1846.] The University of Bonn. 779 Highbury Dissenting Academies. The interests of Greek and Roman literature in Great Britain have been much promoted by the labors of Dr. Smith, in editing the Classical Dictionary and other works. The scholars of Great Britain are beginning to ascertain and appreciate the value of the stores of learning which have been accumulated by the patience and toil of German scholars. The excellent Greek Lexicon of Liddell and Scott, owes not a little of its value to the labors of Schneider, Passow, Pape and others. Still, the ancient methods of instruction generally predominate in the British Schools. The grammars of Adam, Dunbar, the Eton Grammar and many others, the product of native authorship, have not yet given place, as they will most assuredly do, to the manuals of Zumpt, Kühner and others, which living German scholars have furnished. The Latin Lexicon of Leverett is well known and extensively used in the schools of Great Britain. At the two ancient universities in England, the main attention of the pupils is still directed, we understand, to the study of metres and accents, to the writing of hexameters, etc. The late Dr. Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, introduced some improvements in the classical course of that college. German Universities on or near the Rhine. These universities are four in number; Bonn in Prussia, Heidelberg and Freiburg in the grand duchy of Baden, and Bâle or Basil in Switzerland. The latter, though not in Germany, is in a canton where the German language prevails, and is itself constituted according to the German model. Heidelberg and Freiburg are not on the bank of the Rhine, but they are only a few miles distant, and in the Rhine valley. Bonn, the first named of these institutions, is most delightfully situated on the left bank of the river, at the point where, in ascending, the banks lose their tame and level aspect, while the river winds most gracefully and romantically among hills and mountains. The mountains often approach and overhang the stream; they are covered with vineyards sometimes to their very tops, and many of them are crowned with castles mostly in ruins, recalling some stirring tradition or history of past ages. A university, established in the midst of such scenery and associations, has a most appropriate and enviable locale. The influence on the heart and imagination of the youth may be imperceptible and gradual, but in the end and on the whole, it constitutes one of the most important elements in education. The students at the colleges in Burlington and Amherst, and in the academy at West Point, are in this respect highly favored; still these towns are in a new country, and do not possess the historical associations which so thickly cluster on the banks of the Rhine. That river, also, has some natural features peculiar to itself. Indeed it cannot well be compared with the Hudson, the Connecticut, or any other stream in the old world or new. Two or three miles above Bonn, on the same bank, are the hill and ruined castle of Godesberg. Here are said to be the remains of a Roman castle, built in the time of Julian. It was rebuilt in the sixteenth century by an archbishop of Cologne, and became the asylum of the elector and archbishop Gebhard, on his conversion to Lutheranism and marriage with the beautiful Agnes, countess of Mansfeldt. The view from the summit of the old tower is of almost unequalled beauty. The long and very narrow strips of grain of various colors, some yellow for the harvest, reminding one of the view from Mount Holyoke; the vine-terraced hills, green to the very top; the high and kindred hills on the opposite bank, called the Siebengeberge, one of them "the castled crag of Drachenfels," frowning " o'er the wide and winding Rhine;" behind these seven, four other mountains nearly two thousand feet high, and all crowned with ruined castles; the high cross, a monument of the 14th century, on the road to Bonn; the city itself, with its university buildings, its Münster church surrounded by its great octagonal tower; and still further down the stream, the numerous spires of Cologne, its magnificent cathedral tower and the suspended crane,―all, perfectly distinct, form a panorama at the same time crowded with historical associations, with romance, and exhibiting a perfect image of quiet beauty; these constitute no unimportant item in the material of university education. Bonn-the Bonna and Bonnensia Castra of Florus and Tacitus is one of the most ancient towns on the Rhine. Two or three apartments in the basement of the university, are filled with Roman antiquities dug up in the town and vicinity. These relics of Roman cookery, of the military art, and of polytheism, are now not unfrequently found when an excavation is made, or even when the ploughman turns up the soil. The university was founded by Maximilian, the