38 GrUTOT on Carl Bitter. 



keep for himself the gift that lie had received. He loved to 

 teach ; he was happy in imparting to others the results of his 

 discoveries ; his hearers felt it. Having been trained to be- 

 come a teacher, his attention was constantly directed theoreti- 

 cally and practically towards finding the best method of train- 

 ing the young up to that high standard of knowledge which 

 was before his mind. This explains the vast influence that he 

 exerted, not only on science in general, but on the school 

 system, and on the method of teaching his favorite science. 



Of the regular courses of lectures that he used to deliver in 

 the University, that on general comparative Geography (Allge- 

 meine Erdkunde) gathered usually the greatest number of 

 hearers. Those on Asia and on Europe, the historical con- 

 tinents par excellence, were not less interesting. But the 

 most popular of all were the free courses (publicums), which he 

 used to deliver twice a week, ordinarily in the winter session, on 

 one or another of the most classical among the historical regions 

 of our globe, Greece, Rome, and Palestine. Theologians, philol- 

 ogists, lawyers, men of intelligence of all classes, flocked there 

 with the same eagerness, to hear from the lips of such a man 

 the authentic and life-like description of these hallowed spots, 

 these geographical centres of human activity, a description of 

 which, in the mouth of Ritter, became a most graphic and in- 

 structive commentary on those historical events which have 

 left the deepest mark in the annals of mankind. 



The foundation of the Geographical Society of Berlin, in 

 1828, by Ritter, together with some friends of a kindred spirit, 

 is another fruit of that period of his activity. Humboldt had 

 just returned to Berlin, and delivered his celebrated course of 

 sixty-one lectures on the Cosmos, which had swelled higher 

 still the tide of popular taste in favor of the science of nature 

 and Physical Geography in particular. This society soon be- 

 came a welcome centre, not only for new geographical informa- 

 tion, but also for communications on all kindred sciences, as 

 well as for a social intercourse of the most pleasant kind among 

 scientific men. Ritter was the soul of it, and much of that 

 social kindness and of those liberal and enlarged views for 

 which that society is distinguished may, doubtless, be attributed, 

 in a great measure, to his influence. Admirably seconded by 

 such men as Prof. W. Dove, the eminent physicist and mete- 

 orologist, and others, he abundantly contributed to the last to 

 preserve its high scientific character by numerous communi- 

 cations drawn from his own studies, from his journeys in vari- 

 ous parts of Europe, anr l from much new inform ation spn+ 



