viii.] TRAVELS, 1837. 233 



would be squeezing or not, would be somewhat difficult 

 to predict. . . . 



1 June \7th. I went to the Drachenfels by steamer, in 

 order to make my preparations for a course of hourly 

 meteorological observations at which I purposed assisting, 

 when who should I find at the steamer but Von Buch, on 

 his way to Paris, to which he intends going on foot from 

 Mayence, although he had not said a syllable about it 

 last night. He received me with his usual cordiality, 

 and we had so pleasant a chat that I regretted our arrival 

 at Kdnigswinter. Speaking, amongst other things, of 

 mathematics, he remarked that their invention requires 

 to be stimulated by an appeal to nature ; original mathe- 

 maticians being more or less physicists. " En efFet," he 

 continued, " la nature a plus d'esprit que nous. And 

 therefore," he added, " it is a false principle to build up 

 complicated explanations to account for one or two 

 observed facts. Let facts multiply themselves until they 

 explain one another. If this does not happen, I would 

 renounce a theory which should require me to argue, 

 instead of to interpret nature." 



MR. BATTEN'S Narrative resumed. 



6 We made two or three excursions from Bonn, ea< li 

 having for its object something of scientific interest ; 

 and after a short absence in the country of the Upper 

 Rhine, during which Forbes had remained at Bonn, we 

 met at Konigswinter for the purpose of carrying out a 

 plan, into which he warmly entered, of continuing on 

 the heights of the Drachenfels a series of meteorological 

 observations, which had been taken by a society of the 

 students of tin- Natural Philosophy class in Edinburgh for 

 some time past. He lia<l never attended our meetings, 

 but had encouraged the formation and progress of the 

 society, and now joined me in taking the observations 

 hourly for two days and a night. It was this hearty 

 with which he encouraged and entered into the 

 efforts of his >nnl--nts whose love of science had been 

 l.v him-.elf. that foiged " linn and 



