THE recent death of this distinguished and venerable philosopher has been acknowledged in every part of Europe and of the world where the physical sciences are cultivated or valued, as a loss not easily to be supplied, and as creating a blank in the science of the age not readily to be filled up. In any isolated departments of science many men of equal, or superior, qualifications might be named to sustain the honor of those branches; but no one who, like Humboldt, was gifted to advance and adorn them all together. Of many a confessedly great man it is often asked, and not very easily answered, what has he done? An individual, in fact, often attains a high reputation, built up as it were out of a vast number of minor claims, each in itself but small, yet in the aggregate rising to a large amount; while, perhaps, it is more the general character of high ability pervading them all, and not unfrequently even that high ability alone, evinced less in actual great results than in undeniable manifestation of power to achieve them, which constitutes the basis of a high reputation. But with the subject of this brief memoir the case was very different. Humboldt affords an instance of a man singularly and strongly marked in his whole life and character by earnest and entire devotion to one single great object-the vision and aspiration of his earliest years -worked out in untiring detail through his middle life, and carried on to its completion and fulfillment in the unusual vigor of his long-protracted age. In one word, the study of universal nature in all her variety, in all her minuteness, and all her vastness, and the final bringing together of the assemblage and accumulation of these treasures of knowledge in the display of their connection and unity in one grand whole, laying an enduring groundwork for the loftiest contemplations of which the human soul is susceptible. VOL. XLVIII.—NO. I. von Friedrich Heinrich Alexander Humboldt, the younger son of Major von Humboldt, (who had been in the service of Frederic the Great,) was born in 1769, September 14th, at Berlin. After some early instruction at home under a tutor, accompanied by his elder brother Wilhelm, he entered the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where his preference led him to the studies of natural science and political economy, while his brother followed those literary and philological pursuits in which he afterwards became so eminent. Thence, in 1788, he removed to the more celebrated University of Göttingen, where he pursued an extended course of the same studies. It was here that in the son-in-law of the celebrated scholar Heyne, he found a friend, George Forster, who had been the companion of Captain Cook in his second voyage, and whose adventurous spirit as well as his skill in botany and natural history, tended greatly to awaken Humboldt's desire for traveling, and to give it a scientific direction. From his earliest youth, Humboldt informs us, it had been his earnest wish to explore untrodden regions of the earth. In the first instance, the mere desire of adventure, the spirit of enterprise, all the more intensely stimulated when not devoid of a degree of danger, were perhaps his only motives. To these were added, as his mind expanded, the increasing desire of knowledge; and on more close and accurate study, a perception of existing deficiencies and an estimate of those special quarters and regions in which the blank most imperatively demanded filling up. He was particularly impressed with the great extent of the earth's surface of which little or nothing was known, and much remained to be explored even in better-known regions. Thus, at the age of eighteen, he tells us, he had fully conceived the idea of those labors to which the main part of his 3 after-life was devoted, and the acquaint- of war in Italy forced them to abandon an ance which he formed with the kindred excursion into that country. During the spirit of George Forster, stimulated and two next years he resided temporarily in animated to the utmost the ideas he had various parts of Europe, but especially at already so vividly conceived, besides ma- Jena, where he formed the acquaintance terially aiding their accomplishment by of Göthe and Schiller. He published advice and information on points connect- Researches into the Structure of Muscular ed with natural history and the collection and Nervous Fiber, and The Chemical of specimens. In company with this Processes of Life, (1797,) as well as Infriend, he made excursions through seve-vestigations on Various Gases, then imral parts of Europe, studied the volcanic phenomena of Italy and Sicily, the Alps and the banks of the Rhine, and in 1790 visited Holland and England. His first publication was a dissertation, the result of these excursions, On Certain Basaltic Formations on the Rhine, 1790. His destined profession was that of official employment in the mines under the Prussian Government, with a view to which he pursued the study of mineralogy at Freiburg, under the celebrated Werner; and in 1792 was subsequently appointed superintendent of mines at Beyreuth. During his continuance there, he contributed various minor publications to natural and mineralogical science. But his ardent desire for traveling overcame every consideration of professional advancement; and, in consequence, he resigned his employment in the mines in 1795. Disappointed in his hope of joining in two proposed expeditions under the French