PROFESSOR AT HEIDELBERG 177 



of the soul by his friend Fichte, offering at the same time 

 to draw up his own solution of the problem : 



' For although your task be the rigid investigation of the 

 physical, its coherence, and the significance of particulars in 

 and for the body, it seems to me that this necessarily involves 

 some conception of what the body is and means for the soul, 

 and of the life that develops in it. Both Anthropology and 

 Psychology may suggest much that would be of value to your 

 material researches/ 



At the close of the winter session Helmholtz went to the 

 Festival of the Bavarian Academy, at Munich, in March, 1859, 

 and on the 3oth describes it as follows to his wife : 



' I have been getting on famously. Early on Sunday Eisenlohr 

 appeared with Jolly, the physicist here, to fetch me. After 

 writing our names down at the Academy, Jolly took us to 

 Kaulbach's studio, which was filled with an enormous picture 

 of the Battle of Salamis, a powerful and impressive work. 

 Kaulbach himself, whom I met again at the first banquet, is 

 a most charming and refined artist, with a keen interest in 

 everything that has even the remotest bearing on art. He 

 is justly beloved by every one here. . . . Afterwards we 

 wandered about a little in the streets, and paid visits to a few 

 of the Academicians : both midday and evening I was bidden 

 to Jolly's. His wife comes from Heidelberg, and is a sister- 

 in-law of Weber. . . . Monday was the great function. At 9 a.m., 

 Service with a good solid sermon in the Protestant church ; 

 at n, the meeting, at which King Ludwig appeared, and 

 presentations were made. At the meeting, an Old-Bavarian 

 Catholic, an Orientalist named M tiller, made a speech on 

 the history of the Academy, in which he let out with such 

 bitterness against the Jesuits that I could hardly believe my 

 ears. As we dined later, I breakfasted with many others on 

 a glass of beer, which as a matter of fact far surpasses all 

 foreign imitations of Bavarian beer. At three there was a great 

 banquet, here at the Bayrischer Hof. I sat between SchOnbein 

 and Bischoff, opposite Liebig and Kaulbach; it was very 

 amusing. In the evening one of Terence's plays was given 

 in the small theatre. 



' Yesterday, early, I went with Eisenlohr to the optical 

 works of Steinheil outside the city, and saw much that was 



