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THE 
HUMBOLDT 
LIBRARY5CIENCE 
Darwin and Humboldt 
l' •it#* '■■■ ■ 
Their Lives anc* W*6rk, L,r 
t , . r. C M f,V iM'r rtALO Ilf r 1^ 
r 
THOMAS II. HUXLEY 
AND 
PROF. LOUIS AGASSIZ 
NEW YORK 
THE HUMBOLDT PUBLI5H1NG.C0I1PANY 
64 FIFTH 'AVENUE 
ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE AS SECOND CLASS MATTER. 100,000 SOLD. 
HYPNOTISH: 
Its History snd Present Development. 
By FREDRIK BJORNSTROM, M. D., 
Head Physician of the Stockholm Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry, Late Royal Swed- 
ish Medical Counselor. 
Authorized Translation from the Second Swedish Edition. 
BY BARON NILES POSEE, M. G., 
Director of the Boston School of Gymnastics. 
Paper Cover (No. 113 of The Humboldt Library), - - 30 Cents 
Cloth, Extra, “ “ “ - 75 Cents 
PRESS NOTICES. 
The learned Swedish physician, Bjornstrom.—Churchman. 
It is a strange and mysterious subject, this hypnotism.— The Sun. 
Perhaps as concise as any work we have.—S. California Practitioner. 
We have found this book exceedingly interesting.—California Homcepath. 
A concise, thorough, and scientific examination of a little-understood subject.—Episco- 
pal Recorder. 
Few of the new books have more interest for scientist and layman alike.—Sunday 
Times (Boston). 
The study of hypnotism is in fashion again. It is a fascinating and dangerous study.— 
Toledo Bee. 
It is well .written, being concise, which is a difficult point to master in all translations.— 
Medical Bulletin (Philadelphia). 
The subject will be fascinating to many, and it receives a cautious yet sympathetic 
treatment in this book.—Evangelist. 
One of the most timely works of the hour. No physician who would keep up with the 
times can afford to be without this work.—Quarterly fournal of Inebriety. 
Its aim has been to give all the information that may be said under the present state of 
our knowledge. Every physician should read this volume.—American Medical fournal 
(St. Louis). 
It is a contribution of decided value to a much-disussed and but little-analyzed subject 
by an eminent Swedish alienist known to American students of European psychiatry.— 
Medical Standard (Chicago). 
This is a highly interesting and instructive book. Hypnotism is on the onward march 
to the front as a scientific subject for serious thought and investigation.— The Medical Free 
Press (Indianapolis). 
Many of the mysteries of mesmerism, and all that class of manifestation, are here 
treated at length, and explained as far as they can be with our present knowledge of psy- 
chology.—New York Journal of Commerce. 
The marvels of hypnotic phenomena increase with investigation. Dr. Bjornstrom, in 
this clear and well-written essay, has given about all that modern science has been able to 
develop of these phenomena.—Medical Visitor (Chicago). 
It has become a matter of scientific research, and engages the attention of some of the 
foremost men of the day, like Charcot, of Paris. It is interesting reading, outside of any 
usefulness, and may take the place of a novel on the office table.—Eclectic Medical Jour- 
nal (Cincinnati). 
This interesting b(jpk contains a scholarly account of the history, development, and 
scientific aspect of hypnotism. As a whole, the book is of great interest and very instruc- 
tive. It is worthy of careful perusal by all physicians, and contains nothing unfit to be read 
by the laity.—Medical and Surgical Reporter (Philadelphia). 
To define the real nature of hypnotism is as difficult as to explain the philosophy of toxic 
or therapeutic action of medicine—more so, indeed. None the less, however, does it be- 
hoove the practitioner to understand what it does, even if he cannot tell just what it is, or 
how it operates. Dr. Bjornstrom’s book aims to give a general review of the entire subject. 
—Medical Record. 
THE HUHBOLDT PUBLISHING CO., 
64 Fifth Avenue, New York. pWIN AHD HUMBOLDT: 
THEIR LIVES AND WORK. 
CHARLES DARWIN. 
[. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
BY PROF. T. H. HUXLEY, F.R.S. 
Very few, even among those who 
nave taken the keenest interest in the 
progress of the revolution in natural 
knowledge set afoot by the publica- 
tion of the Origin of Species, and 
who have watched, not without as- 
tonishment, the rapid and complete 
change which has been effected both 
inside and outside the boundaries of 
the scientific world in the attitude of 
men’s minds toward the doctrines 
which are expounded in that great 
work, can have been prepared for the 
extraordinary manifestation of affec- 
tionate regard for the man, and of 
profound reverence for the philoso- 
pher, which followed the announce- 
ment of the death of Mr. Darwin. 
Not only in these islands, where so 
many have felt the fascination of 
personal contact with an intellect 
which had no superior, and with a 
character which was even nobler than 
the intellect; but, in all parts of the 
civilized world, it would seem that 
those whose business it is to feel the 
pulse of nations and to know what 
interests the masses of mankind, were 
well aware that thousands of their 
readers would think the world the 
poorer for Darwin’s death, and would 
dwell with eager interest upon every 
incident of his history. In France, 
in Germany, in Austro-Hungary, in 
Italy, in the United States, writers of 
all shades of opinion, for once unani- 
mous, have paid a willing tribute to 
the worth of our great countryman, 
ignored in life by the official represen- 
tatives of the kingdom, but laid ic 2 
[306] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
death among his peers in Westminster 
Abbey by the will of the intelligence 
of the nation. 
It is not for us to allude to the 
sacred sorrows of the bereaved home 
at Down; but it is no secret that, 
outside that domestic group, there 
are many to whom Mr. Darwin’s 
death is a wholly irreparable loss. 
And this not merely because of his 
wonderfully genial, simple, and gener- 
ous nature ; his cheerful and animated 
conversation, and the infinite variety 
and accuracy of his information ; but 
because the more one knew of him, 
the more he seemed the incorporated 
ideal of a man of science. Acute as 
were his reasoning powers, vast as 
was his knowledge, marvelous as was 
his tenacious industry, under physical 
difficulties which would have convert- 
ed nine men out of ten into aimless 
invalids ; it was not these qualities, 
great as they were, which impressed 
those who were admitted to his inti- 
macy with involuntary veneration, 
but a certain intense and almost pas- 
sionate honesty by which all his 
thoughts and actions were irradiated, 
as by a central fire. 
It was this rarest and greatest of 
endowments which kept his vivid 
imagination and great speculative 
powers within due bounds; which 
compelled him to undertake the pro- 
digious labors of original investiga- 
tion and of reading, upon which his 
published works are based; which 
made him accept criticisms and 
suggestions from any body and every 
body, not only without impatience, 
but with expressions of gratitude 
sometimes almost comically in excess 
of their value; which led him to 
allow neither himself nor others to be 
deceived by phrases, and to spare 
neither time nor pains in order to 
obtain clear and distinct ideas upon 
every topic with which he occupied 
himself. 
One could not converse with Dar- 
win without being reminded of So- 
crates. There was the same desire 
to find some one wiser than himself; 
the same belief in the sovereignty of 
reason ; the same ready humor; the 
same sympathetic interest in all the 
ways and works of men But instead 
of turning away from the problems 
of nature as hopelessly insoluble, our 
modern Philosopher devoted his 
whole life to attacking them in the 
spirit of Heraclitus and of De- 
mocritus, with results which are as 
the substance of which their specula- 
tion were anticipatory shadows. 
The due appreciation or even 
enumeration of these results is neither 
practicable nor desirable at this mo- 
ment There is a time for all things 
—a time for glorying in our ever- 
extending conquests over the realm 
of nature, and a time for mourning 
over the heroes who have led us to 
victory. 
None have fought better, and none 
have been more fortunate, than 
Charles Darwin. He found a 
great truth trodden under foot, re- 
viled by bigots, and ridiculed by all 
the world; he lived long enough 
to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, 
irrefragably established in science, 
inseparably incorporated with the 
common thoughts of men, and only 
hated and feared by those who would 
revile, but dare not. What shall a 
man more desire than this? Once 
more the image of Socrates rises un- 
bidden, and the noble peroration of 
the Apology rings in our ears as if it 
were Charles Darwin’s farewell: 
“The hour of departure has ar- 
rived, and we go our ways—I to die, 
and you to live. Which is the better, 
God only knows.” 
II. CHARACTER AND LIFE. 
BY G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S. 
The object of this notice is to give 
a brief account of the life, and a pro- 
portionately still more brief account 
of the work of Mr. Darwin. But 
while we recognize in him perhaps the 
greatest genius and the most fertile 
thinker, certainly the most important 
generalizer and one of the few most DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[307] 
3 
successful observers in the whole histo- 
ry of biological science, we feel that 
no less great, or even greater than the 
wonderful intellect was the character 
of the man. Therefore it is in his 
case particularly and pre-eminently 
true that the first duty of biographers 
will be to render some idea, not of 
what he did, but of what he was. And 
this, unfortunately, is just the point 
where all his biographers must nec- 
essarily fail. For while to those 
favored few who were on terms of 
intimate friendship with him, any 
language by which it is sought to 
portray his character must seem 
inadequate, to every one else the same 
language must appear the result of 
enthusiastic admiration, finding vent 
in extravagant panegyric. Whatever 
is great and whatever is beautiful in 
human nature found in him so lux- 
uriant a development, that no place or 
chance was left for any other growth, 
and in the result we beheld a magnifi- 
cence which, unless actually realized, 
we should scarcely have been able to 
imagine. Any attempt, therefore, to 
describe such a character must be 
much like an attempt to describe a 
splendid piece of natural scenery ora 
marvelous work of art; the thing 
must itself have been seen, if any de- 
scription of it is to be understood. 
But without attempting to describe 
Mr. Darwin’s character, if we were 
asked to indicate the features which 
stood out with most marked prom- 
inence, we should first mention those 
which, from being conspicuous in 
his writings, are already more or less 
known to all the world. Thus, the 
absorbing desire to seek out truth for 
truth’s sake, combined with a char- 
acteristic disregard of self, led not 
only to the caution, patience, and 
candor of his own work—which are 
proverbial—and to the generous sat- 
isfaction which he felt on finding 
any of his thoughts or results inde- 
pendently attained by the work of 
others; but also to a keen and vivid 
freshness of interest in every detail 
of a new research, such as we have 
sometimes seen approached by much 
younger men when the research 
happens to have been their own. And 
indeed what we may call this fervid 
youthfulness of feeling extended 
through all Mr. Darwin’s mind, giv- 
ing, in combination with his immense 
knowledge and massive sagacity, an 
indescribable charm to his manner 
and conversation. Animated and 
fond of humor, his wit was of a 
singularly fascinating kind, not only 
because it was always brilliant and 
amusing, but still more because it 
was always hearty and good-natured. 
Indeed, he was so exquisitely refined 
in his own feelings, and so almost 
painfully sensitive to any display of 
questionable taste in others, that he 
could not help showing in his humor, 
as in the warp and woof of his whole 
nature, that in him the man of science 
and the philosopher were subordinate 
to the gentleman. His courteous con- 
sideration of others, also, which went 
far beyond anything that the ordinary 
usages of society require, was simi- 
larly prompted by his mere spontane- 
ous instinct of benevolence. 
For who can always act ? but he, 
To whom a thousand memories call 
Not being less but more than all 
The gentleness he seemed to be, 
Best seem’d the thing he was, and join’d 
Each office of the social hour 
To noble manners, as the flower 
And native growth of noble mind ; 
Nor ever narrowness or spite, 
Or villain fancy fleeting by, 
Drew in the expression of an eye, 
Where God and nature met in light. 
And this leads us to speak of his 
kindness, which, whether we look to 
its depth or to its width, must certain- 
ly be regarded as perhaps the most 
remarkable feature of his remarkable 
disposition. The genuine delight 
that he took in helping every one in 
their work—often at the cost of much 
personal trouble to himself—in throw- 
ing out numberless suggestions for 
others to profit by, and in kindling 
the enthusiasm of the humblest tyro 
in science; this was the outcome of 
a great and generous heart, quite as 4 
[308] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
much as it was due to a desire for the 
advancement of science. Nothing 
seemed to give him a keener joy than 
being able to write to any of his 
friends a warm and glowing congratu- 
lation upon their gaining some success; 
and the exuberance of his feelings on 
such occassions generally led him to 
conceive a much higher estimate of 
the importance of the results attained 
than he would have held had the suc- 
cess been achieved by himself. For 
the modesty with which he regarded 
his own work was no less remarkable 
than his readiness enthusiastically to 
admire the work of others ; so that, 
to any one who did not know him 
well, this extreme modesty, from its 
very completeness and unconscious- 
ness, might almost have appeared the 
result of affectation. At least, speak- 
ing for ourselves, when we first met 
him, and happened to see him convers- 
ing with a greatly younger man, 
quite unknown either in science or 
literature, we thought it must have 
been impossible that Mr. Darwin— 
then the law giver to the world of 
biology—could with honest sincerity 
be submitting, in the way he did, his 
matured thought to the judgment of 
such a youth. But afterward we 
came fully to learn that no one was 
so unconscious of Mr. Darwin’s 
worth as Mr. Darwin himself, and 
that it was a fixed habit of his mind 
to seek for opinions as well as facts 
from every available quarter. It 
must be added, however, that his 
tendency to go beyond the Scriptural 
injunction in the matter of self 
approval, and to think of others more 
highly than he ought to think, never 
clouded his final judgment upon the 
value of their opinions; but spontane- 
ously following another of these in- 
junctions, while proving all things, he 
held fast only to that which was 
good. “ In malice be ye children, 
but in understanding be ye men.” 
On the whole, then, we should say 
that Mr. Darwin’s character was 
chiefly marked by a certain grand and 
cheerful simplicity, strangely and 
beautifully united with a deep and 
thoughtful wisdom, which, together 
with his illimitable kindness to others 
and complete forgetfulness of him- 
self, made a combination as lovable 
as it was venerable. It is, therefore, 
not to be wondered at that no man 
ever passed away leaving behind him 
a greater void of enmity, or a depth 
of adoring friendship more profound. 
But, as we have said, it is im- 
possible to convey in words any 
adequate conception of a character 
which in beauty as in grandeur can 
only, with all sobriety, be called 
sublime. If the generations are ever 
to learn, with any approach to accu- 
racy, what Mr. Darwin was, his biog- 
raphers may best teach them by 
allowing this most extraordinary 
man to speak for himself through the 
medium of his correspondence, as 
well as through that of his books; 
and therefore, as a small foretaste of 
the complete biography which will 
some day appear, we shall quote a 
letter in which he describes the char- 
acter of his great friend and teacher, 
the late Prof. Henslow, of Cambridge. 
We choose this letter to quote from 
on account of the singular manner in 
which the writer, while describing 
the character of another, is uncon- 
sciously giving a most accurate de- 
scription of his own. It is of im- 
portance also that in any biographical 
history of Mr. Darwin, Professor 
Henslow’s character should be duly 
considered, seeing that he exerted so 
great an influence upon the expanding 
powers of Mr. Darwin’s mind. We 
quote the letter from the Rev. L. 
Jenyns’s Memoir of the late Prof. 
Henslow. 
“I went to Cambridge early in the 
year 1828, and soon became acquaint- 
ed, through some of my brother 
entomologists, with Prof. Henslow, 
for all who cared for any branch of 
natural history were equally en- 
couraged by him. Nothing could be 
more simple, cordial, and unpretend- 
ing than the encouragement which 
he afforded to all young naturalists. 
I soon became intimate with him, for 
he had a remarkable power of mak- DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[309] 
5 
ing the young feel completely at ease 
with him, though we were all awe- 
struck with the amount of his knowl- 
edge. Before I saw him, I beard 
one young man sum up his attain- 
ments by simply saying that he 
knew everything. When I reflect 
how immediately we felt at perfect 
ease with a man older, and in every 
way so immensely our superior, I think 
it was as much owing to the trans- 
parent sincerity of his character as to 
nis kindness of heart, and perhaps 
even still more to a highly remarkable 
absence in him of all self-conscious- 
ness. We perceived at once that he 
never thought of his own varied 
knowledge or clear intellect, but sole- 
ly on the subject in hand. Another 
charm, which must have struck every 
one, was that his manner to a distin- 
guished person and to the youngest 
student was exactly the same: to all, 
the same winning courtesy. He 
would receive with interest the most 
trifling observation in any branch of 
natural history, and however absurd 
a blunder one might make, he pointed 
it out so clearly and kindly that one 
left him in no way disheartened, but 
only determined to be more accurate 
the next time. So that no man 
could be better formed to win the 
entire confidence of the young and 
to encourage them in their pursuits. .. 
“ During the years when I associa- 
ted so much with Prof. Henslow, I 
never once saw his temper even ruf 
fled. He never took an ill natured 
view of any one’s character, though 
very far from blind to the foibles of 
others. It always struck me that his 
mind could not be well touched by 
any paltry feeling of envy, vanity, 
or jealousy. With all this equability 
of temper, and remarkable benev- 
olence, there was no insipidity of 
character. A man must have been 
blind not to have perceived that 
beneath this placid exterior there was 
a vigorous and determined will. 
When principle came into play, no 
power on earth could have turned 
him an hair’s breadth. . . . 
“In intellect, as far as I could 
judge, accurate powers of observation, 
sound sense, and cautious judgment 
seemed to predominate. Nothing 
seemed to give him so much enjoy- 
ment as drawing conclusions from 
minute observations. But his admi- 
rable memoir on the geology of 
Anglesea shows his capacity for ex- 
tended observations and broad views. 
Reflecting over his character with 
gratitude and reverence, his moral 
attributes rise, as they should do in 
the highest characters, in pre-emi- 
nence, over his intellect.” 
Charles Robert Darwin was 
born at Shrewsbury on February 12, 
1809. His father was Dr. R. W. 
Darwin, F.R.S., a physician of emi- 
nence, who, as his son used frequently 
to remark, had a wonderful power of 
diagnosing diseases, both bodily and 
mental, by the aid of the fewest 
possible questions; and his quick- 
ness of perception was such that, he 
could even divine, in a remarkable 
manner, what was passing through 
his patients’ minds. That, like his 
son, he was benevolently inclined, 
may be inferred from a little anecdote 
which we once heard Mr. Darwin 
tell of him while speaking of the 
curious 'kinds of pride which are 
sometimes shown by the poor. For 
the benefit of the district in which he 
lived Dr. Darwin offered to dispense 
medicines gratis to any one who ap- 
plied and was not able to pay. He 
was surprised to find that very few 
of the sick poor availed themselves 
of his offer, and guessing that the 
reason must have been a dislike to 
becoming the recipients of charity, 
he devised a plan to neutralize this 
feeling. Whenever any poor persons 
applied for medical aid, he told them 
that he would supply the medicine, 
but that they must pay for the bottles. 
This little distinction made all the 
difference, and ever afterward the 
poor used to flock to the doctor’s house 
for relief as a matter of right. 
Mr. Darwin’s mother was a daugh- 
ter of Josiah Wedgwood. Little 
is at present known concerning his 
early life, and it is questionable 6 
[310] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
whether we can hope to learn much 
with reference to his boyhood or 
youth, till the time when he entered 
at Edinburgh. We can, therefore, 
only say that he went to Shrewsbury 
School, the head master of which was 
at that time Dr. Butler, afterward 
Bishop of Lichfield. He was sent to 
Edinburgh (1825) because it was in- 
tended that he should follow his 
father’s profession, and Edinburgh 
was then the best medical school in 
the kingdom. He studied under 
Prof. Jameson, but does not seem 
to have profited at all by whatever 
instruction he received ; for not only 
did it fail to awaken in him any 
special love of natural history, but 
even seems to have had the contrary 
effect. 
