ance
between Germany and the ancient Scandinavian North.

Such an interest deserves acknowledgment the more, because it
unexpectedly increases the mass of facts and opinions which are
here brought into one common and useful union. It also recalls lofty
recollections into the mind of the naturalist. Scarcely half a century
has elapsed since Linne appears, in the boldness of the undertakings
which he has attempted and accomplished, as one of the greatest men of
the last century. His glory, however bright, has not rendered Europe
blind to the merits of Scheele and Bergman. The catalogue of these great
names is not completed; but lest I shall offend noble modesty, I dare
not speak of the light which is still flowing in richest profusion
from the North, nor mention the discoveries in the chemical nature of
substances, in the numerical relation of their elements, or the eddying
streams of electro-magnetic powers. [The philosophers here referred to
are Berzelius and Oersted.] May those excellent persons, who, deterred
neither by perils of sea or land, have hastened to our meeting from
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, England, and Poland, point our the way
to other strangers in succeeding years, so that by turns every part
of Germany may enjoy the effects of scientific communication with the
different nations of Europe.

But although I must restrain the expression of my personal feelings
in presence of this assembly, I must be permitted at least to name the
patriarchs of our national glory, who are detained from us by a regard
for those lives so dear to their country;--Goethe, whom the great
creations of poetical fancy have not prevented from penetrating the
ARCANA of nature, and who now in rural solitude mourns for his princely
friend, as Germany for one of her greatest ornaments;--Olbers, who has
discovered two bodies where he had already predicted they were to be
found;--the greatest anatomists of our age--Soemmering, who, with equal
zeal, has investigated the wonders of organic structure, and the spots
and FACULAE of the sun, (condensations and openings of the photosphere;)
Blumenbach, whose pupil I have the honour to be, who, by his works and
his immortal eloquence, has inspired everywhere a love of comparative
anatomy, physiology, and the general history of nature, and who
has laboured diligently for half a century. How could I resist the
temptation to adorn my discourse with names which posterity will repeat,
as we ar