NEW AIMS. 43 



the letter containing my address, could he let me 

 have the truly "needful". 



Our distress was accordingly relieved, but the 

 Parisian trip was rendered vain, for my furlough was 

 now at an end. As a compensation I got practically 

 to know what want of money really means. Of Paris 

 itself I saw little but the streets in which I tramped 

 away my hunger. 



Returned to Berlin I very seriously reflected on 

 the aims I had lately been pursuing, and saw clearly 

 that the chase of discoveries, by which 1 had allowed 

 myself to be carried away through the facility of a 

 first success, would if continued probably be my own 

 and my brother's ruin. I accordingly got rid of all my > 

 inventions, sold even my share in the manufactory set 

 up in Berlin, and devoted myself again with heart 

 and soul to serious scientific study. 1 attended courses 

 at the Berlin University, soon however perceived to 

 my dismay from the lectures of the celebrated mathe- 

 matician Jacobi. that my previous training was in- 

 sufficient to enable me to follow him to the end. 

 This imperfect schooling in scientific study has always 

 to my great regret kept me back and crippled my 

 efforts. All the more grateful am 1 to some of my 

 earlier teachers, among whom I must specially mention 

 the physicists Magnus. Dove and Riess. for friendly 

 reception into their highly interesting circles. I also 

 owe many thanks to the younger Berlin physicists, 

 who allowed me to take part in founding the 

 Physical Society. That was a wonderfully stimulating 



