PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION. 385 



reached in my story the feeling referred to was indefi- 

 nitely strengthened, my whole life being at the same 

 time rendered more earnest, resolute, and laborious by 

 the writings of Carlyle. Others also ministered to this 

 result. Emerson kindled me, while Fichte powerfully 

 stirred my moral pulse. 1 In this relation I cared little 

 for political theories or philosophic systems, but a great 

 deal for the propagated life and strength of pure and 

 powerful minds. In my later school-days, under a 

 clever teacher, some knowledge of mathematics and 

 physics had been picked up : my stock of both was, 

 however, scanty, and I resolved to augment it. But it 

 was really with the view of learning whether mathe- 

 matics and physics could help me in other spheres, 

 rather than with the desire of acquiring distinction in 

 either science, that I ventured, in 1848, to break the 

 continuity of my life, and devote the meagre funds 

 then at my disposal to the study of science in Germany. 



But science soon fascinated me on its own ac-^ 

 count. To carry it duly and honestly out, moral 

 qualities were incessantly invoked. There was no 

 room allowed for insincerity no room even for care- 

 lessness. The edifice of science had been raised by men 

 who had unswervingly followed the truth . as it is in 

 nature ; and in doing so had often sacrificed interests 

 which are usually potent in this world. Among these 

 rationalistic men of Grermany I found conscienti- 

 ousness in work as much insisted on as it could be 

 among theologians. And why, since they had not the 

 rewards or penalties of the theologian to offer to their 

 disciples ? Because they assumed, and were justified in 

 assuming, that those whom they addressed had that 



1 The reader will find in the Seventeenth Lecture of Fichte's 

 course on the ' Characteristics of the Present Age ' a sample of the 

 vital power of this philosopher. 



VOL. II. C 



