HERMANN LUDWIO FEKI'1N\M> II KI.MHOLTZ. 



reduce* to an intelligible and systematic form the laborious and intricate in- 

 vestigations of several independent theorists, so as to compare them with each 

 other and with experiment. 



Hut we must not dwell on isolated papers, each of which might have been 

 taken for the work of a specialist, though few, if any, specialists could have 

 treated them in so able a manner. We prefer to regard Helmholtz as the 

 author of the two great books on Vision and Hearing, and now that we are 

 no longer under the sway of that irresistible power which has been bearing 

 us along through the depths of mathematics, anatomy, and music, we may 

 venture to observe from a safe distance the whole figure of the intellectual 

 giant as he sits on some lofty cliff watching the waves, great and small, as 

 each pursues its independent course on the surface of the sea below. 



I imut own," he says, " that whenever I attentively observe this spectacle, it awakens in 

 M a peculiar kind of intellectual pleasure, because here is laid open before the bodily eye what, 

 in the cue of the wave* of the invisible atmospheric ocean, can be rendered intelligible only to 

 tfca ey of the understanding, and by the help of a long aeries of complicated propositions." _ 

 p. 42.) 



Helmholtz is now in Berlin, directing the labours of able men of science 

 in his splendid laboratory. Let us hope that from his present position he will 

 again take a comprehensive view of the waves and ripples of our intellectual 

 progress, and give us from time to time his idea of the meaning of it all. 



