HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



phenomena. Already his wooden bricks had taught 

 him much as to geometrical relationships. The mind 

 became familiar with ideas as to spacial relations, and 

 as to the adjustment of various forms, while he placed 

 his bricks now in this position, now in that, so that 

 when he began the systematic study of geometry at 

 the Normal School of Potsdam in his eighth year, 

 he astonished his teachers by his knowledge of many 

 fundamental truths. He was already beginning to try 

 his wings. 



As he became stronger in body, he was able to 

 ramble with his father in the beautiful country around 

 Potsdam, with its palaces and gardens, and he began to 

 look at nature with his own eyes. Not only was the 

 love of the beautiful in nature encouraged, but also the 

 sense that all her operations were ruled by law. He 

 was now attracted to physical phenomena more than to 

 the abstract ideas of algebra and geometry, and he 

 early realised that a knowledge of natural events and 

 of the laws that regulate them was, as he says, the 

 4 enchanted key ' that places the powers of nature in 

 the hands of its possessor. Antiquated text-books of 

 physical science found on the bookshelves of his father 

 were eagerly read. His enthusiasm also found vent in 

 attempts at experiment, to the detriment, he said, of 

 his mother's furniture and linen. He constructed 

 optical apparatus with a few spectacle glasses and a 

 small botanical lens belonging to his father. While 

 the class in the Gymnasium were reading Cicero 

 4 





