52 INTRODUCTION. 



are happily blended, he essayed in the evening of life to 

 unroll before the gaze of his readers a picture of the 

 grand features of nature as his mind had viewed them 

 from the elevated regions of scientific study, and his eyes 

 from the heights of Chimborazo. 



In the great picture of the world, in the vast changes 

 of the universe, where is man with his life and his in- 

 terests ? In the huge Kosmos where is the Microcosmus ? 

 ^ This question naturally presented itself to the mind of 

 *' Lotze. " It is not," he tells us, " the all-embracing ' kos- 

 mos ' of the universe which we wish to describe again on 

 the model which has been given to our nation. As the 

 features of that great world -portrait sink deeper into 

 general consciousness, so much more vividly will they 

 lead us back to our own selves, suggesting anew the 

 question, What significance belongs to man and human 

 life with its lasting characteristics and the changing 



long period in the life of its author. ' Die Ansichten der Xatur 1 (1808) ; 



Goethe's ' Faust ' deals with the in- also bj Georg Forster (1754-1794), 



dividual problem, Herder's ' Ideen' who wrote an account of the second 



with the problem of the race or voyage of Captain Cook round the 



mankind, Humboldt's ' Kosmos ' world, whom he accompanied with 



with the same problem as referring 

 to the world, the universe. In the 

 preface Humboldt confesses " that 

 the image of his work had stood 

 before his mind's eye in undefined 

 outlines for nearly half a century :: : 

 ef. what Goethe says in the dedica- 

 tion to 'Faust' (written probablv 

 after 1797) : 



his father. " He conceived of na- 

 ture as a living whole ; his account 

 is almost the first example of the 

 glowing yet faithful description of 

 natural phenomena, which has since 

 made the knowledge of them the 

 common propertv of the educated 

 world " (R. Garnett in 'Ency. Brit.,' 

 art. " Forster "). Humboldt con- 



. _ fesses to have received from him 



Agam ye come, ye ] ^ ]ebhafte3te Anregung zu wei- 



A* e*rty to my clouded sight ye shone," ten Unternehmungen " (' Koemos,' 



*c- voL L p. 345, also voL ii. p. 65. and 



especially voL iL p. 72, where in- 



The view of the universe which was cidentally also Darwin's narrative 



given in Humboldt's ' Kosmos ' was of the " Adventure r> and "Beagle" 



prepared by his own publication, is mentioned). 



