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Antiqua
Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung, Kapitälchen; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Besonderes: Paragraphenzählung.
Among the most striking characteristics of the present age,
are the general facility of communication existing between the
nations of the West, the Europeans and their American descen-
dants, and the readiness with which each of them receives from
every other, whatever may be usefully applied to its own con-
dition and circumstances. The late wars in Europe brought
the people of different countries into closer connexion than be-
fore, and thus gave birth among them to feelings of mutual
respect; while, by rendering them weary of military glory, they
tended also to awaken a more general fondness for science and
the arts of peace. Even England has cast away many of her
ancient prejudices, and has become more willing than formerly,
to receive instruction from other nations. The Frenchman no
longer regards Paris as the only city worthy of the attention of
a traveller: the Spaniard begins to be sensible of the absurdity
of his foolish pride; Russia herself will soon be included in
ceptions and false opinions respecting the East, are beginning
to disappear. The Chinese are no longer looked upon as mere
barbarians: we have, in short, discovered, in the language of
a common German proverb, that there are men beyond the
mountains. The world is daily becoming more enlightened
and more just. Before the people of the United States, lies
the whole Western continent, spread out like the prospect from
the summit of a mountain—vast, animated, and various; and
we are enabled, by the unexampled quickness of our commu-
nications with other countries, to adopt immediately from them
all their valuable and useful improvements. The Latin lan-
guage, which, in the middle ages, was the only medium of
intercourse among men of learning, is now supplanted by several
others. Books are published at the same time, in two or three
different dialects; and it has become indispensable for every
well-educated man, to be familiar with some other, beside his
vernacular tongue. We would not be understood to adopt
the common opinion, that the progress of civilization has been
retarded by the barriers interposed between nations, by the
difference of their languages: nor do we consider it as at all
unfortunate, that a single language does not universally prevail.
On the contrary, we are convinced, that the great variety of
the tongues and dialects spoken by her inhabitants, is one of the
causes of the superiority which Europe, a small and insignificant
portion of the earth, has obtained over the rest of the Eastern
hemisphere. Polite literature is divided, not according to
countries, but according to languages: and it passes in each
through the same gradations, from the earliest efforts of epic
and lyric song, to refined description and attic wit; as the
nation, which speaks it, passes itself through the various stages
of civilization. This remark, however, cannot with justice be
applied to the exact sciences, to the literature of the mechanic
arts, or to geography. Still, if one language only had been
spoken in Europe, our admiration would hardly have been at
the same time excited by Camoens, Ercilla, Dante, Ariosto,
the Nibelungenlied, and Milton. If the Danes had spoken the
same language as the Germans, Denmark could hardly have
produced so many distinguished writers in the short interval
between Holberg and Oehlenschlaeger. We will even go
further, and assert, that the human intellect would not have
attained to its present degree of developement in so many
the ideas of all men had been necessarily expressed in the same
idiom. Language and ideas exert a constant and reciprocal
influence; and it is one of the principal charms of the study of
a new language, that it discloses to us new ideas.
The Association, the title of whose eighth report is placed
at the head of this article, appears to us to be one of the most
striking effects of the increased facility and desire of commu-
nication between different countries. Knowledge is certainly
rapidly advancing. We do not accord in opinion with those,
who claim for the present age a superiority in every branch of
civilization, science and art; and who forget, in their admira-
tion of Fulton, that the application of the paddle-wheel, or even
the mere wheel, to the propulsion of vessels, was an improve-
ment as great as his: but we believe, that particular ages have
been distinguished by certain peculiar attainments; and that
there has been very little, if any, increase of skill in modern
times, though the diffusion of it has become more general and
rapid. We are of the opinion just indicated, that every remark-
able age has applied its ingenuity and activity to some particular
department, in which it has excelled preceding and subsequent
ones. The favorite studies at the present day are natural
philosophy, geography, statistics, and the application of science
to the arts; and the zeal and success with which they have been
cultivated, cannot be too highly praised.
The Association of German naturalists and physicians is
novel, we may say, unique in its character; and it well de-
serves to be imitated in other countries. It promises, as the
reader will hereafter perceive, to be the means of effecting—
what is most earnestly to be desired—a scientific union of the
German and French nations: and we deem it, therefore, not
unimportant to give some account of its character and history.
