RANKE'S SEMINARY METHOD 271
competed for it and the prize was awarded to one of them.^ Among the other essays were several of merit and one re- ceived a second prize. As a whole, these essays surpassed my expectations." Ranke then goes on to say that he sug- gested to the more advanced members of the seminary that instead of longer scattering their efforts they should concen- trate them on the investigation of the Saxon period. They did so, and the result was the Jahrhucher des deuisehen Retches unter dem Sdchsischen Hause. The essays were care- fully criticised by the members of the seminary. Ranke con- cludes : " I scarcely need give the assurance that these works are independent productions, for they show it themselves. I do not subscribe to all the assertions or judgments expressed in them, nor, on the other hand, would I assume for myself the praise which the authors may have deserved. Every teacher knows that the best that he can do consists in his indirect influence, under which, fortunate natural abilities and peculiar scientific aptitudes receive the freest scope for their exercise." ^
Among the fragments printed with Ranke's memoirs and letters is the following reminiscence, after fifty years, of this early seminary : " I recall in the presence of the once young but now gray -haired members who took part in the historische Uehungen the studies in German history then begun. I have just looked through a long series of Jahrhiicher des deutschen Reiches^ but a still broader survey is afforded by the historico-diplomatic studies conducted in all the other fields. What we then began modestly, the seed which we then planted, is grown to a, great tree in whose branches the birds of the air lodge. I connected my historical seminary {Uehungen) with the earlier studies which I had prosecuted in Frankfort. The old collections of various kinds, with their imperfect texts, I had already begun to read. My memory goes back even further to Stenzel, who was tutor in
1 Georg Waitz. The prize essay was worked over into his published work on King Henry I,
2 TFerArc, LII, 479-481.
