not forget that time is necessary to ensure 
 such achievements ; that, in such undertakings, however 
 legitimate the ambition, nothing must be done with pre- 
 cipitation or left to hazard. I think, however, considering 
 the results we have already obtained, that the question may 
 at least be investigated.
 
 APPENDIX. 277 
 
 On so serious a subject, as in all others, it is chiefly from 
 the opinion, the enlightenment, and the abnegation of the 
 teaching body, that real progress is to be expected : I 
 therefore deem it necessary to invite it to expose the views 
 it holds in this respect. It is idle to state that no restric- 
 tion whatsoever is to be opposed to free expression in 
 the discussions about to be opened first of all in the facul- 
 ties, in higher and preparatory schools, then in academic 
 councils. 
 
 The subject is important enough that plenty of time 
 should be given to think it over. It will be sufficient that 
 the deliberations of the faculties be submitted before aca- 
 demic councils in the July session. If even a further 
 delay should appear necessary, every advantage is to be 
 derived from its being granted ; the main object is to 
 secure profound and conscientious investigation. 
 
 I will refer to a set of questions which, I think, ought 
 to be studied, and which I desire the faculties to discuss in 
 turn, so that it may be easier to sura up, and to compare 
 the opinions expressed. The faculties may, of course, after- 
 wards examine any other questions they may deem worthy 
 of interest. 
 
 1. Of Universities. — "Would there be any advantage in 
 grouping the various faculties of the same academic juris- 
 diction into a university ? What services would such a 
 measure be likely to render ? 
 
 2. "What kind of autonomy would be desirable for each 
 faculty in the university 1 
 
 3. What should be the administrative mode of these 
 universities 1 Should there be a council composed of the 
 deans {doyens) and of an annual delegate elected by each 
 faculty ? Should such council be recruited on different 
 principles I 
 
 4. Should the dean be elected ? Should his appoint-
 
 278 THE GERMANS. 
 
 ment be annual ? Could any advantage accrue from adopt- 
 ing other rules ? 
 
 5. "Wliat should be the attributions of the university 
 council ? Its scientific and its administrative attributions ? 
 
 6. Who should be the head of the university"? AYhat 
 do you think of a head yearly elected as president of the 
 university 1 Or what other title could be given 1 "What 
 should the president's attributions be 1 What part should 
 he play towards the council ? 
 
 7. Attributions of the annual rector representing the 
 central authority ? 
 
 8. What part of the actual revenue of faculties should 
 be placed entirely at the disposal of the university ? Is it 
 desirable that universities should have a yearly endowment, 
 calculated according to the mean revenue of faculties, in 
 each academic centre, during the last five years 1 
 
 9. Are you of opinion that civil personality granted to 
 faculties would ensure to them important advantages, by 
 making endowments more easily feasible, and urging all 
 municipalities to consider universities as institutions to 
 the prosperity of which they should contribute 1 
 
 10. What should be the maximum and the minimum of 
 State rights 1 
 
 11. What are the best means likely to develop in uni- 
 versities the life and the spirit of progress 1 
 
 The deliberative bodies are invited to sum up their views 
 in the way generally adopted for projects of laws and 
 decrees. 
 
 The constitution of universities administering themselves 
 under the high control of the State is no doubt an ideal 
 that we must endeavour to attain ; still, it is important to 
 take into account public spirit, the past history of our 
 country, the different customs noticeable in the divers 
 faculties, some already ancient traditions existing among
 
 APPENDIX. 279 
 
 the professors and admitted by the public opinion. Our 
 only preoccupation must be to secure serious and real pro- 
 gress, easy to be obtained by simple and practical means. 
 We have not the right to attempt experiments whose issue 
 might be doubtful : should the least uncertainty strike the 
 faciüties regarding the success of the reforms I submit to 
 their notice, it is their duty to say so. To put off a reform, 
 is often, for the minds whose sole object is public boon, the 
 best means of ensuring their easy and complete triumph 
 some years later. 
 
 You will be good enough, in summing up the various 
 views expressed to you, to give me your own personal 
 opinion. 
 
 Eeceive, Monsieur le Eecteur, the assurance of my most 
 distinguished consideration. 
 
 The President of the Council, 
 Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, 
 
 Jules Ferry. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 DECKEE OF THE 2-iTH JULY, AUTHOPJSIXG FREE 
 LECTURES IN FACULTIES. 
 
 The President of the French Eepublic, 
 
 Considering the report of the President of the Council, 
 Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts ; 
 
 Having heard the Superior Council of Public Instruction, 
 
 Decrees : — 
 Article 1. — Free lectures may be delivered in faculties 
 by professors not belonging to the staff of such faculties.
 
 280 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Faculties of Letters and Sciences. 
 
 Article 2. — Any doctor of letters or of sciences may be 
 authorised to deliver, in the State faculties, free lectures 
 upon the subjects corresponding with the order of studies 
 for which he has been appointed a doctor. 
 
