THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN GERMANY. 



179 



On the other side, we find in the wide domain of gen- 

 eral Hterature valuable beginnings and foreshadowings 

 of later scientific thought, as in Georg Forster -^ and in 



came temporarily under its influ- 

 ence. As regards its harmful 

 effect on the natural and medical 

 sciences, the popular addresses of 

 Helmholtz and Du Bois-Reymond 

 may be consulted. Its philoso- 

 phical value will frequently oc- 

 cupy us in later chapters of this 

 work. Its period can be approxi- 

 mately fixed by the publication in 

 1797 of Schelliug's 'Ideen zu einer 

 Philosophie der Natur.' The death 

 of Hegel in 1831, and Humboldt's 

 Berlin lectures during the years 

 1827 and 1828, may be considered 

 as marking approximately the end 

 of the generation which came 

 under the one-sided influence of 

 the Naturphilosophie. We shall 

 have ample occasion later on to 

 notice how many valuable leading 

 ideas connected with this phase 

 of thought were temporarily aban- 

 doned and have since come promi- 

 nently before the scientific world. 

 The year 1830 marked the victory 

 of Cuvier's ideas over those of his 

 great contemi^orary Geoffrey St- 

 Hilaire in the French Academy, 

 and with it the temporary defeat 

 of the valuable suggestions con- 

 tained in the writings of Lamarck 

 and Goethe. 



^ Georg Forster (1753-94) was one 

 of those unique men in the history 

 of literature and science who com- 

 bine the artistic with the scientific 

 spirit, promoting equally the inter- 

 ests of poetry and of exact know- 

 ledge by a loving study of Nature, 

 leading to new views of art as well 

 as to deeper conceptions in science. 

 He may be classed with White of 

 Selborne and other naturalists of 

 England among the small number 

 of those who quietly and unostenta- 

 tiously prepared the healthier forms 



of Naturalism which permeate the 

 poetical and scientific thought of our 

 century, culminating in the great 

 names of Wordsworth and Goethe, 

 of Humboldt and Darwin, of Wal- 

 lace and Haeckel. His life presented 

 many interesting and some un- 

 happy episodes ; it introduces us 

 into the political aspirations of 

 the early French Revolution, to 

 which he sacrificed himself. It 

 has been written by Moleschott, the 

 naturalist, by Heinrich Konig, the 

 novelist (' G. Forster in Haus und 

 Welt,' Leipzig, 1858, 2 vols.), by 

 Klein {'Georg Forster in Mainz'). 

 Fr. Schlegel ('Charakteristiken und 

 Kritiken,' vol. i. ), Gervinus (Intro- 

 duction to the 7th vol. of 'Georg 

 Forster's Werke'), and Hettner 

 (' Literatur des 18'*^" Jahrhunderts,' 

 vol. iii. ) have written appreciative 

 essays on him. A. von Humboldt 

 calls him his master (' Kosmos,' 

 vol. i. p. 345), and Herder (Pre- 

 face to Georg Forster's translation 

 of 'Sakuntala') prophesies his last- 

 ing fame against the opinion of 

 his less apiDi'eciative contempor- 

 aries. He has a place in the class- 

 ical literature both of England and 

 Germany through his beautiful de- 

 scription of Caf)tain Cook's second 

 voyage round the world his 

 father, Joh. Reinhold Forster, hav- 

 ing been selected as the naturalist 

 on that voyage (London, 1777, 2 

 vols. 4to), German edition, 1779. 

 Richard Garnett has said of him : 

 "His account of Cook's voyage is 

 almost the first example of the 

 glowing yet faithful description of 

 natural phenomena which has since 

 made a knowledge of them the 

 common property of the educated 

 world. ... As an author he stands 

 very high ; he is almost the first 



