EECEEATIVE SCIENCE.: 



17 



for Lis love of experiment and deep fervour 

 in tracking a truth, so far as one can, to its 

 fountain-liead. Indeed, this, more than fa- 

 mily influence, procured him his first employ- 

 ment, that of inspector of mines in the pro- 

 vinces of Bayreuth and Anspach. Holding 

 this office, he was ever at work, and issued 

 his second work, on the "Fossil Flora of 

 Friberg" [Flora suhterranea Fribergensis, 

 etc.) He told us what shapes flowers had 

 before the flood, how they bloomed and fruc- 

 tified ; he gave us their forms, and the thick- 

 ness of their fibre, and, by induction, showed 

 us what soil they loved, and what brilliant 

 colours they gladdened the young world 

 with. Working stiU on, in a few more years 

 he had advanced his studies from the dumb 

 stone world, or fossil vegetable life, to that 

 more wondrous organism around and about 

 h.im, experimented on the nervous system of 

 men and animals, and published his third 

 work, " Tiber die Gereizte Nerveuse et Mus- 

 culaire." The world began now to talk of 

 this young savant, this devourer of books, 

 this perpetual worker and thinker, who 

 seemed determined to master the whole 

 circle of knowledge. 



DEATH OP HIS MOTHER — THE PEOJECT OF 

 LIFE. 



It was late in the year 1798 that Hum- 

 boldt lost his mother, his best and truest 

 friend. To her he had always submitted, by 

 her, famous and great as comparatively he 

 was, he had ever been controlled. Her life 

 alone bound him to the Old World, for he had 

 long desired to experimentalize in the New. 

 Freed by death from this dear tie, he eagerly 

 flew to Paris, bought aU the scientific in- 

 struments which he felt he should need, dis- 

 posed of his estates in Prussia, and obtained 

 permission from the French to j oin the Baudin 

 scientific expedition then fitting out to survey 

 South America. But the French Govern- 

 ment were not quick enough for his hunger 



for knowledge. The expedition being de- 

 ferred from time to time, he determined to 

 wait no longer, and, in company with a 

 young savant named Bonpland, Humooidt 

 set out for Spain, 



The grandees of that country were by no 

 means Tincourteous to the two young savants. 

 Might not these two mineralogists discover 

 a new PotosiP or, better still, a gold miie? 

 or, indeed, it may be a diamond mine ? Kings 

 of Spain and other great folks are fond of 

 diamonds and gold, and material wealth ; so 

 they would ];ut forth their hand to welcome 

 the young philosophers. His Majesty of 

 Spain was pleased that young Humboldt 

 should scientifically overrun his American 

 possessions ; so be it, he is eveiysviiere well 

 received. 



buonapaete's expedition akd humboldt'3 

 expedition. 



In the meantime, whilst the preliminaries 

 are being settled, the two philosophers meet 

 with an English nobleman, a savant too, not 

 too often met amongst our peerage at that 

 time. This was Lord Bristol, and at his 

 behest, and with his aid, Bonpland and 

 Humboldt, leaving things to be arranged for 

 them in Spain, prepared to run over and 

 explore the wonders of Lower Egypt — a field 

 for any one, and a field of wonders too. This 

 was denied him however. Buonaparte, hated 

 by Enghshmen, was preparing his, by no 

 means scientific, expedition to Egypt. Napo- 

 leon hated ideologues ; what could scientific 

 men want in Lower Egypt? The sword 

 questioned the right of the pen, brute force 

 was in the ascendant ; Lord Bristol was 

 arrested at MUan, and Napoleon went to 

 Egypt ; whilst the savant stayed at home, or 

 rather in Spain, during the year 1788-89. 



In May, 1799, however, Humboldt ma- 

 naged, in the Spanish frigate " Pizarro," to 

 avoid the Enghsh who were blockading the 

 Spanish ports, but whose ships a storm had 







