The Malady of the Century | Page 9

tranquil, appeared to be a kindly soul.
The conversation opened trivially on the circumstances of Wilhelm
meeting with Fraulein Ellrich, and on the beauty of the neighborhood,

which Herr Ellrich glorified as not being overrun.
"I would much rather recommend it for quiet than Switzerland with its
crowds," he said.
Wilhelm agreed with him, and related how he was induced by the
romantic aspect of the place to give up his original plans, and to anchor
himself here. When they questioned him, he gave them some
information about Heidelberg and his journey to Hornberg. Frau Ellrich
complimented him on his sketch, and while he modestly disclaimed the
praise, she asked him why he had not devoted himself to art.
"That is a peculiar result of my development," answered Wilhelm
thoughtfully. "While I was still at the gymnasium I sketched and
painted hard, and after the final examination I went to the Art Academy
for two years; but the further I went into the study of art, and the more
attentively I followed in the beaten track of art- studies, the clearer it
was to me that he who would secure an abiding success in art must be a
blind copyist of nature. Certainly the personal peculiarities of an artist
often please his contemporaries. It is the fashion to do him honor if he
flatters the prevailing direction of taste. But those of the race who
follow after, scorn what those before them have admired, and exactly
what those of one time have prized as progressive innovations, they
who come after reject as mere aberration. What the artist has himself
accomplished, I mean his so-called personal comprehension or his
capricious interpretation of nature, passes away; but what he simply
and honorably reproduces, as he has truly seen it, lives forever, and the
remotest age will gladly recognize in such art-work its old acquaintance,
unchanging nature."
Fraulein Ellrich hung on his words in astonishment, while her parents
calmly went on eating their fish.
"So," went on Wilhelm, speaking chiefly to his opposite neighbor, "so,
I tried when I drew or painted to reproduce nature with the greatest
truth; but at a certain point I became conscious of a perception that a
hidden meaning in an unintelligible language lay written there. The
form of things, and also every so-called accident of form, appeared to

me to be the necessary expression of something within, which was
hidden from me. The wish arose in me to penetrate behind the visible
face of nature, to know why she appears in such a way, and not in
another. I wanted to learn the language, the words of which, with no
understanding of their sense, I had been slavishly copying; and so I
turned to the study of physical science."
"So your two years at the Art School were not wasted," remarked Herr
Ellrich.
"Certainly not, for to an observer of natural objects it is most valuable
to have a trained eye for form and color."
"Yes, and beside, drawing and painting are such charming
accomplishments, and so useful to a young man in society."
"Playing the piano and singing are still more so," put in Frau Ellrich.
"But dancing most of all," cried Fraulein Ellrich. "Do you dance?"
"No," answered Wilhelm shortly.
The words jarred upon him, and a silence ensued.
The councilor broke this with the question:
"Then you are a doctor of physical science?"
"Yes, sir."
"What is your particular department? Zoology, botany?"
"I have principally studied chemistry and physics, and I think of
devoting myself to the latter."
"Physics, oh yes. A wide and beautiful sphere. So much is included in it.
Electricity, galvanism, magnetism--those are all new faculties very
little known; and as regards submarine telegraph the knowledge cannot
be too useful."

"These sides of the question have not hitherto interested me. I ask of
physics the unlocking of the nature of things. It has not yet given me
the key, but it is something to know on what insecure, weak, and
limited experiments our vaunted knowledge of the existence of the
world of energy, of matter and their properties, depend."
Frau Ellrich looked at him approvingly.
"You speak beautifully, Herr Eynhardt, and it must be a great
enjoyment to hear you lecture."
"You will soon have a professorship, I suppose?" remarked Herr Ellrich,
turning around to the blushing Wilhelm.
"Oh, no!" said he quickly, "I do not aspire to that; I believe in Faust's
verse: 'Ich ziehe... meine Schuler an der Nase herum--Und sehe dass
wir nichts wissen konnen;' and I also bilde mir nicht ein, Ich konnte
was lehren.' I wonder at and envy the men who teach such things with
so much influence and conviction, and I am very grateful to them for
initiating me into their methods and power of working properly.