Cosmos, Vol. 5

The quality of liveliness original: "Lebendigkeit"; here referring to the vividness or vitality of prose must by no means be the same in a simple description of nature, conceived in pure objectivity, as it is in the reflection of the external world upon the feelings and the inner nature of man. In every literature, however, these boundaries are drawn differently according to the essence of the language and the national spirit original: "Volksgeiste"; the unique character or "genius" of a particular culture, in order to avoid the disaster of "poetic prose." Only when one is at home, in one's innate, native language, can the correct degree of coloring be determined almost unconsciously through an intuitive sense. The recognition of this ability is far from an arrogant belief in one's own success. It is intended here only to describe a diligent striving: to use the perfection of form to remind the reader of the intimate kinship between certain parts of scientific and purely literary works; a kinship and a method of treatment that in no way poses a danger to the former.