48 Gi-UYOT on Carl Bitter. 



the storms of the revolutions and of the wars, in the midst 

 of which he spent the first half of his life. 



The fruit of his lahors he left to us, as a rich heritage, 

 bestowed upon civilized mankind, and ready for all those who 

 wish to have a part in it. It remains for us to examine in 

 what it consists, and in doing it we shall soon perceive that the 

 more intimate acquaintance that we have made with Batter's 

 character, is not without value for the right appreciation of 

 his scientific lahors. 



Eitter, indeed, declares himself, in the Introduction to the 

 " Erdkunde," that the fundamental idea which underlies all his 

 work, and furnishes him a new principle for arranging the well- 

 digested materials of the science of the globe, has its deep root 

 in the domain of faith. This idea, he adds, was derived from 

 an inward intuition which gradually grew out of his life in na- 

 ture and among men, and could not be, beforehand, sharply 

 defined and limited, but should shine, as it were, through the 

 work, and become fully manifested by the completion of the 

 edifice itself. That noble edifice is now before us. Unfinished 

 though it be, it reveals the whole plan, and allows us clearly to 

 perceive that fundamental idea on which it rests. It is a strong 

 faith that our globe, like the totality of creation, is a great 

 organism, the work of an all-wise Divine Intelligence, an ad- 

 mirable structure, all the parts of which are purposely shaped 

 and arranged, are mutually dependent, and by the will of the 

 Maker fulfil, like organs, specific functions which combine 

 themselves into a common life. 



But for Bitter, that organism of the globe comprises not 

 nature only, it includes man, and with man the moral and in- 

 tellectual life. If the idea of a great Kosmos, as applied to 

 the universe, or to our physical giobe, is not new, nay, is as 

 old as the primitive cosmogonies of the past ages, it is the 

 merit of Bitter to have made a special and most happy appli- 

 cation of it to the geographical studies. None before him 

 perceived so clearly the hidden, but strong, ties which mutu- 

 ally bind man and nature ; these close and fruitful relations be- 

 tween man and his dwelling-place, between a continent and its 

 inhabitants, between a country and the people which holds 

 it as its share, these influences which stamp the races and na- 

 tions each with a character of their own, never to be effaced 

 during the long period of their existence. In this common 

 life, however, man, the nobler element, is the ruling power. 

 If, in the period of his infancy, nature is for man a fostering 

 mother, in the days of his youth a loving sister, exercising on 



