EECREATIVE SCIENCE. 



1* 



HUMBOLDT. 



IN TWO PAETS. — PABT I. 



HIS STUDY. 



BIETH AND EAKLY LIFE. 



It is well to be reminded, in tlie midst of 

 tke rejoicings for victory in one nation and 

 tlio meanings of defeat in another, that the 

 great march of science still continues across 

 the noise of smoke and wailing, that the 

 passage of knowledge is tmintermpted cither 

 by blockade or siege. IN'othing will do this 

 forns more thorouglily than the lives of groat 

 and wise men, of the soldiers of science, of 

 the pioneers of progress, of the true apostles 

 of peace. By their lives we shall be re- 

 minded that ^ 



" We may make our lives sublime," 

 and, to continue the quotation, 



" Departing leave behind us 

 Footprints on the sands of Time ;" 



footprints which will be assurances to those 

 who follow, that great men have been be- 

 fore them, who have turned from the hurry, 

 bustle, noise, and smoke of glory ; the over- 

 excitement and maddening rush for gold, 

 the scramble for honours, or chicanery of 

 place, to that quieter, calmer, better path of 



daily labour and daily worship, of patient 

 investigation and pure thought, which rises, 

 like calm incense in an evening sky, towards 

 the throne of the All-Knower ; which abounds 

 in love to our brothers, since it abounds in 

 benefits conferred on them ; which eases and 

 soothes men's minds disturbed by angry pas- 

 sions, and is in its intensity a kind of noble 

 faith, even in the Pagan philosopher, since 

 by it he venerates and worships the Creator 

 in his works, and looks through IS'ature up 

 to Nature's God. 



There is no " life " of the present day 

 which wiU better illustrate the foregoing 

 than that of Frederick Henry Alexander, 

 Baron Humboldt, known since his elevation 

 to the peerage of humanity, simply by the 

 last name. Humboldt's mother, a woman 

 of great intellectual endowments and some 

 beauty, was the widow of Baron Holwede 

 when she attracted the attention and love o^ 

 Major Humboldt, an aide-de-camp to the 

 Duke of Brunswick, during the seven years' 

 war. She did not long remain a widow. 



