62 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



from my letter as yours has given me! Here our quiet life 

 goes on as usual; your present is so beautiful that you can 

 scarcely appreciate the happiness of recollecting what is past. 

 Or should I as a wise parent check your transports by sad 

 legends of the envious gods who leave nothing perfect to us 

 poor mortals? advise you like Polycrates to sacrifice your 

 dearest jewel, and commend you to bitter renunciation in order 

 that you may remember that you are mortals called to sorrow ? 

 Olga, make your Hermann tidy, for that is his weakest point, 

 and when he is a father, he must set his children a better 

 example than I have given him. Now I have quite done ; 

 for what to me is so important, that you should be assured 

 of my love, will seem to you in the fullness of your own like 

 a drop in the ocean/ 



The new house was soon got ready. ' As soon as we had 

 put our house in order/ Helmholtz writes in the middle of 

 October to du Bois, ' everything was very comfortable, and 

 we were able to enjoy the best part of our life without let or 

 hindrance. I can only recommend you with the best con- 

 science in the world to provide yourself at the first oppor- 

 tunity with just such a dear wife as I have found. Marriage 

 makes one so fully contented with the present, so certain of 

 one's portion, that my working power has substantially 

 increased/ And in fact he employed the vacation in sketch- 

 ing out new enterprises, and continuing his former work, 

 bringing an entirely new method to bear on the experiments 

 already commenced upon the nature of muscular movement 

 during a single twitch. His young wife gave him valuable 

 assistance by observing the divisions of the galvanometer 

 scale, and long series of tables in her handwriting still exist 

 among his papers. 



In the first half of the winter session he was almost 

 entirely absorbed in the preparation of his lectures, and 

 could only undertake such minor experiments as were neces- 

 sary for purposes of demonstration. 



1 A larger bit of work/ he writes to his father in December, 

 * from which I was getting a good many results in the October 

 vacation, must now be put off till Christmas. Seven students 

 have entered their names for my lecture, three to five of 

 whom generally appear, according to weather. I am still 



