FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 221 



These philological studies were of use in the compilation of 

 the first two volumes of ' Cosmos,' the main part of which was 

 composed at this period, although they were not published for 

 ten years. While reserving to a future chapter a discussion 

 of their contents, we may here give a slight outline of their 

 progress. Towards the close of 1827, Humboldt, in compliance 

 with a suggestion of Cotta's to publish the lectures he was then 

 delivering, drew out a rough draft of a work upon ' Physical 

 Geography ; ' on December 20 he made a proposal to Berghaus 

 to prepare an ' Atlas of Physical Geography ' in illustration of 

 the subject, but owing to the long postponement of 'Cosmos,' 

 the Atlas was eventually brought out in 1837 in a disconnected 

 form. 1 Before starting on his expedition to Siberia, a pre- 

 liminary contract had been entered into between Humboldt 

 and Cotta, which, on being renewed some years later, was so 

 far modified as to allow the printing to be conducted by Cotta 

 at his establishment at Augsburg rather than at Berlin. This 

 point had been very unwillingly conceded by Humboldt, who had 

 an extreme horror of errors in printing ' Authors are much to 

 be pitied,' he once exclaimed, * to be so completely at the 

 mercy of printers' 2 and feared greatly that, owing to the 

 illegibility of his handwriting, a South-German printer ' might 

 make great nonsense of his sentences.' On May 1, 1837, in 

 writing to Schumacher, he alludes to the subject in a tone of 

 some excitement: C I have made a splendid contract with 

 Cotta's publishing firm, 5,000 thalers for forty-five sheets of 

 " Cosmos." I am not bound to furnish more. As I shall be 

 sure to die before fulfilling the contract (I feel already as if 

 I belonged to the antediluvian period), the Swabian will not 

 be brought into any great danger. Nevertheless the baby 3 

 whimpered so much that I was obliged to give in and allow 

 " Cosmos " to be printed at Augsburg, although contrary to 

 the agreement made before the expedition to Siberia. . . . 

 Cotta gives expense as a reason for not printing the work in 



1 ' Briefwechsel mit Berghaus,' vol. ii. pp. 117-9. 



2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 210. 



8 On the death of Baron Johann Friedrich Cotta, on December 29, 1832, 

 his son George, who survived Humboldt some years, became head of the 

 establishment. 



