196 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



PpPp 



shows that four metallic or carbonaceous substances form the 

 alternate links of an endless chain ; 



Nerv. PH Pp HP 



indicates that two points of a nerve" are placed in connection 

 by a chain in which moist substances alternate with various 

 metals, only one of which is heterogeneous. 



To these formulae he adds the signs + and , by which to 

 express the commencement or discontinuance of the muscular 

 action, and, further, the signs >- and -< , to distinguish between 

 the positive and negative phenomena. 



It is exceedingly probable that it was these very c formulae ' 

 which proved so offensive to the 'sentimental interest,' the 

 4 heartfelt emotion,' the ' moral sense,' the ' fervour,' the ' sweet 

 sadness,' characterising the mind of Schiller, and which came 

 before him just at the time when he had been confessing con- 

 cerning himself: 'I am willing to admit that I judge too 

 hastily,' while on the other hand Humboldt might well have 

 been impatient of such ' sloppiness of feeling.' 1 



There could hardly have been devised a more fortunate 

 method for arranging facts and impressing them upon the 

 memory than such a system of formulas, and in geology Hum- 

 boldt also employed the symbolic language of algebra side by 

 side with the pictorial configurations that were of universal 

 comprehension. And, need any further remark be made in 

 favour of their practical utility, an additional instance may 

 be adduced in the boundary lines of Flora and Fauna, and 

 the graphic representation of the thermometric, barometric, 

 and magnetic conditions now of universal use even in school- 

 books. 



Upon the value and necessity of studying science in a 

 severely empiric manner, especially from the stand-point he 

 then occupied, Humboldt often expressed himself in the most 



1 ' Schiller's judgment of Humboldt,' remarks Palleske, in his 'Life of 

 Schiller,' 'was mainly grounded upon his work on the muscles' adding 

 the startling conclusion : ' in which I have been assured by competent 

 judges not a spark of the great mind is visible which has rendered immortal 

 the compiler of " Cosmos." J 