The prospect of being a medical 
practitioner proving distasteful to 
him, he was, after two sessions at 
Edinburgh, removed to Christ’s Col- 
lege, Cambridge, with the view of 
his entering the Church. He took 
his B.A. in 1831, and his M.A. in 
1837. There being no Natural Sci- 
ences Tripos at that time, his degree 
was an ordinary one. While at 
Cambridge he attracted the notice of 
the late Rev. Prof. Henslow, who 
had just previously exchanged the 
Professorship of Mineralogy for that 
of Botany. From the above de- 
scription of this man’s character and 
attainments, it is sufficiently evident 
that he was a worthy teacher of a 
worthy pupil; and the world owes 
an immense debt of gratitude to him 
for having been the means of enthu- 
siastically arousing and sagaciously 
directing the first love and the early 
study of natural science in the mind 
of Darwin. No one can be more 
deeply moved by a sense of this 
gratitude than was Mr. Darwin him- 
self. His letters, written to Prof. : 
Henslow during his voyage round 1 
the world, overflow with feelings of i 
affection, veneration, and obligation 
to his accomplished master and 
dearest friend — feelings which 
throughout his life he retained with 
undiminished intensity. As he used 
himself to say, before he knew Prof. 
Henslow, the only objects of natu- 
ral history for which he cared were 
foxes and partridges. But owing to 
the impulse which he derived from 
the field excursions of the Henslow 
class, he became while at Cambridge 
an ardent collector, especially in the 
region of entomology; and we re- 
member having heard him observe 
that the first time he ever saw his 
own name in print was in connection 
with the capture of an insect in the 
fens. 
During one of the excursions 
Prof. Henslow told him that he had 
been commissioned (through Prof. 
Peacock) to offer any competent 
young naturalist the opportunity of 
accompanying Captain Fitzroy as a 
guest on the surveying voyage of the 
Beagle, and that he would strongly 
urge its acceptance on him. Mr. 
Darwin had already formed desire 
to travel, having been stimulated 
thereto by reading Humboldt’s Per- 
sonal Narrative; so after a short 
hesitation on the part of his father, 
who feared that the voyage might 
“ unsettle ” him for the Church, the 
matter was soon decided, and in De 
cemberof 1838 the expedition started. 
During the voyage he suffered greatly 
from sea-sickness, which, together 
with the fasting and fatigue incident- 
al to long excursions over-land, was 
probably instrumental in producing 
the dyspepsia to which, during the 
remainder of his life, he was a victim. 
Three years after returning from this 
voyage of circumnavigation, he mar- 
ried, and in 1842 settled at Down, in 
Kent. The work which afterward 
emanated from that quiet and happy 
English home, which continued up to 
the day of his death, and which has 
been more effectual than any other in 
making the nineteenth century illus- 
trious, will form the subject of our 
subsequent articles. DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[311] 
7 
III. WORK IN GEOLOGY. 
self acquainted with geological phe- 
nomena of the most varied kinds. 
With the exception of one or two 
minor papers written in later years, 
it may be said that all his direct con- 
tributions to geology arose out of 
the Beagle voyage. The largest and 
most important part of his geological 
work deal with the hypogene forces 
of nature—those that are concerned 
in volcanoes and earthquakes, in the 
elevation of mountains and continents, 
in the subsidence of vast areas of the 
sea-bottom, and in the crumpling, 
foliation, and cleavage of the rocks 
of the earth’s crust. His researches 
in these subjects were mainly embod- 
ied in the Geology of the Voyage of 
the Beagle—a work which, in three 
successive parts, was published under 
the auspices of the Lords of the 
Treasury. 
The order chosen by Darwin for 
the subjects of these three parts 
probably indicates the relative im- 
portance with which they were re- 
garded by himself. The first was en- 
titled The Structure and Bistribu- 
tion of Coral Beefs (1842). This 
well-known treatise, the most orig- 
inal of all its author’s geological 
memoirs, has become one of the re- 
cognized classics of geological litera- 
ture. The origin of those remarkable 
rings of coral-rock in mid-ocean had 
given rise to much speculation, but 
no satisfactory solution of the problem 
had been proposed. After visiting 
many of them, and examining also 
coral-reefs that fringe islands and 
continents, he offered a theory which 
for simplicity and grandeur strikes 
every reader with astonishment. It 
is pleasant after the lapse of many 
years to recall the delight with which 
one first read the Coral Reefs, how 
one watched the facts being marshal- 
led into their places, nothing being 
ignored or passed lightly over, and 
how step by step one was led up to 
the grand conclusion of wide oceanic 
subsidence. No more admirable 
example of scientific method was 
ever given to the world, and even if 
he had written nothing else, this 
BY ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S. 
No man of his time has exercised 
upon the science of Geology a pro- 
founder influence than Charles Dar- 
win. At an early period of his life 
he took much interest in geological 
studies, and in later years, while en- 
gaged in other pursuits, he kept him- 
self acquainted with the progress that 
was being made in this department 
of natural knowledge. His influence 
upon it has been twofold, arising 
partly from the importance and orig- 
inality of some of his own contribu- 
tions to the literature of the science, 
but chiefly from the bearing of his 
work on other branches of natural 
history. 
When he began to direct his atten- 
tion to geological inquiry the sway of 
the Cataclysmal school of geology 
was still paramount. But already 
the Uniformitarians were gathering 
strength, and, before many years 
were past, had ranged themselves un- 
der the banner of their great champion, 
Lyelt. Darwin, who always re- 
cognized his indebtedness to Lyell’s 
teaching, gave a powerful impulse to 
its general reception by the way in 
which he gathered from all parts of 
the world facts in its support. He 
continually sought in the phenomena 
of the present time the explanation of 
those of the past. Yet he was all the 
while laying the foundation on which 
the later or Evolutional school of 
geology has been built up. 
Dar win’s specially geological mem- 
oirs are not numerous, nor have they 
been of the same epoch-making kind 
as his biological researches. But 
every one of them bears the stamp 
of his marvelous acuteness in observa- 
tion, his sagacity in grouping scatter- 
ed facts, and his um-ivalled far- 
reaching vision that commanded all 
their mutual bearings, as well as their 
place in the general economy of things. 
His long travels in the Beagle afford- 
ed him opportunities of making him- 8 
[312] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
treatise alone would have placed Dar- i 
win in the very front of investigators 
of nature. » 
The second part was entitled 
Geological Observations of the 
Volcanic Islands visited during the 
Voyage of II. M S. Beagle, together 
with some Brief Notices on the 
Geology of Australia and the Gape 
of Good Hope (1844). Full of de- 
tailed observations, this work still 
remains the best authority on the gen- 
eral geological structure of most of 
the regions it describes. At the time 
it was written, the “ Crater of Eleva- 
tion theory,” though opposed by 
Constant, Prevosi-, Scrope, and 
Lyell, was generally accepted, at 
least on the Continent. Darwin, 
however, could not receive it as a 
valid explanation of the facts, and 
though he did not adopt the views of 
its chief opponents, but ventured to 
propose a hypothesis of his own, the 
observations impartially made and 
described by him in this volume must 
be regarded as having contributed 
toward the final solution of the ques- 
tion. 
The third and concluding part bore 
the title of Geological Observations 
on South America (1846). In this 
work the author embodied all the 
materials collected by him for the 
illustration of South American geol- 
ogy save some which had already 
been published elsewhere. One of 
the most important features of the 
book was the evidence which it 
brought forward to prove the slow, 
interrupted elevation of the South 
American Continent during a recent 
geological period. On the western 
sea board he showed that beds of 
marine shells could be traced more or 
less continuously for a distance of 
upward of 2,000 miles, that the 
elevation had been unequal, reaching 
in some places at least to as much as 
1,300 feet, that in one instance, at a 
hight of 85 feet above the sea, un- 
doubted traces of the presence of man 
occurred in a raised beach, and hence 
that the land had there risen 85 feet 
since Indian man had inhabited Peru. 
These proofs of recent elevation may 
have influenced him in the conclu- 
sion which he drew as to the marine 
origin of the great elevated plains of 
Chili. But at that time there was a 
general tendency among British geol- 
ogists to detect evidence of sea-action 
everywhere, and to ignore or minimize 
the action of running water and wind- 
drift upon the land An important 
chapter of the volume, devoted to a 
discussion of the phenomena of cleav- 
age and foliation, is well known to 
every student of the literature of 
metamorphism. 
The official records of the Beagle 
did not, however, include all that 
Darwin wrote on the geology of the 
voyage. He contributed to the Trans- 
actions of the Geological Society 
(vol. v. 1840) a paper on the connec- 
tion of volcanic phenomena. In the 
same publication (vi. 1842) appears 
another, on the erratic boulders of 
South America ; while a third, on the 
geology of the Falkland Islands, was 
published later 
While dealing with the subterrane- 
an agents in geological change, he 
kept at the same time an ever wach- 
ful eye upon the superficial operations 
by which the surface of the globe is 
modified. He is one of the earliest 
writers to recognize the magnitude 
of the denudation to which even recent 
geological accumulations have been 
subjected. One of the most impres 
j sive lessons to be learnt from his 
account of Volcanic Islands is the 
prodigious extent to which they have 
been denuded As just stated, he 
was disposed to attribut e more of this 
; work to the action of the sea than 
most geologists would now admit; 
but he lived himself to modify his 
original views, and on this subject his 
latest utterances are quite abreast of 
the time. It is interesting to note that 
one of his early geological papers was 
on the Formation of Mould (1840), 
and that after the lapse of forty years 
he returned to this subject, devoting 
to it the last of his volumes. In the 
first sketch we see the patient observ- 
ation and shrewdness of inference so DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, 
[313] 
9 
eminently characteristic of the writer, 
and in the finished work the same 
faculties enriched with the experience 
of a long and busy life. In bringing 
to light the operations of the earth- 
worm, he called the attention of 
geologists to an agency, the real 
efficiency of which they probably do 
not yet appreciate. Elie de Beau- 
mont looked upon the layer of grass- 
covered soil as a permanent datum- 
line from which the denudation of ex- 
posed surfaces might be measured. 
But, as Darwin showed, the constant 
transference of soil from beneath to 
the surface, and the consequent ex- 
posure of the materials so transferred 
to be dried and blown away by wind, 
or to be washed to lower levels by 
rain, must tend slowly but certainly 
to lower the level even of undisturbed 
grass-covered land. 
To another of his early papers ref- 
erence may be made, from its interest 
in the history of British geology. 
Buckland, following in the footsteps 
of Agassiz, had initiated that prodig- 
ious amount of literature which has 
now been devoted to the records of, 
the Glacial period in this country, by i 
reading to the Geological Society a 
paper “ On Diluvio-glacial Phenome- i 
na in Snowdonia and in adjacent 
parts of North Wales ” (1841'. Dar- 
win, whose wanderings in South 
American had led him to study the 
problems presented by erratic blocks, 
took an early opportunity of visiting 
the Welsh district described by Buck- 
land, and at once declared himself to 
be a believer in the former presence 
of glaciers in Britain. His paper 
(1843) in which this belief is stated 
and enforced by additional observa- 
tions, stands almost at the top of the 
long list of English contributions to 
the history of the Ice Age. 
The influence exercised upon the 
progress of geology by Darwin’s 
researches in other than geological 
fields, is less easy to be appraised. 
Yet ic has been far more widespread 
and profound than that of his direct 
geological work. Even as far back 
as the time of the voyage of the ■ 
Beagle, he had been led to reflect 
deeply on some of Lyell’s specula- 
tions upon the influence of geological 
changes on the geographical distribu- 
tion of animals. From that time the 
intimate connection between geologi- 
cal history and biological progress 
seems to have been continually pre- 
sent in his mind. It was not, how- 
ever, until the appearance of the 
Origin of /Species in 1859 that the 
full import of his reflections was per- 
ceived. His chapter on the “ Imper- 
fection of the Geological Record ” 
startled geologists as from a profound 
slumber. It would be incorrect to 
say that he was the first to recognize 
the incompleteness of the record; but 
certainly until the appearance of that 
famous chapter the general body of 
geologists was blissfully unconscious 
of the essentially fragmentary char- 
acter of the geological record. Dar- 
wiv showed why this must necessarily 
be the case ; how multitudes of organ- 
ic types, both of the sea and of the 
land, must have decayed and never 
have been preserved in any geologi- 
cal deposit; how, even if entombed in 
such accumulations, they would in 
great measure be dissolved away 
by the subsequent percolation of water. 
Returning to some of his early specu- 
lations, he pointed out that massive 
geological deposits rich in fossils 
could only have been laid down dur- 
ing subsidence, and only where the 
supply of sediment was sufficient to 
let the sea remain shallow, and to 
entomb the organic remains on its 
floor before they had decayed. Hence, 
by the very conditions of its forma- 
tion, the geological record, instead of 
being a continuous and tolerably 
complete chronicle, must be intermit- 
tent and fragmentary. The sudden 
appearance of whole groups of allied 
species of fossils on certain horizons 
had been assumed by some eminent 
authorities as a fatal objection to any 
doctrine of the transmutation of 
species. But Darwin now claimed 
this fact as only another evidence of 
the enormous gaps in geological 
history. Reiterating again and again 10 
[314] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
that only a small fraction of the world 
had been examined geologically, and 
that even that fraction was still but 
imperfectly known, he called atten- 
tion to the history of geological dis- 
covery as furnishing itself a strong ar- 
gument against those who reasoned as 
if the geological record were a full 
chronicle of the history of life upon the 
earth. There is a natural tendency 
to look upon the horizon upon which 
a fossil species first appears as mark- 
ing its birth, and that on which it 
finally disappears as indicating its 
extinction. Da ravin declared this 
assumption to be “rash in the extreme.” 
No palaeontologist or geologist will 
now gainsay this assertion. And yet 
how continually do we still hear men 
talking of the stages of the geologi- 
cal record, as if these were sharply 
marked off everywhere by the first 
appearance and final disappearance of 
certain species. The boldness with 
which Darwin challenged some of 
these long-rooted beliefs is not less 
conspicuous than the modesty and 
deference with which his own sugges- 
tions were always given. “It is 
notorious,” he remarked, “on Avhat 
excessively slight differences many 
palaeontologists have founded their 
species; and they do this the more 
readily if the specimens come from 
different sub-stages of the same forma- 
tion.” 
Starting from this conception of 
the nature of the geological record, 
Darwin could show that the leading 
facts made known by palaeontology 
could be explained by his theory of 
descent with modification through 
natural selection. New species had 
slowly come in, as old ones had slowly 
died out. Once the thread of succes- 
sion had been broken it was never 
taken up again ; an extinct species or 
group never reappeared, yet extinction 
was a slow and unequal process, and 
a few descendants of ancient types 
might be found lingering in protect- 
ed and isolated situations. “ We can 
understand how it is that all the 
forms of life, ancient and recent, 
make together one grand system ; for 
all are connected by generation. From 
the continued tendency to divergence, 
the more ancient a form is, the more 
generally it differs from those now 
living. The inhabitants of each 
successive period in the world’s history 
have beaten their predecessors in the 
race for life, and are in so far higher 
in the scale of nature; and this may 
account for that vague, yet ill-de- 
fined sentiment, felt by many palae- 
ontologists, that organization on the 
whole has progressed. If it should 
hereafter be proved that ancient 
animals resemble to a certain extent 
the embryos of more recent animals of 
the same class, this fact will be intel- 
ligible. ” 
Again, what a flood of fresh light 
was poured upon geological inquiry 
by the two chapters on Geographical 
Distribution in the Origin of Species! 
A new field of research, or, at least, 
one in which comparatively little had 
been yet attempted, was there opened 
out. The grouping of living organ- 
isms over the globe was now seen to 
have the most momentous geological 
bearings. Every species of plant and 
animal must have had a geologica1 
history, and might be made to tell its 
story of the changes of land and sea. 
In fine, the spirit of Mr. Darwin’s 
teaching may be traced all through 
the literature of science, even in de- 
partments which he never himself 
entered. No branch of research has 
benefited more from the infusion 
of this spirit than geology. Time- 
honored prejudices have been broken 
down, theories that seemed the most 
surely based have been reconsidered, 
and, when found untenable, have been 
boldly discarded. That the Present 
must be taken as a guide to the Past, 
has been more fearlessly asserted 
than ever. And yet it has been re- 
cognized that the present differs widely 
from the past, that there has been a 
progress everywhere, that Evolution 
and not Uniformitarianism has been 
the law by which geological history 
has been governed. For the impetus 
with which these views have been 
advanced in every civilized country, DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[315] 
11 
we look up with reverence to the 
loved and immortal name of Charles 
Darwin. 
The wr’ter of these lines can well re- 
member Mr. Darwin gently complain- 
ing that some of this warm enthusiasm 
for nature, as it presents itself un- 
analysed to ordinary healthy vision, 
seemed to be a little dulled in the 
younger naturalists of the day. The 
pages of the Journal of Researches 
show no such restraint, but abound 
with passages in which Mr. Darwin’s 
unstudied and simple language is car- 
ried by the force of warm impression 
and perfect joy in nature to a level of 
singular beauty. One passage may 
be quoted as an illustration; it is 
from the description of Bahia in 
chapter xxi: 
“ When quietly walking along the 
shady pathways, and admiring each 
successive view, I wished to find 
language to express my ideas. Epi- 
thet after epithet was found too weak 
to convey to those who have not 
visited the intertropical regions, the 
sensation of delight which the mind 
experiences. I have said that the 
plants in a hothouse fail to communi- 
cate a just idea of the vegetation, yet 
I must recur to it. The land is one 
great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, 
made by nature for herself, but taken 
possession of by man, who has studded 
it with gay houses and formal gar- 
dens. How great would be the desire 
in every admirer of nature to behold, 
if such were possible, the scenery of 
another planet! Yet to every person 
in Europe, it may be truly said, that 
at the distance of only a few degrees 
from his native soil, the glories of 
another world are opened to him. In 
my last walk I stopped again and 
again to gaze on these beauties, and 
endeavored to fix in my mind forever, 
an impression which at the time I 
knew sooner or later must fail. The 
form of the orange-tree, the cocoa- 
nut, the palm, the mango, the tree- 
fern, the banana, will remain clear 
and separate ; but the thousand beau - 
ties which unite these into one per- 
fect scene must fade away ; yet they 
will leave, like a tale heard in child- 
hood, a picture full of indistinct, but 
most beautiful figures.” 
IV. WORK IN BOTANY. 
BY W. T. THISELTON DYER, F.R.S. 
In attempting to estimate the 
influence which Mr. Darwin’s writ- 
ings have exerted on the progress of 
botanical science, we must necessarily 
discriminate between the indirect 
effect which his views have had on 
botanical research generally, and the 
direct results of his own contributions. 
No doubt in a sense the former will 
seem in the retrospect to overshadow 
the latter. For in his later writings 
Mr. Darwin was content to devote 
himself to the consideration of prob- 
lems which, in a limited field, 
brought his own theoretical views to 
a detailed test, and so may ultimately 
seem to be somewhat merged in them. 
Yet these writings can never fail to 
command our admiration even viewed 
apart from all else that Mr. Darwin 
did. It is wonderful enough that so 
great a master in biological science 
should, at an advanced age, have been 
content to work with all the fervor 
and assiduity of youth at phenomena 
of vegetable life apparently minute 
and of the most special kind. To him, 
no doubt, they were not minute, but 
instinct with a significance that the 
professed botanical world had for the 
most part missed seeing in them fail- 
ing the point of view which Mr. Dar- 
win himself supplied. It is not too 
much to say that each of his botanical 
investigations, taken on its own 
merits, would alone have made the 
reputation of any ordinary botanist. 
Mr. Darwin’s attitude toward bot- 
any, as indeed to biological studies 
generally, was, it should always be 
remembered, in his early life essen- 
tially that of a naturalist of the school 
of Linnaeus and Humboldt—a point 
of view unfortunately now perhaps a 
little out of fashion. Nature in all 
its aspects spoke to his feelings with 
a voice that was living and direct. 12 
[316] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
A spirit such as this, penetrating 
an intelligence such as Mr. Darwin’s, 
would not content itself with the 
superficial interest of form and color. 
These, in his eyes, were the outward 
and visible signs of the inner secrets. 
The fascination of sense which the 
former imposed upon him but stimu- 
lated his desire to unveil the latter. 
In the Galapagos we are not then 
surprised to find him ardently ab- 
sorbed in the problems which the 
extraordinary distribution of the 
plants, no less than of other organ- 
isms presented:—“ I indiscriminately 
collected,” he says, “everything in 
flower on the different islands, and 
fortunately kept my collections sep- 
arate.” 
