Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, no. 41, March, 1861 | Page 2

way to remotest regions, often filtered and
unacknowledged. They number among their professors the most
distinguished men of the century, whether poets, philosophers, or
divines. All who lay claim to authorship find in the lecture-room a firm
stand and rank in society, as Government is ever ready to insure a
life-position to distinguished scholars. To mention only a few examples
of men who would scarcely be thought of in a professorial
career,--Schiller was Professor of History in Jena, Rückert Professor in
Berlin, Uhland in Tübingen.
In nothing can Germany manifest a better-grounded feeling of national
pride than in this, its university system. Politically inert, divided into
petty states, powerless, the ever-ready prey of more active or ambitious
neighbors, it has played a pitiful _rôle_ in the world's history, with
annals made up of petty feuds and jealousies and tyrannical meannesses,
never working as one people, save when driven to extremity. With
countless differences of dialect, manners, customs, it is one and
national in nothing save in its literature, and feels that, through the high
culture of its scholars, through the new paths its men of science have

opened, through the profound investigations of the learned in every
sphere, it holds its place at the head of every intellectual movement of
the age. It feels that its universities are the laboratories whence issue
the thoughts whose significance the world is ever more and more ready
to acknowledge. France even, selfish and proud of its past supremacy in
all things, has within the last quarter of a century laid aside much of its
exclusiveness, and a Germanic infusion is perceptible through all the
mannerism of the latest and best productions of the French school.
Comparatively of late years is it, that the English mind has fairly come
in contact with this German culture. Its first loud manifestation may be
heard in the prose of Carlyle and his school; yet even now its influence
has permeated our whole literature so much, that, when reading some
of our latest poetry, tones and melodies will come like distant echoes
from the groves on the hillsides where warble the nightingales of
Germany.
A most unpractical people, however, the Germans, who have been so
active in almost every possible field of speculation, have produced
nothing which could give one unacquainted with their university
system a true notion of its workings and actual state. Much has been
written on Pedagogy, its history general and special, the common
schools and gymnasia; but until 1854 there was not even a general
work on the history of the universities. To Karl von Raumer, former
Minister of Public Worship in Prussia, we owe the first _Beitrag_, as he
modestly calls it, the fourth volume of his "History of Pedagogy" being
devoted exclusively to these. Partly made up of historical sketches,
partly narrations of the writer's personal experience as student from
1801, as professor in various places from 1811, it does not aim and is
but little calculated to give a clear idea of the system itself. Special
works, as the one of Tomek on Prague, and of Klüpfel on Tübingen, do
exist, but otherwise nothing but personal observation can be made use
of. Statistics, every information, in fine, concerning the present
intellectual wealth of the nation, must be acquired either orally, or from
the catalogues, programmes, and hundreds of local pamphlets that are
issued yearly. The work of the Rev. Dr. Schaff, "Germany, its
Universities, Theology, and Religion," (Philadelphia, 1857,) rather
aims to characterize the nature and tendency of German theology, the
latter part being taken up with interesting and well-written sketches of

the leading divines.
Before proceeding to these high-schools themselves, let us glance at the
general system of German education. In spite of political differences,
there exists much uniformity in this throughout the Confederation. The
German States are exceedingly paternal in the care they take of their
subjects. They extend their parental supervision even to the family
interior, every relation of life regulated by fixed laws, and even after
death the inhumation must be conducted the forms and with the
precautions prescribed. The new-born child must be baptized within six
weeks after birth. If the parents neglect it, Government sees to
it,--unless they claim the privileges of Israelites, in which case the rites
of their religion must be followed. Between his sixth and seventh year
the child must enter some school or receive elementary instruction at
home. So far is education compulsory; beyond, it is optional. When
duly prepared, he enters, if the parents desire it, the Government
Gymnasium or Lyceum, answering pretty much to our College; it fits
the youth for entering the University. It confers no degrees; only, at the
conclusion of the studies, an Examen Maturitatis takes place. The
youth is then declared ripe for matriculation. Without having
undergone