The Soul in Nature

THE LIFE OF H. C. OERSTED.

elaborated his ideas with slowness and certainty, bringing them forward only after a long lapse of time. How often did he (Sir John Herschel) wish to heaven that he could trample down, and strike forever to the earth, the hasty generalization which marked the present age, and bring up another and a safer system of investigation, such as that which marked the inquiries of his friend. It was in the deep recesses, as it were of a cell, that in the midst of his study, a far idea first struck upon the mind of Oersted. He waited calmly and long for the dawn which at length opened upon him, altering the whole relations of science and, he might say, of life, until they knew not where he would lead them to. The electric telegraph, and other wonders of modern science, were but mere effervescences from the surface of this deep, recondite discovery, which Oersted had liberated, and which was yet to burst with all its mighty force upon the world. If we were to characterize by any figure the advantage of Oersted to science, he would regard him as a fertilizing shower descending from heaven, which brought forth a new crop, delightful to the eye and pleasing to the heart.”

Oersted quitted England at the close of the Southampton Meeting and joined the Association at Kiel on his road home.

With reference to his worldly position, he had become Secretary to the Royal Society of Sciences in Copenhagen, Professor Ordinarius original: "full professor"., a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in the French Institute, and Director of the Polytechnic School at Copenhagen, which he had himself created through the personal influence he possessed with Frederick VI. In 1837 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour, in 1840 “Conferenz-rath” A high-ranking administrative or advisory title., in 1842 he was made a Knight of the Prussian Order “pour le Mérite dans les Sciences et les Arts” original: "for merit in the sciences and the arts"., in 1843 he received from Erlangen the diploma of honor as a Doctor of Medicine, and in 1847 the Grand Cross of Dannebrog.