496 On the Physical Work of von Helmlwltz. [March 8, 



the wise determination of the Gresham Commissioners to include in 

 the university only institutions of university rank, can be maintained 

 against the attacks which will be made uj)on it. 



Lastly, I wish to defend the memory of von Helmholtz from a 

 possible misconception. Those who cultivate art may perhaps look 

 upon him as the poet or the master of style look upon the grammarian ; 

 as a mere gerund-grinder, occupied with the study of the dead materials 

 which they alone can use. Of course Helmholtz was not a great artist 

 in the sense that he was a great scientific man, but it would be most 

 unfair to picture him- as interested only in the study of law, and as 

 insensitive to beauty ; as occupied with sound and light, but careless 

 as to music and painting. I could quote passage after passage from 

 his works to prove his keen sense of the loveliness as well as of the 

 order of nature, to show the homage that he paid, and the freedom he 

 accorded to art. His object was not to lead art captive to science, 

 but rather to unite them in an alliance of mutual confidence and 

 support. 



" The horizons of physics, philosophy, and art," he said, " have 

 been too widely separated, and, as a consequence, the language, the 

 methods, and the aims of any one of these studies presents a certain 

 amount of difficulty for the student of any other of them." To smooth 

 away these difficulties, to bridge over the separating gulf, to supply 

 the common language, were the objects of the life work of von 

 Helmholtz. It was a noble ideal, nobly pursued, and crowned with as 

 much success as could reward the efforts of one man. It is an ideal 

 akin to that which dominates this Institution, where science, litera- 

 ture and art are all heard in turns. 



If it is possible to sum up in a sentence the teaching of von 

 Helmholtz, and the work of his life, it is that, in spite of the 

 apparent diversities between science and science, between science, 

 philosophy and art there is a fundamental unity, and that the 

 future is for those who detect, amid the seeming discords of the 

 schools, the true harmony which underlies and dominates them all. 



[A. W. K.] 



