52 



INTRODUCTION. 



are happily blended, he essayed in the evening of life to 

 unroll before the gaze of his readers a picture of the 

 grand features of nature as his mind had viewed them 

 from the elevated regions of scientific study, and his eyes 

 from the heights of Chimborazo. 



In the great picture of the world, in the vast changes 

 of the universe, where is man with his life and his in- 

 terests ? In the huge Kosmos where is the Microcosmus ? 

 2 , 9 - This question naturally presented itself to the mind of 

 s.' Lotze. " It is not," he tells us, " the all-embracing ' kos- 

 mos ' of the universe which we wish to describe again on 

 the model which has been given to our nation. As the 

 features of that great world -portrait sink deeper into 

 general consciousness, so much more vividly will they 

 lead us back to our own selves, suggesting anew the 

 question, What significance belongs to man and human 

 life with its lasting characteristics and the changing 



long period in the life of its author. 

 Goethe's ' Faust ' deals with the in- 

 dividual problem, Herder's ' Ideen ' 

 with the problem of the race or 

 mankind, Humboldt's ' Kosmos ' 

 with the same problem as referring 

 to the world, the universe. In the 

 preface Humboldt confesses "that 

 the image of his work had stood 

 before his mind's eye in undefined 

 outlines for nearly half a century " : 

 cf. what Goethe says in the dedica- 

 tion to 'Faust' (written probably 

 after 1797) : 



"Again ye come, ye hovering forms; I 



find ye 

 As early tg my clouded sight ye shone," 



&c. 



Transl. B. Taylor. 



The view of the universe which was 

 given in Humboldt's ' Kosmos ' was 

 prepared by his own publication, 



' Die Ansichten der Natur ' (1808) ; 

 also by Georg Forster (1754-1794), 

 who wrote an account of the second 

 voyage of Captain Cook round the 

 world, whom he accompanied with 

 his father. " He conceived of na- 

 ture as a living whole ; his account 

 is almost the first example of the 

 glowing yet faithful description of 

 natural phenomena, which has since 

 made the knowledge of them the 

 common property of the educated 

 world " (R. Garnett in 'Ency. Brit.,' 

 art. "Forster"). Humboldt con- 

 fesses to have received from him 

 " die lebhafteste Anregung zu wei- 

 ten Unternehmungen " ('Kosmos,' 

 vol. i. p. 345, also vol. ii. p. 65, and 

 especially vol. ii. p. 72, where in- 

 cidentally also Darwin's narrative 

 of the " Adventure " and " Beagle " 

 is mentioned). 



