THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN GERMANY. 



175 



century produced in Germany men of great scientific im- 

 portance ; but their position was irregular and uncertain, 

 and they undoubtedly do not wholly or exclusively belong 

 to the history of the university system. Leibniz, Euler, 

 Haller, Werner, Markgraf, Tobias Mayer, Lambert, and 

 Humboldt are all intimately connected with the growth of 

 modern science : their position and sphere of action were 

 in each case different.^ Leibniz was a courtier, Euler an 



for the solution of the problem, 

 have a definite sense ; each of them 

 possesses a certain charm which 

 dispels fatigue, and if the question 

 is really answered, then they know 

 the ways and means of attaining 

 similar ends. I know many who 

 are now at the head of soda-, vitriol-, 

 sugar-factories, of colour- works and 

 other establishments. Without ever 

 having had anything to do with them 

 beforehand, they were in the first 

 half -hour acquainted with the pro- 

 cesses, the second already brought 

 a number of appropriate improve- 

 ments, &c., &c. " Similarly Helm- 

 holtz in 1862 ('Redeu,' vol. i. p. 

 142) : " He who in the cultivation 

 of the sciences aims at immediate 

 practical usefulness, may be joretty 

 sure that he will miss his aim. 

 Science [ Wissenschaft] can aspire 

 only to a perfect knowledge and 

 a complete understanding of the 

 sway of physical and mental forces. 

 The individual worker must find 

 his reward in the joy over new 

 discoveries, as new victories of 

 mind over matter, in the sesthe- 

 tical beauty which an orderly dis- 

 play of knowledge affords, &c., &c." 

 How little do our modern colleges 

 of science correspond with this view 

 of Wissenschaft ! 



1 On Leibniz (1646-1716), see p. 

 158 ; Werner (1750-1817), p. 118 ; 

 and Tobias Mayer (1723 - 62), p. 

 158. A. von Humboldt (1769-1859) 

 is well known to English readers. 



Leonhard Euler (1707-83), a native 

 of Basel, passed the greater part of 

 his life at St Petersburg as a mem- 

 ber of the Academy, a i^ortion of 

 it (1741 - 66) as an Academician 

 at Berlin. He has been termed 

 the father of pure mathematics, 

 inasmuch as he freed mathemati- 

 cal analysis from geometrical con- 

 ceptions, established the notion of 

 function or mathematical depend- 

 ence, and did much to make the 

 theory of numbers an independent 

 branch of science. His memoirs 

 are said to number nearly a thou- 

 sand ; his works, if all printed, 

 would fill 60 to 80 quartos (see 

 Hankel, ' Die Entwicklung der 

 Mathematik,' Tiibingen, 1884, p. 

 12). Andreas Sigismund Markgraf 

 (1709 - 82) was born and lived at 

 Berlin, a member of the Academy. 

 On his various chemical researches 

 see Kopp, ' Geschichte der Chemie,' 

 vol. i. p. 208. Albrecht von Haller 

 (1708-77) was a native of Bern. 

 He was, next to Leibniz, perhaps 

 the most encyclopaedic mind of 

 modern times, equally celebrated 

 as botanist, physiologist, and poet. 

 He has been termed the father of 

 physiology. Brought up under the 

 celebrated Boerhaave, he accepted 

 a chair at the newly founded Uni- 

 versity of Gottingen in 1736, and 

 taught there for seventeen years 

 anatomy, botany, medicine, and 

 surgery. 