After tabulating the results which 
they yielded after systematic determ- 
ination, he proceeds: 
“ Hence we have the truly wonder- 
ful fact, that in James Island, of the 
thirty-eight Galapageian plants, or 
those found in no other part of the 
world, thirty are exclusively confined 
to this one island ; and in Albemarle 
Island, of the twenty-six aboriginal 
Galapageian plants, twenty-two are 
confined to this one island, that is, 
only four are known to grow on the 
other islands of the Archipelago ; and 
so on, as shown in the above table, 
with the plants from Chatham and 
Charles Island.” 
It is impossible in reading the 
Origin of Species not to perceive 
how deeply Mr. Darwin had been 
impressed by the problems presented 
by such singularities of plant distribu- 
tion as he met with in the Galapagos. 
And of such problems up to the time 
of its publication no intelligible ex- 
planation had seemed possible. Sir 
Joseph Hooker had indeed prepared 
the ground by bringing into prom- 
inence, in numerous important papers, 
the no less striking phenomena which 
were presented when the vegetation 
of large areas came to be analysed 
and compared. No one therefore 
could estimate more justly what Mr. 
Darwin did for those who worked in 
this field. How the whole theory of 
the geographical distribution of plants 
stood after the publication of the 
Origin of Species cannot then be 
better estimated than from the 
summary of the position, contained in 
Sir Joseph Hooker’s recent Address 
to the Geographical Section of the 
meeting of the British Association at 
York. 
“ Before the publication of the doc- 
trine of the origin of species by varia- 
tion and natural selection, allreasoning 
on their distribution was in subordina- 
tion to the idea that these were per- 
manent and special creations; just 
as, before it was shown that species 
were often older than the islands and 
mountains they inhabited, naturalists 
had to make their theories accord 
with the idea that all migration took 
place under existing conditions of 
land and sea. Hitherto the modes of 
dispersion of species, genera and fam- 
ilies had been traced, but the origin 
of representative species, genera, and 
families, remained an enigma ; these 
I could be explained only by the sup- 
I position that the localites where they 
occurred presented conditions so 
similar that they favored the crea- 
tion of similar organisms. But this 
failed to account for representation 
occurring in the far more numer- 
ous cases where there is no dis- 
coverable similarity of physical 
I conditions, and of their not occurring 
in places where the conditions are 
similar. Now under the theory of 
modification of species after migra- 
tion and isolation, their representation 
in distant localities is only a question 
of time and changed physical con- 
ditions. In fact, as Mr. Darwin well 
sums up, all the leading facts of dis- 
tribution are clearly explicable under 
this theory; such as the multiplica- 
tion of new forms, the importance of 
barriers in forming and separating 
zoological and botanical provinces ; 
the concentration of related species in 
the same area ; the linking together 
under different latitudes of the in- 
habitants of the plains and mountains, 
of the forests, marshes, and deserts, 
and the linking of these with the DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[317J 
13 
extinct beings which formerly in- 
habited the same areas; and the fact 
of different forms of life occurring in 
areas having nearly the same physical 
conditions.” 
If Mr. Darwin had done no more 
than this for botanical science he 
would have left an indelible mark on 
its progress. But the consideration 
of the vario us questions which the 
problem of the origin of species pre- 
sented led him into other inquiries in 
which the results were scarcely less 
important. The key-note of a whole 
series of his writings is struck by 
the words with which the eighth 
chapter of the Origin of Species com- 
mences : 
“The view generally entertained 
by naturalists is that species, when 
intercrossed, have been specially 
endowed with the quality of sterility, 
in order to prevent the confusion of 
all organic forms.” 
The examination of this principle 
necessarily obliged him to make a 
profound study of the conditions and 
limits of sterility. The results em- 
bodied in his well-known papers on 
dimorphic and trimorphic plants af- 
forded an absolutely conclusive proof 
that sterility was not inseparably tied 
up with specific divergence. But the 
question is handled in the most cau- 
tious way, and when the reader of the 
chapter on hybridism arrives at the 
concluding words, in which Mr. Dar- 
win declares that on this ground “there 
is no fundamental distinction between 
species and varieties,” he finds himself 
in much the same intellectual position 
as is produced by the Q.E.D. at the 
end of a geometrical demonstration. 
It was characteristic of Mr. Dar- 
win’s method of study to follow up on 
its own account, as completely as pos- 
sible, when opportunity presented, 
any side issue which had been raised 
apparently incidentally in other dis- 
cussions. Indeed, it was never pos- 
sible to guess what amount of evi- 
dence Mr. Darwin had in reserve 
behind the few words which marked j 
a mere step in an argument. It is 
from his practice of bringing out from 
, time to time the contents of his un- 
I seen treasure-house that we gain 
some insight into the scientific fertil- 
ity of his later years, at first sight so 
inexplicably prolific. Many of his 
works published during that period 
may be properly regarded in the light 
of disquisitions on particular points 
of his great theory. The researches 
on the sexual phenomena of hetero- 
styled plants, alluded to above, which 
were communicated to the Linnean 
Society in a series of papers ranging 
over the years 1862-8, ultimately 
found their complete development in 
the volume On the Different Forms 
of Flowers on Plants of the same 
Species, published in 1877. In the 
same way, the statement in the Origin 
of Species, that “the crossing of 
forms only slightly differentiated 
favors the vigor and fertility of 
their offspring,” finds its complete ex- 
pansion in The Effects of Cross and 
Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable 
Kingdom, published in 1876. 
The Origin of Species in the form 
in which it has become a classic in 
scientific literature was originally only 
intended as a preliminary precis of a 
vast accumulation of facts and argu- 
ments which the author had collected. 
It was intended to be but the precur- 
sor of a series of works in which all 
the evidence was to be methodically 
set out and discussed. Of this vast 
undertaking only one portion, the 
Variation of Plants and Animals 
under Domestication, was ever actu- 
ally published. Apart from its pri- 
mary purpose it produced a profound 
impression, especially on botanists. 
This was partly due to the undeniable 
force of the argument from analogy 
stated in a sentence in the introduc- 
tion: “Man may be said to have 
been trying an experiment on a gigan- 
tic scale; and it is an experiment 
which nature, during the long lapse 
of time, has incessantly tried.’' But 
it was still more due to the unex- 
pected use of the vast body of appar- 
ently trivial facts and observations 
which Mr. Darwin with astonishing 
industry had disinterred from weekly 14 
[318] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
journals and ephemeral publications of 
all sorts and unexpectedly forced in- 
to his service. Like Moliere’s Mon- 
sieur Jouraain, who was delighted to 
find that he had been unwittingly 
talking prose all his life, horticultur 
ists who had unconsciously molded 
plants almost at their will at the 
impulse of taste or profit were at 
once amazed and charmed to find 
that they had been doing scientific 
work and helping to establish a great 
theory. The criticism of practical 
men, at once most tenacious and dif- 
ficult to meet, was disarmed ; these 
found themselves hoisted with their 
own petard. Nor was this all. The 
exclusive province of science was in 
biological phenomena forever broken 
down ; every one whose avocations in 
life had to do with the rearing or use 
of living things, found himself a party 
to the “experiment On a gigantic 
scale,” which had been goalg on 
ever since the human race withdrew 
for their own ends plants or animals 
from the feral and brought them into 
the domesticated state. 
Mr. Darwin with characteristic 
modesty had probably underrated 
the effect which the Origin of 
Species would have as an argumenta- 
tive statement of his views. When 
he came to realize this, it probably 
seemed to him unnecessary to submit 
to the labor of methodizing the vast 
accumulations which he had doubt- 
less made for the second and third 
installments of the detailed exposition 
of the evidence which he had promised. 
As was hinted at the commencement, 
his attention was rather drawn away 
from the study of evidence already 
at the disposal of those who cared to 
digest and weigh it, to the explora- 
tion of the field of nature with the 
new and penetrating instrument of 
research which he had himself forged. 
Something too must be credited to 
the intense delight which he felt in 
investigating the phenomena of liv- 
ing things. But he doubtless saw 
that the work to be done was to show 
how morphological and physiological 
complexity found its explanation 
from the principle of natural selec- 
tion. This is the idea which is ever 
dominant. Thus he concludes his 
work on climbing plants: “It has 
often been vaguely asserted that 
plants are distinguished from animals 
by not having the power of move- 
ment. It should rather be said that 
plants acquire and display this power 
only when it is of some advantage to 
them; this being of comparatively 
rare occurrence, as they are affixed to 
the ground, and food is brought to 
them by the air and rain.” The 
diversity of the power of movement 
in plants naturally engaged his atten- 
tion, and the last but one of his 
works—in some respects perhaps the 
most remarkable of his botanical 
writings—was devoted to showing 
that this diversity could be regarded 
as derived from a single fundamental 
property: “ All the parts or organs 
of every plant while they continue to 
grow . . . are continually circumnuta- 
ting.” Whether this masterly con- 
ception of the unity of what has 
hitherto seemed a chaos of unrelated 
phenomena will be sustained time 
alone will show. But no one can 
doubt the importance of what Mr. 
Darwin has done in showing that for 
the future the phenomena of plant 
movement can and indeed must be 
studied from a single point of view. 
Along another line of work Mr. 
Darwin occupied himself with show- 
ing what aid could be given by the 
principle of natural selection in ex- 
plaining the extraordinary structural 
variety exhibited by plant morpho- 
logy. The fact that cross-fertilization 
was an advantage, was the key with 
which, as indicated in the pages of 
the Origin of Species, the bizarre 
complexities of orchid flowers could 
be unlocked. The detailed facts were 
set out in a well-known work, and the 
principle is now generally accepted 
with regard to flowers generally. The 
work on insectivorous plants gave the 
results of an exploration similar in its 
object, and bringing under one com- 
mon physiological point of view a 
variety of the most diverse and DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT 
[319] 
15 
most remarkable modifications of leaf- 
form. 
In the beginning of these remarks 
the attempt has already been made to 
do justice to the mark Mr. Darwin 
has left on the modern study of geo- 
graphical botany (and that implies a 
corresponding influence on phyto- 
palaeontology). To measure the in- 
fluence which he has had on any 
other branches of botany, it is suffi- 
cient to quote again from the Origin 
of Species : “The structure of each 
part of each species, for whatever 
purpose used, will be the sum of the 
many inherited changes through 
which the species has passed during 
its successive adaptations to changed 
habits and conditions of life.” These 
words may almost be said to be the 
key-note of Sachs’s well known text- 
book, which is the most authoritative 
modern exposition of the facts and 
principles of plant-structure and func- 
tion ; and there is probably not a 
botanical class-room or work-room in 
the civilized world where they are 
not the animating principle of both 
instruction and research. 
Noth withstanding the extent and 
variety of his botanical work, Mr. 
Darwin always disclaimed any right 
to be regarded as a professed botanist. 
He turned his attention to plants 
doubtless because they were con- 
venient objects for studying organic 
phenomena in their least complicated 
forms; and this point of view, which, 
if one may use the expression without 
disrespect, had something of the 
amateur about it, was in itself of the 
greatest importance. For, from not 
being, till he took up any point, fa- 
miliar with the literature bearing on 
it, his mind was absolutely free from 
any prepossession. He was never 
afraid of his facts or of framing any 
hypothesis, however startling, which 
seemed to explain them. However 
much weight he attributed to inherit- 
ance as a factor in organic phenomena, 
tradition went for nothing in studying 
them. In any one else such an atti- 
tude would have produced much work 
tliat was crude and rash. But Mr. 
Darwin—if one may venture on lan- 
guage which will strike no one who 
had conversed with him as over- 
strained—seemed by gentle persuasion 
to have penetrated that reserve of 
nature which baffles smaller men. In 
other words, his long experience had 
given him a kind of instinctive in- 
sight into the method of attack of 
any biological problem, however un- 
familiar to him, while he rigidly 
controlled the fertility of his mind in 
hypothetical explanations by the no 
less fertility of ingeniously-devised 
experiment. Whatever he touched, 
he was sure to draw from it some- 
thing that it had never before yielded, 
and he was wholly free from that 
familiarity which comes to the pro- 
fessed student in every branch of 
science, and blinds the mental eye 
to the significance of things which 
are overlooked because always in 
view. 
The simplicity of Mr. Darwin’s 
character pervaded his whole method 
of work. Alphonse he Candolle 
visited him in 1880 and felt the im- 
pression of this : “ He was not one 
of those who would construct a palace 
to lodge a laboratory. I sought out 
the greenhouse in which so many 
admirable experiments had been made 
on hybrids. It contained nothing but 
a vine.” There was no affectation in 
this. Mr. Darwin provided himself 
with every resource which the meth- 
ods of the day or the mechanical 
ingenuity of his sons could supply, 
and when it had served its purpose it 
was discarded. Nor had he any pre- 
possession in favor of one kind of 
scientific work more than another. 
His scientific temperament was thor- 
oughly catholic and sympathetic to 
anything which was not a mere re- 
grinding of old scientific dry bones. 
He would show his visitors an Epi- 
pactis which for years came up in the 
middle of one of his gravel walks with 
almost as much interest as some new 
point which he had made out in a 
piece of work actually in hand. And 
though he had long abandoned any 
active interest in systematic work, [320] 
16 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
only a few months before his death 
he had arranged to provide funds for 
the preparation of the new edition of 
STEUDEi.’sNomenclator,* which, at his 
earnest wish, has been projected at 
Kew. 
tail; no master-mind on the highest 
elevation of philosophy has ever 
grasped more world-transforming 
truth. 
Taking the purely zoological work 
in historical order, we have first 
to consider the observations made 
during the voyage of the Beagle. 
These, however, are much too numer- 
ous and minute to admit of being 
here detailed. Among the most 
curious are those relating to the 
scissor-beak bird, niata cattle, aeronaut 
spiders, upland geese, sense of sight 
and smell in vultures; and among 
the most important are those relating 
to the geographical distribution of 
species. The results obtained on the 
latter head are of peculiar interest, 
inasmuch as it was owing to them 
that Mr. Darwin was first led to 
entertain the idea of evolution. As 
displaying the dawn of this idea in his 
mind we may quote a passage or two 
from his Voyage of a Naturalist, 
where these observations relating to 
distribution are given: 
“These mountains (the Andes) 
have existed as a great barrier since 
the present races of animals have 
appeared, and therefore, unless we 
suppose the same species to have 
been created in two different places, 
we ought not to expect any closer 
similarity between the organic beings 
on the opposite sides of the Andes, 
than on the opposite shores of the 
ocean.” 
“The natural history of these 
islands (of the Galapagos Archipelago) 
is eminently curious, and well deserves 
attention. Most of the organic pro- 
ductions are aboriginal creations, 
found nowhere else ; there is even a 
difference between the inhabitants of 
the different islands; yet all show a 
marked relationship with those of 
America, though separated from that 
continent by an open space of ocean 
between 500 and 600 miles in width. 
The Archipelago is a little world 
within itself, or rather a satellite 
actached to America, whence it has 
derived a few stray colonists, and has 
received the general character of ita 
y. WORK IN ZOOLOGY. 
BT G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S. 
The influence which our great 
naturalist has exerted upon zoology 
is unquestionably greater than that 
which has been exerted by any other 
individual; and as it depends on his 
generalizations much more than upon 
his particular researches, we may best 
do justice to it by taking a brojd 
view of the effects of Darwinism on 
zoology, rather than by detailing 
those numberless facts which have 
been added to the science by the ever 
vigilant observations of Darwin. 
Nevertheless, we may begin our sur- 
vey by enumerating the more im- 
portant results of his purely zoologi- 
cal work, not so much because these 
have been rarely equaled by the work 
of any other zoologist, as because we 
may thus give due prominence to the 
remarkable association of qualities 
which was presented by Mr. Dar- 
win’s mind. This association of 
qualities was such that he was able 
fully to appreciate and successfully to 
cultivate every department and rami- 
fication of biological research—wheth- 
er morphological, physiological, syste- 
matic, descriptive, or statistical—and 
at the same time to rise above the 
minutiae of these various branches, to 
take those commanding views of the 
whole range of nature and of natural 
science which have produced so 
enormous a change upon our means 
of knowledge and our modes of 
thought. No laborer in the field of 
science has ever plodded more 
patiently through masses of small de- 
* An enumeration of the names and syn- 
onyms of all described flowerings plants with 
their native countries. DARWIR AND HUMBOLDT. 
[321] 
17 
indigenous productions. Considering 
the small size of the islands, we feel 
astonished at the number of their 
aboriginal beings, and at their con- 
fined range. Seeing every height 
crowned with its crater, and the 
boundaries of most of the lava-streams 
still distinct, we are led to believe 
that within a period geologically 
recent, the unbroken ocean was here 
spread out. Hence, both in space 
and time, we seem to be brought 
somewhat near to that fact—that 
mystery of mysteries—the first appear- 
ance of new beings on this earth.” 
Next in order of time we have to 
notice the Monograph of the Cirri- 
pedia. This immensely elaborate 
work was published by the Ray So- 
ciety in two volumes, comprising to- 
gether over 1,000 large octavo pages, 
and 40 plates. These massive books 
(which were respectively published in 
1851 and 1854) convey the results of 
several years of devoted inquiry, and 
are particularly interesting, not only 
on account of the intrinsic value of 
the work, but also because they show ' 
tha* Mr. Darwin’s powers of research 
were not less remarkable in the direc- 
tion of purely anatomical investiga- 
tion than tligy were in that of physio- 
logical experiment and philosophical 
generalization. No one can even 
glance through this memoir without 
perceiving that if it had stood alone 
it would have placed its author in the 
very first rank as a morphological in- 
vestigator. The prodigious number 
and minute accuracy of his dissections, 
the exhaustive detail with which he 
worked out every branch of his sub- 
ject—sparing no pains in procuring 
every species that it was possible to 
procure, in collecting all the known 
facts relating to the geographical and 
geological distribution of the group, 
in tracing the complicated history of 
metamorphoses represented by the in- 
dividuals of the sundry species, in 
disentangling the problem of the 
homologies of these perplexing ani- 
mals, etc.—all combine to show that 
had Mr. Darwin chosen to devote 
himself to a life of purely morpholog- 
ical work, his name would probably 
have been second to none in that de- 
partment of biology. We have to 
thank his native sagacity that such 
was not his choice. Valuable as 
without any question are the results 
of the great anatomical research which 
we are considering, we cannot peruse 
these thousand pages of closely-writ- 
ten detail without feeling that, for a 
man of Mr. Darwin’s exceptional 
powers, even such results are too 
dearly bought by the expenditure of 
time required for obtaining them. 
We cannot, indeed, be sorry that he 
engaged in and completed this solid 
piece of morphological work, because 
it now stands as a monument to his 
great ability in this direction of in- 
quiry ; but at the same time we feel 
sincerely glad that the conspicuous 
success which attended the exercise of 
such ability in this instance did not 
betray him into other undertakings 
of the same kind. Such undertak- 
ings may suitably be left to establish 
the fame of great though lesser men; 
it would have been a calamity in the 
history of our race if Charles Dar- 
win had been tempted by his own 
ability to become a comparative anat- 
omist. 
But as we have said—and we repeat 
it lest there should be any possibility 
of -mistaking what we mean—the 
results which attended this laborious 
inquiry were of the highest import- 
ance to comparative anatomy, and of 
the highest interest to comparative 
anatomists. The limits of this article 
do not admit of our giving a summary 
of these results, so we shall only 
allude to the one which is most im- 
portant. This is the discovery of 
“Complemental Males.” The manner 
in which this discovery was made in 
its entirety is of interest, as showing 
the importance of remembering ap- 
parently insignificant observations 
which may happen to be incidentally 
made during the progress of a re- 
search. For Mr. Darwin writes : 
“When first dissecting Scalpellum 
vulgare, I was surprised at the almost 
* constant presence of one or more very 18 
[322] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
minute parasites, on the margins of 
both scuta, close to the umbones. I 
carelessly dissected one or two speci- 
mens, and concluded that they be- 
longed to some new class or order 
among the Articulata, but did not 
at the time even conjecture that they 
were Cirripedes. Many months af- 
terward, when I had seen in Ibla 
that an hermaphrodite could have a 
complemental male, I remembered 
that I had been surprised at the small 
size of the vesiculse seminales in the 
hermaphrodite S. vulgare, so that I 
resolved to look with care at these 
parasites; on doing so I now dis- 
covered that they were Cirripedes, 
for I found that they adhered by ce- 
ment, and were furnished with pre- 
hensile antennae, which latter, I ob- 
served with astonishment, agreed in 
every minute character, and in size, 
with those of S. vulgare. I also found j 
that these parasites were destitute of ! 
a mouth and stomach; that con-! 
sequently they were short-lived but 
that they reached maturity; and that 
all were males. Subsequently five other 
species of the genus Scalpellum were 
found to present more or lsss closely- 
analogous phenomena. These facts, 
together with those given under Ibla 
(and had it not been for this latter 
genus, I never probably should have 
struck on the right line in my investi- 
gation), appear sufficient to justify 
me in provisionally considering the 
truly wonderful parasites of the seve- 
ral species of Scalpellum, as Males and 
Complemental Males.” (vol. i. pp. 