last elector. It was suppressed by the French, and restored by the present government in 1818. It is now one of the most eminent in Germany in the character of its professors, in its improved discipline, in the commodiousness of its buildings, and in the extent and happy arrangement of its scientific and literary treasures. Among its lately deceased teachers who enjoyed a European reputation, or rather one coëxtensive with the civilized world, were Augustus Schlegel and Niebuhr. In the church-yard, outside of the gate, called Sternenthor, is a monument in memory of Niebuhr and his wife, designed by Rauch of Berlin, of exquisite workmanship and of a most thoughtful and expressive character. The marble busts of the historian and his wife-her right hand in his-are extremely beautiful and touching. The inscriptions, taken from the Apocrypha, Horace, and the New Testament, are quite appropriate to Niebuhr, but they 1846.] The fresco Paintings of Cornelius. 781 disturb the effect which the simple words of the New Testament alone are fitted to produce. Beethoven, though never connected with the university, is one of the boasts of this city. Ernest Hänel of Dresden has erected a fine bronze monument for him in one of the squares. The old house in which he was born and the instrument on which he learned to play so cunningly, are shown to the traveller. Among the most eminent living savans of the university, is Christian Lassen, professor of Sanscrit. He is now suffering severely from weakness of eye-sight, caused by his efforts to decipher the Persepolitan inscriptions which have been recently copied by a learned Dane. A part of the results of these studies of Professor L. have been published in the Oriental Journal, conducted by him. This periodical is now to be transferred to Leipsic, and to be conducted by Professor Rödiger, Pott, Fleischer, etc. Professor Welcker, of Bonn, enjoys a high classical reputation, and is one of the conductors of the Rhenish Museum for Philology. He is also superintendent of the university museum of art, of which he has published a description in two pamphlets amounting to about 200 pages. The collection of casts in gypsum is large, and some of the specimens exceedingly beautiful. It is, however, much surpassed by the museum at Berlin, which some time ago had 206 groups and statues, 502 busts, heads and masks, and 1200 reliefs. The number of Greek and Roman coins in the museum at Bonn is 6073. Six are of gold, and 3209 of silver. About half a mile from the university building is Poppelsdorf, connected with Bonn by a beautitiful avenue of chestnuts. The building-formerly the pleasure castle built by Joseph Clemens-now contains halls for the delivery of lectures, apartments for the professors, collections in natural history, etc. The ground surrounding it is laid out as a botanic garden. The collection in zoology comprises between 16,000 and 18,000 specimens; that of petrifactions, more than 10,000, and that of minerals, more than 22,000. The geology of the district is beautifully and very distinctly illustrated, particularly that of the volcanic rocks of the Seven Mountains. In the university is a large room devoted to the fresco paintings executed by the celebrated Cornelius and his pupils. They were begun in 1824, and completed in 1832. The figures are as large as life. There are four distinct paintings representing the schools of philosophy, law, medicine, and theology. They are quite instructive, as showing who, in the opinion of Germans, have been the great lights of science and literature. Leibnitz, F. A. Wolff, Göthe, Schiller and Schleiermacher would stand forth without disguise, though at the expense of such inferior men as Bacon and Milton! But we were hardly prepared to see Klopstock in close proximity with Luther, Calvin and Zuingle, while John Knox is not thought worthy to appear at all! Peter is of course on the Catholic side of Theology, but by what rule John and Luke are placed there, we do not know. The first Protestant writers in theology, according to the picture, were Paul, Matthew and Mark. The next in the series is Eusebius, the church historian. Chrysostom and Basil follow the direction of Peter, while Jerome, Origen, Tertullian and Augustine are under the guidance of Paul. The University Library contains more than 100,000 volumes, besides several hundred volumes of MSS. There are also a great number of cases or pasteboard bags, in which are placed the programmes, monograms, etc., in which the German gelehrten are so prolific. The seat of the university of Heidelberg is scarcely less striking than that of Bonn, though it is much more confined. The city lies on the left bank of the Neckar a few miles from its entrance into the Rhine, just at the point where the Neckar breaks through the hills and enters the great Rhine valley. Immediately in the rear of the city, on a commanding