RESIDENCE AT BERLIN TO THE REVOLUTION OF JULY. 145 



approached ; for Gauss departed in the c fullest conviction of 

 his immortality, and with the bright expectation that in a 

 future existence he should acquire still deeper insight into the 

 properties with which number had been endowed by the Creator, 

 the glorious mysteries of which he should then perhaps be able 

 to apprehend, for, as he remarked, 6 eos apL0fjir)rl^sL. 1 Upon 

 other occasions he had greatly rejoiced at the prospect of 

 4 Cosmos' being completed, 'a work so overwhelmingly rich 

 in material.' He hoped in the fourth volume to learn much 

 upon subjects with which lie was but slightly acquainted, and 

 felt exceedingly anxious that Humboldt should further eluci- 

 date the portions of c Cosmos ' treating of living organisms. 2 



Widely as Humboldt differed from Gauss in his views on 

 politics and religion, he ever cherished towards him the highest 

 veneration. Although he 6 could make no pretensions to follow 

 him in the higher branches of mathematics,' and when studying 

 his works had to seek from Jacobi an explanation of the diffi- 

 culties ' which lay beyond the narrow boundary of his horizon,' 

 yet he was sensible that ' by confidential intercourse with such 

 a mind his apprehension was quickened and his power of com- 

 prehension enlarged.' He was keenly alive to ' the attractive 

 force possessed by superior minds,' and felt, ' as befitted an old 

 geologist, that, notwithstanding his gradual petrifaction, com- 

 mencing at the extremities, his heart had not yet grown cold, 

 but seemed to beat with renewed vigour in affection for those 

 who could direct a gleam of light into the profound depths of 

 nature's complicated phenomena,' &c. Through this cloud of 

 incense, it is yet evident that his instincts led him to form a 

 just estimate of that which he could not fully comprehend. It 

 was by following out this instinct that he was led to labour 

 unremittingly to secure an honourable position in Berlin for a 

 fellow-countryman, who was undoubtedly the first mathema- 

 tician in Europe. For eight years after the meeting of the 

 Scientific Association in Berlin, he lost no opportunity of 

 urging forward ' the long-cherished wish of his heart,' and in 



1 From a letter addressed to Humboldt by Baum on May 28, 1855, 

 giving an account of the last hours of Gauss. The remark relating to 

 * Cosmos ' was communicated verbally by Sartorius to Bruhns. 



2 Letter of May 10, 1853. 



TOL. II. L 



