Berlin--peace Festivities--royal Academy--university, Etc.

Froiu the Xew York Journal of Coraraerce Berlín, July 9, 1871. Wc are just now in a universal state of convalesut'nce licrc in Berlilli for the entry of the troops with its attondant festivities completely used u up. ïhe bare idea ot' tho greut event itself was alone euough to overthrow temporarily any but tho strongest nerves and constitutions, and to disenthrone tlie reason. Who, indeod, could well avoid feeling dizzy on looking down trom the heights, calm and sublimo, where wc, tho great Germán Empire, had porehed oursolves, and regarding the other nations of' the earth, who wen; surging to and fro in a bare struggle tor wealth, or porishing by tho red Eand of barbarie revolution, or striving to loosen Gordian knots through treaties, when :i sword would have been far more decisivo 't AVho, pray, would not have feit his head swim, tho iistance boing so great betwecu us and thera 't Other causes conduced to mako us ill ; for example, 't; h;id rncked our brains to contrivo appropriate devices for our bannen and transparencies, anrt when at last aome neat tliing in Latin oceurred to us, our feelinga rafused to bear the strain longer, although tho motto had but little Bignifioanoe ; yet it was Latin, and that fact, omitting uil other considerations, was sutücient to undermino our strength at one stroke. Or whon tho similarity botween the iloly Spirit which binds togother the Father and Son and the spirit ofGerinan Unity appeared, asinone oaae, on a bannor, that was suüiciont to deprive us of any lingering ideas coneorning pro priety. Then again, how bowildering were the colossal preparations ! The world has not seen suoh a reckless profusión of victory goddesses in piaster since Auroliiin liül his legions homo froin the East. Berlin bears were rampant. Busts of the Emperor, tho Crown Pnnoe, Bismarck and Moltko peorod at us from every nootc and staren us out ot counteaanoe from cvery corner. Banners and wreaths, oannon and columns, wero numberless. But the day itgelf reduced us to perfect hclplessne9. The weather, in contrast, with that of many weeks precfiding, wasintolerably hot,and was w.'.Inigh unendurable for ns wlio were sitting on the tribunos without shade. We are inolined to attributu the clear skies and hot sun to the abounding faith of one good old lady, who, when some doubt was expressed whethcr the day would bc propitious, declarod that " the good Lord had never deserted our gracious Emperor as yet, and certafnly would not disappoint him in so small a matter as the weather." And the rest of us were inclined to rejoioe at a short respite in the soemingly interminable rains, but the change affected us disagreeably ; all of us suffered from headache ; many had slight al tacks of sunstroke, and sume six or eight of the veterans, to whom, no doubt, the day was one of the most severe of all their oampaigns, died in consequenee of the heat, over oxertion and excitement. But the greatcst bnrdan of all was the preseneeof betwoen fchroe and four hundred thousand strongers, and amoiig them, of cour.se, a plentii'ul sprinkling ot A"jaer,1 ■ 'in many of tho former talkcd verj loud English and the latter vory feebü French. There naa naturally large numoers of Americans, who were quiot, undemonstrative, and in the lust si uso cosmopolitan in their doiv, and thereforö did not announco tö everybody in their immediate and more remoto neighborhood that they were important factors in the sum total of the great republic. But thero were those who in stentorian tones offered to " gwap" bottles with the wine-vender, drank white vv'ine from the neck of the bottle In ;i ire within their reach; and ih.ii snouted to the " weinhandlung to hand them up some moro of the samn Bort." This on one of the most prominent tribunes. ïherefore, on account of this array of causes, we all became ill. But the objectionable visitors are off, up and " doing ; " the we itb.61 is mendiog, and is now quite eool and pleasant ; the trophies of the war are s.ifely housed ; the piaster Germ nias, B0TU8SÍS8 and goddesses of vi itory have been demolished; banners have been folded away only to be unfurled after the battle of Dorking, or the sucoessful siege f Amsterdam, or the second burning 01 Moacow ; tho nll-gracions emperors, kings, priooea and potentates have gono homo or to the bathe ; we are not obliged to look at the unplcasant, fresli color of the new Frederick Wilhelm statuo, ;;uil in consequenee of all this we are last eonvalescing. But as we ncver play base-ball or cricket, or pull shclls, or go to the Derby or lo Fordham, auch trivialitios being in nowiso compatible with our strictly earnest and scien tifie life, andas wc must have something worthy of a claim to our thoughts, tho more learnod of us, and the more fully reoovorod, repair, f'r example, to the Leibnitz anniversary of the Boyal Academy. The Boyal Aoademy of Sciences of Borlin was founded by the great Leibnitz in tho year 1700, sinee whioh timo it has experienced various vicissitudns - boin; at one time almost iuanimate; at another, composed, in its membership and board of government, of the fools of tho first court of Frederick Wilhelm ; tiren again, recciving no w life at tho hands of Frederici tho Great, and a iu;w being from l-'i . 