eminence, are the ruins of the old castle, formerly the residence of the Electors Palatine, hardly excelled in extent by any in Europe; a part of the castle is in very tolerable preservation, and every portion is associated with the horrors of war, of which Heidelberg has suffered more than its proportion. A walk of an hour and a half will take one to the top of the Kaiserstuhl, a mountain two thousand feet high, on the top of which a tower, one hundred feet in height, has been erected. From the summit is a commanding view of the Rhine and Neckar valleys, Worms, Mannheim, etc., the Odenwald, the distant hills of France, Strasburgh spire, ninety miles distant, and a large part of the territories of Baden, Hesse, Darmstadt and Würtemberg. The number of fine walks and views in the vicinity renders Heidelberg very inviting. It is also an admirable country for the lover of natural history, as the fine collections of Professors von Leonhard, Bronn and others show. The university building is in a square near the middle of the city, and is a very plain and uninteresting edifice. The institution is one of the oldest in Europe, and was founded by the Count Palatine Rupert in 1346. Its means were greatly extended under the rectorship of Marsilius of Sugelheim, and also by the efficient patronage of John Dalburg, in the beginning of the 16th century. By the cession of the right bank of the Rhine in 1802, the university lost the greater part of its revenues, and was reduced to the brink of ruin, when the Elector of Baden, Charles Theodore, who had obtained possession of the Rhenish Palatinate, established the university on a new basis, and assigned it considerable sums from the treasury. Among the professors who are best known abroad, are Drs. Paulus, Umbreit, Ullmann and Rothe of the theological faculty, Dr. Mittermaier of the law, Dr. Jiedemann of the medical, and Drs. Bähr, 1846.] 783 The Professors and Students of Heidelberg. Creutzer, Gervinus, Schlosser, Von Leonhard, Gmelin and Bronn of the philosophical. Drs. Ullmann and Umbreit are highly esteemed for the candor, judgment and ability with which they conduct the "Studien und Kritiken," perhaps the ablest theological journal in Germany, though the number of subscribers, as we were informed, is only one thousand. Dr. Ullmann has in press a new edition of his acute and profound treatise on the "Sinlessness of Jesus," an English translation of which has been published in the United States and reprinted in Scotland. Dr. Ullmann is one of the most distinguished writers on Church History in Germany, of which the "Lives of the Reformers before the Reformation" gives abundant proof. Dr. U. is a man of truly Christian feelings, and of singular mildness and urbanity of manners. Dr. Rothe was formerly a professor in the theological school at Wittenberg, and published a wellknown work on the early history of the Church. He is now director of the Preachers' Seminary in the university of Heidelberg, and first university preacher. He is said to proclaim the truths of the gospel from his important post with great boldness and fidelity. The law department is perhaps the most celebrated in Germany, and gives to the university its principal renown. Dr. Mittermaier is president of the legislative chamber of the grand Duchy at Carlsruhe. Dr. Bähr will be recognized as the editor of Herodotus. He entertains the most friendly feelings towards Americans, and is well acquainted with the classical works published in the United States. Dr. Creutzer is the author of the celebrated work on Symbolik, and Drs. Von Leonhard and Bronn are learned and active investigators in the natural sciences. Dr. V. L's fossils and minerals are particularly illustrative of the geology of this part of Germany. The whole number of teachers in the university is as follows: Ordinary professors of theology, five, extraordinary, one; ordinary professors of law, six, other teachers, seven; ordinary professors of medicine, seven, other teachers, eleven; ordinary professors in the Philosophical faculty, fourteen, other teachers, eighteen; other instructors, e. g. of music, twelve; total, eighty-five. The whole number of students on the 25th of May, 1846, was 932, of whom there were studying theology, 44, law, 560, medicine, 162; the natural sciences, e. g. mineralogy, 54, philosophy and philology, 44. It should here be remarked, that not a few of those whose principal pursuit is philology, attend the lectures in the law and other departments more or less. Of these 932 students, all but 243 are from abroad, i. e. not residents of the grand duchy of Baden. They belong to every part of Germany; a few are natives of the West Indies and South America, and eight or ten of the United States.-The library consists of between 120,000 and 130,000 volumes, besides MSS. There are a Codex of the Greek Anthology of the 11th century, MSS. of Thucydides |