Page:Hans Christian Ørsted - The Soul in Nature - Horner - 1852.djvu/22

Rh His extensive and various practical activity did not, meanwhile, hinder him from taking an animated and lively interest in the development of Danish literature, and in the political life which was awakened at a later period. The most influential newspapers frequently contained contributions from his pen, and in 1829 he appeared as a fellow-founder and a zealous co-operator in a literary monthly journal, which continued to exist till the year 1838. This was a most meritorious undertaking, by which limits were at length placed to the unintellectual tendency of Danish criticism which existed at that period, and which, like a hostile stream, threatened to destroy the healthy feeling for science and art. In the various criticisms of æsthetic and scientific works, which he published through this medium, as well as in treatises and essays which were otherwise distributed, he always exhibited an inclination, combined with rare capacity, to popularize general intelligence, and especially the knowledge of natural science, and to render it fruitful in the widest circles. Thus the whole course of his long life offers a rare example of indefatigable activity and of honest and many-sided effort. A long lyric and didactic poem which he composed, The Balloon, was translated into German by Johannsen, the minister of the German congregation in Copenhagen, in 1836.

As a teacher at the University he was always much beloved, from his unassuming manners, and his simple gentle demeanour in the delivery of his lectures, which, nevertheless, breathed an ardent spirit which could not be mistaken. He always met older as well as younger students, who needed any scientific explanation and assistance, in the most friendly manner, and, in many cases, where talent had to struggle with material obstacles, his kindly heart was even more than usually alert. Not alone naturalists, but all who were cultivated among the younger generation of Denmark, were his pupils. He not only benefited men by his labours, he was