1oriok Wilhelm the Third. lt it is now one of the very Brst sciontific societies in Ww. worl'l, and it.s roll of membership oontaina many names of tho mostcelebrated investigators in tho various departments of science. Every year therc are held fchree or four public sittings of this learned body, amoug whieh Leibnitz Day is tho most important. This oceurs in July of each yoar, on or about tho birthday of the great fuunder. On this occasion thy prizes of the Academy are offored for eontributions to special departmenta of Boionec on subjects designated by the Academy ; the namos are announced, and an analysis of their special work is givon, of tliose who have boen successful in contestingtor tho prizes formally offered; euare pronounoed on membors who died during the preceding twelve months. a:il other business is transacted. This sitting of the Aoademy was held last Thursday in its rooms in the Bau-Ak ademie building, Unter den Linden. The apartments are sinall and very meagorly furnished, an old carpot covering but a part of tho floor, tho soats for tho visitors being plain, autiquated cano bottomod chairs; the rooms wero warm and close, and their only decoration two great stoves (or " ovens, " as the Germana say,) and tlirec or four busts, of Fredorick tho Great, of Frederick Wilhelm tho Third, of Loibnitz, and one or two other distiuguishod soientists. On coming up to the Academy, the first person that 1 saw was a oelebrated philologian in a dress suit and - l.n metco nfcrens - placidly smoking a cigar, but ho does know how to searofa for (jieek dialeotic roots and flnd tlmm. llis wife followed him at a short distancie. Tha distinguished members camo into tho audience-room following their temporary president, " bearing their bloshing honois thiok upon tliem ; " that is to say, thoy improvo such occasions to display the vari jus and numerous order-decorations wilich their seientific investigations and coutributions havo won for them. Their clothes were of ill cut and poorly fitting, their stocks in man j cases got awry, and their collars dangled about their nueks in a eouiical way, and their gruatftess and eelobrity crrtainly did not protrude itsclf from their modest appetiranoe. Yot ainong tliein Mn tho liistorians, Hanko, Mommsen and Gurtius; the philologians, Haupt and Kirchoff; the philosopher, Treudelenburg ; tliü chemist, Dove ; tho Egyptologist, Lcpsius; tho phy.Mcist, Ilulniholz, aud othcrs famed ii other dircctions. In a quict way, too, our Mr. Bancroft, by virtuo of his boing corrosponding socretary of the Aoadeiny, took his seat aniong thoso moet honored, and, by the way, thut sume Amerioon minister is not Ich.s respooted and ustucnic-d among thusu Boientiflc men than aniong thu politicians (using this word in its proper and undegenerate sense). The most distinguished philostipher of Gormany, in spuaking of Mr. Banoroi't the other day, among other ploasant things, Kind of him : "lic is withal well versed in philosophy ; he knows Kant thoroughly." The Academy has four departments or classes - tho physical, the mathematical, the philosophical and the historico-philological - each haviiig a permanent socretary, wlio is cv ojfflcio pTeñdeat if thé whole body l'or a qnaiter of a yuir. Xhe present president is Kumincv, secretary of tbo inathciuatical clasa. He opened tht gittáng oo Thuraday with a short papel on the purpoaes of thegatheriug and a clüiracterization of Leilmitz, showiag how he worked and with what motivos and tálente, tho culmination of tho eulogy being that " in his whole life, in act as well as in thought, he had pre servod tho patrioüc Gorman mind and matter." Profeieor Haupt, as sceretary of thehistorical class, tlicn produced the report on tho prize which had boon otiered fur a treatiso on tho subjeut, ' The registen of the Pope from Innocent the Third to Bonediot the Eleventh." This had been propoeed 88 a subject f or elaboration in 18G2 and again in 1866. Bvvt as no troatment of it appeared tho prize wasdoublod in 1868 and the subject ngain oiiVncl. This time with happier resulto, tor a caroful elitborution of the subject appeared from Dr. Potthaft, the custodian of the Berlín Koyal Library, and reoeived the prize. The anal ysis of this work - tbr the subject is treated in three important volumes - was raad ly Professor Hau.pt. Anothcr subject, " A collection of the Fragmenta of the Works of tho Peripatetics iiiinu:diatoly succcoding Aristotle, with a critioal arrangement and treatment of tho same," had also been formerly propoeed, but as nothing appnared the prizo was in liko manner doubled, and three yeara ware allo wed fox tho work. In this mannor the Academy seeks to culi forth oontributions to Boienoe. Metnorial papers were then read on the t bri e eclebritted members who have died during the year - the physicist Magnus, and the philologians Meineke and Bekkei ; on the nrst by his successor in the Univcrsiiy, Professor Helmholz ; on the last two, by Professor Ilaupt. A sketch of the life of eaeh was given - the exact sluit' of the partioular branoh of acienoe which each affected when he entered ita domain ; mul ihen, laatly, an enumeratton and charac of the contributions which each afforded. But the highest pra 1 wm thathe workcd, lived and died liko u true üerman. With this the sitting closed. The University is not 60 largoly attcnded this semester asit has been some summers in the past, tbere being but 20Ö8 catalogued - aiiioní then G7 Americans - but, ofcour.se, it still maintains itsposition it the head of Germán universitics. The iaüixLg oïï ia in part duo to ono or two gaps in departmouta which have hith orto binii remarkably strong - notablyin liistory; which is perhapsia relation to other universities the strongest point at Berlin. Kaumex bas not read for some timo ; not long sineo the lTnivciity lost. a very important historian, and the great founder of tho now school of history, Rnnke, who has just bren uXOUSed froin furthcr reading of lectures - a ripe old age compelling a cessation of the toils suited only to the noonday of lifn. I understand thai Professor Waltz, of Gottingen, lias received a m11 to Berlin, and thatthoreisa fair prospect of hifl oomiug hitlier. His acquisition is very dosirable, and he woald lili the pap admirably, his peculiar province being tho history of tho Middle Ages.