Viktor von Humboldt

“ The first geological sections, the first sections across an entire continent, the first averages of climate illustrated by lines, were his. Every school-boy is familiar with his methods now, but he does not know that Humboldt is his teacher...."
Naturally we ask how such a man rose to fame, and what incited him to stand among the few intellectual leaders of the world.
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.
Frederick William Henry Alexander von Humboldt was born September 14, 1769, in Berlin, the same year as Baron Cuvier. Unlike Cuvier, he came into a home of wealth and culture. ”

“ An especial bond united Humboldt and the highly educated Von Haften, since between the latter's sister Minette and the young scientist there existed a devoted affection. This was cherished for ten years, but Humboldt's life of travel and exposure prevented a union which both ardently desired. He sacrificed his affections to science, and the loneliness of his later years proved the unwisdom of his choice. ”

“ Throughout his long and industrious life, Alexander von Humboldt has ever retained his love and devotion for the country where his great field of labor lay, and for its people to whom he always felt so closely connected by his love for freedom in thoughts and for liberty. It is a well-known fact that in his later days of all foreign people who ever knocked at his door no one was more heartily welcomed than the American citizen. ”

“ Some time ago a gentleman said to me, that he did not know what to think of Humboldt, and that he could not come to a conclusion concerning him. I answered: ‘Think always the best of him, believe him always capable of the best action, and you always will be nearest the truth.’ Another said, same day, sneeringly: ‘Humboldt was a great man before he came to Berlin, where he became an ordinary one.’ Moritz Robert remarked that Rahel had already said several times: ‘Nothing holds its ground in Berlin, everything has a downward tendency ”

“ Among the suite of the Prussian King was Baron Alexander Von Humboldt. The great savant was treated by the Queen and the Prince with distinguished consideration, then and ever after. The Prince, on hearing of his death in 1859, wrote to the Crown Princess: "What a loss is the excellent Humboldt! You and Berlin will miss him greatly. People of this kind do not grow on every bush, and they are the glory and the grace of a country and a century." ”

“ A certain heaviness of style, too, and laborious picturesqueness of treatment make it more imposing than attractive to the general reader. But its supreme and abiding value consists in its faithful reflection of the mind of a great man. No higher eulogium can be passed on Alexander von Humboldt than that, in attempting, and not unworthily attempting, to portray the universe, he succeeded still more perfectly in portraying his own comprehensive intelligence. ”

“ Will be back at Berlin in December.”
Varnhagen speaks of a call made by Humboldt after his return from Paris, in his diary of the 18th March, 1843, as follows: “Humboldt came to see me; he looks much older since I last saw him, but his spirit and courage are fresh. In Paris he was happy and gay; here his spirits sank at once. Things here were going on miserably, he says; the old beaten track—treating matters of dangerous character in a spirit of childish frivolity. And besides that, he is overrun with applications and requests; every one wishes to secure his influence! ”

“ Even defeat may bear a rich harvest. It often, indeed, passes an irrevocable sentence on weakness and misery, but often, too, it leads to a healthy revival, and lays the foundation of a new and vigorous constitution. "I recognize in the effect of war upon national character," said Wilhelm von Humboldt, "one of the most salutary elements in the moulding of the human race." ”

“ If we regard the life of the individual or of the nation as something purely material, as an incident which terminates in death and outward decay, we must logically consider that the highest goal which man can attain is the enjoyment of the most happy life and the greatest possible diminution of all bodily suffering. The State will be regarded as a sort of assurance office, which guarantees a life of undisturbed possession and enjoyment in the widest meaning of the word. We must endorse the view which Wilhelm von Humboldt professed in his treatise on the limits of the activity of the State. ”

“ Other interests, which for ever remain alive in me, bind me to the memories of yesterday!! I believe myself in full convalescence; but as I had to rest much on the bed without occupation, sadness and displeasure of the world have increased in me. This I say to you alone. I shall soon come to you, and thank you orally from the depths of my soul. All around us puts us to shame.
In most intimate friendship, your most faithful
A. v. Humboldt. Varnhagen writes in his diary, March 19th, 1857: “Unexpectedly a letter from Humboldt! ”

“ Wilhelm von Humboldt, one of the most beautiful souls that have ever existed, used to say that one's business in life was first to perfect oneself by all the means in one's power, and secondly to try and create in the world around one an aristocracy, the most numerous that one possibly could, of talents and characters. ”

“ The nakedness of the male figure might indeed appear rather shocking, although it would have been pardonable in one like Bettina, but that the King could suppose it the work of her daughters is rather too strong, unless by this pretence he meant to convey a rallying correction to Bettina. On the 1st of April, 1844, Varnhagen wrote in his diary: “After a long interruption, a visit from Humboldt at last. He told me all that occupies his mind. He is striving to do what he can, but this is not much, 148and after all, the man of seventy-four years is but a man of seventy-four. ”

“ Hence, in Humboldt’s theory the psychological element of self-consciousness lies at the root of all linguistic expression. No mere physical difference between the lower animals and man explains the latter’s possession of articulate speech. His self-consciousness alone is that trait which has rendered such a possession possible.10-†
The idea of Self necessarily implies the idea of Other. A thought is never separate, never isolated, but ever in relation to another thought, suggested by one, leading on to another. Hence, Humboldt says: “The mind can only be conceived as in action, and as action.” ”

“ He must wait, therefore, in the first place, for the full working out of the present in men's minds; should he rashly attempt to cut through the difficulty, he might succeed, perhaps, in creating anew the external aspect of things, but never the inner disposition of human nature, which would surely re-manifest itself in everything new that had been forcibly imposed on it. It must not be supposed that in proportion as full scope is allowed to the influence of the present, men become more averse to any subsequent change. In human history, it is extremes which lie most closely together ”

