82 



DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



the Empire, to the restoration of the 

 Bourbons. He devoted himself to the 

 publication of his results, and secured 

 as his collaborators in this work the 

 ablest men of the day. Cuvier, La- 

 treille, and Valenciennes worked 

 up the zoological collections, Bon- 

 pland and Kunth directed the publica- 

 tion of the botanical treasures, Olt- 

 manns undertook the reduction of the 

 astronomical and barometrical ob- 

 servations, while he himself jointly 

 with Gay-Lussac and Provencal 

 made investigations upon the respira- 

 tion of fishes and upon the chemical 

 constitution of the atmosphere and 

 the composition of water, which have 

 left their mark in the annals of chem- 

 istry. While of course superintend- 

 ing more or less all the publications, 

 Humboldt himself was engaged espe- 

 cially with those upon physical 

 geography, meteorology, and geology. 

 The mere enumeration of the volumes 

 resulting from this great expedition 

 is impressive. It embraces three folio 

 volumes of geographical, physical, and 

 botanical maps, including scenery, 

 antiquities, and the aboriginal races ; 

 twelve quarto volumes of letter press, 

 three of which contain the personal 

 narrative, two are devoted to New 

 Spain, two to Cuba, two to zoology 

 and comparative anatomy, two to 

 astronomy, and one to a physical de- 

 scription of the tropics. The botanic- 

 al results of the journey occupy not 

 less than thirteen folio volumes, 

 ornamented with magnificent colored 

 plates. As all these works are in our 

 Public Library in Boston, I would 

 invite my hearers to a real intellectual 

 treat and a gratification of their 

 sesthetic tastes, in urging them to 

 devote some leisure hour to turning 

 over the leaves of these magnificent 

 volumes. A walk through the hot- 

 houses of the largest botanical garden 

 —and unfortunately we have no such 

 on this continent — could hardly be 

 more impressive than an examination 

 of these beautiful plates. Add to 

 these a special work on the position 

 of rocks in the two hemispheres, one 

 on the isothermal lines, his innumera- 



ble smaller papers, and lastly, five 

 volumes on the history of geography 

 and the progress of nautical astronomy 

 during the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries, more or less directly con- 

 nected with Humboldt' s own journey, 

 though published in later years. His 

 investigations into the history of the 

 discovery of America have a special in- 

 terest for us. We learn from him that 

 the name of our continent was first 

 introduced into the learned world by 

 Waltzeemuller, a German profes- 

 sor, settled at St. Didie, in Lorraine, — 

 Hylacomylus, as he called himself at 

 a time when scholars Avere wont to 

 translate their names into the dead 

 languages, and thought it more digni- 

 fied to appear under a Greek or 

 Latin garb. This cosmographer 

 published the first map of the New 

 World, with an account of the jour- 

 neys of Americus Vespucci, whose 

 name he affixed to the lands recently 

 discovered. Humboldt shows us, 

 also, that Columbus's discovery was 

 no accident, but grew naturally out 

 of the speculations of the time, them- 

 selves the echo of a far-off dream, 

 which he follows back into the dim- 

 ness of Grecian antiquity. We rec- 

 ognize again here the characteristic 

 features of Humboldt's mind, in his 

 constant endeavor to trace discoveries 

 through all the stages of their pro- 

 gress. 



Although he made his head-quarters 

 in Paris, it became necessary for 

 Humboldt, during the preparation of 

 so many extensive works, to under- 

 take journeys in various parts of 

 Europe ; to examine and re-examine 

 Vesuvius, and compare its mode of 

 action, its geological constitution, and 

 the phenomena of its eruptions with 

 what he had seen of the volcanoes of 

 South America. On one of these oc- 

 casions he ascended Vesuvius in com- 

 pany with Gay-Lussac and Leopold 

 von Buch. That single excursion, 

 undertaken by such men, was fruitful 

 in valuable additions to knowledge. 

 At other times he went to consult rare 

 books in the great libraries of Ger- 

 many and England, or to discuss with 



