16 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



inquisition of the Church." Instruments must 

 be invented to pierce through space ; the spirit 

 of history, in alliance with philosophy, must 

 break through the barriers of the world. We 

 are led to such general considerations if we 

 compare the physical sciences before Hum- 

 boldt's time with the present high position 

 attained through his unwearied and active 

 co-operation. 



Before Humboldt's appearance, it was in 

 reality only an endeavour after a correct 

 classification of things which the celebrated 

 Linngeus, after a long period of philosophic- 

 theoretical abstractions and scholastic tradi- 

 tions, attempted and encouraged. The manifest 

 forces of nature were considered incompre- 

 hensible miracles, because the physical sciences 

 were subject to religious dogmas. Humboldt 

 appeared with Cuvier, a reformer in classifi- 

 cation. Soon afterwards, a zeal was manifested 

 for comparisons on all points of the globe, and 

 an attempt made to explain the complication of 

 various forms of phenomena through the facts 

 thus elicited. On the one hand, the school of 

 Cuvier strictly excluded all speculation, and 

 decided only in accordance with facts dis- 

 covered ; on the other hand, a direct opposite 

 tendency was manifested in classifying not in 



