The record-union., 1894-09-08
GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.
The Professors Wish to Keep Science
From the People.
A Covert Attack Upon the Emperor
Which is Being Widely Read by
the German People.

Irregular Correspondence of RECORD UNIoN.l
LEHE Germany, Aug. 15.-Nothing
perhaps that one could truthfully say of
the Germans in Germany would be more
contradictory to the general conception
OF them as people than that they are not
thinking race. Yet this is true. Not
in the universities, nor in politics, nor in
journalism, nor even in their literature,
does one find thinking or the ideas that are
struck out by reflection or discussion.
Intellectual they are, as they ever were,
and all that they do on the stage, in the
newspapers, in art and in science, shows
distinctly the force of the brain power
their past tremendous thinking has de-
veloped In them. But they have passed
out OF the era of speculation, and are
handling cold facts, seeking for new ones,
and arranging what they have and want
under the heads of knowledge and ig-
norance. The hundreds of American
students who are longing to come to Ger
many must not expect to get new ideas.
Their countrymen who have been here
have got tacts, scientific methods and
habits, and distrust OF ideas, an indiffer-
ence to philosophy. For the ''intellectual
still, stay at home.
To prove this conclusion were to write
an essay which would interest chiefly
only scholars and students. The effect
on the practical life, and the evidences of
popular need OF mental occupation, are
what may prove of more general concern.
These L have found abundant during my
short stay in this country. They empha-
size for me the correctness of my general
lzatlon, which was the conclusion of two
years of previous study in the German
universities.
If a traveller in America, England or
France wanted to catch quickly the drift
OF current thought in those countries, he
could do SO specifically but sufficiently
by reading the newspapers and the latest
novels. Not so here. There are no new
novels, at least none that reach the peo-
pie, the reading public" and the news
papers reflect almost nothing of
celia, as in England. or The Golden
Hours (Harper's). as in America,
to reveal the interest III the sociological
problems of labor, poverty, socialism,
etc. Nor do the newspapers express
any opinions or carry on any arguments
to show that there is any discomfort with
essentials in public morals and govern
ment. OF course there are reasons for
this and exceptions to the rule; but the
exceptions are crazy sheets like the So
cialiSt organs, which print the worst and
ignore the best arguments for their
theory; and the fact remains that food tor
public thought Is not furnished, and the
people want it. There is demand for
public criticism and for guidance in pri-
vate discussion.
An example of the voracious popular
appetite for criticism of the Kaiser is at
hand in the little pamphlet, entitled
''Caligula; Study of Roman Imperial
Madness" which has run through at least
twenty-five editions in four months and
Is still sold and talked about every where
1t is cool attack on William IL, ex-
planning his vagaries as symptoms Of that
insanity which comes OF too much power
all under the gulse of a scholarly, deIiber-
ate analysis of the career of the Roman
Emperor, Caligula. The German word,
which | translated as imperial mad
ness" is literally Caesar madness and
as the Germans pronounce Caesar, Kaiser,
and use the word so spolen and spelt for
Emperor, the use of instead of X is the
only change necessary throughout the
book to make the application intended.
Any way, everybody made that change,
and consequently read Wilhelm II. for
the name Caligula. The justification for
the public Interpretation came in pro-
position to try the author, an obscure
teacher named L. Quidde, for insult to
his majesty. a brief account with a few
translated extracts will show the natural
ness of the application and a parallel
most wonderful between the characters
and lives of Caligula and William.
Critics say the sketch is more correct of
William than Caligula.)
"Cajur Caesar, known by his nickname
Caligula, was still very young, not yet
mature man, when he was unexpectedly
called to rule" So begins the little essay,
giving in mock scholarly style foot note
reference to Dio Cassias, Tacitus, Siecton
and other Latin writers, for the yerification
of the statements regarding Caligula; the
references to the modern history of the
house of HohenZollern are left to tha