238 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



than the lectures at the University which I have men- 

 tioned. I have never considered an investigation 

 finished until it was formulated in writing, completely 

 and without any logical deficiencies. 



Those among my friends who were most conversant 

 with the matter represented to my mind, my conscience 

 as it were. I asked myself whether they would approve 

 of it. They hovered before me as the embodiment of 

 the scientific spirit of an ideal humanity, and furnished 

 me with a standard. 



In the first half of my life, when I had still to work 

 for my external position, I will not say that, along with 

 a desire for knowledge and a feeling of duty as servant 

 of the State, higher ethical motives were not also at 

 work ; it was, however, in any case difficult to be 

 certain of the reality of their existence so long as 

 selfish motives were still existent. This is, perhaps, 

 the case with all investigators. But afterwards, when 

 an assured position has been attained, when those 

 who have no inner impulse towards science may quite 

 cease their labours, a higher conception of their relation 

 to humanity does influence those who continue to 

 work. They gradually learn from their own experience 

 how the thoughts which they have uttered, whether 

 through literature or through oral instruction, continue 

 to act on their fellow-men, and possess, as it were, an 

 independent life j how these thoughts, further worked 



