CHAPTER XVI 



HELMHOLTZ IN BERLIN PHYSICAL RESEARCHES 



CONTINUED 



6. On the Principles of Dynamics. 



T N his later years, Helmholtz was much occupied 

 -*- with the discussion of dynamical questions of 

 the most abstruse nature. To him all physical 

 phenomena were ultimately to be explained on 

 dynamical principles, not merely those evident to 

 the senses, but those in the greater world of mole- 

 cular action. His mental vision penetrated below the 

 surfaces of things, and to such a mind the mazy dances 

 and whirls of atoms were ruled as rigidly by dynami- 

 cal laws as were the movements of the planetary bodies. 

 It was also characteristic of his mental capacities that 

 they seemed to increase in power as time went on. 

 In his old age he was not satisfied merely with the 

 contemplation of what he had done, although that of 

 itself must have been a source of supreme satisfaction, 

 nor did he rest merely on his experience of men and 

 things, but he was ever passing into higher regions of 

 thought. Here he was engaged, not in the gathering 

 233 



