660 Professor Tyndall [Jan. 22, 



the thesis chosen for discussion, Young broke ground on those studies 

 on sound which, for intrinsic merit, and suggesting as they did, his 

 subsequent studies on light, will remain for ever famous in the history 

 of science. During a pause in the lectures he visited the Hartz 

 mountains, making himself acquainted with the scene of Gothe's 

 Walpurgisnacht on the summit of the Brocken. Wedgwood and 

 Leslie accompanied him on this tour. The curious fossils dug up by 

 the young men in the Unicorn's Cave at Schv^arzfeld, excited curiosity 

 and wonder, but nothing more. Their significance at that time had 

 not been revealed. Hearing Kant so much spoken of in Germany, 

 Young naturally attacked the ' Critique of Pure Eeason,' but his 

 other studies prevented him from devoting much time to the critical 

 philosophy. To the portion of it which he read he attached no high 

 value. He admitted Kant's penetration, but dwelt upon his confusion 

 of ideas. The language of the Critique he thought unpardonably 

 obscure. 



He visited Brunswick, where, clothed in the proper costume, he 

 was presented at court. After the reception came a supper, about 

 twenty ladies sitting on one side of a table, and twenty gentlemen 

 on the other. He endeavoured to converse with his neighbour, but 

 found him either sulky or stupid. The dowager duchess, whom he 

 likened to a spectre, made her appearance, and began to converse 

 pleasantly. When told that Young had studied at Gottingen, and 

 that he was a doctor of medicine she asked him whether he could feel 

 a pulse, and whether the English or the Germans had the best pulses. 

 Young replied that he had felt but one pulse in Germany, the pulse 

 of a young lady — and that it was a very good pulse. Gottingen 

 was then the foremost school of horsemanship in Europe. Young 

 was passionately fond of this exercise, and there were no feats of 

 horsemanship, however daring or difficult, which he did not attempt 

 or accomplish. His muscular power had been always remarkable, 

 and he could clear a five-bar gate without touching it. He was better 

 known among the students for his vaulting on a wooden horse than 

 for writing Greek, regarding which they had neither knowledge nor 

 respect. At a court masquerade he appeared in the character of 

 harlequin, which gave him an excellent opportunity of exhibiting 

 his personal activity. Notwithstanding all this, he did not quite 

 like his life in Gottingen. The professors of the University were 

 worked too hard to leave much time for the receptions and social 

 gatherings in which Young delighted. So he quitted Gottingen on 

 the 28th of August, " with as little regret as a man can leave any 

 place where he has resided nine months." 



From Gottingen he walked to Cassel, and thence by Gotha, 

 Erfurt, Weimar, and Jena, to Leipzig. He saw everything which to 

 him was worth seeing, and as he carried letters of introduction from 

 the most eminent men of the age, he was welcomed everywhere. Most 

 of the professors were absent on their holiday, but at Weimar he 

 conversed with Herder, who, though well versed in the English poets, 