Government one to Egypt and Syria, the other to the South-Pacificwhich were frustrated by the convulsed state of Europe at that period, four years elapsed before he was able to put his project in execution. The time, however, was not lost; he diligently employed it in prosecuting those preparatory studies which enabled him to apprehend in their due relations all the varied and important points of science which would claim attention, and open new fields of research; while the study and practice of methods of observation, and the use of physical and astronomical instruments and apparatus, were essential preparatives for the course of investigation he had planned. In 1797 he remained for some time at Vienna, preparing for botanical excursions by studying the collections of exotic plants in that city; after which he had the advantage of traveling through Salzburg and Styria in company with the great geologist Von Buch, and was about crossing the Tyrolean Alps, when the breaking out perfectly known, (1799,) evincing the very varied as well as accurate nature of his studies. Having, as we have seen, been disappointed in obtaining any opening in connection with Government expeditions, he now determined to rely on his own resources. His friendship with M. Bonpland enabled them jointly to concert plans of exploration. With that eminent botanist he spent some time in France, with the intention of making an excursion into Africa and the East; but here again various difficulties interposed; and finally, the continent of South-America appeared to offer in many respects the most eligible field for their operations, and for which they made their preparations accordingly; and in 1799, after traversing a considerable part of Spain, they finally embarked at Corunna for the Azores. The voyage, so far from being wearisome, or lost time, was to Humboldt a source of ever-new interest. The aspects and productions of the ocean, the phenomena of the atmosphere, the views of the heavens under a tropical sky, were all topics of fresh research and deeply instructive study, of which he knew how to avail himself to the utmost. In a sketch like the present, we of course make no pretension of following the travelers through the varied scenes of their explorations: from the shores of Spain to the Canary Islands, and the Peak of Teneriffe; whence crossing the Atlantic, the more arduous task of exploring the South-American Continent occupied them nearly four years; commencing from the northern coast, and investigating successively the montainous regions of those parts, the Llanos and Pampas, the rivers and marshes; studying earthquake phenomena in the Carraccas; and comparing the volcanic phenomena of the Andes with those of Mexico; investigating the physical aspects of the West-Indian Islands. We can only observe, in general, throughout every part of these wan derings, how rich a field - then almost | familiarity with which he seems to have entirely new to scientific research was conciliated the good-will of the various opened to their inquiries. These vast regions, as to their physical structure and conditions, as well as their animal and vegetable productions, hitherto for the most part very little examined, were more fully disclosed to their research; and no opportunity was lost of examining and registering all the variety of interesting physical phenomena and diversified forms of animated nature, which in such endless profusion presented themselves for examination. During these lengthened explorations the masses of collected specimens, geological, botanical, zoological, and miscellaneous, became by degrees enormous. The difficulties of packing and conveying them were great, and the fear of losing them still more a source of anxiety to the indefatigable collectors. Triplicate sets were prepared and packed; one set sent, as opportunity offered, to the United States, for shipment to England; another to France or Spain; while the third continually accompanied the travelers on a long train of mules, and was anxiously kept under their own eyes. Of the two former sets, in the state of warfare in which the European Powers were then involved, it was not surprising that many failed in reaching their destination, or that few, in fact, were preserved or recovered; but it is satisfactory to know that a valuable portion (chiefly those collected from the shores of the Pacific) were secured to science, owing to the generous exertions of Sir Joseph Banks with the British Government; to whom Humboldt pays the graceful acknowledgment, that "amidst the political agitations of Europe he unceasingly labored to strengthen the bonds of union between scientific men of all nations." Gifted with a constitution and bodily powers of unusual vigor, he encountered not only without inconvenience, but with pleasure, the difficulties and privations which beset a life of wandering in regions for the most part untrodden by civilized visitants; and even in the more frequented parts having to make his way among persons of very different pursuits and ideas, to whom the objects of his mission could not but appear strange, even if they did not excite prejudice and hostility. Yet we are surprised in many parts of the narrative at the apparent ease and grades and classes of person with whom he was brought in contact. The vivid and glowing language in which he dilates on the surpassing richness and variety of objects presented to his observation in the new scenes thus opened, and