226 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



He may be called the morphologist of nature on the 

 largest scale : the representation of the grand aspect 

 of things as exhibited in his ' Cosmos,' and in his earlier 

 ' Ansichten der Natur,' was the leading idea of his life 

 and work. Through him and his friend Karl Bitter 

 " comparative geography received a treatment worthy of 

 the subject, showing its connection with the history 

 of the human race and the advancement of civilisation, 

 inasmuch as the configuration of the earth is proved to 

 have been an important element in the dispersion of 

 nations." 1 



But morphology, or the study of forms and struc- 

 tures, has to be carried on not only on the large, the 

 gigantic scale, as by Humboldt ; it is quite as im- 

 portant, and has probably been even more influential, 

 when directed towards the minute, the imperceptibly 

 small, which ordinarily quite escapes our notice. If 



by various specialists of Hum- 

 boldt's labours in the sciences of 

 astronomy, geology, geography, the 

 distribution of animal and plant life, 

 meteorology, and other provinces of 

 research, some of which largely owe 

 their existence to his initiative. The 

 study written by Ewald on his 

 geological work, and that of 

 Griesbach, on what is termed in 

 German animal and plant geo- 

 graphy, are specially interesting. 

 Unfortunately this most fascinat- 

 ing volume has not been brought 

 out in the English edition. As illus- 

 trating the comprehensiveness of 

 Humboldt's view it is well to note 

 how, before beginning to put to- 

 gether his materials in the great 

 tableau which the ' Kosmos ' was 

 intended to be, he drew two 

 entirely different pictures of nature 

 on our globe ; first in the large 



work on the New Continent 

 ('Voyage aux Regions equinoxiales 

 du Nouveau Continent,' in six 

 parts, published in Paris, 1805 to 

 1834) and then from an entirely 

 opposite aspect in his works on 

 Central Asia ( ' Asie Centrale : 

 Recherches sur les Chaines et 

 Montagues et la Climatologie com- 

 pareV 3 vols., Paris, 1843). "To 

 Humboldt the importance of the 

 Asiatic expedition consisted in its 

 elevating him above the one-sided 

 effect of having contemplated 

 nature exclusively in the New 

 World, and leading him, so to 

 speak, to feel experimentally that 

 the earth, in common with every 

 other object, is possessed of op- 

 posite sides" ('Life of Humboldt,' 

 vol. ii. p. 212). 



1 See ' Kosmos,' vol. i. p. 60 

 (German edition, 1845). 



