"
"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.
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