[S32] 



DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



however blurred and defaced, the 

 impress of his great mind. But for 

 him our geographies would be mere 

 enumerations of localities and statist- 

 ics. He first suggested the graphic 

 methods of representing natural phe- 

 nomena which are now universally- 

 adopted. The first geological sec- 

 tions, the first sections across an 

 entire continent, the first averages 

 of climate illustrated by lines, were 

 his. Every school-boy is familiar 

 with his methods now, but he 

 does not know that Humboldt is 

 his teacher. The fertilizing power of 

 a great mind is truly wonderful ; but 

 as we travel farther from the source, 

 it is hidden from us by the very 

 abundance and productiveness it has 

 caused. How few remember that the 

 tidal lines, the present mode of reg- 

 istering magnetic phenomena and 

 oceanic currents, are but the applica- 

 tion of Humboldt's researches, and of 

 his graphic mode of recording them ! 

 This great man was a feeble child, 

 and had less facility in his studies 

 than most children. For this reason 

 his early education was intrusted to 

 private teachers, his parents being 

 wealthy, and of a class whose means 

 and position command the advantages 

 denied to so many. It is worthy of 

 note that when he was a little fellow, 

 not more than seven years old, his 

 teacher was Campe, author of the 

 German Robinson Crusoe. We can 

 fancy how he amused the boy with 

 the ever fresh story of Crusoe on his 

 desert island, and inspired him even 

 at that early age with the passionate 

 love of travel and adventure which 

 was to bear such fruit in later years. 

 Neither should we omit, in recalling 

 memories of his childhood, his tender 

 relation to his older brother William. 

 These two brothers, so renowned in 

 their different departments of learn- 

 ing, — the elder as statesman and phi- 

 lologist, the younger as a student of 

 nature, — were united from their ear- 

 liest years by an intimate sympathy 

 which grew with their growth and 

 strengthened with their strength. 

 They went together to the University 



of Frankfort, the younger being then 

 seventeen, William nineteen. After 

 two years at Frankfort they went to 

 the University of Gottingen, where 

 they passed the two following years. 

 In these four pregnant years of stu- 

 dent life Alexander already sketched 

 the plans which occupied his active 

 mind for more than threescore years 

 and ten. 



The character of the German 

 universities is so different from ours, 

 that a word upon his student life may 

 not be out of place here. Untrammel- 

 ed by prescription and routine, every 

 branch of learning was open to him. 

 Instead of being led through a pre- 

 scribed course of study, an absolute 

 freedom of selection in accordance 

 with his natural predilections was 

 allowed him. The effect of this is 

 felt through his whole life ; there was 

 a universality, a comprehensiveness 

 in his culture, which could not be 

 obtained under a less liberal system 

 of education. 



Leaving the University at the age 

 of twenty-one, he began to make 

 serious preparations for the great 

 journeys toward which all his hopes 

 tended. Nothing has impressed me 

 more in reviewing Humboldt's life, 

 than the harmony between the aspira- 

 tions of his youth and the fulfillment 

 of his riper age. A letter to Pfaff, 

 written in his twenty-fourth year, 

 contains the first outline of the Cos- 

 mos ; its last sheets were forwarded 

 to the publisher in his ninetieth year, 

 two months before his death. He 

 had thus been an original investigator 

 for nearly seventy years. 



His first journey after leaving the 

 University was important rather for 

 the circumstances under which it 

 was made than for any local interest. 

 He went to the Rhine with Geokg 

 Forster, who had accompanied Cook 

 in his # second journey round the 

 world. " He could hardly have been 

 thrown with any one more likely to 

 stimulate his desire to travel than 

 this man, who had visited the South 

 Seas, had seen the savages of the 

 Pacific Islands, and had made valuable 



