154 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



lengthened residence in Athens and his travels all over 

 Greece and the Grecian Archipelago, as also through his 

 subsequent repeated visits to these countries, Curtius 

 formed for himself a vivid picture of the topographical, 

 geographical, and ethnographical characteristics of the 

 Grecian landscape, of the soil, the climate, and the locali- 

 ties that produced the different Grecian races which to- 

 gether formed Ancient Greece with its different centres 

 of civilisation, in Sparta, Asia Minor, and Athens, in 

 Olympia and Delphi. From this comprehensive point 

 of view which had been prepared by some of the English 

 historians and travellers, and which was entirely in the 

 spirit of his teacher, Otfried Mliller,^ Curtius undertook 



stances, but stand, nevertheless, in 

 a large historical connection, and 

 arose, as it were, with a certain ne- 

 cessity. . . . He devoted his life to 

 the rediscovery of the Old World, 

 which has its history quite as much 

 as the discovery of the New World, 

 and for which Leake was the true 

 Columbus. . . . He is an intel- 

 lectual relative of Ravvlinson, 

 Layard, Sir Charles Fellowes, who 

 have rediscovered whole worlds of 

 ancient culture, and if England 

 may be proud of anything, it is of 

 the fact that whilst on the Con- 

 tinent the devastating spirit of the 

 Revolution was still dominant, there 

 a high - minded and enlightened 

 enthusiasm for Grecian art had 

 captured the first intellects of the 

 nation." 



^ As also of Carl Ritter, who, 

 together with his more celebrated 

 contemporary, A. von Humboldt, 

 established what I have termed 

 the panoramic view of nature. He 

 is considered to be the greatest 

 geographer the nineteenth century 

 has produced. If Humboldt's view 

 of nature was essentially cos- 

 mical, Ritter's was more strictly 



confined to the terrestrial aspect. 

 "The last and highest truths of 

 the geogra])hical sciences find ex- 

 pression in the recognition that the 

 formation of the surface of the 

 earth and the difference of climate 

 depending thereon have governed 

 the development of our species 

 and defined the changing homes of 

 human culture in such a way that 

 a glance at the terrestrial landscape 

 leads us to see in the distribution 

 of land and water, of plains and 

 heights, a definite — we might say an 

 intentionally prescribed — course of 

 human affairs. Since Strabo, down 

 to our century, nobody approached 

 these deep secrets. Besides the 

 many thoughtful ideas which A. 

 von Humboldt expressed or sug- 

 gested, the greatest revelations 

 have come from the mouth of Carl 

 Ritter, of whom we may well say 

 that he has put a soul into our 

 natural knowledge of the earth, 

 that he, for the first time, suspected 

 in the aspect of the diff"erent con- 

 tinents, which he termed the great 

 individuals of the earth, secretly 

 active personalities, or that he at 

 least traced their activities in the 