In a country, in which natural philosophy is so important an
object of general pursuit as it is in Germany, and in which so
many professors of the healing art are distinguished, as their an-
nual discoveries and publications abundantly prove, for scientific
attainments, it was desirable, that men of science should become
personally acquainted with each other; in order that they might
more readily exchange ideas, aid one another in their respective
plans, and communicate more directly and with greater rapidity,
information that could not well be conveyed through the medium
of printed transactions; that they might, in short, enjoy the
living word, and con-
solidate, as far as might be practicable, the union of the great
republic of letters. In the address, of which the title is pre-
fixed to this article, Baron Humboldt remarks, that ‘the
ancients felt the value of the living word, the inspiring influence
which superior minds exert over others, and the enlightening
effect of free and friendly intercourse on the state of opinion
and the direction of inquiry.’ The character of this Associa-
tion may be more accurately described, by contrasting it with
two institutions of an opposite character. It is not an academy
of sciences, the purpose of which is, to aid profound thinkers in
pursuing their deep and solitary researches into the recesses of
knowledge, and to publish learned transactions. Its immediate
object is to produce a general animation, and a rapid interchange
of ideas. On the other hand, it bears no resemblance to the
schools of the middle ages, with their cold and vain displays of
controversial ingenuity. It aims at the discovery of truth by
conversation, and not at the exhibition of dialectic skill. As the
edifying and happy influence of public religious services is uni-
versally acknowledged, while private devotion is also an incum-
bent Christian duty, so these disciples of science expect and
desire to edify one another by their combined, as well as by
their separate labors. The union in an actual community of
men, whose purposes are the same, and who labor in the same
cause of art, science, politics, and religion, but who are scat-
tered over a vast extent of country, cannot fail to have a very
salutary effect. It is also the object of this Association, to be-
come acquainted with the various museums, collections, and
other treasures of science, in different parts of Germany; and
its meetings are held in successive years, at different places,
alternately in the northern and southern parts of that country.
Republic of the Learned, though there is, in fact, no real resemblance
between them.
Professor Ludwig Oken
1820, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar was compelled by the Prussian govern-
ment to dismiss him, on account of his political opinions. He lived for
some time at Aargau in Switzerland, and has lately been appointed
professor at the University of Munich by King Louis of Bavaria; who
does not seem inclined to tread in the footsteps of the Holy Alliance.
The article ‘Oken,’ in the ‘Biographie des Contemporains,’ is not, in
all respects, accurate.
ter will be best explained by a view of its constitution, of which
the following is a translation.
This institution accords so well with the spirit of the age, or
at least with the spirit of the Germans in their ardent pursuit
of natural science, that its meetings which were held for the
four last years at Dresden, Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg,
were remarkably brilliant. The meeting at Heidelberg in 1829
was attended by two hundred and seventy-three naturalists and
physicians, among whom were individuals from all parts of
Germany, and from Switzerland, Poland, Denmark and Tus-
cany; together with seven from England, nine from France,
and five from the Netherlands.
This meeting was rendered particularly interesting by the
presence of Baron de Ferussac, director of the ‘Societé duBulletin universel pour la propagation des connoissances scien-tifiques et industrielles,
Bulletin Universel des Sciences et de l’Industrie is a periodical
journal published at Paris, and divided into eight sections, of each of
which a number is issued monthly. Baron de Ferussac is the general
director. He is assisted by eight editors, one for each section. The
sections are arranged as follows. 1. For mathematical, physical and
chemical science; 2. natural history and geology; 3. medical science;
4. agriculture, horticulture, fishing, and sporting in general; 5. tech-
nology; 6. geography, statistics, political economy, voyages and travels;
7. philology, antiquities and history; 8. military science.—EncyclopœdiaAmericana.
that Association, and for a purpose which will be best explained
by the following letter, addressed by him to the president of
the Society.
The directors of the Universal Bulletin have imposed upon
me the duty of presenting myself before the meeting of German
savans at Heidelberg, to express their wishes and their hopes.
‘The statutes of the Society, and the catalogue of its members,
together with the other documents, which I have the honor to
present to you, will enable you to form a just idea of its character,
and of its means of influence.
‘It is the object of that Association, which was instituted by
virtue of a decree of the King of France, issued on the 13th of
March, 1828, upon the report of the ministry and the council
of state, to establish a permanent connexion, and an active cor-
arts; to the end that the ideas and labors of each may be ren-
dered accessible and useful to all; for without this the progress
of all must of necessity be slow, and valuable results far less
rapidly effected.
