40 [344] 



DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, 



had declared the unity of structure 

 in the bony frame of all the Verte- 

 brates, and had laid the foundation 

 of the morphology of plants. These 

 new views had awakened the interests 

 and passions of the whole world of 

 science to a degree hitherto unknown 

 in her peaceful halls. Cuvier, strange 

 to say, had taken ground in opposition 

 to Goethe's views upon the Verte- 

 brate type, while Geoffroy St.- 

 Hilaire, a devoted adherent of 

 Goethe's ideas, had expressed his 

 convictions in words not always 

 courteous toward Cuvier. The latter 

 had retorted with an overwhelming 

 display of special knowledge, under 

 which the brilliant generalizations of 

 St.-Hilaire seemed to be crushed. 

 Cuvier was then giving a course of 

 lectures in the College de France on 

 the history of science, into which he 

 wove with passionate animation his 

 objections to the new doctrine. Hum- 

 boldt attended these lectures regular- 

 ly, and I had frequently the pleasure 

 of sitting by his side and being the 

 recipient of his passing criticism. 

 While he was impressed by the ob- 

 jections of the master-anatomist, he 

 could not conceal his sympathy for 

 the conception of the great poet, his 

 countryman. Seeing more clearly 

 than Cuvier himself the logic of his 

 investigations, in whispered com- 

 ments during the lectures, he constant- 

 ly declared that whatever deficiencies 

 the doctrine of unity might still con- 

 tain, it must be essentially true, and 

 Cuvier ought to be its expounder in- 

 stead of its opponent. The great 

 French naturalist did not live to 

 complete these lectures, but the view 

 expressed by his friend was prophetic. 

 Cuvier's own researches, especially 

 those bearing upon the characteristics 

 of the four different plans of struc- 

 ture of the animal kingdom, have 

 helped to prove, in his own despite, 

 though in a modified form, the truth 

 of the doctrine he so bitterly opposed. 

 The life which Humboldt now led 

 was less exclusively that of a student 

 than it had been during his former 

 Paris life. He was the ambassador ' 



of a foreign court. His official posi- 

 tion and his rank in society, as well 

 as his great celebrity, made him 

 everywhere a cherished guest, and 

 Humboldt had the gift of making 

 himself ubiquitous. He was as famil- 

 iar with the gossip of the fashionable 

 and dramatic world as with the 

 higher walks of life and the abstruse 

 researches of science. He had at this 

 time two residences in Paris, — his 

 lodging at the hotel des Princes, 

 where he saw the great world, and 

 his working-room in the Rue de la 

 Harpe, where he received with less 

 formality his scientific friends. It is 

 with the latter place I associate him ; 

 for there it was my privilege to visit 

 him frequently. There he gave me 

 leave to come to talk with him about 

 my work and consult him in my dif- 

 ficulties. I am unwilling to speak 

 of myself on this occasion, and yet I 

 do not know how else I can do justice 

 to one of the most beautiful sides of 

 Humboldt's character. His sym- 

 pathy for all young students of nature 

 was one of the noblest traits of his 

 long life. It may truly be said that 

 toward the close of his career there 

 was hardly one prominent or aspiring 

 scientific man in the world who was 

 not under some obligation to him. 

 His sympathy touched not only the 

 work of those in whom he was in- 

 terested, but extended also to their 

 material wants and embarrassments. 

 At this period I was twenty-four ; he 

 was sixty-two. I had recently taken 

 my degree as Doctor of Medicine, and 

 was struggling not only for a scientific- 

 position, but for the means of exist- 

 ence also. I have said that he gave 

 me permission to come as often as I 

 pleased to his room, opening to me 

 freely the inestimable advantages 

 which intercourse with such a man 

 gave to a young investigator like my- 

 self. But he did far more than this. 

 Occupied and surrounded as he was, 

 he sought me out in my own lodging. 

 The first visit he paid me at my nar- 

 row quarters in the Quartier Latin, 

 where I occupied a small room in the 

 hotel du Jardin des Plantes, was 



