312 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



close of the first book of his 'Suggestions for the Philosophy 

 of the History of Mankind,' a work in which apart from more 

 recent discoveries lay the germ of Kitter's science of geo- 

 graphy, Herder expresses the desire that the valuable store of 

 conclusions amassed by various travellers upon the subject of 

 the physical constitution of the earth should be assembled under 

 6 one comprehensive view.' It is very remarkable that, as a 

 qualification for such a task, he should have insisted on the 

 investigation of the ' mountain-chain of Peru ; ' from this, 

 ' perhaps the most interesting portion of the world, where 

 Nature exhibits her greatest marvels,' may we first expect to 

 see ' brought into undoubted unity ' the various phenomena 

 which have hitherto been observed only as isolated facts.j It 

 is remarkable that Humboldt, who usually delighted to recall 

 the presages of poets and original thinkers, should never have 

 called to mind this passage, when vaunting the Andes as the 

 portion of the globe where 'Nature exhibits in the smallest 

 space the greatest variety of phenomena.' 2 By these remarks 

 it is by no means intended to lessen the value of Humboldt's 

 achievement in the conception of 'Cosmos ;' for however greatly 

 he may be indebted to the inspiring influence of his con- 

 temporaries, the great merit of the work lies in what he alone 

 has accomplished the attempt, by means of a comprehensive 

 collation of details, and the institution of the most searching 

 comparisons, to give a scientific foundation to the ideal cosmo- 

 logy of Herder, Goethe, Schelling, and their disciples. In the 

 accomplishment of this great task, Humboldt showed no sym- 

 pathy with the extravagant poetic phantasies of that school ; 

 while with Groethe experiment was ever made subordinate to the 

 intuitions of genius, while Herder was content only to hope 

 and summon others to the field of action, and Schelling, 

 in attempting to deduce specialities from generalities, found 



1 Attention has been directed to this remarkable passage by H. Bohmer, 

 in his l Geschichte der Entwickelung der naturwissenschaftlichen Weltan- 

 schauung in Deutschland ' (Gotha, 1872), p. 28 ; a book which has only 

 come before us while the present work was going through the press, and 

 which in the estimate formed of Humboldt coincides in many points in the 

 most gratifying manner with the opinions expressed in these pages. 



a ' Kosmos,' vol. i. p. 12 ; see in the ' Ansichten der Natur/ and at 

 the close of the ' Ideen zu einer Physiognomik der Gewachse.' 



