AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 289 



out by their pupils, acquire a deeper significance and 

 a more definite form, and, reacting on their originators, 

 furnish them with fresh instruction. The ideas of an 

 individual, which he himself has conceived, are of 

 course more closely connected with his mental field 

 of view than extraneous ones, and he feels more 

 encouragement and satisfaction when he sees the 

 latter more abundantly developed than the former. 

 A kind of parental affection for such a mental child 

 ultimately springs up, which leads him to care and to 

 struggle for the furtherance of his mental offspring as 

 he does for his real children. 



But, at the same time, the whole intellectual world 

 of civilised humanity presents itself to him as a con- 

 tinuous and spontaneously developing whole, the dura- 

 tion of which seems infinite as compared with that 

 of a single individual. With his small contributions 

 to the building up of science, he sees that he is in the 

 service of something everlastingly sacred, with which 

 he is connected by close bands of affection. His work 

 thtLeuy appears to him more sanctified. Anyone can, 

 perhaps, apprehend this theoretically, but actual per- 

 sonal experience is doubtless necessary to develop this 

 idea into a strong feeling. 



The world, which is not apt to believe in ideal 

 motives, calls this feeling love of fame. But there is a 



decisive criterion by which both kinds of sentiment 

 Ji. u 