292-3). 
The remarkable phenomena of 
sexuality in these animals is summed 
up thus: 
“ The simple fact of the diversity in 
the sexual relations displayed within 
the limits of the genera Ibla and Scal- 
pellum, appears to me eminently curi- 
ous. We have (1) a female, with a 
male (or rarely two) permanently 
attached to her, protected by her, and 
nourished by any minute animals 
which may enter her sac; (2) a female, 
with successive pairs of short-lived 
males, destitute of mouth and stom- 
ach, inhabiting the pouches formed 
on the under sides of her two valves; 
(3) an hermaphrodite, with from one 
or two, up to five or six, similar 
short-lived males without mouth 
stomach, attached to one particular 
spot on each side of the orifice of the ca- 
pitulum; and (4) hermaphrodites, with 
occasionally one, two, or three males, 
capable of seizing and devouring their 
prey in the ordinary Cirripedal meth- 
od, attached to two parts of the 
capitulum, in both cases being pro- 
tected by the closing of the scuta.” 
With reference to these Comple- 
mental Males (so-called “ to show that 
they do not pair with a female, but with 
a bisexual individual.”) Mr. Darww 
further observes: “Nothing strictly 
analogous is known in the animal 
kingdom ; but amongst plants, in the 
Linnean class Polygamia, closely 
similar instances abound; ” and also 
that “in the series of facts now given 
we have one curious illustration more 
to the many already known, how 
gradually nature changes from one 
condition to the other, in this case 
from bisexuality to unisexuality.” 
(ii. 29). 
Lastly, to give only one other quo- 
tation from this work, he writes : 
“ As I am summing up the singu- 
larity of the phenomena here present- 
ed, I will allude to the marvelous 
assemblage of beings seen by me 
within the sac of an Ibla quadrival- 
vis, namely, an old and young male, 
both minute, worm-like, destitute of a 
capitulum, with a great mouth and 
rudimentary thorax and limbs, attach- 
ed to each other and to the hermaph- 
rodite, which latter is utterly dif- 
ferent in appearance and structure; 
secondly, the four or five free, boat- 
shaped larvae, with their curious pre- 
hensile antennae, two great compound 
eyes, no mouth, and six natatory 
legs; and lastly, several hundreds of 
the larvae, in their first stage of de- 
velopment, globular, with horn-shaped 
projections on their carapaces, minute 
single eyes, filiform antennae, pro- 
bosciform mouths, and only three 
pairs of natatory legs What diverse DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[323] 
19 
beings, with scarcely anything in 
common, and yet all belonging to the 
same species! ” (i. 293). 
Scattered through the Origin of 
Species, the Variation of Plants and 
Animals under Domestication, and 
the Descent of Man, we meet with 
many purely zoological observations 
of much interest and importance as 
such, or apart from their bearing on 
the general principles and arguments 
for the illustration or fortification of 
which they are introduced. In this 
connection we may particularly allude 
to the chapters on Variability, Hy- 
bridism, and Geographical Distribu- 
tion—chapters which contain such a 
large number of new facts, as well as 
new groupings of old ones, that we 
cannot undertake to epitomize them in 
a resume of Mr. Darwin’s woi'k so 
brief as the present. Nor should we 
forget to mention in the present con- 
nection his experimental proof of the 
manner in which bees make their 
hexagonal cells, ad of the important 
part played in the economy of nature 
by earthworms. Moreover, the hy- 
pothesis of sexual selection necessitat- 
ed the collection of a large body of 
facts relating to the ornamentation of 
all classes of animals, from insects and 
Crustacea upward; and whatever we 
may think about the stability of the 
hypothesis, there can be no question, 
from a zoological point of view, con- 
cerning the value of this collection of 
facts as such. 
But without waiting to consider 
further the purely zoological results 
presented by the work before us, we 
must turn to consider the effects of 
this work upon zoological science it- 
self. And here we approach the 
true magnitude of Darwin as a 
zoologist. Of very few men in the 
history of our race can it be said that 
„hey not only enlarged science, but 
changed it—not only added facts to 
the growing structure of natural 
knowledge, but profoundly modified 
the basal conceptions upon which the 
whole structure rested; and of no one 
ean this be said with more truth than 
it can be said of Darwin. For 
although it is the case that the idea 
of evolution had occurred to other 
minds—in two or three instances 
with all the force of full conviction— 
it is no less certainly the case that the 
idea proved barren. Why did it 
prove so”? Because it had never be- 
fore been fertilized by the idea of 
natural selection. To demonstrate, 
or to render sufficiently probable by 
inference, the fact of evolution (for 
direct observation of the process is 
from the nature of the case impossible), 
required some reasonable suggestion 
as to tho cause of evolution, such as 
is supplied by the theory of natural 
selection ; and when once this sugges- 
tion was forthcoming, it mattered 
little whether it was considered as 
propounding the only, the chief, or 
but a subordinate cause ; all that was 
needed to recommend the evidence of 
evolution to the judgment of science 
was the discovery of some cause 
which could be reasonably regarded 
as not incommensurate with some of 
the effects ascribed to it. And, un- 
like the desperate though most laud- 
able groupings of Lamarck, the sim- 
ple solution furnished by Darwin 
was precisely what was required to 
give a locus standi to the evidence 
of descent. 
But we should form a very inade- 
quate estimate of the services render- 
ed to science by Mr. Darwin if we 
were to stop here. The few gen- 
eral facts out of which the theory of 
evolution by natural selection is 
formed—viz. struggle for existence, 
survival of the fittest, and heredity— 
were all previously well-known facts? 
and we may not unreasonably feel 
astonished that so apparently obvious 
a combination of them as that which 
occurred to Mr. Darwin should have 
occurred to no one else, with the 
single exception of Mr. Wallace. 
The fact that it did not do so is most 
fortunate in two respects—first, be- 
cause it gave Mr. Darwin the op- 
portunity of pondering upon the sub 
ject ab initio, and next because it gave 
the world an opportunity of witness- 
ing the disinterested unselfishness 20 
[324] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
which has been so signally and so 
consistently displayed by both these 
English naturalists. But the great- 
ness of Mr. Darwin as the reformer 
of biology is not to be estimated by 
the fact that he conceived the idea of 
natural selection ; his claim to ever- 
lasting memory rests upon the many 
years of devoted labor whereby he 
tested this idea in all conceivable 
ways—amassing facts from every 
department of science, balancing evi- 
dence with the soundest judgment, 
shirking no difficulty, and at last 
astonishing the world as with a reve- 
lation by publishing the completed 
proof of evolution. Indeed, so co- 
lossal is Mr Darwin’s greatness in 
this respect, that we doubt whether 
there ever was a man so well fitted to 
undertake the work which he has so 
successfully accomplished. For this 
work required not merely vast and 
varied knowledge of many provinces 
of science, and the very exceptional 
powers of judgment which Mr. Dar- 
win possessed, but also the patience 
to labor for many years at a great 
generalization, the honest candor 
which rendered the author his own 
best critic, and last, though perhaps 
not least, the magnanimous simplicity 
of character which, in rising above 
all petty and personal feelings, deliv- 
ered a thought-reversing doctrine to 
mankind with as little disturbance as 
possible of the deeply-rooted senti- 
ments of the age. In the chapter of 
accidents, therefore, it is a singularly 
fortunate coincidence that Mr. Dar- 
win was the man to whom the idea of 
natural selection occurred; for al- 
though in a generation or two the 
truth of evolution might have be- 
come more and more forced upon the 
belief of science, and with it the ac- , 
ceptance of natural selection as an i 
operating cause, in our own genera- i 
tion this could only have been ac- < 
cotnplished in the way that it was 
accomplished; we required one such : 
exceptional mind as that of Darwin : 
to focus the facts, and to show the < 
method. 
It seems almost needless to turn 
> from this aspect of our subject to 
; enlarge upon the influence which a 
- general acceptance of the theory of 
• descent has had upon biology. We 
r do not state the case too strongly 
: when we say that this has been the 
influence which has created organiza- 
• tion out of confusion, brought the dry 
! bones to life, and made all the previ- 
: ously dissociated facts of science 
stand up as an exceeding great army. 
Let any one turn to the eloquent 
prophecy with which the pages of 
the Origin of Species terminate—a 
prophecy which sets forth in order 
the transforming effect that the doc- 
trine of evolution would in the future 
exert upon every department of biol 
ogy—and he may rejoice to think 
that Mr. Darwin himself lived to 
see every word of that prophecy ful- 
filled. For where is now the “syste- 
matist . . . incessantly haunted by 
the shadowy doubt whether this or 
that form be a true species ? ” And 
has it not proved that “the other and 
more general departments of natural 
history will rise greatly in interest— 
that the terms used by naturalists, of 
affinity, relationship, community of 
type, paternity, morphology, adaptive 
characters, rudimentary and aborted 
organs, etc , will cease to be metaphor- 
ical, and will have a plain significa- 
tion?” Do we not indeed begin to 
feel that “ we no longer look at an 
organic being as a savage looks at a 
ship, as something wholly beyond his 
comprehension? And when we regard 
every production of nature as one 
which has had a long history, when 
we contemplate every complete struc- 
ture and instinct as the summing up 
of many contrivances, each useful to 
the possessor, in the same way as any 
great mechanical invention is the 
summing up of the labor, the experi- 
ence, the reason, and even the blunders 
of numerous workmen, when we thus 
view each organic being,” may we 
not now all say with Darwin, “How 
far more interesting—I speak from 
experience—does the study of natural 
history become?” And may we not 
now all see that “ a grand and almost DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[325] 
21 
untrodden field of inquiry on the laws 
of variation, on correlation, on the 
effects of use and disuse, on the direct 
action of external conditions ” has 
been opened up ; that our classifica- 
tions have become “ as far as they 
can be made so, genealogies, and truly 
give what may be called a plan of 
creation; ” that rules of classifying 
do “ become simpler when we have a 
definite object in view;” and that 
“aberrant species, which may fanci- 
fully be called living fossils,” actually 
are of service in supplying “ a picture 
of ancient forms of life?” And 
again, must we not agree that 
“when we can feel assured that 
all the individuals of the same species 
and all the closely-allied species 
of most genera, have, within a not 
very remote period, descended from 
one parent, and have migrated from 
some one birthplace; and when we 
better know the many means of migra- 
tion, then, by the light which geology 
now throws, and will continue to 
throw, on former changes of climate 
and of the level of the land, we shall 
surely be able to trace in an admira- 
ble manner the former migrations of 
the inhabitants of the whole world” ? 
And who is now able to question that 
“by comparing the differences be- 
tween the inhabitants of the sea on 
the opposite sides of a continent, and 
of the various inhabitants on that con- 
tinent in relation to their apparent 
means of migration, some light can 
be thrown on ancient geography ’ ’ ? 
Or, if we turn to “the noble science 
of geology,” do we not see that we are 
beginning to “ gauge with some 
security the duration of intervals by 
a comparison of the preceding and 
succeeding forms of life ” ? And last, 
though not least, have we not found 
this one short sentence so charged 
with meaning that a new and extensive 
science, second in importance to none, 
may be almost said to have grown 
out of what it states : “ Embryology 
will often reveal to us the structure, 
in some degree obscured, of the proto- 
types ” ? 
If the progress of science during 
the last two-and-twenty years has in 
so astonishing a measure verified the 
prophecy of the Origin of Species, 
surely, in conclusion, we are more 
than ever constrained to agree with 
the sentiments expressed by its clos- 
ing words : “When I view all beings, 
not as special creations, but as the 
lineal descendants of some few beings 
which lived long before the first bed 
of the Cambrian system was deposited, 
they seem to me to become enno- 
bled . . . There is grandeur in this 
view of life, with its several powers, 
having been originally breathed by 
the Creator into a few forms or into 
one ; and that, whilst this planet has 
gone cycling on according to the fixed 
law of gravity, from so simple a be- 
ginning endless forms most beautiful 
and most wonderful have been, and 
are being evolved.” 
YI. WORK IN PSYCHOLOGY. 
BY G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S. 
The effects upon Psychology of Mr. 
Darwin’s writings have been so im- 
mense, that we shall not overstate 
them by saying that they are fully 
comparable with those which we have 
previously considered as having been 
exerted by the same writings on geol- 
ogy, botany, and zoology. This fact 
at first sight cin scarcely fail to strike 
us as remarkable, in view of the com 
sideration that Mr. Darwin was not 
only not himself a psychologist, but 
had little aptitude for, and perhaps 
less sympathy with, the technique of 
psychological method. The whole 
constitution of his mind was opposed 
to the subtlety of the distinctions and 
the mysticism of the conceptions 
which this technique so frequently 
involves ; and therefore he was ac- 
customed to regard the problems of 
mind in the same broad and general 
light that he regarded all the other 
problems of nature. But if at first 
sight we are inclined to feel surprised 
that, although possessing none of the [326] 
22 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
special mental equipments of a 
psychologist, he should have exert- 
ed so enormous an influence upon 
psychology, our surprise must vanish 
when we consider the matter a little 
more attentively. For the truth of 
this matter is that psychology, in 
being the science furthest removed 
from the reach of experimental means 
and inductive method, is the science 
which has longest remained in the 
trammels of a priori analysis and 
metaphysical thought; therefore Dar- 
win, by casting the eye of a philo- 
sophical naturalist upon the facts, 
without reference to the cobwebs 
which the specialists had woven 
around them, was able to gather 
directly much new information as to 
their meaning. And the rare sagac- 
ity with which he observed and 
reflected upon the phenomena of mind 
merely as phenomena or facts of 
nature, led to the remarkable results 
which we shall presently have to con- 
sider—results which have done more 
than any other to unmuffle the young 
science of psychology from the swad- 
dling clothes of its mediaeval nursery. 
The portions of Mr. Darwin's 
writings which refer to mental 
science are very limited in extent— 
comprising, in fact, only one chapter 
in the Origin of Species, three in 
the Descent of Man, and a short 
paper on the development of in- 
fantile intelligence. The import- 
ance of the effect produced by 
them is therefore rendered all the 
more remarkable; but in this con- 
nection it seems desirable to state that 
the chapters to which we have alluded 
represent, in an exceedingly condensed 
form, the result of extensive thought 
and reading. A year or two ago 
Mr. Darwin lent the present writer 
the original drafts of these essays, 
together with all the notes and mem- 
oranda which he had collected on 
psychological subjects during the pre- 
vious forty years, and so we can testi- 
fy that any one who reads these MSS. 
is more likely to be surprised at the 
amount of labor which they indicate 
than at the effect which has been 
produced by the compressed publica- 
tion of its results. What strikes 
one most in reading the MSS. is that 
which also strikes one most in read- 
ing the published resume that has 
grown out of them—namely, the 
honest adherence throughout to the 
strictly scientific, or, as the followers 
of Comte would say, positive method 
of seeking and interpreting facts; 
speculation, hypothesis, and straw- 
splitting are everywhere, not so much 
intentionally avoided, as alien to the 
whole conception of the manner in 
which the sundry problems are to be 
attacked We all know that this con- 
ception has not met with universal ap- 
proval—that more than one writer, 
adhering to the traditional methods 
of psychological inquiry, has express- 
ly joined issue upon it. But although 
it is an easy matter for a technical 
psychologist to point to an absence 
of technical thought, and so of a rec- 
ognition of technical principles, in 
these parts of Mr. Darwin’s writings, 
we are persuaded that the expose only 
serves to reveal a beam in the eye of 
the technical psychologist which 
prevents him from seeing clearly how 
to remove the mote from Mr. Dar 
win’s. In other words, although it 
is true that Mr. Darwin does not rec- 
ognize the niceties of distinction 
which seem so important to what we 
may term the professional mind, it 
is no less true that in the cases to 
which we have alluded, the profession ■ 
al mind has failed in its duty of fill- 
ing up for itself the technica\ lacunae 
in Mr. Darwin’s expositions. Such 
lacunae no doubt occur, but they never 
really vitiate the integrity of the con- 
clusions ; and a trained psycholo- 
gist would best fulfill his function 
as an under-builder, by supplying here 
and there the stones which the hand 
of the master has neglected to put in. 
To ourselves it always seems one of 
the most wonderful of the many 
wonderful aspects of Mr. Darwin’s 
varied work, that by the sheer force 
of some exalted kind of common sense, 
unassisted by any special acquaintance 
with psychological method, he should DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, 
[327] 
23 
have been able to strike, as it were, 
straight down upon some of the most 
important truths which have ever 
been brought to light in the region 
of mental science. These we shall 
now proceed to consider. 
The chapter in the Origin of 
Species to which we have referred, is 
occupied chiefly with an application 
of the theory of natural selection to 
the phenomena of instinct, and in our 
opinion it has done more than all other 
psychological writings put together 
to explain what instinct is, why it is 
and how it came to be. Before this 
chapter was published, the only scien- 
tific theory concerning the origin of 
instincts that had been formed was 
the theory wh:ch regarded them as 
hereditary habits. Because we know 
that in the individual intelligent ad- 
justments become, by frequent rep- 
etition, automatic, it was inferred 
that the same might be true of the 
species, and therefore that all instincts 
were to be regarded as what Leaves 
has aptly termed “lapsed intelli 
gence.” In this view there is, with- 
out any question, much truth, and the 
first thing we have to notice about 
Mr. Daravin’s writings with reference 
to instinct is that they not only rec- 
ognized this truth, but, by elucida- 
ting the whole subject of heredity, 
placed it in a much clearer light than 
it ever stood before. Mr. Darwin, 
however, carried the philosophy of 
the subject very much further when 
he agued that, in conjunction with the 
cause formulated as “lapsing intelli- 
gence,” there was another at least as 
potent in the formation of instincts— 
namely, natural selection. His own 
statement of the case is so terse that 
we cannot do better than quote it. 
“If Mozart, instead of playing the 
pianoforte at three years with won- 
derfully little practice, had played a 
tune with no practice at all, he might 
truly be said to have done so instinct- 
ively. But it would be a serious error 
to suppose that the greater number 
of instincts have been acquired by 
habit in one generation, and then 
transmitted by inheritance to succeed- 
ing generations. It can be clearly 
shown that the most wonderful in 
stincts with which we are acquainted, 
namely, those of the hive-bee and of 
many ants, could not possibly have 
been acquired by habit.* 
“It will be universally admitted 
that instincts are as important as cor- 
poreal structures for the welfare of 
each species, under its present con- 
ditions of life. Under changed con- 
ditions of life, it is at least possible 
that slight modifications of instinct 
might be profitable to a species ; and 
if it can be shown that instincts do 
vary ever so little, then I can see no 
difficulty in natural selection preserv- 
ing and continually accumulating 
variations of instinct to any extent 
that was profitable. It is thus, I be- 
lieve, that all the most complex and 
wonderful instincts have originated.” 
Briefly, then, in Mr. Darwin’s 
view, instincts may arise by lapsing 
intelligence, by natural selection of 
accidental and possibly non-intelligent 
variations of habit, or by both prin- 
ciples combined—seeing that “a little 
dose of judgment ” is often commin- 
gled with even the most fixed (or 
most strongly inherited) instincts. 
One good test of the truth of the view 
as a whole is that which Mr. Darwin 
has himself supplied—namely, search- 
ing through the whole range of in- 
stincts to see whether any occur 
which are either injurious to the 
animals exhibiting them, or benefical 
only to other animals. Now there 
is really no authentic case of the 
former, and the latter are so few in 
number that they may reasonably be 
regarded, either as rudiments of in- 
stincts once useful (so analogous to 
the human tail), or as still useful in 
some unobservable manner (so anal- 
ogous to the tail of the rattlesnake). 
