286 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ : 



and for fresh hope. Philosophy, it is true, has been 

 for nearly three thousand years the battle-ground for 

 the most violent differences of opinion, and it is not to 

 be expected that these can be settled in the course of a 

 single life. 



I have wished to explain to you how the history of 

 my scientific endeavours and successes, so far as they 

 go, appears when looked at from my own point of view, 

 and you will perhaps understand that I am surprised 

 at the universal profusion of praise which you have 

 poured out upon me. My successes have had primarily 

 this value for my own estimate of myself, that they 

 furnished a standard of what I might further attempt; 

 but they have not, I hope, led me to self-admiration. 

 I have often enough seen how injurious an exaggerated 

 sense of self-importance may be for a scholar, and 

 hence- 1 have always taken great care not to fall a prey 

 to this enemy. I well knew that a rigid self-criticism 

 of my own work and my own capabilities was the 

 protection and palladium against this fate. But it is 

 only needful to keep the eyes open for what others can 

 do, and what one cannot do oneself, to find there is 

 no great danger ; and, as regards my own work, I do 

 not think I have ever corrected the last proof of a 

 memoir without finding in the course of twenty-four 

 hours a few points which I could have done better or 

 more carefully. 



