690 FOUNDING OF THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 



from the fact that this opposition rarely crops out in the scholars of 

 to-day. In the measure in Avhich philosophic systems were pushed 

 iuto the background, sober observation and common sense asserted 

 themselves. 



King Frederick William III must be classed among the sober-minded. 

 It is highly characteristic of him that his intimate biographer begins 

 the description of his mental qualities by praising his "sound, natural, 

 common sense" as the foundation of his personality. "In a rare 

 degree," he writes, "it (common sense) was i^eculiar to the King, so 

 that it may be said that his sound, natural, uudistorted good sense pre- 

 vailed in all affairs, and always was his helpful companion." There- 

 fore he loved nature, and altliough he had not enjoyed a comprehensive 

 education in the natural sciences, he was wont to devote attention and 

 thought to the phenomena of nature. And in connection with this char- 

 acteristic his biographer distinctly and repeatedly gives evidence that 

 " his closest confidant, the one who understood and stimulated him, was 

 Alexander von Humboldt — the daily mess mate, the constant traveling 

 companion, the intimate friend of our never-to-be-forgotten royal 

 master." 



Humboldt had also had a "Naturphilosophie" period. In Jena, in 

 1795, he devoted much time to the problem then occupying all minds, 

 the half naturalistic, half spiritualistic being called vital force. The 

 " Rhodian genius," that winsome creation of a naturalist's fancy, which 

 he later abandoned with reluctance, will always remain interesting as 

 a characteristic picture of the mental confusion from which even the 

 best men of the time could not extricate themselves. Curiously, it was 

 at that very period that Humboldt, stimulated first by Girtaner's 

 investigation of the principle of irritability, and later more particularly 

 by the discoveries of Galvani and Volta, was zealously engaged with 

 his famous experiments on the growth of plants and on the irritation 

 of the nerve and muscle liber, which demonstrated his ability to manip- 

 ulate the rigid methods of the scientist. It is touching to read in a 

 letter dated Jena, 1797 : " The conviction is growing that these experi- 

 ments may sometime or other become the basis of the art of medicine, 

 and that I may be founding a new science (vital chemistry)." More and 

 more he turned to the empirical observation of nature, and as early as 

 1795 he wrote to Blumenbach: "Facts endure when philosophic struc- 

 tures hastily erected have long crumbled. I have always kept my facts 

 and my theories apart. This way of observing the phenomena of nature 

 seems to me most fruitful and thorough." 



Then came his great scientific tour in America, immediately on his 

 return, September 3, 1801, Humboldt announced his willingness to 

 serve the King. Frederick William received him with great distinction, 

 and generously supplied him with the means for continuing liis work. 

 In the capacity of companion to Prince William he was sent to Paris in 

 1808, where he remained even after the discharge of his political mission, 



