306 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



as may best suit you.' This generous spirit remained a charac- 

 teristic till the close of life, when, 'like Proserpine, he was 

 accustomed to knock at the house of the ministry of which 

 Johannes Schulze kept the key,' in exemplification of his 

 favourite proverb : ' It is not for man to slay where Grod has 

 given life.' At Humboldt's funeral, the officiating clergyman 

 remarked, in an appropriate address, 1 tinged unfortunately with 

 dogmatism, c From those who mourn him in secret might we 

 hear many a testimony to his deeds of kindness ; for his acts of 

 benevolence were mostly carried out in secret, and he could not 

 bear that any should draw aside the veil. Often have I come 

 across instances of his kindly charity in the obscure paths of 

 my ministerial work.' Numberless instances of such acts of 

 kindness stand recorded in his voluminous correspondence. 

 When viewed against such a background, his foibles appear but 

 as the scoria formed upon the surface of molten metal beneath 

 the influence of a chilling atmosphere, only to be quickly dissi- 

 pated in the glow of a wide-spread and enthusiastic love of 

 intellectual life, and the earnest devotion to the support of all 

 that is ennobling. 2 



During the years 1845 and 1847 were published the first two 

 volumes of ' Cosmos,' and before closing this chapter we deem 

 it not inappropriate to enter upon a general discussion of that 

 portion of the work, though without entering specifically upon 

 the various scientific subjects treated of, or reverting to the 

 question as to Humboldt's claim to be the originator of the 

 theories advanced in the chapter on c Outlines for a Description 

 of the Physical Universe.' It will not be out of place, while 

 giving a short account of the history of ' Cosmos,' to add a few 

 words upon the essential principles of the work, the conception 

 of the plan, and the style in which it is written. In discussing 

 this most important of all Humboldt's productions, we propose 

 to include his other literary efforts. A more distinct reference 

 to the last volumes of ' Cosmos,' and the subjects of which they 

 especially treat, must be reserved till the following chapter. 



1 Hoffmann's ' Reden am Sarge und am Grabe A. von Humboldt's ' (Berlin, 

 1859), p. 8. 



2 The limits of this work forbid a detailed statement of even the instances 

 in print of Humboldt's benevolence. 



