Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Hofmann

“ After studying chemistry for six years under A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845) , he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in 1851, and three years later was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government. ”

“ Not intending originally to devote himself to physical science, he first took up the study of law and philology at Göttingen, and the general culture he thus gained stood him in good stead when he turned to chemistry, the study of which he began under Liebig. When, in 1845, a school of practical chemistry was started in London, under the style of the Royal College of Chemistry, Hofmann, largely through the influence of the Prince Consort, was appointed its first director. ”

“ Nevertheless, the man in whose soul the poison works is gifted with so many lofty qualities, that we can follow the struggle and the developement with sympathy. What an inconceivable enjoyment would it be to see such a work of genius represented by great actors throughout, where none were a mere subordinate! This however could be accomplished only by spirits, as in Hofmann’s ghostly representation of Don Juan. ”

“ HOFFMANN, FRIEDRICH (1660-1742) , German physician, a member of a family that had been connected with medicine for 200 years before him, was born at Halle on the 19th of February 1660. At the gymnasium of his native town he acquired that taste for and skill in mathematics to which he attributed much of his after success. At the age of eighteen he went to study medicine at Jena, whence in 1680 he passed to Erfurt, in order to attend Kasper Cramer’s lectures on chemistry. Next year, returning to Jena, he received his doctor’s diploma, and, after publishing a thesis, was permitted to 563 teach. ”

“ Hoffman, the silversmith, whom the count desired to see, was one of those men who have existed at all times and in all countries, who trade on the exertions of those who possess more energy and perseverance than themselves, and who really do seem essential to the great mechanism of society. ”

“ Soon after his removal to Berlin, Professor Hofmann founded the German Chemical Society, of which he has several times been president, and the growth of which has been largely due to his efforts. Although German in name and in language, it numbers among its twenty-seven hundred members persons of every nation where chemistry is cultivated, and its proceedings are the chief means of communication between a large portion of the chemists of this and other countries. ”

“ Leipzig, Germany: Winter, Publisher.
We are glad to see that an American is able to publish a very useful chemical treatise in Germany, the great head center of chemistry. Dr. Austen, one of our most distinguished young chemists in the field of original research, has produced a work which bears the marks of much patient thought and study. The book is dedicated to the renowned German chemist, Professor A.W. Hofmann.
Our Young Folks' Magazine: a Monthly Journal of Instruction and Amusement. Subscription price, $1.60 a year. Boston, Mass.: Post Office Box 3090. ”

“ While he was around the next corner moaning over the stuffed purse, Hoffenstein said to his clerk:—
"Herman, fix up anudder vun of dose goats de same vay; and doan forget to dell dem dot Misder Jones vot run de pank on Canal Streed vore it yesterday."
DER GOOD-LOOKIN SHNOW.
Oh! ”

“ Hoffmann's father was a physician, and he was himself born in Halle, whose university he attended. He acquired lasting reputation as an oculist, and was made Professor of Anatomy, Surgery, Medicine, Physics, and Chemistry at his alma mater. Our commonplace "Hoffmann's anodyne" is named after him. He was one of the most erudite professors of his day, more easily understood than Stahl, widely known for his fluent diction and amiable temper, and, accordingly, won great renown for his university. His good fortune as a practitioner was so great that even Boerhaave declared him his own equal. ”

“ Both works contain sounder reflections on the nature of society and government than many now in circulation. Society, the state, is to Hobbes absolutely pre-eminent, it is the determining power without appeal as regards law and positive religion and their external relations ”

“ She don't forever get some fun.
Bully for her! und drop a tear
For dot old vomans midout some fear.
MR. HOFFENSTEIN'S BUGLE.
"Mr. Hoffenstein," said Herman, as he folded up a pair of pants, and placed them on a pile, "if you don't haf any objections, I vould like to get from de store avay von efening, und go mit de soldiers to de Spanish Fort."
"Vell, Herman, I dinks you had better keep avay from de soldiers," replied Hoffenstein, "und stay mit de store, because, you know, you don't can put any confidence mit de soldiers—I vill tell you vhy. ”

“ Hobbes further takes up the position that this natural condition is of such a nature that all possess the desire to rule over one another. “All in their natural condition are possessed of the will to injure others,” to tyrannize over other men; each has thus to fear the other. Hobbes looks at this condition in its true light, and we find in him no idle talk about a state of natural goodness; the natural condition is really far more like that of the animals—a condition in which there is an unsubdued individual will. ”

“ In 1814 he gladly embraced the opportunity that was offered him of resuming his legal profession in Berlin, and two years later he was appointed councillor of the Court of Appeal (Kammergericht) . Hoffmann had the reputation of being an excellent jurist and a conscientious official; he had leisure for literary pursuits and was on the best of terms with the circle of Romantic poets and novelists who gathered round Fouqué, Chamisso and his old friend Hitzig. ”

“ Endowed by nature with a mind unusually discriminating, and a docility of temper and disposition admirably calculated to reap profit from instruction, Miss Hoffman very early became an object of anxious care and solicitude to the fondest of fathers. ”

“ In 1811 Hofland returned to London, where he resided for a few years in Newman Street, contributing to the support of his family chiefly by making copies of celebrated works in the gallery of the British Institution, and at the same time painting many pictures, chiefly views of the Lakes. In 1814 he gained the British Institution prize of one hundred guineas for ‘A Storm off Scarborough,’ which was purchased by the Marquis of Stafford ”

