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ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.

THE past month will live a long time in the memory of man, not merely because it marked that evil May-day on which the third Napoleon set forth to renew the marvels of his great uncle, by desolating the fertile plains of Italy in the hallowed name of liberty, but also because it deprived the world of a man who has justly been called the greatest naturalist that has appeared since Aristotle. The grand old kaiser of science has gone to the grave, honoured and lamented by the whole civilised world; but who would be bold enough to predict that the emperor, who seeks to make a name by bloodshed and rapine, will meet with the same happy and glorious end? Providence acted kindly in this as in all her other dispensations. Grim-visaged war was about to deface the fairest abode of nature, and she recalled the great man whose race was run; his triumphs are perennial, and no accident can rob him of his laurels ; while Napoleon III., the encourager of science, the advocate of peace, is still in doubt as to the result of his warlike panoply, and it may be that his laurels, which sprang up so quickly, will pine away beneath the blood-stained shower with which they will be bedewed.

Alexander von Humboldt, the subject of our memoir, was born on the 14th September, 1769. What reminiscences must he have stored up of the eventful years in which he lived, we may say, a double life! As a young man, he saw the first fitful ray of Bonaparte's renown; he watched his meteor-like progress, and the dazzling glare which he poured over the whole world; and he saw, too, the same star sink slowly beneath the horizon, amid the mingled admiration and rejoicing of an exhausted Continent. The same man lived to see that star of destiny rekindled in 1848; he has watched it with equal eagerness as it reached its culminating point, but it was only allowed him to see its first slight occultation. Who can predict the erratic course it will still pursue, ere, in its turn, it expires, no longer the admiration, but the derision, of Europe? The first star shone awhile, a gem of purest ray serene, but this new star is but a counterfeit presentment, a Bristol diamond in a gaudy setting of success, which will find its setting gradually bedimmed, until itself grow tarnished, and be thrown contemptuously aside as a mere gewgaw which has played out its part, and no longer serves even to delude a playhouse audience.

Such thoughts as these must crowd on us as we think of Humboldt's long and well-spent life, but we must inexorably thrust them away, and confine ourselves solely to the life of the great natural philosopher, whose death all Europe regrets, although it was fully prepared for such a loss. Von Humboldt has descended into the grave at an age beyond that allotted to man, and, more marvellous still, time could not change nor custom pall his infinite variety. He was essentially the many-sided man of Germany: "nihil tetigit quod non ornavit," and although his memory will live among us and our descendants as that of a man who successfully wrested from jealous Nature her most carefully garnered secrets, we must not forget that he played many parts in his life, and all of them with equal success.

It must be confessed that Humboldt enjoyed peculiar advantages to

secure his subsequent success: his father, Major von Humboldt, chamberlain of Frederick the Great, possessed considerable landed property around the Castle of Tegel, in the vicinity of Berlin, and which eventually descended to Alexander on the death of his elder brother William in 1835. At this castle the lads were educated by private tutors, and mingled in the society not merely of princes but of the great literary stars of the day. Thus, in 1778, Goethe, who had accompanied the Duke of Saxe-Weimar to a grand review, visited Tegel, and little expected the intimate connexion he should eventually stand in with the two lads whom he saw merrily sporting about the castle.

The first tutor appointed was Campe, better known among us as the author of the" Boy Robinson Crusoe," and it is very possible his teaching gradually fostered Alexander's desire for long voyages of discovery. The next tutor was Christian Kunth, a young man of twenty, already remarkable for his knowledge of languages, and when Major von Humboldt died, in 1779, he took the place of father to them. Equally fortunate were the lads in the acquaintance of the great Dr. Heim, who gave them their first instruction in botany. In 1783, the two boys proceeded to Berlin with their tutor, but Alexander did not display any extraordinary precocity; being delicate and ailing, he was, indeed, allowed to follow his own bent for some time, while his elder brother was studying languages with remarkable application.

In the year of the great king's death, 1786, the boys proceeded with their tutor to the university of Frankfort on the Oder, where the subject of our memoir devoted himself to the study of political economy, and two years later they proceeded to Gottingen, where Alexander was thrown into a circle whose conversation gave a decided bias to his future life. Not only was the renowned Blumenbach, the natural historian, lecturing at the university, but Alexander also formed the acquaintance of George Forster, who circumnavigated the globe with our Cook. We can easily imagine the effect his glowing narrative of Polynesian marvels produced on the youthful seeker for knowledge, and how the resolve ripened in him that he would also be a mighty traveller.