 Such authorisation is granted by the Secretary of State, 
 upon the proposal or advice of the faculty in which the 
 lectures are to take place, and upon a special report from 
 the rector. 
 
 The professors in the various State establishments of 
 higher education, the correspondents or members of the 
 Institute, are considered as belonging to the body of 
 doctors. 
 
 Article 3. — The same authorisation may, according to 
 favourable advice from the faculty, be granted to persons 
 unprovided with the degree of doctor, in case of their 
 having specially studied the matters upon which they 
 intend to lecture. 
 
 Article 4. — In any case, the authorisation will only be 
 valid for one year. 
 
 It may be renewed according to the conditions set forth 
 in Articles 2 and 3. 
 
 Upon the advice or proposal of the faculty, the Minister 
 may always withdraw it. 
 
 Article 5, — The bill relating to free lectures can only be 
 posted by the orders of the faculty. 
 
 As regards surveillance and discipline, free lectures are 
 assimilated to the lectures of the faculty. 
 
 Article 6. — The free lectures are either public or private. 
 "When public, admission to them is submitted to the same 
 conditions as for the lectures of the faculty. 
 
 No person can be admitted to the private lectures with- 
 out the assent of the professor. Any member of the faculty
 
 APPENDIX. 281 
 
 or of the academic administration may, however, at any 
 time, attend the free lectures, even when private. 
 
 Article 7. — The expenses arising from free lectures are to 
 be charged to the professor ; they are to be settled by 
 mutual agreement between the dean and the professor. 
 under the approbation of the rector. 
 
 The authoiisation for delivering free lectures does not 
 involve the use of instruments, apparatus, &c., or the em- 
 ployment of the staff belonging to the faculty. 
 
 Article 8. — Private free lecturers may charge a certain 
 fee payable by students, for the benefit of the professor. 
 
 Article 9. — Free lectures may be annual, half-yearly, or 
 quarterly : they must number at least ten lectures every 
 ([uarter. 
 
 Faculties of MeiJicinc 
 
 Article 10. — The free lectures in the faculty of medicine 
 of Paris are still subjected to the prescriptions contained in 
 the Presidential decision of 9th February 1881. 
 
 Every faculty of medicine and every higher school of 
 pharmacy shall submit to the approval of the Minister a 
 set of regulations relative to free lectures. 
 
 Faculties of Law. 
 
 Article 11. — The above decree may, by ministerial deci- 
 sion, be applied to faculties of law, at their request. 
 
 Article 12. — The President of the Council, Minister of 
 Public Instruction and Fine Arts, is intrusted with the 
 execution of the present decree. 
 
 Jules Grevy. 
 Ly the President of the Eepublic : 
 
 The President of the Council, 
 Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, 
 
 Jules Ferry.
 
 282 THE GERMANS, 
 
 APPEXDIX I. 
 
 Ill 1784 the following subject was given as competition 
 by the academy of Berlin : " Of the causes of the universal- 
 ity of the French language." Eivarol sent in an essay; his 
 speech had the greatest success before the academy and in 
 Paris : but it is not generally known that he only obtained 
 half the prize, this being shared with a German scholar, 
 M. Schwab, secretary to the Duke of AViirtemberg. Ri- 
 varol's speech was not free from defects : there is too much 
 rhetoric in the preamble ; the last page is emphatic ; 
 l)esides, we could take up in the whole speech many a 
 passage of bad taste, thoughtless assertions upon history 
 and the origin of languages, allusions full of affectation. 
 Still, through this display of bad academic style some 
 pages subsist that bear the stamp of the writer and 
 thinker. 
 
 The author is aware that the proud privilege of univer- 
 sality devolved upon the French tongue is owing to intri- 
 cate and delicate causes : it is the situation of France, her 
 political constitution, the influence of her climate, the 
 genius of her writers, the character of her inhabitants, and 
 the high opinion of herself which she enforced upon the 
 world. The chief idea is that the character of nations and 
 the genius of their tongue follow in the same steps, and 
 that it is the admirable property of speech thus to unveil 
 man in his entirety. The genius of a language arises from 
 numerous causes, among which are to be noticed the sweet- 
 ness or the harshness of articulations, the abundance or the 
 scarcity of vowels, the prosody and the length of words, 
 their filiations — lastly, the number and the form of struc-
 
 APPENDIX. 283 
 
 tures they take in their combinations. These causes are 
 intimately united to the climate and the character of each 
 people in particular ; the union of the character of a people 
 and of the genius of its tongue is based upon the eternal 
 covenant of speech and thought. 
 
