170 MEMOIR OF OERSTED. 



ently of Lis own original ideas, remained tlie representative and, in some sort, the 

 heir of those of Ritter, of whom he had been the last collaborator and interpreter. 



Some prepossessions, whatever their origin, perhaps the fear of being- received 

 with a certain snperciliousness, had led Oersted to pass almost the Avhole time 

 of his sojonrn in Paris without going to present to the celebrated Fourcroy, pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at the Polytechnic School, a letter of professor Manthey, of 

 Copenhagen. He decided at last to do so at the instance of the charge d' afiaires 

 of Denmark. The elegance, the clearness, the authority with which Fourcroy 

 discharged the functions of professor, gave him great ascendency over his pupils; 

 but, out of the chair, he did not always sufficiently divest himself of the magis- 

 terial dignity. He congratulated the young and modest Oersted on having come 

 to Paris and having acquired a knowledge of so many remarkable men, superior 

 beyond doubt to all the chemists of the north. '^ I must acknowledge," replied 

 Oersted, " that you possess at Paris more dexterity than exists elsewhere in 

 chemical manipulations ; ])ut there is scarcely to be found in the north a single 

 chemist who cannot read in the original the Systeme des connaissances chimhptes 

 of M. de Fourcroy, Avhicli few French chemists could do for works written in the 

 Scandinavian languages." To the question, if he had seen the Polytechnic 

 School, Oersted replied of course affirmatively, and Fom'croy having made him 

 duly sensible that this school gave to Paris a great superiority over Denmark, 

 Oersted rejoined, with perhaps too ingenuous a confidence: "I admit that my 

 country wants much which is needed for the fruitful development of chemistry, 

 but I do not d'espair of contributing hereafter to establish there something not 

 unlike the Polytechnic School." Upon which, Fourcroy begged him, somewhat 

 ironically, to be sure to preserve, when he returned home, a kind recollection of 

 the French chemists. This Oersted did not fail to do, and I shall show further 

 on how he proved it. 



In returning to Denmark, Oersted traversed Holland, and, at Harlem, made 

 a great number of electrical experiments with the learned physicist Van Marum. 

 At Bremen he contracted a friendship with the astronomer 01bers,,and with 

 Treviranus, celebrated for his labors in physiology and comparative anatomy, 

 and finally re-entered his country in the month of January, 1804. On his return, 

 the duty, at first temporary and limited to three years, of delivering lectures on 

 physics at the University of Copenhagen was confided to him ; in 1806 he was 

 named professor extraordinary of physics in the same university. He had here 

 the first opportunity of combining his scientific views in a systematic shape, the 

 outline of which he preserved during his entire life, only modifying certain parts 

 according to the progress of science. 



His lectures commanded a large attendance ; they bore a form which was 

 peculiar to himself. The skillful professor nsuallv conmienced in a subdued 

 tone, with particular considerations and explanations ; frequently, indeed, with 

 the definition of certain expressions, turning on the translation of technical words 

 into the Danish language. Assured thenceforth of being fully understood, he 

 followed the logical course of ideas, and warming by degrees, collected the facts 

 into groups, and these groups into a whole still more comprehensive. The ani- 

 mation of the lecture, in giving more freedom to his delivery, called forth his 

 favorite thoughts on the unity, the beauty of nature, and figures and images pre- 

 sented themselves which keenly interested his auditors, especially the younger 

 portion of them, for those who had already followed other lectures were more sur- 

 prised at still finding something unusual in his. 



It was sometimes objected to Oersted that he saw or imagined in nature com- 

 binations much more I'ational than those which can be expected to occur in an 

 assemblage of material objects ; but he replied that nothing is too rational to be 

 attributed to the supreme reason which has created everj-thing. On such a theme 

 it would be easy to argue a long time without coming to an understanding. It 

 would be to plunge into the depths of those German discussions in which so 



