202 ALEXANDER VON HUMEOLDT. 



The transcendental idealism of this new natural philosophy 

 did much towards restricting the rough empiricism of that age, 

 and training the scientific investigator to close thought. The 

 dissensions between theory and experiment seemed even advan- 

 tageous to progress, and called forth Schiller's invocation to the 



Scientific Investigators and Transcendental Philosophers. 



Union is premature. For if truth you would secure, 

 Every searcher must divide, seeking truth on every side. 1 



Even after Humboldt's return from America, philosophy and 

 science were still in a position to expect mutual assistance ; thus, 

 too, Schelling wrote to Humboldt from Wiirzburg in January 

 1805: 2 



.... 'I venture to address you on the subject of natural 

 philosophy, since I have been assured that this new school of 

 philosophy, which has again laid hold upon her ancient posses- 

 sion, nature, has already excited your attention. Great excep- 

 tion has been taken to it in Grermany, where there is always so 

 much opposition to everything that is new. It has first been 

 misunderstood, then misrepresented, and the strongest preju- 

 dice against it entertained. Natural philosophy has been 

 represented as despising experiment, and rejecting its employ- 

 ment at the very time when individual investigators were 

 conducting their experiments under the guidance of philo- 

 sophical ideas. None of the scientific investigators of Grermany 

 have as yet fully grasped this philosophy before giving forth 

 their judgment upon it. At most have they raised doubts 

 against certain points, perhaps on just grounds; but this could 

 not affect the theory as a whole, since it lies upon a deeper 

 foundation. 



6 If a man of your genius, early imbued with the spirit of 

 the ancients, and possessed of a depth and variety of infor- 



' Naturforscher und Transcendentalphilosophen. 



' Feindschaft sei zwischen euch ! Noch kommt das Biindniss zu friihe. 

 Wenn ihr im Suchen euch trennt, wird erst die Wahrheit erkannt.' 



2 * Aus Schelling's Leben. In Briefen ' (Leipzig, 1870), vol. ii. pp. 47-50. 