In 1790, after leaving the university, we find Von Humboldt making his first scientific journey with Forster to England via the Rhine and Holland, which became the subject of his first literary tentative under the title " Mineralogical Remarks on some Basaltic Formations of the Rhine." On his return, Alexander remained for a winter at Hamburg, indulging in the study of book-keeping, though not neglecting the while mineralogy and botany, and in the spring of 1798 he proceeded to Friburg, as student at the Mining Academy under Werner. sult of his studies was his appointment as assessor to the mining and smelting departments of Berlin in 1792, whence he was removed, in the same capacity, to Bayreuth, where he remained till 1795. But the impulse to travel was overpowering: and though he worked hard at his favourite studies, he could not be satisfied with home; he must be away, in search of new worlds. See how he writes of himself:

The re

I had, from my earliest youth, felt an ardent desire to travel in distant lands unexplored by Europeans. This desire characterises a period in our existence in which life appears to us as an unbounded horizon, when nothing has greater attractions for us than strong emotions of the soul and physical dangers.

Brought up in a country which has no immediate connexion with the Indian colonies, and subsequently an inhabitant of mountain districts which, far from the sea-shore, are famous for their mines, I felt a violent passion for the sea and for long maritime voyages developed in my mind. All objects we only know by the descriptions of travellers have a special charm for us; our fancy is pleased by anything that appears unlimited. The enjoyments we are forced to renounce seem to us to possess greater charms than those which fall to our share in the narrow circle of our domestic life.

In 1795, Humboldt resigned his appointment and went to Vienna, where he carefully investigated the new discovery made by Galvani. But the death of his beloved mother soon called him back to Prussia, and, after regulating family affairs with his brother William, he went to Jena, where he formed a close intimacy with Goethe. How much the latter benefited by the acquaintance we find in one of his letters to Schiller, where he writes: "I have spent the time with Humboldt agreeably and usefully my natural historic studies have been roused from their winter sleep by his presence." Again, we find the poet alluding humorously to his friend's mania: "Although the whole family of Humboldt, down to the servant, lie ill with the ague, all their talk is about great travels." But we soon find Humboldt resolute to carry out his plans, and for this purpose he sold his family estate of Ringenwald, in the new Mark, to provide the necessary funds.

At first, Humboldt determined on proceeding to Upper Egypt, but on arriving at Paris his thoughts returned to their original bent. The government of France was preparing an expedition to the southern hemisphere, under Captain Baudin, to which Aimé Boupland was appointed naturalist. This gentleman's acquaintance Humboldt formed, and agreed to join him in the expedition. But his time was not idly spent in Paris, for we find him engaged in "researches on the composition of the atmosphere" with Gay-Lussac, and he also prepared a work on subterraneous gases.

Sad was Humboldt's disappointment when the outbreak of war led to a deferral of the scientific expedition, and he proceeded with his friend Bonpland on a journey through Spain. On arriving at Madrid, the travellers met with a hospitable reception from the minister, Don Mariano de Urquijo, who granted them the unusual permission of visiting all the Spanish possessions in America. Overjoyed at this they hastened to Corunna, which port was blockaded by the English fleet, but the Pizarro corvette was waiting the opportunity to slip out, and they went on board to try their fortune. On the 10th June, 1799, they succeeded in making their escape while the blockading force was dispersed by a violent storm, and reached Teneriffe safely, where Humboldt's investigations commenced.

The first successful operation was climbing the peak of Teneriffe, and this toilsome labour formed the first stepping-stone in his discoveries. His investigations enabled him clearly to lay down the basis of the Plutonian theory, which he afterwards so fully developed, in opposition to the Neptunian, till that time generally accepted, to account for the formation of the globe. On returning on shipboard, a dangerous epidemic that broke out induced the captain to land his passengers at Cumana, on the north-east coast of Venezuela, and this accident produced a mate

rial change in Humboldt's plans. After various excursions in the surrounding country, which added a rich store to their collection, the travellers determined on navigating the river Orinoco, and exploring its junction with the Rio Negro and the Amazon. We may be permitted to quote a passage from Humboldt's description to show what admirable word-painting the great naturalist could produce:

In these interior districts of America you grow almost accustomed to regard man as something unimportant in the order of nature. The earth is covered with plants, whose free growth no obstacle checks. An immeasurable layer of black earth testifies the uninterrupted agency of organic forces. Crocodiles and boas are the lords of the streams; jaguars, peccaris, tapirs, and monkeys fearlessly cross the forests in which they are settled as an ancestral inheritance. Such a scene of animated nature, in which man is as nothing, has something strange and depressing in it. It is difficult to accustom oneself to this on the ocean and in the sandy deserts of Africa, although there, as nothing exists which can remind us of our fields, woods, and rivers, the immense desert we traverse seems less strange. But here, in a fertile, ever green, beautiful country, we seek in vain for traces of human existence, and seem to be transported to an utterly distinct world. And these impressions are the stronger the longer they endure.

