Look back, in memory, to the months of March, April, and May, 1848.  Have you forgotten how things looked here at that time?  The power of the police was broken; the people filled all the streets and public places.  And all streets, all public places and all the people in the hands of Karbe, Lindenmueller, and other reckless agitators like them,—­men without knowledge, without intelligence, without culture, thrown into prominence by the storm which stirred our political life to its depths.  The bourgeoisie, scared and faint hearted, hiding in their cellars, trembling every instant for fear of their property and their lives, which lay in the hands of these coarse agitators, and saved only by the fact that these agitators were too good-natured to make such use of their power as the bourgeoisie feared they would.  The bourgeoisie, secretly praying for the reestablishment of the police power and quaking with a fright which they have not yet forgotten, the recollection of which still leaves them incapable of taking up the political struggle.

How came it that in a city which proudly calls itself the metropolis of intelligence, in so great a city, in the home of the most brilliant intellects,—­how came it that the people here for months together could be at the disposal of Karbe and Lindenmueller and could tremble before them in fear for their life and property.  Where was the intelligence of Berlin?  Where were the men of science and of insight?  Where were you, Gentlemen?

A whole city is never cowardly.

But these men reflected and told one another:  The people do not understand our ways of thinking; they do not even understand our speech.  There is a great gulf between our scientific views and the ways of the multitude, between the speech of scientific discussion and the habits of thought of the people.  They would not understand us.  Therefore the floor belongs to the coarsest.

So they reflected and held their peace.  Now, Gentlemen, are you quite sure that a political upheaval will never recur?  Are you ready to swear that you have reached the end of historical development?  Or are you willing to see your lives and property again at the mercy of a Karbe and a Lindenmueller?

If not, then your thanks are due to the men who have devoted themselves to the work of filling up that gulf which separates scientific thought and scientific speech from the people, and so to raze the barriers that divide the bourgeoisie and the people.  Your thanks are due these men, who, at the expense of their utmost intellectual efforts, have undertaken a work whose results will redound to the profit of each and all of you.  These men you should entertain at the prytaneum, not put under indictment.

The place in which this address was held, therefore, can also not afford ground for exception as to its scientific character.

I have now shown you conclusively that the production is a scientific work.