 The chief distinction between our tongue and ancient 
 and modern languages lies in the order and structure of the 
 sentence. This order must always be direct : a Frenchman 
 will always name first the subject of the sentence, then the 
 verb — that is, the action — and lastly, the object of that 
 action. This is logic natural to all men, this constitutes 
 common-sense. Xow this method is nearly always contrary 
 to sensations which name the object first. This is why all 
 peoples who gave up the direct method had recourse to 
 inversions. But what traps, what surprises, what obscurity, 
 what artifice and withering of the idea, in inverted lan- 
 guages ! Frenchmen remained faithful to the logical order, 
 as though it were reason itself ; French syntax is incoiTup- 
 tible. That which is not clear cannot be French. This is 
 why, despite the richness and the beauty of its poetry, it is 
 owing to its prose that the French tongue has reigned, 
 reigns, and will ever reign. Prose unveils the nudity of 
 thought; with it no weakness can be tolerated. Our 
 language is, then, the natural expression of a people that 
 received the impressions of all the peoples of Europe, that 
 placed taste in moderate opinions, and of which it may be 
 said that its books compose the library of mankind. 
 
 Such is the substance of Rivarol's speech, made a little 
 clearer and more methodical, it must be acknowledged, by 
 the brilliant analysis of ^I. Caro. AVliat the laureate of 
 1784 is deficient in is the continuity in inspiration, the 
 regularity of taste. It is, nevertheless, admitted that this 
 speech possesses first-rate qualities, and that seldom has
 
 284 THE GERMANS. 
 
 philosophy of language met with a more delicate and keener 
 interpreter. 
 
 M, Caro compares with Rivarol's speech the composition 
 of his competitor, M. Schwab : it is slow in style, but not 
 devoid of merit. For M. Schwab, the cause of the univer- 
 sality of our tongue is a sort of natural adaptation of French 
 taste to that of other nations in Europe. All the advan- 
 tage of such taste might possibly consist in a certain medi- 
 ocrity that commends it to these nations. Because of the 
 originality of her national spirit, with which her tongue 
 and her literature are, so to speak, saturated, Germany, on 
 the contrary, meets with great obstacles to the propagation 
 of her idiom and of her works. The German language, 
 says M. Schwab, will find much difficulty in becoming 
 predominant in Europe. Still, three circumstances might 
 bring about such a result : 1st, The modification of the lan- 
 guage ; 2d, The neglect of intellectual culture by the nation 
 that speaks it ; 3d, The loss of the nation's political in- 
 fluence. 
 
 "We must conclude with this last remark, beneath which, 
 under pages of simple appearance, are concealed all the 
 idea and all the hope of the good patriot Schwab. 
 
 [Report of the sitting of the "Academic des Sciences Morales 
 et Politiques." Extract from the paper ' Le Temps,' of 27th 
 November 1883.]
 
 APPENDIX. 285 
 
 APPEXDIX J. 
 
 BIBLIOGKAPHY. 
 
 Emile Eeaussire. — The Liberty of Tuition and the 
 University under the Third Eepuhlic. Hachette, 1883. 
 
 Gaston Boissier. — The Reform of Studies in the IGtli 
 Century, according to Eecent Investigation. Eevue des 
 Deux Mondes, 1882. 
 
 BouTMY. — Some Observations on the Eeform of Higher 
 Education. Paris, 1875. 
 
 Michel Breal. — Pedagogic Excursions. Hachette. 
 
 CouRNOT. — The Institutions of Public Instruction in 
 France. Paris, 1864. 
 
 Ch. Desmaze. — The University of Paris. Paris, 1876. 
 
 Halmagrand. — Origin of the University. Paris, 1845. 
 
 Heinrich. — French Faculties and German Universities. 
 Lyons, 1866. 
 
 Henri Heixe. — Germany. 
 
 HiPPEAU. — Public Instruction in Germany. 
 
 HiPPEAU. — Public Instruction in France during the Ee- 
 volution. Hachette. 
 
 Ernest Layisse. — Historical Teaching of the Sorbonne 
 and Xational Education. Eevue des Deux Mondes, 1882. 
 
 Lichtenberger. — The ^Movement of Eeligious Ideas in 
 Germany. Paris, 1860. 
 
 MiNSSEX. — Study on Secondary and Higher Education 
 in Germany. Paris, 1873. 
 
 E. Eenan. — Higher Education in France, its History 
 and its Future. Eevue des Deux Mondes, 186-4.
 
 286 THE GERMANS. 
 
 Eevue Internationale de I'Enseignement. Masson, Paris. 
 
 Madame de Staül. — Germany. 
 
 Dr DÖLLIXGER. — Die Universitäten sonst und jetzt. 
 München, 1871, 
 
 Karl von Eaumer. — Geschichte der Pädagogik. Deut- 
 scher Universitäts-Kalender. Winter-Semester, 1882-83. 
 
 EuG. "Wolff. — Die neue Burschenschaft. Berlin, 1880. 
 
 H. E. Hagenbach. — Encyclopädie und Methodologie der 
 theologischen Wissenschaften. Leipzig, 1880. — Allge- 
 meines deutsches Commersbuch. Lahr, 1882. 
 
 Friederich Überweg. — Grundriss der Geschichte der 
 Philosophie. Berlin, 1880. 
 
 0. Dolch. — Geschichte des deutschen Studententhums. 
 Leipzig, 18-58, 
 
 tue end. 
 
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