WEIMAR AND JENA. 205 



sided system formerly adopted, by me, in which all differences 

 in matter were ascribed merely to the different arrange- 

 ment of particles, endeavours to throw light upon the inex- 

 plicable phenomena of organic life, heat, magnetism, and 

 electricity ? ' 



When on the death of Fichte, in 1814, Schelling in Southern 

 Grermany and Hegel in Northern Grermany assumed the lead in 

 the world of science, it was expected that philosophy would be 

 able by means of pure reason and abstract ideas to attain those 

 results which formerly had only been reached by aid of experi- 

 ment. She gave to abstract thought a position she^denied 

 to the sober empirical labours of the scientific investigator. 

 According to her rules, nothing was to be left unexplained, 

 ignorance was never to be acknowledged ; and often a complete 

 want of comprehension was veiled by a superfluity of words, 

 though these might be entirely irrelevant to the subject. In 

 this way there arose a system of chemistry in which no hands 

 need be soiled, and a system of astronomy in which neither 

 measurements nor calculations were required. Even men of 

 distinguished merit and acute powers of observation, such as 

 Nees of Esenbeck, Oken, Dollinger, Walther, Schubert, Carus, 

 &c., were carried away by this delusion ; while the men of true 

 science, Blumenbach, Sommering, Meckel, Treviranus, Pfaff, and 

 Erman, were left to pursue their investigations in solitude. It 

 was not within the power of Humboldt to stem this desolating 

 torrent. This deplorable epoch was termed by him a 'mad 

 saturnalia,' the ' bed en masque of natural philosophy run 

 mad.' l 



Humboldt was on terms of intimate friendship with the 

 Grand Duke Karl August. The prince had been an industrious 

 student of the various sciences of chemistry, botany, mineralogy, 

 zoology, and meteorology, while of anatomy, according to the 

 somewhat too flattering testimony of Walther the anatomist, 6 he 

 had attained a deeper insight than his instructor, Professor 

 Loder.' 2 ' Science,' writes Karl August to Knebel, 3 ' is so 

 human, so true, that I feel inclined to congratulate anyone who 

 has become even partially engaged in its pursuit. It has been 



1 A. von Humboldt, ' Briefe an Varnbagen/ p. 90. 



2 Wagner, ' Leben Sommering's,' vol. ii. p. 46. 



3 Knebel'a * Literariscber Nacblass/ vol. i. p. 143. 