For seventy-five days our bold adventurers floated on this unknown and weird river in an Indian canoe, and at last reached Angostura, the capital of Guyana, exposed to constant dangers and the incessant torment of insects. Their observations, as a recent biographer remarks, were "most extensive, embracing astronomical determinations, terrestrial surveys, researches on the botany, mineralogy, and geology of the states through which they passed, and, in addition, their notices of the manners and customs of the natives were marked by a shrewd philosophy and acute powers of observation." Here Humboldt was laid up for a month by fever, and Bonpland scarce retained sufficient strength to wait on his friend; but they were roused to renewed energy by the thought of what they still had to do. On returning to Cumana they proceeded to the Havannah, whence they shipped their valuable collection home, little foreseeing that they looked on it for the last time. They remained in Cuba several months, during which Humboldt was principally employed in examining into the extent, soil, culture, and population of the queen of the Antilles, as well as the condition of the slaves, historically and morally regarded.

When on the point of proceeding to Vera Cruz to commence their expedition through Mexico, Acapulco, the Philippine Isles, and thence home via Bombay, Busrah, Aleppo, and Stamboul, Humboldt was diverted from his purpose by hearing a false report that Captain Baudin, whom he had publicly promised to join, had really left France with the intention of rounding the Cape and coasting along Chili and Peru. On reaching Cartagena for the purpose of keeping their promise to Baudin, the travellers found the season was too far advanced for proceeding by sea from Panama to Guayaquil, and they therefore went on to Bogota and crossed the Andes, arriving at Quito on the 6th January, 1802, after a journey of four months. While staying here, Humboldt's health was perfectly restored, and for six months they explored the country: they visited the Cotopaxi, the largest volcano in the Andes, whose thunder is heard at times for a distance of two hundred miles, and on the 23rd June,

1802, Humboldt ascended the Chimborazo, attaining the height of 21,420 feet above the level of the sea, the greatest altitude ever reached by man. At the point Humboldt reached the blood flowed from his eyes, his lips, and his gums, breathing became difficult, and the thermometer stood still.

On returning to Quito, Humboldt found a letter from Baudin, stating that he had sailed to New Zealand. Thus his hopes were dashed to the ground, but he determined on proceeding to Lima. Crossing the high chain of the Andes for the fifth time, Humboldt ascertained the position of the magnetic equatorial, and while residing at Lima he investigated the peculiar cold Peruvian coast current, which has since received his name as a slight recognition of his invaluable services to science.

In January, 1803, Humboldt and Bonpland sailed for Mexico, where they remained for nine months examining the condition of Mexico and the surrounding states. In the plains of Jorullo they visited the volcano which had sprung up in a night during 1759, and whose two thousand craters still belched forth flame and smoke. This they examined at considerable risk, for they descended two hundred and fifty feet into the centre of the volcanic cone, on fragile pieces of lava. Thence they returned to the capital, and after making numerous excursions, in which the altitudes of Popocateptl and Tztaccihuatl were trigonometrically surveyed, they returned to Vera Cruz, and set sail for Havannah, whence they proceeded to the United States. In August, 1804, Humboldt and his friend landed in the harbour of Havre de Grace. As has justly been observed by Professor Klencke, in his Life of the Brothers Humboldt

The journey of which we have here given an outline could not fail to create a great sensation in Europe. It was not only unexampled as the execution of the most magnificent undertaking of a German citizen; it was not only perfectly disinterested, and a sacrifice made solely to the interests of science; people admired not only the courageous determination, the persevering will, the industry, the intellectual powers and inquiring talents of Humboldt, but the gradually revealed and unbounded results of this journey to the equinoctial regions of the new continent became of such universal importance in all branches of human science and of commerce, and bore so much on the political improvement of the countries traversed, that Humboldt was hailed in Europe as the Second Columbus. A hitherto almost unknown region of the world was presented in splendid word-pictures to the eyes of intellectual Europe, and not only were the external aspect and its phenomena described, but science was made acquainted with the internal formation of the country, its riches and its wants, the secrets of its heights and depths, the condition of its animate and inanimate life, and from the chain of comparative facts were developed the discovery and comprehension of the grand eternal world and the laws which defined the existence of the earth and its inhabitants.

Having obtained permission from the French government to reside in Paris, and prepare his travels for publication, the subject of our memoir remained in that city till 1807, when the first part of the great work of Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland was produced, under the title, "A Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent." This magnificent work was allotted to all the celebrities of the age: for the astronomic observation and barometric measurements of altitude, Oltmann was employed, under Humboldt's superintendence; in chemistry and meteorology, the celebrated Arago and Gay-Lussac assisted him