The case of aphides secreting honey- 
* Because the individuals which exhibit 
them, being neuters, can never have progeny. 
It is indeed surprising, as Mr. Darwin 
further on observes, that no one previously 
“ advanced this demonstrative case of neuter 
insects against the well-known doctrine of 
inherited habit as advanced by Lamarck.” 24 
[328] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
dew for the benefit of ants occurred to 
Mr. Darwin as one which might be 
adduced against his theory in this 
connection, and he therefore made 
some experiments upon the subject, 
which led him to conclude that “as 
the excretion is extremely viscid, it is 
no doubt a convenience to the aphides 
to have it removed ; therefore proba 
bly they do not excrete solely for the 
good of the ants.” 
A discussion of the variability of 
instinct, and of the probability that 
variations should be inherited, leads 
him to consider the important case of 
the apparent formation of artificial 
instincts in our domestic dogs by con- 
tinued training with selection, and also 
the not less important case of the 
effects produced upon natural instincts 
by the long-continued change of en- 
vironment to which other of our 
domestic animals have been exposed. 
All the facts adduced as resulting 
from these long-continued though 
unintentional experiments by man, go 
to substantiate, in a very unmistaka- 
ble manner, the theory concerning 
the origin and development of in- 
stincts which we are considering. 
The chapter concludes with a close 
consideration of some of the more 
remarkable instincts which occur in 
the animal kingdom, such as the par- 
asitic instinct of the cuckoo, the slave 
making instinct of ants, and the cell- 
making instinct of bees. A flood of 
light is thrown upon the latter, and 
the old standing problem as to how 
the bees have come to make their cells 
in the form which requires the smallest 
amount of material for their construc- 
tion, while affording the largest ca- 
pacity for purposes of storage, is solv- 
ed. 
From this brief account of the 
chapter on “Instinct,” it is evident 
that the new idea which it starts, and 
in several directions elaborates, is an 
idea of immense importance to psy- 
chology, and that the broad marks or 
general principles laid down by it 
afford large scope for a further filling- 
in of numberless details by the attent- 
ive observation of facts. The phe- 
nomena of instinct, indeed, cease to 
be rebellious to explanation, and 
range themselves in orderly array 
under the flag of science. 
But not less important than the 
chapter on “ Instinct ” are the chapters 
in the Descent of Man on the mental 
powers of man as compared with 
those of the lower animals, on the 
moral sense, and on the development 
of both during primaeval and civilized 
times. Our estimate of the value of 
these chapters is so high that we 
gladly endorse the opinion of the late 
Prof Clifford—who was no mean 
judge upon such matters—when he 
writes of them as presenting to his 
mind “the simplest, and clearest, and 
most profound philosophy that was 
ever written upon the subject.” As 
the three chapters together cover only 
eighty pages, it seems needless to 
render an abstract of them, so we 
shall only observe that although it is 
easy to show in them, as Mr. Mivart 
and others have shown, a want of 
appreciation of technical terms, and 
even of Aristotelian ideas, nowhere in 
the whole range of Mr. Darwin’s 
writings is his immense power of 
judicious generalization more con- 
spicuously shown. So much is this 
the case, that in studying these chap- 
ters we have ourselves always felt 
glad that Mr. Darwin was not the 
specialist in psychology which some 
of his critics seem to suppose that he 
ought to have been if he presumed to 
shake their science to its base; had he 
been such a specialist the great sweep 
of his thought might have been hinder- 
ed by comparatively immaterial de- 
tails. 
Of the three chapters which we 
are considering, the most important is 
the one on the moral sense. As he 
himself says: 
“ This great question (the origin of 
the moral sense) has been discussed 
by many writers of consummate abil- 
ity; and my only excuse for touching 
upon it, is the impossibility of here 
passing it over; and because, so far 
as I know, no one has approached it 
exclusively from the side of naearal DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[329] 
25 
history. The investigation possesses, 
also, some independent interest, as an 
attempt to see how far the study of 
the lower animals throws light on 
one of the highest psychical faculties 
of man.” 
The result of this investigation and 
study has been to give, if not a new 
point of departure to the science of 
ethics, at least a completely new con- 
ception as to the origin of the faculties 
with which that science has to deal; 
and without attempting to discuss the 
objections which have been raised 
against the doctrine, or to enumerate 
the points of contact between this 
doctrine and older ethical theories— 
to neither of which undertakings 
would our present space be adapted— 
we may say in general, that, as in the 
case of instinct, so in that of con- 
science, we feel persuaded that Mr. 
Darwin’s genius has been the first 
to bring within the grasp of human 
understanding large classes of phe- 
nomena which had been previously 
wholly unintelligible. 
“The Expression of the Emotions 
in Man and Animals ” is an essay 
which may be more suitably men- 
tioned in the present division than in 
any of the preceding. The work is 
a highly interesting one, not only on 
account of its philosophical theories, 
but also as an extensive accumulation 
of facts. “The three chief principles” 
enunciated by the former are: (1) 
“the principle of serviceable asso- 
ciated habits ” ; (2) “the principle of 
antithesis”; and (3) “the principle of 
actions due to the constitution of the 
Nervous System, independently from 
the first of the Will, and independent- 
ly to a certain extent of Habit.” It 
is shown that the first of these prin- 
ciples leads to the performance of ac- 
tions expressive of emotions, because 
“ certain complex actions are of direct 
or indirect service under certain states 
of mind, in order to relieve or gratify 
certain sensations desired, etc.; and 
whenever the same state of mind is in- 
duced, however feebly, there is a ten- 
dency through the force of habit and as- 
sociation for the same movements to 
be performed, though they may not 
then be of the least use.” The second 
principle arises because, “ when a 
directly opposite state of mind is 
induced, there is a strong and invol- 
untary tendency to the performance 
of movements of a directly opposite 
nature, though these are of no use ; 
and such movements are in some 
cases highly expressive.” And the 
third principle occurs because, “when 
the sensorium is strongly excited, 
nerve-force is generated in excess, 
and is transmitted in certain definite 
depending on the connec- 
tion of the nerve-cells, and partly obi 
habit.” All these principles are more 
or less well substantiated by large 
bodies of facts, and although the 
essay, from the nature of its subject- 
matter, is necessarily not of so trans- 
forming a character in psychology as 
those which we have already con- 
sidered, and although we may doubt 
whether it gives a full explanation of 
every display of expressive movement, 
we think there can be no reasonable 
question that the three principles above 
quoted are shown to be true principles, 
and therefore that the essay is com- 
pletely successful within the scope 
of its purposes. 
Lastly, we have to allude to the 
brief paper published in Mind on the 
psychogenesis of a child. These notes 
were not published till long after they 
were taken, so that Mr. Darwin was 
the first observer, in a department of 
psychology which—owing chiefly to 
the attention which his other writings 
have directed to the phenomena of 
evolution—is now being very fully 
explored. The observations relate 
entirely to matters of fact, and dis- 
play the same qualities of thoughtful- 
ness and accuracy which are so con- 
spicuous in all his other work. 
On the whole, then, we must say 
that Mr. Darwin has left as broad 
and deep a mark upon Psychology as 
he has upon Geology, Botany, and 
Zoology. Groups of facts which 
previously seemed to be separate, are 
now seen to be bound together in the 
most intimate manner; and some of 26 
[330] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
what must be regarded as the first 
principles of the science, hitherto 
unsuspected, have been brought to 
light. No longer is it enough to say 
that such and such actions are the 
result of instinct, and so beyond the 
reach of explanation; for now the 
very thing to be explained is the char- 
acter and origin of the instinct—the 
causes Avhieh led to its development, 
its continuance, its precision and its 
use. No longer is it enough to con- 
sider the instincts manifested by an 
animal, or a group of animals, as an 
isolated body of phenomena, devoid 
of any scientific meaning because 
standing out of relation to any known 
causes ; for now the whole scientific 
import of instincts as manifested by 
one animal depends on the degree in 
which they are connected by general 
principles of causation with the in- 
stincts that are manifested by other 
animals. And not only in respect of 
instincts, but also in respect of intelli- 
gence, the science of comparative 
psychology may be said for the first 
time really to have begun Avith the 
discovery of the general causes in 
question; while from the simplest 
reflex actions, up to the most recondite 
processes of reason and the most im- 
perious dictates of conscience, we are 
able to trace a continuity of develop- 
ment. A revelation of truth so ex- 
tensive as this in the department of 
science which, in most nearly touch- 
ing the personality of man, is of most 
importance for man to explore, can- 
not fail to justify the anticipations of 
the revealer, who, in referring to 
psychology, could “in the future see 
open fields for far more important 
researches” than those relating to 
geology and biology. If the proper 
study of mankind is man, Mr. Dar- 
avin has done more than any other 
human being to further the most de- 
sirable kind of learning, for it is 
through him that humanity in our 
generation has first been able to be- 
gin its response to the precept of 
antiquity—Know thyself, 
The series of urief resumes whereby 
we have endeavored to take a sort of 
bird’s eye view of Mr. Darwin’s great 
and many labors have now drawn to 
a close. But we cannot finish this 
very rudimentary sketch of his work 
without alluding once more to what 
was said in the opening paragraphs 
of the series, and which cannot be 
more tersely repeated than in Mr. 
Darwin’s own words there quoted 
with reference to Prof. Henslow: 
“ Reflecting over his character with 
gratitude and reverence, his moral 
attributes rise, as they should do in 
the highest character, in pre-eminence 
over his intellect.” 
In the gratitude and reverence 
which we feel in a measure never to be 
expressed, we sometimes regret that 
the ill-health which led to his seclusion 
prevented the extraordinary beauty of 
his character from being more gen- 
erally known by personal intercourse 
True it is that the world has shown 
in a wonderful degree a just apprecia- 
tion of this character, so that many 
thousands, in many nations, who had 
never even seen the man, heard that 
Charles Darwin was dead with a 
shock like that which follows such an 
announcement in the case of a well- 
loved friend ; still it seems almost sad 
that when such an exalted character 
has lived, it should only have been to 
so comparatively few of us that the last 
farewell over the open grave at West- 
minster implied a severance of feel- 
ings which had never been formed 
before, and which, while ever living 
among the most hallowed lights of 
memory, Ave know too well can never 
be formed again. But to those of us 
who have now to mourn so unspeaka- 
ble a loss, it is some consolation to 
think, while much that was sweetest 
and much that was noblest in our lives 
has ended in that death, his great life 
and finished work still stand before 
our view; and in regarding them we 
may almost bring our hearts to cry— 
Rot for him, but for ourselves, we 
weep. Alexander von Humboldt.* 
By LOUIS AGASSIZ. 
I am invited to an unwonted task. 
Thus far I have appeared before the 
public only as a teacher of Natural 
History. To-day, for the first time in 
my life, I leave a field in which I am 
at home, to take upon myself the 
duties of a biographer. If I succeed 
at all, it will be because I so loved 
and honored the man whose memory 
brings us together. 
Alexander von Humboldt was 
born in Berlin in 1769,—one hundred 
years ago this day,—in that fertile 
year which gave birth to Napoleon, 
Wellington, Canning, Cuvier, 
Chateaubriand, and so many other 
remarkable men. All America was 
then the property of European raon- 
archs. The first throb of the Amer- 
ican Revolution had not yet disturbed 
the relations of the mother country 
and her colonies. Spain held Florida, 
Mexico, and the greater part of South 
America; France owned Louisiana; 
and all Brazil was tributary to Por- 
tugal. What stupendous changes 
have taken place since that time in 
the political world ! Divine right of 
possession was then the recognized 
law on which governments were based. 
A mighty Republic has since been 
born, the fundamental principle of 
which is self-government. Progress 
in the intellectual world, the world of 
thought, has kept pace with the ad- 
vance of civil liberty; reference to 
authority has been superseded by free 
inquiry; and Humboldt was one of 
the great leaders in this onward 
movement. He bravely fought the 
battle for independence of thought 
against the tyranny of authority. 
No man impressed his century intel- 
lectually more powerfully, perhaps no 
man so powerfully as he. Therefore 
he is so dear to the Germans, with 
whom many nations unite to do him 
honor to-day. Nor is it alone be- 
cause of what he has done for science, 
or for anyone department of research, 
that we feel grateful to him, but 
rather because of that breadth and 
comprehensiveness of knowledge 
which lifts whole communities to 
higher levels of culture, and impres- 
ses itself upon the unlearned as well 
as upon students and scholars. 
To what degree we Americans are 
indebted to him, no one knows who is 
not familiar with the history of learn- 
ing and education in the last century. 
All the fundamental facts of popular 
education in physical science, beyond 
the merest elementary instruction, we 
owe to him. We are reaping daily 
in every school throughout this broad 
land, where education is the heritage 
even of the poorest child, the intellec- 
tual harvest sown by him. See this 
map of the United States;—all its 
important traits are based upon his in- 
vestigations ; for he first recognized 
the essential relations which unite the 
physical features of the globe, the 
laws of climate on which the whole 
system of insothermal lines is based, 
the relative height of mountain chains 
and tablelands, the distribution of 
vegetation over the whole earth. 
There is not a text-book of geography 
or a school-atlas in the hands of our 
children to-day which does not bear, 
* An address delivered at the Centennial 
Anniversary of the birth of Alexander von 
Humboldt, under the auspices of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, (Sept. 14, 1869). [332] 
28 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
however blurred and defaced, the 
impress of his great mind. But for 
him our geographies would be mere 
enumerations of localities and statist- 
ics. He first suggested the graphic 
methods of representing natural phe- 
nomena which are now universally 
adopted. The first geological sec- 
tions, 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. The fertilizing powerof 
a great mind is truly wonderful; but 
as we travel farther from the source, 
it is hidden from us by the very 
abundance and productiveness it has 
caused. How few remember that the 
tidal lines, the present mode of reg- 
istering magnetic phenomena and 
oceanic currents, are but the applica- 
tion of Humboldt’s researches, and of 
his graphic mode of recording them! 
This great man was a feeble child, 
and had less facility in his studies 
than most children. For this reason j 
his early education was intrusted to 
private teachers, his parents being 
wealthy, and of a class whose means 
and position command the advantages 
denied to so many. It is Avorthy of 
note that when he Avas a little fellow, 
not more than seven years old, his 
teacher was Campe, author of the 
German Robinson Crusoe. We can 
fancy Iioav he amused the boy with 
the ever fresh story of Crusoe on his 
desert island, and inspired him even 
at that early age with the passionate 
love of travel and adventure which 
was to bear such fruit in later years. 
Neither should we omit, in recalling 
memories of his childhood, his tender 
relation to his older brother William. 
These two brothers, so renowned in 
their different departments of learn- 
ing,—the elder as statesman and phi- 
lologist, the younger as a student of 
nature,—were united from their ear- 
liest years by an intimate sympathy 
which grew with their growth and 
strengthened with their strength. 
They went together to the University 
of Frankfort, the younger being then 
seventeen, William nineteen. After 
two years at Frankfort they went to 
the University of Gottingen, where 
they passed thfe two following years. 
In these four pregnant years of stu- 
dent life Alexander already sketched 
the plans which occupied his active 
mind for more than threescore years 
and ten. 
The character of the German 
universities is so different from ours, 
that a word upon his student life may 
not be out of place here. Untrammel- 
ed by prescription and routine, every 
branch of learning was open to him. 
Instead of being led through a pre- 
scribed course of study, an absolute 
freedom of selection in accordance 
with his natural predilections was 
allowed him. The effect of this is 
felt through his whole life ; there was 
a universality, a comprehensiveness 
in his culture, which could not be 
obtained under a less liberal system 
of education. 
Leaving the University at the age 
of twenty-one, he began to make 
serious preparations for the great 
journeys toward which all his hopes 
tended. Nothing has impressed me 
more in reviewing Humboldt’s life, 
than the harmony between the aspira- 
tions of his youth and the fulfillment 
of his riper age. A letter to Pfaff, 
written in his twenty-fourth year, 
contains the first outline of the Cos- 
mos ; its last sheets were forwarded 
to the publisher in his ninetieth year, 
two months before his death. He 
had thus been an original investigator 
for nearly seventy years. 
His first journey after leaving the 
University was important rather for 
the circumstances under which it 
was made than for any local interest. 
He went to the Rhine with Georg 
Forster, who had accompanied Cook 
in his second journey round the 
world. He could hardly have been 
thrown with any one more likely to 
stimulate his desire to travel than 
this man, who had visited the South 
Seas, had seen the savages of the 
Pacific Islands, and had made valuable DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[333] 
29 
contributions to geographical science. 
IN or was this their only point of 
sympathy. Georg Forster was a 
warm republican; he had espoused 
the ideas of the French Revolution, 
and when Mayence became united to 
the French Republic he was sent as 
deputy to the National Assembly in 
Paris. Humboldt was too ardent 
and too independent to be a laggard 
in the great public questions of the 
day. Like Forster, he also believed 
in the Republic of France and in the 
dawn of civil liberty for Europe. 
Thus, both in political and scientific 
preferences, although so different in 
age, he and Forster were sympa- 
thetic traveling companions. This 
excursion was by no means a pleasure 
trip. Young as he was, Humboldt 
had knowledge enough to justify him 
in approaching the most difficult 
geological question of the day, namely, 
the origin of the Basalt. At that 
time the great war was waging be 
tween the Neptunists and Plutonists, 
—that is, between the two great 
schools in Geology,—one attributing 
the rocks to fire as the great con- 
structive agent, the other asserting 
that all rocks were the result of water 
deposits. The young student brought 
to these subjects the truthfulness and 
patience which marked all his later 
investigations. Carried away neither 
by theories nor by leaders, he left in 
abeyance the problem which seemed 
to him not yet solved. His interest 
in this and kindred topics carried him 
to Freiberg, where he studied Geol- 
ogy with Werner, and where he 
made acquaintance with Leopold 
von Buch, who became the greatest 
geologist of the age, and was through 
life his trusted friend. He also 
applied himself to Anatomy and 
Physiology, and made physical in- 
vestigations on the irritability of the 
muscular fiber, which he afterward 
extended to the electric fishes, during 
his American journey. 
All the while he brooded over his 
schemes of travel, gathering materials j 
in every direction, in order that his j 
mind might be prepared to understand 
Nature in all her aspects. His desires 
turned especially toward India. He 
wished to visit the East, and, reach- 
ing India by way of Egypt, Syria, 
and Persia, to cross the Pacific and 
return to Europe through America. 
In this he was foiled; but to his 
latest day he felt the same longing 
for a sight of that antique ground of 
civilization. At this moment all 
Europe was in a blaze ; between con- 
tending armies there was little room 
for peaceful travel and investigation. 
We find him, therefore, fioating be- 
tween various plans. He went to 
Paris with the hope of joining Bau- 
din’s contemplated expedition to 
Australia In this he was again 
bathed, for the breaking out of the 
war between France and Austria 
postponed the undertaking indefinite- 
ly. His next hope was Spain ; he 
might obtain permission to visit her 
Transatlantic possessions and study 
tropical nature under the equator. 
Here he was successful. The scientific 
discoverer of America, as the Germans 
' like to call him, was destined to start 
| from the same shore as Christopher 
j Columbus. He not only received per- 
mission to visit the colonies, but 
special facilities for his investigations 
were offered him. This liberality was 
unexampled on the part of the Spanish 
government, for in those days Spain 
guarded her colonies with jealous 
exclusiveness. His enthusiasm dis- 
armed suspicion, however, and the 
king cordially sustained his under- 
taking. 
Almost ten years had passed in 
maturing his plans, preparing himself 
for their execution and obtaining the 
means of carrying them out. He was 
nearly thirty years of age when he 
sailed from the harbor of Corunna, 
running out in a dark and stormy 
night, and so evading the English 
cruisers which then blockaded the 
Spanish coast. 
There is perhaps no part of Hum- 
boldt’s life better known to the 
public, especially in this country, 
than his American journey. His 
fascinating “Personal Narrative” is 30 
[334] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
known to all, and I need not, there- 
fore, describe his course, or dwell 
upon the details of his personal ex- 
perience. No period of his life, how- 
ever, has had a more powerful influence 
upon knowledge and education than 
those five years of travel, and there- 
fore I will speak at some length of 
their scientific results. In the very 
glory of his youth, and yet with an 
intellectual maturity which belongs to 
later manhood, his physical activity 
and endurance kept pace with the 
fertility and comprehensiveness of his 
mind. Never was the old proverbial 
wish, “ Si jeunesse savait, sivieillesse 
pouvaitso near fulfillment; never 
were the strength of youth and the 
knowledge of age so closely com- 
bined. 
