346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT^ 



Br Dr. EDWARD F. WILLIAMS 



CHICAGO, ILL. 



WITH Baron von Humboldt, says the late Professor Louis Agassiz, 

 " ends a great period in the history of science : a period to 

 which Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Gay-Lussac, De Candolle and Robert 

 Brown belonged." It was a period of tireless research, of important 

 discoveries, of brilliant generalizations. It was a period in which the 

 specialist appeared, and secured for himself an honorable position. Yet 

 there were men, and among them Humboldt the most distinguished of 

 them all, who were deeply interested in all departments of science, 

 men who sought to master at least their elementary principles and to 

 render themselves able to judge intelligently concerning the conclusions 

 which were reached. Since Humboldt passed away it is doubtful if any 

 one has lived who in the extent and accuracy of his knowledge, the 

 breadth of his vision and the soundness of his judgment can be com- 

 pared with him as an equal. All the more true is it that his death in 

 1859 closed an era in the scientific world. 



It was in this year that Charles Darwin published " The Origin of 

 Species " and that the Fraunhofer lines of the spectrum were discovered. 

 The theory of evolution was the outcome of studies which Darwin's book 

 compelled the scientific world to undertake. With the full, or even 

 partial, acceptance of that theory new methods of study have been intro- 

 duced into nearly every department of learning. In the face of such 

 a theory it has been impossible to be satisfied with the old views of 

 history, literature, philosophy, theology, to say nothing of science. It is 

 therefore a matter of no little interest to know what were the views of 

 Humboldt and his co-laborers during the period above mentioned, upon 

 which the foundation of a new era was built. For a clear and accurate 

 statement of the scientific knowledge of his time no work is more worthy 

 of confidence than Humboldt's " Cosmos ", of which Vol. I. was pub- 

 lished in 1845, Vol. II. in 1847, Vol. III. in 1850, Vol. IV. in 1858 and 

 Vol. V. soon after the author's death. The earlier editions were con- 

 stantly improved, and the entire edition, furnished with notes, contain- 

 ing extracts from private letters or publications of distinguished men 

 which are of great interest and value, has appeared again and again. 

 Admitting, as we must admit, that many, perhaps most of the conclu- 

 sions reached in this work, have been set aside by later discoveries, the- 



* ' ' Cosmos, ' ' Vols. I.-V., Harper & Brothers, New York. 



