HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



fame of Helmholtz has been extended by these lectures, 

 which have brought instruction to the learned and the 

 unlearned alike. In the printed form, and even in the 

 translations, they are literary productions of great 

 completeness. They give one a feeling of thorough- 

 ness in the treatment of the subject. The matter is 

 discussed by a master, who brings to bear upon it all 

 his wealth of learning and research, while there is the 

 ever-enduring interest that attaches to an exposition 

 by one who is giving forth from his own treasury. 

 The lectures of Helmholtz are the fruit of his own 

 thought and labour. They do not amuse ; they 

 instruct, and they inspire. They are usually on 

 difficult subjects, and they take a wide and com- 

 prehensive survey. In the popular exposition of the 

 phenomena of vision, of hearing, of the qualities of 

 musical tone, of colour and the art of painting, Helm- 

 holtz stands, in his own field, head and shoulders above 

 all his contemporaries. 



The lecture on Goethe, delivered in 1853, ' s 

 specially worthy of notice. 1 It was supplemented 

 by a paper dealing with some aspects of the same 

 subject, read in 1892 to the Generalversammlung der 

 Goethe-Gesellschaft at Weimar. In this lecture he 

 describes and explains the great poet's researches on 

 colour, and shows the mental bias that completely 

 led him astray in his theory of colour. At the 

 same time he extols Goethe's scientific insight as 



1 Lectures, p. 33. London, 1873. 

 274 