At the first step of the journey, 
namely, his pause at the Canary 
Islands and ascension of the Peak of 
Teneriffe, he has left us a graphic 
picture of the place, of its volcanic 
phenomena, its geological character, 
and the distribution of its vegetation, 
in which are foreshadowed all his 
later generalizations. Landing in 
Curaana he made his first long station 
there. His explorations of the 
mountains, valleys, and sea-shore in 
that neighbborhood, his geological 
researches, his astronomical observa- 
tions by which the exact position of 
various localities was determined, his 
meteorological investigations, and his 
collections of every kind, were of vast 
scientific importance. He had already 
begun his studies upon averages of 
climate, the result of which, known 
as the “ isothermal lines,” was one of 
his most original contributions to 
science. With the intuition of genius 
he saw that the distribution of tem- 
perature obeyed certain laws. He 
collected, both from his own observa- 
tion and from report, all that could 
be learned of the average temperature 
in various localities, and combining 
all these facts he first taught geogra 
phers how to trace upon their maps 
those curves which give in one un- 
dulating line the varying aspects of 
climate upon the whole globe. His 
physical experiments upon animah 
and plants, and his collections wen 
also of great value. At Paris he had 
made the acquaintance of Bonpland, 
a young botanist, equally determined 
with himself to see distant lands, who 
accompanied him in his journey to 
South America; and when Hum- 
boldt was too exclusively engaged in 
physical experiments to join in the 
botanical researches, they were never- 
theless not neglected, for Bonpland 
was unremitting in the study of plants 
and in making collections. 
After months thus spent in the 
neighborhood of the coast, Humboldt 
crossed the Llanos, the great plains 
which divide the basin of the Orinoco 
from the sea shore. Here again every 
step of his journey is marked by orig- 
inal research. He has turned those 
desert plains into enchanted land by 
the power of his thought, and left us 
descriptions, as fascinating from their 
beauty as they are valuable for their 
novelty and precision. In his lon_, 
and painful journey through the valle\ 
of the Orinoco he traced the singula- 
network of rivers by which this 
great stream connects, through the 
Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro, witu 
the Amazons,—a fresh-water route 
which is, no doubt, yet to become one 
of the highways of the world. Had 
it not been for the illiberality of ti e 
Portuguese government, he would 
probably have gone down the Rio 
Negro to the Amazons, and would 
perhaps have changed completely the 
course which he ultimately took. He 
was, however, turned back from the 
mighty river by a prohibition which 
made it dangerous to proceed farther 
on pain of imprisonment and the 
possible renunciation of all his cher- 
ished plans. When, in my late ex- 
ploration of the Amazonian Valley, I 
read his narrative again, on the spot, 
I could not but contrast the cordial 
liberality which smoothed every dif- 
ficulty in my path with the dangers, 
obstacles, and suffering which beset 
his. I approached, however, so near 
the scene of his labors that I was 
constantly able to compare my results DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT 
[335] 
31 
with his, and to recognize the extent 
of his knowledge and the comprehen- 
siveness of his views, even where the 
progress of science led to a different 
interpretation of the facts. 
I omit all notice of his visit to 
Cuba, and his journey through Mexico, 
interesting as they were, remarking 
'udy that to him we owe the first 
accurate maps of those regions So 
imperfect were those published before 
him, that even toward the close of 
vhe last century the position of Mexico 
differed by about three hundred miles 
in the maps published by different 
geographers. Humboldt’s is the first 
general map of Mexico and Cuba 
based upon astronomical observa- 
tions. 
The next great stage of the Amer- 
ican journey is along the ridge of the 
Andes. There is a picturesque charm 
about this part of the undertaking 
which is irresistible. At that time 
traveling in those mountains was 
infinitely more difficult than it is 
now. We follow him with his train 
of mules, bearing the most delicate 
instruments, the most precious scien- 
tific apparatus, through the passes of 
the great chain. Measuring the 
mountains,—sounding the valleys as 
he went,—tracing the distribution of 
vegetation on slopes 20,000 feet high, 
—examining extinct and active volca- 
noes,—collecting and drawing animals 
and plants,—he brought away an in- 
credible amount of information which 
has since filtered into all our scien- 
tific records, remodeled popular 
education, and become the common 
property of the civilized world. Many 
of these ascensions were attended 
with infinite danger and difficulty. 
He climbed Chimborazo to a height 
of 18,000 feet at a time when 
no other man had ever ascended so 
far above the level of the sea, and was 
prevented from reaching the summit 
by an impassable chasm, in which he 
nearly lost his life. When, a few 
years later, Gay-Lussac made his 
famous ascent in a balloon, for 
the sake of studying atmospheric 
phenomena, he rose only 1,200 feet 
heigher.* Returning from the An- 
des, Humboldt skirted the Pacific 
from Truxiilo to Acapulco, and paused 
in Mexico again. There lie ascended 
all the great mountains in the neigh- 
borhood, continuing and completing 
the same investigations which he had 
pursued with such persistency through 
his whole laborious journey. He 
studied volcanic action, mines, the 
production of precious metals, their 
influence upon civilization and com- 
merce, latitudes and longitudes, aver- 
ages of climate, relative heights of 
mountains, distribution of vegetation, 
astronomical and meteorological phe- 
nomena. From Mexico he went to 
Havana, and from Havana sailed for 
Philadelphia. His stay in this country 
was short. He was cordially received 
by Jefferson on his visit to Wash- 
ington, and warmly welcomed by 
scientific men in Philadelphia. But 
he made no important researches in 
the United States, and sailed for 
Europe soon after his arrival. 
He returned to Paris in 1804, hav- 
ing been five years absent from 
Europe. It was a brilliant period 
in science, letters, and politics in the 
great capital. The Republic was still 
inexistence; the throes of Revolu- 
tion were over, and the reaction to- 
ward monarchical ideas had not yet 
culminated in the Empire. Laplace, 
Gay-Lussac, Cuvier, Desfontaines, 
Delambre, Oltmanns, Fourcroy, 
Berthollet, Biot, Dolomieu, La- 
marck, and Lacepede were leaders 
then in the learned world. The youna; 
traveler, bringing intellectual and 
material treasures even to men who 
had grown old in research, was wel- 
comed by all, and in this great centre 
of social and intellectual life he made 
his home for the most part, from 1805 
to 1827; from the last days of the 
Republic, through the rise and fall of 
* The ascension of Mont Blanc by De 
Saussure was the only exploit of that kind on 
record before. Even as late as 1842 the ascent 
of the Jungfrau attracted some attention. 
Nowadays tourists may run up the highest 
summits of the Alps to drink the health of 
their friends. 32 
[336] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
the Empire, to the restoration of the 
Bourbons. He devoted himself to the 
publication of his results, and secured 
as his collaborators in this work the 
ablest men of the day. Cuvier, La 
treille, and Valenciennes worked 
up the zoological collections, Bon- 
pland and Kuntii directed the publica- 
tion of the botanical treasures, Olt- 
manns undertook the reduction of the 
astronomical and barometrical ob- 
servations, while he himself jointly 
with Gay-Lussac and Provencal 
made investigations upon the respira- 
tion of fishes and upon the chemical 
constitution of the atmosphere and 
the composition of water, which have 
left their mark in the annals of chem- 
istry. While of course superintend- 
ing more or less all the publications, 
Humboldt himself was engaged espe- 
cially with those upon physical 
geography, meteorology, and geology. 
The mere enumeration of the volumes 
resulting from this great expedition 
is impressive. It embraces three folio 
volumes of geographical, physical, and 
botanical maps, including scenery, 
antiquities, and the aboriginal races ; 
twelve quarto volumes of letter press, 
three of which contain the personal 
narrative, two are devoted to New 
Spain, two to Cuba, two to zoology 
and comparative anatomy, two to 
astronomy, and one to a physical de- 
scription of the tropics. The botanic- 
al results of the journey occupy not 
less than thirteen folio volumes, 
ornamented with magnificent colored 
plates. As all these works are in our 
Public Library in Boston, I would 
invite my hearers tz & real int.ftlWt.ual 
treat and a gratification of ttieir 
{esthetic tastes, in urging them to 
devote some leisure hour to turning 
over the leaves of these magnificent 
volumes. A Avalk through the hot- 
houses of the largest botanical garden 
—and unfortunately we have no such 
on this continent—could hardly be 
more impressive than an examination 
of these beautiful plates. Add to 
these a special work on the position 
of rocks in the two hemispheres, one 
on the isothermal lines, his innumera- 
ble smaller papers, and lastly, five 
volumes on the history of geography 
and the progress of nautical astronomy 
during the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries, more or less directly con- 
nected with Humboldt’s own journey, 
though published in later years. His 
investigations into the history of the 
discovery of America have a special in- 
terest for us. We learn from him that 
the name of our continent was first 
introduced into the learned world by 
Waltzeemuller, a German profes- 
sor, settled at St. Didie, in Lorraine,—• 
Hylacomylus, as he called himself at 
a time when scholars were wont to 
translate their names into the dead 
languages, and thought it more digni 
fied to appear under a Greek or 
Latin garb. This cosmographer 
published the first map of the New 
World, with an account of the jour- 
neys of Americus Vespucci, whose 
name he affixed to the lands recently 
discovered. Humboldt shows us, 
also, that Columbus’s discovery was 
no accident, but grew naturally out 
of the speculations of the time, them- 
selves the echo of a far off dream, 
which he follows back into the dim- 
ness of Grecian antiquity. We rec- 
ognize again here the characteristic 
features of Humboldt’s mind, in his 
constant endeavor to trace discoveries 
through all the stages of their pro- 
gress. 
Although he made his head-quarters 
in Paris, it became necessary for 
Humboldt, during the preparation of 
so many extensive works, to under- 
take journeys in various parts of 
Europe; to examine and re-examine 
Vesuvius, and compare its mode 
action, its geological constitution, and 
the phenomena of its eruptions with 
what he had seen of the volcanoes of 
South America. On one of these oc- 
casions he ascended Vesuvius in com- 
pany with Gay-Lussac and Leopold 
von Buch. That single excursion, 
| undertaken by such men, was fruitful 
| in valuable additions to knowledge. 
! At other times he went to consult rare 
! books in the great libraries of Ger- 
■ many and England, or to discuss with DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT 
[337] 
33 
his brother in Berlin, or with trusted 
friends in other parts of Europe, the 
work in which he was engaged, 
comparing notes, assisting at new ex- 
periments, suggesting further in- 
quiries, ever active, ever inventive, 
ever suggestive, ever fertile in resource, 
—neither disturbed by the great po- 
litical commotions which he witness- 
ed, nor tempted from his engrossing 
labors by the most brilliant offers of 
public service or exalted position. It 
was during one of his first visits to 
Berlin, where he went to consult 
about the organization of the Univers- 
ity with his brother William, then 
Minister of State in Prussia, that he 
published those fascinating “Views 
of Nature,” in which he has given pic- 
tures of the tropics as vivid and as ex- 
citing to the imagination as if they liv- 
ed on the canvas of some great artist. 
The question naturally arises, Who 
provided for the expenses of these 
extensive literary undertakings ? 
Humboldt himself. No one knows 
exactly what he spent in the pub- 
lication of his works. Some ap- 
proach to an estimate may, however, 
be made by computing the cost of 
printing, paper, and engraving, which 
cannot have amounted to less than 
two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. No doubt the sale indemnified 
him in some degree, but all know 
that such publications do not pay. 
The price of a single copy of the 
complete work on America is two 
thousand dollars,—double that of the 
great national work published by 
France upon Egypt, for the publica- 
tion of Avhich the government spent 
about eight hundred thousand dollars. 
Of course very few copies can be 
sold of a work of this magnitude. 
But from his youth upward Hum- 
boldt spent his private means liber- 
ally, not only for the carrying out 
and subsequent publication of his 
own scientific undertakings, but to 
forward the work of younger and 
poorer men. The consequence was j 
that in old age he lived upon a small i 
pension granted to him by the King | 
of Prussia. 
His many-sideness was remarkable. 
He touched life at all points. He 
was the friend of artists, no less than 
of scientific and literary men. His 
desire to make his illustrations worthy 
of the great objects they were to 
represent brought him into constant 
and intimate relation with the 
draughtsmen and painters of his day. 
Even David did not think it below 
his dignity to draw an allegoric title- 
page for the great work. He valued 
equally the society of intelligent and 
cultivated women, such as Madame 
de Stake, Madame Recamier, Rahel, 
Bettina, and many others less known 
to fame. He was intimate with states- 
men, politicians, and men of the world. 
Indeed, the familiarity of Humboldt 
with the natural resources of the coun- 
tries he had visited,—with their min- 
eral products and precious metals,— 
made his opinion valuable not only in 
matters of commerce, but important 
also to the governments of Europe ; 
and after the colonies of South Amer- 
ica had achieved their independence, 
the allied powers of Europe invited 
him to make a report upon the po- 
litical condition of the new republics. 
In 1822 he attended the Congress of 
Verona, and visited the South of Italy 
Avith the King of Prussia. Thus his 
life was associated with the political 
growth and independence of the New 
World, as it was intimately allied 
with the literary, scientific, and artist- 
ic interests of the Old. He never, 
however, took an active part in pol- 
itics at home, and yet all Germany 
looked upon him as identified with the 
aspirations of the liberal party, of 
which his brother William was the 
most prominent representative. 
Before closing this period of Hum- 
boldt’s life I would add a few words 
more in detail upon the works pub- 
lished by him after his return from 
South America. One of the first 
fruits in the rich harvest reaped from 
this expedition was the successful 
attempt to which I have alreadv 
alluded at representing graphically 
the physical features of that con- 
tinent. Thus far such representations 34 
[338] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
had mainly consisted in maps and the 
delineation of the characteristic plants 
and animals. Humboldt devised a 
new method, equally impressive to 
the eye and comprehensive in its out- 
lines. Impressed by the fact that 
vegetation changes its character as it 
ascends upon the side of high mount- 
ains,—thus presenting successive ter- 
races upon their slopes,—he conceived 
the idea, already suggested by his ex- 
amination of the Peak of Teneriffe, of 
drawing upon the outline of a conical 
mountain the different aspects of its 
surface from the level of the sea to 
its highest peak. Thus he could ex- 
hibit at a glance all the successive 
zones of vegetation. Afterward he 
extended these comparisons to the 
temperate and arctic zones, and 
ascertained that, as we proceed 
further north, the gradation of the 
vegetation, at the level of the ocean, 
corresponds to its succession upon 
mountain slopes,—until, toward the 
Arctics, it assumes a remarkable 
resemblance to the plants found near 
the line of perpetual snows under the 
Tropics. But this is not all. The 
intervening expanse from North to 
South, as far as the equator, and then 
in reverse order to the Antarctic 
regions, also exhibits, in proportion to 
the elevation of the land, a vegetation 
characterized by intermediate forms. 
In the same way he reproduced the 
general appearance of the inequalities 
of the earth’s surface by drawingideal 
sections across the regions described. 
In the first place, through Spain, af- 
terward from La Guayra to Caraccas 
across the Cumbre, from Cartagena 
to Santa Fe de Bogota, and finally 
through the whole continent of 
America, from Acapulco to Vera 
Cruz. And this not by mere ap- 
proximations, but founding his pro- 
files upon his own barometric and 
astronomical observations, which he 
multiplied to such an extent that his 
works are to this day the chief source 
of information concerning the physical 
geography of the regions visited by 
him. 
Not satisfied with this, he under- 
took to represent, in like manner, the 
internal structure of the earth, draw- 
ing similar charts upon which the 
relative position of the rocks, with 
signs to indicate their mineralogical 
character, is faithfully portrayed. The 
first chart of this kind was drawn by 
him in Mexico in 1804, and presented 
to the School of Mines of that city. 
It was afterward published in the 
Atlas of the American Journey.—We 
are thus indebted to him for the 
whole of that graphic method which 
has made it possible to delineate, in 
visible outlines, the true characterist- 
ics of physical phenomena; for after- 
ward this method was applied to the 
representation of the oceanic currents, 
the direction of the prevalent winds, 
the tidal waves, the rise and fall of 
our lakes and rivers, the amount of 
rain falling upon different parts of the 
earth’s surface, the magnetic phenom- 
ena, the lines of equal average tem- 
perature, the relative height of our 
plains, table-lands and mountain 
chains, their internal structure, and 
the distribution of plants and animals. 
Even the characteristic features of 
the History of Mankind are now 
tabulated in the same way upon our 
ethnographical maps, in which the 
distribution of the races, the high- 
ways of navigation and commerce, 
the difference among men as to lan- 
guage, culture, creeds, nay, even the 
records of our census, the estimates of 
the wealth of nations, down to the 
statistics of agriculture and the aver- 
ages of virtue and vice, are represent- 
ed. In short, every branch of mental 
activity has been vivified by this 
process, and has undergone an entire 
transformation under its influence. 
His paper upon the isothermal lines 
was published in the “ Memoires de 
la Societe (PArcueil,” a scientific 
club to which, in the beginning of 
this century, the most eminent men 
of the age belonged. Though a mere 
sketch, the first delineation of the 
curves uniting different points of the 
earth’s surface which possess the 
same average annual temperature un- 
der varying latitudes, exhibits already DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
|339] 
35 
the characteristic features of these 
lines, which myriads of 
of a later date have only confirmed. 
No other series of investigations 
shows, more plainly than this, to what 
accurate results an observer may 
arrive, who understands how to weigh 
critically the meaning of his facts 
however few they may be. 
The barometrical and astronomical 
observations upon which his numer- 
ous maps are based were computed 
and reduced to their final form by his 
friend Oltmanns. They fill two large 
quarto volumes, and amount to the 
accurate determination of nearly one 
thousand localities. They are not 
taken at random, but embrace points 
of the highest importance, with ref- 
erence to the geographical distribu- 
tion of plants and animals and the 
range of agricultural products. Hum- 
boldt has himself added an introduc- 
tion to this work in which he gives 
an account of the instruments used 
in his observations and the methods 
pursued by him in his experiments, 
and discusses the astronomical refrac- 
tions in the torrid zone. 
Thus the physical geography of 
our days is based upon Humboldt’s 
investigations. He is, indeed, the 
founder of Comparative Geography, 
that all-embracing science of our 
globe, unfolded with a master hand 
by Karl Ritter, and which has 
now its ablest representative in 
our own Guyot. His correspond- 
ence with Berghaus testifies his 
intense interest in the progress of 
geographical knowledge. To Hum- 
boldt this world of ours is indeed 
not only the abode of man, it is a 
growth in the history of the Universe, 
shaped according to laws, by a long 
process of successive changes, which 
have resulted in its present configura- 
tion with its mutually dependent fea- 
tures. The work upon the Position 
of Rocks in the two hemisphere tells 
the history of that growth as it could 
be told in 1823, and is of course full 
of gross anachronisms; but at the 
same time it exhibits the wonderful 
power of generalization and combina- 
tion which Humboldt possessed,—as, 
for instance, where he says in few 
beautiful words, fertile in consequences 
not yet fully appreciated by the natu • 
ralists of our day : “ When we ex- 
amine the solid mass of our planet, 
we perceive that the simple minerals 
are found in associations which are 
everywhere the same, and that the 
rocks do not vary, as organized beings 
do, according to the differences of 
latitude or the isothermal lines under 
which they occur ” ; thus contrasting 
in one single phrase the whole organic 
world with the inorganic in their essen- 
tial character. In practical geology we 
owe to him the first recognition of the 
Jurassic formation. It was he who 
introduced into our science those 
happy expressions, “geological ho- 
rizon” and ‘ ‘independence of geological 
formations.” He also paved the way 
for Elie de Beaumont’s determina- 
tion of the relative age of mountain 
chains by his discussion upon the direc- 
tion of stratified rocks and by the 
parallels he drew between the age of 
plutonic and sedimentary formations; 
nor had it escaped him that distant 
florae and faunae, though of the same 
age, may be entirely different. 
