Gtutot on Carl Bitter. 29 



the end of the- eighteenth centiiry, that remarkable era which 

 can be called emphatically the mother of the present age. 



There are, indeed, in the life of mankind, as in all that 

 lives, critical times, in which it seems as if the fountains of 

 life are stirred up to their very depths, and in which the forces 

 of life are aroused to bring forth new productions more abun- 

 dant and more beautiful. Such a stirring age was the end of 

 the eighteenth century. It severs itself from the traditions of 

 the past, which fetter instead of fostering human progress. It 

 returns to the depth of human consciousness, in order to place 

 itself on a basis at once more true and more solid. It turns 

 its eyes, with the most sanguine hopes, towards an unknown 

 future. A noble, sincere enthusiasm, ready for all sacrifices, 

 seizes upon every soul, and imparts to the whole movement 

 a dignity which its worst excess can mar, but not efface. It 

 is truly a time of youthful renovation of the elements of 

 human civilization, a creative age to which we may trace the 

 beginning of all the progress of which our age can boast. 



In every direction a host of noble pioneers strike new paths 

 in the old, desolate fields, as well as in the new, untrodden 

 ones, with the hopeful daring and vigor of youth, unaware of 

 coming dangers, unmindful of difficulties. The French and 

 American Kevolutions in social science, Kant in philosophy, 

 Schiller and G-oethe in literature, Lavoisier in chemistry, Volta, 

 Oerstedt in physics, Herschell in astronomy, Werner and Von 

 Buch in geology, Humboldt in terrestrial physics, De Jussieu 

 and De Candolle in botany, Cuvier in zoology, Ritter, at last, 

 in geography, all begin, in each of these grand departments of 

 human culture, a new era, the era in which we live ; and it is 

 on the foundation laid down by these glorious sons of the great 

 movement of the eighteenth century, that we rear the splen- 

 did edifice which is the glory of the nineteenth. 



The birth of Eitter, in such a time and such an atmos- 

 phere, can fitly be termed, in view of his future calling, a 

 providential event. 



Bitter's father was a physician, much esteemed for his 

 skill and the noble qualities .of his mind and heart. He died 

 young, and Bitter's mother, a highly educated woman, 

 remained a widow with five children, without any means to 

 educate them. But help soon came, as providential help al- 

 ways does, from the quarter from which it could least be 

 expected. The Prince of Bernburg took charge of the eldest 

 son, ten years old. A distinguished, enthusiastic educator. 

 Salzman, previously unacquainted with the family, requested 



