author he attempts to explain. These gentlemen perfectly understand, as well as the stage and steamboat proprietors of our country, that if they are negligent, they will be deserted. This is not a little increased by the division into ordinary and extraordinary professors and teachers. The latter class who are paid nothing by the government, but are only permitted to deliver lectures, receive a Frederick d'or from each of the pupils, and are almost universally stimulated by necessity. Besides this they feel all the ardour of youth, and the consequent longing for reputation. To acquire subsistence and fame, they make unwearied exertions. Before them they see the extraordinary professors, whose title in the eyes of the students, gives them a prior claim; and to overtake them in the race, they strain every nerve. The extraordinary professors see below them a number of young men, putting forth all their energy, while above them they behold the ordinary professors who have reached the highest point of ascent. This class are placed under the influence of two most powerful stimulants, the fear of being overtaken by the teachers, and the desire of surpassing the ordinary professors. The ordinary professors see below them two classes, at different distances, rapidly rising towards them, often almost treading upon their heels, and not unfrequently taking the lead in the number of their auditors, as well as in reputation. Under such a stimulus, they very rarely fall asleep, or relax their efforts, until age or debility arrives.

"This continued strife has the happiest effect on the literature of this country, and in this respect, the German universities are better organised than any others in Europe. It is folly to suppose that the mere influence of principle will induce most professors who do not feel greatenthusiasm in their departments, to make the necessary efforts to arrive at excellence. They will often find bad weather in winter, and real or imaginary debility the rest of the year, an excuse for relaxation or indolence." pp. 178, 179.

All things, however, may be viewed under different aspects, and Mr. Russell, who acknowledges that an English professor "could not hold out one year" among this "race, patient of toil," but who seems anxious, on every occasion, to ascribe the conduct of the Germans to the worst motives and impulses, makes the following remarks on this subject. If we were not accustomed to receive, constantly, such kindness ourselves, we should be surprised at the views he invariably imputes to German professors and scholars. No dignified principle, neither patriotism, nor honour, nor common honesty is supposed to exist. In his estimates, the love of letters, the impulse of duty, the thirst for reputation and pre-eminence pass for nothing. The love of money, or a mean jealousy, are the only springs of action :

66

Göttingen is manned with thirty-six ordinary professors, three theological, seven juridical, eight medical, including botany, chemistry, and natural history; the remaining eighteen form the philosophical faculty.

Drawing is a regular chair in the philosophical faculty, and stands between mineralogy and astronomy. The fencing-master and dancingmaster are not so highly honoured, but still they are public functionaries, and receive salaries from government. The confusion is increased by that peculiarity of the German universities which allows a professor to give lectures on any topic he pleases, however little it may be connected with the particular department to which he has been appointed. Every professor may interfere, if he chooses, with the provinces of his colleagues. The professor of natural history must lecture on natural history, but he may likewise teach Greek; the professor of Latin must teach Latin, but, if he chooses, he may lecture on mathematics. Thus it just becomes a practical question, who is held to be the more able instructor; and if the mathematical prelections of a professor of Greek be reckoned better than those of the person regularly appointed to teach the science, the latter must be content to lose his scholars and his fees. It is the faculty not the science to which a man is appointed that bounds his flight. This is the theory of the thing, and on this are founded the frequent complaints that in the German universities, the principle of competition has been carried preposterously far. Fortunately, the most important sciences are of such an extent, that a man who makes himself able to teach any one of them well, can scarcely hope to teach any other tolerably; yet the interference of one teacher with another is by no means so unfrequent as we might imagine; there are always certain "stars shooting wildly from their spheres " It would not be easy to tell, for example, who is professor of Greek or Latin, or Oriental literature; you will generally find two or three engaged in them all. A professor of divinity may be allowed to explain the Epistles of St. Paul, for his theological interpretations must be considered as something quite distinct from the labour of the philologist; but in the philosophical faculty, where, in regard to languages, philology alone is the object, I found at Göttingen no fewer than four professors armed with Greek, two with Latin, and two with Oriental literature. One draws up the Gospel of John and the Acts of the Apostles; a second opposes to him the first three Evangelists, the fourth being already enlisted by his adversary; the third takes them both in flank, with the works and days of Hesiod; while the fourth skirmishes round them in all directions, and cuts off various stragglers, by practical lucubrations in Greek syntax. Now, if people think that they will learn Greek to better purpose from Professor Eichhorn's Acts of the Apostles, than from Professor Tyschen's three Gospels, the latter must just dispense with his students and rix-dollars; when Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war.'

