greatly to increase the irritation already created in the minds of the students, wherever the abovenamed association had taken root. As to Stourdza, he soon found it necessary to change his place of abode, and after retiring to Dresden, finally left Germany for St. Petersburg, well knowing he had every reason to expect the resentment of the enemies he had thus made. When challenged for his strictures on the universities, by two young noblemen then studying at Jena, he refused to meet them, alledging in a letter to the Grand Duke of Weimar, that, as private secretary of the Emperor Alexander, he had only obeyed his imperial majesty's orders. The whole displeasure of the enraged students, was now directed against Kotzebue, who soon fell a victim to his imprudence." On doit donc songer, non à repousser les lumières, mais à les rendre complétes, pour que leurs rayons brisés ne presentent point de fausses lueurs. Un' gouvernement ne sauroit pretendre derober à une grande nation la connois sance de l'esprit qui regne dans son siècle; cet esprit renferme des éléments de force et de grandeur, dont on peut user avec succès quand on ne craint pas d'aborder hardiment toutes les questions: on trouve alors dans les verités éternells des ressources contre les erreurs passagères, et dans la liberté mémo le maintien de l'ordre et l'accroissement de la puissance. DE L'ALLEMAGNE PAR MADAME DE STAEL. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. As the author of the following observations has been six years a pupil at the three universities of Wittenberg, Jena, and Gottingen, and twentyfive years a teacher at those of Frankfort, Konigsberg, Wittenberg, and Leipsic, he has had sufficient opportunities of gaining a thorough personal knowledge of the present state of the German universities; and he therefore feels himself competent to give an opinion on the subject. These remarks arose from the strictures contained in Kotzebue's weekly journal, wherein this topic is also discussed, though most probably without the writer's having any fixed data to guide his inquiries, and influenced more by prejudice than actual observation. As the violent death of the imperial Russian counsellor, was unfortunately attended by circumstances, that appear to the readers of his paper as having had a close connection with his opi E nions on the state of our universities, it has been thought necessary to break the silence hitherto preserved relative to the complaints against them contained in the above-named journal. It is for the reader, who may honour his remarks with a candid and dispassionate perusal, to decide between the accusations sent forth in the Weekly Literary Journal of M. Von Kotzebue, and the Author's reply to those heavy charges. |