The collection of zoological and 
anatomical papers, in two quarto 
volumes, with numerous colored 
plates, isfull of valuable contributions 
to the Natural History of Animals, 
from his own pen, as well as that of 
his collaborators. The most remarka- 
ble are his description of the Condor, 
which must have delighted the French 
zoologists, who could not fail to 
compare it with the glowing pages of 
their own Buffon ; his Synopsis of the 
South American Monkeys, rivalling 
the works of Aud ebert and Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire; his account of the 
Electric Eel and the Catfish thrown 
out by the burning volcanoes of the 
Andes, contrasted with the Great 
N atural History of Fishes by Lac£- 
pede ; his paper on the respiration of 
Crocodiles and the larynx of Birds 
and Crocodiles, daring upon his 
own ground the greatest anatomist of 
the age, the immortal Cuvier. In- 36 
[340] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
deed, it must have created a pro- 
found sensation in the learned world 
when a naturalist, all whose previous 
publications related to physical sub- 
jects, suddenly came forward as a 
master among masters in the treat- 
ment of zoological and anatomical 
questions. 
The botanical works appeared 
under several titles. We have first 
the “Plantes Equinoxiales” in two 
folio volumes, with 140 plates, by 
Bonpland; the monograph of the 
Melastomacees and that of the 
Rhexiees, in two folio volumes, with 
120 plates, also by Bonpland ; then 
the Mimosdes by Kunth, in one folio 
volume, with 60 plates; the revision 
of the GraminQes, in one folio volume, 
with 220 plates, by Kunth ; and 
finally the “ Nova Genera et Species 
Plantarurn” by Kunth, in seven 
folio volumes, with 700 plates. Al- 
together thirteen folio volumes, with 
1240 plates, most of which are beauti- 
fully colored, and remain unsurpassed 
for fidelity of description and fullness 
of illustration. Though the descriptive 
part of these splendid volumes is 
from the pen of his fellow-traveler 
Bonpland, and his younger friend 
Kunth, it would be a mistake to sup- 
pose that Humboldt had no share in 
their preparation. Not only did he 
assiduously collect specimens during 
the journey, but it was he who made, 
on the spot, from the living plant, 
drawings and analyses of the most 
remarkable and characteristic trees ; 
the general aspect of which could 
not be preserved in the specimens 
gathered for the herbarium. Besides 
this there are entire chapters concern- 
ing the geographical distribution of 
the most remarkable families of 
plants, their properties, their uses, 
etc., entirely written by Humboldt 
himself. It was he, also, who for the 
first time divided the areas of the 
regions he had explored into botanical 
provinces, according to their natural 
physical features; thus distinguishing 
the Flora of New Andalusia and 
Venezuela from that of the Orinoco 
basin, that of New Granada, that of 
Quito, that of the Peruvian Andes, 
and those of Mexico and Cuba. It 
was he, also, who first showed that 
the whole Vegetable Kingdom con- 
tains, after all, but a few distinct 
types, which characterize the vegeta- 
ble carpet of the earth’s surface, in 
different part* of the world under 
different latitudes and at different 
heights. He closes one of these ex- 
positions with a few words, which I 
cannot pass by without quoting. 
“ Such investigations,” he says, “ af- 
ford an intellectual enjoyment and 
foster a moral strength which fortify 
us against misfortunes, and which no 
human power can overcome ” 
In 1827, at the urgent solicitation 
of his brother, Humboldt transferred 
his residence from Paris to Berlin. 
With this step there opens a new phase 
in his life. Thus far he had been 
absolutely independent of public or 
official position. Conducting his 
researches as a private individual, if 
he appeared before the public at all, 
it was only in reading his papers to 
learned Academies. Now he began 
to lecture in the University. In his 
first course, consisting of sixty-one 
lectures, he sketched the physical 
history of the world in its broadest 
outlines,—it was, in truth, the pro- 
gramme of the Cosmos. Since I 
shall give an analysis of this work in 
its fitting place, I will say nothing of 
the lectures here, except that as a 
teacher, he combined immense knowl- 
edge with simplicity of expression, 
avoiding all technicalities not abso- 
lutely essential to the subject. 
In the midst of his lectures there 
came to him an invitation from the 
Russian government to visit the 
Russian provinces of Asia. Nothing 
could be more gratifying to a scien- 
tific man than the terms in which this 
proposition was made. It was ex- 
pressly stipulated by the Emperor 
that he wished the material advant- 
ages which might accrue from the 
expedition to be a secondary con- 
sideration. Humboldt was to make 
scientific research and the advance- 
ment of knowledge his first aim, and DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT 
L341] 
37 
he might turn his steps in whatever 
direction he chose. Never before had 
any government organized an ex- 
pedition with so little regard to pure- 
ly utilitarian considerations. 
This second great journey of Hum- 
boldt is connected with a hope and 
disappointment of my own. I was 
then a student in Munich. That 
University had opened under the 
most brilliant auspices. Almost every 
name on the list of professors was 
also prominent in some department 
of science or literature. They were 
not men who taught from text-books 
or even read lectures made from ex- 
tracts of original works. They were 
themselves original investigators, 
daily contributing to the sum of 
human knowledge. Martius, Oken, 
Dollinger, Schelling, Fr. von 
Baader, Wagler, Zuccarini, Fuchs, 
Yogel, von Kobell, were our teach- 
ers. And they were not only our 
teachers but our friends. The best 
spirit prevailed among the professors 
and students. We were often the 
eompanions of their walks, often 
present at their discussions, and when 
we met for conversation or to give 
lectures among ourselves, as we con- 
stantly did, our professors were often 
among our listeners, cheering and 
stimulating us in all our efforts after 
independent research. 
My room was our meeting-place,— 
bedroom, study, museum, library, 
lecture-room, fencing room,—all in 
one. Students and professors used 
to call it the little Academy. Here 
Schimper and Braun for the first 
time discussed the laws of phyllo- 
taxis, that marvelous rhythmical 
arrangement of the leaves in plants 
which our great mathematician in 
Cambridge has found to agree with 
the periods of the rotation of our 
planet. Among their listeners were 
Professors Martius and Zuccarini ; 
and even Robert Brown, while in 
Munich, during a journey through 
Germany, sought the acquaintance of 
these young botanists. Here for the 
first time did Michahelles lay before 
us the results of his exploration of the 
Adriatic and adjoining regions. Here 
Born exhibited his wonderful pre- 
parations of the anatomy of the 
Lamper-Eel. Here Rudolphi made 
us acquainted with his exploration of 
the Bavarian Alps and the shores of 
the Baltic. These my fellow-students 
in Munich were a bright, promising 
set,—boys then in age, many of whom 
did not live to make their names 
famous in the annals of science. It 
was in our little Academy that 
Do longer, the great master in 
physiology and embryology, showed 
to us, his students, before he had 
even given them to the scientific 
world, his wonderful preparations 
exhibiting the vessels of the villosities 
of the alimentary canal; and here he 
taught us the use of the microscope 
in embryological investigation. And 
here also the great German anatomist, 
Meckel, came to see my collection 
of fish skeletons, of which he had 
heard from Dollinger. Such as- 
sociations, of course, made us ac- 
quainted with everything of import- 
ance which was going on in the 
scientific world. The preparations 
of Humboldt for his Asiatic journey 
excited our deepest interest, and I 
was filled with a passionate desire to 
accompany the expedition as an 
assistant. 
General La Harpe, then residing 
in Lausanne, who had been the 
preceptor of both the Emperors 
Alexander and Nicholas of Russia, 
and who knew Humboldt personally, 
was a friend of my family, and he 
wrote to Humboldt in my behalf, ask- 
ing that I might join the expedition 
as an assistant. But it was not to be. 
The preparations for the journey 
were already made, and Ehrenberg 
and Gustav Rose, then professors at 
the University of Berlin, were to be 
his traveling companions. I should 
not mention the incident here, but 
that, sl’ght as it was, it marks the 
beginning of my personal relation 
with Humboldt. 
The incidents of Humboldt’s Asi- 
atic journey are less known to the 
public at large than those of his longer 38 
[342] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
American ramblings. Short as it 
was, however,—for he was absent 
only nine months,—he brought to 
the undertaking such an amount of 
collateral knowledge, that its scDn- 
tific results are of the utmost import- 
ance, and may be considered as the 
culmination of his mature research 
and comprehensiveness of views. His 
success was insured also by the ample 
preparations of the Russian govern- 
ment, orders having been given along 
the whole route to grant him every 
facility. Descending the Volga to 
Kasaa, and hence crossing to Ikate- 
rinenburg over the Ural Mountains, 
he passed through Tobolsk on the 
Irtish, to Barnaul on the Obi, and 
reached the Altai Mountains on the 
borders of China, thus penetrating 
into the heart of Asia. His researches 
into the physical constitution of what 
was considered the high table-land of 
Asia revealed the true features of 
that vast range of mountains. Touch- 
ed by his cultivated genius, the most 
insignificant facts became fruitful, 
and gave him at once a clew to the 
real character of the land. The 
presence of fruit-trees and other 
plants, belonging to families not 
known to occur in elevated regions, 
led him to distrust the existence of 
an unbroken, high, cold table-land, 
extending over the whole of Central 
Asia, and by a diligent comparison of 
all existing documents on the sub- 
ject, combined with his own observa- 
tions, he showed that four great par- 
allel mountain ridges, separated by 
gradually higher and higher level 
grounds, extend in an east-westerly 
direction. First, the Altai, bordering 
on the plains of Siberia, from the 
northern slope of which descend all 
the great rivers flowing into the Arctic 
Ocean,—as the Irtish with the Obi, 
the Jenisei and the Lena; then the 
Thian-Shan, south of the plateau of 
Soongaria; next, the Kuenlun, south 
of the plateau of Tartary ; finally, the 
Himalaya range, separating the pla- 
teau of Thibet from the plains of the 
Ganges. He showed also the con- 
nection of the Himalaya Mountains 
through the Hindoo-koo and the De- 
mavend with the far-off range of the 
Caucasus. These east-westerly ranges, 
giving form and character to the 
continent of Asia, are then contrasted 
With the north-southerly direction of 
the Ghauts, the Soliman and Bolor 
range, and the Ural Mountains which 
divide Europe from Asia. Approach- 
ing the great highways, over which 
the caravans of the East, from Delhi 
and Lahore, reach the northern marts 
of Samarcand, Bokhara, and Oren- 
burg, he opens to us the most striking 
vistas of the early communication be- 
tween the Aryan civilization and the 
Western lands lying then jn the 
darkness of savage life. He inquired 
also into the course of the old Oxas, 
and the former channels between 
Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea. The 
level of that great inland salt lake, 
about two or three hundred feet lower 
than the surface of the sea, suggested 
to him its former communication with 
the Arctic Ocean, when the Steppes 
of the Kirghis formed an open gulf 
and the northern waters poured over 
those extensive plains. After ex- 
amining the German settlements 
about the Caspian Sea, he returned to 
St. Petersburg by way of Orenburg 
and Moscow. 
The scientific results of this journey 
are recorded in two separate works, 
the first of which, under the title of 
“ Asiatic Fragments of Climatology 
and Geology,” is chiefly devoted to 
an account of the inland volcanoes 
which he had had an opportunity of 
studying during this journey. He 
had now examined the volcanic phe- 
nomena upon three continents, and 
had gained an insight more penetrat- 
ing and more comprehensive than was 
possessed by any other geologist into 
their deep connection with all the 
changes our globe has undergone. 
Volcanoes were no longer to him 
mere local manifestations of a limited 
focus of eruption ; he perceived their 
relation to earthquakes and to all the 
phenomena coincident with the for- 
mation of the inequalities of the 
earth’s surface. DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[343] 
39 
The contrast between the Siberian 
winter and the great fertility of the 
neighborhood of Astracan, where he 
found the finest vineyards he had ever 
seen, led him to consider anew the 
causes of the irregularities of tem- 
perature under corresponding lati- 
tudes, and thus to enlarge his knowl- 
edge of the isothermal lines, which he 
had first sketched in his younger 
years, and the rationale of which he 
now clearly set forth. In one com- 
prehensive view he showed the con 
nection between the rotation of the 
earth, the radiation of its surface, the 
currents of the ocean, and especially 
among the latter the Gulf Stream, in 
their combined influence upon condi- 
tions of temperature, producing under 
identical latitudes such contrasts of 
climate as exist between Boston, 
Madrid, Naples, Constantinople, Tif 
lis on the Caucasus, Hakodadi in 
Japan, and that part of our own 
coast in California, where stands the 
city which bears his own venerated 
name. 
The second work relating to the 
Asiatic journey appeared under the 
title of “ Central Asia,” being an ac- 
count of his researches into the 
mountain systems and the climate of 
that continent. The broadest gen- 
eralizations relating to the physics of 
the globe, showing Humboldt’s won- 
derful familiarity with all its external 
features, are here introduced in a 
short paper upon the average eleva- 
tion of the continents above the level 
of the sea, as compared with the 
average depths of the ocean. La- 
place, the great geometer, had al- 
ready considered the subject; but 
Humboldt brought to the discussion 
an amount of facts which showed 
conclusively that the purely mathe- 
matical consideration of the inquiry, 
as handled by Laplace, had been 
premature. Taking separately into 
consideration the space occupied upon 
the earth’s surface by mountain 
ridges with that occupied by high 
table-lands, and the far more ex- 
tensive tracts of low plains, Hum- 
boldt showed that the average eleva- 
tion of the earth, estimated by La- 
place at more than one thousand 
metres, could in fact be scarcely one 
third that amount,—a great deal less, 
indeed, than the average depth of the 
sea. 
In 1830, after his return to Berlin, 
he was chosen as the fitting mes- 
senger from one great nation to an- 
other. The Restoration which fol 
lowed the downfall of Napoleon had 
been overturned by the July revolu- 
tion, and Humboldt who had lived 
through the glory of the Republic 
and the most brilliant days of the 
Empire was appointed by the King 
of Prussia to carry an official greeting 
to Louis Philippe and the new dy- 
nasty. He had indeed the most 
friendly relations with the Orleans 
family, and was, from private as well 
as public considerations, a suitable 
ambassador on this occasion. 
Paris had greatly changed since 
his return from his first great journey. 
Many of those who had made the 
glory of the Academy of Sciences, 
in the beginning of the century, had 
passed away, and a new generation 
had come up. Elie de Beaumont, 
Dufrenoy, the younger Brongniart, 
Adrien de Jussieu, Isidore Geoff- 
roy, Milne Edwards, Audouin, 
F lourens, Guillemain, Pouillet, 
Duperrey, Babinet, Decaisne, and 
others, had risen to distinction, while 
the older Ampere, the older Brongni- 
art, Valenciennes, De Blainnille, 
Arago and Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 
had come forward as leaders in 
science. Cuvier, just the age of 
Humboldt himself, was still active 
and ardent in research. His salon, 
frequented by statesmen, scholars, 
and artists, was, at the same time, the 
gathering-place of all the most orig- 
inal thinkers in Paris; and the 
pleasure of those delightful meetings 
was unclouded, for none dreamed how 
soon they were to end forever,—how 
soon that bright and vivid mind was 
to pass away from among us. 
In those days a fierce discussion 
was carried on before the Academy 
as well as in public lectures. Goethe 40 
[344] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
had declared the unity of structure 
in the bony frame of all the Verte- 
brates, and had laid the foundation 
of the morphology of plants. These 
new views had awakened the interests 
and passions of the whole world of 
science to a degree hitherto unknown 
in her peaceful halls. Cuvier, strange 
to say, had taken ground in opposition 
to Goethe’s views upon the Verte- 
brate type, while Geoffroy St.- 
Hilaire, a devoted adherent of 
Goethe’s ideas, had expressed his 
convictions in words not always 
courteous toward Cuvier. The latter 
had retorted with an overwhelming 
display of special knowledge, under 
which the brilliant generalizations of 
St.-Hilaire seemed to be crushed. 
Cuvier was then giving a course of 
lectures in the College de France on 
the history of science, into which he 
■wove with passionate animation his 
objections to the new doctrine. Hum- 
boldt attended these lectures regular- 
ly, and I had frequently the pleasure 
of sitting by his side and being the 
recipient of his passing criticism. 
While he was impressed by the ob- 
jections of the master-anatomist, he 
could not conceal his sympathy for 
the conception of the great poet, his 
countryman. Seeing more clearly 
than Cuvier himself the logic of his 
investigations, in whispered com- 
ments during the lectures, he constant- 
ly declared that Avhatever deficiencies 
the doctrine of unity might still con- 
tain, it must be essentially true, and 
Cuvier ought to be its expounder in- 
stead of its opponent. The great 
French naturalist did not live to 
complete these lectures, but the view 
expressed by his friend was prophetic. 
Cuvier’s own researches, especially 
those bearing upon the characteristics 
of the four different plans of struc- 
ture of the animal kingdom, have 
helped to prove, in his own despite, 
though in a modified form, the truth 
of the doctrine he so bitterly opposed. 
The life which Humboldt now led 
was less exclusively that of a student 
than it had been during his former 
Paris life. He was the ambassador1 
of a foreign court. His official posi- 
tion and his rank in society, as well 
as his great celebrity, made him 
everywhere a cherished guest, and 
Humboi,dt had the gift of making 
himself ubiquitous. He was as famil- 
iar with the gossip of the fashionable 
and dramatic world as with the 
higher walks of life and the abstruse 
researches of science. He had at this 
time two residences in Paris,—his 
lodging at the hotel des Princes, 
where he saw the great world, and 
his working-room in the Rue de la 
Harpe, where he received with less 
formality his scientific friends. It is 
with the latter place I associate him; 
for there it was my privilege to visit 
him frequently. There he gave me 
leave to come to talk with him about 
my work and consult him in my dif- 
ficulties. I am unwilling to speak 
of myself on this occasion, and yet I 
do not know how else I can do justice 
to one of the most beautiful sides of 
Humboldt’s character. His sym- 
pathy for all young students of nature 
was one of the noblest traits of his 
long life. It may truly be said that 
toward the close of his career there 
was hardly one prominent or aspiring 
scientific man in the world who was 
not under some obligation to him. 
His sympathy touched not only the 
work of those in whom he was in- 
terested, but extended also to their 
material wants and embarrassments. 
At this period I was twenty-four; he 
was sixty-two. I had recently taken 
my degree as Doctor of Medicine, and 
was struggling not only for a scientific 
position, but for the means of exist- 
ence also. I have said that he gave 
me permission to come as often as I 
pleased to his room, opening to me 
freely the inestimable advantages 
which intercourse with such a man 
gave to a young investigator like my- 
self. But he did far more than this. 
Occupied and surrounded as he was, 
he sought me out in my own lodging. 
The first visit he paid me at my nar- 
row quarters in the Quartier Latin, 
where I occupied a small room in the 
hotel du Jardin des Plantes, was DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[845] 
41 
characteristic of the man. After a 
cordial greeting, he walked straight 
to what was then my library,—a small 
book shelf containing a few classics, 
the meanest editions bought for a 
trifle along the quays, some works on 
philosophy and history, chemistry 
and physics, his own Views of Na- 
ture, Aristotle’s Zoology,Linnaeus’s 
Systerna Naturae, in several editions, 
Curvier’s Regne Animal, and quite 
a number of manuscript quartos, 
copies which, with the assistance of 
my brother, I had made of works I 
was too poor to buy, though they cost 
but a few francs a volume. Most 
conspicuous of all were twelve vol- 
umes of the new German Cyclopaedia 
presented to me by the publisher. I 
shall never forget, after his look of 
mingled interest and surprise at my 
little collection, his half sarcastic 
question as he pounced upon the great 
Encyclopaedia,—“ Was machen /Sie 
denn mit dieser Eselsbrucke?” What 
are you doing with this ass’s bridge? 
—the somewhat contemptuous name 
given in Germany to similar compila- 
tions. “I have not had time,” I 
said, “to study the original sources of 
learning, and I need a prompt and 
easy answer to a thousand questions I 
have as yet no other means of solv- 
ing.” 