"The former gentleman again leads on Oriental literature, under the banner of the Book of Job; the latter takes the field undismayed, and opposes to him the Prophecies of Isaiah. But Professor Eichhorn immediately unmasks a battery of 'Prelections in Arabian,' and Professor Tyschen, apparently exhausted of regular troops, throws forward a course of lectures on the "Ars Diplomatica,' to cover his retreat.

"In Latin too, one professor starts the Satires of Persius against those of Horace named by another, and Tully's Offices against the Ars Poetica. The one endeavours to jostle the other by adding Greek ;

but they are both Yorkshire, and the other adds Greek too. The juridical faculty of Göttingen contains seven learned professors. Of these, no fewer than three were reading on Justinian's Institutes in the same session, two of them, moreover, using the same text-book. Two of them, likewise, lectured on the form of process in civil cases, both using the same text-book." Russell, pp. 203–205.

What evil results from this competition? The incompetent professor is, in an emphatic manner, informed of his deficiency; the negligent is, in turn, neglected; and the students have the opportunity, upon almost all subjects, of collecting the knowledge, and listening to the theories and opinions of more than one man of talents and erudition.

It is, perhaps, too early to adopt the German system to its full extent in the United States. The number of eminent literary men is too small-competition, to any extent, cannot exist. It has been found necessary to secure talent by fixed and permanent rewards, and trust, in a great measure, to the character and integrity of each individual for the performance of his duty.

The labours of the German professors derive their highest value from the mode which has been introduced of teaching each branch of science. The exegetical method of instruction, while it requires far greater attainments in the teacher, is calculated to make the details of study much more interesting to the pupil, and to excite in him that ardent curiosity and love of research which leads him ultimately, when left to his own resources, to pursue, with almost undiminished zeal, his scholastic avocations:

"Exegeses, so far as I am acquainted with our literary institutions, and I have friends connected with many of them, has scarcely become a part of classical instruction. Here they learn the construction of the ancient languages much more minutely than with us; so much so, that all the rules and exceptions of the syntax must be understood by the student. When he is familiar with these, he is supposed to have acquired such a knowledge of the language, as imperfectly to qualify him for commencing the study of its authors. Much more remains to be done before he can pursue an exegetical course to advantage. He must become thoroughly acquainted with the geography, the antiquities, the physical character of the country, whose literature he is perusing, before he enters upon this mode of studying. In pursuing it as an exeget, he must study, most intimately, the character of the people, as moral, intellectual, and physical beings; be able to trace every custom and every image to its source; become acquainted with their mythology and philosophy; ascertain whether their opinions on these subjects were introduced by their intercourse with surrounding nations, or had their origin in their own peculiar character; make himself intimately acquainted with their history, laws, state of society, social intercourse,

mode of life, their peculiar rites and ceremonies; examine the circumstances under which the author wrote his work, and of the nation at the time it was written; in one word, discover every thing connected with them as moral, intellectual, political, religious, social, and physical beings; so that he may, in the fullest manner, overcome all those difficulties which distance, time, and place, have thrown in the way of the reader. It is from the pursuit of this course, that so many of these professors appear, in their studies and lecture-rooms, to live more in past ages than in the present century, and to be more familiar with the manners and customs of antiquity than with those of Germany. It is thus that they learn to feel the true spirit of David, of Isaiah, Æschylus, Euripides, Dante, or Calderon, with almost the same force as the contemporaries of those poets. Such a professor becomes, in fact, a lamp to guide the student in the darkness of antiquity." pp. 176, 177.