“ How inventive men become under political oppression! Nothing but rope-ladders, loop-holes, disguises to get out into the open air. And when once there, how really German they are in their 181speculations, as to whether they have improved their position. It is with them as with the Prince—“Tell me whether I am amusing myself.”
Yours,
A. v. Ht. We insert here an entry in Varnhagen’s diary, dated June 26, 1844, reciting two sharp repartees of Humboldt. At the Royal table at Sans Souci, some time ago, Humboldt shot two well-directed arrows from his bow. ”

“ With a repeated request of your indulgence, I remain, with the most profound esteem, and in the most sincere devotion,
Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense. On Humboldt’s attack of sickness, Varnhagen’s diary of February 27, 1857, contains the following: “M. Hernrann Grimm called, coming from Humboldt’s apartments, where he had conversed with Seiffert, the valet. It is not a cold that has befallen Humboldt, but a far more serious attack, a paralytic stroke. ”

“ The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to elevate this power is the only way to counteract this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of that power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity. Only it is clear we cannot call it giving freedom, when fetters are unloosed which are not felt as such by him who wears them. But of no man on earth — however neglected by nature, and however degraded by circumstances—is this true of all the bonds which oppress and enthral him. ”

“ The only reproach, perhaps, to which my treatment of this entire question may fairly be open, is that I have confined my views to men who are favoured alike by nature and by circumstances, and are for that reason so rare, while they interest us so deeply. But I hope to show in the sequel that I am far from overlooking the masses of which society is mainly composed, while I would observe, meanwhile, that it strikes me as unworthy of a noble mind to proceed from any but the loftiest premises, whenever human nature is the subject of inquiry. ”

“ Now, without directly altering the existing condition of things, it is possible to work upon the human mind and character, and give them a direction no more correspondent with that condition; and this it is precisely which he who is wise will endeavour to do. Only in this way is it possible to reproduce the new system in reality, just as it has been conceived in idea; and in every other method (setting aside the evils which arise from disturbing the natural order of human development) ”

“ Humboldt believes him vain enough to accept a ministry. It seems to me that Humboldt is much too familiar with Bunsen, and shows him too much friendship. The Queen, says Humboldt, has no Catholic tendencies; on the contrary, she is an arch-Protestant, and even more of a fanatic than the King himself, whom she is constantly urging in this direction. ”

“ His brother, Wilhelm, acquired a distinguished name; but the greater renown fell to the younger, who was born at Berlin, Germany, September 14, 1769,—his full name being Friedrich Heinrich Alexander Von Humboldt. In circumstances of life, his lot was easy; his father had the means to educate him well. No very striking outward event occurred in his youth. Tutors prepared him for college; his own aim was not at once seized. "Until I reached the age of sixteen," he says, "I showed little inclination for scientific pursuits. I was of a restless disposition, and wished to be a soldier." ”

“ If the higher languages did not develop from the lower, how did they arise? Humboldt answered this question fairly, so far as he was concerned. He said, he did not know. Individuals vary exceedingly in their talent for language, and so do nations. He was willing to call it an innate creative genius which endowed our Aryan forefathers with a richly inflected speech ”

“ To Humboldt he was guide, teacher, protector and friend. Bonpland was the soul of unselfishness.
Perhaps a certain quality of man attracts a certain quality of friend—I really am not sure. But this I know, that while Alexander von Humboldt had few personal friends, he always had just those which his nature required—his friends were hands, feet, eyes and ears for him, to quote his own words. This voyage on the "Pizarro" occupied five years. The travelers visited Teneriffe, Cuba, Mexico, and skirted the coast of South America, making many little journeys inland. ”

“ The following letters of Humboldt furnish a contribution of the highest importance to the true, correct, and unveiled representation of his genius and character. That they should be delivered to publicity after his death was his desire and intent, which have found their positive impression in the words preceding this book as its motto. Never has he spoken out his mind more freely and sincerely, than in his communications with Varnhagen, his old and faithful friend, whom he esteemed and loved before all others. In him he placed an unlimited confidence ”

“ On the 30th March, 1847, Varnhagen wrote in his diary:—“Just when I returned home, Humboldt came in and brought a pack of manuscripts—the letters of his brother to Mrs. Diede. Humboldt regards affairs here as desperate, as I do myself. He consoles himself with the belief that the constitution presented, though good for nothing at first, may result beneficially. He expects violence of every description—atrocities committed by the police, popular rage, and military strokes. The King, however, Humboldt thinks, has no misgivings. ”

“ On the 11th July, 1847, Varnhagen observes: “This morning Humboldt came in quite unexpectedly. He is in good health and spirits, and denies having been really sick. He says that the King lives in a whirlpool of pleasure, that he is often extravagantly gay; thinks no longer of the Chamber, except when reminded of it, when he becomes immediately grave and sullen. The ministers, however, are full of anger—Savigny and Eichhorn particularly so. Foremost, however, is Bodelschwingh, who is always exciting the King to strong measures. Canitz acts this time in a conciliatory and compromising spirit. ”

“ We are still very far from the time when it will be possible for us to reduce, by the operation of thought, all that we perceive by the senses, to the unity of a rational principle. It may even be doubted if such a victory could ever be achieved in the field of natural philosophy. The complication of phenomena, and of the vast extent of the Cosmos, would seem to oppose such a result; but even a partial solution of the problem — the tendency toward a comprehension of the phenomena of the universe — will not the less remain the eternal and sublime aim of every investigation of nature. ”