PROFESSOR VIltCHO W AND INVOLUTION. 633 



their own way. I, however, owe him a great deal, and am 

 also in honor bound to acknowledge the debt. Few, per- 

 haps, who are privileged to come into contact with that 

 illustrious man have shown him a sturdier front than I 

 have, or in discussing modern science have more frequently 

 withstood him. (jBut I could see that his contention at 

 bottom always WHS that the human soul has claims and 

 yearnings which physical science cannot satisfy, j England 

 to come will assuredly thank him for his affirmation of the 

 ethical and ideal side of human nature. Be this as it may, 

 lit the period now reached in my story the feeling referred 

 to was indefinitely strengthened, my whole life being at 

 the same time rendered more earnest, resolute, and labo- 

 rious by the writings of Carlyle. Others also ministered to 

 this result. Emerson kindled me, while Fichte power- 

 fully stirred my moral pulse.* 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 schooldays, 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 mathematics 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, arid devote the 

 meager funds then at my disposal to the study of science 

 in Germany. 



But science soon fascinated me on its own account. To 

 carry it duly and honestly out, moral qualities were in- 

 cessantly invoked. There was no room allowed for insin- 

 cerity no room even for carelessness. 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 Germany I 

 found conscientiousness 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 



* 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. 



