118 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



numbering about a thousand, c from the king to the artisan,' 1 

 necessitated a more comprehensive and popular treatment than 

 would have been requisite in other circumstances. It is to the 

 endeavour to secure this object that we are indebted for the 

 wonderful ' introductory remarks upon the various enjoyments 

 afforded by the study of Nature and the investigation of her laws ' 

 comprised in the first forty pages of c Cosmos/ which, with the 

 exception of several subsequent alterations and additions, was 

 written down from memory a few hours after the lectures were 

 delivered. 2 These observations occupied the whole of the first 

 and part of the second lecture, in which the equal importance 

 of the various branches of science was also dwelt upon, and the in- 

 fluence they were capable of exerting upon national industry and 

 the general prosperity of the community. Though it scarcely 

 falls within our province to enter minutely into these lectures, 

 so familiar now to everyone since the truths they teach have 

 become the common property of every observer of nature in 

 this century, yet the historical form of our narrative permits 

 us to call attention to the influence they exerted at the time 

 of their delivery. They boldly announced in no uncertain 

 terms the change that had passed over the spirit of the age, 

 and while reprobating in a tone of resignation the hasty and 

 precipitate efforts of an absolute ' rationalistic school of scien- 

 tific inquiry,' and censuring the extravagant speculations of the 

 times, they elevated experimental science, descriptions of nature, 

 and records of the world's history to the place of highest intel- 

 lectual honour, attributing to them the progress of industry and 

 the intellectual elevation of mankind. In these terms was set 

 forth the spirit of the nineteenth century, the overwhelming 

 realistic character of which is exhibited in its experimental 

 philosophy and historical science, by means of which material 

 and intellectual progress are secured to those nations who have 

 learnt their value. When, on December 6 and 12, 1827, 

 Humboldt, in the future capital of the German nation, soon to 

 play so important a part in this century, gave public expression 

 to thoughts that had till then floated almost unconsciously in 



1 F. von Raumer, ' Literarischer Nachlass,' vol. i. p. 22. 

 '* See ' Briefe an Varnhagen/ p. 20. 



