Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/236

 central town of Europe, is a circumstance almost unknown to us, and deserving of our attention, from the important advantages which may arise from it.

About eight years ago, Dr. Okens, of Munich, suggested a plan for an annual meeting of all Germans who cultivated the sciences of medicine and botany. The first meeting, of about forty members, took place at Leipsic, in 1822, and it was successively held at Halle, Wurtzburg, Frankfort on the Maine, Dresden, Munich, and Berlin. All those who had printed a certain number of sheets of their inquiries on these subjects were considered members of this academy.

The great advantages which resulted to these sciences from the communication of observations from all quarters of Germany, soon induced an extension of the plan, and other departments of natural knowledge were admitted, until, at the last meeting, the cultivators even of pure mathematics were found amongst the ranks of this academy.

Several circumstances, independent of the form and constitution of the academy, contributed to give unwonted splendour to the last meeting, which took place at Berlin in the middle of September of the last year.

The capital selected for its temporary residence is scarcely surpassed by any in Europe in the number and celebrity of its savans.

The taste for knowledge possessed by the reigning family, has made knowledge itself fashionable; and the severe sufferings of the Prussians previous to the war, by which themselves and Europe were freed, have impressed on them so strongly the lesson that "knowledge is power," that its effects are visible in every department of the government; and there is no country in Europe in which talents and genius so surely open for their possessors the road to wealth and distinction.

Another circumstance also contributed its portion to increase the numbers of the meeting of the past year. The office of president, which is annually changed, was assigned to M. Alexander de Humboldt. The universality of his