‘This Association, which is peculiarly distinguished by its
universal character, belongs exclusively to no one nation, to no
single school, to no particular doctrine. It professes to labor
for the public good. The most eminent friends of science in
every country are invited to become its members. They must
in every state constitute a committee for the encouragement of
science, and for facilitating the labor and researches of scientific
men. They must form together the Senate of that general re-
public of science and industry, which is every day so rapidly
increasing with the progress of instruction and the culture of the
human mind.
‘The unquestionable importance of such an organization to
the interest of science and men of learning, as well as to the
progress of civilisation, has induced the association which I
have the honor to represent, to believe, that an object so elevated
and generous as theirs, will attract the attention of the assembly
of learned men, over which you preside.
‘For these reasons, the directors of the Universal Bulletin be-
lieve, that it belongs to an assembly so remarkable and so solemn
as that which is now convened in Heidelberg, to manifest their
friendly disposition towards that Institution, by some public act;
and I have accordingly been requested, Mr. President, to beg you
to cause this letter to be read at one of the earliest meetings of
your Association, and to ask that it may be noticed in the report
of your proceedings; and if these requests be not disregarded,
that it may be made the order of the day for the consideration of
the sections.
‘I have also, Mr. President, the honor to enclose six copies of
our documents, for the use of the several sections of the assembly.
The meeting at Heidelberg was organized in four depart-
ments; appropriated respectively to chemistry and natural phi-
losophy, mineralogy and geology, botany, and medicine. A
general meeting and a separate meeting of each division were
held every day. The session continued seven days: and we are
astonished, on examining the report, to perceive how much sci-
entific and practical information was communicated, in so short a
space of time. Reports of uncommon medical operations were
coveries promulgated; new instruments brought into notice; and
a great number of scientific treatises read. Letters were receiv-
ed from learned men in many different parts of Europe, and in
short, more activity and zeal were displayed, on this occasion,
than upon any former one of the kind. This meeting, however,
was inferior in brilliancy to that which was held last year at
Berlin, and at which, as we have already mentioned, Baron
Alexander Humboldt presided. The short introductory dis-
course, which he delivered upon that occasion, exhibited the
refinement and elegance that belong to this distinguished philoso-
pher, so well known throughout the world for his researches
and discoveries, in almost every department of natural science.
Having mentioned the name of this great man, we cannot per-
mit the occasion to pass without expressing our admiration of
his elevated character—our deep sense of the services which
he has rendered to the world by his indefatigable efforts in
America, Europe, Africa and more recently in Asia, and our
ardent wishes that his valuable life may be long continued for
the instruction of both hemispheres.
The meeting at Berlin was rendered, by the taste of Baron
Humboldt, as pleasing as it was interesting and useful. Its
first session in the hall of the royal musical academy was
attended by more than five hundred persons, among whom
were some of the highest officers of state. To this succeeded
the regular meetings. In the evening, a conversazione was
given by the President, in the great concert-room of the royal
theatre. This saloon, which is one of the most elegant in
Europe, was arranged by Mr. Schinkel, the King’s architect,
as a temple of German Fame. Within a semicircle of rays,
opposite to the entrance, the names of the most distinguished
German naturalists were inscribed in characters of gold and
silver. On one side were placed the following lines of Goethe:
On the other side was inscribed the following passage from
Schiller:
The King and several of the princes attended this festival:
which was rendered still more attractive by a full orchestra and
the first singers of the royal theatre. While the meeting con-
tinued, the members were every day conveyed in carriages to
a vast dining hall, in which were spread twenty tables, at each
of which twenty-four persons were accommodated. Baron
Humboldt presided at the first table. No ladies were present,
excepting the wives or daughters of such members as did
not reside in Berlin.
The institution has been conducted with so much success,
that it was proposed at the last meeting that the future ones
should occasionally be held in other countries, and it was
particularly requested by Professor Oersted of Copenhagen,
that the next might take place in that city; but the invitation
was declined for the present, principally because the Association
had not yet met in several of the German cities, which contain
treasures of natural science well worthy of their attention.
Hamburg has been assigned as the place of meeting for the
next year. We should rejoice if the attendance there of some
of our fellow citizens might produce a literary and scientific
union between two regions, separated only by an ocean, which
is found to oppose no obstacles of importance to our commer-
cial enterprise. Boston, New-York and Philadelphia, are not
really more remote from Paris, than Warsaw, Stockholm,
Lisbon, and many other European cities. The representatives
of the United States would doubtless meet with a hospitable
reception, and a cordial welcome from the inhabitants of a
country, which was styled by Madame de Staël ‘le pays despensées et de la bonhommie.’