the diversi fied forms of animal and vegetable life with which every part of nature in those regions teems, can not be effaced, even at this distance of time, from the memory of those who perused his descriptions with that eager curiosity which they excited at the time of their publication, when those countries were so little known, and when vast varieties of plants and animals now familiar to us in our zoological collections and botanical conservatories, were new to European science. Few writers have combined in a higher degree powers of scientific investigation with those of graphic and forcible description. In the perusal we seem actually present at the scenes of his toilsome struggle through the tropical forests, and his strange bivouacs under their shelter. Thus, to recall a single scene: We seem to belong to the party on the banks of one of the tributaries to the Orinoco-to see the crocodiles and other aquatic neighbors attracted to the banks by the light of their fires where the hammocks are slung on oars; we follow with all their anxiety the footmarks of a tigress and her young ones left in the sand when going to the river to drink-we hear the terrific howlings of the jaguars and pumas responded to by the fearful cries of alarm from the peccaris, the monkeys, and the sloths-the screams of the curassao, the parakka, and other birds; and we observe the dog ceasing his bark and cowering under the hammock as, amid the din, he distinguishes the growl of a distant tiger. Yet animated and encouraged by the fearlessness of the native guides, they snatch a brief repose. On the return of day all these alarms are effaced by the contemplation of the marvelous scene of matchless beauty which the tangled depths of the tropical forests present; when, as Humboldt expresses it, "the explorer can hardly define the varied emotions which crowd upon his mind"-the deep silence of the solitude the beauty and contrast of the forms-the gaudy plumage of innumerable varieties of birds-the unceas ing vigor and freshness which ever clothe topical vegetation amid the humid heat which fosters it; and where it "might be said that the earth, overloaded with vegetable productions, can not allow them space to unfold themselves; the trunks of the trees every where covered and concealed by a thick clothing of parasitic verdure ;" the lianas which creep on the ground also climbing to the tops of the highest trees, and hanging in festoons from one to another at the hight of a hundred feet. These and various other plants so interlaced together that the botanist may often be misled to confound the flowers belonging to one with those of another; while through the dense and compact mass of foliage no solar ray is able to penetrate; and the whole journey is performed in a kind of dim twilight under trees of stupendous hight and size, of which no European forests convey any idea; streaming with continual vapor, and the humid air scented with the delicious perfumes of flowers and odoriferous resins. and nations; on the contrary, he clearly viewed those subjects in the comprehensive light of his philosophy as among the essential parts and even highest departments of the study of universal nature. Not to dwell on the volumes devoted to those topics which form part of the series of his results, even in the Personal Narrative he in many places discusses with deep interest and emphasis the condition, and speculates on the origin and prospects, of the various tribes of the human family with whom he was brought into contact, and for whom he always expresses the most kindly interest. To cite a single instance, we can not find this spirit better exemplified than in his reflections on the distinctions between the free and independent Indians of SouthAmerica, whom he will not call savages, and the reduced' Indians in the missions, and nominally Christians. The former he represents as living under chieftains peacefully united in villages, and cultivating the soil which, in the exuberance of a tropical Amid his graphic descriptions on the climate, produces abundance of food with one hand, the eye seems fatigued in the little or no labor. He contends that very endeavor to stretch to the extreme and false ideas are diffused by calling the one immeasurable extent of the level llanos" Christian," "reduced," or 66 civilized," and pampas; on the other, the breathing and the other "pagan," savage," and seems oppressed under the dense canopy barbarous. He observes: of vegetation in the forests, where the heated and confined air is loaded with steaming exhalations from swamps and pools swarming with aquatic life, and tangled jungle through which the vast boas, and more fearful venomous snakes, twine their noiseless but deadly path; while air and vegetation are equally alive with every variety of insect existence. 99 66 Christian as the independent Indian is of an idolater. Both alike occupied by the wants of the moment, betray a marked indifference for religious sentiments, and a secret tendency to the worship of nature and her powers which belongs to the earliest infancy of nations."