It was no doubt apparent to him 
that I was not over familiar with the 
good things of this world, for I shortly 
afterward received an invitation to 
meet him at six o’clock in the Galerie 
vitree of the Palais Royal, whence he 
led me into one of those restaurants, 
the tempting windows of which I 
had occasionally passed by. When 
we were seated, he half laughingly, 
half inquiringly asked me whether I 
would order the dinner. I declined 
the invitation, saying that we should 
fare better if he would take the 
trouble. And for three hours, which 
passed like a dream, I had him all to 
myself. How he examined me, and 
how much I learned in that short 
time! How to work, what to do, 
and what to avoid; how to live ; how 
to distribute my time ; what methods 
of study to pursue,—these were tho 
things of which he talked to me on 
that delightful evening. I do not 
mention this trivial incident without 
feeling that it may seem too familiar 
for the occasion; nor should I give 
it at all, except that it shows the 
sweetness and kindliness of Hum- 
boldt’s nature. It was not enough 
for him to cheer and stimulate the 
student; he cared also to give a rare 
indulgence to a young man who could 
allow himself few luxuries. 
The last period of his life was spent 
in Berlin, and while there to the end 
of his long and laborious career he 
was engaged with the publication of 
his Cosmos, and also in editing the 
great work, on the Kavi language, 
left by his brother William, who 
died in 1835. Besides these import- 
ant undertakings, he was unceasingly 
engagedin fostering magnetic observ- 
ations and the establishment of mag- 
netic observatories. He likewise felt 
a lively interest in the proposed inter- 
oceanic Canal between the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans, the lines for 
which he had carefully considered in 
earlier years. Surrounded by loving 
and admiring friends, covered with 
honors and distinctions, these days 
were rich in peaceful enjoyment. 
One of the most prominent features 
of Humboldt’s mind, as philosopher 
and student of nature, consists in the 
keenness with which he perceives the 
most remote relations of the phenom- 
ena under consideration, and the 
felicity with which he combines his 
facts so as to draw the most com- 
prehensive pictures. This faculty is 
more particularly exhibited in the 
Cosmos, the crowning effort of his ma- 
ture life. With a grasp transcending 
the most profound generalizations of 
the philosophers of all ages, he draws 
at first in broad outlines a sketch of 
the whole Universe. With an eye 
sharpened by the most improved in- 
struments of the Observatory, and ex- 
alted by the experience of all his 
predecessors, he penetrates into the 
remotest recesses of space, to seek for 
the faintest ray of light that may 42 
[346] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
furnish any information concerning 
the expanse of the heavenly vault and 
the age of the celestial bodies. He 
thus makes the rapidity with which 
light is propagated a measure of the 
distance which separates the visible 
parts of the whole system from one 
another, as well as a means of ap- 
proximately estimating the duration 
of their existence. He next con- 
siders the various appearances of the 
celestial bodies, the different kinds of 
nebulae, their form and relations to 
one another and to the so-called fixed 
stars; describes in graphic and fas- 
cinating language the landscape-like 
loveliness of their combinations in the 
Milky-Way and the various con- 
stellations ; discusses the nature of 
the doublestars, and, gradually ap- 
proaching our own system by a com- 
parison of our sun to other suns, rises, 
by a sublime effort of the imagina- 
tion, to a conception of the form of 
their united systems in space. In the 
description of our solar system one 
might have expected an exposition 
similar to the methods adopted by 
astronomers; but the object of our 
great physicist is not to write a syn- 
opsis of Astronomy. He plunges 
without hesitation into the earliest 
history of the formation of our earth, 
the better to illustrate the relations to 
one another of the sun and the planets 
with their satellites, the comets, and 
the hosts of meteors of all kinds which 
come flashing, like luminous showers, 
through the atmosphere. Our globe 
is reviewed in its turn. First, its 
structure, the density of its mass, in 
the estimation of which the oscilla- 
tions of the pendulum become a plum- 
met-line with which to fathom the 
inapproachable deep; then the vol- 
canoes are made to reveal the ever- 
lasting conflict between the interior 
caldrons of melted materials and the 
consolidation of the ruffled surface; 
the distribution of heat and light, the 
climates, as depending upon the in- 
equalities of form and relief, the cur- 
rents of the ocean, as modifying the 
temperature, the magnetic phenom- 
ena, the aurora borealis, the shooting 
stars, etc., are discussed in turn. The 
changes which our globe has under- 
gone in the course of ages are next 
described: how the lands gradually 
rose above the level of the sea : how 
they first formed disconnected archi- 
pelagos ; how mountains grew up in 
succession, and their relative age ; the 
form and extent of successively larger 
continental islands, their plants and 
animals;—nothing escaped his atten- 
tion ; everything is represented in its 
true place and relation to the whole. 
Especially attractive are his delinea- 
tions of the distribution of plants and 
animals upon the present surface of 
the earth, of which an account has 
already been given. 
This mode of treating his subjects, 
emphatically his own, has led many 
specialists to underrate Humboldt’s 
familiarity with different branches of 
science ; as if knowledge could only 
be recorded in pedantic forms and a 
set phraseology. 
But Humboldt is not only an ob- 
server, not only a physicist, a geog- 
rapher, a geologist of matchless 
power and erudition, he knows that 
nature has its attraction for the soul 
of man: that, however uncultivated, 
man is impressed by the great phe- 
nomena amid which he lives; that he 
is dependent for his comforts and the 
progress of civilization upon the world 
that surrounds him This leads to an 
appreciative analysis of the enjoyment 
derived from the contemplation of na- 
ture, and to considerations of the 
highest order respecting the influence 
which natural highways have had 
upon the races of men, in their distri- 
bution upon the whole surface of the 
globe. 
In speaking of his later days I can- 
not omit some allusion to a painful 
fact connected with his residence at 
Berlin. The publication of a private 
correspondence between Varniiagen 
von Ense and Humboldt has led to 
many unfriendly criticisms upon the 
latter. He has been blamed for 
holding his place at court, while, in 
private, he criticised and even satirized 
severely everything connected with DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[347] 
43 
it. It is not easy to place one’s self 
in the right point of view with ref- 
erence to these confidential letters. 
It must be remembered that Hum- 
boldt was a Republican at heart. 
His most intimate friends, from 
Forster, in his early youth, to 
Arago, in his mature years, were 
ardent Republicans. He shared their 
enthusiasm for the establishment of 
self-government among men. An 
anecdote preserved to us by Lieber 
shows that he did not conceal his 
sympathies, even before the King 
who honored him so highly. Lieber, 
who was present at the conversation, 
gives the following account of it: 
“The King of Prussia, Humboldt, 
and Niebuhr were talking of the 
affairs of the day, and the latter spoke 
in no flattering terms of the political 
views and antecedents of Arago, who, 
it is well-known, was a very advanced 
Republican of the Gallican School, an 
uncomprimising French democrat. 
Frederic William the Third simply 
abominated Republicanism ; yet when 
Niebuhr had finished, Humboldt 
said with a sweetness which I vividly 
remember: “Still this monster is the 
dearest friend I have in France.” 
Can we, therefore, be surprised, that 
in his confidential letters to a sym- 
pathizing friend, he should not refrain 
from expressing his dislike of the 
petty intrigues and low sentiments 
which he met among courtiers. I re- 
ceived, myself, a letter from Hum- 
boldt, written in the days when the 
reactionary movements were at their 
height in Prussia, in which, in a strain 
of deep sadness and despondency, he 
expresses his regret at the turn po- 
litical affairs had taken in Europe, 
and his disappointment at the failure 
of those aspirations for freedom with 
which he had felt the deepest sym- 
pathy in his youth. We may wish 
that this great man had been wholly 
consistent, that no shadow had rested 
upon the loyalty of his character, that 
he had not accepted the friendship 
and affection of a King whose court 
he did not respect and whose weak- 
nesses he keenly felt. But let us 
remember that his official station 
there gave him the means of in- 
fluencing culture and education in his 
native country in a way which he 
could not otherwise have done, and 
that in this respect he made the 
noblest use of his position. His sym- 
pathy with the oppressed in every land 
was profound. We see it in his feel- 
ing for the aborigines in South Amer- 
ica, in his abhorrence of slavery. I 
believe that he would have experien- 
ced one of the purest and deepest 
joys of his life had he lived to hear of 
the abolition of slavery in the United 
States. His dislike of all subserviency 
and flattery, whether toward himself 
or others, was always openly ex- 
pressed, and was unquestionably gen- 
uine. 
The philosophical views of Hum- 
boldt, his position with reference to 
the gravest and most important 
questions concerning man’s destiny, 
and the origin of all things, have been 
often discussed, and the most op- 
posite opinions have been expressed 
respecting them by men who seem 
equally competent to appreciate the 
meaning of his writings. The modern 
school of Atheists claims him as their 
leader; as such we find him represent- 
ed by Burmeister in his scientific 
letters. Others bring forward his 
sympathy with Christian culture as 
evidence of his adherence to Chris- 
tianity in his broadest sense. It is 
difficult to find in Humboldt’s own 
writings any clew to the exact nature 
of his convictions. He had too great 
regard for truth, and he knew too well 
the Aryan origin of the traditions 
collected by the Jews, to give his 
countenance to any creed based upon 
them Indeed, it was one of his 
aims to free our civilization from the 
pressure of Jewish tradition ; but it is 
impossible to become familiar with his 
writings without feeling that, if Hum- 
boldt was not a believer, he was no 
scoffer. A reverential spirit for every- 
thing great and good breaths through 
all his pages. Like a true philosopher, 
he knew that the time had not yet 
come for a scientific investigation in- 44 
r-348] 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
to the origin of all tilings. Before 
he attempted to discuss the direct! 
action of a Creator in bringing about 
the present condition of the Universe, 
he knew that the physical laws which 
govern the material world must be : 
first understood ; that it would be a 
mistake to ascribe to the agency of a 
Supreme Power occurrences and phe- 
nomena which could be deduced from 
the continued agency of natural 
causes. Until some limit to.the action 
of these causes has been found, there 
is no place, in a scientfic discussion, 
as such, for the consideration of the 
intervention of a Creator. 
In the closing paragraph of the first 
volume of the Cosmos Humboldt 
distinctly objects to the consideration 
of the sphere of intelligence in con 
nection with the study of Nature. 
But the time is fast approaching, and 
indeed some daring thinkers have 
actually entered upon the question, 
—Where is the line between the in- 
evitable action of law and the inter- 
vention of a higher power? where is 
the limit? And here we find the 
most opposite views propounded, j 
There are those who affirm that, inas- 
much as force and matter are found 
to be a sufficient ground for so many 
physical phenomena, we are justified 
in assuming that the whole universe, 
including organic life, has no further 
origin. To these, I venture to say, 
Humboldt did not belong. He had 
too logical a mind to assume that an 
harmoniously combined whole could 
be the result of accidental occurrences. 
In the few instances where, in his 
works, he uses the name of God, it 
appears plainly that he believes in a 
Creator as a lawgiver and primary 
originator of all. things. There are 
two passages in his writings especially 
significant in this respect. In the 
second volume of the Cosmos, when j 
speaking of the itnpre sion man re- 
ceives from the contemplation of the 
physical world, he calls nature God’s 
majestic realm,—“ Gottes erhabenes 
Reich.'1 In his allusion to the fear 
ful catastrophe of Carracas, destroyed 
by an earthquake in 1812, the critical 
inquirer may even infer that Hum- 
bol? t believed in a special Provi 
dence. For he says with much feel- 
ing : “ Our friends are no more, the 
house we lived in is a pile of ruins : 
I the city I have described no longer 
exists. The day had been very hot, 
the air was calm, the sky without a 
cloud. It was Holy Thursday ; the 
people were mostly assembled in the 
churches. Nothing seemed to fore- 
shadow the threatening misfortune. 
Suddenly, at four o’clock in the after- 
noon, the bells which were struck 
mute that day began to toll. It was 
the hand of God, and not the hand of 
man, which rang that funeral dirge ” 
In his own words: “ Es war Gottes, 
nicht Menschenhand, die /tier zum 
Grabgelaate zwang.” 
One word more before I close. I 
have appeared before you as the rep- 
resentative of the Boston Natural 
History Society. It was their pro- 
position to celebrate this memorable 
anniversary. I feel grateful for their 
invitation, for the honor they have 
1 done me. I feel still more grateful 
j for the generous impulse which has 
prompted them to connect a Hum- 
boldt scholarship, as a memorial of 
: this occasion, with the Museum of 
i Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 
I trust this token of good-will may 
only be another expression of that 
emulation for progress which I 
earnestly hope may forever be the 
only rivarly between these kindred 
| institutions and their younger sister 
| in Salem. We have all a great task 
to perform. It should be our effort, 
as far as it lies in our power, to raise 
the standard of culture of our people, 
as Humboldt has elevated that of the 
world. May the community at large 
feel with equal keenness the import- 
| ance of each step now taken for the 
! expansion, in every direction, of all 
: the means of the highest culture. 
The physical suffering of humanity, 
! the wants of the poor, the craving of 
! the hungry and naked, appeal to the 
| sympathy of every one who has a 
; human heart. But there are neces 
1 sities which only the destitute stu- DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
[349] 
45 
dent knows; there is a hunger and 
thirst which only the highest charity 
can understand and relieve, and on 
this solemn occasion let me say that 
every dollar given for higher educa- 
tion, in whatever special department 
of knowledge, is likely to have a 
greater influence upon the future char- 
acter of our nation than even the 
thousands and hundreds of thousands 
and millions which have already been 
spent and are daily spending to raise 
the many to material ease and com- 
fort. 
In the hope of this coming golden 
age, let us rejoice together that Hum- 
boldt’s name will be permanently 
connected with education and learning 
in this country, with the prospects and 
institutions of which he felt so deep 
and so affectionate a sympathy. 
all. We cannot stop at Newton or 
Leibnitz, though Newton seems to 
have gravitated with a more absolute 
aplomb to the truth of fact, and 
though Leibnitz, pierced with a finer 
apercu to the heart of things. We 
cannot stop at Bacon, whose merit is 
not to have found, nor even to have 
sought with sincerity, but only to 
have taught men what and how to 
seek. We cannot stop till we come 
to Aristotle. And here we have an 
even parallel. Between Humboldt and 
Aristotle there are, it seems to me, 
some points of striking resemblance. 
Both of these sages mastered and ex- 
tended the science of their time,— 
with this difference in favor of the 
Greek, that he explored the realm of 
ideas as well as of things; with this 
difference in favor of the German, 
that the science of tilings and their 
relations — cosmic science — was a 
thousand-fold more complex and dif- 
ficult in the nineteenth century of the 
Chri stain era than in the fourth of 
the ante-Christain. Both were fortu- 
nate in being partakers of the recent 
stimulus given by a great philosophic 
movement,—-that of Socrates in the 
one case, in the other that of Kant. 
Both were contemporaries of great 
world-conquerors and shared the im- 
pulse imparted to their time,—the 
one by Alexander the other by Na- 
polean the first. 
Dante called Aristotle uil maestro 
di color die sanno,”—master among 
them that know. And what better 
title can be conferred upon Hum- 
boldt? Master among them that 
know,—the master savant. 
Another thing which fills my soul 
with profound admiration when I 
think of Humboldt is the heroism of 
his life,—a life which exceeded in 
breadth as well as in length the ordi- 
nary limits of mortality. I admire 
his loyal devotion to the single aim of 
extending the area of the human 
mind. I admire the indomitable en- 
terprise which ransacked the globe 
in search of materials with which to 
build his monumental Cosmos. I 
admire no less the indefatigable in- 
At the Evening Reception which followed 
the Memorial Address, Professor Frederic 
H. Hedge, of Harvard University, spoke as 
follows : 
Mr. Chairman—It is hard gleaning 
in a field in which Agassiz has been 
with his sickle. But since you call 
upon me, I will say that the thing 
which most impressed me, as I listened 
to the discourse this afternoon, was 
the psychological marvel of such a na- 
ture as Humboldt’s and the illustra- 
tion it affords of the capabilities o f 
the human mind. Here was a man 
whose inappeasable greed of knowl- 
edge had appropriated all the science 
of his time, who knew all that was 
known in his day of things below and 
things above. The word “Cosmos,” 
the title he gave to his immortal 
work, is an apt designation of the 
mind of the author,—a mind in which 
the universe mirrored itself in all its 
vastness and all its minuteness, with 
its infinitely great and its no less 
amazing infinitely little. Where 
shall we look for the parallel and peer 
of such a mind? To find his match 
we have to go back two thousand 
years. We cannot stop at the name 
of Laplace or of Buefon ; these 
men were great in single provinces of 
science, but Humboldt was great in [360] 
46 
DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 
dustry which methodized and shaped 
those materials for after ages. A 
new standard of the possibilities of a 
single life is given in what he was 
and what he did. There was no sen- 
escence in his experience. He passed 
away in the midst of tasks which the 
noon of his life bequeathed to its even- 
ing, and which the evening did not 
seek to escape. And when he died, 
it seemed as if the civilized Avorld, 
from the Himalaya to the Andes, 
sighed in sympathy with the going 
down of a man who carried a universe 
in the lobes of his brain, and who 
counted an ally and a friend wherever 
nature had a studedent or science a 
home. 
One thing more. The professor 
has told us of the service Avhich Hum- 
boldt rendered to humanity by free- 
ing men from the pressure of Jew- 
ish tradition. I accept the state- 
ment. From all that was puerile and 
inadequate in Jewish or Jew-Christian 
theology he was free himself, and 
helped to make others free. But the 
central truth of Judaism, the truth of 
Semitic monotheism, was as true to 
him as to any before or since. An im- 
pression went abroad at the time of 
his death that Humboldt was an athe- 
ist. We all know how loosely, how 
unthinkingly, that term is applied. 
That he did not receive the authro- 
pomorphism of the conception I can 
well suppose. But that he rejected 
the idea of a conscious intelligence at 
the heart of the world—that intelli- 
gence which all his life Avas spent in 
tracing—nothing shall convince me, 
not even an unguarded saying of his 
own. For I am persuaded that with- 
out the belief in such an Intelligence, 
and a purpose and a method corres- 
ponding therewith, he would not have 
had the heart to prosecute his in- 
quiries. For what use or instruction, 
or what satisfaction would there be in 
observing and classifying material 
phenomena, if those phenomena rep- 
resented no order and obeyed no law* 
And when we say “Order,” Mr. 
Chairman, and when we say “ Law,” 
we say God. And when we affirm 
the constancy of that order and the 
certainty of that law, Ave bear witness 
of one at least of the attributes of 
Beit y,—his unchangeable veracity. 
Thowe stated processes which make 
the life of nature and which Hum- 
boldt so loved to note,—the stars in 
their course, the ever-recurring phases 
of earth and sky, precession of equin- 
oxes, succession of seasons, gravita- 
tion, magnetism,—these are Nature’s 
comment on the text of the Spirit, 
“ God is true.” And \Vhen Humboldt 
applied the methods he had learned 
in academic Europe and the laAvs 
announced by students of nature in 
other centuries,—applied these to 
the measurement of mountains on the 
other side of the globe, knowing them 
to be as apt and applicable then as in 
all past time, he unwittingly con- 
fessed his belief in a God Avhose 
“ truth endureth through all genera- 
tions.” 
But if, after all, it should prove to 
be the case—if that were possible 
which I deny—that the greatest sci- 
entist of modern time, in his search 
after truth, had missed the first and 
most essential of all truths,—the being 
of God,—Avhat then 1 Why then I 
should say that the man himself is the 
most convincing proof of the truth he 
missed. I should feel that the marvel 
of such a mind, a wonder surpassing 
any of those it explored, must have 
had its adequate cause; that the finite 
intelligence which looked creation 
through presupposes an infinite In- 
telligence as its origin and ground. 
The highest mortal can only be ex- 
plained as the product of a more than 
mortal power. CONTENTS. 
I. .‘"ytroductory Notice. By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. .... 1 
II. ..Ife and Character. By G. J. Romanes, F.R.S. . . . 2 
III. v/ork in Geology. By Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. . . . . 7 
IV. Work in Botany. By W. T. Thiselton Dyer, F.R..S. . . n 
V. Work in Zoology. By G. J. Romanes, F.R.S. . .... 16 
VI. Work in Psychology. By the Same. ...... Si 
CHARLES DARWIN. 
I Centennial Address. By Louis Agassiz. #7 
tl Remarks by Prof. Frederic H. Hedob. ..... 4} 
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