“ Hoffmann showed more talent for music and drawing than for books. In 1792, when little over sixteen years old, he entered the university of Königsberg, with a view to preparing himself for a legal career. The chief features of interest in his student years were an intimate friendship for Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel (1775–1843) , a nephew of the novelist Hippel, and an unhappy passion for a lady to whom he gave music lessons; the latter found its outlet, not merely in music, but also in two novels, neither of which he was able to have published. ”

“ His chief importance as a public man was, however, derived from his power over the Dutch in Cape Colony, and his control of the Afrikander Bond. In 1878 he had himself founded the “Farmers’ Association,” and as the Cape farmers were almost entirely Dutch the Association became a centre of Dutch influence. When the Bond was formed in 1882, with purely political aims, Hofmeyr made haste to obtain control of it, and in 1883 amalgamated the Farmers’ Association with it. ”

“ Die Serapionsbrüder includes not merely stories in which Hoffmann’s love for the mysterious and the supernatural is to be seen, but novels in which he draws on his own early reminiscences (Rat Krespel, Fermate) , finely outlined pictures of old German life (Der Artushof, Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen) , and vivid and picturesque incidents from Italian and French history (Doge und Dogaressa, the story of Marino Faliero, and Das Fräulein von Scuderi) . The last-mentioned story is usually regarded as Hoffmann’s masterpiece. ”

“ This Hobbes proves by a characteristic reason, viz. that “each individual can make away with the other,” each is the ultimate power over the others. “Each can be supreme.” [235] Thus their similarity is not derived from the greatest strength; it is not, as in modern times, founded on the freedom of the spirit, or on an equality of merit and independence, but on the equal weakness of mankind; each man is weak as regards others. ”

“ He filled also the chair of natural philosophy. With the exception of four years (1708-1712) , which he passed at Berlin in the capacity of royal physician, Hoffmann spent the rest of his life at Halle in instruction, practice and study, interrupted now and again by visits to different courts of Germany, where his services procured him honours and rewards. His fame became European. He was enrolled a member of many learned societies in different foreign countries, while in his own he became privy councillor. He died at Halle on the 12th of November 1742. ”

“ A captain cannot be too careful of the company the state has committed to his charge. He must pay the greatest attention to the health of his men, their discipline, arms, accoutrements, ammunition, clothes and necessaries. ”

“ By means of the Afrikander Bond, which he moulded and controlled, he educated the Dutch of South Africa, and more especially of the Cape Colony, gave them pohtical cohesion, and made them a political force. His Dutch fellow-countrymen felt unbounded confidence in his leadership and cherished strong personal affection for 'Onze Jan.' Despite the racial rancours which the Boer war aggravated and which for the time coloured his political views, Hofmeyr was a conspicuous advocate of the doctrine that nationalism within the empire is compatible with and not antagonistic to cohesion of the whole. ”

“ In marching to the front, the men must be accustomed to dress to the center, which they will have to do when exercising in the battalion; and for this purpose a sergeant must be placed six paces in front of the center, who will take some object in front to serve as a direction for him to march straight forward; and the men must look inwards, and regulate their march by him. The captain must exercise his company in different sorts of ground ”

“ Hobbes thought that knowledge of the world came through experience and not reason alone. Only matter exists, and everything that happens can be predicted in accordance with exact, scientific laws. He regarded human societies as purely mechanical systems set in motion by human desires. ”

“ The commanding officer of each battalion will inspect the sick before they are sent from the battalion, in order that none may be sent but those who are really incapable of marching with their regiments. And the officers commanding the escort will be answerable that no soldiers are permitted to march with the baggage on any pretense whatever, except the quartermaster sergeant of each regiment, as before directed. ”

“ The original impetus was sufficient to carry it across the four piers.”
“And the tub-bomb?”
Masters smiled grimly. “That almost spelled Finis for Hoffman and myself. I knew that Lilienthal probably would be making another of the machines, so that when I found he was in the building—Hoffman knocked him down just as he was leaving—I knew that he would have some method of destroying his work rather than have it fall into the hands of the United States' authorities. As a matter of fact, I got here in just the nick of time! See this burned fuse?” We all nodded assent. ”

“ Each regiment will furnish a non-commissioned officer to conduct the sick and lame who are not able to march with their regiments. These men are to repair, at the beating of the general, to the rendezvous appointed, where a sufficient number of empty wagons will be ordered to attend for the reception of their knapsacks, and their arms if necessary. A surgeon of each brigade is to attend the sick belonging to it. ”

“ A company is to be formed in two ranks, at one pace distance, with the tallest men in the rear, and both ranks sized, with the shortest men of each in the center. A company thus drawn up is to be divided into two sections or platoons; the captain to take post on the right of the first platoon, covered by a sergeant; the lieutenant on the right of the second platoon, also covered by a sergeant; the ensign four paces behind the center of the company; the first sergeant two paces behind the centre of the first platoon, and the eldest corporal two paces behind the second platoon ”

“ Never was intervention more effective, or less obtrusive. Mr. Hofmeyr's part in the affair was confined apparently to an after-dinner conversation with the High Commissioner. Nor was the directing hand of the Master of the Bond revealed more fully until Lord Roberts's occupation of Bloemfontein placed the British authorities in possession of part of the communications which passed at this time, and during the four succeeding months, between the Cape nationalists and their republican confederates. And even in these documents Hofmeyr's name is rarely found at the end of a letter or telegram. ”

“ In considering the routine life of the Hopi it is hard to draw a sharp line between what we may call his regular daily occupations and his religious life, for they are closely interwoven. He is by nature a religionist, and he never forgets his allegiance and obligations to the unseen forces which control and command him. ”