While so much care has been taken in each institution to secure the most eminent scholars as instructors, and every means employed to stimulate them to great and continued exertionsno expense, on the other hand, has been spared to encourage the pupils themselves to study, by placing, within their reach, all the sources of information which aspirants after knowledge can desire. Libraries, observatories, botanic gardens, museums anatomical, zootomical, zoological and mineralogical, collections of every nature appertaining to science, every thing, in short, that nature, art, or genius has produced, are heaped together in almost lavish profusion. But on their libraries the governments of Germany have bestowed their chief care and unremitted attention, well knowing that without this aid their Universities could acquire no reputation, their scholars no distinction that profound learning could not exist-talents, however bright, must languish, and industry itself, patient, forbearing, unwearied industry be altogether unavailing. The following paragraph well exemplifies the enlightened liberality of monarchical Germany-we wish we had room to insert some other observations of our author's, those in particular on the libraries of Göttingen and Berlin :

"A traveller in Germany finds it difficult to proceed a day's journey in any direction north of the Mayne, without discovering something to remind him, in the small cities through which he passes, that intellectual cultivation is an object of great importance to the respective governments. In entering Germany from Strasburg, and travelling a few miles north, he arrives at Carlsruhe, where a library of seventy thousand volumes unfolds its treasures. A few hours ride brings him to Heidelberg, where he discovers another of fifty thousand. After proceeding about thirty miles, he enters Darmstadt, where he beholds a third, containing eighty-five thousand; at Mayence, another of ninety thousand;

and in the commercial city of Frankfort, still another of one hundred thousand volumes, evinces the noble spirit which has animated the enlightened merchants of that city. As he leaves the latter town for Göttingen, he stops at Giessen, not far from thirty miles, and in this small university he is surprised to find a collection of only twenty thousand volumes; but he soon learns that at Marburg, twenty miles farther, is another of fifty-five thousand; and at Cassel, sixty miles from Marburg, a third, of from ninety to one hundred thousand volumes, adorns the capital of Hesse. On arriving at Göttingen, the next day in time to dine, he beholds with astonishment, three hundred thousand volumes, all collected within less than a century. Making this a central point, and proceeding north about forty miles, he enters Wolfenbuttel, a small town of less than seven thousand inhabitants, and learns with no little. pleasure, that the government of Brunswick has enriched it with a library of two hundred thousand volumes. Advancing still north, to Hamburgh, he is delighted in visiting the commercial and city libraries, of twenty-five and eighty thousand volumes, to discover that this mercantile city has displayed the same love of literature as Frankfort. South-east of Göttingen, at the distance of eighty miles, he arrives at Weimar, where a library of one hundred and ten thousand, and at Jena, ten miles farther, another of thirty thousand volumes, proclaim the princely spirit of the Dukes of this little state. Leipzig is but a short ride from the last-mentioned city. Here, he observes, with equal pleasure, two libraries containing one hundred thousand; at Halle, in Prussia, only twenty-five miles distant, one of fifty thousand; and at Dresden, the capital of Saxony, a third, of two hundred and forty thousand volumes. Proceeding to Berlin, he enters the library of the University, containing one hundred and eighty thousand volumes. The Königsburg library of fifty thousand; the large collection at Breslau, as well as those of many of the other cities of Prussia, all display the patronage of the government, as well as the love of literature which characterizes the Prussians.

Proceeding from Strasburg through Southern Germany, a similar prospect presents itself to his view. At Freyburg, he finds a library of twenty thousand; at Tubingen, another; at Stuttgard, one of one hundred and sixteen thousand; at Würzburg, a fourth of thirty thousand; at Erlangen, one of forty thousand; at Landshut, one of one hundred thousand; and at Munich he discovers the largest in all Germany, and the third in the world, containing four hundred thousand volumes. On his arrival at Vienna, he finds that a similar spirit has influenced the Austrian government, if not of the present day, at least of a former time. There, in the four great libraries, the Imperial, the University, the Theresian, and the Medical Chirurgical, he discovers five hundred and ninety thousand volumes. Proceeding north, to complete the circuit of Germany, he is led to believe, on his arrival at Prague, that its library of one hundred thousand volumes will do something to dispel the ignorance which now covers Bohemia." pp. 74-76.

Is it wonderful that with so many inducements, opportunities, and ultimately rewards for study, in a land where every scene