* "The reduced Indian is often as little of a In 1804 the travelers returned to Such are some few of the ideas so viv- Europe, and Humboldt, conjointly with dly conjured up, and the recollection of Bonpland, in different departments, enwhich may serve to convey a more distinct gaged themselves in the arduous task of impression of the arduous labors of the reducing into order their varied collecexplorer, now in traversing these depths researches for publication. The strictly tions, and drawing up the accounts of their of primeval forest, now on the bleak ridges of the Cordilleras, and amid the bodied in several series of voluminous scientific portion of their results was emmore dangerous and marvelous conforma- works, which, commencing in 1807, occutions of the seats of volcanic action, pur-pied several years in publication, and suing with unwearied perseverance, in- have amply sustained the scientific repu domitable courage, and enlightened intelligence those objects of scientific inquiry which were not left to chance discovery, but sought out on a deliberate and wellarranged plan. tation of their authors. A brief glance at their contents may be taken as follows: The first series comprises astronomical, geodetical, and hypsometrical observations, determining the geography of num Devoted as he was to the study of nature, it would be an entire mistake to regard Humbolt as less interested in -questions regarding the condition of men 296. * Personal Narrative. Bohn's Edition. Vol. i. p. erous points, besides many phenomena of interest to terrestrial physics throughout the tropical region of America. The second and third are botanical, chiefly by M. Bonpland, including the descriptions of plants collected in Mexico, Cuba, the northern provinces of SouthAmerica, with monographs of some important genera. years, the most noted of which perhaps is the Essay on the Superposition of Rocks, in both hemispheres, 1823. In 1818 he spent some time in England. On his return to the Continent in 1826, he fixed his residence permanently at Berlin, and received the highest honors and marks of royal esteem from both King Frederic William III. and his successor, besides The fourth, on the geography of plants being invested with decorations and orin the same regions, includes the whole ders of knighthood by nearly all the soveaccount of their distribution, in connec- reigns of Europe. In 1829, at the presstion with the atmospheric and meteoro-ing invitation of the Emperor of Russia, logical investigations determining the he joined a scientific expedition into conditions of the climate on which they Siberia with Gustav Rose and Ehrenberg, depend, as well as the geological struct- in which they explored the whole of ure of the regions. Northern Asia, penetrating even to the borders of China. The fifth series consists of the zoology and comparative anatomy, including some elucidations by Cuvier referring both to all classes of animals and to varieties of human races. The sixth embraces the political state of the South-American provinces, including a variety of statistical and topographical details. The seventh is the most generally interesting and descriptive portion of the whole, including the pictorial illustrations, the representations of antiquities and monuments, of mountains and cities, of scenery and natural objects. If this be only a meager and dry enumeration of a few of the leading heads of the discussions and descriptions of which these elaborate volumes are composed, they will suffice to give some slight idea of the immense extent as well as variety of the labors of the traveler. Besides numerous memoirs scattered through various scientific journals, he published his Critical History of Geography and the Progress of Astronomy in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, (1836-9.) We have spoken almost entirely of Humboldt's public and acknowledged services to science and the known features of his life and character; but of his more private history much remains unknown to the world, and to be collected only from the recollections of those with whom he was brought into contact. To gather up such reminiscences will be the worthy task of his biographer. We are, however, able to mention one characteristic trait of his private life-his always ready and generous encouragement of rising merit in young cultivators of science, and (as an instance) we have been informed, on good authority, that the first living chemist in Europe, Liebig, freely acknowledges that his whole success has been due to the early notice and encouragement thus extended to him. These valuable researches soon became known through translations to all European cultivators of science, and have been duly appreciated; but by far the most interesting portion to the public at large has been the Personal Narrative, which Among the honors and attentions which in five volumes appeared at successive in- Humboldt received from the highest quartervals from 1814 to 1821 (since reprinted ters few were more signal or gratifying in Bohn's Standard Library;) a work than the respect and esteem evinced duwhich, besides the detail of all the adven-ring his visit to England in 1842, when in tures encountered, contains many of the the suite of his sovereign he was present most highly interesting descriptions of at the baptism of the Prince of Wales. natural scenery and phenomena, convey- His reception in the scientific circles, ing those vivid and living pictures of it need hardly be added, was not less scenes witnessed, to which we have al- marked. ready referred. Many lesser publications of Humboldt, partly arising out of the subjects suggested by the travels, appeared in subsequent At this period he was known to be en gaged in preparing the publication of his great and final work, the appearance of which in 1845, was recognized both by |