258 JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 
I did not fail to fetch the books from the court library myself, I became 
acquainted with the librarian, Hess, who occupied himself successfully 
with botany, and as he took a fancy to the little fellow, I got, through 
him, all the books I could desire for my own use. Of course the read- 
ing of books went on without any system. I read the books just as 
they stood upon the shelves, whether from below upwards or from 
right to left was all the same to me; my 14-year-old head was like an 
ostrich stomach for their contents, and amongst them I found side by 
side upon the shelves the thirty-two volumes of Macquer’s “Chemical 
Dictionary,” Basil Valentine’s “Triumphal Car of Antimony,” Stahl’s 
“Phlogistic Chemistry,” thousands of essays and treatises in Géttling’s 
and Gehlen’s periodicals, the works of Kirwan, Cavendish, ete. 
I am quite sure that this manner of reading was of no particular use 
so far as acquisition of exact knowledge is concerned, but 1t developed 
in me the faculty, which is peculiar to chemists more than to other 
natural philosophers, of thinking in terms of phenomena; it is not very 
‘asy to give a clear idea of phenomena to anyone who can not recall in 
his imagination a mental picture of what he sees and hears,—like the 
poet and artist, for example. Most closely akin is the peculiar power 
of the musician, who while composing thinks in tones which are as 
much connected by laws as the logically arranged conceptions in a 
conclusion or series of conclusions. There is in the chemist a form of 
thought by which all ideas become visible to the mind as the strains of 
an imagined piece of music. This form of thought is developed in Fara- 
day in the highest degree, whence it arises that to one who is not ac- 
quainted with this method of thinking, his scientific works seem barren 
and dry, and merely a series of researches strung together, while his 
oral discourse when he teaches or explains is intellectual, elegant, and 
of wonderful clearness. 
The faculty of thinking in phenomena can only be cultivated if the 
mind is constantly trained, and this was effected in my case by my en- 
deavoring to perform, so far as my means would allow me, all the ex- 
periments whose description I read in the books. These means were 
very limited, and hence it arose that, in order to satisfy my inclination, 
| repeated such experiments as [was able to make, a countless number 
of times, until I ceased to see anything new in the process, or till L 
knew thoroughly every aspect of the phenomenon which presented 
itself. The natural consequence of this was the development of a 
memory of the sense, that is to say of the sight, a clear perception of 
the resemblances or differences of things or of phenomena, which after- 
wards stood me in good stead. 
One will easily understand this if one imagines, for instance, a white 
or colored precipitate which is produced by mixing two liquids; it is 
formed either at once or after some time, it is cloudy or of a curdy or 
gelatinous character, sandy or crystalline, dull or bright, it deposits 
easily or slowly, etc.; ov if it is colored it has a certain tint, Among 
