Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/423

 Rh he gave this training a permanent place in the German system of education. His personal influence was great, and the desire of his life seemed to be to establish German unity.

Lieber remained under the instruction of Dr. Jahn until the age of fifteen years, when his school career was interrupted by the trumpet tones of war, calling the youth to the defense of their country. When Napoleon escaped fron Elba schoolboys were welcomed in the Prussian army, and Lieber served as a volunteer in the Waterloo campaign. He received two wounds at Waterloo, and after recovering in the hospital at Aix-la-Chapelle he returned to his home in Berlin. He at once resumed his studies under the guidance of Dr. Jahn. In 1819 the schools for physical exercise in Prussia were closed. The same year Dr. Jahn and Lieber were arrested as enemies of the state. Upon his discharge without a trial, Lieber was refused permission to study in the Prussian universities, but was finally admitted to Jena, where in 1820 he took his degree. Being under the constant guard of the police, he decided to leave his native country, and, as the Greek Revolution had just broken out, he made his way to Greece and took part in the struggle. He became disgusted at the miserable condition of things there, and, returning from Greece, he spent some time in Rome with Niebuhr, the Prussian minister. He then proceeded to his native land, but was again placed under arrest for entertaining liberal sentiments. On his release he decided to make his home in America, and in 1827 he arrived in this country.

Lieber was recommended by Dr. Jahn as a suitable person to introduce the Prussian system of physical culture into the Tremont Gymnasium in Boston. Here he taught scientifically Prussian gymnastics; and he was one of the first exponents in America of the physical basis of education. The liberality of his views on education is well illustrated in his plan for the organization of Girard College, which attracted widespread attention. It reveals the fact that he had a wonderful grasp of pedagogic questions, and but few recent writers have made any advance beyond his liberal ideas. At that time there were no polytechnic schools in America, and Lieber's plan included the various branches of polytechnic instruction, as well as provision for the education of teachers. In commenting on the plan, Edward Livingston wrote from Paris in 1834: "You have written three lines which ought forever to be impressed on the minds of all teachers, whether of science, politics, or religion. I know of no truth more happily expressed than that 'there is a religion under all the variety of sects; there is a patriotism under all the variety of parties; there is a love of knowledge and a true science under all the variety of theories.' " As early as 1858 Lieber strongly urged the establishment of a real university in this country, as a cultural means