Page:Hans Christian Ørsted - The Soul in Nature - Horner - 1852.djvu/23

xx also the first who began to give popular and scientific lectures to ladies, and by so doing he never relinquished the poetie and æsthetic interests which marked the stirring period of his youth. The freshness and activity of his powers of comprehension, which continued to the last, and his agreeable, as well as instructive manner of representation, not unfrequently remind us of Alexander von Humboldt. In Denmark, with its single University, all people of education form one family, more than in other countries; and among the thousands who attended his lectures during nearly half a century, not only did each of them carry home profit and a fresh stimulus from his words, but also a pleasing image of his friendly countenance, which was so often lighted up with genuine delight on the subjects of his lecture, and in the experiments which he exhibited. Not unfrequently in a flow of ideas and fancies, he was overcome by a certain absence of mind, but this was so completely a part of himself that it admitted of no censure; indeed, his audience would have been unwilling to lose it.

Since the year 1834, when liberal constitutional ideas began to stir themselves in Danish polities, and when the old forms began to be shaken, Oersted freely attached himself to the deliberate movement in advance, and by his popularity among the students, he had a calming and reasoning influence during periods of exitement; in 1835 he co-operated in the foundation of the society for freedom of the press; and when Christian VIII. ascended the throne, he addressed this prince, with whom, from the common love of natural science, he stood in close connection, in a speech of a most liberal tendency, proclaiming him to be the judge and representative of the enlarged liberal ideas of latter times. Nevertheless, Oersted's position and inclinations as a man of science necessarily hindered him from taking a direct part in the political life which was now developing